Musings and Memes

Alex over at Usable Markets is suggesting a wine rating system that would mimic the P/E system used with securities, called P/T.

He mentions that "One solution might be to faithfully display ratings for wines that have been evaluated, including those with bad ratings. Sellers, however, are unlikely to do this."

Actually, Amazon displays rankings for their products, good or bad. Stock brokers that provide quote data on securities display analyst and Morningstar ratings, good or bad. As a business owner, I don't want to hook you up with a product that you (or apparently many others) aren't happy with anyway, so it's just good business. You wouldn't recommend a bad wine to their face, would you?

The Grapes of Math

The proposed P/T system would divide the price of the wine by its rating with the thought that a lower ratio would be better; i.e. a $10 bottle of wine with a 92 rating would be a better value than a $100 bottle of wine with the same rating.

Problem is, a $10 bottle of wine with a 60 point rating would still have a lower P/T ratio than a $20 bottle with a much higher score. I don't know about you, but I'd shell a few extra dollars to get an "Outstanding" wine vs a "Below Average"

Cheap Donuts

Extending this example back to securities, its the same as saying Krispy Kreme is a better value than FedEx. KKD has lower reviews, but its a 10th of the cost.

Also, FDX has the lower P/E in this example.

Securities also get ratings and reviews, similar to wine, however they're done by analysts. These reviews are aggregated on a 5 point scale (1 is "buy", 5 is "sell").

If a particular wine scored highly across 3 reviewers, its average review would score higher than other wines having mixed reviews. Having this data available would be helpful for online shoppers. If retailers hope to sell more wine online they need more ratings and reviews, if not provided by publications, at least by the users themselves. I've requested that Peapod add ratings to the wines on their site, as all you have to go by is price alone (no vintages listed either)

Drinking and Driving

The other thing to keep in mind with this comparison, is that unless you're a wine investor, in which case you actually would be interested in the true "value" of your bottle of wine, drinking wine can be lumped in with certain luxury goods. People purchasing $100k cars (depreciating assets) with 10 MPG are hardly interested in value, unless they are car collectors.

More Resources

• Wine-rating system is not improving with age, IHT
• Are ratings pointless? The highs -- and lows -- of the 100-point scale, SF Chronicle
• Cork'd
• Wine Library TV (think Jim Cramer meets Joe Pesci)

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If you haven't already heard about the ridiculous lawsuit for $67M (by a Judge) about misplaced trousers, the Judge ruled today that the cleaners won't have to pay. However,

"The Chungs were laid low by Pearson's two-year pursuit of the case; their legal fees wiped out their savings and forced them to consider moving back to their native land of South Korea. In addition, as the Chungs' lawyer, Christopher Manning, pointed out this morning, the Chungs still face the potentially enormous and almost certain costs of defending themselves against an almost-inevitable appeal of [Judge] Bartnoff's decision by Pearson."

You can donate to Custom Cleaner Fund to help the Chungs' with their legal bills.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That's right, stats fans. Apparently he'll still be in the "online marketing space". I had interviewed him a couple years back after meeting him here in Chicago, it's posted on my business website for those of you interested.

Good luck John!

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From a recent article, What Else Is New, in the New Yorker:

"As users, we typically want our technology to be a black box; we don’t want to be bothered with adjusting it, monitoring it, repairing it, or knowing about its inner workings. A sure sign of the success of a technology is that we scarcely think of it as technology at all."

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you have a Roomba and strip out a square brush drive socket like I did, good luck trying to find replacement parts on iRobot's site.

If you peruse the forums, there is the usual advice "try ebay" from other Roomba users, however one enterprising fellow, Chris, has set up a business around this, the Roomba Exchange

Unfortunately I'll need to buy the 6-gear kit, for almost 1/3 the price of the original unit. That sucks... ;)

Posted by Eric Gockel at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Much has been written lately about the pros and cons of outsourcing (and outsourcing your life). Tim Ferriss' book, The 4-Hour Work Week covers outsourcing part of your workload (and parts of your personal workload), via a Personal Assistant. You may not agree with everything he has to say, but it'll definitely get you thinking. I for one, wouldn't entrust someone to handle my personal affairs remotely which would require me giving them access and/or logins to banking accounts, my SSN, etc.

Recently, the WSJ did a write up on Outsourcing Your Life that included a nice summary graphic of their experiences using independent contractors in India and elsewhere.

Test 1: Team Logo Design
$175
"...it took a few tries to get there". "A good deal--if you're willing to be very specific about the looking you're going for"

That's good advice when using an Indian firm, or an American firm for that matter. Perhaps the premium you pay an American firm goes towards "Mind Reading". Then again, the first draft had the team name misspelled. If you're willing to deal with no-brainer mistakes like that, you should be able to work with an Indian firm. If mistakes like that drive you crazy, I'd stay away. Also, multiple revisions (read: corrections) delay your project, so if you're working on a tight timeline, you're better off working with a firm (offshore or not) that you're familiar with or comes highly recommended.

Test 2: Personal Website for a Sportswriter
$125

"... he misspelled the writer's name" (I see a theme). "... and didn't create a sporty look".

From the screen shot, it looks like it was a site for WSJ sports writer Russell Adams, however I wasn't able to find this site via Google. I was however able to find the personal website of 8-year old Russell Adams. Remember to ask about Search Engine Optimization when someone builds your website.

Making It Work

In my experience, the more specifics you can provide the offshore/outsource team, the better your project will turn out (ala Mr. Spolsky). If you leave out some crucial details, don't assume someone will always fill in the blanks.

