DISQUS

Microsoft Bing punting Bing as a "decision engine", which it clearly isn't, or certainly isn't any better than Google. Here's excerpt from a recent article of mine on the subject of Bing as a decision maker:

"Let's say I want to go Italy, so I type in: 'travel to Italy'. If I'm wanting to make decisions around that specific activity, then Bing is skipping a lot of initial steps and making assumptions. I might be a first time traveler. Bing knows at least where I'm from, in this case I'm in England, so that adds some geographic context to the mix. Yes, this context is reflected in the results, but not in how they're presented, which should be as a series of tasks related to making a decision.

As an example, in Europe, we need a EU (European Union) travel insurance card. It's not mandatory.

I can see a listing for the British Foreign Office (FCO), entitled: "Italy travel advice" so it would seem obvious to me to break this result out and give it special relevance, related to the activity of traveling to Italy.

Also, and obviously, I'd be needing flights, accommodation and transport to and from the airport, as well as exchange services for changing my money into Euros — none of these things are specifically grouped into categories, based around those very specific tasks."

This was just one example of how poor Bing is at actually helping me make an informed decision.

Yeah, it's a very unsavory "tactic", if we can even call it that, but it's been around for ages. I remember this way back when I first signed up to Twitter a couple of years ago, but this kind of thing was on a much smaller scale — which is to be expected, given the much smaller audience Twitter had back then.

This time last year, I wrote an article called: "Social Networking and blogging for self-masturbatory egomaniacs — a guide", which lists some of the scummy tactics people can expect to encounter .. and was promptly plagiarized by someone who ought to have known better.

There's just no end to these things because there's no one in a position to stop them, so the game just continues...

Personally, I think it's an idea that has traction, but then I would say that, since I proposed the exact same idea a while ago, only my idea had Facebook Connect front and centre, as well as a group chat feature.

The day people start writing for the Twitter mentality will be the day there's no mentality at all. You can't abridge, truncate, shorten, condense or reduce what really needs to be said in as many words or characters as what is required...

There will always be those who fork out for whatever premium service Twitter rolls out, but it's going to be hard for Twitter to offer anything more substantial than what's already out there, being touted by others, and still for free.

Would that be anything like my Social Loop, which proposed much the same thing? Hmm...

Ah, you missed a trick — why not add links from Last.fm to the music mentions?

The one quality everyone is trying to accrue is trust. Forget about all other qualities, trust is the foundation of everything — people buy into people long before they buy into what they do.

Yes, I agree that personal branding does sound a bit cheap at times, but it works at conveying a meaning.

As you know, I'm a blogger, and my blog has a far greater social footprint than my business does. I knew this would happen, so I deliberately grew the Blah, Blah! Technology blog around myself, to amass trust and then transfer that trust into everything else I do, specifically my business, Octane.

None of this would have really worked out had I not had a plan in mind, which I'd assembled as an exercise in personal branding.

The more I read about Scoble, the more I realize he's an idiot who can't hold his tongue. He wouldn't waste his time trying to build a good reputation because his motormouth is too busy giving him a bad one. And besides, he's so heavily insulated by how hugely connected he is, he just wouldn't even care.

But the irony is, whether he deliberately set out to build a personal brand or not, he's got one, though the interpretation of which varies, depending on who you talk to.

So good old Rob is a bad example of good personal branding, in so far as demonstrating how broad a church it can be, and how having a good reputation isn't always a mandatory requirement.

It's a shame that OmniWeb didn't get the traction it deserved. In many ways, it's light years ahead of any browser, Mac or PC.

The problem is the Firefox factor; you get hooked in the Add-ons and then there's no going back!

Reg is amongst a select few really popular social media people who actually takes time to reply to people and isn't too big to "step down" and follow people not occupying the same social footprint as himself...

It's interesting that this article should pop up in my Twitter stream. I'm just in the midst of writing a major follow-up article to my first ebook: The Beginner's Guide to Social Media:

"There are tons of things being said about social media, but most of it appears to be making the assumption that you know what social media is. For many business people, this really isn't the case.

So I've written The Beginners Guide to Social Media: an introduction to social media from a business perspective, as a total ground-up introduction to social media."

I've been surprised by the number of people from education and media & PR who've downloaded my ebook. Though they are all welcome, I really did expect to appeal more to business people. However, I may have inadvertently become the victim of my own prophecy; that most businesses aren't ready for social media, which segues rather nicely with your article...

If it was my time, I'd merge them.

