In Yelp I Trust, Do you?

I decided my comeback should be on something that I am passionate about. Can you guess what it is? YELP!

I have been a yelper for some time so I may be biased on the recent article that was displayed in the Washington Post, "Review site Yelp under fire in business' lawsuits." I know some businesses do risky things to make some cash but I would like to believe that Yelp wouldn't do that.

First of all, if you don't know what yelp is then...STOP LIVING UNDER CHEWBACCA! Yelp is a social networking site that let's consumers rate and review businesses. For example, you are looking for a good Thai restaurant near where you live but you don't have any friends that eat Thai food (or you don't have any friends). Who can you ask? There's Google for starters, but it only suggests places nearby. It doesn't tell you whether they are good, what dish is best, what kind of atmosphere the place is or how to woo the hot server on Tuesday nights. These are things you need to know!

Yelp provides this information. If you are still confused then you can check out my yelp reviews here.

Getting to the point, Yelp "is being sued by several small businesses that claim they've been pressured to advertise on the site in exchange for getting negative reviews squashed." What it seems to me is that companies are complaining about free speech. If this was someones personal blog and they had positive and negative reviews and some went missing then the companies wouldn't sue them! If your business sucks and you can't give good customer service then stop complaining. Maybe you should improve your business and then people wouldn't write anything negative. If I were the business then I would take it upon myself to read the reviews as constructive criticism. Make an account and offer the people that write negative reviews an incentive to come back after you fix the problem they are complaining about.

I think Jerry Stoppelman, Yelp co-founder and CEO said it best,

"the businesses suing the company don't understand how Yelp works. Some reviews might come and go because it relies on an automated program to weigh reviews and filter out ones that might be untrustworthy, such as a negative review a spa owner might write about a competitor. Yelp does nothing to manipulate reviews, aside from allowing advertisers to choose one review they would like to feature at the top of the page about their business...the automated filter has helped Yelp stay relevant to consumers, even though it frustrates some businesses."

Although, I'm starting to wonder if by chance this could have been a scam. If it was, then Yelp would have denied the accusations. Maybe Yelp is guilty but for now, I'm going to believe they are not. If it wasn't for yelp, I would not have found the gym that I love so dearly. I should write a review about my gym. To bad I can't write a review about the person talking real loud about their intimate relationship with their boyfriend in Starbucks.

What do you think about this Yelp dilemma? Do you trust them or not? Do you dare to Yelp? I dare you!

Social Media Hits DC with Insight

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Social Media Club - DC event at the National Press Building on social searches versus Google searches (not how they phrased it but it addresses the point). The speakers were Chris Seline (@dumbfounder), Laurence Hooper (@lhooper), Jared Goralnick (@technotheory), Greg Gershman (@greggersh) and Aaron Brazell (@technosailor). The reason I have names in parenthesis are because these are all their twitter names. I'll explain that more in a bit.

They started off discussing the difference between social searches and Google searches. There were many conflicting views amongst the board but here is what I got. Google searches will get what you want but it cost time. Social searches are more customized and personalized to the user. Aaron Brazell gives the example of Thomas Hawk whose goal in life is to publish 1,000,000 photos on flickr. He has already posted about 20,000. If Aaron wanted to find a photo that Thomas took of New York a couple years ago then it would take him awhile searching Google to find that pictures. If he searched Flickr then he would speedily find what he was looking for.

These social searches interact with people because the results are based on other opinions. It comes down to the perception of trust in social networks. We tend to put a trust value on the information we find by ratings like Yelp.

Julie Minevich, who also attended, gives a good run down of the remaining questions that were discussed:

• Is there any value in organizing and archiving old social networking actions?
• Are mobile communities the next step in this media revolution?
• What are the ways social networking sites are trying to create revenue?
• Why isn’t Google more involved in this social media space?

I'll try and highlight some of the responses from the panel on these questions from the notes that I took. (Yes, I took notes with a pen and paper! I felt very lame. Especially because it was on an HP paper notepad)

• The reason Google has not gotten involved in social searching is because they have not found a way to make money off of it. They are waiting to see how to make money off of Facebook and Twitter.
• Blogging, twitter and all these other mobile communities are affecting the future by creating a universe in social networks. These social networks describe who we are as a person and/or company. It is becoming a way in which we create our identity.
  
