Buzz specifically caught a lot of folks off guard with its ‘instant follow’ capabilities. Moreover, users could instantly derive who was in conversation with who among their connections based on follower lists. Instant privacy concerns.

Lots more public conversation has asked why Google is entering the social game. Google should answer ‘why not’ however some of the Google Buzz bungles have perhaps shown that the internet marketing behemoth doesn’t necessarily understand the implications of privacy regarding the massive amounts of data it has available from its users, specifically at the point of e-mail. Where Facebook has perhaps fared better with the privacy concerns of its users, it shows that Google is perhaps comparably new to the social dynamics of how people use its software.

Back along the lines of SEO, Google has lots of search consultants sweating with the implications of how changes in local and personalized search results are changing what it means to have a “#1 ranking.” In regard to personalized search, the major implication is that one user may have a different experience in search results based on their past search tendencies. Moreover, Google’s testing of “Enhanced” Local listings (in the Google Maps results) may soon put a spin on what has been the more organic nature of the 7-pack of maps listings found in locality specific search queries. (For reference, Google is testing a $25 paid Local listing in San Jose and Houston as test markets for the new service)

As for the other third of the search engine market, both the Department of Justice and the European commission have OK’d a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo to make Bing the power behind the Yahoo throne. In essence, the two companies have entered into a five year deal by which Bing will provide the backend for Yahoo’s Search and Ad Networks – a sizeable change considering that following the deal, there will be only two majors venues for search marketing: Google and Bing. In short, if your current business model or marketing practices rely on visibility through Yahoo, you may want to rethink your plan of attack.

Bob was very engaging, but in his 60 second elevator pitch, he only had 15 seconds each to convince you of his expertise in home sales, personal hygiene, telecommunications and nutrition. Even giving Bob the benefit of the doubt in regards to his expertise, your brain doesn’t really know how to classify them. So it gives up and goes on to the next business card.

Now, imagine this Bob had a web site to talk about all of his different businesses, and he had all the information on one web page. A search spider comes crawling to determine what the site is about, but can’t really make a determination – because none of the content is aligned around any one particular topic, and the title of the page is “Home.”

Search engine marketing provides visibility. That visibility requires that any web site has a clear and concise message. The trick is in knowing which message to broadcast, and the shortest distance to that knowledge is in keyword research. After all, Bob wouldn’t want to call himself an “independent land holding contractor” when all people really want is a real estate agent.

So, please do your keyword research, or hire an organic seo company to do it for you…

Given my whole adoption of the iPhone experience, you can likely assume a lot about my expectations for the iPad. Indications were that the the user experience of the iPhone was going to be brought to a Tablet-like experience. What many inferred is the iPad would be a new solution for mobile computing, likely featuring a toned-down version of the Mac’s OS X. Obviously, we were mistaken, given that the iPad will rather function with a slightly enhanced version of the iPhone operating system.

iPhone users are presented with a very real problem with the iPad: We expected it to do more than the iPhone, and it doesn’t.

The same day, a quote began circulating from Steve Jobs regarding the Google Nexus One.

“We did not enter the search business, they entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them. This don’t be evil mantra, it’s bull$&*!.”

That statement puts a lot of casual iPhone users at odds about deciding between Google and Apple just as Apple’s public relationship with Microsoft. Having to publicly condemn either Google or Apple in the arena of smartphone choice seems as combative as it is silly.

In short, the statement made Jobs seem both angry and paranoid about Google’s entry into the mobile phone market, which has been coming for years. In comparing apples to oranges (pun implied), Jobs has made a leap which I don’t think will help Apple’s brand position.

With cavalier comments like that, Jobs has strengthened the position that Apple is the kid in the playground who won’t play nicely with the other children. Even as Jobs navigated the front page of the New York times, it became clear that the issue of flash on Apple’s mobile devices has yet to be resolved, a breakneck issue for many, many consumers.

“No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.”

Futuristic vision aside, the vast majority of all streaming video is accomplished via Flash. Rather than identify battery issues, overheating, questionable content, or conflict of intrest with the iTunes story as reasoning (all valid) Jobs has been known to call flash buggy and the reason for a high number of crashes on the Macintosh operating system.

