I like to periodically follow-up on Microsoft.  Its 18 months since the disruption memo‘ in Oct 2005, written by Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect.  This is a lengthy interview of Ray, by Wharton, is a good review of current state, and its not a good one (imho). The first thing that struck me is about ‘focus’.  Focus is mentioned 18 times.  More importantly, Wharton did the “lets come back to focus” no less than four times, including this last (fourth) one, with little success. Knowledge@Wharton: This gets us back to the issue of focus. If some threats require deep, sustained competition, doesn’t … Continue reading The state of Microsoft | jury still out on Ozzie

I remember back a couple of years ago, PEW had a small note within a report on teens use of internet, which said that email was for old people.  Well, fast forward to this from Jeremiah’s excellent “Web Strategy” blog.  Bear in mind Jeremiah can’t be much more than 30, and he is the old person in this quote (not me!). My college age kid sister told me that:  “Out of my hundreds of friends, only ONE does not use Facebook or MySpace.” She also shared her email usage:  “I only use email to get a hold of old people … Continue reading "I only use email to get a hold of old people like you"

 Interesting discussion kicked off here, that slows down towards the end.  But its a start.  I think we are at an inflection point, and that means we should expect change.  One of the things that occurs to me is the ease with which a name can leap to the top of search results, with no expenditure on advertising, or SEO. First, there was basic algorithmic search (such as AltaVista), and then came very predictable paid search business models to fuel innovation. The industry is now maneuvering through its third era: social search. Source: The Impending Social Search Inflection Point This … Continue reading Whats next for Search? | Follow the money!

I attended an interesting seminar today at the local library.  It was laid on by post graduate students at the Seneca College Corporate Communications program.  Featured speakers were Terry Fallis of Insidepr.ca and Tara Wood, Public Relations Manager, World Wildlife Fund Canada and SaveOurClimate. The real power in today’s seminar that struck me, lies in the notion of media relations as an ongoing activity, so the example here is a one time event, and with that in mind ….. The topic was media from a PR perspective, and to both describe the new tools (InsidePR) and use them (WWF).  The … Continue reading The power of new media – simple example, powerful conclusions

Ron is becoming quite the artist.  This latest is dead on, and summarises in one nice picture, the difference between the approach of Credit Unions, and Banks.  No prizes for guessing which is more effective, with long term potential to be successful.  Banks And Credit Unions: Two Approaches To Blogging Source: Banks And Credit Unions: Two Approaches To Blogging « Marketing ROI: Whims from Ron Shevlin   Technorati tags: Credit+Unions, Banks+web2.0, Bank+blogs Continue reading Banks And Credit Unions: Two Approaches To Blogging

I admit it.  I continue to be the ultimate sceptic about internet advertising.  I hated banner ads, I was ultra sceptical about AdSense (does it generate purchases?), and I have yet to be convinced about social network /widget advertising, which is in effect interruption advertising.  Here are some results from MySpace, quoted in Business Week. As numbers go, this one’s a whopper. Last year MySpace users called up an average of 31.5 billion unique page views per month. That’s as though everyone on the planet visited the site once a week. And yet, the big kahuna of social networking racked up a paltry $90 million … Continue reading Cold Cash From A Hot Site

Fantastic, but unattributed quote [update – source]  from the ETech backchannel, picked up by (the other) Dan Dickinson.    Supposedly, virtual worlds will eventually be our interface for everything online, a far friendlier and more fun and “easier” interface than, say, eBay. This is, when you think about it, a crock of shit; when I want to buy a shirt, I for sure don’t want to walk through a virtual mall. In fact, the reason I go online to buy a shirt is to avoid walking through a goddamn mall. Give me quick access to your shirts and swift checkout, and I’m a … Continue reading Thoughts on virtual reality, and e-commerce

 Interesting survey with Orwellian conclusions that need some thought.  First the survey. Survey Results highlights: 87 percent of office workers access Web 2.0 sites each week, with 63 percent accessing the sites one or more times a day;  51 percent of office workers spend one or more hours a week using and accessing Web 2.0 sites when at work; 46 percent of office workers have discussed work-related issues on social media websites; 71 percent of office workers use Web-based email at work for personal reasons; and  50 per cent of office workers believe that employees should be entitled to access … Continue reading Web 2.0 or 1984 – which way is right?

 Just when you were getting comfortable, look out.  Consider a browser that works offline as well as on.  As someone who is never offline, even I need to get my mind around this, but there is enough work ocurring here, I am open minded enough to think it must be for a reason.  The Apollo team from Adobe is here at ETech, presenting the Alpha version of their new runtime environment – which is aimed at empowering web developers to create desktop applications. Apollo is a lightweight virtual machine that runs on the desktop and acts as an interpreter of … Continue reading Technology update | Adobe Apollo & Firefox 3 will redefine browsers