Over the past 24 hours, both iTunes and Last.fm have put out lists of the most popular music on their respective services, based on the number of downloads and listens. Here’s a side-by-side look at how the two compare:

Top Track

iTunes
1. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
2. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
3. Flo Rida - Low
4. Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
5. Rihanna - Disturbia
6. Lil Wayne - Lollipop
7. Jordin Sparks - No Air
8. Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful of Sunshine
9. Sarah Bareilles - Love Song
10. Rihanna - Don’t Stop the Music

Last.fm
1. Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
2. Coldplay – Violet Hill
3. MGMT – Time To Pretend
4. MGMT – Electric Feel
5. Coldplay – Life In Technicolour
6. Coldplay – Cemeteries of London
7. Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl
8. Coldplay – 42
9. Coldplay – Strawberry Swing
10. MGMT – Kids

Top Album

iTunes
1. Coldplay - Viva la Vida
2. Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static
3. Juno (Soundtrack)
4. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
5. Sara Bareilles - Little Voice
6. Once (Soundtrack)
7. Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal.
8. OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud
9. Across the Universe (Soundtrack)
10. Leona Lewis - Spirit

Last.fm
1. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
2. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
3. Portishead – Third
4. Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I-IV
5. The Ting Tings – We Started Nothing
6. The Kooks – Konk
7. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
8. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
9. Jack Johnson – Sleep Through The Static
10. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Best New Artist

iTunes
1. Santogold
2. Lady Antebellum
3. Flo Rida
4. Hercules and Love Affair
5. Katy Perry
6. Glasvegas
7. The Cool Kids
8. Jazmine Sullivan
9. Esperanza Spalding
10. The Parlor Mob

Last.fm
1. MGMT
2. The Ting Tings
3. Sara Bareilles
4. Fleet Foxes
5. Katy Perry
6. The Last Shadow Puppets
7. Foals
8. Bon Iver
9. Does It Offend You, Yeah?
10. Santogold

Not surprisingly, the iTunes list is much more reflective of the pop charts, while Last.fm – a music discovery service – has some lesser known artists in its rankings. Interesting to note is the absence of hip-hop on the Last.fm list, and the lack of Country on both end-of-year charts. Coldplay, however, appears to be universally popular.

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• RIM says Q3 sales will fall between $2.75-$2.78 billion, below consensus of $2.96 billion and about 9% below its forecasted range of $2.95-$3.10 billion.
• RIM says it added 2.6 million net new subscribers during the quarter, 10% below its forecast of 2.9 million.
• Why? Later than anticipated product launches, the lousy economy, and unfavorable currency trends.

But, on the plus side, RIM says its new Bold and Storm smartphones are seeing an "exceptional" response:

Daily net subscriber account additions reached a record level on the day the BlackBerry Storm launched in the United States and RIM achieved a record number of weekly net subscriber account additions during the last week of the third quarter. The strong demand for new products has continued into Q4 and RIM is working closely with its partners to deliver sufficient product to take advantage of the growth opportunity in Q4 and beyond.

The touchscreen BlackBerry Storm is still backordered at Verizon Wireless. It'll be crucial for RIM to meet demand there in the next few weeks or it could lose potential buyers to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone -- which would be bad news for Verizon (VZ).

RIM's after-hours charts haven't updated on Google or Yahoo, but we wouldn't be surprised to see its stock open lower Wednesday. Investors have been preparing for bad news from RIM, but its Q3 revenue will come in below even the Street's most pessimistic analyst.

Next update will be Dec. 18, when the company posts final Q3 results and gives Q4 guidance.

See Also:
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BlackBerry Storm Update On The Way? Responsible For Delay?
BlackBerry Fan Longs For A Better Curve
Seven Reasons Pogue Hates The BlackBerry Storm

Black Friday gave Microsoft’s Xbox 360 a boost in sales and went above Sony’s PS3. Though Wii has been making inroads on high sales, going past both the consoles sales achievements combined together! Maybe in all the excitement Microsoft forgot to realize that there’s a third competitor lurking nearby? Nintendo’s Wii was reported to be eBay’s most popular product on Black Friday. Microsoft reports:

Retailers reported Xbox 360 console sales over the Black Friday weekend were on pace to beat previous years, outselling the PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one ratio and estimating a 25 percent increase from Xbox 360 Black Friday sales figures from 2007.

