Flock me, Baby.

Everywhere I look, I feel like I see the tech press dissing physical keyboards on smartphones.  TechCrunch, specifically, seems to use a phone with a physical keyboard for 3 days, declare the keyboard stupid, and then go back to misspelling things on their iPhone soft keyboards.

[The G2 Android Phone] is much more usable as a device. And we can thank one thing for that, as well as for much of its much improved design: The removal of the physical keyboard. - From HTC Killed the Physical Keyboard. Smart Move.

(I happen to love my G1, TechCrunch. As does everyone I know who has one.)

The argument against physical keyboards seems to be that they waste space, which strikes me as incredibly odd. From an interface perspective, a keyboard that slides under the screen doesn’t waste space. From a bulkiness perspective: really? Why do you need/want a phone with the thickness and weight of a granola bar? I like sleekness too, but you may want to have your doctor check you for osteoporosis if you really find the G1 too heavy to handle.

I want to make a very clear statement here to phone manufacturers: I heart physical keyboards.  In fact, I refuse to buy a phone without one.

I’m not saying they’re for everyone - I’m sure soft keyboards are just fine for some people.  But there are several reasons physical keyboards are a smart choice:

1) Some people, including myself, have big fingers.  It’s really hard to hit those tiny soft keyboard buttons, and I spend WAY too much time fixing spelling errors than actually writing. Wasting time = bad.

2) Physical feedback always wins. While the slight force feedback and click noises of a soft keyboard are a nice touch, they don’t help me feel find my way around.  I learned to type on a computer keyboard with actual keys, and that’s how I’m used to typing.  Not to mention, the snap of sliding the screen back to get to the keyboard is just straight-up enjoyable.

3) Fast writers. My brain is usually slightly ahead of my fingers even on a computer, and using a soft keyboard makes it impossible for me to communicate my thoughts in any form of real-time.

4) There’s a reason that soft keyboards come with automatic spelling correction and word completion - because they are hard to use. iPhone users may be used to taking 5 minutes to write “hey I’m drown at the zebra, do you witch to come buy?”, but I find those messages obnoxious to read and embarassing to send.

5) The two aren’t mutually exclusive! You can have a physical keyboard and still provide a soft keyboard.  If you’re a TechCrunch writer and you hate physical keyboards, you can simply NEVER OPEN IT.  Magic.  Everyone is happy.

So please, phone manufacturers: don’t stop making physical keyboards.  Please don’t.  Because if you do, I won’t buy your phone (or recommend them to my friends).  And you wouldn’t want that, right?

Photo 1 Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alwayshere/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo 2 Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsun/ / CC BY 2.0

Today Twitter rolled out a massively re-designed homepage.  For such an incredibly successful young service, this is a major change.  And their design shows where Twitter - and possibly the social web - are headed.

Let’s dive into the details:

1. Twitter’s new focus is on searching and discovering what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.  It’s about DISCOVERY, not publishing or chatting.

2. Search is first and foremost.  The search box almost has the same prominence as the signup button.  Twitter obviously feels this is the killer feature that will, in the end, drive more adoption.

3. Trending topics are now on the homepage.  Twitter knows they’re going to draw people in with relevant, current content, not quotes from the New York times about how nifty Twitter is.

4. Trending topics fall into three categories (minute, day, and week) but this is very downplayed.  To the first-time visitor, this is content, plain and simple…while they can pay attention and discover this granularity, it’s not shoved in their face - no need to overwhelm potential new users.

5. The very small text above the signup button says “Join the conversation”.  Conversation has been stressed and established - now they gently encourage you to join in.

6. I don’t know if this was a feature before, but Twitter is now surfacing this as a tip: you can do location-based searches. Your discovery can now be local.

I’ll resist further analysis than this for now:

I think this reinforces the thought that the killer new social app isn’t microblogging: it’s discovery, serendipity, and eventually participation.  And I’m excited.

I’ve been meaning to write a post for awhile about how outdated and damaging the Neilsen rating system is for television programming.  It’s killed many a good show, including the brilliant Joss Whedon show, Firefly.

When Whedon debuted his new show, Dollhouse, I suspected the same might occur.  Considering it’s time slot (9pm on Friday) and it’s audience (young-ish, geeky, hip Whedonites) it seemed that it would likely only be watched online…not via one of those “television” things that the mysterious “Neilsen Families” have.

