Tools for Marketers
Remember Halfbrain?
You probably don’t. Halfbrain was a full-featured web-based replacement for Microsoft Excel, that in 1999, did wonders with Javascript and DHTML to create simply awe-inspiring spreadhseet functionality online. They followed with a Powerpoint replacement, and then a word process application.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, Halfbrain vanished. Well, not quite. It was acquired by IBM by way of Alphablox, and put to rest.
Now, in 2006, I’m reminded of the urgent new application annoucements and venture funding that were synonymous with the late nineties. Suddenly, a new breed of Web developer is loose again, innovating, getting funding, and creating interesting names for his application or service.
Thumbstacks is a new application in beta that simulates on the Web, with great success, Microsoft Powerpoint. Several years ago, Philip Greenspun and I designed and created a small application called WimpyPoint (scroll down to the credits for a cheesey hand-raise,) which was meant to launch a database-backed version of PowerPoint. What Thumbstacks has done is to take the best of new presentation technology and create a version of our program on speed. Of course, you can’t do transisitons and things of that nature, but it’s still in Beta, and it’s a damned fine start!
Similarly, iRows offers what HalfBrain used to, for spreadhseets.
The advent of these new applications signals a new era of optimism in the Web innovation market. But unlike last time, when the world collectively took a hit from a dot-com bong and went ape-crazy with its time and money, let’s hope that we can be more responsible with our efforts and strategy.
Plaxo and LinkedIn Should Merge
Plaxo is contact management software that makes ridiculously good use of the Internet. So, you have this massive address book in Outlook that you’ve grown over several years and several jobs. You never get to clean out the book to figure out if people’s numbers are still the same, where they’re at now, and wouldn’t it be nifty if your address book automatically updated itself everytime someone changed jobs or contact information? Also, its a pain letting everyone know your new information every time its you who’s doing the moving. Plaxo connects you to your network, and keeps your address book fresh, relevant, and up-to-date.
Of course, for this to work, a lot of your contacts need to be Plaxo’ed as well.
Guess what? They are.
Now, LinkedIn is another story. It is literally the best networking tool I have ever used, and I’m on it constantly, looking for new talent, getting references for people who aren’t in my first degree, and expanding my prospect list. Some time ago, I wrote an entry in this blog about the service. Essentially, here’s how it works:
You know Abe and Ben. Abe knows Cassie and David. Cassie knows Ben and You. David knows Ed and Frannie. We’re all on LinkedIn, and identified who we know. Now, let’s say you’re browsing your extended network, and realize that Frannie is VP at a company that you’re trying to do business with. Through LinkedIn, you initiate a contact request through your friend Abe, who forwards it on to his friend David. David forwards this “trusted request” onto Frannie, who is much more likely to take your call than if you cold-called her. It’s structured networking, and it really, really works.
Of course, the larger yours and everyone else’s network is, the more people you can connect to, and network with. This is where I see incredible synergy between Plaxo and LinkedIn. Plaxo allows you to keep in touch with contacts, and LinkedIn lets you network through your contacts. Marrying the two services would give each something they don’t have.
Plaxo would give LinkedIn breadth, and LinkedIn would give Plaxo depth.
Of course, there’s a shark on the horizon. If I were Microsoft, I’d be looking very carefully at Plaxo to figure out how it if it fits with my Microsoft Office and Outlook strategy. Plaxo’s use of the Internet is exactly what the doctor ordered to give Outlook a fresh lease.
The Battle of the Labs
Yahoo! and Google, for example, spend millions of dollars each year in their so-called “Labs”. It is here that they work to create their next generation information browsing and research tools. My post-office hours are sometimes spent in awe of these applications that show us the beginnings of a truly connected networks.
For example, Google’s Ridefinder shows the real-time positions of several taxicab company cars in major cities. It works in conjuction with Google Maps to provide you with the actual locations of cabs near you. You can’t order them yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
The folks over at Yahoo! Research seem a little more academic and serious in their pursuit of new ground, and give funky names to their projects like the ”Mindset Research Demo.” That particular application allows you to search for any term, but then adjust on a slider, whether you plan to shop for that item, or are just trying to find information on it. It adjusts its results dynamically as you move the slider.
Far more interesting than that is the Tech Buzz Game that, as Yahoo! puts it, “ is a fantasy prediction market for high-tech products, concepts, and trends. As a player, your goal is to predict how popular various technologies will be in the future. Popularity or buzz is measured by Yahoo! Search frequency over time.”
What I really like about what Google Labs does is that they’re constantly trying to fix issues with finding information. While Yahoo!’s pursuits are fantastic, they’re still a bit too academic for me. Google keeps adding features that I’ve started to take great pleasure in discovering.