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With the economic downturn grinding the startup wheels to a near-halt here and abroad, companies are competing for a smaller pie. Capital, acquisition odds, advertising dollars, and consumer wallets are all becoming much smaller.

If you are a European startup in the consumer Web services or product space, you have even more obstacles to overcome than your US counterparts. For one, funding in Europe is still very limited and narrowly focused compared to the US. Second, your consumer base is much smaller—especially if your product is localized for language and service. Third, the more innovative you get, the more likely it is you’ll bump against a much greater skepticism and a much smaller pool of early adopters.

So you decide to come here—Silicon Valley, the Mecca of anything startup– to raise funds and tap into the massive and enthusiastic US customer base. But right now, even though you may have enjoyed great interest as investors expand their reach internationally, you’re up against fierce competition from just about everyone.

And this is where European startups face the biggest challenge: presenting your company in a way that makes sense—the US way.

Fundamental differences

In the past 2 months I’ve listened to over 40 pitches from French, Belgian, British, and Eastern European companies. About 1 in 15 presented their company in a way that would stick. This is because Europeans tend to build their case in a highly academic way–stating the conditions under which their offering makes sense and building their argument from there.

American audiences, on the other hand, are used to seeing “the bottom line first” and they do things very fast by European standards. “They’re like cowboys,” a Belgian CEO told me. “First they shoot then they look.” This is a fundamental difference in how people present and perceive information. And it can mean the difference that gets you to that second meeting, someone writing about your startup, and even getting funding.

Key points to remember

Let’s go over a few key points that can help you present your company in a way that makes more sense here:

1. First impression is (almost) everything.

Americans know this very well. That’s why they work on their “elevator pitch.” You have 30-60 seconds to create an impression. Want to spruce it up even more? Have a 1-2 minute demo ready on your iPhone that plays while you speak. Think: Why are you different? What makes you stand out? How do you stick in someone’s mind? Why should an investor want to see you again? These are questions that should always be on your mind and guide what you say— all in 60 seconds or less.

2. Speak in benefits. Customer benefits, that is.

Europeans tend to be highly accomplished on the technology side. In the US, you also need to think about, and communicate, what your prospective customers will be able to do thanks to your technology. How will it address a true customer need? Why will a customer use it? Better yet—why will they pay for it? Every time you speak about a feature or capability of your technology, immediately follow with “and that means that customers will be able to…” (fill in the blank).

3. Start with the end first.

It may sound counter intuitive but business communication in the US is often non-linear and starts with the conclusion first. The people with whom you meet will want to know what your product does and how much money you expect to make from it. If that sticks, then you can go back and talk about how you got to the idea, how you developed it, all those other things it can be, etc.

4. Know your numbers.

In Silicon Valley numbers speak louder than anything else. They’re also important as a reality-check for you as technologies and competitors evolve. Don’t let anyone fool you–no one really knows what’s going to happen so it’s okay to make assessments—just make sure they’re intelligent ones. Be ready to talk about your 3-year profit-and-loss (P&L) model and about your Total Addressable Market (TAM) in clear terms.

5. Focus.

The American idiom is “put a stake in the ground.” It’s when of all the many things your technology can be, you choose one (or two) things for now and go with them. This is a tough one, I know, because you want to show all the great things your idea can become. But where you see options, VCs see lack of direction. So let’s keep things in order: Decide on a focus for now, and put the framing, benefits, and numbers around that choice. You will later have plenty of time to develop your roadmap.

6. Investors are not your friends.

They are meeting with you because you might represent a good investing opportunity. As such, come prepared with all your materials and if possible, with a beautifully executed demo and present your case. If you need advice, ask your friends, other CEOs, or advisors if you have them. In fact, ask anyone–just not investors you’d like to work with. Once the term sheet has been completed and the deal signed, they’ll provide you with plenty of advice whether you want it or not. It’s their job.

7. Networking is key.

Many European CEOs think networking and mingling is “cocktail hour saved for those who don’t do real work.” But in the US—and especially in the Silicon Valley—this is an important catalyst to getting business done. You need to get out of your three-cubicle office which you’re sharing with four other companies and go to events. You need to tell other CEOs, bloggers, and investors about your product. You’ll get invaluable advice that will undoubtedly help you move forward, new connection points, and a perspective on the startup world within which you operate. This is just as important as making phone calls and taking meetings.

