MySpace completely blows away Bebo on Google Trends for the world.

Then look at Ireland and the trend is completely reversed.

Anybody know why bebo specifically has taken off in Ireland?

Don Dodge blogs from the Microsoft VC summit about how and why Microsoft acquires companies.

Read the whole post for the full crunchy goodness, but here’s an extract,

Acquisitions are rarely made based on revenues or profits. The price and multiples for these types of companies are too high. Microsoft already has great brand recognition, great sales channels and partners, and existing product lines. Small acquisitions that can be leveraged across these strengths yield the highest returns.

I took a lot of notes at the recent Web 2.0 conference and transcribed them from my own awful handwriting. I had great plans to write it up properly but work and buggy software conspired against me. So if you can stomach my disjointed and staccato note style you should browse over to Enterprise Ireland Web 2.0 : Conference Notes for my transcribed notes. All errors and omissions are mine and apologies to any of the speakers I misquoted.
Reminder of the speakers,

• Judy Gibbons, lately of Accel Partners, a tier 1 silicon valley VC, previously head of MSN at Microsoft.
• Marc Canter, CEO of BroadbandMechanics and founder of MacroMedia.
• Adam Green, founder of Andover.net.
• Jeff Clavier, founder and partner at Softtech Ventures.
• Daniel Waters, sector partner at 3i.
• Nasser Batley, VP at Dresdner Kleinwort Wassterstein in charge of M&A activity in the media and Internet markets.

Robert Cringely’s latest article Google On is more about IBM than Google. My IBM contacts tell me its burning up bandwidth all across IBM. Further to quote one insider (from an Irish perspective at least) ‘He nailed it”.

Here’s how he describes whats happening at IBM,

The heart of a company culture can be discovered if you look at the compensation system. IBM’s major incentives right now are for signing business and cutting costs. In many IT firms, IBM included, billable hours are important. This results in a system where little is done to improve service efficiency, because doing so would lead to fewer hours and less revenue. Efficiency kills, so at today’s IBM it is generally avoided.

You may have come across this by now, but check out the guy’s (sic) expression just as the interview starts. Its priceless…

David McWilliams predicts downbeat (but realistic) economic future as China focuses inward.

Tom Raftery reports this amazing Decision by Amazon to stop shipping a whole range of products to Ireland.

This is on top of not providing an English speaking website priced in Euros.

Best ever deconstruction of the phrase, “And monkeys will fly out of my butt”.

Good news from Infoworld for all us Python developers out there.

Excellent advice with data to back it up.

Building a Web App? Don’t Forget the Premium Plan! – Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)