In my efforts to spread what I think is a very apt representation of viral or word of mouth marketing, I give you this:
Author Archives: marc meyer
Randy Pausch revisited
I was sent this yesterday via email and yes I wrote about Dr. Pausch awhile back, but I thought that the more exposure, or the more people that will see this “lecture”, the better off humanity will be because of it. It will only consume about 12 minutes of your time, but really, what is 12 minutes of your life when listening to a man who has but a few months to live?
Here also is an update on Randy’s current health:
April 2, 2008: Getting back into the fight
For those of you familiar with boxing, I would describe the weeks since my heart & kidney failure to be a “standing eight count.” I got knocked down pretty good and needed time to gather myself. Now I’m back on my feet; still a little wobbly, but ready to engage in the fight again.Yesterday’s CT and MRI scans showed that I’ve added a new, 11th tumor (small), and that a few of my original 10 tumors have grown, but only negligibly so. My biggest tumor is about 2.5cm in diameter. Given that I’ve been off chemo for six weeks, this was jumping-up-and-down good news, for two reasons:
1) It means the cancer has not grown like craxy, a big fear since stopping chemo.
2) Since all my tumors are in my liver, that means certain liver-specific treatments are possible.
I’m typing this from a recovery room; I just had a biopsy taken of my tumor tissue; that will be sent to TGEN in arizona, where they will run some tests to see if they can identify which chemotherapy drugs might be most effective on my particular tumors.
My next step will probably be embolization with theraspheres; a liver specific treatment that has a very low rate of side effects, and won’t make me feel crappy like systemic chemo does.
The fight is rejoined; I’ve got much more energy now — I hope to be back on the bike in a week or so.
7 more websites that will captivate and engage you till Saturday
I was watching American Idol last night with the kids and we saw according to the girls, dreamy dread guy, Jason Castro. One of the kids asked how are dreads made, and I said, “Uhhh… you don’t bathe for a really long time and with mud, right?” Apparently I was way off base. For those of you just like me, here is a good site telling us all how Dreadlocks are created. For those times when you are randomly asked how dreads are made.
Driving down the street the other day, one of the kids asked about why gold and silver are so valuable. I proceeded to tell them about all the gold in Fort Knox. I figured it would be a good moment to reflect on it being the place that Goldfinger wanted to rob in one of the more memorable James Bond Movies. They didn’t really like that part of the answer. Although, It might have been because of my descriptive story of how Oddjob threw his hat to cut off the statues head. Huh? What’s dad talking about?
However, upon further research, This site that I came upon might be a good one for the kids. It not only explains the US government in a very engaging fashion, but also the U.S. Treasury It’s a fun and very interactive site as well.
Speaking of cool kid sites; and in an effort to enrich their lives beyond killer graphics in Call To Duty IV, check out this site for the New York Philharmonic for Kids. Want to keep children engaged in music, any music? classical music? Then, here is one that will captivate.
So you just hit a town, you got some free time that night and you wanna keep it clean. So you decide to see some live music. You grab the “local” local paper or you checked out Flavorpill
and now you just have to figure out how to get there since you have zero clue. Check out Gruvr,
It’s a map based live music locator that shows you where all the live music is, in a radius that you can control. LBS for you live music junkies out there. Very cool, easy to use and it’s quick.
And you thought I could go this long without mentioning something about another interesting social media site? Hah! Well…You know how everyone sometimes sits around and someone will offer up their two cents on why not do this, this way, and that maybe they should do this, that way? Did that make sense? Well anywho, now there is a site called, lo and behold, “WhyNot?” It’s a social site that allows you to communicate, submit and exchange your ideas with others. Based on a popular book, of the same name, the site is an extension of the book that simply provides solutions to problems big and small. That should at least get you to Sunday.
Am I missing a site that would compliment the topics above? Shoot it on over and I will add it to the next list.
Who are we?
We get to choose Be prepared to think about things a bit differently once you see this video. Remarkable, thought provoking and may even bring a tear to your eye.
12 Random sites to make the week go quicker.
So every once in awhile I will go through my bookmarks and try and prune stuff that I bookmarked for a reason that might escape me when I actually revisited it. In this case I’m going to share some sites that have some value or bring some value to what I do. Or at least they did at the time… Some of you, actually I suspect a good portion of you have never heard of Vivisimo a little tech company out of Pittsburgh. Besides the fact that Pittsburgh is a jewel in the rough, this company is too. You will do the same as I did and ultimately bookmark them.
