Archive for Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 03:29 pm GMT -5

No App For This

// Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 03:29 pm GMT -5 // No Comments » // Work

iphone-1

Power to the people – publishers take notice!

// Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 01:50 pm GMT -5 // No Comments » // Random

mgkmchxkazywcMichael Lewis’ latest book - The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine was published recently and the book’s reviews are extremely negative. Most of these reviewers haven’t even read the book! Reviewers are irate due to the fact that publisher WW Norton has decided not to release a Kindle version (nor Nook) of the book at the same time as its hardback release. Example review:

“I’d like to add my name to the list of people who are very disappointed that this book does not have a Kindle edition. No, I haven’t read the book, but I want to — on my Kindle! If all these one star reviews lead to fewer sales, I think that would be a great result and an excellent lesson for the author/publisher.”

I support these efforts 100% because publishers delaying Kindle releases to protect hardback sales is bullshit. Similar to what movie publishers are doing with Netflix, this is only pissing off consumers like myself whose spent hundreds of dollars on a Kindle and its books because we want our media in a different, arguably better format. Publishers should be embracing technology, not hinder it in any way.

At the time of this post, there are 70 one star reviews (more than all others combined) sending a clear message to publishers - we want digital versions now. I’m glad people are doing something about this although it sucks for Michael whom I’m sure has no word on this. Please don’t take it personal Michael, your just the “Rosa Parks” of the digital book revolution.

PS. Had to throw this funny review:

I cannot believe that Mr. Lewis and his publishers have the nerve to produce a book and not simultaneously produce a Na’Vi Audio Version. After watching Avatar, I only speak Na’Vi now with my friends and we wanted to listen to this audiobook - in Na’Vi - while on our summer roadtrip to Pandora. Avatar is the most successful movie ever by some measures. It’s not like we’re asking them to produce one in Xhosa.

Chat Roulette Craze

// Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 11:01 am GMT -5 // No Comments » // Random

I’m sure you’ve heard of Chat Roulette by now, but if not, it is this site where you randomly and (NOT SO) anonymously connect to strangers for video chat. This simple concept by a 17 year old boy leads primarily to perversion, but also creates an entirely new way to interact with people that wouldn’t normally take place. For those more socially or creatively inclined, these new outlets and restrictions can lead to amazingly entertaining results. Case in point, this talented musician improvising songs to what he sees when he gets connected. Or this guy tricking people into thinking his eye is a vagina. Simply the best uses of Chat Roulette I’ve seen yet, and clearly the perfect reason to support its continued open existence.

Zappos Celebrates Customer Service w/ Puppets

// Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 05:00 pm GMT -5 // 2 Comments » // Advertising

In a campaign scheduled to begin on Monday, Zappos will celebrate its customer service representatives, whom the company refers to as the customer loyalty team. The intent is to demonstrate to potential customers — and remind current ones — how the employees make it easy to order or return merchandise, either on Zappos.com or by calling a toll-free number.

The campaign, by Mullen in Boston, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, has a budget estimated at $7 million. The ads reiterate themes that have appeared in previous Zappos campaigns, which include “Powered by service” and “Happy to help. 24/7.”

There will be television commercials, print advertisements and video and display ads on Web sites, along with a presence in social media like Facebook and YouTube and on Zappos.com. The ads will also appear in an unusual place where Zappos is already advertising: on the bottoms of plastic bins in airport security lines, reflecting the origins of Zappos as a seller of shoes.

The campaign is centered on the interaction during phone calls between Zappos employees and customers. The employees are represented by puppetlike characters who are based on and styled after actual Zappos workers.

The characters, called Zappets, resemble Muppets who have been to the theater several times to see “Avenue Q.” The idea is to evoke the offbeat company culture for which Zappos has become known.

The genesis of the campaign was in observations by Mullen executives who, while competing last year in a review for the Zappos account, visited the company’s headquarters in Henderson, Nev., to spend time with the customer service representatives.

