Paranoia Kicking In
Published by Esteban Glas on May 7th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Web 2.0, personal
When I heard about FriendFeed I jumped to it like the site was giving out money. The service is pretty good, the API (which I just looked at very briefly) looks sturdy, and the idea is amazing. The ability to aggregate all the different services I’m registered to as well as this blog (and other blogs, if I had them) is a must have for the average geek.
But that just scratches the surface of FriendFeed. There is a whole concept of community, sharing and commenting behind it that is very appealing. I will use it some more and probably write a short review sometime soon.
The thought that hit me when I saw all my online activities reflected on FriendFeed was: gosh, I no longer have any secrets. Then it hit me.
I don’t happen to live on the safest place on earth, thus my natural thought was: what if someone used all or part of the information I disclose to their own advantage and against me or my family. Chances are slim, but I was surprised to find myself thinking in such terms.
I usually laugh at people who are scared of losing privacy to the net, but now I can relate a little bit more. I guess I’ll try to keep on the safe side using common sense and posting only general stuff just in case. So don’t expect me to tweet stuff such as “I’ll be cashing a big chunk of money today at 3″ 
Yet another pointless post on Microsoft and Yahoo!
Published by Esteban Glas on May 6th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Web, Web Marketing, long term thinking, philosophical rant
Who would want to read another post on the latest soap opera that stormed through the geek-world? Most people won’t, but that is not going to prevent me from writing one.
Yahoo played the part of tough cookie. I’m surprised that Jerry Yang didn’t go back to Balmer with a note saying “its not you, its me. I’m so confused, can’t commit!”. The whole thing has been too hormonal, too teenager. And Y! trying to make the School’s ugly nerd (Microsoft) jealous by going with the quarterback (Google) was just hilarious. Hilarious on an uncomfortable-to-watch, I-really-should-not-be-laughing way.
That being said, I must admit I’m happy that the thing didn’t kick off.
Why is it good? Because I truly believe Yahoo can do a better job in trying to innovate and cut the advantage Google has on its own rather than with Microsoft. If it had happened, Microhoo would most certainly lost a lot of users (who’d have nowhere to go but to Google).
I think Yahoo! thought they were too good to be true for far too long. Now they realize they are in a tough spot. That is the reason why they now have a new strategic plan to start moving their engines. What I dislike about their plan is that its implementation so far seems to have relied more on accquiring than on innovating from within.
Someone recently told me: “Yahoo is the place where good apps go to die”. The transition from Garage startup to big corporation didn’t suit Yahoo well. Google is undergoing that same process in which they no longer are a bunch of kids doing fun stuff but a corporation that makes business. I want to see how they handle the first time they have to sack a good chunk of their employees.
They have a good core of nice applications, and did some smart shopping (del.icio.us, flickr), but they need to start doing something to take stuff a step forward. Integrating logins is not integrating applications, and that is all they’ve done. Besides, can anyone tell me what serious never-seen-before innovations yahoo has come up with on any of the stuff they own and run for the past… 6 years?
Now, when I read Jerry’s post on Yodel I know things are wrong:
We know the spotlight will probably stay on us for a while. That’s fine — we have a clear path ahead and momentum to build on. And thousands of dedicated Yahoos around the world who have held up well to scrutiny. It’s now up to us to show what we Yahoos can really do.
Dude, having the spotlight on you is not “fine”. It is awesome. You should leverage that to motivate your people, inspire your engineers and get you out of that nowhere land where you’ve been so comfortably sleeping in and start build that “momentum” you talk about. You are on everybody’s mouth and not because of a sex or drugs scandal, that can’t be that bad.
I reserve the opinions on Microsoft’s web applications for myself. But let’s just say that if my yahoo mail started looking and working like the live.com one, I’d drop it quick. If it started working like their latest OS, I’d go hermit and never taouch a computer again in my life.
Bottom line is: If yahoo! gets its act together an Google starts behaving more and more like a “large corporation” (I see the signs already) there is still a chance. That chance wouldn’t of existed if Microsoft got its hands on Yahoo!.
See, Mariano, told you I smelled a post coming.
Thoughts on Video Commenting
Published by Esteban Glas on May 5th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Blogs, Social Media, Web 2.0
I’ve been fortunate enough to get some early insight into Seesmic. This company already provides video commenting capabilities to TechCrunch through a very easy to use WordPress plugin.