For example, you can now enter your FedEx or UPS tracking number directly into your Google Search Bar, and have the tracking results pop right up. You can enter a phone number and have it do an automatic nationwide reverse-directory search. You can SMS “Rubicon, San Francisco” to GOOGL (46645) and have it return a number, and an address. You can enter filetype:ppt and have your search results just return PowerPoint files. You can even enter in things like (25*45)+34 and have it come up with the calculated results.
PC Magazine has a great article on 20 Great Google Secrets that gets into more detail on what you can do.
A Simple Life
5:00AM - my alarm goes off. I reach down below my bed, grab my laptop fresh-charged with overnight electricity, tremble involuntarily at the speedy progress bar that flickers through a silver screen screaming static saying softly, “Resuming Windows."
I check my RSS feeds, catch up on the latest in my blog reading list, trundle over to the Bit Torrent sites that have the latest episodes of international TV shows that Comcast Digital Cable doesn’t get, and while they download, open the secure web page that controls several of my household appliances, and turn on the coffee maker. Using the same appliance control center, I turn off my night-lights, and turn on the A/C, because the weather section of my personalized Google home page tells me that its going to be a hot one.
I make the bed, grab my coffee, and turn on the TV while I make myself some instant oatmeal. The phone rings in the middle of an interesting bit of news, so I use my TiVo remote to pause the story, and I press “talk” on the Bluetooth speaker phone system that’s centrally hooked into my apartment, with receivers and mikes that let me talk freely from just about anywhere, while noise-supressors weed out anything that’s not in the general range of my voice, so the person on the other end can clearly hear what I’m saying.
It’s United Airlines calling to tell me (using an automated voice that I’ve come to know as Sheila) that my flight this morning to Frankfurt has been cancelled due to mechanical difficulties, but that I’ve been rebooked on a codeshare Lufthansa flight an hour later, and that my upgrade has been confirmed on this flight as well. Immediately after she hangs up, Wildfire, my electronic assistant, calls to tell me that because my flight has been moved, she has re-scheduled Boston Coach’s pickup at the Frankfurt airport.
I continue with my news story, finish my oatmeal and coffee, and make my way over to my bathroom. There, the TV has a message which says that my Xbox has finished downloading the latest DivX of Julian Sanders, my current favorite British show, from Bit Torrent. I debate watching it, but decide that I’ll get to the airport early and get some work done in the lounge. I shave, and when I place my Remington shaver back in its dock, it lights up with a cleaning message, and proceeds to clean the blades and razor instantly.
Before leaving the house, I use the desktop computer to check in on my S430’s status, because I haven’t driven it in a few days. The system tells me that the rear passenger tire needs air. I set the car to expect me as the next driver, and make my way to the garage.
At the airport, I check in electronically using a United Kiosk, and make my way through security check and down to the Red Carpet Club in Terminal B. My keychain instantly buzzes once I’m inside, indicating that a friendly wireless network has been found, and that I can log on. I swipe my Global Services card through the reader by the front desk, which has been Web-set up to SMS me when boarding is announced for my flight. I settle down into a leather chair across from the TV, open up my laptop, and continue reading through news and my email. I notice that the TV is stuck on a horrible channel, and really want CNN. I use my remote-control watch to surreptitiously scan for the TV’s band, and when it finds it, keep changing channels until I’m on CNN, much to the astonishment of a man absently staring at the screen.
Ninety minutes later, I’m on the flight, and I pull out my airplane charging adapter from my briefcase, and the USB charger for my cell phone. Once airborne, I plug my laptop into the charging console, and plug my phone into the USB port of the computer. I use Lufthansa’s FlyNet to connect to the Internet, and when I’m online, decide that its time to send my wife a message in India. It’s almost bed-time for her, and while I don’t want to spend $10 per minute on a satellite phone call, I do want to wish her goodnight. So, I open up Yahoo! Messenger, and use the Net-to-Mobile feature to send an instant message directly to my wife’s cellular phone, using SMS. “Sweet dreams, honey,” I say. “My world isn’t the same without you in it. Come home soon.”
I might as well have written that message to technology.
Things Every Agency Person Should Know - Episode I
As someone who has worked his entire professional life in an agency environment, I’ve had my healthy share of daily annoyances to deal with. I’ve decided to intermittently share some of the random things I’ve learned, starting with this, the first episode of “Things Every Agency Person Should Know.” It’s meant to be a random smattering of ideas that you might identify with. Use the comments link to add your own thoughts.
This episode will deal with finding information, mishaps in pitches, gift ideas, and competitive intelligence.