Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Tracking Santa Online

Merry Christmas.



Monday, December 21, 2009

Most Popular Browser?

From Slashdot.com yesterday I learned that Microsoft IE is no longer king of the browser wars. Well - sort of.

Here is the chart showing FireFox 3.5 as the current most popular browser.



Not the beginning of the end. Certainly not the end for IE. In fact, if you total all the versions listed, IE still leads by a lot. But the trend is clear.

Does your site, service or software work on all current browsers?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Six Levels of Engagement

In Ken Auletta's new book Googled there is a discussion  of Albie Hecht's idea of the six levels of engagement he uses to evaluate an online product or service.

The audience must be able to

  1. Watch on any device
  2. Learn by searching for information about it on the web
  3. Play (games)
  4. Connect - social networks, IM
  5. Collect - money on the web
  6. Create - user generated content

Hecht says "If we have four of the six, we put it into development. If we get six out of six, we think we have a hit."

Now I acknowledge all of us are not working in the same business vertical as Hecht, but I think this is a very, very valuable tool for thinking about any web site or service.

Looking at your web presence, how does it stack up.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the two items most will feel don't apply to them are Play and Collect. You will say you are a business so how do you incorporate Play. You will say your goal on the web is to drive customers to your off-web business so you have no need to collect.

I will tell you that getting paid online is something you need to redesign your business to do or you have just limited yourself to local and business hours. The web is all about everywhere and 24/7.

I will challenge you on Play. Be creative. Try things, then try other things.

I also bet most of you just skipped over the "on any device" piece. What? You don't have an iPhone app? You should start thinking about this.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Offense or Defense

Are you playing offense or defense?

The play on offense is to run hard and fast. Gain ground. Leave the rest behind. In a changing world, getting there first has a value.

The play on defense is to hold onto what you've got and watch others over reach and fail. Win by letting the other guy lose.

In today's world is it a fool who looks for logic in the victories of the past?

My opinion is it depends on what past you look at.

I don't believe you can hold onto what you have had in the past. It is leaving and we can't stop it.

If that is true then you have to grab hold of something else or you end up with nothing.

So how do you decide what to defend and what to go for?

Defend spending money and time on activities that create revenue.

Defend spending money and time on bringing your existing customers forward to a better platform or level of service. Notice, this probably doesn't mean getting them to pay to upgrade. This means getting them to stay - and maybe even for less. Keep them and keep some revenue. Lose them and keep no revenue.

Don't spend time or money on upgrading an old platform or service. If you can't get your customer to move to a better service what is wrong. Is the service not better? Does the customer just not want to change?

In the short term you can make more money servicing a declining group of users at a premium price. But the day comes when there are just not enough of them left. Your toast on that day. Just add butter and jam.

At a very real level, because of the changes in technology and the economy, we are all start ups. As a start up we have to play as much offensive as we can stand. Maybe more than some of us can stand.

In a changing world waiting for the other guy to lose is done by moving ahead and watching the defensive player wait to change. While he waits, the game changes. I believe if you are sitting back and waiting on the other guy to lose, you are going to find out that other guy is really you.

I've always thought the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing. The worse thing is not to get to play.

Get in the game and play some offensive.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Things That Became Obsolete This Decade

Biana Male has a thought provoking list of things that have become obsolete this decade over on BusinessInsider.com .

Think about why and then think about what is going to fall into that same logic in this coming decade.

The list includes...

  1. Email accounts you have to pay for
  2. Getting film developed
  3. Movie rental stores
  4. Maps
  5. Classified ads
  6. Long distance charges
  7. Fax machines
  8. Phone books and yellow pages by extension
  9. Paper

Now the whole list, but notice how many things you used to pay for are now free? What are you making or selling? Could it be free?

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

More Top Tne 2009 Videos

Another of Mashable's top 10 viral videos of 2009...




I can't help myself apparently.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

top Viral Videos of 2009

From Mashable , one of their top 10 viral videos of 2009.



Maybe more to come. I just really enjoy this kind of thing.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Cell Phone Homes with No Land Line Phone

An interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle about mobile phones replacing land line phones as the only or primary phone in households in the U.S.

According to a study by the CDC, 20.2% of all U.S. households have no land line phone - only mobile. An additional 17.4% have a land line but still use their mobile for almost all calls.

This chart - from the CDC study shows the population with no land line by age.



If I am marketing to the 30 and under crowd, I better be thinking hard about my mobile web app or my i-Phone or Droid apps.

This is even more pressing when combined with this ReadWriteWeb article predicting 1 billion plus mobile web users in 2010 - that's next year - wait - next month - friends.