We all take the Google homepage for granted.

It’s so remarkably simple that (unless you’re, say, a blogger for a website optimization firm) it’s unremarkable; just a text box, two call to action buttons, and a few links that most humans don’t even look at, let alone use. That’s all.

But why? Why is it that the Google homepage has barely changed in the past decade? Are they obsessed with minimalism, or is there more to the story?

From its humble origins as…

...continue to read "What You Never Noticed About Google’s Homepage"

Not long ago, Microsoft showed just how bad a corporate motivational video can be with an utterly painful Bruce Springsteen adaptation that proved a fitting soundtrack the equally lackluster Vista operating system. (So much for the “Start Me Up” days of the Windows ‘95 release.)

As a former music journalist and current karaoke champion [in my own mind], I know a bad remix when I hear one. That’s why I’m particularly impressed with this outlandishly cheesy/brilliant rework of Extreme’s soft “rock” hair…

...continue to read "It Takes More Than Words to Out-Karaoke Microsoft"

What ever happened to “You”?

You were on a roll. Just two years ago, You were Time magazine’s person of the year. When Web 2.0 changed everything, You were there. You did it. You turned the Web into the “interactive” medium we always knew it could be.

You changed the rules. You took control.

So what happened? Lately, it seems that marketing and advertising executives are either blind optimists or furrow-browed skeptics about social media marketing. Are we — the marketers, the bloggers,…

...continue to read "How to Avoid Marketing to Yourself"

The other day, Seth Godin wrote about the new standard for meetings and conferences. He’s absolutely right. Asking people to travel to see a presentation can be dangerous, and the last thing anyone wants to overhear is, “I flew all the way out here for this?”

With those words echoing in our heads, Bryan and I were chatting about this brilliant tutorial post by Garr Reynolds on his Presentation Zen blog, where he shares a presentation for Dr. John Medina’s new book, Brain…

...continue to read "How to Cure “Death by PowerPoint”"

FutureNow is thrilled to announce the launch of our “Around the Net” news portal, now available at News.GrokDotCom.

News.GrokDotCom.com shows your favorite marketing blogs in one spot. And as an added bonus, you can vote on posts that “add value” — or “skip it” if you’re not impressed — so we know which ones to feature as Best of the Day, Best of the Week, and Best of the Month.

At News.GrokDotCom, you can…

vote for the most valuable posts of the day, week, and…

...continue to read "GrokDotCom Launches New “Around the Net” Section"

More than any other brand, Dunkin’ Donuts has popularized iced coffee in the United States. So when a friend reminded me of their “free iced coffee” promotion happening today (Thursday, May 15, 2008), I was a bit surprised that I hadn’t seen or heard any ads for it. No radio commercials. No TV spots. Not even a subway ad or billboard.

Were they doing this purely by word-of-mouth, as a “thank you” to loyal customers who would then tell their friends…

...continue to read "Yes, Googlers, Dunkin Donuts Has Free Iced Coffee"

Social technologies have changed much more than our marketing strategies; they’ve changed us.

Social technologies have changed how we gather and share information. They’ve changed who we meet, where we meet, and, sometimes, how we meet. They’ve changed how we buy, what we buy, and where we buy. They’ve changed what, how, and how much we know about the people around us. And while social technologies may not have changed what it essentially means to be human, they’ve certainly amplified, at once,…

...continue to read "Podcast Interview: Forrester’s Josh Bernoff on How to Profit from the Social Media Groundswell"

Big thanks to everyone who took part in our ticket giveaway for the IMC Mobile Marketing conference.

Your questions were fantastic and have given us — and the conference presenters — a lot of great ideas for discussion topics. You also made it very difficult to choose a winner!

So, without further ado, our free ticket winners are…

Chana Hercenberg: As a consultant, someone who has spent time researching the industry [...], I would say one of the most important issues to address for…

...continue to read "Mobile Marketing Conference Ticket Winners Announced"

Social media advertising isn’t just another fad. With all of that juicy customer info we give social networks each day, for free, businesses of all sizes are lining up to cash in by offering the right ad to the right person, guaranteed — or so they think.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Here’s the promise Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, made to media buyers last November:

With Facebook you will be able to select exactly the audience you want to reach, and…

...continue to read "Facebook Ads Prove That “Targeting” Demographics Is Silly"

The new “Ouch Point” survey from the Opinion Research Corporation suggests that U.S. e-commerce websites are still — believe it or not — frustrating shoppers.

As first reported by Direct Magazine, the survey found that…

19% dislike learning an item was back-ordered or out of stock after said item was placed in a shopping cart 14% are frustrated by Web sites that malfunction as payment is being processed 8% are confounded by unclear return policies 6% don’t like unclear shipping information 6% dislike…

...continue to read "Study: Brand Erosion Caused By E-Commerce Friction"