blending the mix

The BBC reports that central park will become a wireless hub by this summer, ensuring that FULL and FREE wi-fi access can be had by all.

The city’s Park’s Department says that by July there will be 8 active wireless spots covering almost all the park, with a further rollout accros New York’s other parks later in the year to complement those already in place in Bryant Park in mid-town and Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.

Technorati Tags: wireless, wi-fi

 Citycita is a great tool previewed on TechCrunch a couple of days back. It allows people to create specific interest groups and map them to allow those groups to meet.

It got a fairly glowing review suggesting it may have a decent future but if you look at the screenshots, there is Google Adsense running down the left hand side.

What is your opinion on this? As a start-up is any revenue good revenue or is there more at stake tha a few dollars per month?

Is the brand they are creating more important than the marginal revenue they will create by placing these type of ads on the homepage?

My argument is YES. It is tacky and should be BANNED for start-ups!

If you have enough VC money coming in, and looking at the type of people that are likely to read TechCrunch, are the y likely going to click on Adsense ads? No.

However, are they going to see Google Adsense ads and wonder if you are such a small operation (and therefore a risky one to sign-up with) that you need to generate cash from Ad Sense?

I’m not knocking Citycita because I think it is a great idea and wish I could use it in the UK. If I could create bathroom user groups who could discuss home improvements with each other and even visit our previous customers’ houses to see our handy work, I would be a VERY happy man.

I just think that Ad Sesne has been hijacked by too many scammers for it to be used on a credible business venture’s homepage.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Adsense

Evidence indeed, if it were ever needed, that the youth of today are shaping the news tomorrow.

 A Globespan report published on the BBC shows that nearly 20% of all 18-24 years old surveyed, use the internet as their main source of news and that the main reason for doing so was to largely to verify the full facts and to see if there were other angles that had been covered by other sources (other news sources or blogs).

Interestingly, only 11% of those in arguably the peak of their profressional careers, the 24-34 year olds (and likely most frequent users of the internet) use the internet as their main news source.

The report suggets that habits rather than time spent online are the drivers for the differences between the groups, with the younger respondents having grown up with internet news and seeing it and blogs as legitimate news resources in the same way a 50+ individual may trust newspapers.
Interestingly in Korea (where 86% of the population are online), the use of the internet  as the main news resource in incredible high at 34%, beaten only by television at 41%.

This holds significant interest for the more sophisticated nations. If a country with such high proportion of internet take-up (yet a relatively low penetration of broadband connection speeds) can acquire 34% of its news from the internet, is it the method of delivery rather than the content which is the main factor in driving people online?
I would argue it is the method of delivery. 38% of online Koreans trust blogs compared to the all-country average of 24%.

In addition to the element of trust (gained through consistency, honesty and openness), the method of delivery needs to be in a way and at a time that is convenient to the reader. Events do not wait until the news happens at 9pm to happen and people want their news there and then.

71% of all 18-24 year olds questioned said they would prefer news delivered in a mobile or wireless way.

Those people that don’t find ways of making this happen risk falling behind forever.

Scoble blogs about a post from Tara Hunt aka “Miss Rogue” aka “Pinko Marketeer” in which she say that the big coirporations just don’t get comunity, what it is and how it can help grow (and in fact finish!) a company.

What is interesting is that for me, the overiding dilemma is how to adopt small-company ethics on a larger scale.

I know most of my customers by their first names, the type of house they have, their intersts, occupation etc., because I converse with each and every one. As a co-business owner it is in my own interest to get to know each one of these people as well as possible so that they will buy get to know me, trust me and buy from me - not be sold to.

Many people may argue that I have a vested interest in the company and that is why I strive for the information, but it is a basic selling technique that the larger companies tend to forget as they plough through their call queues.

People do business with people and the more you know them whether B2B or B2C, if you feel a bond with someone, you warm to them and buy from them.

For me, this is the most basic rule which the bigger corporations need to find a way of implementing.

I have frequently blogged about the need for companies who want to behave ethically  to use some sort of feedback system. If you are doing a good job tell others about it, if you are doing a GREAT job, let your customers tell other people about it.

I get just under a third of my business from people who have checked out my eBay feedback and have then gone on to buy from me over the phone - bathroom suites at £950 a time with no hesitation in handing out credit card details to a total stranger.

Equally, because I know bad service or problem resolution may result in negative feedback, I go FLAT OUT to try and ensure total and utter staisfaction with my customers.

Negative feedback has far more bad consequences than positive feedback has good ones, so I strive to make sure that everyone in the business has the customer as king.

Too many companies hide behind the excuse of a lack of measurement tools to provide customer feedback - but now there are no excuses and only those companies who have something to hide will not adopt this type of scheme soon.

thanks to techcrunch for the images.

Stephan Spencer is offering a FREE eBook by one of his clients on how to become a Google Power-User and it is great!

Many people blog about Web 2.0, where it is going, how it is going to change our habits, when and where we will be using it etc., but how many people actually experience the products themselves? How can you recommend something you haven’t tried yourself?
Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Search, Froogle, Adwords, Adsense…(there are many many more!!) are all tools that if you learn to use yourself, ONLY THEN can we understand how they can benefit your business.

Soemone told me I was a salesman’s dream - because I am a salesman. Likewise, you can only expect to sell to people over the internet and via Google if you use it yourself and understand it.

Stephen Spencer is one of the most knowledgable and readable SEO and Internet guru’s around and if his clients are making mega-bucks from his advice, it might be prudent to read the book!

Technorati Tags: FREE eBook, Web 2.0, Google Calendar, Gmail, Froogle, Adwords, Adsense, Google, Stephen Spencer

Techcrunch reports that Microsoft may be first to launch online storage and NOT Google. Rumours are flying that the much-vaunted Google GDrive will not be ready until 2007, to allow them to work on a way to provide it for free, giving Microsoft time to launch an early version, tagged along with their growing “Live” range of products.

I like the idea of having online storage. I use my backpack account frequently to enable me to track websie development progress as well as the office mvoe as well as the changes to the showroom . I like using Google Calendar to enable me to log on (in a time of total chaos) to any computer anywhere and see what is going on…but still have a hang up about giving Microsoft my personal, sensitive and sometimes financial information.

OK, I don’t have to use it, but the benefits of freedom to travel are immense. BUT, if IE is such an easy target for hackers, why would my MS data be any better protected?