• Some sites for tracking social media: Trakr, Twitterbox, Radiant 6?, Blogpolls? and Relevant Noise (Someone let me know if these are correct...)
• Facebook is behavioral advertising and behavioral marketing. The new form of advertising.
• The great thing about social networks are that they are free. Compared to the past where you would have to pay to go to a social networking event.
  
• Social Networkers are finding ways to make money by finding ways to share ads on things like FanBox.
• Keep an eye out for Aardvark, a new start up that is like Yahoo Answers and Twitter meshed together.
  

The last point of discussion was on what's next. As Aaron responded, "we are finding ways to merge real life and online life. The closer you bring both together is better." We are constantly on our phones and online. For example, the best thing about this meeting was that every person was on their iPhone, Blackberry or mobile device (sadly I have not gotten an iPhone and am very uncool). While the speakers were talking everyone was on Twitter responding and making comments. As Julie said, "It was almost like there were two interconnected conversations taking place concurrently but separately. The second, the one on twitter, was, of course, a result of the in-person discussion and the twitter comments were mentioned a few times in the live discussion, but again, for the most part, they were taking place independently and simultaneously."

By the end of the night, I walked away with more than I expected. The discussion won't end due to all the new twitter friends I have attained. ( Follow me @cbenton!) It gave me a new perspective on the future and my career in life. I am looking forward to more events like these.

What are your points of view on some of the questions.

Audi A4 Challenges IPhone Users Driving

The first major car manufacturer to tap into the iPhone phenomenon would be Audi. They created a new iPhone application called the "Audi A4 Challenge." As the news release states,

"a driving game that utilizes the iPhone's accelerometer (motion sensor) to steer
a digital version of Audi's entirely new 2009 A4 through a series of
progressively challenging courses. Players maneuver the course and race against
the clock to beat their own personal best time. The application is now available
free of charge on Apple's iPhone Application Store. The 2009 Audi A4 will be
available in Audi dealerships nationwide starting in September of 2008."

The game was created in two weeks and is featured on their specifically designed for the iPhone website: http://www.truthinengineering.com/a4/iphone. As Scott Mellin, CEO of Factory Design Labs (the ones who created this ingenious marketing campaign) says, "This is the first application by an automotive OEM, but it's also reinventing the shopping experience. In combination with the A4 iPhone web site, this is the first viable mobile marketing solution in the automotive space. Importantly, it is also a unique way to engage the consumer with the DNA of the Audi brand."

As a person that values a good marketing campaign and a company that embraces technology; I commend them on their approach to engage consumers. The other part of me is screaming at the idea that every car maker will be looking for a way to up the ante. It's only time before they find a way abuse this idea. hopefully it will not come to that and companies will continue to leave the choice to the consumer as to whether they want to learn about the product.

More infor go to http://www.audiusanews.com/

Join the Mile High Club in Bed

If you dream about flying or having sex on an airplane, then maybe you should get this groovy bed! The bed by MotoArt is made out of two DC-9 (passenger jet) rear stabilizers and a C-130 (military cargo aircraft) inner flap. Meaning they found another way to recycle aircraft and make money. The bed is named Mile High is 11' by 7'-6" and 4'-6" high. The best feature that will turn on all the ladies will be the red glowing internal LED lighting. RAWR! I think I'm getting turned on. The marketed slogan is "a wonderful playground for you and your co-pilot." I could see this being used in a re-make of Top Gun.

What I don't understand is why are people claiming this product is geeky. Geeky would be adding a computer into the bed or a gaming system. I would spend more than the supposed $35,000 for the bed if it had extra features like an integrated stereo system or a miniature computer system that has Wi-Fi. (That is if I had the money to buy a bed like that.)

Check out the slide show

[MotoArt via TFTS via GizModo]

Virgin Mobile Fest Greens Technologic

I did not get a chance to blog at all this past weekend due to the Virgin Mobile Festival that I worked at.

I thought I would share some of the things that worked and some things that didn't work.