Next up, a friend once told me the way to go in regards to investing was to look at Vanguard, so I bookmarked it. Though when I look at the site, I blink and keep it and then I move on. I suspect that a lot of people besides myself do the exact same thing with some of their bookmarks. Made sense at the time. Though, I’m not sure Vanguard is hip to the payment plan.
So I have this one, The Sand Trap bookmarked and I never go to it but hey, that’s 75% of my bookmarks. If you have zero interest in golf, then don’t bother going here. But if you want a mortgage calculator then go here. Seems to be a timely site.
I think thats the great thing about what you save and why, it’s a total glimpse into what you do and what you like etc etc. I would say that the majority of my bookmarks are marketing, internet and social media marketing type sites and the rest are just what I’ve shown you above. Though, I do love a good Stone IPA brew.
Lastly I came across the Big Idea site hosted by Donny Deutsch It’s kind of a cool site for all of us dreamers out there. On the site they mention a product called the Body Buddy, I decided to check it out and the website looks great and the product has some genuine potential. Except… As I’m clicking thu the site, I wanted to check out some of the press they were getting and lo and behold I was transported to PDF land which I cannot stand. Nothing annoys me more then when a site feels the need to run with PDF’s instead of converting pages to html, xml or php. I can understand white papers and case studies, and in that case I will print them out. But nothing is more of a deal killer for me then to have to put up with PDF”s. I know it’s one person’s opinion and we’ll leave it at that. But every machine I’ve ever had handles PDF’s differently and it’s just an uneccessary step for a very, in this case, slick site.Though I do hope the fine folks from Oklahoma do succeed with the “Body Buddy”; it does seem to fill a need/niche.
Here is your last 2 killer sites that all of you should actually bookmark and then go back to: Gruvr and Liferemix
I know, I know, you can thank me later.
Projected mobile search numbers grow
ANNUAL REVENUES FROM MOBILE SEARCH services are expected to hit $4.8 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Among the factors driving growth are the decline of carriers’ “walled garden” approach, falling data costs and the entrance of search heavyweights such as Google and Yahoo.
Local search will be the most popular service among advertisers, attracting 40% of mobile search ad spending over the next five years. Globally, China and the Far East are expected to generate most revenues from mobile search in the coming years, followed by Western Europe and North America.
The Juniper report, however, cautions against an “advertising overload” in mobile search that could alienate consumers as well as citing ongoing concerns over use of personal data gleaned from mobile search.
The top 25 websites for February 2008
According to comScore here are the top 25 websites/properties that received the most traffic in February. Some of these should not surprise you. But it does give you a glimpse of what people’s surfing patterns consist of. The number next to it is uniques, as in millions. Yahoo! Sites continued to lead as the top property with 137 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with nearly 136 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with more than 118 million visitors. Wikipedia Sites and The Ask Network each moved up one position in the top 10 to spots seven and nine, respectively. Glam Media jumped 10 spots to reach position 18 with more than 29 million visitors during the month. Since Tax season is upon us, the IRS.gov site moved into the Top 50 ranking, capturing position 45.
Yahoo! Sites 136,767
Google Sites 135,970
Microsoft Sites 118,355
AOL LLC 108,911
Fox Interactive Media 83,638
eBay 77,864
Wikipedia Sites 55,906
Amazon Sites 55,172
Ask Network 54,120
Time Warner – Excluding AOL 52,661
New York Times Digital 47,632
Apple Inc 47,048
Viacom Digital 41,216
Weather Channel, The 41,057
CNET Networks 33,320
Facebook.com 32,436
Adobe Sites 30,620
Glam Media 29,136
Wal-Mart 27,651
Superpages.com Network 27,526
Verizon Communications Corporation 27,101
Disney Online 27,094
Craigslist, Inc 26,822
Gorilla Nation 26,710
Target Corporation 26,631
Social media and baby boomers, Who is ignoring this demographic?
Ok so I admit it. Social media is cool. I love everything it stands for and the endless possibilities that it has. But my question to my educated audience is this. Is social media for the 15-34 age group? Does social media care about the baby boomer set? Sure I gave you the top 30 social networks for baby boomers awhile back, but what kind of play are they getting? Do they get the same kind of action that Facebook and Myspace get? Or are they glorified email holders with cute colors? Does the 50+ demo know the power of the social networks available to them?
