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Google released the 2006 Year End Zeitgeist this week. If you are unfamiliar with the Zeitgeist you should definitely check it out. So what is it? Well…

Pulling together interesting search trends and patterns requires Google’s human and computing power together. Search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time - weekly, monthly, and annually. With some help from humans, and a pigeon or two when they have time, these statistics and trends make their way from the depths of Google’s hard drives to become the Google Zeitgeist report.

Interesting Results … Note the prevalence of new media and social network terms in the top ten searches of the year.

Google.com - Top Searches in 2006
1. bebo
2. myspace
3. world cup
4. metacafe
5. radioblog
6. wikipedia
7. video
8. rebelde
9. mininova
10. wiki

Google News - Top Searches in 2006
1. paris hilton
2. orlando bloom
3. cancer
4. podcasting
5. hurricane katrina
6. bankruptcy
7. martina hingis
8. autism
9. 2006 nfl draft
10. celebrity big brother 2006

How to…
1. how to refinance
2. wiki how to
3. how to drift
4. how to podcast
5. how to scream
6. how to levitate
7. how to tattoo
8. how to blog
9. how to kickflip
10. how to draw

Tags: Google, Search, Zeitgest, New Media, Social Network

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Zane and I must be on the same wavelength. Here I am typing up a post on LinkedIn and he goes and posts about LinkedIn and using social websites for business (more on the latter in Q1 2007 :).

I for one am slowly going the way of Scoble and am very close to dropping LinkedIn, although that is not entirely possible. Why? It provides little value, at least for me.

The only ’social’ aspect I have garnered from this service is the ability to ‘connect’ to other people through people. That’s cool. I personally do not like this interaction to be automated as it is the heart of personal social interaction. Is someone more likely to do business with me if they are my contact on LinkedIn or if a mutual colleague says, “Hey, you should email Andy - he can solve all your web problems!”? I would bet the latter. And I would rather meet clients in this fashion than getting “LinkedIn”.

LinkedIn has done plenty for me thus far. I get a range of job offers from all over the country doing all kinds of things. Essentially it has become a free marketing list for IT recruiters. I am in Iowa and I am a technologist and web architect primarily in Microsoft technologies - why do I care that you have an opening in Toronto for a PHP developer that requires relocation? The answer is - I don’t. LinkedIn has become a spam-bot.

If someone needs to keep in contact with me or view my resume, they can online. I have had the same email, website, and phone number for about five years now. I will own my personal domain forever. People can refer me to others via this connection. Hasn’t that been the case of business networking since the beginning of business networking?

I like what Jeff Atwood has to say:

“Has this service ever been useful to anyone? I’m telling you, Linked In is the digital equivalent of a chain letter. If you really want to contact a friend of a friend (of a friend), just pick up the phone or send an email. If the only way you can reach someone is through this nutty online social pyramid scheme, you don’t deserve to be taken seriously. And I can guarantee that you won’t be

Consider carefully: who really benefits from your participation in Linked In? I’ll tell you who benefits: Linked In.”

Can you give me good reasons on how this service can create value for me … or how it creates value to you?

Related:

Opting Out Of Linked In

Linking Out after Two Years of Linked In

LinkedIn: Can’t we talk about this first?

I hate LinkedIn

Tags: LinkedIn, Business, Social Networks

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I was surprised to see an interesting item drop into my RSS job river today. The Des Moines Register is looking for an online developer. Interestingly enough this has come after my recent analysis and research into the Register’s web presence. It’s also a wonder that I’ve heard nothing about it, even though I submitted an open letter to them (via my blog) proclaiming they should hire me to revamp their user experience on the web.

So why haven’t they contacted me yet? I have no idea either…

An Open Letter to the Des Moines Register

Des Moines Register - Analyzing My Local Gannett Newspaper

Des Moines and Viral Marketing

Des Moines Register - Business Reader Survey

Tags: Des Moines Register, Iowa, Website, New Media

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A couple weeks I wrote about a feature in Business 2.0 called ‘How to Succeed in 2007‘. I shared Reed Hasting’s quote from the article. I got around to reading the rest of them and noticed a segment from Jeff Hicks, President and CEO of Crispin Porter & Bogusky - perhaps the best marketing / advertising agency around. I recently got a hold of their employee handbook, and it is quite the read. There are many things people outside CPG can learn and gather from this, including this great sentence:

“To be successful, we have to approach every single day like it will be our defining moment. Because that is the reality.”

[...]

“We don’t talk about it, or have a meeting about it, or e-mail each other about it if we’re not going to do it. Brilliant thinking not executed is literally worthless. No amount of PowerPoint presentations can substitute for work not done. People who do things are the people who change the world. You are in the game here.There are no sidelines.”

You should definitely read it.

Now Jeff Hicks’ excerpt on how to “Make Your Brand Part of the Conversation“:

Make Your Brand Part of the Conversation

There are three things I think about the most when it comes to making it as a marketer these days. The first one is there’s no amount of money I can pay to get my commercial in front of you, because you can powerfully edit what you spend time with. So my job as a marketer is no longer to interrupt, but to produce content that is so relevant, interesting, entertaining, and involving that my best consumers won’t want to live without it.

The second thing is understanding that instead of brochures and trade shows, marketing now really begins with the product. Great companies are investing a lot of time and attention into trying to make products that market themselves.

The last piece is that user-generated content has made it possible for consumers to own your brand, and if they don’t, you’re not doing your job. The brands that are adopted, blogged about, and parodied the most are the ones that are going to win because they’re involved in the evolution of pop culture. If you’re scared to have your brand played with, you’re going to be left behind.

Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, How To Succeed in 2007

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Everybody from bloggers to major publications like PC World are writing about Vista - what it does, why it’s great, why it sucks, how it copies Apple’s OSX, etc, etc, etc. I shared my first impressions on Vista - “Loving it!” - shortly after my first week of using Vista Ultimate. Zane says he will be waiting a few months to roll out Vista for CCU.

I couldn’t agree more. At this point it simply is not a feasible upgrade. So why do I love it but not recommend it for businesses? It’s simple - XP will be just fine for the forseeable future. Of the major benefits of Vista - Security, Usability, Efficiency - none provide benefits to warrant such an expensive upgrade. The opportunity cost of Vista adoption does not stack up to the ROI at the bottom line, at least it won’t for some time. By the time your business needs Vista the TCO for the adoption of the new platform will be much less as hardware prices and licensing costs fall.

So why am I ‘Lovin it’? Well it’s the most complete operating system I have had my hands on. And then there are the little things. It’s significantly faster with the same hardware I used on XP Pro. The filesystem changes create a far more organized environment. The ease of media use and Media Center integration is amazing. Oh, and it connects to my XBOX 360 allowing me to stream all my digital media to my living room. Vista will be the backbone of my fully connected and digital home.

Around every corner there are niceties that create a great overall experience. That’s why I’m loving it.

I also wanted to note the IDC research study that pointed out the Vista release would produce more than 100,000 new jobs and $70 billion in revenue for businesses in 2007 (not-Microsoft).

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Vista

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