Andrew Mason’s First Ea...

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason just finished his first post-IPO earnings calls with Wall Street analysts. (We covered it live and looked at the numbers ). “We believe we are on the cusp of a sea change” in behavior, he noted. “We’re about to see what technology can do for local commerce.” Listening to the call, I’d say his performance was mixed. He sounded a little nervous at first, but warmed up to the task just as he did during the IPO roadshow , joking with the analysts that one of the most requested features Groupon hears from customers to “stop sending me pole-dancing deals .” (Don’t worry, they’ve got personalization technology to help filter those out). Mason warmed up, especially during the Q&A session. He seems most comfortable diving into the details of Groupon’s business, less so during the scripted portion of the earnings calls. After all, he is from Chicago, which is more of an improv town. Mason did flub a few lines, at one point struggling to find the right word to describe a statistic. “The opposite of ‘only’” was what he was looking for. But he recovered and it was an interesting stat. Citing a recent Lionsgate survey of people who came to see a movie which was being marketed through a Groupon deal, of the 93 percent of respondents who saw the deal, only 7 percent would have gone to see the movie anyway. And 3 out of 4 people who use a Groupon in general bring a friend with them, suggesting that merchants get a lot more value than just the economics of any given deal. Mason also says that “9 out of 10 people spend more than the value of the Groupon.” Looking past the anxiety of a first earnings call, Mason did communicate Groupon’s focus on delivering longer term value to both merchants and customers, which is exactly what he has to do to take Groupon from version 1.0 to the next stage. “We are transforming our relationships from a one-and-done deal event to something that is longer term,” he concluded. This will be a recurring theme . Expect Mason to hammer that message home any time he can.

European Startup Accele...

With the rise of numerous accelerator programs in Europe one cannot help but wonder whether jumping through the application process hoops, sweating through the mentoring sessions and flirting with investors at demo days are all worth a founders’ time. When I attended the recent Startup Sauna demo day in Helsinki in December 2011, I met teams not only from Finland but also from Russia, Poland and the Baltic Rim. I was amazed how young many of the participating entrepreneurs were. So when the performance stats from Startup Sauna hit my mailbox I was curious to learn what actually happens to all those startups after they complete the seven-weeks-long coaching program in the startup co-working space Aalto Venture Garage .

Google Updates Search f...

Sometimes I don’t see announcements but instead I am surprised by a change on my Android phone. I noticed that the Google search bar looked different but didn’t go much past that until I read a post at the Google Mobile blog detailing some changes that Google has mad to its search function for those version of Android that are less than Ice Cream Sandwich. Here’s a quick look at the difference which won’t tell you much other than stark black and white are in at Mountain View. Here is the company line on the changes Hot on the heels of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, we’ve updated Google Search for previous versions of Android: it’s all around faster, to get what you need quickly. In this version, you’ll notice: Faster, smoother performance, with an updated and simplified user interface. Suggestions for your search grouped by type, with web suggestions at the top. Country-specific suggestions and search results for all countries with Google domains. Long press to remove history items. If you are an Android user you can use the QR code below to get the app or simply go to the Android market. All I have to say is that it’s nice to see a search change by Google that hasn’t incited the industry high priests and priestesses to gather up their torch and pitchfork apps for their iPhones so they can complain on behalf of those who are in the business as opposed to the masses that actually use this stuff.

Pandora Presents: From ...

Music lovers, take note. After Pandora earlier this month announced that they would be launching a series of free, live concerts for some of their listeners, the personalized radio service this morning announced that it has extended the offering with a dedicated online hub . Dubbed Pandora Presents, the hub will feature live concert series, starting with the performance of rock band Dawes in Portland, organized earlier this month. Expect behind-the-scenes video content, interviews with artists and fans, and select parts of the (meaning not the entire) concert. All artists who participate in Pandora’s live concert series – and the company has repeatedly promised to organize a bunch more across different U.S. cities in 2012 – will be showcased on Pandora Presents. The site also currently features a “curated mixtape” with up to 100 songs selected by Dawes and the company’s experienced music analysts. The interesting part about the Pandora live concerts series is the fact that the company smartly decided to tap into user data to determine who gets free tickets for performances, and which artists are selected to play in which region. For one, invitations are sent to listeners based on their musical preferences as determined by the personalized radio stations they’ve created on Pandora, or the songs they’ve given a thumbs up. Personally, I think it’s a brilliant idea to leverage data gathered from website usage and translate that knowledge into relevant offline activity that can, in turn, enhance the Web experience even more.

Battle Of The Browsers:...

Alright, fanboys: get your flamethrowers ready. HTML5 framework development house Sencha has just put a wide array of performance tools to use to answer one of life’s geekiest questions: Who’s got the better browser, Android 4 or iOS 5? I’d save the answer until the end, but I suppose the headline gives its away: while Android 4′s browser is a “major step forward” for the platform, iOS 5′s offering still wins out in the end — but just by a hair! Sencha tested both browsers on four primary metrics: rendering accuracy, rendering performance, HTML5/CSS3 feature support, and Javascript performance. With regards to rendering, both browsers fared about the same: they both nailed perfect scores on the industry standard Acid3 test , and, while both had minor rendering artifacts, they were trivial enough that the scores went unaffected. Sencha then went on to test each browser’s SunSpider performance. SunSpider is a series of tests built to push Javascript to its limit, testing a device’s performance on heavy-duty tasks that are currently (or likely to soon be) commonplace. See a graph of the results below (note that they used an iPad 2 rather than an iPhone 4S for this test as the CPU is closer to that found in the Galaxy Nexus, and that a Kindle Fire and Playbook were thrown in for curiosity’s sake): (Also note: smaller bars = shorter time = better performance) Outside of that one strange (but mostly irrelevant) Kindle Fire outlier under string performance, performance across all devices is… about the same. While each device has its own respective highlights and weakpoints, the performance differences we’re looking at here are measured in milliseconds . Finally, Sencha dove into head-to-head into specific HTML5 capabilities, which ended up being the only test with a clear-cut winner. While both devices offered up a rather impressive HTML5 armory, iOS 5 had a leg up on Android in a handful of noteworthy places: Of those, the most important markers are Web Sockets and Web Workers — which, to oversimplify things, respectively allow for two-way communication between web sites/devices (for realtime functionality) and for multiple scripts to run simultaneously locally on the device. In even simpler terms, they’re big parts of letting web apps work more like native apps. Sencha also dives a bit deeper into some metrics specific to their animation tools, which you can find in their full report. In the end, the differences are subtle enough that most folks (read: non-developers) would never even notice them. At this point, it’s absolutely a matter of personal preference and itty-bitty nuances. I’d take iOS’ browser over Android’s, for example, almost entirely because the former lets me jump to the top of the page with a tap of the status bar, rather than a zillion swipes. When everything is equally lightning fast and tailored to a tee, it’s all about the little things.