The festival wanted to focus on being green and eco-friendly. At the same time, they want to increase brand awareness by associating themselves with many non-profit organization and music. I felt they did a fairly good job at this but they lacked in some areas. For example, they did not train or inform their event staff of everything that was happening. (I found this out when I was passing out free sunscreen. This woman (an event goer) thanked me and mentioned that she wished she had known there was free sunscreen earlier. This was due to the fact that a 15yr old staff member told her there was no sunscreen to be found throughout the concert venue and another staff member told her there was NO FIRST AID! When has there ever been a music festival with NO FIRST AID!) They did not clarify what type of trash was designated for the different recycling bins. The initiative to recycle at the event was not prominent and the music line-up was poorly done. (They spelled Kanye West's name as "KAYNE" West. How does that happen!?!? As well as all the best bands were playing at the same time and at opposite sides).

There are many ways they could have fixed these problems but it was only their third year holding this music festival. I should say some things they did right.

The use of eco-friendly technologies such as recharging your phone, camera or Ipod via bike was very convenient. They had a Dell Dome where people could make their own buttons, T-shirts and use computers to sign up for Buzzd (a new social networking service like Twitter and Yelp.)

Real quick rant on Buzzd: It is described as a "location-sensitive entertainment
listings service with branded editorial and real-time user generated content on
the mobile device.'Your city, in real-time,' buzzd allows consumers to know
what's happening at any venue right now, rate events, and connect with friends
and people in the area." I can see how this could beat Yelp but they really need
to keep pushing it. They need to get more publicity if they want to beat their
competitors. When I heard about the service I automatically thought it was another social network trying to make it big. It did not strike me as a "OMG! THIS IS SOO COOL!" It needs to offer more to users.

On that note, let me finish what I was saying before this post gets to long. They had a spiffy VIP areas that gave free drinks and had actually beds to sleep on outside. They had a Recharge Dome for people to check out the new Kyocera Special Edition Virgin Mobile Festival "Wild Card" mobile (texting from this phone made my hand cramp up) which they could use to make phone calls, send a text message to the concert stage screens or ride a bike and recharge their phone. They had a Refresh Dome for people to cool off and they had a recycling program where people could get stuff for collecting empty bottles and cans.

There were more positive and negatives that I could list about the music festival but I don't want to drag on. They should have integrated the idea of charging your phone by dancing . . . Maybe I'll make a list and send it to Richard Branson.

[picture via Mobilecrunch]

Slydial to Voicemail

When reading about this new technology service, I thought that everyone already had this capability featured on their phone. You might want to check your voicemail features before getting excited about this service. I'm sorry I should probably mention what the service is first before commenting on it.

Slydial is a new service that connects you directly to some one's voicemail. In other words, you can avoid speaking to a person directly by using Slydial. It saves you time (if you don't count the ads that you have to hear before getting connected to the voicemail.) and awkward or long conversations. For example, you want to call in sick to work and are afraid if the boss answers then you have to answer questions and explain yourself. This makes it a lot easier to be a coward and go straight to voicemail. By the time your boss has gotten the voicemail; he will be to busy to call and check up on you (to make sure you are not playing hookie.) Here are some more situations. (Please do not use this service to voicemail break-up, unless your dating a psycho or your dog.)

The service is free to use but you can get a membership if you want to get rid of the ads. This leads me to what I was taking about in the beginning of the post. When I listen to my voicemails, I have the option to record a message and send it to a number. This is basically the exact same thing. To my surprise, this option is not available to all.

If you don't have this feature then I would suggest it as a great way to speak to your mother or girlfriend without having to listen to an hour long session of yapping. (No offense, but women can talk for hours!)

From another perspective, this service is making us more of a coward and continuing to change our way of communicating with each other. We are trying to find ways around directly communicating with people.

Religion hits Guitar Hero

I was wondering when this would happen. Digital Praise, Inc. has created "Guitar Praise," a inspirational PC (or Mac) guitar game. The game is VERY similar to Guitar Hero but it features 52 inspirational Christian hits from artists like tobyMac,Newsboys, Petra, 12 Stones, Plumb, Thousand Foot Krutch, Relient K, and more. The game can be one player or two player and the object of the game is "matching the notes to the fret buttons on the guitar controller." (Very similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band). There are four levels of difficulty and:

"New songs, in sets of five, are unlocked along the way to keep the player's
interest. By tilting the guitar, players can activate spinner bonuses; as they
increase their skills they can earn new onscreen"guitars" with richer sounds and
different effects."

