Excellence lives in small pockets.

That’s how it’s always been. And it will be this way until, someday soon, a rising tide of technology and consumer frustration reaches flood stage, breaches the levee, and sweeps forty years of toxic sediment out to sea.

Smile, it’s Thursday!

This is a happy post. Really. It’s just that I’ve come to believe that change in our industry – throttled for years by industry intransigence, backwards incentives and extended periods of economic inebriation – is likely to come in a manner more cataclysmic than evolutionary. And that involves some unpleasant stuff.

I’ve thought this for a while now. Because looking back over my thirteen years in this industry, it’s hard to identify fundamental change.

Think about it: has the Zestimate, the social Web, the iPhone, online mapping or the Internet itself, changed the fact that:

• There are still over a million Realtors, half of whom could not survive the professional rigors of employee training week at Chuck E Cheese’s?

• The seller still pays for most all transactions, plain-as-day conflicts be damned?

• Commissions have remain largely unchanged?

All the innovation has been great, but it hasn’t, in the end, changed a heck of a lot.

Which seems odd. And, I think, unsustainable.

The road to riches has been paved with knuckleheads

This is on my mind again because I just came back from a couple days with smart people who have spent a long time in real estate but have managed to escape its usual prejudices. They are planning big things, and I learned a lot.

After dinner one night, I listened to one of these folks explain the tried and true path to rapid growth in this business. It was a nuanced story, but boiled down to something like this: sell stupid things to stupid people.

He and his colleagues – hard-bitten realists all – were trying to grow by doing it differently. A commendable goal, but the trying alone is telling. It’s a signal of change.

I’m seeing more of these lately.

It’s getting easier to be great and harder to be lame

It’s hard to scale a brokerage when you establish and enforce standards. Just ask Redfin.

It’s hard to get big and profitable when you invest real money in technology and mess with the pricing model. Just ask ZipRealty.

It’s hard for a good agent to win when they are crowded by a thousand competitors whose only means of winning business is to tell the client exactly what they want to hear, truth be damned.

But I’m starting to see that change. It’s becoming more difficult to get away with unleashing a inexperienced, under-trained sales force onto the marketplace when consumers are facing cold realities.

It is getting more difficult to run a brokerage with Clinton-era technology and pre-Baywatch marketing.

And is also seems that consumer attitudes are becoming less favorable to lame agents: The California Association of Realtors Buyer Survey noted a more than 20% drop in consumer satisfaction with agents last year. Over 80% of those dissatisfied chose “Agent did not negotiate aggressively on my behalf” as their reason (and remember, these are buyers, in a buyer’s market). Seems it’s getting harder to pretend that under-qualified recruits can negotiate high-dollar, emotion-laden transactions in a complex market.

Darn!

Who cares?

I know, this post is a little fuzzy. That’s usually a bad thing, but I wanted to share this sentiment with you: I’m feeling that I may live to see a better real estate industry.

You care about that, right?

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The iPad is 26 years coming.

Those who blast the iPad as just a large iPhone, I think are missing the point. Fraser Speirs puts it best – they’re most likely in “Future Shock“.

Let’s take a step backwards…

(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

When it launched in 1984, the Macintosh was meant to be “the computer for the rest of us“. Its mouse-based GUI redefined what it meant to use a desktop computer. It presented a revolutionary new paradigm which, once adopted by its competitors, was overwhelmingly successful.

Within a few years, the mouse was the defacto way we interacted with our machines and we haven’t looked back since.

So, looking forwards, I believe the iPad is the next evolutionary leap. It’s about us taking the next step towards that simple goal. A place where the complexity, the barriers and the fear of computing have all but disappeared.

And just like the iPhone forced us to rethink mobile computing, the iPad will force us to rethink portable (read, recreational) computing. This is a device meant for the coffee shop and the living room. And to be sure, with the introduction of the iPad, the laptop won’t disappear. But just like the desktop before it, it will likely be banished to niche uses.

So what’s taken it so long?

The hardware is finally here. Combine a really fast chip (Apple’s new A4 silicon) and capacitive touch screens, which give us the ability for fluid gesture-based interaction (multi-touch), and you have the launch of a brand new computing metaphor.

It will redefine the way we approach our everyday digital tasks. Or, to put it into Apple-speak, become “the best way to experience the web, email, and photos.”

So what does this mean for real estate?

