When Die Hard 2 came out all those years ago, one of the wonderful things it did was skip the opening credits and just got straight into it. Opening credits though are still very much the norm, and although they can occasionally be a key part of the experience (eg James Bond credits) usually they are just annoying. Who wouldn’t choose to skip the credits if they were given the choice...
Google released a new product today – Spaces – that they described as: a tool for small group sharing. Not exactly an unsolved problem, but given the growth in messaging options, it’s possible there’s benefit if their attempt is compelling or provides some new value. Their reasoning for building Spaces: We wanted to build a better group sharing experience, so we made a new...
Techmeme is the first thing I check every morning. It’s my window to the tech world. One of things I really appreciate is their human editing of headlines. Not only do they de-clickbaitify, but they also add details that help to communicate the real story. Here’s a story from The Verge: Apple updates iTunes with a ‘simpler’ design that doesn’t really help And...
It’s been a little while since I mentioned HubShots, the podcast I co-host with Ian Jacob. Here’s a few recent items of interest you may have missed: in episode 32 we discussed chatbots in episode 31 we discussed the morality of ghostwriting in episode 30 we discussed going old school with Facebook page like campaigns in episode 29 we discussed inbound sales certification I’d...
You might have seen posts like this one from Drift where companies discuss their amazing new idea about un-gating content ie no more forms to be filled out in order to access ebooks and the like. There’s a follow up here, and then an Inbound.org discussion where other marketers chime in. A few thoughts: if this works for Drift, that’s great, but don’t assume it will work for you...
Another of Google’s ‘do as we say, not as we do’ moments.
Do as we say: Payday loans are bad.
Not as we do: Aaron Wall sets the record straight. Again.
The masters of PR:
If you haven’t yet implemented Custom Web Audiences in Facebook, then you continue to miss out on an amazing marketing opportunity. And the recent updates (starting to roll out now) are even more useful. Jon Loomer has an excellent hands-on overview of the new CWA enhancements. In particular the ability to create audiences based on the number of times a visitor has been to your site (or a...
I liked Marco Arment’s thoughts about Apple’s dominant position in the podcast world. It was a response to this NYT article. Speaking about Apple’s role in podcasting Marco writes: Apple has only ever used its dominant position benevolently and benignly so far, and as the medium has diversified, Apple’s role has shrunk. The last thing podcasters need is for Apple to increase...
I give blood every 12 weeks at my local Red Cross blood donation centre. According to Red Cross a blood donation could save up to 3 lives. Which makes me feel good about myself. Which is why I do it. And why you should consider doing it too. To feel good about your self. If that sounds selfish it’s because it is. Last year I was looking for ways to feel good about myself, that actually did...
In this Gizmodo piece on Facebook’s trending news curation project we find out that:
Facebook hired a bunch of contractors (likely out-of-work journalists)
to do basic curation of trending news items
worked them really hard
replaced most of them with an algorithm
TL;DR Technology progress happened. As usual. No one is surprised.
See also John Gruber’s take.