US vs European mobile usage: "The comScore tracking study determined that the major online portal sites represent the most popular online destinations among mobile Web surfers, with Google, Yahoo! and MSN leading the way.  However, the mobile Web sites set up by the phone operators, such as Vodafone, o2 and T-Mobile, are also proving attractive to mobile Web surfers, particularly in Europe."

What strikes me most about these figures is the tendency in the US for mobile to be another means for accessing the fixed web; mobile users are going to Yahoo and Google via their phones.

By comparison in Europe operator portals get equivalent traffic to these independent portals. I'm quite surprised to see how much headway the independents have made, but pleased to see that off-portal content (specific mobile sites, commerce sites, nwes sites and "other") seems to be flourishing slightly more outside the US.

Thinglink: "an open database where makers can register their work for free and create labels for their products. Crafters, artists, designers, producers, and other makers can use Thinglink to identify their products and document their work. We built Thinglink for makers, because we think everyone is a maker. We hope it will make the social networks around products visible and navigable."

The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups: "really this is a list of 18 things that cause startups not to make something users want. Nearly all failure funnels through that."

Mind Candy raises funding: "Today Mind Candy, the UK based developers behind the ARG (Alternative Reality Game) Perplex City, announced they had raised $7 million from Accel Partners and existing investor Index Ventures and NewMedia Spark to fund a major expansion of new products to be announced in early 2007 including the development of its second major puzzle brand aimed at a younger demographic."

Congratulations guys!

Lovely generalisation: "There are two kinds of people: people that make things complex and people that simplify."

I pray I'm in the latter camp, being a strong believer in the untapped power of stupidity...