In other words, this is EXACTLY like Guitar Hero but for Christians. The big difference is you are using a computer for the game and not a gaming system like Wii, PlayStation or XBox. I like the idea but I'd rather it be offered on a gaming system. If the company was smart then they would team up with Harmonix. They would be able to get more publicity for the product and gain more interest from the public. There is a huge niche market for religion affiliated products. Too bad it won't come out in stores until September 25, 2008 and will cost about $100.

The future is unlimited as to what this product could become! What I really think is that it's a great idea that needs to be built upon.

What could happen next with this product?!? Anyone could become a praise team! Who needs church choirs when you have Guitar Praise?!?! Will the be a Praise Rock Band?!?! The next generation of churches will be led by Praise Rockers known for their top scores and gnarly looking digi rockers! (digi rockers is my new definition of the digital people created in Rock band). What does thou think?

Mobile Partying Gets You Free Drinks

If you are living in or plan on visiting the Metro New York, Jersey Shore, and Hamptons areas then you may want to pay close attention to this post.

Meet Now Live (MNL) is a public beta service that allows users with a "Web-enabled cellphone or mobile device to broadcast their party location of choice -- and receive free drinks in return." you can register for free on their site and then use it to find bars, clubs, lounges or your friends. (What about the free drinks?!?! Where does that come in to play! I'm tired of reading this non-important stuff)

To promote this service, MNL has joined with The Town Tavern, Whistling Dixies Texas Tavern, and Porky's NYC to offer "Free Beer Fridays!" When people "broadcast" their location at these bars to their friends, they receive a "on-screen mobile ticket that grants them the right to unlimited free draft beers." This promotion is not lasting all year long, it's only until Labor Day weekend.

They plan for the service to become popular enough that they will start offering special deals from certain drinking venues specifically to MNL users. In other words they want it to become a mobile social drinking network. Let the drinkers unite!

The problem that I foresee with this is more drunken texting and one night stands. I could be wrong, but phones and drinking seem to always lead to trouble. My other concern is controlling mothers and stalkers. Do we see a similarity with MoSoSo.

Here's the Press Release

Is Nokia Tracking you?

Nokia is heading toward the world of social networks. Nokia plans to integrate a Berlin, Germany based social networking start-up Plazes with their mobile phones. This will allow mobile users to

"plan activities with your friends, make people aware of where you are now,
where you were and where you will be in the future. On top of that they also
plan to incorporate the more common aspects of social networking including being
able to share your experiences and communicate with friends."

This looks like another marketing attempt to compete with mobile providers and social networking sites. The sad thing is that this has been done before. Plazes needs to offer something more or unique that other social networking sites like Yelp.com, Facebook or Twitter do not. Maybe the service could integrate celebrities to use this service. The paparazzi would never have a hard time finding them. If the service had the right key media spokespeople then it could have a chance of spreading.

The only thing I see this service doing is providing my crazy stalking mother another means of knowing where I am. If anyone has a mother like mine, they constantly call wanting to know what you're doing and where. The best means of escape is making something up. . . Or not answering the phone. This makes me seem as if I have no moral compass. Try having a mother that is very religious and has spent the majority of her time Micromanaging your life growing up. Don't get me wrong! I love my mother but at times she can be difficult. Although, what mother isn't? On that note I think I need to get back to what this post was supposed to be about.

The thing that scares me about real-time social networking on mobile phones is the dangers this can lead to. For example, the next scary movie will be about a girl (sorry don't want to be sexist) people being chased by a killer from the social network on your phone. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! SO SCARY! The best part would be when the killer finds a way to kill his victims with the cell phone. Maybe his victims could be the annoying cellphone people that don't follow cellphone etiquette. We all know who these people are.

My ending point is, the new addition of a social network to Nokia phones will not benefit mobile users but create controlling mothers and killers.


Picture taken from netzkobold.com

Drive to Advertise, Internet Liscense Plates

A couple days ago I was driving my usual route home from school, when I couldn't help but notice the license plate on the car in front of me. Usually, a license plate will have some sentimental jargon that means something only to the 's vehicle's owner. This license plate had "DBASYS" with .com added as part of the design of the plate. I automatically thought it was advertising a database system but to my surprise the website leads you to a Spanish audio product and systems website. I couldn't help but think about how the Internet has become an intricate part of our society. We judge companies and business solely on whether they have a website and the quality of the site.

