It seems after a bit of testing back in September 2011, Amazon has finally started to roll out it’s refreshed interface started with Amazon Associates. You can see this new design if you are logged into your associates account but if you open a new chrome Incognito window you see the same old version.

I do really like the new look as it’s a welcome refresh and certainly seems to be designed to be used on touch screen devices and has been the first major change in a long term so should be welcomed by most of their users.

Google now shows at the bottom of the search result a message that these results include the word “store”. Show results that include only “shops”. It’s interesting that this same inclusion doesn’t happen if you search for “stores” or “store”, it only happens when you search for “shops”. This could be that Google is still struggling to link “Store” to the multiple Synonyms for “store” that could include: abundance, accumulation, backlog, cache, fount, fountain, fund, hoard, inventory, lode, lot, mine, nest egg, plenty, plethora, provision, quantity, reserve, reservoir, savings, spring, stock, stockpile, treasure, wares, wealth, well.

So Google is able to match a narrow synonym but not yet a broad synonym such as “store”.

The background on the song is that Barbie Girl is an interesting viral marketing campaign to promote the consumption of Lamb. The music clip has accepted the challenge of taking a really annoying song and make it even more annoying.

I must admit that the campaign does what it is created for…being terrible enough not to be taking seriously of offend consumers and bad enough that people are willing to share and discuss the video on social media. Sam Kekovich is focused on expanding his “Chop Culture” and the play on the Australian abbreviation for Barbarque “Barbie”…so throw another rack on the barbie…

Has YouTube rolled out another interface update already?

The campaign is produced by McCann Digital Israel and is simply a brilliant use of cutting edge social media features but also something that is simple enough anyone that sees the campaign can understand the concept.  The background on the campaign seems to be that it was slightly re-worked to ensure that it was not overcomplicated but made simple enough that the idea works internationally. It also works because the message while fairly clear does not get in your way of following the idea, it only works because the campaign message is almost subliminal and it really works!

It’s really great to see some creative thinking of social issues and making them relevant to society by using social media and hopefully this campaign is expanded and potentially improved and copied around the world. The concept of showing how differently your life could be in parallel universe has been done fairly well but I want to see more on Adam than just 1 month, so hopefully the campaign is extended. You can check out Adam’s timeline here.

What does Adam’s timeline show?

• You can see how it can impact his choice in accommodation
• how he looks in the morning
• what he does on a night out in town
• how he enjoys going out
• how it impacts on his relationships
• what gets him through the work day
• how he socialises with friends on the court

Anti-drugs timeline

Good campaign concept for other issues

So the question is how can Facebook’s social reach via platforms such as timeline can be used to educate others about other social issues such as binge drinking, speeding and crime. There are plenty of other items that this campaign decided to drop such as checkins, video, friends updates and more there are plenty of options to emulate this campaign with slight changes to get your message across.

Sorry Neil, I know it can work well but seriously this is kinda creepy I haven’t been to your site since 6th November 2011… isn’t this keeping the re-targeting cookie a bit long?

Questions that concern me about 1Form

• My 1Form account has been shut down but 1Form kept my details for marketing purposes
• 1Form is using my details to cross promote services that don’t relate to my original engagement

Why this should concern you

• If you have ever used 1Form for rental tenancy applications they keep your details
• They are using rental tenants database for promoting their other businesses
• What else have they done with your personal details you entered on your application form

What is the relevance of Shopping to real estate?

You can see below 1Form is now starting to aggressively market their discount shopping portal via their main tenants portal.  The placement and call to action look sloppy and unprofessional and seems more of a desperate grab at affiliate revenue rather than offering complementary services to Tenants and Property managers such as landlord insurance.

While I strongly understand how business is looking to keep their business profitable and continue to grow to keep their investors happy but there has to be some logical link when considering a business expansion and for real estate I’m thinking discounted online shopping is a stretch.

There is a number of ways that 1Form could have expanded their business by focusing on their current customer base and just slightly adapting their product offering to fit their customers growing rental needs.  The could have involved real estate related products or services such as rental insurance, bond cleaning services, new broadband connections, mobile phone services and premium tenant applications for people with pets. All of these services and cross-promotions make sense and would generate a large amount of revenue for 1Form if they bothered to do it right.

