Internet Marketing – Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media
From the category archives:
“Search. Ship. Save.” I like that. It sounds pretty simple and it is. ShipGooder is another potentially useful tool for eBay powersellers. Me? I hardly ever ship anything so I’m usually pretty confused about the options when the time does come. Seeing everything in one interface with a clear explanation about costs vs. ship time is pretty handy.
ShipGooder [link]
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I’ve spent some time thinking about how the way I recall information has changed over time. Memorization was the key in my earlier days and after being introduced to the internet my learning habits changed significantly. To me, the internet is one big exercise in associative learning.
What am I talking about?
I remember the location of items on the internet and not so much the details of those items. “I read an article about that on the Wall Street Journal site.” “They posted about that on LifeHacker the other day.” These are common remarks. What did the post or the article say specifically? Good question. I’ll need to reference that item again to remember ;)
Here is a useful tip for remembering where you have been on the internet (with the usual privacy caveat, of course):
Use Google Web History Without Installing A Toolbar
And here is a realization that our email inbox is the original social network:
Yahoo’s Plan For A Smarter In-Box
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Tired of chasing down all of those shipment confirmation emails?
“Your order has been shipped. Your tracking number is 3456234256893462. Please logon to the [Carrier X] website to track this shipment.”
Me too! Use Track My Shipments to help streamline your shipment tracking information under one website. I’m thinking that this is an ideal service for all of you eBay power sellers out there.
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Google’s Gmail application has always lacked one significant item for me: control over signatures. Well, there is still no solution from Google directly but the kind folks over at LifeHacker have stepped up to fill the void:
Featured Greasemonkey User Script: Add Multiple, Address-Specific HTML Signatures to New Gmail
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I’m not sure that the business world is going to latch onto this term but “user determined computing” has received some press lately. A study that Accenture is set to release soon (only PR information is currently available so details are still a little sketchy) details the concept and provides background information.
Here is the 30,000 foot view:
Today, home technology has outpaced enterprise technology, leaving employees frustrated by the inadequacy of the technology they use at work. As a result, employees are demanding more because of their ever-increasing familiarity and comfort level with technology. It’s an emerging phenomenon Accenture has called “user-determined computing.”
Interesting. So what Accenture is saying is something that we have known all along (see my related post here). Business users have so many tools at their disposal that it is almost impossible for a lumbering IT organization to keep up with the pace of change.
So, as business users what do we do? Keep innovating, of course! Now lets talk about what the IT department can do to keep up.
My solution would let employees have at it. Allow them generally unrestricted access to the internet (NOTE: It is appropriate to filter gambling and prOn….any other filters and you are just fooling yourself). After that, the most commonly used tools (ie. the best in class) will filter to the top. Herein lies the problem. Over time employees will create accounts on these web-based applications that capture important business information. Control over access to these tools is limited so what happens when an employee leaves? Can you access their Basecamp site? Or their Jott list? Or their Google Adsense account? This could be a significant problem if not properly controlled. I’m still waiting for a vendor solution that would allow corporate IT departments to manage user access to web-based tools…NOT “restrict” but “manage”. Centralized administration of access to popular web-based tools is necessary to ensure that business data does not leave with the employee.
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for the Open ID movement.
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