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Monthly Archives: January 2012

Carpathia: MegaUpload’s Smart/Evil Hosting Partner

Posted on January 31, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 5 Comments

This is a story about customer service. Or maybe it’s about file sharing, copyright infringement, due process, and piracy.

Or maybe it’s just about being very, very careful with the way you store your data.

On February 2, 2012, Carpathia, the company that was hosting data for MegaUpload before their very large collection of information was taken off-line by a United States Justice Department action,  will be free to delete MegaUpload’s data.

And oh boy, are you glad you aren’t the folks at Carpathia who have to decide whether or not to do that. ... READ MORE of Carpathia: MegaUpload’s Smart/Evil Hosting Partner at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (815 words, estimated 3:16 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Content, Customer Service, Media

Context, Authenticity, Social Networking

Posted on January 30, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

Why is is so hard, the more we communicate, to actually say anything?

Even more: if you do manage to say something why does social networking make it so easy for people to apply the wrong context to what you say—or apply no context at all?

Last night, Brian Clark, a Search Engine Optimization consultant of some reputation, tweeted a couple of times. He was complaining—I think— about people taking his words out of context: ... READ MORE of Context, Authenticity, Social Networking at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (330 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Design, Marketing, Media

Fashion, Business Change,and Rent(ing) The Runway

Posted on January 27, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

Jennifer-Hyman-Jennifer-Fleiss-Rent-The-Runway

Oh-My-God-I’ve-Never-Seen-Anything-Like-That-Dress-You-Are-So-Hot-I-Can’t-Even-Believe-It!

Yesterday, I was in the car, listening, as old dudes like me tend to, to the news. And a piece came on that almost made me veer off the road. It described the biggest business change I can remember coming across in a very long time, and it comes courtesy of a couple of Valley-Girl speaking young women helming a company that seems to consist almost entirely of young, pretty girls.

What if you opened a retail store, but customers weren’t welcome to come inside? ... READ MORE of Fashion, Business Change,and Rent(ing) The Runway at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (367 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

In Praise of Chris Brogan and Video Production Values

Posted on January 26, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

I’ve mentioned Chris Brogan here quite a few times. Sometimes, I praise him. More often, I call Mr. Brogan out for being disingenuous, or inauthentic. Once, I suggested Chris wasn’t very smart, which he didn’t care for (although I think he missed the context of my commentary).

Today, I come not to bury Chris Brogan, but to praise him. ... READ MORE of In Praise of Chris Brogan and Video Production Values at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (391 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Marketing, Media

Google Merges with Facebook. Privacy Ends Permanently.

Posted on January 25, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 6 Comments

Whenever I decide to write about privacy, I always cringe a little. As I’ve said more than a couple of times, privacy is a relatively new idea, has never really existed, and is impossible to legislate. The very idea of privacy is so complicated it makes my head spin.

Joining with Facebook, our friends at Google have decided to help us out and define privacy as simply as possible: at Google, your information is no longer controllable by you and you can’t opt out of whatever way Google decides to use your information. ... READ MORE of Google Merges with Facebook. Privacy Ends Permanently. at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (924 words, 1 image, estimated 3:42 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Media, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Rate Everything (Because Nobody REALLY Cares) — Jotly

Posted on January 24, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

A few months ago, I came across this video. It’s funny. REALLY funny. Using not-a-real-App Jotly, you could rate everything. Why limit yourself to rating the place you’re at when we all know that restaurant reviews are fake, anyway? With Jotly you just … Rate everything.

Except, of course, for this: Jotly wasn’t real. It was a parody of all the rating/check-in/self-promoting web sites and apps that have become part of our daily lives, where we keep talking but say nothing. Rate Everything, indeed; we’ve been doing that anyway, so Jotly was just calling it like it was. We should rate less. ... READ MORE of Rate Everything (Because Nobody REALLY Cares) — Jotly at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (418 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Content, Media

More on BitTorrent, SOPA, Piracy and File Sharing—and SEO

Posted on January 23, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 8 Comments

BitTorrent and SOPA (or SOPA and BitTorrent)

When I told you about YouHaveDownloaded.com in this story about the marketing genius that is comedian Louis CK a few weeks back, I didn’t realize we’d be getting to pick on the United States Congress. Turns out that our friends in Washington DC, the very folks who though SOPA was such a great idea, have been illegally downloading copyrighted works from the Internet using BitTorrent.

Shocker. ... READ MORE of More on BitTorrent, SOPA, Piracy and File Sharing—and SEO at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (465 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Content, Media, Search Engine Optimization SEO

MegaUpload, BitTorrent, SOPA, File Sharing, Piracy, and You

Posted on January 20, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 9 Comments

Except for the time that The US Congress Endorsed the Services We Provide at Virtual VIP, I’ve been pretty clear on just how ill-prepared our government is to address business change and the Internet.

Chalk up another one for the dumb guys.