It makes more sense to match the services to the same industry as it’s possible that support questions will arise and about their new discount shopping platform.  The other issue is that the spammy process of email promotion is more likely to hard any positive word of mouth the services might have generated and makes me cautious to ever use their service ever again. The main reason that 1Form would have launched the discount shopping site is their huge email marketing database and the sheer volume of daily visitors they are currently failing to monetise.

It would make business sense for 1Form to expand their services into related industries that have traditionally painful form applications such as credit cards or insurance.  Having a number of non-related businesses makes it harder for 1Form to focus their business direction but may also make it harder to split up it’s operations if they ever plan to exit or float the business.

Some things 1Form should consider include:

• Does 1From get economies of scale? What are the cost advantages in this expansion besides more resources needed?
• Does 1Form get a larger Customer base? Yes, it might expand the possible customer base but the branding of the shopping experience with 1Form will confuse customers. It’s not Apple or Amazon and even Google/Microsoft brand their side businesses differently.
• Will 1Form get distracted? It’s likely that internal resources could get distracted from the primary purpose of 1Form and drop the ball leaving it’s real estate partners in the lurch.

There is no relevance for 1From

Why not ask yourself what is the relevance to Real Estate applications platform offering it’s user a weekly shopping list for discounted goods they can buy online?

In what is an interesting development it seems that Google is perfecting it’s automation of data into useful Schema results for Hotel and Travel related search query. The search results are showing for a query for “Port Macquarie Hotels” and the website is not using Schema meta tags it is being done automatically by Google.

It seems as part of a relaunch that things aren’t going so smoothly with the main page not loading and a whole bunch of 404 errors to old content. There is a number of redirect issues as the server passes the user along till them end up at the above screenshot.

With his own voice, in his own way, @RupertMurdoch is now on Twitter.

— Jack Dorsey (@jack) January 1, 2012

That statement is backed by the small blue verified twitter account tick that is now showing on this account. But in what is a social media fopaux, Mr Murdoch has not replaced the standard Egg avatar with his real image which fuels suspicion among Twitter users that it’s still a fake account or a publicity stunt.

The tweets have been fairly awkward so far leading to some fairly open and aggressive responses from users on Twitter.  There seems to be a learning curve and it looks to be a lot steeper than the poor old guy expected. The general feeling is that unlike traditional press that Rupert was able to censor, the public may find out how thick his skin really is on an open forum.

You can track the number of tweets mentioning Rupert here, and a warning a lot of them are NSFW, including wishes he was dead, personal attacks, requests for him not to follow them back, and generally attacks around any and all News Corporation properties.  After all the outspoken anger around News Corp and News of the World scandals, social media now has an actual account/person to focus their anger towards which may end in tears.  The biggest outspoken critic of any significance speaking out on Rupert Murdoch joining twitter so far has been John Prescott.

Hey @rupertmurdoch. I’m surprised you’re only following two people. The police said it was at least 800! bit.ly/rt9TtX

— John Prescott (@johnprescott) January 1, 2012

.@rupertmurdoch Good luck in 2012. The Sky’s the limit…as you discovered in 2011 #letitBSkyB

— John Prescott (@johnprescott) January 1, 2012

Welcome to Twitter…@rupertmurdoch. I’ve left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail!

— John Prescott (@johnprescott) January 1, 2012

So there is some interest in the media/journalist area as I can see a number of them are already following Rupert’s account back, the real question will be how long until someone crosses the line and provokes Rupert enough that he takes a swipe at them publically.  This will be a real test of his patience as well as his anger management as so far the social media sphere doesn’t appear to be all that warm to the idea Rupert is now playing on their playground.

Rupert’s Choice of followers?

What is going to be a very interesting insight into how Rupert thinks is who he starts to follow as this is now public information and may be a great insight.  He started with Jack Dorsey, then Mark Pincus and now Plaid Larry Page….?

Fastest growing account ever?

The account seems to be attracting interest with around around 50 new followers being added every minute so far which could put him at around 1.7 million followers within the next 24 hours. That looks to be well on track to smash Charlie Sheens 1 million followers in 25 hours and 17 minutes, but the question is how many people will stick around unless Rupert actually adds some value to his tweets…