Web 2.0 Maven

don't worry - yelp knows

2009-06-26T06:21:00.005-06:00

I work in a small startup. I am the only woman in the company. Yesterday, they threw me a baby shower. For the shower, they bought 1. beer 2. cakes from a store they found highly recommended on Yelp, and 3. baby clothes from a store they found highly recommended on Yelp. These are men throwing the shower - and they did a great job.

Everything was super nice. It's amazing how Yelp has, for so many of us, really taken over as "the friend in the know for those things we don't know about." I use it extensively - and clearly I'm not alone.

sites with personality

2009-06-22T11:11:00.002-06:00

I get asked all the time how to build websites with personality. Everyone wants to build a (sorry to use a retro word, but I'm going to do it anyway) "sticky site," but people really struggle with giving a site voice and presence. Fwiw, it's really not that hard. If *you* have a voice, personality, and presence - let it spill into your site. Quit steralizing everything - and make the site an extension of you. Or an extension of the you you'd like to be (people pretending to be more interesting/better looking/more successful than they are has a *really* long history on the internet).

Now, I know I'm late to the party as I just found this site - but woot.com does a really good job of this. I find myself visiting the site every day now - not necessarily to buy things (though sometimes I do), but to read the product descriptions. Clearly - the people behind woot put some real thought - and play - into their work. And, it pays off. I've also noticed that I tend to frequent shopping sites with personality. I want to know that there are people behind the site - people who love what they are doing - and people who enjoy running an online business.

In short, it makes me want to buy stuff. And my friends, isn't that the whole point? Make your potential customers happy (engage them) and make more money. It's a great arrangement.

Motherhood Makes it Right

2009-06-15T08:24:00.001-06:00

I stand corrected. This morning I received a very nice email from Motherhood Maternity. They are going to refund the value of my return. They were unable to locate the box, yet, they still want to make the situation right.

I'm very impressed. It took a while, but they showed to be a customer-focused company in the end. I have a feeling that a lot of the time it took was simply getting to the right person to make the decision.

Thanks Motherhood!

I made a mistake, and Motherhood Maternity made me pay

2009-06-12T11:45:00.002-06:00

A couple of months ago, I placed online orders from both Motherhood Maternity and Gap Maternity. Maternity clothes are really difficult to buy - as you have *no* idea what fits until you try it on. No worries -I was able to keep most of both orders - but of course - there were some returns.

I switched up the packages by accident in my return. Oopise.

The Gap sent my mistake right back to me. The Gap is upstanding and very nice.

Motherhood - alternately - kept the return. First they said they didn't have it. When I sent them my confirmation of delivery (I paid $13 to have them keep my stuff) - they said they had sent the package back. When I asked for tracking information because I had not received it, they said they didn't have it but would find it. They finally quit giving me additional information. So I reported them to the BBB. The BBB said Motherhood wouldn't reply to them so they were going to put a black mark in their file. Then, they finally did and the cycle started again: we have no proof of delivery, it was sent back, we don't make it a practice of keeping track of packages (umm isn't that *what* mail order does?), etc. etc.

They clearly don't really care that I'm annoyed by this (that return was worth about $100) and they clearly don't respect the BBB either.

I won't shop there again, obviously.

making your site sticky with a dose of cute

2009-04-03T13:14:00.003-06:00

iGoogle has a super cute theme right now. I loaded it just on a whim, and it's been delighting me ever since. The images change with the time of the day: early in the am the bugs are typically doing some sort of activity, midday they have lunch, and at night they build a campfire. I've even caught them in their sleeping bags when I've logged on first thing in the am.

Impressive Customer Service: Progressive Insurance

2009-03-27T07:12:00.003-06:00

Wednesday afternoon, there was a hailstorm in my area. I left early to get my car under cover (and sedate my dogs), but several people who stayed at the office suffered extensive damage to their cars. Houses in the area rec'd broken skylights and other damage. Evidently, there was golf ball and baseball sized hail.

My insurance company sent this email out Thursday am - and I have to say - I am really impressed. This email wouldn't have been hard for the insurer to put together - and the impact it made was of incredible customer care. The original was formatted a lot better. :)

A hailstorm has been reported in the county where your vehicle is garaged. Progressive claims service is already on the scene with a special team to get to work on your claim fast.

