Friday, June 27, 2008

What happens if Yahoo tanks?

Jerry Yang has taken a beating recently (see here what Fake Steve had to say) and rumors of Yahoo's demise seem to come out every day.

Here's one quick question that was brought up in the office today:

If Yahoo officially dies... what happens to Yahoo Sports?

I can't speak for anyone else, but fantasy sports are one thing that I think Yahoo has done incredibly well. It would be a shame to see that die.

But... in hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst... I guess I have to ask:

Anyone know of another place to host a free, customizable fantasy baseball league?

Friday, June 20, 2008

Loving twitter

see pics below..... Nuff said:



you know... I am not much of a political person.... but this was cool... and pretty much made my day.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Rocketmail, WHYmail?

So MicroHoo didn't happen, and now Yahoo has launched a new, and innovative initiative to regain some of their lost shine. They've opened up Rocketmail and ymail e-mail addresses.

Their spokesperson, Yahoo VP John Kremer, said: “People want an e-mail address that reflects who they are, whether they are signing up for an e-mail address for the first time, or simply updating their e-mail pseudonym to reflect the stage they are at in life.”

John.... When is the last time you went through the process of changing your personal e-mail address? I say process, because it is one. Despite being on Gmail for more than a year, I still occasionally check my previous address, because people who had it years ago still send me e-mail there (and are quickly given my 'new' e-mail).

Hey look, I get it... there is something cool about getting "mikebush" as a user name (like I managed to do on twitter and friendfeed... feel free to add me on either... or both).

But really... is opening up new e-mail domains really the next big thing?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Death of pitchablogger... reasons why... and a shout out to WuFoo

So, after thinking it through, I've decided to retire the pitchablogger.com idea.

Why? Simple. The concept came from me being a PR guy, and looking for an easy way to attract more attention from the blogosphere for my clients. On my side of the fence, having bloggers say "yes, I'd like to receive information about Client XX because they are certainly relevant to what I like to write about " while also telling me the best way to contact them was a no-brainer. In fact... it seemed like the type of idea that someone should have some up with a LONG time ago (small interjection here: let me state, unequivocally... the intention wasn't to create a brand new list of people to spam. Rather... it was to create a lit of how people wanted to be engaged (and I say that, not from the brand engagement perspective you hear so much about these days.. but from a personal engagement point of view that @Chrisbrogan would be proud of).

That said... the long story short is as follows. I still think it's a good concept, but I don't have the time to actively promote it to the blogosphere, so its value is incredibly limited. Add in the fact that tools like FriendFeed or Twitter make it easier to find and relate to members of the blogosphere, and it seems like the need for a project like this is minimal.

That said, I want to end this post with a shout out to the team at WuFoo, who was providing the back end for pitchablogger's database. In the wake of plenty of people having massive issues with customer service (Delta, I am looking at you), I am floored with the level of service I received from their team.

Here's the back story: Yesterday, when I decided to pull the plug on pitchablogger, I logged in to cancel my account. The process seemed straight forward enough, but I never got to any sort of confirmation page, nor did I receive an e-mail stating the account was canceled. Today, I got the latest invoice from the company. Convenient, right?

So, I went back to the site to cancel the account (again). I got a confirmation, and did their exit survey. In the survey, based on the question "what can we do better?" I said something like "Make it easier to cancel without getting a bill the next day. And, by easier, I mean, make it easier for your user to leave without getting hit with a bill that seems terribly convenient for you."

Within an hour, I got an e-mail from Chris in their customer service department, apologizing for the bill, and taking care of the issue. Chris explained that they had a server issue yesterday, which lead to the problem, and told me the bill had been taken care of.... and not on my dime.

Outstanding service in my mind. I can't recommend this company enough, assuming you're trying to build a database via the web.

Thanks again Chris and the WuFoo team. You've made a big fan out of me, and will totally have my business the next time I come up with some silly idea like pitchablogger.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Bad day for the internet

Is it me... or is EVERYTHING broken today?

Facebook was down this morning.

Google App engine is down now.

Hulu embeds are down.

Firefox struggled with the launch of FF3.

Even AIM was down this morning.

Somewhere there's a person who is still using dial up and refusing to view e-mail.... and he is laughing at the rest of us.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Off topic... but hilarious

My pal Corey sent this along to me.

Racey? Yupper. Sexist? Maybe.

Hilarious? Absolutely.

Pass it along.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Google.me?

Hank Williams has a really interesting take on the marriage of Google and Apple, and if you have a few minutes, it's completely worth a read.

That said... I couldn't disagree with him more. With speculation out there that a Major Software Vendor will play a key role at the upcoming WWDC (read: 3G iPhone day), and Apple alleged to be releasing a cloud computing initiative (and make no mistake, the next generation of cloud computing will be a mobile generation) that will sync up mobile devices with laptops and desktops, this seems to be a marriage made in heaven. I think the folks over Valleywag nailed it.

It makes sense on too many levels.
  • Apple wants to break into the enterprise market with the iPhone, so the rumored .me seems like a good way to do so (Apple is going to show the non-geek that cloud computing is safe, which in my mind, creates an end-user pull within the enterprise).
  • Despite claiming they're not a competitor to Microsoft, Google is trying to move its docs. suite into the enterprise.
  • In order for the common non-techy nerd to download applications to Android, they need a destination. Call it an "iTunes-like App shop." Why try to build something that's "iTunes-like" when you can simply partner with the original?
Android is going to be a really cool operating system, and it will run on lots of phones. Great. However, it seems to me that in order for Google to really show off what the system will be capable of doing, Google is going to need the slickest, coolest, fastest, most powerful phone on the market.... you know... the one his Steve-ness will be showing off in just under a week.

So, while Hank will argue that:
And so, while Steve Jobs is used to having the upper hand with his partners like the now supplicating record labels, this relationship is different. Indeed, Steve may hate the whole idea of Android, but he may soon need to get used to his new Google overlords just like the rest of us.

I'd go the other way... and say these two companies are perfect for each other.