This sounds surprising at first until you read the article. As a nation of commuters that are always online, it makes perfect sense that Japan would lead in the number of blog postings. What’s was most interesting in the article is the difference in blog intents between Japanese bloggers and American bloggers. I’m not I sure I buy the “chest thumping” characterization of American bloggers, though. It makes me wonder though, would “humble” blog intent translate into Japanese wanting to print their blogs.
By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, December 6, 2007; A01
TOKYO — Compared to the English-speaking world, the Japanese have gone blog wild. They write Web logs at per capita rates that are off the global charts.
Here’s an article about some companies’ sucesses and failures with social marketing. I think the key take-aways are that campaigns with high customer interactivity have to be authentic and the company has to be prepared for content that may be unflattering to the company.
There’s a reason I don’t actively use Facebook or MySpace (I have blank accounts to spy on my little brother) and this is it. Within the walls of work I have no problem using my real identity because I have no fear of the company advertising third party junk to me — ok, except for that Phillips spam that has been littering my mailbox since Thanksgiving. Anyhow … I think Facebook missed something fundamental about American values (and maybe almost everyone else on the planet). We don’t like to advertise about the stuff we buy. Just like talking about salary it’s rude and just not something done (although, that could be an American thing, so I’ve recently heard). Another thing is that if we are going to recommend a product to a friend, we will on our own time and with our own words. It’s called “authenticity.” I think a real heart felt targeted recommendation directly out the mouth or fingers of a friend is MUCH better advertising than some computer generated spam or posting that says your friend bought this and so should you. Oh, and then the kicker … Facebook and the advertisers don’t even recognize the social faux-paux, rather they say they were too radical in their approach and the if they increase their rudeness gradually, then people won’t notice. What happen to common decency?
Here is a great little article about a cognitive scientist’s gripes with feature filled gadgets that take no account of the human consumer. I found myself laughing at this because despite paying money to have this guy consult, the design of the digital picture frame still went awry. Not to be bitter, or anything like that (no not me), but design rarely seems to start from how someone is actually going to use the product, but, rather, a set of features are settled upon and the engineers must cobble something together that contains the feature set. If you design something the way you would design a Frankenstein monster, then a Frankenstein monster is typically what you end up with.
Personally, I have forgone unneccessary features, for a clean design and ease of operation regardless of cost. I like to thoroughly play with gadgets before I buy them and if Ican’t figure it out within the first couple of tries, then I’m instantly turned off and move on. This would be the primary reason I hate trying to use an AIO beyond printing. I could never get one of those to scan to a file properly. Sigh …
More Rambling 