Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Google+ and Spotify Are So Great, You Can’t Use Them

If Google doesn’t get social, then how come everyone’s clamoring for invites to Google+?

Because the Google guys — or someone over there in Mountain View — do understand at least one basic tenet of social behavior: If you see a line of people waiting to get in somewhere, you’ll want to get in, too.

Jimmy Fallon explains the concept with a little help from Seth Green, using Hollywood terms.

It’s no surprise that the sharps at Spotify understand this, too. Even though the music service only officially became available in the U.S. today, it has been handing out free accounts to press people, digital “influencers” and actual bona fide celebrities for a couple years.

And even today, Spotify is still only available to a limited number of people: The rest of the hoi polloi just get to read about it on Twitter and then wait their turn to get inside.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

Nobody was excited about paying top dollar for a movie about WikiLeaks. A film about the origins of Pets.com would have done better.

— Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com comments on the dreadful opening weekend box office numbers for “The Fifth Estate.”