Results from Facebook Redesign

When Facebook had a large layout changes back to 2008 which made it look similar to MySpace, over millions of users were against the new layout but Facebook did not listen to its users. Today, Facebook has over 175 million users over the world. So, you can say the changes were actually not this bad at all. Otherwise, why would you spend time on a bad design website. Last week, Facebook changed its layout. The major changes were to make its homepage functions similar to Twitter. Sometimes people just do not like changes.

More than 200,000 people joined the old group that was against the 2008 Facebook design.
So far, there is no significant large group that is against the "new" new Facebook design.


Please share your thoughts~~

The reasons behind unsubscription to email

Here is a graph from MarketingSherpa showing the reasons of unsubscription:

This draws two important idea to marketer: individualization. Sending newsletters to people is good but you need to know why people subscribed you, what people are interested in reading the most.

The power of Facebook

Facebook can be use for not only social networking and advertising, but also delivery of court papers. Here is the news that New Zealand High Court Associate Justice David Glendall approved the delivery of court papers via Facebook to a man being sued over business dealings, Craig Axe.

It is interesting because normally when you serve a court paper, you need to ensure the person get the court paper. The lawyer is so smart to reach the person on Facebook when he tried to hide.

Could it be a new way to generate profit?

New Advertising Features on Google and Facebook

Yesterday, Google announced on its official blog that it will use cookies to track your browser in order to generate more relevant ads on your browser:

"By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value for everyone. Users get more useful ads, and these more relevant ads generate higher returns for advertisers and publishers."

As well, Facebook announced advanced ad targeting features to target users with language and target location radius:

"Many of you have told us you would like to target users by the primary language they speak. Now you can. For instance if you would like to target Spanish speaking users in the United States, simply type in "spanish" into the targeting box labeled: Languages. "




With the new features, advertisers on Google and Facebook can place more relevant ads on your browser and you will be more interested in clicking them. Obviously, the competition among online advertising industry is very high. They are adding new functions to remain competitive.

However, one thing I am worried is how they do it. For example, Google will track users' activities by storing a cookie on your computer. They promise not to retrieve any sensitive information from your computer. But, can you tell what information they gather from you? Cookie is like a silent stalker watching what you have done on your computer.

The power of technology adds benefits/ values to users (Do we actually care?) and advertisers while the threat of leaking out information increasing.

More about cookie:
Cookies, more commonly referred to as Web cookies, tracking cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a Web client (usually a browser) and then sent back unchanged by the client each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, session tracking (state maintenance), and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences or the contents of their electronic shopping carts. The term "cookie" is derived from "magic cookie," a well-known concept in UNIX computing which inspired both the idea and the name of HTTP cookies. Some alternatives to cookies exist, but each has its own uses, advantages, and drawbacks.
Cookies are also subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs that run on the browsing computer. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data that affect the operation of a web server, not the client, and do so in very specific ways. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, although cookies from certain sites are described as spyware by many anti-spyware products because they allow users to be tracked when they visit various sites.
Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some websites unusable. For example, shopping carts implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are rejected.

Facebook becomes Twitter??

I logged into my facebook account today. In one second I thought I logged into Twitter! Here is a link to the facebook official announcement regarding the changes.

"We've updated our home page to make it easier to understand what's going on with the people you care about. Now your friends' posts are streamed in real-time and you have more control over what you see."

Clearly the redesign looks very similar to Twitter with extra functions. The most useful function to me would be the ability to filter out different groups, family, friends, schoolmate instead of making a big favorite list. Having photos and videos on the news is better than plain text of course. Because I have a Twitter account, I feel positive toward the changes. I remember last time when facebook changed its interface, many users objected to it. Lets see how people react to the changes this time.

[News] Youtube's Interactive Video

Have you ever thought of having interaction with the video that you are watching? Well, you can now interact with audience by use annotations on youtube.

Below is an example of an interactive video posted on youtube:

The annotation feature enables marketers making interaction with the viewer. With the annotations, you can create stories with multiple outcomes (audience clicks to choose the next scene) or link to related youtube videos, channels, or search results from within a video.

Second movie of Bring The Love Back

Here is the second video of Bring The Love Back.

[News] Facebook revising its terms of use back to the old version

Understanding Facebook's terms of use:

After raising so many voices, Facebook decided to revise its terms of use back to the previous version. In my view, Facebook was trying to find a new way to create value for its compeny i.e. increase profit but failed. Facebook is making a free social network, and the major source of revenue is from advertising. It is hard to survive in the long run if it is not the top online advertising agent.

Facebook's response was very fast regarding to this issue. I hope facebook can find a way to balance its source of revenue and keeping its users happy with the actions.

Blog or Job? Vancouver Bus Driver Fired over Blog

Yesterday, Vancouver bus driver Michael Cox got fired for publishing a blog that describes his day-to-day experiences on the job. Now he has no blog and no job.

“The company recently became aware of your Internet blog entitled ‘Short Turns,’ ” Coast Mountain wrote Cox.
“Some of the information was offensive and negative about or towards the corporation.”

An one single post could not harm the business but the reaction of Translink.

There are advantages that Translink can harness employees' blog for PR purpose. However, how Translink handle the situation was quite bad. When an employee gets into the company, did Translink clearly state the E-policy to him? As an employee, you better know what you can (can't) post online. In addition, employers should give a second chance to employees who violated the E-policy.

In this situation, if they communicate with Michael Cox of what is expecting to be done, it could be used as a viral marketing to attract people joining Translink.

[Useful Website]10 Minute Mail

Are you tired of getting junk mails?
I found an interesting website that offers a tempory email to users. Basically you can use it when you want to sign up for a site which requires that you provide an e-mail address to send a validation email to. And maybe you don't want to give up your real e-mail address and end up on a bunch of spam lists.