(ALL COMMENTS WELCOME) This article explores the different revenue models that TinyUrl, Adjix and Linkbee. All 3 of them have ad sharing revenue models, but the key question is whether to pop-up ads or not.
For me, principle is overstated. The reality of the situation is when an organisation takes the ‘moral high ground’ and doesn’t use pop up ads and loses potentially millions in revenues because of this - The organisation has lost. The only question as to whether to take this move or not should be are the barriers to entry high enough in this market to prevent users shifting source quickly. If there is a threat of reduced users as a result of this move, then a simple ROI analysis should show whether to take this decision or not. When Gilbertson says he won’t do this on ‘principle’, I think he probably means he won’t do it, ‘because of the risk of losing customers’.
PlanHQ is a business planning software that allows its users to input some simple goals and allow teams to interact and track against these goals, also showing how the goals link to the organisations overall strategy. What makes this tool interesting is that the whole basis of a business plan, and the methodologies of tracking, measuring, actioning and delivering are consolidated into a single place. This forces the users to follow these basic business necessities without the need to do a Finance degree. As the user interacts with the tool, it evolves. This a typical web 2.0 trait, and O’Reilly discuss this further in this video.
The product managers largest pitfall is building technology that doesn’t meet a market need. At my first glance at Jott.com this is how I felt. What market problem are you solving here? Slowly however having researched more, and spoken to regular users, I found that it’s not only solving a market problem, its solving problems that consumers weren’t initially aware of. The best features that Jott.com offers are listening to your feeds through your mobile, or writing SMS or Emails whilst on the move through speaking through your mobile.
Can’t waitfor Jott to come to the UK, where this will be a huge success!!
Toodledo is “An easy to use, web-based to-do list. Get organized, stay motivated, and be more productive”. Now typically I don’t like online tools that are already fully satisfied by a microsoft application, or something on my iphone. As a product manager myself, I’m always asking: So What? What does this product offer me that makes it completely essential for my daily life? Toodledo answers this question quickly. It enables consolidation of my tasks from a range of sources, therefore becoming my to-do HUB. I really enjoyed using the scheduling tools, as its completely user intuitive. What bothers me, is that being UK based I can’t make use of the speech-text services offered by Jott which are incorparated within this tool.
If you’ve got too much to do, not enough time, always forgetting things, and need complete accessibility to your diary, then I’d definately recommend Toodledo.
Having recently read an article about new search engine called searchme.com I was intrigued. i spent the next 3 hours playing with one of the most usable search tools I’ve seen. I’m completely hooked. Here are some of the key highlights:
- The ipod style preview slider, which is just so usable and intuitive - The intelligent categorisation that give you direct links to some key categories - The slide up preview text for each search result - The video search has auto play! - And my favourite function. Stacking (video below)
Some of the things that need improvement are:
- The search box could do with predictive text - The search box sometimes stalls mid type - The preview results need to have a zoom function - Clicking a result opens a new browser tab
I love this search tool. I hope so much that some of the new improvements are implemented so that this can be a mainstream tool. However watch out for viewzi.com which is currently in Beta. I’ll review this search engine soon.
Jane Cooper Elementary sits gutted in one of the worst parts of one of the most impoverished and dangerous cities in the richest nation in the world. In the late 1990s, Mayor Dennis Archer’s office identified this neighborhood as having “more children, more people living in poverty, a greater proportion of high school dropouts, and a larger percentage of violent juvenile offenses than the city as a whole.” Which, in Detroit, is saying quite a bit.
In fact, cursory exams may actually exacerbate the problem, indicating that a child can see fine and reducing the chance that she will get a comprehensive exam. In other words, poor exams may actually ensure that the problem is never corrected.
How much of the challenge that poor kids face in learning results from incredibly basic causes that have nothing to do with pedaogy (or even with more subtle issues like cultural mismatch, etc.).
How about the relationship between vision and “delinquent” kids?
A key finding was that almost all of the 132 delinquents in the study had learning related vision problems, but only a few had nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Common in teens, these refractive problems are a sign that the person has made adaptations to deal with the stress of close work in the classroom. . . .
The lack of such problems in these delinquents indicates that, at any early age, they chose not to deal with close work, Dr. Harris said. Other study findings show the reason why. They simply lacked the vision skills to do close work.
How much of the achievement gap could be eliminated with comprehensive health care, breakfast, and nutrition?
What an incredible tragedy. Even on these most basic levels we find it impossible to support these children.