8. Keep it short.

Repeatedly I hear that CEOs talk about their companies for too long. Yes- you want to make sure people understand the breadth of your offering, but more talk doesn’t necessarily get you results. Lucas Grassi Gurfein, former International Product Manager for Yahoo!Inc. suggests bullet points often work best: Use them as talking points and keep your presentation short. More important than demonstrating the history of your idea is creating a stellar impression and a genuine curiosity in your listeners’ minds; you want them to come back and say “can we talk more?” Less, you see, is truly more.

9. Don’t be argumentative.

In most European countries, debating a topic is just part of daily conversations. To most Americans—unless they were on their college debate team—the practice of debate can be unnerving. You already know that Europeans can be perceived as uncomfortably direct here—add debating and you come across as argumentative and maybe even hostile, which is hardly what you meant.

Try to balance between presenting your rationale and listening to feedback. If you have a thought about the point being brought up, you can always start by acknowledging the feedback’s validity and then add how you’re thinking of addressing it.

10. Tap into the existing infrastructure.

There are a number of organizations and initiatives designed directly to help advance European companies in the US:

• Each country typically has a Chamber of Commerce in the Bay Area which puts together business-related events and can help you get connected much faster than you could do on your own.

• There are non-profit organizations like SVOD and VC backed events like the Dow Jones’ Venture Wire EuroTech Showcase that help promote European startups through connections to venture capital firms and journalists.

• A number of organizations sponsor conferences, competitions, and “boot-camps” for startups. GuideWire’s Innovate!Europe is one example—it focuses on identifying new and promising talent in Europe and helping them grow globally. Make sure you’re aware of these and attend at least a few each year.

As the CEO of a European startup you will need to overcome a number of obstacles. At the same time, the European tendency to take more calculated risks, base products on proprietary technology, and have demonstrated success abroad, can translate into leverage especially in these difficult times.

As venture capital firms increasingly diversify their portfolio with a greater reach abroad, you may in fact enjoy more opportunity than ever before. If your product is truly offering customers a way to do something new, something they want—if you help them make existing interactions less painful—you’re just as likely (if not more) to get a piece of that funding pie and more of those cavorted consumer eyes. The key is to communicate what you do and what’s unique about your startup’s offering in a way that matches how people perceive and respond to information in the US.

Have tips of your own? Share them below in the comments.

Imagery courtesy of iStockphoto, TommL, Sodafish, Caracterdesign

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Below, we've embedded one of Ask's more recent spots, where a dead-looking woman drapes herself over a young lad. A similarly creepy ad, featuring a dead-looking guy, aired this past weekend, drawing jeers on Twitter:

• "Ask.com, please revamp your ad campaign before my nausea and repulsion cause me to do something rash to my TV. Ugh."
  
• "...seriously, why are the Ask.com TV commercials ... so..... bad.......???"

The ads would be fine, of course, if they were helping Ask.com's business. But according to Hitwise, they're not: Ask.com garnered 3.15% of U.S. Web searches during the week ending Nov. 29, down from 3.61% of searches a month ago and 4.52% of searches a year ago. (That's a 30% market share drop in a year.)

Usual disclaimers apply: This is just one metric from one source. (We'll keep an eye out for comScore's November search stats.) But it's not good news for Ask.com.

I’d like to quickly revisit the story because I’ve been following Pownce from day one, I’ve actually used it more than Twitter, and I’ve been bullish on the service because I thought it offered a compelling feature set when compared to other services in the space. I was wrong.

First of all, less is sometimes more. We all know that, but it was really obvious in this case: Pownce was the Twitter fan’s dream come true, adding groups, file sharing and several other highly requested features without cluttering the service with too many options. However, sometimes simplicity and lack of options are what differentiates a service and makes it worth your while. Twitter devs may be slow when it comes to adding new features, but they’re slow on purpose, because they understand that Twitter is good, for the most part, as it is.

Secondly, sometimes even being much more reliable than your competitors isn’t enough for success. When you think of it, Pownce was positioned very well: it had the features, it had solid backing (it is, after all, Kevin Rose’s baby), and - although it wasn’t without technical issues itself - it came to the scene at a time when Twitter struggled with frequent downtime. And despite the fact that Twitter’s problems with downtime lasted for month, users did not move over to other services, except perhaps FriendFeed (to a certain extent).