Visit progressiveresponds.com for current information regarding this storm.

If your vehicle was damaged in the hailstorm:



	For auto claims, report your claim online or call 1-800-PROGRESSIVE (1-800-776-4737).


•	For boat, motorcycle, or RV claims, please call 1-800-PROGRESSIVE (1-800-776-4737).

•	After filing your claim, we'll e-mail you to let you know when you can monitor its status online.

When a hailstorm or other disaster strikes, you can rest assured that Progressive will be there to help settle your claim and get you back on the road as soon as possible.

Full Disclosure

2008-12-21T11:07:00.003-06:00

On CNN.com there is an article talking about a new, proposed regulation which would allow health care providers to deny procedures *and* information about options to patients based on the provider's moral objections to some of those available options.

I think that's fine, but if they allow this, they should make these providers identify themselves to the public with a visible seal on their license, communications, practice. They should also have to register with the government and insurance companies. Then, those of us who like to have the full story can avoid these people who are playing God with our health care options and trying to impose their beliefs on us. It's simply not fair for patients not to know what is being withheld. Simple solution. Done and done.

Consumer Regrets

2008-12-15T12:58:00.002-06:00

Consumerist has a great post - What Purchase do you Regret the Most? The comments are really interesting. Looks like most people really regret buying a wii. At least there is a resale market for that one. I had one too, for about 2 weeks, and it got resold because I just didn't have time to devote to it.

Other top mentioned things: grad school, engagement rings/wedding licenses, houses purchased in 2002-2006, various video games, and cars.

I can't think of anything I really really regret buying. I bought a Honda Accord and disliked it so much I sold it after 6 months. That turned out ok (got a good price, and learned to buy what I really want and don't try to compromise).

Speaking of, there's some diamond company running ads that pretty much sum up my buying philosophy: less things, better things.

Did I miss something?

2008-11-18T10:15:00.004-06:00

Click Z wrote a very generous article about Jerry Yang "stepping down" from Yahoo. Unless I missed something, he really, really screwed over that company. They say that he did all these wonderful things (including fending off Microsoft). Seriously?

It must be a case of "willing suspension of disbelief...." and it makes me wonder what Click Z wants from Yang.

The timeline and user survey on Cnet are less tainted by.... whatever is going on at Click Z.

Recycle or sell your used electronics

2008-11-17T09:56:00.003-06:00

Recently, I replaced my old ipod mini with a brand new nano. The old mini had some issues, mostly because I dropped it so many times.

What to do with the old, slightly damaged one?

I sold it to Gazelle.com. This site is great. You just tell it what you have to sell, what condition its in, what other things you have to go with it (manual, original box, etc.) and it gives you an instant quote. You send your stuff to them (they even pay for shipping), and in a few days you'll receive confirmation and a final offer. In my case, the final offer was more than the offer I received originally (they thought my mini was in better shape than I did). Then you get a check, paypal payment, or you can donate the proceeds to a charity. I like it so much, I also sold a digital camera.

Super neat. Super easy.

Pay to speak, pay to hear: double dipping on the conference circuit

2008-11-07T14:22:00.003-06:00

My company was just rejected for a speaking slot at an upcoming conference held by a well known web analytics association.

Why, we asked? Was it the topic? The speaker? What could it be?

Oh no, it was none of that. The reason was because--wait for it--because we have yet to sponsor any of their events.

Pay to play... they actually came right out and said it.

So you go to a conference, pay a couple thousand as an attendee, and then you see presentations ONLY by companies that paid their way in? Does that seem like the best way to get top speakers and cutting edge information about new technologies and innovations in the space?

Hmmm, seems fishy to me.

All this talk about doom and gloom...I'm really not into it. Economy, please move on.

2008-10-13T14:07:00.005-06:00

I just watched the much talked about Sequoia presentation "RIP Good Times." In addition to it looking a whole lot like something we would see in economics class during my mba years... it was also really really depressing. That, and all the VC "doom and gloom" emails being leaked out ...

