Seems like Microsoft did all the right things: A catchy name without any known meaning, an interesting design, Google like appearance, quick response time, and of course, spent lots of dough on PR.
But people are used to using Google, we’ve been living by it for so long. It’s like going to a different supermarket then the one you’re used to, you can’t find anything.
So should Google be concerned?Sure, don’t forget who invented the wheel(Or in this case the window,) but I don’t think they should panic, Google owns the Internet, and it will be a while before we’ll know if Bing can really challenge the landlord.
Loved the TV commercial though (couldn’t find a link to the video on Google…)
Have you noticed that all the songs in Apple products (iPod, Mac..)commercials sound exactly the same? Is this what one might call Branding? Or is it Over Branding?
And also, my Mac does need to be restarted at times, and while I appreciate it’s quality, it still gets stuck here and there!!!
That’s right folks. Actor Gary Busey, whose last decent film happened sometime way back in the early 80s, and whose most recent credits include drunken rampages on the set of Inside Edition, has his very own series of video shorts (courtesy of GotVMail which must subscribe to the take the most random celebrity-of-the-day and create a series of promos around it aka School of Geico car insurance advertising)
GotVMail heeds us, almost daringly, to “Go inside the entrepreneurial mind of Gary Busey,” but the ramblings of Busey’s inner most thoughts as witnessed on many of these videos feel more like the output/regurgitation of a 5-year-old suffering from ADHD trying to tell mommy and daddy exactly what he/she did in school that day in between back-to-back episodes of iCarly.
Case in point:
Gary Busey has a hobby. He likes to create “Busey-isms.” Here’s two examples of a Busey-ism. Now=No Other Way, Team=Together Everyone Achieves More. You too can craft your own vernacular, according to GB. Just take your last name and make it an “ism.” Extra credit to those who last name starts with “Cynic,” “Bullshit.” By the way I think I just created my very first Busey-ism. Is WTF already taken?
Remember the 5 Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why)? Gary Busey wants you to think outside the box and turn your favorite interrogatives into…Interrogatives? No, we’re not kidding. This particular video had to be the brainchild of at least 4 hours of direct inhalation. Pott-o-meter says: 8. In case you missed it, POTT=Potentially Over The Top
Never ask your family for money because you have to pay them back. Just lean on the bank or get Wesley Snipes’ accountant. If all else fails, hit the kids up from the lemonade stand. You know the ones who’ve been standing in sweltering heat all day just to make a .10 profit?
Busey does a phat WC Fields’ impression and coincidentally doesn’t like lame I’m too sick to go to school/work excuses especially ones that start with, “I got salmonella thrown right square in the face.”
While Busey is no business brainiac, his Yogi Berra, dumbed-down approach to business might be an asset to GotVMail’s marketing strategy in terms of visibiiity of their brand in the marketplace. However with soaring rates for plans starting at $10/mo for 50 minutes of VOIP, GotVMail will need more than Busey’s bravado and clever topspin to remain competitive with companies like AOL and Cisco.
Akin to Quizno’s infamous gerbil fiasco commercial ploy a few years ago, whether you’re aligning your company brand with gerbils or rats, either way, you’re bound to build buzz, but that only lasts for so long before you’re consumers start to look elsewhere.
First, the rag that doubled as every pseudo geek’s wet dream, whored itself out this month to the highest bidder for the mere promise of tail by shamelessly promoting the tech world’s very own Paris Hilton. The only takeaway from Wired’s cover feature being if you’re greedy enough and cocktease make eyes at the right people, there are places you can go online and offline, btw.
Next, MediaBistro jumped aboard the Anderson lovebug by giving us a cheap imitation (you have to pay $15 to preview the whole clip of Chris) of a marketing man’s bible to Web 2.0 social communities in the form of a video clip.
While most of the content on the video is pretty vague marko-babbly, (we are talking about the guy that launched the long tail phenomenon) Anderson is a source for all things innovative by sheer virtue that he works for “the most tolerant site out there.” If only he had been groomed in an elitist French boarding school that taught him proper elocution maybe I could stand to hear about his or anyone else’s “raison d’etre.”
Think Goofus and Gallant are enough to teach today’s kids the stuff that they need to make it in the real world? You’re wrong. These days it’s all about differentiation and having the proper toolkit in place to build your brain from the ground up.
So whether you’re a parent, educator, or kid looking to understand Math & Science in terms that actually mean something to the average individual who is not mathematically endowed (guilty!), A Write to Learn is an innovative and dare I say, fun approach to learning for kids and adults of all ages.
