Hulu Now The Number Three U.S. Web Video Site. Soon To Be Number Two.:

To be clear, the new March U.S. numbers released by comScore show that Hulu is still slightly behind Yahoo’s video properties when it comes to unique viewers. But the NBC and Fox-backed Hulu should pass it any day now in that category as well. Meanwhile, the number two player, Fox Interactive Media (which runs MySpace), is slipping just as quickly as Hulu is rising in videos viewed. It could well be as soon as this month when Hulu moves into the number two web video position.

Noteworthy: Youtube has over 40% of the market, while the closest competitor has 3%

When you think about growing your blog, whether it is a personal, professional or company blog, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Chances are it is something related to traffic or subscribers. Getting more traffic or subscribers is never a bad thing, but if you really want more sustainable traffic you first have to understand the people coming to your blog. If you can’t make them happy, how can you expect your traffic to grow?

Stop Assuming!

You have a vision of how you see your blog and where you want it to go. The reality is that your vision may not match up with what you”

(Via TechCrunch.)

‘Can I work remote?’

I cringe. It’s Ian and Ian is a senior engineer. He’s a rock. He gets it done. I never have to ask him twice and, after six years, Ian has every right to ask to work remote. But I’m still freaked because my first thought when anyone asks to work remote is, ‘This fine person is a year away from either quitting or being fired.’ Why? Because they’re asking to leave the Pond.

(Via Rands In Repose.)

…The companies that do best in serving others are those that do best in serving themselves.

(Via Harvard Business.org.)

Published in 1977, Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction contains the collective wisdom of world cultures on centuries of building human housing. It had a resounding effect not only on architecture and urban planning, but also on software design. In it, Alexander and his co-authors explored 253 architectural design patterns. For example:

203. CHILD CAVES
Conflict: Children love to be in tiny, cave-like places.

Resolution: Wherever children play, around the house, in the neighborhood, in schools, make small ‘caves’ for them. Tuck these caves away in natural leftover spaces, under stairs, un”

(Via A List Apart.)

There’s always been jabs at Twitter for not having a viable business model and the chatter has increased in the current economic climate. In a recent interview Evan Williams, Twitter CEO, said ‘We had planned to focus on revenue in 2010 but that’s no longer the case, so we changed the plan quite a bit… We’ve moved revenue higher on our list of priorities…’.

I believe Twitter, potentially, has an incredible business model.

(Via O’Reilly Radar.)

He has a particular style and relationship with Twitter, and thereby is de-facto part of the tribe that uses Twitter in that way. Towards the end of the essay he briefly mentions a few other tribes or strange attractors in the growing Twitter ecosystem:

My tribe is not your tribe because you’re not using Twitter how I do. You wrote an Academy Award-winning screenplay, only follow a few people, but have thousands following you. You sell shoes and follow each of the thousands of people who follow you. You are a major airline, but sound surprisingly human.

…draw attention to qualities that can be expressed by anyone: simplicity, individuality, and humanity. Allow there to be a feeling of “Hey, I could do that too”.

Via Kottke

While reading the post what occurred to me is that Tim is just explaining the mechanics for why the golden rule is actually a great rule. The ethics of reciprocity work, and they work in bubbles as well as in busts. In fact O’Reilly suggests you can predict an impending bust by the ratio of people working “on stuff that matters” versus people just looking for their next paycheck.

Principle #2 in O’Reilly’s article is the essence of the golden rule: “Create more value than you capture”.

If you believe the universe is a place of abundance, and act according to #2, then aren’t you “paying it forward”?

Note: “Pay It Forward” is a movie I’ve never seen, but it’s on my queue.