In shutting down widely popular (and wide purveyor of pirated material) web site MegaUpload yesterday, The US Congress has, once again, deprived a company of due process because they had written law (or in this case granted unreasonable powers to the US Department of Justice) without understanding what they were doing. ... READ MORE of MegaUpload, BitTorrent, SOPA, File Sharing, Piracy, and You at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (785 words, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Content, Media

Texting Causes Botched Surgical Procedures

Posted on January 19, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

In case there was any doubt in your mind, I Hate Texting.

And while the little experiment we’re conducting at hatetexting.com hasn’t changed (it still looks like 1996 over there), neither has the point: way too often texting, useful though it can be, is still an excuse for being rude masquerading as a tool.

And now we have a new example of just how much trouble texting can cause. And it comes from the medical world. ... READ MORE of Texting Causes Botched Surgical Procedures at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (299 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Half-Baked Reviews and The Decline of Journalism

Posted on January 17, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 6 Comments

galaxy nexus screenshot screen shot

Some days, I wish I was a journalist. Or still a journalist. Or something that would make me feel as though I was contributing to a vocation that I’m starting to get really worried about.

The aftermath of the problems I had last week with Verizon Wireless Customer Service was that I replaced my Droid with a shiny new Galaxy Nexus, albeit with some more customer service stupidity thrown in. And because there’s still a big piece of computer geek floating around inside me (and I had stuff to transfer from my Droid to the Galaxy Nexus SmartPhone), I spent some time playing over the weekend. ... READ MORE of Half-Baked Reviews and The Decline of Journalism at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (777 words, 1 image, estimated 3:06 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Ignorance and AOL, Customer Service and Cost Centers

Posted on January 13, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Customer Service is expensive.

I’ve picked on Verizon Wireless for the last couple of days, and they deserve it. I went so far as to rename The Answer Guy’s Customer Service Wall of Shame to The Verizon Wireless Customer Service Wall of Shame in their honor; it really does feel as though Verizon Wireless is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the entire economy of the USA, and the more you look into just how bad things have become at Verizon Wireless the more you see that there’s no bottom in sight. ... READ MORE of Ignorance and AOL, Customer Service and Cost Centers at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (311 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service

Oh, I’m Not Done With Verizon Wireless. I’m Not NEARLY Done.

Posted on January 12, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 26 Comments

At Verizon Wireless, "Customer Service" is an Oxymoron

When I went so far yesterday as to state that Verizon Wireless Customer Service is a model for what’s broken in the USA, and re-name The Answer Guy’s Customer Service Wall of Shame to the Verizon Wireless Customer Service Wall of Shame in their honor, you probably thought I was done picking on Verizon Wireless Customer Service for a while.

Not Even Close.

Despite the opportunity to exhibit our Search Engine Optimization abilities that inept Customer Service from Verizon Wireless provided, I might have stopped. But then Verizon Wireless moved the bar for bad customer service even higher. ... READ MORE of Oh, I’m Not Done With Verizon Wireless. I’m Not NEARLY Done. at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (511 words, 2 images, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service, Media, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Broken About The USA? Verizon Wireless Customer Service

Posted on January 11, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 13 Comments

At Verizon Wireless, "Customer Service" is an Oxymoron

Here’s how bad customer service is at Verizon Wireless: I’m renaming The Answer Guy’s Customer Service Wall of Shame to The Verizon Wireless Customer Service Wall of Shame.

While we do lots of things for businesses here at Answer Guy Central, when I write these posts I always concentrate on either customer service, business change, or search engine optimization. I’ve just experienced customer service at Verizon Wireless that was so bad, I’ve found both a way to write about all three and a compelling enough reason to do so. And while it’s self-serving to weave the Search Engine Optimization part of things into this story, I genuinely hope I can help effect some business change at Verizon Wireless if I do that well enough to get Verizon Wireless’ attention. ... READ MORE of Broken About The USA? Verizon Wireless Customer Service at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (1138 words, 1 image, estimated 4:33 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Chatroulette? That’s So Two Years Ago. Check Out YouNow.com

Posted on January 10, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Is it really almost two years since Chatroulette showed up, grabbed our attention for a few seconds, and then disappeared? Amazingly, yes. And while both that link to a piece here at Answer Guy Central and this story about the legality of Chatroulette continue to bring us traffic (That’s Search Engine Optimization, friends), Chatroulette itself has all but faded into memory.

Now, we get younow.com. and in a way it’s more horrifying that Chatroulette ever was. ... READ MORE of Chatroulette? That’s So Two Years Ago. Check Out YouNow.com at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (296 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Data and Bandwidth Usage, Perception, Reality and Siri

Posted on January 9, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

When I told you about Google Music and the immense amount of bandwidth it consumes, I never thought that something so innocuous could actually trump that kind of media streaming and cost you more.

Hello, Siri.

Although I’ve been writing about Apple’s “virtual assistant” since way back in May 2010, (and I know a bit about Virtual Assistants), one thing I hadn’t thought about is just how much data software like Siri goes through in working its magic. Turns out, quite a bit. Or depending on your view of perception and reality, not all that much. ... READ MORE of Data and Bandwidth Usage, Perception, Reality and Siri at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (314 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Media




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