The brainchild of Barbara Gottfried Hollander, a former Book Reviewer for The Jerusalem Post and Columnist for The New Jersey Jewish News, the destination site for educational consulting features creative exercises geared to teaching kids practical and relevant applications, such as how to wrap your head around Chinese currency in time for the upcoming Olympics, and even lends itself to curriculum developers looking for a little inspiration for their courses. A Write to Learn aims to involve teachers and kids (how novel, right?), by showcasing the writing talents of young adults and looking to involve them in making a difference for the future.
Maybe I woke up on the less cynical side of the bed today, but Hollander’s world is one that makes me think that there might just be a brighter future in store.
3 Years ago, Skype was the hottest thing in town. Then the bidding started, and when it comes to bidding no one knows how to do it better then eBay, who, with plenty of woo ha, paid a modest sum of $2.6 billion for their new toy. But, a while later, eBay, who also own PayPal, realized, that its harder to integrate the technology into its auction business then they first thought, Skype has become the hot potato that no one wants, even the appointing of Josh Silverman as the new CEO in February did not seem to help, and now eBay is considering selling the VoIP provider. Skype is quite good actually, it allows free PC calling, and saved me a lot of money when I used it to call computers internationally.
I’d take Sergey over Marc any day of the week. That’s why when I first heard about Facebook’s new chatting utility from Gina Trapani over at Lifehacker, I didn’t really care. Google rolled out a similar item years ago and as far as I was concerned, Gmail chat was my staple. I was reluctant to get too excited over what seemed like yet another device that exposed my whereabouts onto a largely disinterested or conversely, overly gawker-ish audience. Truth be told I use Facebook relatively scarcely, mostly taking advantage of the feeds feature to see if friends have updated their profiles with new pictures.
On the flipside I use my Gmail chat quite often, preferring this over most of the other instant messaging and chat features offered by services such as AOL or MSN. The good news about Facebook’s new chat is that, like Gmail chat, it’s not a downloadable external client, and it pre-populates your buddies based on your contacts list. Facebook has capitalized on the trend of the passive user (and those of us who sometimes forget that we even have Facebook open on a tab in our internet browser) to incorporate an application that ensures we click on our accounts a little more often during our days and/or depending on how often we get pinged by a contact. It’s a savvy move for the company and an obvious next step in terms of features on the site, but the utility lacks a certain efficiency in multi-tasking various simultaneous chats. Clutter erupts at the bottom of the screen which makes attempting to integrate it as an activity during the work day all the more difficult. And I can’t speak for everyone else, but if I can’t use it as a diversion during my day, I’m certainly less inclined to use it as a past time on my time off.
I recently discovered a new site, Linkory.com which allows you to connect with others through memories and shared experiences. It’s Web 2.0 facade aside, Linkory is more than just another one of those community sites geared to make people feel less lonely. Through surfacing stories of childhood and memorable events, users get to evoke their experiences and make them come alive again using media such as text, photo, and video. Even cooler, you can “send” any of the memories (video, photos, etc) you find on Linkory to Facebook buddies. Like most sites out there these days, you don’t have to pay to use the service which is always a nice bonus feature.
What I enjoyed most scrolling through some of these memory threads is realizing how much history I’d neglected or forgotten. I could scarcely remember Elian Gonzalez and yet the little boy preoccupied so many of our lives for months in 2000. Taking a stroll through Linkory is like cuddling up with a cozy warm book you’ve read at least twice, but whose in company you will undoubtedly always find an old friend.
There is redemption in getting sued. Just ask Jay Buckmuster, CEO of Craigslist, who publicly voiced his disappointment over Ebay’s “petty” war on Craigslist after they filed suit against the company on the basis that Craigslist was diluting their shares in the company. Ebay has 28.4% stake in Craigslist. While confidentiality restrictions prohibit too much information from being leaked to the public on this, some cynics believe that eBay is banking on either of two scenarios: 1) eBay is trying to back Craigslist into a corner and buy them out and/or 2) eBay is trying desperately to sell their shares in Craigslist at a most optimal rate.
Whatever the case may be, don’t feel too bad for Jay Buckmuster. At the very least, he’s garnering some serious sympathy out of this whole ordeal, not to mention some innovative food for fodder in the way of comments on his post. Our favorite: the missed connection.
Missed Connections
You (eBay): Middle aged, bitter, nerdy.
Me (craigslist): young, indie, hip
I saw you at the flee market. You told me own it … like I’d be impressed. You offered me a ride on your Harley … again like I’d be impressed. Your not cool.
