Nice tips for saving energy from OnlineShoes.tv
I’m a big Twitter fan and not just because it’s a great place to connect and get the latest on your friends - I like the way the company has been built, focusing on a simple idea and sticking to it. I admire the founders for avoiding the feature cluttered, I respect the investors for funding a business that’s actually not a business yet, but could.  Now I must admit I’ve been distancing myself from the Twitter chatter lately (you can find me here by the way).
While not a conscious decision at first, I am now finding more and more reasons to take a break away from it, as I am finding the proper level of social interaction on Facebook, not Twitter.  Truth be told, my “true” friends are on Facebook. Twitter is just too open. It attracts spammers, ruthless marketers and sometimes even stalkers. But the real problem for me is that it doesn’t have a filtering feature that would allow me to selectively read my friends updates over CNN’s or Ashton Kutsher’s. I constantly miss friends message on Twitter. I never on Facebook. Â
Whining user I might be. But as a Web 2.0 entrepreneur in a previous life, I see a fundamental flaw with Twitter’s model. While classic viral marketing successes like Facebook, Skype or AIM get better as more and more people use it, it gets worse on Twitter the more people use it.Â
Last week, Facebook poked Twitter in the eye by enabling real-time status updates in Facebook. I would highly advise Twitter to respond to Facebook by allowing smart filtering a-la-Facebook. That’s the only way they would win me back at this point. Not more users, not more AJAX. Filtering please, Mister Twitter.
Just awesome to see live video and relevant information today on the Tour Of California. I’d be amazing if we could have this for the Tour de France.
Go Lance!
Looks like Belkin was caught cheating on a couple of reviews on Amazon.com. This is hardly surprising - every good thing on the Internet has been infected with commercial interest - email, Google Search, blogs, twitter, etc etc.
I would argue that Belkin is probably one of the thousands and thousands of companies trying to control what’s happening on the blogosphere, twitter or your favorite retail site. Everybody in retail — everybody — is worried about what user Joe or Jane might say on her Facebook profile about a particular product. For me, multiple questions.
1. What’s cheating? Or rather, where do we draw the line? Some things are OK, but others not. It’s OK to spam all your friends begging for a vote when your bozo Web 2.0 company is nominated for the International Nerds award, but not OK to ask your friends to leave a good review on Amazon.com for a product. Not sure I see the difference.
2. Why are we so naive? Everybody I talk to in the space is intensely focused on Social Media. It is on everybody’s radar, with big marketing budgets allocated to establishing a presence on all the emerging Web 2.0 plaftorms. We, as users, are already been played - take for example Twitter and compare what Twitter is now with what it was a year ago.
3. Who will win in the end? Long term, all the lobbying and influencing is a monumental waste of time. Don’t waste your time trying to buy an extra half star on an Amazon product review. Fix your product. Think long term.
The Seattle Direct Marketing Association will be hosting a panel and dinner next Wednesday, January 7th at 5:30PM. Panelists include Alison Jeske, Director of Product Management, drugstore.com, Jimmy Healey, Product Manager, OnlineShoes.com and Jason Lohr-Johnson, Video Art Director for REI.
This panel will be moderated by Justin Foster, Founder of the Video Commerce Consortium and co-founder of Liveclicker. This should be very interesting and something to check out if you are in the Seattle area.
Lewis Hamilton is the new Formula One champion. I was personally rooting for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian pilot for Ferrari, but I was quite happy to see Lewis clinch the title. What an incredible race, where Hamilton was losing, then winning, then losing again till the very last turn… Unbelievable.
SpeedTV did a pretty nice job covering the race. Viewers got to see Hamilton’s and Massa’s family and friends, which reminded everybody that these pilots aren’t robots - they are real people with real sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers. It was touching to see Hamilton younger brother, who sits on a wheel chair, praying for Lewis and crying at the end. Lewis has been hardly criticized for the last couple of months for his driving style, etc - and this was a nice reset for both fans and critics. He’s human.
Business is a little like that. There’s always stress at work, sometimes confrontation, and it’s easy to lose track of the bigger picture. Your employees, customers, partners and even competitors are “real” people too. Treat them like you’d like to be treated, which of course doesn’t take anything away from the fact that it’s a tough world out there and you have to fight, fight and fight.
Just got this… interesting. Why send an unsolicited email like this?
 ———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Google AdSense
Date: Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Subject: A note from Google AdSense
To: xxx
Dear Publisher,
We understand that the recent economic turmoil has created a lot of uncertainty in the lives of AdSense publishers. During these difficult times, we’re continuing to invest in innovations that improve publisher monetization and advertiser value in the content network.
We’re focusing on further developing our product offerings and boosting ad performance for publishers. We recently announced advancements in AdSense for search and experiments to make ads more effective. We’re bringing DoubleClick technologies to AdSense publishers, and we’ll continue to launch new products and features. We’re also continuing to improve our offerings for AdWords advertisers, making it easier for them to target the Google content network. Features for advertisers, such as the new display ad builder, are designed to improve ad performance on AdSense publisher sites.
We’ll keep driving technological progress, but our best asset will always be our publisher partners. The strength of AdSense lies in the value of the content you bring to users and the quality of the sites you bring to advertisers. Our success is tied to yours. We look forward to partnering with you for the long term, and remain dedicated to helping you succeed.
Sincerely,
Kim Scott
Director AdSense Online Sales & Operations
I’ve been hooked to FiveThirtyEight.com since Brett Hurt told me about it a few weeks ago. And not only because Nate Silver, a successful baseball statistician is predicting Obama’s victory’s next week — but also because it reminded me that statistics can help you accurately predict the outcome of just about anything.
And he’s got a good sense of humour. Watch him on the Colbert Report:
I am going to join a panel tomorrow Thursday Sept 28 at 10AM to discuss video for ecommerce with Jon Nordmark from eBags, Alison Jeske from drugstore.com and Justin Foster from the Video Commerce Consortium. I look forward to sharing thoughts and learning from what others are doing. The conference happens to be less than 10 minutes from the Liveclicker offices, which is nice too! 
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