The main lesson is probably this: if you’re not first to the game, but perhaps second or third, you need to do your research very thoroughly; sometimes being bigger, better and faster than the competitors simply won’t do.

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The WSJ calls it an all-in-one phone:

The N-97 has the touch screen popularized by Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a real keyboard that appeals to users of BlackBerrys and Nokia's own E-Series devices, and fast Wi-Fi Internet access to complement third-generation broadband access.

The phone also has an accelerometer, a widget-friendly OS, a still and videocamera and a 3.5 inch screen.

But other analysts don't think the phone will do much to help Nokia avoid what's expected to be a 1% to 9% industry-wide decline in sales next year.

"[Nokia] tried to cram in lots of different technologies such as a touch screen, full qwerty keyboard and plenty of memory, but it had to make trade-offs in its size and features," CCS Insight's Research Director Ben Wood told Reuters. "It has ended up with a relatively thick device that lacks some of the benchmark features expected in flagship products in mid-2009."

Said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi: "It might give Nokia a little edge, but it's six months until this reaches the market."

Gadget blog Gizmodo's take:

The model we briefly handled tonight in NYC was, of course, the Euro version, with no U.S. 3G (and, sadly, no Wi-Fi). Its handlers were keeping it close to the vest, and with no connectivity there wasn't much testing to be done, but we can say that the hardware is indeed pretty-befitting a $700 Nokia piece. The desktop Symbian widgets look nice, but the drawbacks of a resistive touchscreen (there, as always, to ensure character recognition via a stylus for Nokia's Asian market) were immediately noticeable when dragging widgets around the desktop.

Those desperate to see the N97's every angle should check out Engadget's slide show.

See Also:
Nokia To Show Off iPhone Killer This Week? Another Tablet?

Translation: We've seen impact, but we're still growing--for now. Chris then goes on to set expectations very low:

"Our revenue and profits are significant and they continue to grow in spite of the poor economy. We're up 18 percent year-over-year as of last quarter and we're cautiously optimistic that we can continue to grow our business."

"Cautiously optimistic that we can continue to grow." That's a distinct change from prior expectations. And Chris's caution makes sense, based on what we're hearing elsewhere in the industry:

• We hear that when advertisers cut their budgets under new constraints, the first thing to go is experimental social media.
• Network of networks the Rubicon Project says social media ad spending dropped 3% for ad networks, 8% for young adults sites and almost 20% on entertainments 3. MySpace is all those kinds of sites in one.
• MySpace also depends on display advertising, which we're pretty sure will decline in 2009.

See Also:
Ad Rates Dropped 11% In The Third Quarter

Theory

Essentially, we are running a network that we can train to recognize data, or solve a problem. We do this by giving the network sample data, and for each set of sample data, running the network through one time. We calculate the error of this run, adjust the weight of the connections between all the neurons in the entire network, and repeat. After running through all the sample data we have adjusted the weights to ‘recognize’ the data. Then, given another set of data, the network is trained to perform the same operation, such as classification (maybe determining forged vs authentic bank notes) or just solving a mathematical equation, such as we do in this particular example.

Code

This simulator is written in Cocoa, requires Xcode 3.1 or later, and is Leopard only. Subclasses NSOperation for multithreading, and have two subclassed NSViews for a ‘Safari Downloads’ style window, just showing the progress of each running experiment, with a cancel button beside it.

Download

Xcode Project (3.1 or later) | Leopard Only

Neural Net | Leopard Only

Biologically Inspired Computation Series

Back Propagation on Wikipedia

In the announcement, Yahoo tries to explain: “In 2008, she made a comeback with a new album, three MTV Music Awards, a sitcom guest star role and documentary on her rise, fall and career comeback.” True, Britney actually had a #1 song this year – her first in a decade. But, Yahoo’s rankings are much more a testament to our collective fascination with pop culture, as other terms in the top 10 include World Wresting Entertainment, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, and American Idol. President-Elect Barack Obama was only the third most-searched for term.

In addition to the most searched terms overall, Yahoo has posted rankings for most searched politicians, Olympians, news stories, women, famous deaths, economic terms, and “rising” celebrities.

If you’re thinking the celebrity fascination might be a Yahoo thing, think again. In Google’s end of year search rankings for 2007, Britney came in at #3, with terms including American Idol, Anna Nicole Smith, and Paris Hilton blanketing the top 10. Any way you slice it, it’s fairly clear we’re all in the wrong business.

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