Rachael's Blog

google’s new phone?

mazurra — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:08:16 +0000

Today I found an interesting article about something I hadn’t heard anything about — a phone made by Google. Right now, it seems that details concerning this new toy are being kept secret, but rumors speculate that Google employees were given unlocked phones today. This would probably be an interesting development in the smart phone market and I would be interested to see exactly what sets it apart from its competition. From what I understand about the new product, it can be used with an AT&T sim card and could potentially be released in January 2010. I wonder how this phone would compare to the iPhone and if this is really a radically different gadget or if it’s just Google’s attempt at taking a piece of the smart phone market.

facebook’s new privacy policy

mazurra — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:36:23 +0000

If you are a Facebook user like me, earlier this week you got an e-mail from the creator Mark Zuckerberg concerning how the site plans to update their privacy policy. I know that I was initially confused by the e-mail. I had no idea there was a such thing as “Beacon” or how it was affecting my use of the website. After some further research though I came across an article that described the situation a little better. Apparently as of now (and after many user complaints) Facebook plans to terminate the Beacon program by next February because this program posted information to users’ profiles from third-party sites in ways that were annoying and unwelcome. After reading the article, I found that I too had unknowingly experienced the effects of the Beacon program in a negative way. The information presented itself in the form of a notification to the user saying that one of their friends had performed some kind of action on a third-party site. I found these notifications to be a nuisance and whenever I received one, I would block the application. This is because not only do I feel these sites are a waste of time, but also because by joining, one gives the owner of the site access to any personal information posted to his/her Facebook profile. Programs like this exploit the fact that Facebook users are of all ages and have different levels of understanding of the way the internet works in order to invade a person’s privacy. Now that I know what the Beacon program was all about, I feel that the class-action lawsuit against it was long overdue. Hopefully the resulting $9.5 million settlement will go to good use.

twitter’s latest development

mazurra — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:25:52 +0000

As a business major, I understand why companies try to maximize profits by increasing their number of product lines. However, I think it is also important to go about it in a smart way. The social networking site twitter has expanded at an alarming rate in the last couple years, and it is only natural that they would try to offer different services to their users in order to increase their number of customers. Unfortunately, their latest idea seems a little odd to me. It is called twoddler and it is a means for toddlers to send out tweets by playing with a toy. The article I found explains how this toy works with an accompanying video. Personally, the whole idea just seems silly to me. I would not buy my child a toy that updated a website after they had randomly hit a button a certain number of times. What kind of parents would rather sit behind a computer to see how many times their kid spun a dial rather then just playing with their boy or girl themselves? I understand that right now Twitter is the latest toy for adults, but maybe it should stay that way for a little while longer.

hulu takes on music videos

mazurra — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:08:49 +0000

I found an article the other day about how the site Hulu has decided to post music videos on their site. This is an important development because that is where their biggest competitor YouTube gets the majority of their hits from. As I’ve addressed in other posts, one major concern for free sites on the web like Hulu is making a profit. If the site can increase their hits by adding music videos and taking business away from YouTube this could bring about significant changes as to how both of the sites run. Recently Google has been flirting with the idea of adding short advertisements before YouTube videos, and it would seem that if the number of viewers decreases, this measure will become more a necessity than an experiment. I think it will be interesting to see how music videos might change movie viewing on the internet on a grand scale.

on-line advertising: annoying vs. “engaging”

mazurra — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:27:29 +0000

It seems that the biggest issue for major websites today is figuring out how to make money while keeping users happy — and then making more money once they have accomplished that. For example, the social networking site Facebook recently found a way to turn a profit without charging its users a membership fee. This was critical because otherwise, the service probably would not be nearly as successful and would find that its end was nearing. Recently though, I found an article about how a company that is already making money plans to increase profits.