Mac vs PC debates aside, I and many other users are interested in the iPad for its fantastic usability, but are disappointed with the hype leading up to its announcement. Hopefully Apple will learn from the feedback to better manage expectations among its throng of supporters.

And every once in a while, Microsoft comes back and impresses me with some adaptation of their current technology. I’ve been using Windows 7 for several months, and find it to be sleek, sexy, and high performing.

More important along this line of thought was my recent introduction to the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Very ‘Microsoft’ in its naming convention, the usage of the tools therein are decidedly foreign to the Microsoft way of doing business. In short, they’ve put Exchange services, along with SharePoint and LiveMeeting into a package of cloud-hosted services at a flat, per user fee starting at $10 per month.

Traditionally the kind of functionality inherent in these services came with a several thousand dollar price tag, from the time a company bought a server and paid an IT company to install it and maintain it. Microsoft handles it now, and there are lots of firms ready and willing to help migrate.

I was tipped off to this by some friends over at Apparatus. You should check out their take on the BPOS offer at:

http://www.apparatus.net/bpos

And, if you’re tempted to look at something new and shiny that Microsoft put out, their cloud-based Storage beta called Mesh looks to sync things up in an interesting fashion. Looks to be a cross platform DropBox that I’ll check out when I have lots, and lots of free time.

The Indianapolis operation of Roche Diagnostics Corp has likely seen healthier times. Despite unfettered growth internationally, where Roche has outpaced its competitors, its American operations have been troubled by diminished market share in diabetes related products.

Specifically, Roche’s Disetronic insulin pump sales have diminished greatly over the past 10 years. A 2001 U.S. market share of 20 percent had diminished to just 4 percent by 2004. The difficulties have prompted Roche to being layoffs in its Disetronic unit, which employed approximately 200 people at its Fishers headquarters. Added to last year’s announcement that Roche would move 300 lab equipment-related jobs to Germany by 2011, the Indianapolis economy has a lot of high-paying jobs to lose when Roche decides to cut its U.S. operations.

These cutbacks are in sharp contrast to Roche’s market positions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when several innovations allowed the company to capture significant share of the diabetes-related medical device market in the U.S.

An Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) article in late December detailed several reasons for the company’s slide in market share, attributing FDA nay-says and recalls to declining sales in the U.S.

Upon acquiring the Disetronic unit in 2003, the FDA disapproved of Roche’s factory in Switzerland for the production of the insulin pumps, which kept them off the U.S. market for about two years.

David Kiff, publisher for the Diabetic Investor, said, “At one time, they were on top of the world. But they didn’t adapt to the changes.”

Arguably, search marketing is another innovation which has evaded Roche. A Google search for “insulin pumps” and several supporting terms nets no results for Roche on the first three pages of search results. Google’s  reports that over 18,000 people searched specifically for “insulin pumps” in November of 2009, with similar figures preceding it throughout the year. Microsoft/Bing reports 1,800 searches during the same time frame.

A marketing executive for Roche might argue that customers in the diabetes business who buy from Roche do not find them online. This argument would be valid, considering Roche’s lack of online visibility for a now-faltering product line.

Would such visibility offer a valuable return for the company? This could depend on which groups are actively searching for “insulin pumps.” If Roche has an interest in marketing to both end users and distributors of its product, it has the capability to impress upon hundreds of thousands of potential customers.

Bruce Frank, a former Roche employee turned consultant commented in the IBJ article to not count Roche out. “It’s a very strong company; it’s got a lot of money. It can do what it wants to do when it wants to do it.”

I have no doubt that is true.

The article starts off with a dubious cover and title, “This CEO has Silicon Valley Buzzing.” The obvious response from anyone familiar with the male-dominated web startup zone is

“Duh. With a profile like that, how could she not demand attention?”

That comment however has a sexist ring to it, so I’ll give the story its due credit, despite some (what I feel to be) bad framing.

I’m going to assume that by now most of you reading this article are familiar with Ning (for clarity’s sake, the social platform which has been used to build sites such as smallerindiana.com).

The business model of Ning is part Facebook, part Wordpress. Network owners have the option of hosting their ad-supported networks on Ning servers, or pay $20 / month to have more control and host it locally. At the time of the article’s publishing, Bianchini commented how Ning would move from a Google supported ad environment to one managed internally by Ning.

