I just read a somewhat surprising story about Zappos.com being acquired by Amazon.com. The details were posted to Zappos’s blog yesterday in a very Zappos-esque transparent style, including an 8-minute video of Jeff Bezos talking about the alliance, along with some good stories about Amazon’s early days and foibles.  The surprise comes from the fact that Amazon spent lots of money developing the competitive Endless.com shoe-selling site a few years ago.  If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em?

My question to…

...continue to read "Will Amazon Zap Zappos’s Innovative Culture?"

If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll want to check out this YouTube video of two (former) Domino’s employees:

So, do you think that might have some rather profound effects on Domino’s marketing efforts?  Think you’ll be eating at Domino’s anytime soon?

What’s interesting is that the basic principle behind this was predicted not by some far-seeing futurist working in the technology field, but by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak.

Gen. Krulak coined the term “strategic corporal” to refer to the…

...continue to read "Marketing in the age of the “strategic minimum wage worker”"

It’s a commonplace on the Internet that the traditional 30-second TV spot is dying.  What with increasing media fragmentation, the new “attention economy,” and TiVo/DVR’s, etc, etc.

Of course, there have always been some level-headed voices of dissent, but it was still interesting to read this bit of research on the effectiveness of fast-forwarded / DVR-ed ads.

Turns out that viewers have to pay attention to their TV Screens in order to fast forward through ads.  A real shocker that…

...continue to read "Early Rumors of Commercial’s Death Greatly Exaggerated"

At the eMetrics Summit today, Google Analytics announced new enterprise-class features including custom reports, advanced segmentation, an API, as well as an updated interface, richer data visualizations, and an integration with Google AdSenseTM.

*Custom reports* enable customers to create their own reports with the metrics they want to compare organized in the way they want to see it. You no longer have to look at the standard reports and using drag and drop you choose the data you want to analyze on your…

...continue to read "Google Analytics Releases Enterprise Feature Set"

Google released another great tool today, Google Insights for Search. Whether you’re an advertising agency, a small business owner, a multinational corporation, or an academic researcher, Insights for Search can help you gauge interest in your relevant search terms. It allows you to compare search volume patterns (and trends) across specific geographic regions, categories (like finance, health, and sports), and time frames. You can read more about it at the Insight for Search help center or get a quick overview here.How does…

...continue to read "Insights into Google Search"

After reading Danny’s, and Mel’s first impressions of the new search engine launched by former Googlers, Cuil, I did what anybody in the industry would do first: search for their name. I wouldn’t consider the result set the best choice, but the results were at least somewhat relevant.

However, my big concern came when I searched for broader terms like “conversion rate,” “web analytics,” “Search Engine Marketing” and then did searches for things like “airlines” and “marketing blogs.”

What was apparent in every one…

...continue to read "Cuil is Not Kewl with Brands Yet"

Today we (FutureNow, FUTR.OB),  issued a press release where we “sorta kinda” spilled the beans. We’re only accepting alpha clients right now and we’re not disclosing the name yet (hence, its code name: “Dr. Phil”) but we’re psyched. This is the best thing FutureNow has ever done. Check it out:

Customers will be buying subscriptions to a web-based expert software system  for continuous improvement of their online revenue goals. It solves the problem of how to prioritize and project manage…

...continue to read "Hot Tip! Super Secret “Dr. Phil” Software Release"

Adobe was the first company to introduce the concept of plug-ins to software (Photoshop), to open up Post Script standards, now they are opening up Flash so that search engines can crawl the files. Kudos to Adobe! This is wonderful way to enhance a powerful tool. You’ll have the power. Now, keep in mind though that with all “great power comes responsibility.” I know many designers who were able to discourage their clients from indulging their vanity in an all flash website…

...continue to read "Flash May Now Bring More Search Traffic, Does it Matter?"

A new report entitled Information Overload: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us was written up recently in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Commissioned by Basex, it details how information overload, particularly task interruptions, costs the Enterprise $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

That’s a very large price to pay for having everything at our fingertips, all the time, in any format.

Our decision-making processes can’t always keep up with our choices. The same challenge…

...continue to read "Information Overload: Why Less is the New More"

...continue to read "Can “w00t” Provide Wikipedia with Directions?"