Another component to think about is what Steve Rubel wrote about in "Why Your Car May Soon Be Driving Digital Advertising." He mentions that GPS systems may "both send and receive data . . . Dash, for example, is integrating Web 2.0 crowdsourcing into its systems, allowing cars to send information back to the company to improve traffic calculations." This can be beneficial but at the same time it could backfire. For example, if someone wants an easy ride home from work, they may report traffic where there is in none. A system can not protect against itself against human error. Yet, we continually try to find ways to do so.

In my opinion, what we should be focusing on with cars is the ability to have cars run on something other than gas. If car makers haven't noticed, the one thing that sells with cars is the ability to use less or no gas. Is it better to buy a car with more features and luxuries or a car that runs on less fuel and saves you money?

You be the judge

Google Me, I Dare You!

While reading different article about "You are What Your search result returns" and "When the Patient Is a Googler" made me think about how I have googled people and myself. As A Googler myself, I tend to Google people I don't know or people I'm interested in dating. I have come to find a lot of information by doing this. The Googled individuals seem to always be surprised at the information I find about them. It's simple yet some people seem to be unaware of the power of Google or search engines in general.

Here's a good example of what people are unaware of that Google can do. I was looking to purchase a temporary cell phone because I had recently had my AT&T phone stolen. I looked on craigslist and found a good deal and wanted to purchase the phone from the seller the next day. After e-mailing him, he responded very quickly. When trying to arrange a time to meet he became delayed in responding. I needed a phone as soon as possible and was getting impatient. I googled his name and his respective area that he mentioned he lived in. I found his name under a graduate from a local middle school. It appeared he was in his 40's and I thought this was the guy. That didn't help me to get him to respond any sooner.

I googled his e-mail address and found his AIM screen name on a paintball forum. This may seem creepy but I was desperate to get this phone! I IMed him which freaked him out a bit, but it got him to set up a time to met and make the transaction. I waited for him at the assigned location, and out jumped a 16 yr old punk (dressed like a wanna be gangster with a pimply face). I found my assumption to be wrong, but at least my googling got me my phone. I left him with this advice. If you don't want people finding you then make your contact information private.

After that occurrence it was nice to know some teens use their brains, as I discovered reading a Pew Report on Teen, Privacy and Online Social Networks that said:

Some 55% of online teens have profiles and most of them restrict access to their
profile in some way. Of those with profiles, 66% say their profile is not
visible to all Internet users. Of those whose profile can be accessed by anyone
online, nearly half (46%) say they give at least some false information. Teens
post fake information to protect themselves and also to be playful or silly.

Let's hope more teens follow these guidelines because privacy is really important if you want to stay safe in this Internet age.

Last thing, I am proud to say I have googled my name and nothing has lead back to the real me . . . yet.

Customization 2.0

Imagine the sweater being hot pink and minus a hoodie. This is what I receieved for Christmas about two years ago when everyone had to have monogramed apparel. It was a fad that luckily died out. The new trend . . .

Customizing and personalizing your own shoes. NikeID has created a "public NikeID Studio/boutique" that started from their successful online NikeID.com business. An article in BusinessWeek describes it as "a place where anyone can custom-design Nike shoes." This is very similar to the My K-Swiss but the difference is Nike has a real world store in which you can buy the latest designs or create your shoes to purchase. This remind anyone of build-a-bear? The only difference is with build-a-bear you walk out of the store WITH the product you created.

After visiting NikeID.com, I realized the positives and negatives of the business. Consumer designed products would have less consumers complaints or purchase returns. Although, as a consumer, I would like to complain that they didn't have what I wanted and neither could I create it. They have created a line of shoes that are to resemble your "school pride." The only provide six school logo choices and you can not upload your own school logo. If they could fix this issue then I might be interested in buying a pair myself. BUT my other problem is it takes up time. They say, "time is money" for a reason. I don't have the time to sit and create a pair of shoes that I won't be able to wear everyday to work.

The last thing NikeID should be concerned about it gives people the time to change their mind. Part of society buys by impulse and intelligent marketing strategies like "BUY NOW!" After desinging a shoe the person may realize they don't need a new pair. Then they have about three to four weeks to receive the shoes in the mail and change their mind.

If you think about it hard enough, you're paying an extra cost for something to be personalized? I think I will stick to some sharpie pens that work great on almost anything! How about you?