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Blogger Rehab: The iPad Edition
Unless you’ve been living off the grid, you know Apple launched the iPad last week. And, for the first time in many years, I didn’t wait in line, run to the store or pre-order a new Apple product. Oh believe me… I wanted to… I practically need a 12-step program to keep me away from an Apple Store (hello… I’m Lloyd-O and I am an Apple Fanboy”). In my circle, there’s only 1 other friend who would be voted most likely to tattoo their bum with an Apple logo (I’m not going to mention names, but his initials are Scott).
I even had to go to the Apple Store last week to replace my cracked iPhone (true story — an accident, not “accidentally on purpose”), where the iPad crowds were as rabid as those of Justin Bieber (the first time I’ve ever used that name in a sentence that wasn’t preceded by “who is… ?”). And, after reading the laudatory reviews, most notably Walter Mossberg’s Wall Street Journal and John Gruber’s Daring Fireball posts, and recognizing how this device hits my media craving sweet spot, I’m now willing to elevate the iPad to “bacon status.” Apple reportedly sold 500,000 iPads the first weekend and with my rough calculations, if all iPads sold were laid end-to-end, they would reach from my desk to the takeout window of the La Estrella taco truck in Highland Park 3 times — an inspirational marathon journey of 26.6 miles. (For additional lifestyle metrics, with quick calculations, Read the rest of this entry »
“Space Available” Everywhere
Gas Pump Programming
Walking my 5-year-old to school this morning down the tree lined streets, the air scented with spring, I felt this seemingly perfect moment was somehow lacking. Not enough cheerful birds chirping? Too few friendly neighbors waving hello in their perky pajamas? No… after noting a blue plastic wrapped NY Times on a late-sleeping lawn, it hit me… our walk was bereft of advertising. No LED billboards or eye-level video monitors — nothing but “space available” as far as the eyes could see. What’s more, this “special moment” wasn’t just a wasted branding opportunity — it was advertising time lost forever! Kodak, Lego, Pop-Tarts, why have you forsaken us?
A new report from Nielsen called the “Fourth Screen Network Audience Report” measures the impact of rapidly growing location-based media. The first three screens are television, computers and mobile, while the so-called “Fourth Screen” is always out-of-home.
Yelp: Ad Nauseum
You've been Yelped!
The Yelp “extortion” hullabaloo continues. CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman has consistently and vehemently denied that Yelp ever offered preferential treatment in exchange for advertising agreements. Despite Yelp’s claim to the contrary, it seems their boiler room must be bigger than the Iron Chef’s Chairman’s ego. Yelp’s claims that they’re simply trying to filter through to truth in reviewing seems to have gotten transposed with truth in advertising.
Wherever you turn, from your yoga instructor to your small business tech guy, they’ve been… “yelped over” by Yelp, with a similar tale of “the phone call.
A selection of comments from my Bllog:
Code Red: P.T. Barnum was right!
Yelp Gets Served
Reviewing Reality — Yelp
Unfortunately, the dream of David beating Goliath ended last night with Butler’s heartbreaking loss in the NCAA finals, but the little guy did score a victory — against Yelp. The recent extortion allegations against Yelp have forced the company to move quickly to assure transparency in how they display user reviews. “Online Communities” can lose allegiance as quick as you can say “Friendster,” especially when it turns out that “that friend” is serving you a plate of steaming manipulation.
The charges claim Yelp hides positive reviews for businesses that don’t “pay to play” in advertising agreements, and allows those that do to game the system with favorable reviews receiving priority placement at the top of the page and negative reviews removed. In response, the company is instituting 2 major changes. First, users can now click on a link to see the reviews that Yelp has filtered out (some reviews may have been deemed suspect for being overly critical or praiseworthy). And second, businesses that advertise with Yelp will no longer be able to chart top their favorite reviews.
Should You Eat Bacon?
Cheers!
Even though signals appear to be scrambled on Bacon’s relevance, Bacon continues to ham it up. Click on the link to answer the question:
As the sizzling It’s All About The Bacon blog says — “Bacon is not all taking. Sometimes Bacon gives back.”
Henry Blodget on the Yelp Controversy
Always worth reading Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget and his summary yesterday of the extortion accusations against Yelp clarifies some of the key arguments on both sides.
“Bottom line: Companies that choose to pay Yelp have a lot of control over the appearance of their pages. Specifically, they can commission long, detailed, five-star reviews that shove other reviews way below the fold. Basically, they can buy a long text-based ad that looks like an objective review and is only marked as one of their ‘favorite reviews.’ So is it extortion? We doubt it. But it’s more than just advertising. It’s potentially powerful and misleading advertising, because it carries the appearance of being an objective review. Which, in some cases, it almost certainly isn’t.”
Henry Blodget: Is Yelp Extorting Companies? We Analyze, You Decide
Cannonball Adderley Plays Fiddler On The Roof: My Favorite Passover Platter
My vinyl — flat like matzah
This is my favorite album by Cannonball Adderley, one of my favorite jazz musicians, and one which I play, well… religiously during the holidays. I’m fond of saying I’m only Jew-ish and not religious, but this odd ’64 interfaith marriage between the alto saxophonist and the hit Broadway play (both the play and the album debuted in ’64) really resonates with me. Oh sure, Cannonball’s playing is soulful and happy (as it always is) and this is one of his great bands (brother Nat Adderley, Joe Zawinul, Charles Lloyd, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes), but why is this album different from all others? What did a black jazz musician from Tampa, FL instantly recognize in a play about Tevye, a father of 5 daughters and his attempts to maintain religious traditions and prevent outside influences from encroaching upon the lives of his family in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka in 1905? Perhaps Cannonball recognized not only a symmetry between the struggles of Eastern European Jews and his own race, but also that Fiddler’s central theme — the importance of respecting and honoring of tradition, but that change and uncertainty are inevitable — mirrored jazz history.
Go down, Cannonball!
Employees Must Wash Hands
I don’t doubt the authenticity of Yelp’s user reviews (that guy’s comments on the al pastor burrito at La Estrella taco truck in Highland Park were dead on), but I’m beginning to question Yelp’s business behavior in the same way I’ve come to question Toyota’s in the aftermath of dealing with unexplained acceleration in some of their automobiles. 3 extortion lawsuits in less than a month (including 9 small businesses joining in 1 of the previous suits) accuse the company of removing positive reviews and demanding payments in the form of “advertising contracts” in order to remove negative ones.
Is Yelp stiffing readers on tips? Is this 1 time daily special become a regular menu item? Seems like Yelp’s credibility could be slipping from the frying pan into the deep fryer.
TechCrunch: “Complaints Against Yelp’s ‘Extortion’ Practices Grow Louder”
Please Mr. Postman
After reading TECH DIRT’s post on the outdated US Postal Service’s business model, I’m afraid it’s sad, but inevitable — it’s only a matter of time before the US Postal Service cuts Saturday deliveries. And, once we’re down to 5 days of postal service, it’s just a matter of time before they’re cut further. I see it in my own behavior — I pay all of my bills online and hardly write letters anymore. I do love buying physical goods online, so someone will still have to deliver it. And, yet, while I recognize the USPS’s business model is as outdated as print journalism’s, its demise leaves me both sad and nostalgic. It’s not just that letters and postcards are more special than email, IMs, text messages, Facebook updates or tweets (though they are). I grew up in the 60′s in a predominantly white/Jewish neighborhood and my first interactions with diversity were with our friendly postal workers. Civil service provided a safe middle class existence back then.
While I understand the USPS’s model will have to be radically revised, possibly even privatized in order to survive, I wonder what the broader cultural implications are for our society?
