Microsoft is moving all of their mail properties to Outlook.com, so say goodbye to Hotmail.
With the release of new Office and the upcoming release of Windows 8, Microsoft is completely overhauling their mail properties. It will be interesting to see if this is a great leap forward or whether it will become another fiasco like Vista.
In many ways, it sounds like it has too many features, which we’ve come to expect from Microsoft, and many of the features seem to be huge time wasters.
An interesting year for the online poker community is getting even more interesting. Ever since the December announcement from the US Department of Justice changing their stance on the usage of the Wire Act of 1961, the poker world has been turned upside down. Many are excited over the potential of having a new regulatory environment for playing poker online, either in major states or at the federal level.
Of course many are hoping for federal legislation, and that’s making for some very interesting political bedfellows. The most interesting involves Harry Reid and Dean Heller, the two Senators from Nevada. Naturally, both of them have a huge interest here, as the casinos corporations in that state have a serious stake in the matter. But Reid is a Democrat and majority leader in the Senate, and Heller is a Republican who is up for election this year, with Reid naturally backing his Democratic challenger. The article lays out how they’re both working to get poker legislation passed, but it’s a delicate matter and both sides want it to happen without benefiting the other side too much politically. Like I said, the issue is creating strange bedfellows.
Something will happen here eventually. The states are anxious to move on this, as many people agree that poker is a game of skill, and states would like to get a cut by regulating the game.
Here’s a cool idea.
The sunset view above was taken from my old apartment in Santa Monica. It was right on the beach and I suspect it would have been very attractive to rent on a nightly basis for days I couldn’t be there. The first site listed below didn’t exist at the time, but now people from around the world can rent spare rooms or entire houses or apartments using Airbnb.com with access to over 1 million people who might be interested.
We’v listed some of the best sites out there for renting rooms and vacation homes apart from your standard travel sites. If we’ve missed a good one (or a new one is launched) please let us know.
Airbnb.com
This site is getting all the buzz in this space. You can read much more about it on publications like Forbes and Fortune, as the founders have raised over $120 million in venture capital. The site is beautifully designed and very easy to use. It’s easy to post rooms or places to rent and it’s equally easy to find what you’re looking for. The site is also loaded with photos and users are ranked with feedback so you have some idea of the kind of person you’re dealing with.
HomeAway.com
This site is geared to vacation rentals, and the quality of the rentals seems to be excellent.
CouchSurfing.org
The ethos here is very different. The idea isn’t to make money but to connect with people who are traveling or find people willing to host travelers. It’s much more suited to the backpack set, and this nonprofit has created an interesting community of like-minded people.
HomeExchange.com
The name says it all here. We’ve seen this in the movies and the concept is pretty simple. Swap homes with someone else looking for travel and nobody has to pay anything.
Craigslist
It’s crude and simple, but it’s still an amazing resource. Go to any town and you can find places to rent right away, and you can move in often the same day.
Sublet.com
The design of this site hasn’t been updated in years and it shows. That said, you will find some good listings here, so it’s always worth checking out.
Remember Conan O’Brien’s tour, and how he launched it with one Tweet? Think about how much commerce is initiated now through the recommendation of friends through social media. These are examples of Influence Marketing.
I recently had the opportunity to exchange a few emails with Azeem Azhar, the CEO of a startup called PeerIndex that is focused on “Influence Marketing”. Founded in 2009, the company provides a service that helps consumers benefit from their passions, interests and influence particularly with respect to the services they get from companies and for brands and agencies to better identify effective and interested word-of-mouth advocates, something they call “Influencers”. It’s a service similar to the other big player in the place, Klout, with a unique spin.
According to Azhar “Influence marketing is going to be huge – and will become an essential part of the marketing mix over the coming years. In essence, influence marketing recognises that buyers trust other buyers, their friends and experts they know. “
A recent McKinsey report shed light on the trend indicating that word-of-mouth recommendations may be the primary reason for purchases in 20-50% of buying decisions. Further adding to the buzz, Forrester stated that 80% of all B2C and B2B purchases there is some form of word-of-mouth recommendation at play during the purchase cycle. If venture funding is any indication of the success, Klout, with its more than $40 million, leads the pack of companies looking to capitalize on this fast growing trend. Yet Klout isn’t alone in this fast moving sector. Several other start-up companies are quickly adding their own unique approaches.
We’ll see of this particular startup does anything, but the idea of influence marketing through social media is something that every company needs to consider.
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