Makes you want to spend more time on CuteOverload and less time in Google Reader.

No Phone, No Text, No Bad Moods

2008-10-13T10:44:00.003-06:00

So let's get this straight. In CA you can't talk on the phone while driving and you can't text while driving. What are you supposed to do? Just drive? Alone with the radio and your thoughts? The horror. Of course, you can still talk otp with your headset on, but studies show that's just as bad as holding it to your ear. It's the distraction, not the position, that's the issue.

They have studies that show that texting while driving is actually more dangerous than driving drunk, but I'd guess that all depends on your skill level (for either impairment). I've also read that driving with kids in the car is more dangerous than being on the phone, so perhaps that will be next. One study ranks distractions in this order: phones, radio, kids, food.

I've found being in a bad mood is also really distracting.

Perhaps we can't actually legislate away distractions. What happened to people just taking responsibility for themselves? Hmmmm.

Change your location to change your mind?

2008-09-23T15:27:00.004-06:00

According to an article in today's WSJ, where you live affects your personality. Or your personality affects where you live. The article isn't clear about the chicken/egg aspect, but it seems that certain regional stereotypes are born out by a recent study. Additionally, some new regional traits have been scientifically identified, and are now primed for use when generalizing about residents of other states. Yay! More fuel for the fire.

The article is here.

Since I live in Texas and I care about me the most, I'll tell you what I learned about Texas.

The "Lone Star State of Mind" is:

Fairly neurotic
Very conscientious
Very extroverted
Fairly open
and Fairly agreeable

One wonders, is it really possible to be as neurotic as you are agreeable? In Texas, we are. I just get this image of well-drugged crazy people. Neurotic, yes. But oh so agreeable.

Honestly, I think this study is way to general to be much use, but it is the most read story on the WSJ site today, and I blogged about it. So, while maybe not so useful, it's still interesting. We as individuals hate being put into buckets, but we sure to like to do it to others.

BoA down for a big part of the day

2008-09-22T16:25:00.002-06:00

So, I wanted to pay some bills today: I'm a scatterbrain I have to pay them as soon as they come in but... alas... Bank of America's site would not let me in. This concerned me some. What relief to find it wasn't just me. Looks like Bank of America's site was down for a lot of people today.

Kind of gives you a very uncertain feeling on top of that uncertain feeling we have all been feeling when we talk about the financial services industry. Doesn't it?

Lessons learned: even big sites with lots of servers and support systems go down. I'll remember to mention this next time a Conduit client's site goes down. I like to mention how gmail went down for several hours just a few weeks ago. Never hurts to have that in your back pocket.

Other lesson: maybe my mattress is a good place for my money.

Wink

2008-09-20T07:24:00.003-06:00

Always outstanding food. Always really bad service.

Now they have tables outside, which is nice for the weather, but even worse for the service. The view isn't much to speak of, but they could fix it with some planters. I'm sure they'll be working on that.

We had a big group, which probably made the service issue worse. It's not that they get things wrong, its just that the service is *very* slow and not very attentive. But when things arrive, they arrive correctly. So there is that.

And to get a little off-topic my off-topic post... OMG the traffic in Austin. I carpooled downtown with a friend and I swear, once you get anywhere close to the river its just impossible to keep going south. I'm thinking about moving closer to downtown, but dealing with that ever day is very daunting.

Sagra

2008-09-18T11:10:00.003-06:00

Sagra last night... and as usual... it was outstanding. We had a fantastic dinner, great bottle of wine, super service, french press coffee (mmmm), and a very nice evening. It's reasonable too. I don't know why the Yelpers think it's so pricey.

Fired for Distributing Harper's, and Blue Nile Calls to Make it Right

2008-09-16T11:13:00.004-06:00

This month's Harper's features a letter from a former teacher. He was fired for distributing the magazine, specifically, last month's issue with the article, "The Penis Thieves of Lagos." It's an article about mass hysteria--a strange phenomenon--but not sexual or pornographic in any way. The class was reading a book based in Nigeria, which contained accounts of practicing medicine men (who are often hired to restore a victim's vanished penis) so the article, and the phenomenon, made for an especially interesting read.

