May 26, 2008
Capital letters and exclamation! Marks
The tiresome chase of Yahoo! by Microsoft is almost as tiresome as the fact that my word processor automatically capitalises the letter that immediately follows “Yahoo!”. Despite selling zillions of Xbox consoles and, um, Zune music players, Microsoft still lags way behind in the online advertising market.
(Link)
A leaked internal memo from Internet Business head, Kevin Johnson, said:
“Regardless of the outcome of any new discussions [with Yahoo], it is important we continue to move forward to strengthen our online services business. The fact is that we are not where we want to be in this business yet and we've been in this position longer than we'd all like.”
Despite noting that he did not use the offending “!” when writing Yahoo!, it is interesting to note the focus that Microsoft are putting in to online advertising. Companies want to advertise, they want their brand in front of the consumer and they will pay to do that. There are only so many places you can put your company brand and that space is filling up pretty quick.
What’s next? A logo in the email inbox?
The public are revolting
Most right-thinking citizens would treat any purveyor of crime with absolute disdain but the public reaction to any news relating to the arrest of phishers and fraudsters can be downright vitriolic. The news that 38 scammers from a global crime ring have been charged with stealing millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims has been met with glee and a string of retributive suggestions.
(Link)
The Romanian-based ring – not the greatest advertisement for post-Communist society – was also run out of Portugal, Canada, the US and Pakistan. Deputy Attorney General Mark R Filip said:
“International organized crime poses a serious threat not only to the United States and Romania, but to all nations.”
While I realise it is just a sound-bite I can’t help but feel bemused as to why you would specify two countries that a global threat is not only applicable to and then immediately underline the severity of the situation by including the other 193 countries as well.
I digress. The point here is that responses on message boards to the above news ranged from “Line 'em up against the wall and shoot them”, “They should be paraded before the public”, and “Hang 'em. Hang 'em high.”
The war that Brandmail are leading against phishers and scammers is one that has the full support of you all – albeit with a rather violent undercurrent.
Secret of my blogging success
You think you know all the lingo? Blogs? Vlogs? The Troggs? They were good actually. “Wild Thing” was a generation-defining track.
Well here’s a new one – flogs. Flogs are like blogs but not authentic. Fake, in other words. And apparently a number of companies are responsible for producing flogs where they pose as an individual or organisation claiming to independently espouse the related product or service. (Link)
Amongst the companies to fall foul of this phenomenon are Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Sony. Coca-Cola pretended to be a “hip dude” who championed Coke Zero in his blog while fabricated tales from a couple who praised Wal-Mart stores around America were also unearthed as a flog.
Robert Scoble, noted Silicon Valley-based blogger, says:
“I would never recommend a client to lie on a blog. The audience is too connected and too smart to get away with this and they love finding out if you have done something wrong!”
Martin Murray of Interactive Return, an Irish online marketing firm, suggests that writing blogs is not about outstanding prose or perfect spelling (as you can see) but rather that you write what you know:
“Rarely or never would I suggest an outsider does the blogging on behalf of a business; a blog doesn’t have to be written by the CEO – it can be by anyone as long as they are writing content they are expert on within the organisation.”
Blogger Kieran Murphy of Murphy’s Ice Cream lends similar advice:
“The biggest thing is that you don’t want to fill it up with propaganda because nobody will be interested in reading that.”
I fully endorse that final comment. No one likes the guy who talks about himself all the time, moves to shake hands with you before saying “whoops, I forgot to pocket the keys to my new Bentley Continental GT first” and boasts of gin-laden weekends away with Jonathan and Jennifer Hart.
It’s a super article – give it a read. When you’re done here of course … ok … dismissed.
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