Mike Elgan calls it, along with a detailed critique that explains why this site has fallen on hard times.
This is one of the many problems cited by Elgan, and this one drove us crazy as well.
Digg was anti-blog
Digg always had an inexplicable bias against blog content. In an age when CNN and the New York Times take blogs very seriously, a site like Digg should simply allow blog posts and let the users decide if they’re “weighty” enough.
This is how Digg alienated the bloggers.
Digg is now a mess. It’s still used to try to promote content, but it’s been gamed to the point that normal people can’t submit a story with any hope of having it take off.
We’ve noticed over the past several months that Google seems to be giving even more weight to porn sites over mainstream sites when tame search terms like “Hot Babes” or “Hot Blondes” are used. Instead of featuring mainstream sites that have bikini and lingerie models like Maxim, you end up with hard core porn sites.
What’s going on here? Google has outsmarted itself, and now the search results are a complete mess.
The online dating landscape keeps evolving, and Facebook and other social media sites are often leading the way. The latest out of Facebook let’s you set up a notice system so you get notified when someone you are interested in changes their status and is no longer “taken.” This breakup notifier will likely be a very popular feature.
As the Internet evolves and social media continues to take over our lives, brands have a huge opportunity to engage their customers, but there are pitfalls as well. This area is very new, and there will inevitably be pitfalls along the way. Brands can’t just hand this over to an intern who floods the social media world with tweets and updates.
A new study just released by ExactTarget and CoTweet finds that more than 90 percent of consumers have “broken up” with at least one brand via Facebook, email or Twitter.
The study surveyed 1500 consumers and found the most common reasons given for a social media breakup are that the company sends too many messages (“The stalker”), the consumer receives too many messages in general from companies (“The belle of the ball”) or the company’s communications become boring and repetitive (“The spark is gone”).Around a quarter of consumers are more mercenary and “only after one thing”. They sign up to receive messages from a brand only to receive a one-time offer and then opt out.
Consumers who follow a brand through Facebook and Twitter are also much less likely to formally indicate that they are no longer interested in receiving information from a company and just ignore it (“not returning your calls”).
Basically, brands have to treat social media like any other interaction with their customers. You have to engage customers, not flood them with useless information. Take it easy on the updates, and make them all meaningful.
A gracious if not a bit awkward Mark Zuckerberg joined Jesse Eisenberg and Andy Samberg, who was impersonating Zuckerberg, onstage for the opening of SNL last night. It wasn’t particularly funny, but Zuckerberg sure helped his image quite a bit with the appearance.
I thought the folks at Groupon were nuts to turn down Google’s offer of $6 billion, but Henry Blodget explains why. The article makes sense and it was frankly an eye-opener.
The shift from old media to new media is accelerating, and now more companies are using bloggers to help deliver their brand messages. Here’s an interesting example from Vaseline.
If you’ve been complaining about dry skin on the Internet, Vaseline may have heard you. With winter just around the corner, the brand is announcing a new advertising campaign for its Vaseline Intensive Rescue skin cream product, sold by Unilever. The campaign represents the first time Vaseline has used crowdsourcing to find product spokeswomen.
“The core of the idea here is to find women where they talk about this problem,” Anne Jensen, the senior brand building director for beauty care in the Unilever personal care division, said of the company’s decision to the scour the Web looking for women who were talking about their dry skin.
Vaseline worked with the New York office of the agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty on the campaign to restage the brand with things like new packaging and product improvements and to find women bloggers who could represent the campaign.
“Most Vaseline campaigns are rooted in real stories by real people. That’s what makes it authentic,” said Ashley Bekton, group business director at Bartle Bogle.
The agency worked with a subcontractor to crawl the Internet for conversations around words like “dry skin,” “lotions” and “skin issues,” and to scan blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook for conversations people were having about those topics.
The company ended up selecting three bloggers who will write about their experiences and be spokespersons for the brand. Interesting stuff.
At least the approach is methodical. Some companies think they can hire a couple of interns to run Twitter and Facebook and all will be well . . .
The battle between Google and Facebook is heating up. Google is working on “Google Me” – a social network alternative to Facebook. This article explains some of the perceived threats. It really boils down to a battle between two of the biggest titans on the web, and the decisions of these two companies will have huge implications on how we use it going forward.
Google has already had a dud with Google Buzz, and it seems clear that they don’t understand the concept of social networking. They understand math and algorithms, but they seem to have little understanding of how humans interact with one another. They seem to avoid human input at all costs, always trying to solve problems with an algorithm.
We’ve seen this with some of the heavy-handed tactics used by Google with users of services like Google Adsense. If Google perceives a problem with an account, that account is shut down automatically, and the user is forced to endure a bureaucratic as they implore Google to restore their account.
If Google wants to compete in the social network space, they will need a team that understands this very different environment.
Meanwhile, Facebook is reportedly on “lockdown” as Zuckerberg rallies his team to deal with the coming threat.
A recent story on Digg censorship has caused quite a stir. Apparently a group of conservative Diggers have been manipulating the results to vote down liberal stories and to pump up conservative voices.
Who knows how much of this particular story is true, but many of us have suspected for a long time that Digg is rigged, and large sites can goose the results, along with certain powerful (or well-connected) users. The question is to what extent is Digg a part of or privy to the rigging process? And, do they turn a blind eye when it comes to friends, allies and sponsors? I wonder . . . .
The aim of the site, the creators explain, is “to use virginity as a significant compatibility tool to bring people together. Some people may overlook the bonding power of virginity. Virginity as an important common aspect between people can lead to close friendships, or can even serve as a mutual precious gift of marriage.”
The founders of the website, Lety and Jose Colin, explain that they were virgins until they were wed.
We have to admit we’re impressed. With all the niche dating sites out there, they may have found the most exclusive one of all!