If you subscribe to the Getting Real philosophy, you can leverage that mindset as well:

"So what should you do in place of a spec? Go with a briefer alternative that moves you toward something real. Write a one page story about what the app needs to do. Use plain language and make it quick. If it takes more than a page to explain it, then it's too complex. This process shouldn't take more than one day.

Then begin building the interface — the interface will be the alternative to the functional spec. Draw some quick and simple paper sketches. Then start coding it into HTML. Unlike paragraphs of text that are open to alternate interpretations, interface designs are common ground that everyone can agree on."

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Marc Andreessen gives his definition of Web 2.0 in his blog: There's no such thing as Web 2.0

If you're considering adding some "web 2.0" stuff to your website, I encourage you to read his post, especially if you're not certain what all the 2.0 hoopla is about.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Are you a small or medium-sized business thinking about getting a web presence? If you're not selling products online (e-commerce) you may want to explore what local online listings you get get for free. It doesn't hurt to have your own website with a few simple pages listing your service offerings and contact information, but you really don't need to spend that much.

You can make the best website in the world, but if your prospects don't know where or how to find your website, its the same as having expensive full-color brochures sitting on your office counter waiting to be picked up by walk-ins (they've already found you, you need to let the rest of the world know you exist!)
Where to Start

Let's use our hometown, Chicago, as an example. Say you're a small plumbing shop and want to get your business and little website listed.

Google
Might as well start with the big guys. Add your business to their Google Local Business Center. Once that's set up, people searching for 'plumbers' in 'chicago', '60607' or '312' will see your business show up in their local searches.

Yahoo!
Yahoo! has been beefing up their local offerings too, add your business listing for free in their Yahoo! Search Marketing area. For $9.95/mo you can get an 'enhanced' listing.

Citysearch
If they don't have a basic listing for your business yet, you can submit a new listing. As with other sites, you can get extra goodies for a few extra bucks a month.

Yellow Pages
If you already have a listing in your local yellow pages, you'll get a 'basic' listing on the http://www.yp.com/ website

Yelp
A newcomer to the listing website game, but growing quickly. Here too, you can get your website listed for free. Like Citysearch, your listing will feature reviews by (hopefully) happy yelpers. Be sure to send your customers to these websites so they can post testimonials about their positive experiences with you.

There are many other places and strategies you can use to get your business noticed online and we'll touch on them in the weeks to come.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a promise to myself (and my prehypertension), I vowed to only make positive posts on my shiny new blog... and it won't be easy (if you know me). This is therapy.

To help remind myself, I pulled up a post about design consulting by Victor Lombardi last year:

"Highlight opportunities instead of bitching. As designers, we walk around in the world and feel overly sensitive to everything that isn’t designed well. We watch customers struggle when using poorly designed products. There’s an inclination to highlight these faults to executives whom we think should know about these faults. And maybe they should, but mostly they need help seeing the big opportunities. It might sound like product faults and market opportunities are simply the flip side of the same coin, but it’s the difference between being perceived as a whiny designer and a valued business advisor."

Amen, brother.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A client of mine often quips that I can read his mind, or that I just know what he likes.

Psychic powers? Not really, just powers of observation. Being in the (web) design business, it can get very subjective. People usually hate or love what you've made. I usually try to make my pitch in one take, that is, supply one mockup for approval.

Do I hit a home run every time? Nope. But I can usually sense what to change for the next (and hopefully last) iteration. The trick? I always gauge the client's initial reaction. They may totally hate the concept, while cursing at the monitor... only to be talked down by other staff members, later saying "oh, I get it, its ok, yeah, I like it".

Don't believe it. Always go by their first reaction, it's from their gut. Anything after that, and they've been talked into liking (or settling for) your proposed [insert product or service here]. If not, they'll only revert to their original reaction (feelings) days or weeks later, after you've probably spent considerable resources going down the supposedly approved path.

You need to dig deep and find out what the real issue is; it's time well invested. You'll not only come away knowing your clients' preferences and concerns better, you will have gained their respect and trust which will pay off nicely down the road.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I wish Peapod would put the vintage (year) on their wine offerings (I've requested this!). Then, perhaps I could find a way to Greasemonkey or bookmarklet a way to show corresponding Wine Spectator ratings or info from Cork'd.

Anybody for some Peapod Mashups?

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you haven't seen this already, Blaise Aguera y Arcas shows off his application Photosynth. If you have an extra $10k laying around and want to play with closest thing we have to Minority Report, check out Microsoft's Surface

Read more details over at Popular Mechanics' Behind the Scenes.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Who knew? I'm a closet genealogy nut... My wife thinks its funny, but hey, at least I have a new hobby now, thanks to Geni.

Its just too easy to start building out your family tree with this website. In many ways, its like LinkedIn, but with a nice visual navigation screen you can just drag around, zoom, click, edit and add people on the fly.

Check out this interview video with Geni's CEO:

Geni also lets you add pictures to your profiles so its great for sharing. And finally I have all the birthdays and anniversary dates in one spot. I've been a little slack in keeping up my ties with my German relatives (can't remember all my cousins' names), but this should really come in handy come holiday time.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I try to keep up with the latest redesigns and conversions to table-less CSS websites, but somehow I missed Mrs. Fields.

I fell for a recent direct mail piece of theirs (since Father's day is coming up) and decided to order from their website. The website is similar in nature to 1800flowers, but it did seem a tad bit better arranged... cleaner. And the site does a good job with SEO too.

The checkout was smooth, and received a confirmation email as well. Will report back if there are any delivery issues.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)