Leaders Can Fall Fast on the Internet

Just a few years ago, the industry-leading incumbent in the Internet local search category was IAC's CitySearch.com. It had an apparently unassailable position in local search with no meaningful competition.

Well, times have changed. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome gave a speech earlier this afternoon during which he mentioned a number of leading Internet companies such as Google, Twitter, Yelp and eh, er, um, one other which he couldn't quite remember.

New year, new blogs to read

Over the last few months, I added three new blogs to my reading list, and they're all related to venture capital and entrepreneurship.  Some are not new, but they're new to me, and I think they're all worthy of a regular reading.  Let's hope the respective authors each do a better job posting fresh content than I have been doing.

Jeremy Stoppelman, a founder and the CEO of Yelp, is offering up a smorgasbord of book reviews, humor, and observations as an entrepreneur on his relatively new blog.

Adam Fisher, one of my partners at Bessemer and the leader of our Israel office, started Savants in the Levant to blog about VC, entrepreneurship and politics with an occasional Israeli bent.

And last, but not least, Brian Feinstein, one of my Bessemer colleagues in New York, already has a year's worth of great posts on topics ranging from startup lessons to market opportunities on his blog.