An article I found on Mashable.com talked about how Google plans to experiment with “skippable pre-roll” advertisements that play before videos on Youtube in order to make more money. The problem with playing ads before the typical video viewed on Youtube is that often the advertisement might last as long or longer than the material the viewer wanted to see to begin with. I think it will be interesting to see how successful their endeavor is in the long run, especially since the typical internet user already has little patience for similar practices on other sites.

mazurra — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:49:15 +0000

Most college age students have a facebook page or subscribe so some other social networking site. As a business major, over the summer, I was encouraged to create a page for myself on the site LinkedIn. I’ve been told that the website is a great way to get connected with people in the industry. Until I found this article though, I didn’t really know how to go about using the features offered on the website to get the results I was looking for. This is a problem I have run into before with other sites such as twitter. There seem to be many features a person can utilize, but if you don’t really know where to start, it’s hard not to feel like you’re stuck sitting in the dark.

Based on the information in the piece, it looks like the first thing I need to do is really start using the site more regularly. This might be a struggle for me, because it isn’t the first thing I think of doing when I connect to the internet. After that, the article offers 6 other tips to users about how to be more successful on LinkedIn (such as adding an avatar and increasing the number of connections you have). Like every other social networking site, it looks like a LinkedIn page needs a certain amount of care and maintenance — and I have some work I need to do…

what does google know about you?

mazurra — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:25:47 +0000

Recently, I came upon an interesting article concerning sensitivity of information on the internet — but not in the way you would expect. Most people have heard countless times about how they need to be careful about what information they post on the internet because then almost anyone can access information about your personal life. We are generally told this in the context of avoiding predators or managing a social networking site so that a future employer might not see a picture or information that is less that professional. This article was about something a little different.

It talked about something I hadn’t really thought about before. We all have probably experienced that our web browser tracks which websites we have been to, but I did not realize that Google has been keeping track of what terms and subjects I have searched. I guess in a way I have noticed that that when I begin to type in a word or phrase it now has a type of generic “auto-complete” option, but until I read this piece, I didn’t put two-and-two together that Google was keeping track of me. It makes me feel a little like big brother is monitoring my web activity. The article talked about how Google was going to offer an option where you could view the information that they had gathered about you — with a new dashboard option — but I don’t know if I think that makes the situation better or not. I understand that they need to compile information in order to add features that make their site better, but I still feel a little uneasy about the whole thing…

final cut pro

mazurra — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:11:54 +0000

Recently in class we’ve been learning about how to use Final Cut Pro so that we can utilize the program’s features in our final project. What is interesting is that there is not an extensive amount of articles written on the subject. On the other hand, there are many websites about “how-to” utilize features of the software. One article I found talked about how to use the program to get still images of digital footage. I thought this was interesting because it illustrates that there are many features that often aren’t used by owners of such programs because they don’t understand that they even exist in the first place.

abusing customer data?

mazurra — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:26:36 +0000

As I have mentioned in previous entries, it is important in the business world (especially the marketing sector) to gather accurate information about customers in order to better reach them and meet their needs. However, there is also a concern among the public about the abuse of personal information. Many feel that data collection should be monitored in order to ensure that private information is not exploited. An article written by John Forrester explores issues that some consumers have with the collection of their information. Most appreciate that companies are trying to improve their customer relationship management in order to better meet needs, but are concerned that their information could be sold to third parties that may abuse it. I know that I am always hesitant to share personal information such as my address, telephone number, or even e-mail address (no one wants their inbox filled with spam). It would seem that today if a business wants to effectively gather information, they need to first reassure customers that private information won’t be passed along.

new business database model

mazurra — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:05:13 +0000

As a Marketing major, I have already learned the importance of accessing relevant data in the business world. Using statistical information can help identify the customer a person plans to reach as well as how to go about reaching them. Today I found an article that talked about a new means of collecting data in the business world. It’s called Jigsaw and is modeled after how wikipedia maintains its site. Basically, the site allows people in the business world to contribute data to a database about customers and contacts so that people can access the customers they are trying to reach more efficiently. This seems like it would be an excellent tool for people in the marketing world as it would give them a little insight into their potential customers. I can imagine that one day in the future, I might be utilizing this tool and possibly have an account of my own.