My own piece of the Internet
 
Tag: <span>Google</span>

It’s simple, all the best innovations are

I’ve been reading a lot about simplification recently. About removing stuff and improving products, disrupting markets, and smashing the lazy incumbents. It’s the kind of thing which when you see it, it smacks you in the face and you ask yourself why someone else or you hadn’t done this before. Some of the great innovations have been about removing steps, making processes easier, and challenging assumptions about that’s the way it needs to be done. As Evan Williams, founder of Twitter has said, “Everything is obvious once it’s successful. Big wins come when you can spot something before it’s obvious to everyone …

Google, The Right to be Forgotten, and (monetised) Free Speech

There have been a lot of words written about the European Court of Justice ruling in May this year which forced Google to remove links to content when requested. Here are some I’ve written to expose how the issue is being handled in a simplistic way by most of the media. The European Courts ruled that according to personal data protections search engines (Google & Bing) are “obliged to remove from the list of results displayed following a search made on the basis of a person’s name links to web pages” if they are “inadequate, irrelevant or excessive”.

It’s all good, until the lawyers get involved

After the initial joy at the birth of a new project, every little project needs to put on a pair of big person pants and grow up. As in life, this isn’t always easy, and sometimes you may need to talk to the lawyers. Take the behemoth Google as an example of the world’s most successful startup. They have a lot of lawyers and a lot of users, and there is a massive tension between the users wanting the aspirational spirit of a startup, and the hard-nosed capitalists running Google.  The unofficial Google motto, “don’t be evil”, created by Paul Buchheit in …

Why no one uses Google+

At the last count Google+ had 90 million registered users, 60% of whom “engage daily”. Whatever that means. The other 40% are wondering what the hell they can use Google+ for. Except of course the SEO bunnies who are using Google+ to jack up the rankings of websites. The jury is still out on both Google+ and the SEO benefits. So how could this happen? Google have been promoting Google+ heavily, they have linked it into their search pages, their lucrative ad network, and CEO Larry Page has been touting the platform in earnings calls as growing rapidly and one …

Are uneducated consumers extinct?

The other day I had a healthy argument with an old school marketing guy about uneducated consumers in a commiditised market. His contention was that uneducated consumers still exist online.  Like marks in an old style side show they wander blindly through the buying process and good businesses make good margin from them. This worried me a little.  I think that the Internet has made it so much easier to find information about products and pricing that novice Internet users can become very well informed consumers very quickly. The newbie might not be a gun online marketer but they have …

The web makes every business a media company

I was reading in The New York Times about how Google is now a media company and it struck me that the Internet gives every business the opportunity to be a media business or at least think like a media company. Firstly, what is a media company?  A media company is a business engaged in the production or distribution of media.  Most sales,  leads,  and opportunities result from their media activities. News Ltd is an obvious example of an old style media company trying to make it in a digital world.  Google can be seen as a new style of …

Why there are no stupid users online

When you’re one of the cool kids, it is pretty easy to forget that not everyone is in the cool club. In fact, some people are so far removed from the cool club that they haven’t heard of Twitter, social media, ecommerce, WordPress, Android, the Nexus 1, or the RunKeeper iPhone application. But generally, every human living in an advanced economy who can read has heard of Google and Facebook. We’re so connected these days that it is easy to forget that there are a bunch of people who are not connected; who are yet to realise the liberating potential …

Jumping the sofa, or how to be good at what you do

Once upon a time there was a Hollywood star called Tom Cruise who had the world at his feet. He was famous, rich and in love with a beautiful young woman called Katie. Being rich and successful, woman loved him and men envied him. Then one day late in 2005 whilst talking with talk-show host Oprah, Tom celebrated his success and the joy of life by dancing a jig on her sofa; by jumping the sofa. Tom’s fans were appalled and ashamed for him. This irrational exuberance was not the Tom they loved and respected, it was a freaky guy …

How I stopped worrying about Google

When I first discovered Google, it was a revelation. I was using a combination of Alta Vista, Yahoo, Dog Pile and luck to find what I wanted and Google returned the right results super fast. Fast forward to now and Google know more about me than my mother. I use Google Apps for jonstribling.info mail, Google AdWords, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Trends, Google Books and more. That is a lotta Google! A few years back, I started to get upset about the lack of choice in search engines. It’s not that Google do a bad job, they do an …

From Romania with order – the secret to conversion

When I was in Romania about 10 years ago I had some drinks with a local Optician and a Romanian rock star. We enjoyed many drinks and Raresh, the Optician, invited my girlfriend and I back to his apartment after the bar closed. Raresh lived in a Soviet style apartment that was very very clean. It was disturbingly ordered. All that was missing ware the plastic sheets to protect the furniture. He hated Romania and his low socio-economic status. He declaimed “I hate my country!” and told the rock star that he wished he has his life. The life of …