Facebook Pivots to Privacy. Why?

(cross posted from Searchblog) I’ll never forget a meal I had with a senior executive at Facebook many years ago, back when I was just starting to question the motives of the burgeoning startup’s ambition. I asked whether the company would ever support publishers across the “rest of the web” – perhaps through an advertising…

The Internet Must Change. To Get There, Start With the Data.

This is an edited version of a series of talks I first gave in New York over the past week, outlining my work at Columbia. Many thanks to Reinvent, Pete Leyden, Cap Gemini, Columbia University, Cossette/Vision7, and the New York Times for hosting and helping me. Cross posted from Searchblog.  Prelude.  I have spent 30-plus…

Predictions for 2019: Data, Tech, Media, Climate, Markets and…Cannabis…

If predictions are like baseball, I’m bound to have a bad year in 2019, given how well things went the last time around. And given how my own interests, work life, and physical location have changed of late, I’m not entirely sure what might spring from this particular session at the keyboard. But as I’ve…

One Year Ago: How Our Predictions Fared

Cross posted from Searchblog Every year I write predictions for the year ahead. And at the end of that year, I grade myself on how I did. I love writing this post, and thankfully you all love reading it as well. These “How I Did” posts are usually the most popular of the year, beating…

Don’t Blame Facebook.

We got ourselves into this mess. Facebook was just happy to take our money – and our data – as we did. 2019 is the year we starting digging ourselves back out. (Cross posted from Searchblog) Those of us fortunate enough to have lived through the birth of the web have a habit of stewing…

Would You Go To China on Business Now?

So yes, I am planning on going to China on Saturday. My first time, I’m a bit embarrassed to say. It’s not for a lack of opportunities, but rather a conviction that when I did go, I’d make a study of it, staying for at least two weeks, if not more. But I’ve realized lately…

Naked and Afraid

Mark Zuckerberg is in a crisis of leadership. Will he grasp its opportunity? It seems like an eternity, but about one year ago this Fall, Uber had kicked its iconic founding CEO to the curb, and he responded by attempting a board room coup. Meanwhile, Facebook was at least a year into crisis mode, clumsily…

Tech Must Get Over Its Superman Complex, Or We’re All Screwed

Detail from the cover of Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Everyone in tech loves Yuval Noah Harari. This is cause for concern. A year and a half ago I reviewed Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus, recommending it to the entire industry with this subhead: “No one in tech is talking about…

Dear Advertising Industry: Please Do Better. You’re Killing the Open Web.

If you’re read my rants for long enough, you know I’m fond of programmatic advertising. I’ve called it the most important artifact in human history, replacing  the Macintosh as the most significant tool ever created. So yes, I think programmatic advertising is a big deal. As I wrote in the aforementioned post: “I believe the…

Predictions 2020: Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, and … Data Policy FTW.

John Battelle

What Makes a Company a NewCo?

John Battelle

BigCos, NewCos, and the (Almost Ten) Trends Remaking Business

John Battelle