Set to be released in May, Wii Fit is already making headlines with its slew of aerobic exercises designed to get even the most inactive/dormant of couch potatoes off the proverbial couch. The system can support up to 660 lbs of weight (although it stops measuring activity after 330 lbs) and features the following activities:
Strength-training exercises, including a push-up/yoga combo (which sounds devilishly difficult), single-leg extensions, arm/leg lifts, a variety of squats and lunges, and side planks (ouch). There’s also plenty of aerobic action, including steps, runs, and rhythm boxing. Then there’s the yoga, complete with your standard deep breathing, half moons, a potpourri of poses, you name it.
For soccer fans waiting for some sort of fix, the new Wii Fit boasts a soccer ball head-butting game. Head trauma aside, rave reviews and a price tag of ? (yet to be publicized), Nintendo’s new game package has already sold 1.4 million systems in Japan alone.
The Justice Department just approved a merger between former satellite radio arch-nemeses, Sirius and XM radio. In short, Sirius bought XM out for $5 billion. Maybe it’s just me, but I kinda miss the whole healthy, clean days of competition a la Battle of the Network Stars. Then again, with Howard Stern and Martha Stewart doing the Sirius circuit, I’m not sure even Oprah (& “Her Friends”) stood much of a chance…
Boston Dynamics unleashed its 235 lbs of sheer canine engineering wonder and force on YouTube today and its video is already ranked as the Most Watched of the day with 523,896 views. The quadruped robot known as “Big Dog” is the product of $10 Million in DARPA funding and measures 1 meter tall and 2 meters wide. Founded in 1992, Boston Dynamics was tasked with developing a robot that could ” run, maneuver and jump to avoid obstacles.”
It would seem that the company accomplished this and then some with the impressive attributes of this robot. Given its agility and freakishly human-like reactions to sustaining kicks (high point of the video, by the way), this particular breed of robot can handle whatever comes its way (rough terrain, snow, mean humans).
While browsing for apts today and most likely crashing Craigslist’s server with the amount of times I hit the pages, I came across a most fabulous website for those of you (like my husband and I) who can’t quite off the city bug and like to live in close proximity to a Dunkin Donuts, a Store24 (or some neighborhood equivalent), and at least one cool coffee shop that isn’t either DD or Starbucks (for neighborhood character). Anyways, the search still continues but with the help of Walk Score, we’re that much closer to finding an area we might actually want to live in and that suits our cultural needs to some extent.
The site is super easy to use and utilizes Google Maps technology to map out the nearest destination points of interest. It tabulates a patent pending Walk Score* based on a scale of 1-100 that rates how desirable an area is for walking in terms of grocery stores, movie theaters, schools, libraries, bookstores, drug stores, music stores, etc. It’s particularly useful when you’re trying to sort of the cultural landscape of an area and if like my husband and I, you happen to be true aficionados of walks within a cityscape.
To test the site, I entered one of the apartments we happened to look at today to see what was within walking distance and our apt of choice at the moment rated an 86. Our other apt. contender scored an overall rating of 68. As you might have guessed, there will be more apartment searching, but with Walk Score I feel a little more giddy about the process of sorting through Craigslist ads. The fact that realtors have started to embrace this site by posting links from their ads is a good indicator of just how sticky and “viral” this sight is.
OK, so here is the story: About a year ago we got robbed. That’s a long and sad story, involving an insurance company that gladly took our money when we got the policy, but for various reasons would not pay for our stolen stuff. But let’s not talk about it now. The kind thief who visited our apartment that night did not steal our DVD, but in order to make sure he has the right equipment for the things he did stole, he took away our remote controls, all of them.
So after a few months of running to the TV stand to pause, stop, or fast forward (and after we moved from that place thank God,) and since the device wasn’t doing a great job playing movies, we decided it’s time to get a new one. When we got to the store we had three options: To get a standard DVD (a known brand cost about $50 back then,) a Blue Ray machine (About $350,) or for $75 we could get an HD-DVD device. We got the last one. Both were new technologies, both offered amazing quality. Back then we couldn’t tell which one will dominate the market. Now we know. A couple of days ago, Toshiba announced that it will abandon its HD-DVD format. Now we learn that Amazon.com will stop selling HD-DVD and will side with Blue-Ray. Cnet News reports that Peter Faricy, Amazon’s vice president of movies and music, said in a statement from the company: “The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best high-definition buying decisions, our customers have clearly voiced their support for the Blue-ray format.”
Also, the presence of the format in the popular Sony Playstation 3 game console, and Blockbuster early siding with it, put a lot of weight on the preference to go Blue.
I’m not too sorry for buying the DVD I have now, I prefer it this way on buying a Blue-Ray and then the HD-DVD would come on top. Then I would have lost a lot more… I will buy a Blue-Ray DVD, but not today.