To date, Ning hasn’t switched to their own ad network, despite impressive growth in its networks and users. More important to advertisers however, is the relative activity level of those users compared to when they signed up for accounts, some of them just kicking Ning’s tires before retreating to other venues.

More interesting was the article’s allusion to the “Viral Loop” or the social phenomenon by which services like Facebook, Hotmail, MySpace and Youtube have all experienced exponential levels of growth in recent years and become the power houses that they are.

In May 2008, Ning forecasted having 4 million networks running their web software by the end of 2010, and serving up billions of daily page views by the popularity of those networks. At the time the article was written, only 110,000 networks had been started. In October 2009, Ning had 1.6 million networks serving 36 million users.

My feelings surrounding Ning’s potential success could be described as dubious at best, as the startup’s success calls on the mindset of an activist, and one very major factor in users choosing it above all others:

Lack of a better option

Creating your own Ning platform is an easy-enough feat, but so is creating a Facebook Fan Page, Myspace or LinkedIn group, not to mention the dozens of other less-popular, more specific networks. Ning’s growth model demands that there be as many as 4 million proactive users who feel passionately enough about their topic of choice to start a network of their own. Viral loops aside, that’s a tall order.

But it’s been done before. Hotmail went from 0 to 30 million users in 30 months, simply adding a line at the end of its users e-mails advertising free accounts. Youtube did similarly with embed codes and sharing options for its users. But Ning is relying on already-active users to generate new networks at a rate which a little staggering. (usage figures here) The question for Ning’s success is clear, how will it inspire 4 million people to start their own network (this by the end of 2010)?

Despite what many are calling a disaster of a year business-wise, I’ll choose to focus on the good of 2009. What you focus on expands, and I’ll start at the top. These are the things I am thankful for:

1)    We still live in one of the greatest nations to grace the planet Earth.

Politics aside, the United States of America is still the most privileged nation on Earth. We may argue that our cushioned existences have become a trifle more difficult, and we are still healthy and wealthy in ways billions of people will never experience or understand (even we don’t fully grasp it).

2)     Technology and education empower us more than ever before.

I’m looking at you – yes you. The guy on the bus reading this on your iPhone. Innovation and new business ideas have been placed at the fingertips of everyone fortunate enough to have a computer and internet access. A new generation of Rembrandt’s, Einstein’s and Edison’s is emerging daily in the blogosphere, unencumbered by the traditional means to take their ideas to market.

3)    Support structures abound (where is yours?)

Even if I didn’t have an incredibly supportive immediate family to my Entrepreneurial efforts, the city of Indianapolis has literally dozens of networks to engage like-minded individuals. Between Rainmakers, Young Entrepreneurship organizations and others, it has become easy to find others to connect with and grow.

4)    Others have gone before.

Being somewhat the new player on the block (my hair isn’t quite gray yet), I’m incredibly thankful for the example set by the authors and entrepreneurs who have shared their stories in books, speeches and seminars designed to inspire the masses. Check out my recommended reading page for more on that.

5)    Because 5 is a round number, and because this list needs a light-hearted ending.

I’m thankful for the complete picture that is going to follow me writing this post, which is a retreat downstairs to eat dinner with my family, enjoy a glass of wine that my father made (the wine, not the glass), and be completely energized come tomorrow to make 2009 go out with a bang, and have 2010 be even better.
Cheers, and Happy Thanksgiving!

So, instead of moan in my dry, dry desert of creativity, I’ve decided to glance through my casks of aged information for any nuggets of wisdom from months past that came true, or were total BS.

I suppose the latter represents a different kind of nugget.

May 2008 – Concerning Alex Bogusky and the newly rebellious Microsoft

In 2007, Alex Bogusky, now partner to the mammoth ad agency of Crispin, Porter & Bogusky, pulled a fast one and relocated half the firm to Boulder, CO. The move sparked a serious amount of buzz, culminated by the acquisition of several major ad contracts including Burger King, VW, and Microsoft. The heft of the firm grew substantially in 2008, boasting a $1.5 billion revenue mark in 2008 (compared to a measly $1 billion in 2007 (sourced from the Denver Metro Book of Lists).