Well, you probably are not going to be writing college-length blog posts on a device like this – but you very well might find yourself creating a CMA.

Single, simple tasks will the order of the day on the iPad and the many devices that will follow its lead.

And bottom line, is that, for vendors, the launch of the iPad provides one of the single biggest opportunities to redefine the way your customers (brokers and agents) interact with your product. For Realtors, the iPad provides a tantalizing glimpse of what’s possible and ultimately, what you should demand from your vendors.

Just look at what Apple itself has done to some of its core applications.

It is about making computing more joyful, more simple, more intuitive. It’s about removing the artificial barriers to your work flow and letting you focus on what’s really important. Despite over two decades of innovation in this space, that’s something that can’t be said of 95% of all real estate business software right now.

Smart vendors recognize the opportunity presented by the iPad. Already, Mac software developers Omni Group have promised they will move all five of its products to the iPad this year. I expect many more to follow.

Let’s just hope we see the same from the brave in real estate technology too.

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Thankfully, that’s starting to change.

Cloud CMA, which launched at Real Estate Connect NYC two weeks ago, is one of a growing number of apps driving that shift.

The application – which, as the name suggests, is a Web-based CMA and property report tool – evidences a deep mindfulness of end-users. Greg Robertson and Dan Woolley at W&R Studios, the brains behind CloudCMA, have raised the bar on UI design for real estate software by applying this sensibility.

Terabitz (a 1000watt client) has followed this path with the brokerage Website interface; the RPR reflects a user-focused design process in its display of property information. More examples are on the way.

I’m particularly excited about Cloud CMA because it’s a core real estate app. Robertson and Woolley didn’t design a tool for tracking the tweets of escrow officers; they put on their user goggles and tackled an established category notorious for nasty software.

Today, most agents create CMA’s using poorly designed applications bolted to their MLS or to their broker’s Website. They navigate a phalanx of drop-down menus, radio buttons and what I call “mystery clicks.”

When you focus on the user, you cast away most of that stuff and leave only those things that help the user complete the task they’re seeking to complete.

I’m not going to go into a detailed review of CloudCMA’s features because, well, you probably know what a CMA is. Cloud CMA just makes creating them (along with buyer tour reports and individual property reports) a lot easier.

I will mention that there are a couple whiz-bang features in the mix: the ability to create a report by sending an email with an address or MLS number and (a little bleeding edge but definitely indicative of where things are headed) QR codes that appear on the cover of every report.

If you’re an agent, check it out. If you’re a real estate software vendor, take note: it’s time to up your game.

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Groupon is a raging success. The company, founded in late 2008, operates on a simple premise. One email sent daily. One deal, every day featuring the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in your town. That deal gets triggered only when a certain threshold of buyers is reached and it is usually extremely tempting – $25 for $50 worth of organic groceries, for example, was one of the recent offers.

The company claims to have saved consumers over $71 million since it kicked open its doors – and this rampant startup success led it to a $30 million Series B round of financing in December of last year.

One might say the company was lucky. And, to be sure, launching this site at the nadir of the Great Recession has presented them a marketplace filled with bargain hunters.

But I think that the premise behind Groupon ultimately taps something much deeper; it goes beyond the tantalizing lure of a deal and the thrill of scoring a bargain. It’s touching that distinctive feeling of exclusivity that comes from being “in the know.”

At 1000watt we’re bullish on email while some are proclaiming its death for this very reason. It underlines the launch of our latest creation, the 1000watt Spotlight.

It’s also a concept that we believe is largely untapped in real estate.

Not Your Father’s Email Newsletter

Unlike the unbounded backcountry of the World Wild Web, a weekly email newsletter is delivered to the relative silence and intimacy of one’s inbox. As such, it’s a place that deserves respect and veneration. The Delete key is always one stroke away.

But Groupon proves that along with that challenge can come opportunity.

Earlier this month at Real Estate Connect, Camilla Sullivan from Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate talked about the growth of “lifestyle” marketing in real estate. About how to extend a real estate brand out of the ethereal by tying it more concretely to a vision of the real world that the brand might inhabit (disclosure: BH&GRE is a 1000watt Consulting client).

An email newsletter presents just such an occasion to do this; a simple touchpoint that structures and reinforces the lifestyle elements of a brand. So, a brand like Corcoran might take a nod from Daily Candy and feature luxury fashions and accessories along with properties in its regular missive.