I’ll skip what would be about four paragraphs here and just say: Dollhouse has captured my heart. Like all Whedon shows it snuck up on me. When the inevitable and depressing debate over a second season began, I was not hopeful. Thankfully, Fox apparently wised up somewhat and paid attention to the number of Dollhouse viewers on Hulu (which is where I watched the entirety of the season, save the first episode). The show was renewed, and all of us Whedonites breathed a sigh of relief.

Except we all know that the fight isn’t over.

Rumor has it that Whedon has been asked to cut costs on the second season of Dollhouse, and I’m sure that Fox will be less forgiving in regards to the total number of TV viewers this season.  Perhaps, then, this is why they have rushed the Dollhouse: Season One DVD set out the door.

Fox may be still wising up to the fact that online TV programming is going to be the next big thing, as evidenced by The Simpsons making more money per thousand viewers on Hulu than on TV. But they have for some time paid attention to DVD sales, resurrecting Family Guy and even Firefly (in the form of Serenity) based on successful DVD sales.

So the path is clear: those of us who want to see Dollhouse continue and grow into the brilliant series it is promising to become need to buy the Dollhouse: Season One DVD. Consider it an investment - by buying this DVD you get at least one more season of Whedon-brilliance, with fewer commercials and available anytime you want via Hulu.

Let’s prove to them that we don’t need a TV to watch, love, and save a good show.

Video goes with piracy almost as much as music does.  For both mediums, a new phrase may need to be coined: “piracy is the sincerest form of flattery”.

I’m not joking, not really.  While this is only speaking from my personal experience and conversations with others, I suspect that most piracy is not for profit.  People grab their favorite clips and post them online because they think that they are hilarious and need to be shared with the world.

In the last few years the struggle between studios and privacy has been one of threats, inaction, and bitching.

This year we’ve seen a dramatic turn from the bitter fighting over video rights online to an embrace of the open nature of the web.  It’s truly amazing, and not something I expected to see happen so fast.  Let’s look at two examples.

Hulu

Hulu is a project that I (and many others) harbored intense skepticism towards during it’s development.  The whole concept of the television studios ganging up to create a rival to YouTube seemed childish, and we all expected them to do a horrible job.

Whatever the intentions, the people who actually built Hulu did an amazing job, and my personal TV watches has almost entirely moved to Hulu.  I’ve heard many others raving about it, including the usually skeptical Michael Arrington.

Why do jaded Web 2.0 users like Hulu?  They’ve done a few things right, and a few more great.

Giving The People What They Want
Hulu could have gone the cowardly way and only offered up lame, old shows that nobody was interested in.  Netflix faced this issue with their “Play Now” option…studios only OK’d stuff that was unlikely to get rented anyway (although their selection continues to improve, and I love watching SeaQuest on Netflix).

Instead, Hulu has provided some of the top shows on television: The Office, The Daily Show, House, The Colbert Report, The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Saturday Night LIfe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Family Guy (a YouTube favorite, which currently has 88,100 probably illegal results).

Don’t Be Stingy
When you hold all the power, it’s tempting to stingily hand out goods at the slowest rate possible.  Hulu managed to resist this, and their shows often show up the next morning.  It’s hard to beat the experience of waking up on a Wednesday morning and watching The Daily Show from the night before while still in bed.

Hulu does sometimes set experation dates on their shows, but they make this very clear.  I think the average consumer understands that if they want constant access to a whole season they should buy a DVD.

Monetization Is Changing
In a move that is in some ways more innovative than any monetization work YouTube has done, Hulu has started offering the option to watch a full-length trailer or ad (like the Tropic Thunder trailer seen in this image) in exchange for not showing any other ads during the episode.  I assume (and hope) that they’re tracking this and adjusting their advertising appropriately.

Innovation
One of the most innovative features to come out of online video in the last few months didn’t come from YouTube or any of the newer “Web 2.0″ video sites…it came from Hulu.

Being able to select any part of an episode and send/share it as a clip is probably the most obvious and brilliant answer to the multitude of Simpsons clips on YouTube.  And Hulu does it very, very well, making sure to suggest that you might want to watch the rest of the episode after your clip is over.

Monty Python on YouTube

Along with Family Guy clips and embarassing teen confessionals, Monty Python is a common search on YouTube. With over thirty thousand results on YouTube, it’s safe to say that this is money lost for Monty Python, who aren’t exactly actively promoting their old (and brilliant) material.

