Dec 05 2010
Because I am a masochist at heart, I sometimes spend my lunch break eating at my desk and reading discussion threads on Linked In. In a recent thread, some poor sap was asking for help coming up with a promotional tagline that connected the idea of volunteering with the concept of “winners” or “winning.” Having [...]
Jun 04 2009
Quick, what’s the connection between my trip to Italy in 2006, the promotion for “Sxy Jns” currently on in Mexico City, and my mixed feelings for Google? The answer begins with this blog post. Let me explain. A few years ago I tried running Google ads on the Blork Blog. After about a year I [...]
Jan 18 2008
I received these two pieces of mail yesterday: a complimentary issue of MacLean’s magazine along with a pitch to subscribe; and a pitch from Maisonneuve magazine, a way cooler rag that promises it is “definitely not MacLean’s.” I don’t know if the people at Maisonneuve were aware of the MacLean’s campaign, or if this was [...]
Jan 04 2008
This one with malicious “adware.” One of the things about Facebook that has most concerned me is the proliferation of “apps” or “widgets,” those sometimes fun, sometimes annoying add-ons like “Scrabblicious,” “Six degrees,” and “Superlatives.” Specifically, it bothers me that these apps ask you to hand over your entire profile and all its goodies in [...]
Dec 06 2007
As you probably already know, Facebook recently introduced Beacon, its latest privacy invasion and marketing crapola feature designed to look like a fun “sharing” thing when in fact it is just another monster in the Mark Zuckerberg “monetize everything” world of Facebook. Here are a few reasons why Beacon sucks and should be banished from [...]
Oct 24 2007
Yesterday, Patrick at i.never.nu posted a passionate and erudite denunciation of the current trend towards the mainstreaming of blogs. He points out that until recently, many (most?) bloggers were happy to be apart from the mainstream; we revelled in our independence from the need to generate revenue streams and to follow marketing plans. It was [...]
Aug 02 2007
OK, maybe not ever, but I happened upon these two ghastly sites today and they’re both terrible but for very different reasons. First there’s the Web site for Gasser’s camera shop in San Francisco. Forget about the lack of any sort of search tool or navigation scheme. Forget the broken links all over the place. [...]