On the other hand, a brand like Century21 might take its cue from its name and like Uncrate, feature cutting-edge technology and gadgets every week.

There are ample opportunities with email to get creative and the startup costs are minimal. Start by discovering what is unique about your brand and build from there.

But remember email can be a fickle medium. There are some special considerations you must abide:

You are writing for the Inbox, not the web. Avoid big paragraphs and long sentences.

Be short and to the point. Have a distinctive voice that ties to your brand proposition.

Most of all, make it relevant.

Ultimately, the secret to email is simple – highlight something unique, support your brand, make your customers feel “in the know” and reap the rewards.

photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg

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We get it.

That’s why we’ve launched 1000watt Spotlight – a simple e-newsletter that highlights one of three things every week:

1. A new technology or Web-based service, and suggestions on how you can use it
2. A big idea, and how it may affect your business
3. An interesting person, and what you can learn from them

Concise. Clear. Actionable. Your weekly shot of inspiration, administered by email only.

Sign up right here, right now:

We’ll treat you with great care (we hate spam too). And if you think your company, office, or colleagues would benefit from a bit of help each week we’d love for you to pass the link to this post around.

Enjoy!

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A few years later, Marc and Brian took the Real Estate 2.0 mantle and ran with it. They created a mind map to account for all the new companies in online real estate.

But, never ones to back down from a challenge, today, together at 1000watt, we’ve decided to go even bigger.

Introducing the 1000watt Index. We’re calling it the comprehensive guide to real estate technology.

We’ve compiled over 350 links to companies in more than 30 categories that span everything from MLS software to iPhone apps to Wordpress plugins.

The Index is for you. It’s to help you find vendors, competitors, partners and/or just plain old cool stuff. The page is completely customizable; meaning you can rearrange any of the blocks in any order you like.

Think of it as a 30,000 foot view of all things geeky in real estate.

Over time, we anticipate adding many more categories and links to the Index. But it’ll depend on your submissions as well. It’s free to list on the Index and we have a fairly straightforward vetting process; existing companies should have an established presence in real estate or as a startup, they should have an interesting new twist or fresh take on the space. It’s that simple.

Finally, we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can make the Index more usable and friendly for you. Drop us an email at info@1000wattconsulting.com with your thoughts, comments or critiques. We’d love to hear them.

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“Upgrade to first class for $250.”

There was no way I could justify this. I can’t afford it, frankly. But my body cried to be horizontal; my mind begged for stillness.

Done deal.

That’s how badly Inman Connect had kicked my butt. In a good way of course – like a workout that leaves you really, really sore.

After a weekend in bed, I am clear enough to sort through the week that was.

Here’s what sticks out:

Google-noia and common sense

Everyone was talking about Google. And on Thursday, Google talked back. Kinda. Sam Sebastian got on the stage to say … almost nothing. But that’s not because Sam is evasive or even because Google’s not mindful of real estate.

It just means that many of us in the category suffer from a sort of solipsism: we expect Google to do what we do. A listings database; an MLS; a lead gen play. But it’s at once more complex and more subtle than that – and certainly less about real estate specifically than many think.

The only way to understand Google’s intention is to look at it in the larger local/mobile strategy they are pursuing. Place Pages, Near Me Now, the 7-Pack, location awareness in Google Suggest and a dozen more incremental moves to become more useful to people where they are is the goal. Will this touch real estate? Sure it will. But don’t wait for a massive and targeted real estate play along the lines of Microsoft HomeAdvisor anytime soon.

It’s all about leads (again)

That was the tagline for Real Estate Connect 2002. It would have worked this year too.

Pete Flint from Trulia and Spencer Rascoff from Zillow joined Mike Montsko from Weichert and John Reinhardt from Fillmore Real Estate on stage for a discussion about online advertising.

Where two years ago Trulia and Zillow had positioned themselves as media companies pitching things like “engagement” and “community,” they were now talking about leads, leads, leads.

And that’s perfectly fine. But it does suggest a couple things: a.), the online players are still looking for an effective means of monetizing their traffic, and b) lead gen, done right, will usually beat the soft stuff on ROI for anyone (e.g. brokers, agents) on the Web.

MLS “mouths to feed”

I interviewed Marty Frame and Dale Ross from the RPR during Friday’s general session. They both did a really good job explaining what they are and are not doing. There were no major announcements, but I hadn’t expected any.