I recently came across a site called Growing Bolder, great title and the premise was the promise. To boldly provide for the boomers a place to…where they can…while doing…in which…etc. etc… I’m not really bashing Growing Bolder, in fact I give them credit, along with the other 30 I have mentioned, for seeing a niche that can be catered to, marketed to and sold to. That’s right, sold to. What? you thought the reasons for creating this site and all the others, were purely altruisitc? Umm…ok…
Riddle me this, do we still have to call someone that’s 50+, an individual who is in pursuit of an active lifestyle? I don’t get that. Do boomers become sedentary? Do they just shut it down? I would imagine that most people don’t stop living or spending once they exceed 50, so maybe we should do away with the assumptions that accompany that age? To that end, shouldn’t we embrace the boomers that have taken Facebook for example, and made it an integral part of their lives? People run in the packs or the cliques that they most indentify with, but that doesn’t mean that the cool club or bar or restaurant that they want to go to, is going to deny them access. The same holds true for social networks. You stay over there and we’ll stay over here and there is plenty of room for all of us to enjoy what this place has to offer.
Check the stats, one of Facebooks biggest chunks of users are boomers or boomers on the cusp of being boomers. This does not mean that the advent and growth of boomer social networks should go away, it just means that boomers can go to any social network they want, and provided that their is a collection of their peeps there, more power to you.
Social media has not ignored the boomers but do boomers ignore social networks? Would boomers rather talk face to face or use a social networking app to do it? How do boomers relationships? How do they value social media relationships? I bet it has opened up a world of new possibilities for the person in pursuit of the active lifestyle! Sorry, I felt like saying active lifestyle again.
Here is the quick caveat though. Just because you the boomer is in Facebook, doesn’t mean that you have quickly transported back 30 years in time. Leave the 20 somethings alone and hang with your own people. I’m just sayin…
Are tech start-ups recession proof?
These are crazy time for the tech industry and one might want to think that things might be slowing down for not only seasoned grizzled vets but also for the young and dumb and full of vim and vigor start-ups. So are start-ups recession proof? They might be, especially if they are peddling Facebook apps but the bottom line is that the bottom hasn’t fallen out.
But, remember back in the day when you built your business model around the hopes that it would be purchased by another company? Well the times might be ripe for that type of scenario right now. Microsoft’s play for Yahoo notwithstanding, the buzz is that some large companies may shift from debt-fueled megadeals to strategic acquisitions, according to GrowthPoint Technology Partners
One area that is still seeing some appreciation in values for example is for companies in the hottest areas or with the top management. An example of this would be in some of the social media type of applications and technologies.
One thing that helps to support the tech sector is its reliance on venture capital. VC firms love to take chances on the next Google, Facebook and thus alot of VC firms have already raised a significant amount of money and are unlikely to return it to investors simply because of a downturn in the economy.
A spokesperson at Crosslink Capital was quoted as saying that the credit crunch will likely dent the valuation of late-stage private companies. These companies will be unable to go public and also be compared against their public counterparts, which are declining in value. Hot private companies will still be attractive, in other words, but maybe not as expensive. Or will they?
Still, the change in economic winds has some normally optimistic entrepreneurs decidedly less so than they were previously. The consensus seems to be that some start-ups will either get acquired, get funding, or go belly-up. Not everyone stands to be crunched equally. Enterprise companies, it’s been said are likely to get hit sooner than consumer ones, with both software and hardware firms at risk.
Microsoft belive it or not,may still be a good bet in uncertain times, Jeffries analyst Katherine Egbert said, “Seek safety in Microsoft’s numbers,” Egbert said, following its recent decline, Microsoft shares represent a “solid refuge.”
On the flip side, those likely to be hit hardest are technology firms that cater exclusively to the financial services industry or get a lot of their revenue there. But…that doesn’t mean that they can’t survive. There is still opportunity. Even in the worst of times, one door closes and another one opens. To that end, expect to see a shift in the way technology companies market their products. The reason being that consumers and clients alike will want to see more of a bang for the buck as well as a focus on how product X is going to change the way they do business by improving the bottom line.
If there is one way to pull a country or a company for that matter, out of a funk, it with technology. Therein lies the potential for something to change people and change the way things are done, even in the worst of times. That, is the beauty of technology.
Will it be able to cure the ills of the housing market, the price of gas, the war in iraq or the upcoming presidential? Not yet. But if any industry has the resources and capabilities to make a difference, it’s Technology.
