A case study in 'social media' success
I'm a professed 'social media' skeptic. I believe that much of the hype around social media is unjustified.
I believe anyone arguing that every corporation should be seeking out 'conversations' and becoming 'friends' with customers on social networks largely reflects a misguided and naive marketing philosophy.
comScore - ecommerce shrinks first 23 days of November, will Black Friday, Cyber Monday save the day?
It looks like the woes that had already befalled brick-and-mortar retail may have finally befallen online retailers. According to comScore, e-commerce sales in the first 23 days of November declined 4% from the same period last year.
The Web Week in Review
In a week that that saw a rally in global stock markets and is seeing some of the best Black Friday deals in recent memory, it seems like the world has been able to recapture some sense of normalcy.
Here's the news that caught my attention this week.
If you liked this, are you really sure to love that?
The New York Times Magazine published an interesting article that discusses the Netflix $1mn challenge that has some developers working tirelessly to improve the accuracy of the Netflix recommendation engine by 10%.
Newspapers battle each other for advertisers, could online publishers do the same?
Bloomberg.com published an interesting article last Friday that highlights just how competitive it's getting in the newspaper world as newspapers struggle to not only survive the woes of their industry, but struggle to survive a tough economic environment.
Should you start a business in today's recession?
As the woes of the global economy have deepened and it's clear that we're in for some tough times that will likely be prolonged, there's still no shortage of people encouraging entrepreneurs to start businesses.
"Many great businesses were started in bad economies!" they proclaim. And they're right. Great businesses have been started in the toughest of times.
Google makes search more social with SearchWiki
Google, a company that has built its success in search on the back of a superior search algorithm, is looking to humans as it makes search a bit more social with the launch of SearchWiki.
The Web Week in Review
As we've been reminded recently, there are few guarantees in life. Except the end of the week and The Web Week in Review. So here we go (again).
The information overload threat and opportunity
According to a study recently released by Yahoo, UK internet users are suffering from information overload.
As reported by the Association of Online Publishers UK, the study, which is entitled "Return on Attention," found that 70% of users "admitted to spending hours sifting through unwanted or irrelevant information."
VCs taking in more than they're producing
The notion that the business of venture capital is broken is one that I've discussed multiple times before.
In short, I (and many others) have observed a major problem with venture capital in recent times - too many VCs with too much money chasing too few "good" opportunities.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