But, in a move humerously described by John Cleese as “deeply disappointing”, the comedy troupe has started a YouTube channel and is offering high resolution versions of their videos for free. This is a brilliant move for several reasons.

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em
In their introductory video (embedded below), Monty Python jokes that “for three years, you YouTubers have been ripping us off, putting tens of thousands of our videos up on YouTube.” It’s funny, but it’s also true, and probably a bit irritating for them. Yet instead of throwing a tantrum, the Pythons made the smart move to work with the existing trends and technology instead of uslessly flailing against them. In admitting this, they give YouTubers some credit and foster a sense of belonging instead of reluctant surrender.

Transparency In Advertising
A lot of advertising I see online feels like an apology. “Sorry, I had to slip this in to be able to keep doing this for a living”. Worse, they are often purposefully ignored. “Ads? What ads? Oh, how did those slip into my blog?”

Refreshingly, Monty Python has ignored this. They know they have a piracy issue, and they know that online video does not monetize nearly as well as TV.

The solution? Ask.

Monty Python simply asks their raving fans to do them a favor and click their ads. Simple as that. During a the “Ministry of Silly Walks” video I clicked a Bombay Sapphire ad. Would I have done that on a normal video? No. But I did it for Monty Python, and actually discovered a cool recepie widget on the Bombay Sapphire site.

Listen To The Wisdom of the Crowd
Again, instead of taking the stingy path and only putting up the less funny Monty Python skits (if there truly are any), our British friends took a look at the most popular Monty Python videos on YouTube and worked to get those up as the first hi-rez videos on their new channel. They listened, and will likely be rewarded by a number of views.

Is The War Over?

Nah, of course not. Many TV studious (notably ABC) have not gotten involved in Hulu, and many companies still work to try to sue people who are “stealing” their videos instead of working to satisfy these people. Still, it’s impressive to see the progress made this year and encouraging to think that even large companies can wise up and come up with something as smart as Hulu. Next up, the music industry?

I spent the first 3 days of last week at TechCrunch50.  I’ve been torn about what to write about the event.  I don’t really want to talk about the logistics…I’m going to trust that Arrington and Co will improve things next year.  I don’t really want to talk about any specific startups, because very few blew my mind.  But that helped me finally figure out what I wanted to talk about: the basics for marketing your startup.

You may ask why I think I’m qualified to post on this.  I certainly don’t have the experience starting and running a startup that Calcinas, X, or X have.  But that’s just it: these folks have great internal insights, but they also have the Curse of Knowledge; They don’t look at startups from an outsider’s perspective.  I think I do, for the most part.  In my experience, here’s the elements that many TechCrunch50 startups were missing that resulted in me leaving with no knowledge of what they’re about

1. Have a name I will remember.

There seems to be a new trend in naming Web 2.0 companies.  Gone is (occasionally frustrating) dropped and/or added vowel of Flickr, Zooomr, Tumblr.  The new trend seems to be taking a real word and spelling part of it out in a weird, extended phonetic way.  I won’t use any real examples from TechCrunch50…my goal isn’t to embarass people, just to help.  These fake names pretty accurately represent what I saw at the conference: hangowwwwt, wikeeficayshun, sooperpooper.

The issue here is that if I actually figure out what “hangowwwwt” is supposed to be (”hangout”), I will probably go home and type “www.hangout.com” into my (Flock) browser.  Maybe I will remember a bit and type in “www.hangowt.com”, but that’ll still be wrong.

Don’t name your startup something I’m unlikely to remember and unable to spell!

Good names are both memorable, descriptive, and easy to spell.  Some real examples from TechCrunch50: Legalicious, Flypaper (great logo too), Bluehaze, Musicshake, Truecar, and Goplanit.  It’s great if it makes sense like Goplanit, but it’s also OK if it’s somewhat nonsensical, as long as it is memorable and evokes an emotion.  My favorite example of all time is RadioHead.  Two words that I already have in my vocabulary, combined in an intriguing way.  Eventually, it loses meaning as two words, and now my brain holds three words: Radio, Head, and Radiohead.  Brilliant.

