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Monthly Archives: September 2011

Lower-Tech Communication Returns: Voice Supercedes Text!

Yesterday I came across a piece that made me smile. David Strom, an old friend who dates as a technology writer even further back that I do and has recently become an editor at ReadWriteWeb, said something that takes my occasional rants about the way texting has taken over our lives and goes a step further.

Phone Tag Is Back.

I’ll cop to text (or e-mail, for that matter) being useful in that they eliminate the need—and excuse—for the ineffective communication that “I called but couldn’t reach you” can add to to a back-and-forth.  And David makes a good point about what it means when you “jump the line” by calling someone in a world where “I’ll get to you when I’m ready” has replaced real-time communications.

Android Screen Capture Redux: Why It Can Be Done, But Hasn’t

Android Screen Capture and Android Screen Grab

I’m throwing down the gauntlet: if you’re an Android Developer, I challenge you to build a screen-capture App that will work on Android SmartPhones that aren’t rooted. Build it, and I’ll buy it from you.

Or better yet, build it and let’s make a fortune together.

One of the most-commented posts here at Answer Guy Central is one I wrote over a year ago about Android Screen Capture (and the HTC Sense Interface). As with many of the things I write here that post was designed to get you thinking about business change and business process.

Facebook, “The Timeline Version” Ends Privacy Permanently

Here’s what my Facebook profile looks like right now:

Old Facebook Profile

And here’s what it’s going to look like in three days:

New Facebook Profile

Isn’t that new version pretty? Doesn’t it make you want to use Facebook more and more and share stuff and stay engaged, be all about social networking, and tell the world everything there is to know about you? Go ahead, blab it up. Facebook already knows a lot, is about to know more, and there’s almost nothing you can do about it.

Customer Service Done Right? Dos Caminos 3rd Ave NYC

Dos Caminos 3rd Avenue in New York City

People who know me well will tell you that I’m a positive, upbeat person. Oh, I see the negatives in situations, and I include them in discussions and analysis, but my demeanor, even in the face of bad things, is positive almost to the point of deserving the label “Pollyannaesque”. I’m just certain there’s a pony under this pile of crap. I just know it!

But you can’t see good without knowing something about bad. It’s the reason we created The Answer Guy’s Customer Service Wall of Shame, and why I tell you stories about bad customer service. Bad customer experiences can usually be turned into good one through customer service executed in a thoughtful, caring, honest way. It’s actually quite simple.

The Newest Edition of Monopoly: All Google, All the Time

Maybe it’s time for a Google version of Monopoly.

Monopoly Board Game Google Edition

It will play exactly like every other version of Monopoly, and after a few rounds and a couple of laughs you’ll wonder what the fuss was about. You know, kind of like the sideshow that went on in The United States Senate this week, as the question of whether Google is a Monopoly began receiving its day in front of legislators who can’t agree on the meaning of the word.

Another Sip of Google’s Secret Sauce: PageRank is Finite!

While you can do your own SEO (and sometimes we train clients on Search Engine Optimization rather than doing it for them), one of the reasons to hire an SEO Consultant instead is that the sheer number of things-that-might-effect-SEO-but-you-don’t-know-how is huge, and growing.

Google’s SEO God Matt Cutts took one of those off the table a few weeks back.

In this video, Mr. Cutts came as close to providing the actual formula behind one piece of how Google sees Page Rank (or literally, PageRank) as we’re ever likely to see, absent an anti-trust-related order.

Google: One From Column A, One From Column B, Fried Rice

Google has something for everyone.

Or, as one government after another gets in line to point out, Google has something from everyone, and we need to start thinking seriously about the repercussions of that fact. To death and taxes we can add the certainty that Google knows stuff.

This piece isn’t about the “is Google a monopoly?” question, though. Today we talk about how you can manage your data as Google manages it for you. And I’m giving Google high marks.