However Dale did say something worth noting in response to the following question:

“Everyone’s afraid that the RPR will become a national MLS and you have adamantly and credibly denied that this is your plan – but why not just go for it?”

He explained in his answer that it would take hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of employees – an MLS Marshall Plan – to pull this off.

Fair enough.

Then he said that there were also “mouths to feed” within local MLSs.

He’s right of course. Lots of paychecks depend on preserving the current MLS system. He just said it openly, which was unusual.

Of course, we cannot expect people to do anything other than work to preserve their jobs. But the fact that the MLS world often looks to those not within its ranks like a Realtor-funded jobs program is ignored at great peril. Sooner or later, it’s going to ignite change.

Mike Wurzer gave voice to those who reject the view that the MLS space is overdue for a system reboot. He makes some really good points. But my beef with the MLS world is not that there are too many MLSs; in my mind the problem is that there are too few MLSs willing to give up a measure of control for the sake of a more efficient marketplace. I also think it’s premature, less than two years after the settlement of an antitrust suit brought by the federal government, to assume or assert that there’s competitive vitality in this industry.

There will be disagreements stemming from this event all year long.

Mobile

Mobile is a baby we all stand over, cooing. It’s wondrous and we know it will mature into something important. We just can’t quite visualize it yet.

So I won’t bore you with “mobile is huge” commentary. Instead, I will highlight a couple debates that were circulating at the show that I found to be important.

The first was the assertion, made by many, that the days of the native app are numbered. The argument goes something like this: building native apps takes a lot of time, a lot of money and requires a different build for every platform. A browser-based app is a build once, distribute (nearly) everywhere proposition. And the UX differences between native and brower-based apps are shrinking.

Others argue that the delta between a native app experience and that which you can get in a browser is still big enough to make a difference, the distribution opportunities offered by the iPhone App Store and the Android Market are irresistible, and that apps are the future of search.

I’m not sure who’s right. But this stuff needs to be thrown against your objectives as you contemplate your mobile strategy for 2010 and beyond.

Secondly, people were starting to talk in detail about monetizing all those mobile users. If mobile is going to be as big as most people claim it is, then as much thought needs to be put into making real estate mobile experiences attractive to advertisers on this platform as was poured into their big-screen counterparts.

Onward

It was a great week filled with smart people, good friends and more than a few debates. And I did find just the sort of Italian restaurant I was looking for.

Kudos to the Inman Team – see you in San Francisco!

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It seemed fitting.

Last Tuesday night, at 1:35 am, I calmly exited a Yellow Cab on 60^th and 9^th and entered the Roosevelt Hospital’s ER. I’m no stranger to this happenstance. Lately, this has become part of my Real Estate Connect experience.

I began the day feeling sluggish. While BarCamp and the Property Portal Watch seminar rocked and rolled, I sandwiched an afternoon of scheduled meetings between a morning tour of Corcoran Groups’s plush uptown office and an evening visit to OnBoard’s Wall Street office.

Before heading out to dinner, I attempted to warm my bones with a drink at Nebraska, a Russian-owned steakhouse where the drinks are served by bartenders so beautiful, each possess the finest collection of features ever formed around a human soul. I chatted with an old friend, raised a glass to our friendship, then bolted back uptown for dinner.

By 10:00 p.m., the wheezing broached painful discomfort. By 1:00 am, dressed in a hospital gown, I faced the cold steel of a physician’s stethoscope and the reality that I might be unable to attend my 4^th Connect in a row.

Three hours, four physicians and two prescriptions later, I returned to my hotel room cursing the virus that was feverishly infecting my upper respiratory system.

In bed, with my iPhone in hand, I checked my email one last time and found some comfort in Jay Thompson’s pre-dawn post filled with some exceptional shots of Manhattan after dark.

I was hours away from falling asleep.

RE Connect

The prescription for success for this conference was written well in advance and poured from the beaker of people, technologies and events of 2009.

The RPR was one such topic and two of real estate’s most newsworthy people – Marty Frame and Dale Ross – were in the hot seat. Brian’s firm but fair interview provided few answers and a host of new questions providing brokers, agents, vendors and bloggers much to consider in the months to come. It provided the sort of controversial sizzle Connect is historically known for.

Social media was another hot topic and introduced a new face to the Connect crowd – Coach Tom Ferry. Chaperoned by his wit and personality, Tom is new to social media but fast becoming an inspirational voice in this category.