17 Social Networking Shopping Sites for 2008
For those of you out there that just love to shop, either online or off, here is a list of social networking sites geared especially for you. For those times when you are flush with cash or have nothing better to do with the credit card limit burning a hole in your wallet, why not put it to good use here and buy stuff? Lets get a quick look at the top 22. In no particular order, though we have added an asterisk to certain sites that have caught our eye!
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Wize Thousands of new products are released every year. Millions of dollars are spent advertising products to consumers like you. With all the choices and information available, it is challenging to know which products are best for you and your family. Wize makes finding the right product easier and faster by gathering all the information and opinions on the Web and making sense of it for you.
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Stylehive Stylehive.com is an online style club for people who live for fashion, design and shopping. It’s where you meet your style muses and follow them as they discover and share their latest finds.Part social-networking club, part pop-culture lab , Stylehive.com is one big ensemble cast of trendsetters creating, discovering and buying the next big thing!
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Kaboodle Kaboodle is a social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products. Kaboodle’s powerful shopping tools allow people to organize their shopping through lists, discover new things from people with similar style, get discounts on popular products and find best prices.
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Thisnext ThisNext is an online media and social-shopping company where people recommend their favorite products for others to discover and purchase online. Bridging the continents of offline media, brand advertising and e-commerce by building a media platform that supports the marketing lifecycle – awareness, consideration, trial and consumption
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*Stylefeeder StyleFeeder is a personal shopping engine that makes personal recommendations, just for you. It’s a great way to discover new products and keep track of what you’re shopping for online, using visual bookmarks.
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Epinions Epinions helps people make informed buying decisions. It is a premier consumer reviews platform on the Web and a reliable source for valuable consumer insight, unbiased advice, in-depth product evaluations and personalized recommendations.
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Crowdstorm Crowdstorm attempts to address market fragmentation by aggregating content from experts across the web (buyers guides, reviews, blog posts) and blend it with content and question / answer style advice from people you trust (friends, family, colleagues, peers…). The vision is to provide a single point of contact in helping users research products and find the right one for them before sending them off to the best place to buy it and at the right price
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Buzzillions Based on real buyer feedback, They help you find, compare, and decide on the right product for you! They collect thousands of reviews from actual buyers, verified by the retailer that sold it to them. Every product on this site has customer reviews.
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Shopstyle ShopStyle combines fashion, social networking and shopping, providing the tools to interpret style trends so people can create, share and shop personalized looks.
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OSOYOU OSOYOU.com is a shopping and socialising website for women with a passion for fashion and beauty.
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Theglimpse/Thefind TheFind.com is the leading shopping search engine that finds more stores, brands and products than anyone else online. TheFind.com and Glimpse.com will now enable savvy shoppers to quickly discover even more unique, fashionable items than ever before. Thefind is a shopping search engine that delivers comprehensive lists of products and their corresponding images, ranked by the leading products, brands, stores and styles on the very first page of results.
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Wishpot Wishpot is a free social shopping service that makes it easy to save and share interesting things you find in stores and online. Items are easily collected online or from stores and organized using simple online lists. Lists and items can be kept private or shared with others. You can collect and discover products you like, recommend your favorite stuff, share and explore gift suggestions or ask for opinions and advice.
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*Bzzagent/Frogpond- The Frogpond uses consumer opinions to help you cut through the online clutter and get to the good stuff. Found a Frog you love? It’s time to Ribbit and share your opinion of it to spread the word. How far can you make your Frog hop?
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Shopwiki ShopWiki is a shopping search engine designed to help consumers find specific products on the Internet with ease. It is the only shopping search engine that combines advanced Web-crawling technology with consumer-written wiki
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Etsy Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade.
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*Woot Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it’s taken on a life of its own.
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*Wists Wists was created for 2 simple purposes: 1. To make finding well designed, interesting or unusual products and collectibles both simple and fun. 2. To make publishing or sharing lists of recommendations and wishlists easier and more appealing than maintaining a weblog and not tied to one particular store. Using Wists is not like going to Walmart or searching a price comparison shopping site – we try to encourage the discovery and promotion of products from small retailers and manufacturers and young designers.
And here are 8 honorable mentions:
We hope you can appreciate the sites mentioned. If you have any feedback or a new site to tell us about, don’t hesitate to let us know. Some come and some go, so really the test will be in one year. How many of these will be around next year?