It all sums up to one simple question: When was the last time you actually got a good customer service? And if your answer starts with something like: I do remember getting a good service…. you just prove my point. We are so surprised when we call to ask something and get a courteous and knowledgeable response that we remember when it happened. We all know how it works. You walk into a shiny store, or go to a fancy website, find what you want and buy it. But it’s not so fancy anymore when you need something from the dark side of the moon: the call center. And it is literally the dark side of the moon because all call centers were outsourced a long time ago to India, The Philippines and other countries that are about 10 hours ahead of us. In the dark side, a simple question turns to a Via Dolorosa of repeating your private information and random answers that are being scripted to the poor representative who can barely speak the language, but will tell you a thousand times in perfect English that he or she understand you, and that a supervisor will give you the same answer. I admit, I snap. I rise my voice and won’t let go until I get what I want, but I know its not worth the effort. And this brings me to my next question: How much more are you willing to pay for a good, local based customer service? 10% more? Maybe 20%? I know I will, maybe…
It seems like the beginning of this year belongs to Apple. The impact is being made not by the sounds and sights of smiling presidential candidates, making empty promises of a change to a brain washed crowd, but the new ultra thin MacBook Air, the iPhone and iTunes upgrades, the Time Capsule wireless hard drive, and basically, everything Steve Jobs. The magazine Fast Company, dedicated its latest issue to Apple, and had a computerized Steve Jobs portrait. Also, everybody talks about MacWorld Expo. So if there is one man that will bring a change, it’s not going to be McCain, Obama, Clinton, or God forbid racist Romney, it will be an iChange, and Steve Jobs will iBring it.
A few days ago I wrote here about my horrible experience with Buy.com. I just thought I should report what happened after I wrote that post in this short follow up post.
First, a quick reminder. I bought something from this site, and never got it, after contacting UPS, I found out it was sent to the wrong address. Buy.com would not refund me for the item, and was giving me the same answer all the time, saying that it was shipped and somehow it’s my fault I didn’t get it.
Lucky for me, there is one company that does stand behind what they say, and this company is PayPal. After exhausting my efforts with Buy.com, I remembered that I paid for the item using my PayPal account. So, I logged into my PayPal account, and filed a claim against this headless stupid company- Buy.com and guess what?
Not 3 days have past, Including a Holiday weekend (!) and I got my money back. So tell me this, Mr. /Ms. Buy.com hotshot, was replying my 3 emails, talking to me for about an hour over the phone (Buy.com customer service phone number: 1-800-800-0800, a number you do not advertise on your site), getting all the bad publicity, and having to deal with a PayPal claim worth the money you had to refund me? After all we are talking about less then $10…
Something struck me recently when reading Dave Churbuck’s blog. For those of you unfamiliar with Churbuck, he is VP Marketing at Lenovo and a pretty fab blogger in his own right. He has a way of cutting through much of the subtle, latent Web 2.0 BS and calling things out.
I happened upon Churbuck’s post around the time I was “connecting” on LinkedIn with past coworkers and trying to loogle them. It started out quite innocently with me trying to find one of my good friends on there who is a student at UCLA’s management school. I realized just how annoying it is to be prompted for the umpteenth time to upgrade my account with that tiny yellow bar of a button that kept flashing every time I tried and failed to click away from the page.
Why must I be menaced so? What had I done but been a happy user who made frequent visits to the site and spread good word about its attributes? When did LinkedIn start bugging me to upgrade my membership? Thinking back, I had started noticing this a while back, but it took a few months to settle in my mind to the point of distracting me from enjoying the site.
Unfortunately around the time this malaise set in, I was also on Facebook. My friend had sent me another of those SuperWall pictures which required me clicking on the image, but before I could get to that image I was navigated to yet another page which prompted me to send the very image to all of my friends before I was allowed to open the actual image. Thankfully it also selected all of my friends as recipients of this picture so it saved me the work of having to send a picture of a dog to 50 of my nearest and dearest.
On the flipside, when I tried to “pull one over” on the system by “unselecting” all, it prompted me to choose one lucky recipient of an Alaskan Husky picture which most likely barked, licked its nutz, and said “Happy Holidaze” when clicked on. Annoyed that I had just spent seven minutes of my life driving towards a reality far less appealing than the my mind’s conjurings, I started to philosophize a bit on Churbuck’s likening of “spam” to this tactic that Facebook API developers have taken to spreading the word of their creations. Initially I had taken to this feature, especially because I could choose which of my friends would care to partake in a game of Scrabble with me and go a few rounds. Same with Flixter. In a sense it also allowed me to be more social with people I wouldn’t have contact with on a daily basis and rediscover or discover connections I never would have found otherwise.