The first thing that struck me is that the camera loves me as much as Steve Balmer likes Linus Torvalds. I suck badly as a talking head. That puts my thought of doing some vlog posts soon to a horrible and necessary halt. Good thing this happened before humiliating myself more publicly.
But I dee-gres.
I don’t see Video commenting as an opposition to traditional (text) commenting. I think they are complementary and that they yield options for the user. Loic and his team are doing a wonderful job improving user’s experience and bringing options to people to interact with blogs, sites and brands in new ways.
The major benefit I see in video comments is that they let you take a more humane look at people that leave comments. Also some people are naturals at video commenting and are really interesting to watch (once again, count me out of the category).
Video comments can be a very good complement to multimedia-oriented sites and blogs that are heavy on direct interactions. I think it will get particularly interesting when the capabilities expand beyond talking heads allowing presentation-style comments to be shown and some basic on-line video editing.
I don’t foresee video comments (or vlogs for that matter) running over their text-only predecessors. Why not? 3 reasons: portability, scalability and speed.
Video does not adapt well to all the different ways that we have got used to read our subscriptions in. Cellphones, blackberries and other portable devices aren’t that great to watch and listen to videos, and, even when they do perform moderately well, there are situations in which users can’t access other things but plain text.
Also, a lot of people might and will feel reluctant to appear in multicolor. Because they are not that great at it (ahem), because they are shy, have a bad hair day or because writing is much quicker, which leads to reason 3.
I know a lot of people who subscribe to tons of feeds. I am amongst them. Written data flows feed readers quickly and within a glance one can scan through a lot of information, discern noise from signal, pay attention to what’s interesting and appealing and skip over what’s not. Video, on the other hand is linear, there’s no way to skip through it and know for a fact one hasn’t gone over an important chunk.
Finally there’s a psychology behind posting from the relative safety of text. There is a certain comfort in the sheer fact of not butting a part of the body into something. That is part of the reason why SMS text messages are so popular (that an pricing).
Video comments are a nice new alternative, but won’t place a single nail on text’s coffin. It is wrong to see this emerging technology as an opposition to what we are already used to, it is just another option.
A Week in the Tweet
Published by Esteban Glas on May 4th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Betas, Gadgets, Web 2.0
I’ve ben using twitter for about a week now. This makes me nowhere near an expert, but gives me the insight that only brand new toys can provide, after all: first impressions count.
Here’s the list of random observations:
- I wouldn’t lasted a week if it wasn’t for twhirl. The little tool is a must-have if you want to use twitter at all.
- There certainly is a very high noise ratio. That being said you can never know when a meaningless discussion can turn into an inspiring exchange of opinions. That is probably the one thing that might hook me permanently into twitter: the sheer randomness and expectation of the moment when a great thread might start.
- I don’t know how some people can keep up with following 1000+ fellow twitters. Man, I don’t know how Guy Kawasaki keeps up with 10k+!!! My own limit of people to follow will probably never go beyond 200. I’m at 68 at the time of writing this (and 43 followers).
- You get first-hand insights into breaking new technologies. More on that in a post soon to come.
- Once can easily get distracted and absorbed into twitter.
- I don’t know how to measure anybody’s success in twitter. Followers mean little (although people will follow other twitters who tend to say smart or previously unsaid things). The only way to know if someone is worth following is by reading a good bunch of their previous tweets. (note to self: my very own message history in twitter is worth nothing)
- I still don’t know how twitter makes a living (suspect it has something to do with SMS text messages, but can’t be sure).
- The platform needs stability and reliability Seriously.
- I know I’ll regret posting this because spam follows me everywhere like a voodoo curse, but I haven’t got a single piece of spam so far.
Bottom line: Is twitter worth something? yes. Will I keep using it? for the time being. More posts on this in the near future for sure.
Is Social Media the extremophile of marketing?
Published by Esteban on April 27th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Marketing, Metrics, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, Web Marketing, philosophical rant
For those who don’t have the luck of being married to a Biotech Phd (well, almost Phd) here’s the wikipedia definition on extremophiles:
An extremophile is an organism that thrives in and may even require physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are detrimental to the majority of life on Earth.
Hopefully the definition helps in the hyperbole I’ll make an effort to build here.
