COD: CloudFlare: Solving a host of site-side problems

We all know that some basic site issues like slow load times can suck the life out of a website. For that and a host of other things, now there is CloudFlare.

CloudFlare is a "new model" site performance, security, and analytics solution. This Palo Alto-based start up offers performance, analytics, and security solutions that most sites can deploy in just a few minutes. There's no hardware or software to install. Once on the CloudFlare platform, site traffic is routed through their "intelligent global network" that optimizes the delivery of web pages at the fastest rate possible.

But it doesn't stop there. By having all of the traffic pass through their platform, CloudFlare blocks threats and limits abusive bots and crawlers that waste server resources and bandwidth.

Not every bot, of course. Useful bots like those from Google pass right on through. But by blocking bad agents, site performance is enhanced and threats reduced.

Additionally, the site offers strong site side analytics, and provides a fail safe mechanism that keeps your web site up even if your servers go down.

Here's an interview vid of CloudFlare's CEO, from this year's TC Disrupt:



Given the growing number of spam and hack attacks on today's web, the need for such a solution quickly becomes apparent. And by providing its suite of services without affecting your hardware and software infrastructure, they have made deployment and costs very manageable.

Actually, beyond manageable. The basic level of service that provides the performance optimizers is free. A more robust package adds more security and analytics, and costs just $20 a month for the first site, and a fiver for each additional site. You can combine basic and pro services and get one consolidated bill.

The pro version offers what looks to be a very useful and intuitive dashboard that, among many things, shows you the recent threats and attacks on your site so you can take appropriate actions. It also affords the opportunity to block traffic from bad actor urls, even entire countries.

An enterprise level offering offers world class security and analytics credentials at very affordable rates.

There are no long term contracts, and monthly fees make it a solution that most businesses can well afford. Cool stuff, and this structural and payment model is definitely the wave of the future.

COD: Soluto is out to END PC frustration

Soluto was the first winner of the Tech Crunch Disrupt competition, so you've probably heard of them. I just thought I'd further fan the fire of their fame with my little publicity hummingbird feather. ;-)

I also enjoy plugging Israeli companies because that tiny population is driving incredible innovation and represents a relatively HUGE portion of the great ideas out there in development and deployment. Soluto is, like many of the great Israeli startups, based in Tel Aviv. I am convinced that there is something in the water there that leads to great thinking and ideas. ;-)

Have you tried this miracle of science? The value proposition is pretty simple. It makes your PC work faster. Focusing first on boot time, Soluto provides a comprehensive analysis of all of the programs and applications that fire up during your boot.

Think you know what's in your boot? Oh HO! I bet you don't. It's pretty scary actually, what most people find when they run the solution.

I found out that my boot takes (or took) about 3.5 minutes, and that about 30 different programs and applications were loading during the boot, delaying the time between pressing the on button and actually being able to use the device.

Oh, sure sure, you've tried programs that gave you a list of all the things that were part of your boot before, but the challenge was always that it was nigh on impossible to know which things were essential, and which could be removed or delayed until the computer was idle.

Soluto makes mind bogglingly easy work of that, classifying everything into removable, potentially removable, and essential buckets. Soluto even offers a highly intuitive graphical interface that makes it easy to understand what falls where.

Amateurs such as meself can make decisions about all the removable items, based upon the extent to which we use them. If we are unsure, we can expand the listing to see what other people did when they found the same program in their boot.

The middle category is actionable for advanced users only -- people who understand the implications of the individual removal decisions.

The third bucket is a lot of Windows stuff, and other essentials from Intel, your PC manufacturer, and the like.

In my use of the product, I was able to eliminate about 1 minute 20 seconds from the boot time by simply pausing or delaying launch of removable programs. No changes in what my PC does, just in how fast it does it. Soluto added 6 seconds, so my net gain was -1:13. And as we all know boot second are far longer than actual seconds, or at least they feel that way.

Here's there intro video for your perusal:



Key to the trustworthiness of Soluto is what they call the PC Genome, a unique collection of crowd sourced wisdom about whether the changes made possible by the platform will really eliminate user frustration.

By participating in Soluto, you help build the Genome through Soluto's analysis of your experiences. Part of this is a cool patented technology that automatically detects your frustration points, and pinpoints what is causing your ire. How it does that I dunno, but I don't need to because it is automagic! Yes, yes, it's all non PII and anonymized.