Newsweek maintains that Facebook is the console of the future (replacing Wii??) and it will connect people socially through computers as never before. Considering it’s the sixth most trafficked site in the world, it’s a possibility. But really short of wireless remotes combined with action-oriented kicking ass, competitive games w/amazing graphics, how can the existing Facebook APIs compete with what Sony, IBM, and Microsoft are putting out?
After finally getting my Wii and spending the past few days manically hooked on Wii Tennis and upping my all-time score to “professional,” I’ve decided that I now need to focus my energies on something a bit more tangible and likely to give equal amounts of attainable bliss: Shopping.
But…For those of you who know me, I hate shopping. I hate spending money. I hate crowds and I hate holidays that feed off of consumer greed and guilt. Now that the holiday season is officially over (well, the songs are off the radio anyways), and people are rushing back to stores to return and exchange gifts, I’ve decided to let a few days blow over, have some of the carte madness disperse a bit, and slowly get back out there and take advantage of some of these sales. In order to be successfully proactive in my shopping, I’ve decided to start with the essentials so as to eliminate all the unnecessary headache I usually attach to malls and people. Hopefully by me revealing the most common myths, you too can be enlightened and on your way to an even jollier 2008.
1) Myth # 1: Holiday season is over post-Christmas.
I lied in the previous paragraph when I said the holiday season was in fact officially over. If big name dept. stores like Kohl’s and Macy’s can be burning the midnight oil and opening at 6 AM the day after Christmas, you know there has to be an audience for this. Yeah and that audience would be the very same people that actually spend the day after Thanksgiving at strip malls, revving up on Starbucks lattes at 4 AM just to kick them out of that Tryptophan-state and anointing holiday-like status to a day of shopping. Canucks aside, who does that?
2) Myth # 2: Exhibit Kindness & Goodwill to Thy Neighbor
Ok, so this rule might apply to your literal neighbor, but don’t start getting all figurative on this one. If you see a Wii in Target or Best Buy, grab that puppy. Don’t do that polite thing when it comes to the things you want or you’ll never get anything in return - besides a lot of bitching and moaning when you come home empty-handed or realize you should have fought a little harder to stay in line to return that damn vase you have no use for but didn’t want to start rough-housing it with the old lady with the walker. Does she really need that walker is what you should really be asking yourself…
3) Myth # 3: People don’t like to Shop Online
Bullocks! Did you know that in England and Scotland, online sales pre-empted retail sales? Did you care?
4) Myth # 4: Giftcards are the Natural Remedy for a Fledgling Economy
Retailers are banking on giftcards pulling them out of this season’s sales slump? Yeah, good luck with that..
5) Myth # 5: Wii is Purely a State of Mii
And the most sought after product of the greed-fueled, consumer driven holiday season?
The Nintendo Wii was the most sought-after product, with the Transformers Ultimate Bumblebee a close second, according to Yahoo Shopping.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I got some Wii ass to cook.
Seems like Microsoft did all the right things: A catchy name without any known meaning, an interesting design, Google like appearance, quick response time, and of course, spent lots of dough on PR. 
That’s right folks. Actor Gary Busey, whose 
Think 
I’d take 
There is redemption in getting sued. Just ask Jay Buckmuster, CEO of Craigslist, who 
Photo taken outside of Craigslist headquarters & courtesy of Craigslist’s 
OK, so here is the story: About a year ago we got robbed. That’s a long and sad story, involving an insurance company that gladly took our money when we got the policy, but for various reasons would not pay for our stolen stuff. But let’s not talk about it now. The kind thief who visited our apartment that night did not steal our DVD, but in order to make sure he has the right equipment for the things he did stole, he took away our remote controls, all of them.
a good service…. you just prove my point. We are so surprised when we call to ask something and get a courteous and knowledgeable response that we remember when it happened. We all know how it works. You walk into a shiny store, or go to a fancy website, find what you want and buy it. But it’s not so fancy anymore when you need something from the 
It seems like the beginning of this year belongs to Apple. The impact is being made not by the sounds and sights of smiling presidential candidates, making empty promises of a change to a brain washed crowd, but the new ultra thin MacBook Air, the iPhone and iTunes upgrades, the Time Capsule wireless hard drive, and basically, everything Steve Jobs. The magazine 
A few days ago I wrote here about my horrible experience with Buy.com. I just thought I should report what happened after I wrote that post in this short follow up post.
Something 
After finally getting my Wii and spending the past few days manically hooked on Wii Tennis and upping my all-time score to “professional,” I’ve decided that I now need to focus my energies on something a bit more tangible and likely to give equal amounts of attainable bliss: Shopping.