The brokerage model was dissected with commanding authority over several sessions. Attendees got a deep dive into how operators like BH&GRE’s Sherry Chris and @Properties’ Thad Wong see the future. A personal highlight for me came from Sherry’s answer to a question regarding where the part-time agent fits into the future model. “They don’t,” she replied. Her colleagues on the panel agreed in unison

The subject of branding, a topic near and dear to me, was well represented by Camilla Sullivan from BH&GRE and Christina Lowris from Corcoran Group. Both have carved out identities that distinctively and accurately pay homage to their respective brands.

Start Up Alley, perfectly positioned to greet attendees as soon as they exited the elevators, included many up and coming vendors. The few times I walked the floor I took notice of how many people were engaged in their wares. From mobile apps to data providers this was a World’s Fair of ideas, products and services that will comprise the next round of real estate innovation.

Behind the scenes, the world-class Inman News team worked tirelessly to produce every minute of this three-day event. The little engine that could, did.

But what made this event so significant however, was the diverse assemblage of attendees emanating from every nook and cranny of real estate. I can’t recall a Connect where I had seen the lines so blurred between tenured technologists, association executives, young agents and vendors. All mashed-up as if they were best buds.

What occurred on the 5^th floor of the Marriott Times Square was more than a real estate technology conference.

It was a real estate rave.

RX

I observed all this through the fog of several medications that failed to stem a high fever or bring back my voice, which had disappeared Wednesday morning. Walking through the crowd and not engaging folks was difficult. I was unable to really connect – the very thing this event was created for.

It’s now Saturday. I’m back home in California, still unable to speak – a much-appreciated surprise for my family I’m sure. I have many regrets regarding this conference, mostly because it was so damn good and all I could do was observe some of it through glassy eyes rather than be fully involved.

I missed most of the sessions. I never got to speak one on one with many of the vendors or for that matter many of the repeat attendees who I look forward to seeing year after year. I missed catching up with old personal friends, walking old neighborhoods where I grew up and all the great food NYC has to offer. In room dinning didn’t cut it for me.

What a small price to pay however, for the realization that what took place at the conference constitutes an RX that might very well cure what has been ailing the real estate industry. Every speaker, every vendor, every attendee… you represent what real estate’s future is already starting to look like today.

I can’t speak it right now.
But I’m feeling 2010 is off to a great start.
I’m stoked.

See ya this summer for #ICSF. Uh… I hope!

- Davison

[Full disclosure: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, @properties and Inman News are 1000watt Consulting clients]

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And when I heard that Realtor.com was launching a native iPhone application, I have to say I was initially a little skeptical. Over the last few years, the 800lb gorilla in online real estate has seemed slow to respond to the challenges placed by the many venture-backed startups that have launched on the Web. So could it do any better on the iPhone?

But I’ve had this app on my phone for the last week or so now and I can honestly say I’m pleasantly surprised.

You might even say I’m blown away.

The Realtor.com app is hands down the best real estate search tool on the market right now. It’s available in the iPhone store immediately.

I’m usually not this effervescent in my praise. In fact, many have called me a downright cynic at times. But this app is a true joy to use and fulfills the original promise of Realtor.com. It’s all the listings in one place.

In the palm of your hand.

A thoughtful UI makes searching for real estate fun, fast and intuitive. And, best of all, it offers the full inventory of homes and is uncluttered by advertising (for the time being, anyway).

A quick rundown of its feature set:

• The app is location aware and by default pulls up all the listings around you. You can also search to find open houses in your proximity.
• Listings pages are rich with content and show up to 25 photos of a single property. Best of all, when you flip the phone on its side, the photos go full screen and you can flip through them carousel-style.
• Searches can be quickly refined using a series of spinning wheels, which makes the entire operation an easy one-handed operation. This rocks.
• Favorite properties can be instantly shared with your friends, family or Agent by email, even Twitter or Facebook.
• Notes and ratings can be added to individual listings and synced to a Realtor.com profile.

There’s plenty more to discover in the app, including a couple of Easter Eggs, so I’ve been told.

There’s lots for agents and brokers to love here too. Every property has an Ask a Question button that takes consumers directly to the listing agent. Listing pages also include click-to-call functionality and direct links in-app to agents’ and brokers’ sites.

If there was ever a reason to start looking into optimizing your website for the mobile web, the Realtor.com app may just be it.