Out of all this buzz came a cover story in Fast Company detailing Bogusky’s recent landing of Microsoft as an ad client. In addition to the profile of the ad giant, the article detailed CPB’s uphill battle to reposition Microsoft as the hip kid on the block in the Mac vs PC battle.

Difficult, nigh impossible task.

| This seems an appropriate moment to pose an aside question. Do you feel he’s been successful, given the nearly two years since Microsoft contracted with CPB to tackle Mac?|

Out of the article, I did appreciate a nugget of wisdom which Bogusky was quoted saying,

“Life conspires to beat the rebel out of you.”

(An ironic comment, as Microsoft’s image to a lot of folks I think is anything but rebellious)

Boot-strapping entrepreneurs might appreciate Bogusky’s comments, and are generally familiar with the life-beating force that drives so many business startups into the ground. Even when innovation is the name of the game, society’s pressures are not usually the pat on the back they need to stave off becoming another statistic (4/5 small businesses close within 5 years).

From Bogusky’s advertising perspective, the term ‘Rebel’ applies more to a large organizations need to change its image, rather than a startup mogul fighting for his/her existence in the marketplace. Regardless, Microsoft and the non-rebels among the corporate world may be arriving on harder times should their attempts fail to, as the Fast Company article put it, ‘let their hair down.’

Both of us have had the fortune of being coached by Tony Scelzo of Rainmakers, who has had a distinctive impact on a lot of business professionals. Let’s say they number in the thousands (because they do).

The common issue which brings up this pivotal question (What would Tony do?) tends to derive from some conversation which even hints at a negative outlook of the economy, job market, or prospecting environment we find ourselves in currently. If there is even a hint that we are not pushing the normal boundaries of expectation, the question is pulled,

“What would Tony do?”

The answer is always action-oriented.

“Go for it.”

“Just do it!”

“What are you waiting for?”

It’s a great mantra to carry in the back of your head. At the point where Tony’s famous “head trash” enters into the picture, the awareness of said psycho-babble is usually enough to swing back to a powerful (not just positive) view of reality.

He’s opened up a lot of business professionals to the success that comes from lessened inhibition and self-doubt that otherwise can paralyze business owners from making powerful decisions.

The moral of the story? Well, if you don’t know Tony, you should make the effort. And if you don’t have a coach, well…

What would Tony do?

This post is a little more personal than things I usually write, so if you’re not at all interested in learning more about what makes me tick, you might go back to Hulu and be happier for it.

Like most everyone who has half a heart, I’m sometimes heard saying that my family is very important to me. In a very real sense, my parents and older brother have provided me with the means to chase success on my own terms. This is something special to me, and I don’t think I recognize it enough.

I have a goal sheet framed in my bedroom and sitting on my desk, and of the dozen-or-so goals written on that sheet, included is a goal to provide for my family’s financial independence. My family has never been wealthy, and thus my father has bootstrapped his way through raising 3 kids (and he’s not done yet at age 65 with a 17 year old daughter – do the math).

Without going into too many of the dreamy and emotional details, my father has a hobby in winemaking that he and I would both like to see come to fruition in his retirement. A retirement that currently is not an option due to financial constraint.

I’ve shared the back story of the “family vineyard” with several people over the past few weeks, and the result has been surprising. Earlier this week, I spoke to my dad on the phone (I try to call about once a week). As always, we shared what we’ve been up to lately, and he detailed out a few days of rather difficult manual labor.

As I heard him describing what became the conflict in my mind between his current scenario (a sore, stiff body after several hours of sanding, painting and home repair work) and the one I want him to be in (sitting on a porch in Grand Junction, CO overlooking several acres of vineyards and orchards), I started to become angry. Literally angry.

I tried not to let it ruin the phone call, but I found myself having to change the conversation, as I was making myself physically ill at the thought that I had not made better strides toward my vision and my goal. I’m not yet sure exactly where the disconnect is, but the thought of my father working his way through retirement just isn’t acceptable to me.

And while I don’t like the idea sickly feeling I’m left with after this thought, the clarity of vision and drive towards my goal that it creates is beyond most clarity I have ever felt in my life.

To make a long story short, the next time you see me and feel like helping me along this path, ask me, “Why?” Why slave at your own business? Why give up weekends? Why work until 2am on that presentation?

Because there’s a porch in Grand Junction, CO.