November 2008
18 posts
“The Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock and roll. We’re now...”
– Bruce Schneier, Why Obama Should Keep His BlackBerry - WSJ.com
Don't Knock the Schlock
Chris Brogan wonders if “America’s Favorite!” or “#1 Brand!” on canned products actually influences our grocery shopping decisions.
I’ll flatly assert, yes.
Both messages are indicators of “Social Proof”, one of the ‘big six’ influencers on behavior according to research done by social psychologist Robert Cialdini. [you’ll love...
Stretching Oneself
This week it was rock climbing & yoga, next week it’s my first 5k.
I’m very pleased with the addition of a few new activities into my workout routine, and eager to try more. Part of my motivation is the need to prove that winter in New England can be made tolerable by more than just skiing/snowboarding. Mostly though, I’m concerned with graduating into adulthood with the...
What Type is Your Blog? →
My blog was auto-classified as “INTJ : The Scientist”. Not bad! My Briggs/Myer is ENTJ, and I can’t imagine anything more extroverted than tying my real name to an open journal of my thoughts, but still a close assessment by Typealyzer.
via gregbrown : robot-heart, notthatkindagay, and katiepalooza)
“If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.”
– English Proverb
If I were CEO of Yahoo,
(Full disclosure, I know close to zero about the business of Yahoo)
Here’s what I’d do:
1) I’d focus R&D to develop a deep scientific understanding of community behavior online (as a function of feature-set), and perfect a suite of services that grow existing communities, and create new ones. I’d make these services open for the web at large to use. (If Amazon can...
Google Voice Search; OMFG
Words it was able to correctly speech->text, and search:
Aaron White
Giant Tarantula
Super Cala Fragalistic Expialidocius
Kwisatz Haderach
If that doesn’t amaze you, you’re too stuffy for the iPhone.
Google Flu Trends →
Google gives me chills. Actually, Google might prevent me from getting the chills: introducing Google Flu Trends!
“We’ve found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems.”
Incredibly cool. I’m aware of systems...
WatchSaint, one of our talented artists on DoInk.com, makes a triumphant return to the site after a long absence. If any gamers are reading this blog, I’d say “sleep-playing” World of Warcraft is a clear symptom of a very dangerous addiction!
Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand... →
This is great advice. Interestingly, this is how toy manufacturers decide on what to make: they test advertising for non-existent toys, and of those that test well, they build, market, and ultimately sell.
“Microsites attend to the problem on both ends. Through a radical reduction in...”
– the data are wanting: The Triumph of the Microsite
You know me, Restriction is Expression
Tumblr's New 'Like' Feature Lacks Personal Utility
Tumblr just rolled out the “liking” feature into my dashboard. I can “heart” any post, but why? It fails the “Delicious Lesson” (read Josh Porter’s excellent post here) The idea is that network value cannot proceed personal value. I can see how Tumblr gets value out of my ‘liking things’, perhaps this will help it determine what is...