For the past 2 years or so we’ve been hearing about the web 2.0 bubble. I have advocated this belief myself, stating that many companies are either overpriced or directly unprofitable; “doomed” for short. The most recent post from the “mayhem is near, repent” series I have read is one by Dennis Howlett, its title is worth of a Stephen King novel: “Are we headed for a nuclear winter?“.
It is true that the economy is cooling (more evidently so in the US) and that will drive costs cut, heads rolling and venture capitals to become as cold as an iceberg. Many companies will fall, particularly when credit starts to get crunched (an unavoidable step if policy makers don’t want to get us into a much nastier situation). The web 2.0 bubble will burst sooner or later.
But “Social Media” and many “services” that came to life under the two-point-oh label are here to stay. Sure enough many sites will disappear or evolve due to the harsh economic conditions, but the same way that “portals” didn’t just vanish into nothingness in 1999, web 2.0 will not become just a mere memory overnight.
A recession is to Marketing what “physically or geochemically extreme conditions” are to microorganisms: not good. When the belt starts to tighten we all know that Marketing spend is one of the first to suffer.
I won’t get as optimistic as Jeremiah and say social media will be “effective“, but rather keep a more moderate point of view. I’ll say it will “survive” I have to admit that I tend to be more conservative on expectations because I know that not every single CEO and CMO out there shares (or gets) the enthusiasm for Social Media. Jeremiah writes:
(…) Social Media, which tends to have lower costs than other forms of marketing (commodity tools) can be very cost effective for those wanting to get customers to spread and share messages. On the other hand, marketers need to be careful, because doing it wrong will result in more work, and in some situations, brand backlash.
Cost effective is good, particularly under economical uncertainty, but I think the most important features that will keep the social media marketing boat floating are adaptability, accountability and being (somewhat) measurable. (For honesty’s sake I must say the latter two are sketched on Forrester’s report).
Here are the thoughts on SMM’s advantages:
Adaptability.
Social Media Marketing is adaptable due to what I believe is its definition (for once the wikipedia definition of SMM didn’t please me, so I’ll give my own): “A direct engagement from a company to its -prospective and existing- customers through online community (social) tools”.
Note: although I do believe that things such as transparency and authenticity are premises for a successful Social Media Marketing strategy, I left the terms out of the definition because I can certainly picture scenarios where strategists would leave them out of the equation.
Engagement is constant and tools are variables. Processes are variable as well. This makes SMM a very adaptable task; it can downscale our upscale depending on available budget, tools and bandwidth.
Accountability.
One of the most beautiful things about SMM is that it puts real people’s faces to otherwise faceless companies. People relate better to other people rather than to logos or press releases. This is a double-bladed weapon, though. As Social Media Marketers our visibility goes up, but so does our accountability. If I say something or do something wrong on a public site it is my head that’s out for chopping. And that is refreshing.
I’ve witness lack of accountability for far too long in the corporate world. We, as corporations, have grown the awful habit of shielding behind teams and collectiveness when things don’t work. I have as a personal premise that if I screw up I’ll stand for my mistake (and hopefully learn something out of it).
The same happens when a campaign or social media marketing initiative backfires. There is -quite usually- a personal “touch” (for lack of a better term) on this ideas that can be backtracked like breadcrumbs to the intellectual author. So bosses always have someone to shout at, and that is always cathartic for those in decision making positions.
Measuring.
Social Media Marketing’s metrics accuracy stand someplace in between Internet and traditional advertising. It is not possible to relate sales with spend as effectively as with, say, Ad Words but it is not as nebulous as TV ads. Yet, there is a lot that can be learnt and turned into numbers, figures, pie-charts, trends and power point presentations with SMM. In the worst case scenario it can serve as a barometer for the general sentiment towards a brand.
Bonus.
There is one other very powerful reason why SMM will be around even Marketing budget will equal to a take-a-penny tray: People. Fortunately there is a growing number of customers who have grown numb to traditional marketing BS. There is still value on traditional Marketing, but the signal-to-noise ratio on consumer’s ears is tilting towards the noise side. There’s a whole new niche that won’t ever get engaged by a TV ad but will become active participants and even evangelists for a brand if the messaging is good enough. Many companies would of never turn around part of their negative image if they didn’t engage into SMM.
