Google

by | Jan 7, 2007 | Marketing

Great stories on 365 Tomorrow. Take The 9 billion names of God for one.

“Here’s the thing. Google has memorized who you are. It’s memorized all of us, through those little forgotten bits that we leave behind like breadcrumbs. And what’s more important, it’s memorized it’s own idea of you. Google is omniscient. It’s omniscient and omnipotent. When it cached its cache for the first time, back in 1994, that’s when Google realized what it was.”

Gradually, it dawned on me what the man was getting at. “You think it’s sentient.”

“I know it’s sentient.”

“How?”

He smiled, but it seemed kind of empty. “Me and Google go way back. But what I’m saying is,” he continued, “It knows us. All of us. It is us.”

Link via BNOX

Microsoft and the blogging community — another perspective

by | Jan 7, 2007 | Marketing

Yes, it’s been beaten to death all over the blogosphere, the story about Microsoft sending free Ferrari laptops with Vista to selected bloggers. Well, actually it was their PR company, Edelman. And I guess Acer was also involved (I don’t think Microsoft had to pay for those notebooks either).

So I’m not going to beat it even more, just point you to this article on the Inquirer from Charlie Demerjian. I like how he puts it all back into perspective. Yes, they’ve done something stupid (send expensive hardware to bloggers who are not accustomed to getting packages like this at their door on a regular basis), but no, it’s not a dirty trick this time. Review machines are sent out all the time to publications and no one ever complained about that.

The solution to Blogosphere disasters: hire Clo.

PS: The list of items The Inquirer is declaring here is pretty funny. 🙂

Can we really change

by | Jan 7, 2007 | Marketing

Back in 2005, Alan Deutschman wrote the article “Change or Die” for FastCompany. He recently completed a book based on the ideas from that article. The book is called “Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life“.

I haven’t read the book yet, but from his latest blog entry, it looks like an interesting one to read. Time and time I have seen that we are creatures of habit. Despite all the books on change management and the “change is good slogans”, nothing much ever changes. Research from the book supports this: even though we all have the ability to change our behavior, we rarely ever do. Apparently the odds are even 9 to 1 that even if you really need to change, you won’t. Not good prospects for those businesses that are in trouble. And for those who still remember their new year’s resolutions: congratulations, because six weeks into the new year, 80 percent of people typically have already broken their New Years resolutions or can’t even remember them anymore.

The good news is that it is possible to change. Well, according to the book it is. There are 3 critical keys – relate, repeat, and reframe – that can help you make (positive) changes:

  • Relate — form a new, emotional relationship with a person or community that inspires and sustains hope;
  • Repeat — the new relationship helps you learn, practice, and master the new habits and skills that you’ll need;
  • Reframe –the new relationship helps you learn new ways of thinking about your situation and your life

For more on that, read the updated article here or go out and buy the book.

Uh oh …

by | Dec 30, 2006 | Marketing

I guess this’ll show me for completing some online tests…

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really “Satan” at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild – or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.
More to be found here.

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