The man was fired. Fired for distributing *Harper's* -- which is not exactly a low-brow publication. When Cosmo has articles like "20 ways to please you man in bed" and kids are putting all manner of naughty on their MySpace and Facebook pages, a teacher gets canned over Harper's?

In other news, the jewelry store called to make things right. They told me that they customers do, in fact, write all their reviews, but they "edit" them as needed. They assured me that they do not write any of them from scratch. I was also informed that the reason the csr was hesitant at my request to submit a review was because, "they did not have a process in place to receive reviews from customers via email."

So there we go. I was very impressed they took the time to call me, and happy to see the company both monitoring blogs and improving customer service as a result.

The pain of being disconnected

2008-09-15T08:00:00.004-06:00

Weekend before last, I went to a wedding in VT. The group of people I know at the wedding are mainly startup folks, and we're used to being connected... and online.... most of the time.

Imagine our horror when we found out that the wedding location had no internet and *no* cell coverage.

What I realized in those 3 short days can be summed up in one situation. On Sat, I wanted to check in for my flight. But alas, no internet. So I thought, we'll I'll call someone to check in for me... oh that won't work, no cell coverage. Ok, well what if I drive to a pay phone... oh but my confirmation number is in my email (web-based). Foiled again.

My point is... I know we often say things like "what did we do before the internet" when we're looking restaurant reviews, research data, and directions... but I guess I personally hadn't thought through the implications of being completely and totally disconnected. Sure, I've done it at Burning Man (but it's wired now too), but camping is a different mindset. And fwiw, most state parks in Texas have cell coverage.

For me, and a lot of us, the internet isn't just a habit, it's a full-blown dependence. And looking at the big picture, I'm really ok with that.

I won't buy from Blue Nile again... and a little comment on ethics

2008-09-09T07:44:00.007-06:00

I bought a necklace from these folks last year. After about 2 months, it showed a manufacturing defect. Not only did I have to beg, plead and threaten them to fix it without charging me, but they informed me that platinum was "just not a durable metal" and "I shouldn't expect to wear a necklace like that every day." I'm pretty sure they are wrong about platinum and right on the second comment, but only because the necklace isn't made very well. Even more, the reviews on the site indicate exactly the opposite. There's actually one that says "my wife wears it every day." I kid you not. Through the conversation I had with the rep, I got the clear impression that the reviews on the site are written *by the Blue Nile folks.* Hmmm.

To me, that feels wrong. How can someone make an educated buying decision when the "customer reviews" are propaganda? I wonder if, in the future, we'll have some sort of guarantee on reviews... some sort of standards board... that will certify them to actually customer generated and show both sides of the story. Until then, I won't buy from a site that doesn't show both good and bad reviews. Nor will I buy from one that I know is having real live employees write reviews attributed to real live customers.

Off topic - Olivia isn't ready for primetime

2008-09-02T11:04:00.003-06:00

I've decided that since I go out so often, I'm going to occasionally blog about where I go. Especially if it's interesting. :)

Olivia

Jerry from Vino Vino is the manager here and the wine list reflects that clearly.

The good: architecture, lovely. People watching, good. Food: yummy.
The bad: headlights are an issue in the dining room. They don't have their act together at *all.* We waited over an hour after ordering to get our dinners. We thought they might have lost our orders, but looking around, NO ONE had food. Not for ages. It was like the kitchen went on break as soon as we sat down. Another bad sign: our waitress didn't know how carbonara is prepared, yet I know, and I'm a vegetarian. Weird.

More good: they offered us treats because we waited over an hour for our dinner. I don't like treats though, so this didn't do much to make me happy. Get a booth if you go, to avoid the headlight issue.

More bad: the people I was out with have now decided I'm cursed with "bad restaurant karma" because last time we were all at Asti we had a horrific hour+ wait for our dinner as well.

Things that are simple and should be done

2008-09-02T10:57:00.004-06:00

I just got an email from SW Airlines - the headline was "Productivity at It's Best." Don't they have professional writers write these things? How about someone to check the grammar?