This great NY Times piece demonstrates that I am not the only person that loves Soluto.

And you have to love the spirit and sense of humor of this team.



C'mon Michael A: let them keep the cup!

The Ice Underneath the Surface

As I recall, about 90% of an iceberg is under the surface of the water. Is the digital industry like an iceberg?

Recently I was asked to put together a presentation outlining the key trends and stats for digital in 2010. As I made my slides, I was struck by the tremendous level of activity in areas we don’t talk about very much.

Part of my approach was to divide the industry into nine sectors, and analyze each in turn. My cuts were:
· Affiliate and Lead Gen
· Content Publishers
· Data and Insight
· The Giants
· Mobile and Digital Out of Home
· Networks, DSPs, and Exchanges
· Search
· Social
· Video

You can argue with my “cuts” and I’ll just make a W on my forehead. It’s my presentation, and it makes for some pretty salient and telegraphic sector trends. But however you cut it; it’s plain that there are huge sectors of our business that get very little attention, at least from the “branding” side of the pundit world.

Take Digital Out of Home. Bad enough that I am making it share a category, the reality is that it is an absolutely enormous business, eclipsing some of the hotter sectors by factors of five. Or more. The CPMs they get would make pub and network sellers need adult undergarments if they could match ‘em.

Or affiliate. Affiliate has a sort of grey reputation because there are some bad actors in the fray, but there are also thousands and thousands and thousands of companies making great, honest money as both affiliates and brand marketing organizations.

And then there’s Search. If press ink (electrons) were divvied up by share of total spending, there would be five Search stories a day on page one of every marketing journal. Now, there are those who feel that the topic doesn’t warrant that much press attention because it is a one and two tenths horse race. I won’t comment on that here, other than to say that paying more attention to Search could probably yield more dividends for many marketers.

There is of course, a fallacy to my point of view – that quantity of press is a surrogate indicator of planner or marketer attention. My suspicion is that it is, at best, a weak surrogate indicator. After all, maybe most marketers have all the sectors but social and mobile all figured out.

Yeah, right.

But if we really are spending much of our time focusing on a couple of the smaller business sectors, we are not taking a strategic approach to digital. I’m not suggesting we should talk about Social or Mobile or Video less. I am simply asserting that we need to consider other, less “sexy” sectors more. Because I’m guessin’ there’s gold in them thar segments.

COD: Toozla - an audio guide to the world

I love seeing all of the innovation going on in the travel and tourism sector. On my most recent trip to Australia, for example, I used iPad based city guides instead of books, and was delighted with the convenience.

Well, a Russian start-up called Toozla has an even more fascinating and intriguing way to learn and explore new places. The Toozla platforms uses geolocation to pair wikipedia, tourist book, expert, and user generated entries to specific GPS locations. If you're standing outside the Hermitage, for example, you can start your Toozla mobile app and get a narration of the history and facts of this important landmark.

But it's not just Russian landmarks, not by a longshot. Toozla's reach is international with more and more cities getting online. And the breadth of information sources that power Toozla provides huge opportunities for exploration of eateries, restaurants, out of the way spots etc. With the delightful to Toozla benefit of geo-loco ads. Here's a vid from their website that simulates the experience:



to give you a sense of the range of info Toozla has or is planning to include in its mobile travel service, take a look at this list from their web site:

•National ministries of tourism.
•Local tourist boards.
•City tourist information centers.
•Individuals, companies and organisations who have professional content that they want to share with a wide audience.
•Producers of audio guides.
•Publishers of hard and soft-copy guides.
•Travel websites.
•Internet booking agencies.
•Tour operators (both incoming and outgoing).
•Travel agencies.
•All travellers worldwide.
•Museums.
•Restaurants.
•Hotels and other accommodation.
•Shops.
•Any business/service with local operations.
•Big FMCG brands.
•International hotel chains.
•Car rental companies.
•Travel equipment companies.
•Mobile operators.

How cool is that. I'd liken it to an approachable AR layer on major markets around the world.




Want restaurant tips for the immediate area you find yourself in? Toozla can do it. Want to know who that statue represents, but see only a Cyrillic plaque? Toozla will tell you.