“We sat with them, and we had headphones on, and we listened to the calls and heard how much of the company’s culture seeped through,” said one of those visitors, Alex Leikikh, managing partner and director for account services at Mullen.

Another visitor, Mark Wenneker, managing partner and executive creative director at Mullen, said of the employees: “They would stay on the line for as long as you wanted to talk. They would talk about anything.”

According to Aaron Magness, director for brand marketing and business development at Zappos, the approach reflects that “our customer loyalty team is not scripted and is not measured on time of calls.”

“The goal is when you see the ads, in TV, print or digital, you’ll say, ‘That’s the Zappos I know,’ ” Mr. Magness said, “or, ‘That’s a company I want to do business with.’ ”

Some of the commercials use recordings of calls made to Zappos employees, whose voices are heard in the spots. The words “Actual call with Zappos” appear onscreen. The customer service representatives were not aware that the calls were potential fodder for an ad campaign.

Jay-Z Song Turned Into A Geek Anthem

// Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 01:54 am GMT -5 // No Comments » // Random

Some think of “The New Dork” as the “ultimate geek/dork/tech-junkie’s anthem.” I think of it as one of the more amusing parodies of Jay-Z & Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” and love the geeky shout outs crammed into it.

If you want to sing or rap along, here are the lyrics:

Now I’m in the blogosphere,

Now I’m in the twitterverse

Fans get so immersed, But I’m a nerd forever

I’m the new Zuckerberg, And since my website

I been cookin dough like a chef servin killa-bytes

Used to be the basement, Back at my mom’s place

Buildin web traffic so that we could sell an ad space

Make way for the, One man businesses

Bail outs finished with, White collar criminals

New sega genesis, Entrepreneur time

Makin big plans, To dominate the online

Yeah, I’m on YouTube, this is one man

Sharin’ google revenue, With songs on my webcam

Science is the new art, Databases day to day

Geeks spreadin’ sheet smarts, Hustle, make the data pay

I could be in Valleywag plus Geekologie

Tell from my avatar, That I’m most definitely

The New Dork,

Social networks - what dreams are made of,

There’s nothing you can’t do

Now you’re the New Dork

This V.C. money is brand new, The geek is now damn cool

Let’s hear it for new dorks, new dorks, new dorks

Catch me up in Techcrunch, Right on the homepage

Hell, I’m on Gizmodo, In a photo bout a phone craze

And Im up in Mashable, weekend trip to New York

Bar pitty, 1oak, parties full of New Dorks

Now I’m pitchin business plans, From the backs of napkans

Micro-lend to Africans, Monetize Kazakastan

Catch me up on linked-in, Dog, C.E.O.

You can see where I be, With the I.P.O.

Now I’m up in skinny jeans, Now a hipster’s lurkin’

Used to be a reject, But now I’m steady jerkin’

Now my glasses mainstream, Now the girlies eyein me

Popular kids copy me, The new swag is irony

Comin’ from the small time, Girls couldn’t find me

Now I scale models, Like I climb on top of Heidi

Start big trends, with tweets that I pass on

You should follow me, cuz I’m friends with Ashton

CHORUS

via This Is How To Turn A Jay-Z Song Into A Geek Anthem - New dork - Gizmodo.

Measuring Tweets

// Monday, March 1st, 2010 11:50 am GMT -5 // No Comments » // Social Media

chart-tweets-per-day3

Latest stats from the Twitter Blog

As a member of the Twitter analytics team, part of my job is to measure and understand growth. The graph above tells a story of how we’ve grown over the past three years in terms of number of tweets created per day. Please note that tweets from accounts identified as spam have been removed so the counts in this chart do not include spam.

Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second. (Yes, we have TPS reports.)

Tweet deliveries are a much higher number because once created, tweets must be delivered to multiple followers. Then there’s search and so many other ways to measure and understand growth across this information network. Tweets per day is just one number to think about. We’ll make time to share more information so please stay tuned.