In other "things that bug me," I rec'd an email from my car insurance company on Friday. I was involved in an accident on the way home (actually the happened to me... 4 people ran into each other on the freeway and the chain reaction resulted in me getting hit while sitting at a light). The email my insurance company sent said "see your claim online" but when I clicked on the link, it asked me to put in my claim number, name, and about 3 or 4 other pieces of information. Why didn't the email just pass that through?

A little bit of streamlining and a little bit of proofreading means a lot to me.

I don't trust Facebook

2008-08-22T07:41:00.006-06:00

For someone who blogs under the URL "Web2.0Maven," I have a shocking ineptitude when it comes to Facebook. Just this week, I wanted to post on a friend's wall (it was his birthday) and I wasn't entirely sure if it was going to go on his wall, or if the post would go to everyone in the network (sometimes that happens, we've all seen it happen...) I've gotten comments on other people's photos, and I never can figure out why. It's completely and totally confusing, especially since you think - oh this came to me, so it must be to me, but I have no idea who this person is...

There are some serious usability issues here. I'm not a UI genius, but it shouldn't be "confusing."

And another thing... why doesn't FB have privacy settings so only certain audiences can see certain things? Or does it and I haven't figured that out either? I've been blogging at LiveJournal for years and it has friend filters, so only certain audiences can see certain posts. I use it *all* the time. FB could really use that, especially with photos. One must be cautious not to overshare.

Beacon was a horrible invasion of privacy, but there are small nuances that would really improve my relationship with FB.

Legal isn't Ethical and it's not Nice Either

2008-08-06T10:05:00.004-06:00

I've been debating with a few colleagues over the Jason Fortuny situation. You may not recall, but he's the person who solicited responses to a personal ad on Craigslist, then republished some of the responses (many of which were very embarrassing, private, and contained sensitive material). Horrifyingly enough, many of them are STILL online.

Jason is getting sued. Whereas I'm not sure he did anything illegal, I do think there's a special place of pain reserved for malicious evil folks like him.

Just in case you think this is an isolated event - here's some more info on him:

He also describes a history of malicious pranks. He apparently once claimed to have put pictures of someone's children on a child rape site. In January of 2005 he'd faked a sudden conversion to born-again Christianity, in a post which received 448 comments. ("I was sitting there, New Year's Eve, drinking alcohol by myself, in my underclothes, abusing my body to images of Rod Serling on the TV... And then, without warning, the flood of emotion I had tried so hard to block forced it's way into my consciousness...") This June he'd tried a Livejournal "whoring" project, "friending everyone".

However, many of my colleagues think that the responders to Jason's ad got what they had coming to them. "Privacy isn't a given."

No, it's not. But I do feel like the internet has a special code, a code of online community. And this guy really violated it. Oh and there's also that basic human decency thing. Of which, Jason seems to have none.

It may not be unlawful. But it was very very wrong. And if we can get him on some legal grounds - let's do it. Perhaps we can't teach ethics, and sometimes pain is all mean people understand.

Monetizing Social Networks

2008-08-05T13:35:00.003-06:00

Yesterday's WSJ ran an article "Targeted-Ad Initiative Is Crucial for MySpace." Here's a couple of quotes that sum it up:

"As part of this "hypertargeting" system, MySpace has analyzed the profiles of its users to gauge their interests and then categorized them into more than 1,000 "buckets," including rodeo watchers, scrapbook enthusiasts and 'Dancing With the Stars' viewers....

"MySpace, which has cheap advertising rates, like other social networks -- only a few dollars, at most, for 1,000 displays of an ad, compared with the $50 or $60 per thousand charged by some niche sites -- says it can charge roughly double those rates by offering targeting."

I find this really interesting, that this is somehow a "new" initiative or thought. I mean, the Facebook "what your friends are buying" fiasco was clearly an invasion of privacy, but showing targeted ads? Isn't that one of the inherent powers of advertising on social networks? Knowing the interests of your ad-viewers?

Evidently Facebook already has this targeting in place, but I keep seeing ads to join a social networking site for people over 40. Which I'm not. Thank you very much.

I can't wait to see how this "neat new idea" takes off.