I’m a big fan of Google Alerts and with the latest one I received it may have rocketed to the top of my list of cool features.
I normally delete these after reading them, but this one may be a keeper.
I’ve been a huge fan of Dilbert as long as I can remember but for some reason had never read Scott Adams’ blog. Marc Andreessen’s second post on career planning & advice quoted Scott and made me a subscriber.
This post on economics and the mild super powers it confers will always have a special place in my heart. Not for its position on Economics (which I agree with) but mainly for its advice on when to speed. Not that I would ever do that mind you, it just seems like useful information.
When you have a working knowledge of economics, it’s like having a mild super power. For example, I use my knowledge of economics to avoid speeding tickets. I assume the local law enforcement agencies have limited funding and can’t be everywhere at the same time. That tells me, fairly reliably, when I can speed without detection and when I can’t.
Awesome. Simply awesome.
This isn’t new but I recently realized how cool this is. If you get an invitation to connect on LinkedIn, they display it on your home screen. In the past, you had to click on the invite to go to a page where you could act on it. Recently however, they started providing a “Take Action” link. If you click on this it overlays a small menu on the page where you can decide how to deal with the invitation.
This is simple but thoughtful - they are making life easier for the user and accepting fewer page views for the action of responding to an invitation. In the long run, a better user experience will translate to a better business. It’s nice to see a company doing this. All too often, user experience gets sacrificed for page view inflation. Don’t do this.
Seeing real time collaboration in action is super cool. Some friends and I were coordinating schedules via a spreadsheet and I logged in to Google Docs to update my piece. When I did so, I noticed two of my friends online and was able to watch them editing the document in real time. Each person’s input box was color-coded to their login name. Everyone who was online could also chat in a window off to the side. Super cool.
I’m a huge fan of Excel and but connectivity and collaboration could be game-changers for Google.
I noticed the ad below in Gmail today.
This may seem unremarkable until I tell you that my office is on Eastlake Avenue in Seattle. Wow.
From Google’s perspective, the best part of this is that because the ad in unobtrusive and relevant, it’s actually a positive experience for me.
Ok, sorry, couldn’t resist the A-Team quote. I just got an email from Casey, one of our developers, who said:
Couponlooker saved me 10% at Godaddy.com <eom>
That’s the kind of email you love to get.
Scott Sherman Automotive recently caught my attention with a really well executed referral marketing program. Dave had recently gotten some work done there and a few days later got a postcard in the mail. The postcard said “Give this to someone who isn’t a customer and we’ll give them a free oil change. Also, if the person you send comes in, we’ll give you a free oil change too.”
Now this is cool on many levels. First, they’re following rule #1 - ask customers for referrals. Second, they’re making Dave look good because he gets to give me a free oil change. Third, Dave gets a free oil change too so he has a really strong incentive to get me to go in. I’m a big fan of symmetric referral bonuses - basically, if you send me someone, we’ll give you both something cool. This rocks because you’re no longer selling your friends out to get a free bobblehead - you both benefit.
I did go in for my oil change and they rocked - no attempts at gratuitous upsells. And, sure enough, I received a referral postcard in the mail 2 days later. They delivered a quality experience, a friend and I will get a free oil change, you can bet I’ll spread the word.
Not only is this one of the most detailed, objective reviews on the iPhone I have seen to date, it’s also hilarious. If you’re in the market, I’d urge you to read this. With lines like this, you’ll be entertained while you learn all there is to know about this incredible device. (No, I don’t have one and I’m planning on waiting.)
Apple is in bed with AT&T for at least 5 years. Which circles me back to my metaphor. Signing up for the iPhone is like being tossed into a menage a trois with Angelina and Rosie O’Donnell. You want the beauty, you have to sleep with the beast.
Awesome.
PS: Thanks to Valleywag for the pointer.
I was at the Apple store in the U-district last week and had picked up the Sims 2 Pets Expansion pack (a great gift for the Sims addict in your life) and was waiting in line to pay. As usual, it was impossible to leave without playing with the iPods and lusting after the Macbook Pro, but my favorite part of the experience was being approached by a sales rep with a wireless credit card reader who came to the back of the line, asked if anyone was waiting to pay with a credit card. 2 minutes later, I was on my way out of the store.
Hats off to Apple for caring enough about the customer experience in their stores to make sure that you didn’t wait in line if you didn’t have to. I’m not surprised they have better sales per square foot than Tiffany’s.
But here’s a little-known fact: Apple’s chic stores don’t just sell more per square foot than even Best Buy, they beat some of the best in the luxury retail world silly, according to a report released Tuesday by Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi.
Apple’s stores have hauled in annual sales per square foot of $4,032, compared with Best Buy’s $930, Neiman Marcus’ $611, and luxury store Tiffany & Co.’s $2,666, according to Bernstein.
As Mark Hurst has said (and I paraphrase), customer experience is the sum total of interactions that a consumer has with your brand. On that front, at least for me, Apple has done a phenomenal job.
There are posts on Read/Write Web and Techcrunch about Google Trends giving odd results. Alison (my girlfriend) may have cracked the case - it’s NY Times Crossword fans cheating on the crossword. I wish I had figured this out. Awesome.
This is hilarious. There are a lot of speculative articles about the new Google Trends feature and how it could innovate trend-spotting. So I went and looked at the list of today’s 100 .
It’s funny because as I looked at it, I started to realize that most of these entries are actually crossword puzzle clues. So to check, I looked at today’s NYtimes crossword and saw at least one clue from today’s puzzle was in the results (#97 on google’s list) and the one’s that are further up the list that look like clues (#s 35, 44, 51, 53, 71, etc) are probably from yesterday’s, hence their being more popular. Which makes me wonder about the validity of using these results to detect trends. Say someone sees #97, peter pan pirate, doesn’t realize that it was in the times crossword today, and then assumes there’s a pirate trend in the offing. It just goes to prove you cannot use a mathematical approach to predict trends. That or data without context is irrelevant…
Thought it would be interesting blog fodder…
Data is not the same thing as information.