New insights on the future of search, privacy and the inevitability of social media
Oct 2nd
Last week I had the honor of attending a “B2B Marketing Huddle” in London organized by Kerry Bridge, Neville Hobson, and Simon Hughes. The content was fantastic and I wanted to share with you a few highlights from one of the keynotes speakers, Dave Coplin Chief Visioning Officer – Microsoft. Here are a few quotes from this presentation that I think will get your synaptic connections firing:
Dave Coplin of Microsoft
“The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we work and communicate so why do most people have a better user experience at home than at work? How many people try to access the web at work and get, “Computer says NO.” How can any company block the social web today?”
“Companies who build up all these policies and firewalls to keep people from using the Internet at work are just wasting their time. Are they frisking you for Sudoko books? Here’s the real reason for these policies: They don’t understand, so it’s easier to just shut it off. Social media is inevitable. There will be a tipping point for every single company.”
“It’s time to end the Era of the Dumb User. These are the people who wear their disdain of computers like a badge of honor. Today, that’s like bragging that you can’t read. IT people have helped create this because they try to control it. We need to unleash the power to everyone.”
“It seems that every year is declared the ‘The year of mobile’ but I really do think it is the year of mobile. Look at it this way. I will lend you my computer but never my smartphone. This a truly personal device that delivers personal services. It gives you a window to the digital world wherever you are, whatever you are doing. This fundamentally is changing the way we work right now.”
“Bing is blending search results with the social graph. If you don’t have relevancy you have a cold, binary, alien algorithm. Web search is a needle in a billion haystacks. Can you even find a photo on your own computer? Blending search with relationships can make the search warmer.”
“Apps and search will be merging to create entirely new offerings. Apps keep search in context. It doesn’t take you where you don’t want to be. Wouldn’t you love to have “Dave’s Friday Night App” to lead you to exactly where you want to go without being at the mercy of ‘www?’ ”
“Having access to big data is going to lead us to fundamentally different conclusions about the world. Data science is the new rock and roll. Understanding how data comes together will be important for every single business of every size. This will be a key competitive advantage for those who are early on and master it.”
“Technology will eventually disappear into the background. Screens will disappear. Social TV will connect all the screens but that is just the beginning. Every single flat surface will provide contextual information. In a few years, Minority Report will be nostalgic. Information will not be plastic and glass. Every surface will be interactive, including your skin. Your arms and fingers will be the input devices.”
“The human side of social technology is behind and this will have to evolve. It has taken 20 years to start mastering cell phone etiquette. People feel anonymity makes them safe but it makes them bullies and stupid. It’s not funny. The lack of civility jeopardizes the potential of the technology. Facebook does not cause bullying. Shitheads cause bullying.”
“Privacy is a really difficult issue because the line between personal and private is different for every person. All we can do is be transparent about what we do. The ultimate search service is like getting the ‘usual’ at your favorite restaurant or pub. You can have local, personal service wherever you go, whatever store you visit. We all need to approach privacy as a journey and we are all involved in that.”
“The educational systems are not keeping up with the real world. We need to be teaching SKILLS not tools. If all you do is teach tools, you will continually teach obsolescence. Your education will be useless. We must be educating children for jobs that do not yet exist.”
“Critical thinking is the most important skill as we move forward and we’re losing it. Are you going to be satisfied living a Wikipedia life or will you seek to lead life that is based on something that is true?”
“Be human. Nobody cares about your company. How do I convince people to wake up and care what the second biggest search engine is doing today? We got our biggest Twitter following ever when we told jokes during National Cheese Week. I can’t talk about search all day every day. Don’t just engage — enchant. Do the unexpected. Connect on a level of basic human emotion — to our friends, our partners, our customers.”
“Here’s a wonderful example of a company being human. Marks & Spencer took a suggestion from one of their customers that they feature a Downs Syndrome child as a catalogue model. And they did it. Beautiful, moving. Human.”
I hope these quotes get your brain turning as much as they did for me. What has an impact on you? What got you thinking? Share a comment, won’t you?
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Why SEO disgusts me
Jun 23rd
195 comments
Before my SEO friends get their panties in a wad over today’s headline, let me emphasize that I understand the practical value and wisdom of basic Search Engine Optimization practices. There are many prinicipled people in the field doing good and useful work.
But the competition to out-fox the search engines is getting ugly. Beyond ugly.
I recently had a discussion with the CEO of a leading Midwest search firm who described their common practice of creating fake accounts to pump client links into the comment section of blog posts and forums.
The process goes something like this:
Reality check. Isn’t this fraud?
I really don’t pay attention to the SEO shenanigans like this on a day to day basis but now these practices are starting to impact me and my precious time. Here is an example of this practice in a comment that was salted into the {grow} comment section by “John” –
This is good post. This is some good important facts about the corporate blogs. Do you have any information on how to manage comments on the blog. I think http://www. (web link to consumer electronics retail outlet) might have an idea. Chech it out.
And of course this linked website did not even have a blog. So now I am spending my time weeding out fake comments that elude the spam filter … and it happens every day.
I spoke to one of the freelancers hired by this SEO company to provide this faux commenting service. He’s otherwise unemployed and is doing it because he’s desperate for money. He’s good at what he does and rarely gets “outed.”
However as he described his work, he told me he feels guilty when people on the blogs actually want to engage with his fake persona. “I feel terrible about this,” he said. “I have to find some other work. I’m deceiving people as part of my job. I’m not in a position to engage with them because I’m a fake, which seems wrong.”
While Google fights against this kind of practice, it is very difficult to detect, and the “penalties” are so minor the risk is ignored by the SEO’s. And the volume of fake comments is likely to get worse. This firm alone has hired 300 fake commenters in the past 12 months and sees rapid expansion as a key competitive advantage.
The CEO of this SEO company does not consider this a “black hat” SEO practice — “it’s gray,” he said, “and we have many companies willing to pay us a lot of money to do it.” He bragged that one client has a monthly SEO bill of $200,000.
I recognize that there are many important business insights and strategies that can come from legitimate SEO professionals like:
… and more. But I’m concerned when it gets difficult to compete in the SEO industry without engaging in fraudulent behavior. This is a slippery slope that will lead to regulation. All it will take is one high-profile case that blows the lid off these practices. And we will all lose if we have to endure new rules and the cost of compliance.
I want to do business with people who view ethics as black and white, not gray. I want to work in an industry where we can compete fairly without resorting to SEO fraud to cover up ineffective products, services and marketing plans. How about you?