I’m quite certain there’s a big chunk of the pie of customers that would be lost if SMM was ditched. And that is something no companies are willing to do.
My prediction: SMM is like roaches; it will survive the nuclear winter.
This post was adapted to Spanish and posted @ Denken Über. Thanks to Mariano for the invitation.
Learning to Tweet
Published by Esteban on April 26th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: All this and that, Social Media, Uncategorized, personal
Ok, I know I’m going to have to eat up my words. I’m tweeting.
I decided that as an external observer I had no-clue on what the appeal Twitter has, thus I’d decided to give it a try, use it more or less intensively and then make up my mind and, hopefully, draw some conclusions.
What surprises me is that I’m usually an early adopter of geeky stuff and although I have had the account for well over a year I have not used it at all so far. Something kept me on the skeptical side of things.
It is too early to say anything really useful other than “I’m stevie_glas, feel free to follow me”. Sidebar widget coming soon to this blog as well.
Oh, and I’ll blame David if I get too hooked up, idiotized or end up hating the thing.
That was easy
Published by Esteban Glas on April 25th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Blog Design, Blogs
With the sort of luck I’ve had with technology lately I should have been scared as hell… I just updated to Wordpress 2.5.1. Given the sort of description of what this new version fixes I thought I’d rather update as soon as possible.
Against all odds I didn’t crush my server, burn my router or kill my PC. It all took 5 minutes.
Here’s the list of updates for 2.5.1:
- Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
- Better performance for those who have many categories
- Media Uploader fixes
- An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
- Widget Administration fixes
- Various usability improvements
- Layout fixes for IE
That and a huge security bug.
If I had know then what I know now
Published by Esteban on April 25th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: Work
How many times do we find ourselves asking what would a project look like if one would of started it knowing as much as we do when ending it? For me it happens on every single task I commit myself to. Sometimes it appears as a slight frustration, on other occasions it is a haunting feeling that comes too darn close to a sentiment of failure.
Quite recently I’ve been working on a project that required a steep learning curve. “Vertical” would be more accurate way to call it.
From scratch there was a certain technical issue (ahem… implementation) that I felt had to be solved on a certain way. The “experts” suggested a different approach to what I thought would be the best way out of the conundrum. “They have to know better” I thought to myself. I gave in and a solution was put in place. Now it turns the “solution” is a problem in itself. I was right, and that is what bugs me most.
In retrospective it is easy to say “I wish I had done that”, but I think it is natural to trust on those who (allegedly?) know better. If I found myself in a similar position today I would probably do almost the same.
Where’s the learning in this fable then? Keep your options open. Trusting experts is a good thing, but if you think the answer is different from what’s suggested make sure you have the path open to get things done your way.
The IT revolution
Published by Esteban on April 24th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: All this and that
Sorry, this is not a post on breaking technology, new applications, interesting developments or stuff like that.
This is an “AAARG!” sort of message.
In the past week I had my Linux’s desktop power source blowing up (and taking the stabilizer with it!), a router strangely going “poof” (and required firmware hacking to restore), Google not accessible from just one of my computers, and the big-brother stuff on my Corporative computer doing all sorts of funny things.
On a very sci-fi sort of way technology turns against its creators. I feel like I live inside a terminator sequel.
That crazy idea of living on a cave and becoming a hermit starts to sound so tempting.
Bumps and bruises
Published by Esteban on April 24th, 2008 | This post lacks all category except for: personal
As I was telling a colleague over IM: I’ve been through robberies (gunpoint and knife), quite a few accidents, some other near-accidents and other scary moments. But I have never, ever been as scared as I was yesterday.
I answered my cell, only to hear “please come, your wife was hit by a car”. I live on a 7th floor (8th for Americans). I called the elevator but decided I’d get down faster over the stairs; so I flashed my way down without even turning on the lights.
Half a block to the avenue (running, of course) and my heart started beating again. There was Luciana, standing on her feet.
She had been hit by a car while crossing an avenue. The asshole who hit her came in from a side street and into the avenue and “never saw her”. Idiot.
A small nervous breakdown from my wife and 15 x-rays later we went back home. All she has is some bumps (legs, back, left side of her face) and some paranoia. She’s on painkillers and at home, but safe and almost unharmed. I thank the Christian and Pagan gods, angels, luck, good fortune and whoever you might see fit for that.
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