Texting: More Popular, More Useful … and More Rude

There wasn’t a doubt in your mind, right? Texting just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

I Hate Texting. I do it, but the more I use text the more it frustrates me. Sure, texting has its place, but mostly it feels inefficient and slow, and when I use it I’m generally trying to say something without having to actually engage. Texting feels like the equivalent of getting the last word every time you speak.

This morning I saw a study on the latest statistics on texting. There’s good news in that study, but only a little: the mean number of texts sent each day per person has held steady over the last two years.

Journalism May Be Dead. Why You Should Hope NOT

I once pointed out, not exactly kidding, that some people get their news right here at Answer Guy Central. As I told you then—and like Jon Stewart—I’m sure grateful for the people who think enough of what I have to say and how I say it that you get your information here, but I’m certainly not a journalist.

Late last week, the probably-not-final postscript to the Michael Arrington vs. Arianna Huffington / TechCrunch vs. AOL debacle came off the keyboard of Erick Schonfeld, who’s been appointed by Ms. Huffington to lead the now Arrington-less TechCrunch. Schonfeld “accepted the resignation” of Paul Carr from TechCrunch.

What Makes Google Think You’re Important (How SEO Works)

Hugh Jackman, Search Engine Optimization Mad Scientist

I’m interested in Search Engine Optimization for several reasons. One, it’s through SEO that we attract people to this web site, and that makes for business. Two, our business happens to be Search Engine Optimization, so I can both attract more of that business and do SEO on our clients’ behalf just by … talking about SEO and doing it.

Third—or maybe I should have listed this as first—playing with Search Engine Optimization and adjusting SEO techniques gives the unfulfilled mad scientist in me something to tinker with. BWAH HA HA HA! It’S ALIVE!

Who’s Your Drummer? Who’s Your Singer?

I like Seth Godin. He’s smart, a marketing wizard, and a genuinely nice guy. And recently he pointed me at a story about Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts that’s had me thinking.

Who’s your drummer? Who’s your singer? And most important, does it matter?

The Smartest Tech Entrepreneur: Ashton Kutcher

Still smarting over that headline? Can’t imagine how I could believe even for a second that Ashton Kutcher is the smartest technology entrepreneur? It all starts with a story I remembered when I read about Ashton’s Kutcher’s appearance at this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt.

Never mind that the guy interviewing Ashton Kutcher was Michael my-ego-is-bigger-than-
God’s-ego Arrington. Arrington, fresh off getting fired at AOL and inducing potential career suicide in several of his minions, isn’t the story.

The story is that Ashton Kutcher believes in magic boxes.

California and Amazon.Com All But Force a National Sales Tax

Anyone who either does business in multiple places, has customers in more than one state, or has ordered a product from a company in another state has dealt with this one: there’s no universal sales tax, and knowing who owes what to whom when those crossing-state-lines transactions takes place is a minefield.

Google Buys Zagat. No Consensus On Whether It’s a Good Idea

Let’s say you’re the world’s largest restaurant-review-on-the-Internet company. Let’s say you’ve been rumored to have turned down acquisition offers from Google. Let’s say Google decides to buy another company instead; one with a far better reputation, a far longer pedigree, but nowhere near your Internet presence.

Are you nervous?

You’ve probably already heard that Google has bought Zagat. The acquisition came just yesterday, and it isn’t one of those “requires federal anti-trust approval so it’s not a done deal yet” scenarios. Zagat has announced that Google has bought them. This means that Tim and Nina Zagat got less than $66 million for their baby, since anything above that automatically triggers a federal anti-trust review.

Statistics: The “Half-Life” of an Internet Link

I’ve just come across an absolutely fascinating piece of research by a scientist at Bit.ly, the link-shortening service. It discusses the length of life of links on the Internet. It makes for some seriously interesting reading.

But it misses the point. Here’s part of it:

Bit.ly Research on Link Half-Life

Like I said, fascinating. And in a broad sense certainly in line with something I told you a year ago: most tweets are completely ignored. Also, a great source of backup for people who say that video is the right way to attract more traffic (I’ll stick to my assertion that creating video isn’t worth the effort and expense for most businesses, though).





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