One thing I can't deny is that they put their money behind trying out new tech with has eco benefits. There's a full fleet of all-electric vehicles on campus, and charging stations (for both the fleet and personal vehicles) in front of every building. If I owned a house and drove to work, I'd consider one of these.
Why Brands Will Love Google+
One of the complaints users of Google+ have had (and notably, something Tech Crunch is whingeing about) is the lack of "brand pages". Right now, only actual people are supposed to post to Google+. Google has said that brand pages are coming soon.
Over the past two years, brands have spent immense amounts of money to build followers for the Facebook fan pages. One of the dirty little secrets of this is that while it's great to be able to follow the customers that do choose to "like" your web page, having a lot of Facebook followers doesn't drive that much traffic back to your site, and it really doesn't drive much new traffic.
So along comes Google+ and the +1 button. Right now, folks aren't paying a lot of attention to the +1 badge. But Google's already started incorporating the data from it into their search results, both at the social ("your friend +1'ed this") and global ("+1 by #### people") level. If they haven't figured it out already, brands will soon realize that if they get their loyal customers to +1 them on Google+, it will act as endorsements when those customers friends come across the brand in a Google search result page.
There's any number of other great things about Google plus (Circles) and a few not so great things (it's kind of boring right now.) But I think that brand pages, +1 and Google search are the "killer feature" that will carry Google+ from a remarkable launch to a true Facebook rival.
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Mark Davis: Entrepreneurship Is Not About Perfection, It's About Iteration
"It means not getting distracted with perfection; rather focusing on building something good enough to solicit feedback and learn how to better prosecute your business. Engage customers early (even if you're not in market yet), learn and evolve."
"...It’s better to get into market with a poorly designed PowerPoint presentation and get feedback from customers so you can learn how to sell a product then it is to sit on the sidelines refining a message that might be the wrong one."
In the movie business they have a term - "production paralysis" - for when someone keeps just taking meetings and revamping their pitch rather than trying to execute. More often than we'd like to admit, the same thing happens in business and product development.
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New Adventures
Just had a beer with an old friend of mine who tomorrow morning will quit his job at a publicly-traded Internet company to strike out and start a new business. Not only do I wish him good luck, I must admit a bit of jealousy. There's nothing quite like that moment when you throw caution to the wind and strike out for unknown shores. No matter how it turns out you are almost always the richer for taking the risk and discomfort it entails.
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The commuting paradox - (37signals)
People usually overestimate the value of the things they'll obtain by commuting - more money, more material goods, more prestige - and underestimate the benefit of what they are losing: social connections, hobbies, and health.
37 Signals - The Commuting Paradox
Yes, I recently moved to LA. But my commute is only about 15 minutes in each direction, and I work for a company (Amazon) that actively encourages working from home as much as possible - the new guidelines for developers state that they can do it up to a week a month, typically. As much as I as a manager like talking face-to-face with team members, I'll trade it any day for happier employees and lower turnover. (Oh, and if you are or know a great developer in the Seattle, Los Angeles or New York area, let me know - we're hiring.)
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"Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free."
"The project I am working on will be more successful than twitter within a year. When I sell the project for 40 million dollars I will ignore any emails from you begging to be a part of it and will send you a postcard from my yaght (sic). Ciao."
This piece is brilliant. There are far too many "entrepreneurs" out there that confuse "being enterprising" with "not paying people for their work." This page made me laugh out loud knowing how many folks (including myself) have had similar experiences when interacting with self-styled Internet entrepreneurs who are completely dependent on others for execution -- but can't afford to pay for it. To paraphrase the author: Yes. I can write a web site for you in a weekend. But I spent 15 years working on web projects so that I can do that. If you're not going to pay me to do it, why shouldn't I just spend the weekend building a site for myself, or learning how to do it better for the folks that do pay me? And how come your time is so valuable that you're not willing to learn to do it, if your idea is so fantastic? Don't get me wrong. I love entrepreneurs and I love when they discuss their projects with me. I'm just annoyed by the guys who think that 90% of the value is coming up with the idea, but at the same time haven't the slightest idea what execution will actually entail. It's the other way around: an idea is worth maybe 10-20% at most, and execution (both business and technical) is where you win or lose.
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Buyer Beware: How Big Box Retail is Alienating Customers
Since moving to LA, I've had to shop for more than the usual quota of household items - towels, sheets, some electronics, etc. I'm an Amazon Prime customer, so a lot of that stuff has been ordered online, but there are some things where I'm still not completely converted to online buying - sheets and towels, for example, still seem like something I want to touch and see in person before buying. But my experience this month may change that. And I don't think I'm alone. It's pretty clear to me that a lot of large chain stores, like Bloomingdale's, Macy's, and Best Buy, just don't understand the new retail reality. Whoever is managing them and setting prices doesn't understand that they're being cross shopped with any number of online retailers that can offer similar (and in some cases, superior) service and selection. And they don't seem to realize that in a world where the friction of cross-shopping has been reduced to nearly zero due to the removal of geographic penalties on shopper movement, pricing strategy has to change, or they risk alienating shoppers permanently. Let's be clear: I generally like Best Buy. They're definitely better than Circuit City ever was. Generally, I've found that their pricing and selection on big-ticket items has always been reasonable -- maybe not as good as online, but close enough that the immediacy of buying in person made up for it. I've generally felt similarly about Bloomingdale's and Macy's, although I'm far less likely to ever shop at those stores - shopping Macy's Herald Square flagship is generally enough to make me want to pull out my hair. But that was just part of the charm of the place.
Continue reading "Buyer Beware: How Big Box Retail is Alienating Customers" »
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Gruber on Android
- John Gruber
From his follow-up to "The Android Opportunity".
Gruber absolutely hits the nail on the head with his comment that Android hardware designers have to just crush the iPhone in at least one aspect to make a product that has an appeal other than "it's not an iPhone." Make it the best cameraphone ever - like the quality of a Canon compact camera with phone functions (including real flash!) Or make it the best gaming device ever - a Nintendo DS with a phone.
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Designing Search for Web Services
(This is an extended version of an email I wrote to one of the local tech mailing lists here in New York, in response to a developer's question. It seemed generally useful enough that I'm reposting it here.)
A very common design problem in web services project these days is the issue of user search. Most web services now involve pools of data that are far too large to be entirely "browseable", even if we're only talking about finding another user on the service. Very quickly you start to see a specification develop of increasing complexity, involving boolean ("AND/OR") concepts, keywords, and all kinds of other demands targeted at extremely precise results tailored very exactly to the knowledge domain or data set. What's the best way to go about building this user experience?
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Twitter for Small Business: Practical Guidelines
If you own or manage a small-to-medium-sized business with a somewhat web-savvy customer base, you've probably already thought about using Twitter to promote your offerings. I've talked with a number of small business owners who started Twitter accounts for their companies but were disappointed with the results. Here's a few suggestions on how to improve your success with Twitter, and some issues you should consider before putting time into Twittering.
Continue reading "Twitter for Small Business: Practical Guidelines" »
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