Building a great app means having to go back to basics and rethink your core value proposition for consumers. The Realtor.com app has done just that.

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Real Estate Connect NYC is next week. Attendance is way up, and so is the mood. If you have not registered, consider doing so. I promise you’ll learn a ton, meet interesting people and come across things you had no idea existed.

It’s a great way to start the year.

And this year… well, I think it’s going to be a big one. The rumblings of 2009 –the RPR, Google’s moves, consolidation – were premonitory; 2010 will bring about structural change (or damage, depending on where you sit). Connect is where all the people involved in these changes converge. Things happen at this event.

Here are a few things I’ll be looking for next week:

RPR reaction

It’s been two months since the RPR was announced. It’s about time for the other shoe – or deal – to drop. I’m not talking about the launch of the RPR product, or the announcement of MLS partnerships. I’m talking about the reaction from other players, like:

Move.com, which is sitting on $3.5 million worth of property search and display code that I guarantee you is bad-ass. I would not expect smart people like Erroll Samuelson and Curt Beardsley to be content mothballing something like that, would you?

First American, which went from looking like a loser in all of this (if public records data is offered to many of its existing MLS clients for free through the RPR, they could take a big hit) to being in an oddly advantageous position. The company, which seemed to be even more conflicted about licensing data versus going consumer direct than LPS has, now gets to watch their competitor go out on a limb while they (speculating here) work on a dozen different strategies for sawing it off.

Big brokerages and franchisors, many of which have been dealing for years with weakening value propositions, will almost certainly formulate a response – either singly or collectively – to the NAR going direct to their agents with a major technology/data product.

MLSs, which generally need to wake up and vote for Lincoln, may be moved to think more actively about their futures. I’m not expecting miracles, but I do think the RPR will serve to speed the significant data sharing and consolidation moves made in 2009.

We can count on some moves along these lines.

New energy in search

Connect has always featured tech, media and business people from way outside real estate. There’s a reason for this: we get a peek beyond where the category sits today.

This year, I’m looking for a forward view of search. I expect three of this year’s keynotes will deliver it:

Max Ventilla, CEO, Aardvark. This company has managed to harness the social graph into a slick discovery and decision support engine. If you want to find something, or get an answer to a question, Aardvark finds the best person among your online connections to deliver it. We all know that searching for a home or a Realtor is a process heavily freighted with elements of social interaction and trust. I’d like to see this human dimension mixed in with property data.

Dennis Crowley, CEO, FourSquare. Foursquare is one of the hottest Web startups around right now. The FourSquare app mixes mobile, location and gaming in a manner that is fun, informative and fosters social connection. Real estate has always been about place; and it has always been a mobile business. Foursquare shows us how that might be taken to the next level.

Mark Josephson, CEO, outside.in. Outside.in has been around for several years, but it seems its time to shine has come. The company, which scours the Web for hyperlocal media and neatly organizes it, received a $7 million investment from CNN just before the holidays. They’ve also released some pretty amazing tools in the past few months. Despite mountains of data (demographics, school reports, etc.) it’s still pretty hard to capture the ambient noise of a place in real estate search. What Outside.in is doing suggests a solution.

Wordpress wonderland

The days of the “agent Website” are numbered. And generally, this is a good thing. The world no longer needs animated .gifs and .asp spaghetti that entwines agents in mediocrity.

Wordpress is being pulled, pushed, hacked and otherwise massaged in hundreds of ways you never anticipated. Home search plugins, custom themes and increasingly sophisticated and secure content management take this platform well beyond “blog.”

By my rough estimate, the agent website space is a $100 million per-year business. Two thirds of that will evaporate in the sun of open source; but there’s a sizable play there. It will be fun to watch those trying to make it.

There are two sessions dedicated to Wordpress at Connect. I’d make sure to be there.

Google

Sam Sebastian, director of local markets for Google, will be on stage with Brad Inman to talk about recent moves by the search giant. I don’t expect him to spill the beans on strategy, but I will be listening closely to what is said (and not said) in response to what I expect will be some pointed questions.

A good Italian restaurant in Midtown not run by a celebrity chef.

Seriously. I have no interest in Mario Batali or that other guy with a TV show. I want Baked Ziti or a good Chicken Parm, with spumoni for dessert.  If you’ve got tips, please let me know.

I hope to see you next week!

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