Or, try and get someone else involved to write for 140char.

"But, in the current climate and more specifically my economic profile at the moment, can I justify spending an extra £300-£700 just to get that beautiful piece of technology when I could get a PC laptop for a lot less?"

The extra money you pay to Apple is more than you'd be paying to just keep your PC equiv' alive for the 5 years you can almost guarantee you'll be running that same Mac.

Then there's the pure ease-of-use, which is massive saving of time.

I've got a MacBook Pro and I've had no problems. As of typing this comment, it's over 2 months since I last restarted it, and that was only for software updates...

No, you can never
join too many social
networks. Why?
Because it's easy.

In the same way as
it's dead easy to
start up your own
business.

However, starting up
your own business
and being a credible
member of a
multitude of social
networks requires
the same thing of
you; that you're
able to manage what
you've taken on...

While I agree that StumbleUpon have nailed things as far are understanding and then monetizing their audience without pissing them off, it's not all sweetness & light.

The recent UI update is a pain, which I wrote about, snagging the attention of GMC (StumbleUpon founder Garrett) in the process, who was pretty quick and courteous to direct me towards their feedback forums.

Also, I understand they've changed their algorithms, which has curtailed the traffic a good Stumble would otherwise bring. I have to wonder if this is an attempt to drive people towards their paid-for services.

But when all is said & done, StumbleUpon has clear blue water between it and Digg when it comes to content specificity and community...

"Personally, I with you all the way on this, Louis." Make that Cesare Rocchi, who I happen to know from Pownce, d'uh! :-)

Problem is, there's a split in the Twittersphere; some take a dim view of the picking and the choosing you and I partake in.

I also have a set of rules, which I've written up in an article entitled: "So yo found me on Twitter, right?" There I lay down a few general rules.

I've added this link to my Twitter profile (URL attached), so it's the first thing people see when they visit my blog.

Personally, I with you all the way on this, Louis. But some simply don't agree...

So that's the white orchid hair pin, eh? Well done!

BTW, you just followed me on Twitter...

It is always about selecting the right places to be, but being quick about it, which isn't always easy.

Just like Dan, I get around, but I prefer not to bow out of those places that I frequent less. Why? If they're free, it's as well to be there and not be active than to not be there at all.

I've found that people look for me by name in some of the places I've got an account, but am inactive in.

But to reiterate Dan's point, you also have to conserve your social media energy as much as possible, and avoid "mission creep", which will, quite literally wear you out...

"Capitalism will decide how much is fair."

Ultimately, that's the great leveler. No matter what the premium content producer thinks they can charge, the market decides, because if they're charging too much, the market won't buy, and if what they're offering is mostly indistinguishable from what's free, very few will buy.

I've written a Plugin (Socialize Me!) and I've written an ebook, both of which are free. However, my reimbursement has been and continues to be the exposure my skills and expertise enjoy as a result of people using and sharing my products, which is an extension of my knowledge.

At some point, your knowledge is compensated further by people recognizing those talents and choosing engage with you in a project they feel your knowledge and know-how will be suited to.

There's a lot to be said about linking your various social profiles to your website or blog. You're making more than a visual connection, you're also extending and reinforcing your brand. Thanks to Hector, I get a showing, too!

"The broader story here is that Google is quickly trying to ramp up revenue across the board."

I disagree; the broader story is that Google have stepped down off the moral high ground and put their "do no evil" policy on the back burner to tide them over the period of good tidings...

This is good news, there's no doubting that. But for me at least, there's this air of "Shouldn't this have happened ages ago?"

The major plus is that the mainstream media now get a run for their money; size matters for nothing on the web these days...

The creative process is the last bastion of individuality, since most other character traits have either been copied, cloned or made into a clique.

As a force of the mind, its is both intangible and ephemeral, but always utterly unique...

I think you make a very good argument here, Jordan. Certainly one I won't contest. Instead, I'll ask you a question.

First of all, I have no background in advertising, but (as you'll see from my URL), advertising is something that I find very interesting.

I see advertising becoming more specific and less annoying as we give up more information about ourselves, assuming we are comfortable with that.

But in the short-term, the world's economy is in the shitter. I agree that social media is largely a total unknown to some, but some big players have put even bigger money into social media, as an advertising channel.

So could we not expect those people to be sifting through these findings, to develop a different breed of advertising for social media that deals with the FUD factor?

Another way of putting this is to say: might this lean period not bring out the best and separate the advertising wheat from the chaff?