I love this concept. The key challenge will be to make this potentially enormous amount of information useful but not overwhelming. No one wants a pop up 10% off from every patisserie in Vienna. No one wants a 10% off coupon from every tea shop in the lake District. But when you want one, you definitely want one. Toozla's approach to this challenge is to organize the bits of info into topical channels that help the user get to the sort of information they want -- historical or commercial, for example -- more quickly.

The use of Wikipedia combined with the private sources of information I think is great because it means that lots of destinations that may be off the beaten path will also be powered by Toozla independent travel experience.

A great concept and I wish them all the luck in th world.

The fate of ad networks in a post-exchange world - iMediaConnection.com

Sharp as always - Monsieur Dreller on the Fate of Ad Networks

COD: Garmz.com Out to Upend the Fashion Pyramid

Most of us recognize that the best innovations come from small companies - people with dreams who believe that they have a better way of doing things.

That's the idea behind Garmz.com, a new site that lets up-and-coming designers upload their ideas and have the community vote, give feedback, and buy their creations.


I tell you, global is the name of the game here. During my recent visit, the featured fashions were from Bulgaria, Suriname, Belarus, Romania, German, New York, and London, just to name a few.

What makes it a boon to the budding designer is that their designs compete head to head with those from around the world. Site members vote and give feedback on components of an item and the overall look. The designs with the most feedback are actually put into production -- at no cost to the designer -- and the site and designer split the proceeds. Designers can either use human templates from the design kit or make their own. A cool little "safety pinning tool" lets the designer attach comments about fabrics etc. that can be viewed on rollover.

If you are ready to buy a chosen creation, you can review prototype photos and place your order right on the site. This Vienna, Austria based company even offers free returns to EU residents.

Design presentation is simple and elegant. Stylized illustrations make you want to explore and explore and explore. The illustration style itself calls to mind those amazing Bonwit Teller ads in the late 1950s and 1960s.

By enabling new designers to showcase their ideas to large audiences, Garmz is out to change the top down status quo in fashion. In so doing, it's clear that they are going to drive a great deal of innovation!

7 Stellar Examples of Branded Content from the Fashion Industry

This Mashable piece has some excellent examples of how fashion is leading the way with branded content. Great stuff!

7 Stellar Examples of Branded Content from the Fashion Industry

COD: Solve Media and the Captcha Ad Phenomenon

I've written about Solve Media before, but I thought I'd begin this new series of "company of the day" by starting with them. They offer a solution that replaces those unbloodybelievably annoying Captchas with ads that ask the consumer to type in a brand message where they used to have to type gibberish.

I thought of Solve as I watched my father one morning struggling to read the Captcha on Yahoo mail, then switching to the audio alternative, then switching back to the text, in order to create a new email account. He managed after about 40 seconds, but the opportunity of eliminating that wasted time and palpable aggravation is one of the reasons why this platform is doing so well.

Here's a vid that explains it all better than I can:



Since the last time I wrote, Solve has also launched a video version of their platform, enabling brands to create even richer and more memorable experiences in this low clutter ad vehicle.

Solve commissioned a third-party Wharton School of Business study that showed a 111 percent higher level of brand recall from Type-Ins Wharton School of Business study versus banners, and 12 times the level of message recall. Further, it appears that people are at least as likely to complete a Type-In versus a Captcha in order to get what they seek.

There are a few naysayers -- people who find this sort of advertising too intrusive. I get the concern but really disagree with them. Solves are fundamentally at least as secure as Captchas, and far easier on the compliance front. I'm sure my father would have much preferred typing "Refresh everything" to his Captcha experience. It also enables consumers to "pay attention" instead of "pay cash" for content that they want. Since something like 85% of consumers vow never to pay for online content, the opportunity to do a value exchange with something other than cash will surely be an appealing alternative for them.

Big brands are getting on board in big numbers. It's a great innovation that's worth genuine consideration.

Note: Solve Media is an occasional client of Catalyst S+F.

Company of the Day (COD) is Back

After an 18 month hiatus, I am going to try to return to the tradition of reviewing a company a day on this site. Hey, my traffic isn't like Yahoo's, but I figure every little helps when a small outfit is looking for publicity and trial. I want to help in my own small way. If you are looking for snark, look elsewhere. For me this is about focusing on offerings I like and adding a few more electrons to their quest for publicity and broad scale awareness. Each day I'll be posting one at around 9AM Pacific time. I hope you find them interesting. First one arrives in just one minute!

Boys Will Be Girls