2. Have a reason for people to come to your booth.

This one is a sad fact of conferences like this: there’s a lot of shit to look at…why should I come to your booth?  You have to work your marketing muscle in any way you can to get me there.  This could be as simple as having a tagline that catches my interest (”Share status updates with your co-workers” - Yammer, TechCrunch50 winner).  Or, you can go a more primal route: fill my wants and needs.  Zivity had cell phone chargers.  Gazaro had booth babes  (and they worked rather hard).  Joongel had a big sign that said “We Have Chocolate”.  The guy from Kangapole juggled.

3. Use pertinent examples.

This one’s pretty simple.  Cater to your audience.  If you have something map-related, show the location of the party later that night.  If Joss Whedon is coming by later, have Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on the screen.  Not that he noticed.

Your audience is also not homogenous.  TechCrunch50 was a mix of investors, exhibitors, press and others.  You don’t want to give me the same pitch as an investor.  Instead, take a glance as my badge and figure out why I’m here.  If neccessary, ask me what I do online!  I can’t count how many startups pitched me on stuff that, while useful to someone else, I will NEVER use.  If they had asked before speaking they either could have saved some time or catered their pitch towards my needs.

4. Make it easy for me.

This is more of a note for those who are just forming their startup, but it’s very important.  It’s great that you have a social network/media site/news site for people who like to go to conferences.  You certainly have found a demographic.  Here’s the issue:  these people already have social networks.  If they’re going to conferences they’re probably busy.  And you’re asking them to set up a new account, add all their information, start uploading photos and making friends and interacting?  Trust me, they’re not going to spend the time.

Make sure when you create (and hell, as you evolve) that you are helpful and not work.  If I feel like it is going to be exhasting for me (someone who works in the Web 2.0 business) to try this network, you’re unlikely to get normal folks.  Make sure that along with your niche and demographic, you solve a pain point.

If you accomplish the above 4, you’ve got my attention.  Make the most of it.

I am generally a skeptic towards advertising.  I think most of it is ineffective for the majority people, and some of it is just painful.  This is why advertising has to reach such large numbers: to get any reasonable conversion, they need to be seen by a great many people.

However, this is a great example of targeted marketing:

I’m at the gas pump, I’m paying an arm, a leg, and two more arms (don’t ask where I got them) for gas…you can see that I’m at $22 for 5 gallons of gas.  I see this advertisement, and I have to agree: Yikes!

So what is the solution?  According to this ad, Toyota.  Toyota apparently makes the most fuel efficient cars.  Cool, I didn’t know that.  Isn’t that relevant?

Now if I didn’t already have a Toyota Camry, this would be very intriguing for me.  What if I have an aging Honda that I was thinking about selling?  I might seriously consider a Toyota for my next car…the savings would be tremendous.

Unlike most unfocused, bland, broad advertising, this hits me when it is most effective: when I literally am paying the “yikes” amount for gas.  Nice work, Toyota.

Originally posted by corydalus. Remixed as per his Creative Commons permissions.

I got a piece of mail from PG&E today.  This is not uncommon: aside from my regular statements, they send me a lot of spam.  Apparently they’re not satisfied to overcharge me and make it impossible to pay online…they want more out of me.

I opened the mail skeptically, but was pleased to discover that this mail was about saving power.  Great!  Saving power is a win-win-win situation: saves me money, saves them money, helps the environment and the oil situation.  I’m onboard!  How can I save energy, PG&E, how?

“Dear Evan Hamilton,

Did you know that you could save 25% on your energy bill by getting our ‘Smart AC’?”

Now, you may read this and think that it’s no big deal.  What you don’t realize is that I DON’T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING.  I live in an old building and nobody here has AC, we have windows and fans.

PG&E knows this, because they provide my power!  But instead of taking the time to figure this out, they send me this letter anyway.  Well guess what, PG&E?  I am now going to throw this useless letter, which is plastic-y and unrecylable, into the trash.  You know what is going to happen to this trash?  It’s either going to a landfill, which is an unsustainable solution to our waste problem, or it’s going to be burned like 16 percent of waste in the USA.  What’s that going to do for the environment?  Is it going to save electricity or oil to have millions of PG&E letters shoved around landfills by tractors and backhoes?

If you are going to make your company “green”, or “energy-saving”, think carefully about how you’re going to do it.  You don’t have to make your organization 100% Green (Flock didn’t for the Eco Edition), but you should make sure that your “Eco” initiatives are not actually causing more harm than help.