Trying Something New

Real Estate Rainmaker: Trying Something New

Don't disregard something new as being impossible to do or a waste of your time.

Keeping it Clean

Real Estate Rainmaker: Keeping it Clean

Thoughts on correlation between email productivity and a clean inbox.

The Extra Mile, Literally

Just this past weekend, my wife and I moved. Probably the most disorganized and complicated move for us to date, though through no fault of our own. As everyone knows, the common accepted currency among friends helping friends move is pizza and beer, I wanted to introduce everyone to this great place near by that we had discovered a month or so ago. My purpose was two fold however, as it was also to say good bye to the pizzeria, as in our move, we were no longer in the delivery area.

Since discovering this place, we've been back about once every two weeks, and on a few occasions, several times within a single week. As I was picking up our three extra large pizza's from the owner, I told him that this was for our moving crew, and that we were not outside of his area. He asked where, and then had me come over to their large delivery map on the wall. I showed him where we had moved too, and then realized as I was doing so that we were literally less than a mile from their delivery boundary. So close, yet so far! Maya, the owner then told me that not to worry, I should just call and ask for him and he would make sure that we would get our pizza.

Did he have to? No. Was it that big of a deal? Not really. But, to me, it was huge. He made a small concession on his part, and in doing so engendered even more loyalty in someone who already thought they were the best around.

A lot can be learned from that example, what ways can you go that extra mile for your patrons and customers?

Really Simple Syndication. No, REALLY.

"Why is it that websites that are good end up bloatware? They put so much stuff on the same page it doesn't load right. IGN's page has gotten really bad, going their page is just cheese." -- E.A.Q.

The above was said by a good friend of mine in a chat last month. My initial response to him was confusion, I really hadn't noticed IGN had changed their page at all. I read their stuff, particularly their reviews quite regularly. Before I switched over to using Chrome, I had Firefox so extensioned up with JS-disabling, Ad-blocking, and page modifying extensions, that at that time it would have been a normal response. Chrome most certainly does not block Javascript or ad's, so what was the problem? How could I miss something that such a problem to my friend?

The answer is simple. I rarely go to the main IGN page. I pull everything in via RSS into Google Reader. When you use something so much and so often, you start to take it for granted that everybody does as well. Think: asking someone for their phone number, expecting a mobile and getting their home phone because they do not have a cell phone. Shocked, you wonder, how can they not have a cell phone?

I wondered the same thing, how can someone who spends time visiting various news sites on an on going basis, get by without RSS? This goes hand in hand with the recent Forrester report on consumer adoption of RSS. This report has been mentioned on various other blogs and news sites following it's release, including various suppositions as to why it's the case. Are you ready for another?

From my experience, people don't use RSS, even after it's been explained to them, because they do not see the point. There are so many out there that would benefit from using a dedicated feed reader, and yet they insist time after time that they can just visit the website. They need to be shown what a great tool it is.

A first hand example of this is my brother-in-law. He works in IT, programs on the side, and visits the standard tech-news sites on an on going basis (Slashdot, Gizmodo, etc, etc), and had Google account. Yet, never opened Reader up once. He just didn't get it. I logged him into Reader, subscribed to the sites that he could remember off the top of his head, and within 5 minutes everything clicked. One place to get all of my news. So much time saved. He couldn't believe that he'd never done it before.

In order for RSS usage (in the sense of consumer's using dedicated readers) to grow, the practical use needs to be demonstrated. People already acclimated to seeing MSNBC pop up as their start page in IE, what if you replaced that with an online feed reader pulling in the content from MSNBC, People, and any other site that visiting. RSS moves from a Huh? to a Can't-Live-Without.

Chrome: Shiny Enough to Make a Difference?

A recent comic at UserFriendly.org made me smile. It's something that I can totally relate to:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080906

Now that Chrome is little over a week old, I've had some time to use it. It's also been installed at home, and used by the Missus. Her initial thoughts can be summed up by the question that she asked after it had been on our system and set as the default browser for the day: "Did you really get rid of Firefox?" She then followed up with: "I want it back." I later found out that the browser had locked up on her several times, and that's why she wanted it back. Further thoughts from her are as of yet forthcoming.

My usage habits are a bit more complex. At work I use no less than two separate browsers most of the time, and sometimes as often as four due to the many online systems that I access (Firefox, IE, and occasionally Prism and Flock). How does Chrome fit in with all of that?

I've found that I much prefer Chrome's application shortcut feature to be a superior replacement to Prism (application shortcut + m.twitter.com = ROCK). As for just plain browsing (what I've used Flock for), I prefer Chrome as well. So two browsers have just been replaced with Chrome, not too bad!

What about the long term? Speaking personally, I don't think that Chrome will ever totally replace Firefox in my own use. There are just too many extensions that I rely on. For day to day browsing and non specific usage, it does a wonderful job, and is already gaining headway on my own PC here.

All of that aside, the most important aspect of Chrome is the competition that it will give both to Microsoft and Mozilla. Google's in a very good position to market and push a new browser (some may argue that they're in the best position). Competition breeds innovation and therefore a better product, consumers win all around, even those don't switch browsers.

Cutting the Fat

Verizon's email client on their cell phones is pretty much garbage, so I've abandoned using it altogether. Opting to simply forward my personal email, all of it, to my cell phone's SMS email address. Basically letting the text messaging act as an instant email notification. This had a very unexpected side effect, though. It made me very conscious about what exactly I was getting in my email.

Every email message is now sent to my phone, and I realized just how much garbage I was getting. Things that I really don't care about, that I was always a bit too lazy to opt-out of, but still didn't mind deleting on a regular basis, week after week, or month after month. Not really spam, just solicited advertising that I had been given due to my email address being in some companies database.

It certainly gave me the incentive to take the few seconds to opt out of those emails. Got me thinking, also, as to how many other people do the same thing. Legitimate email advertisements, that they don't even read, but never bother to opt out of, just deleting them over and over ad nauseam.

Convenience vs. Customization

When given the option, I'll usually choose something (usually an item or program) that will allow me a greater level of customization, rather than something that is easier to use. While initially there may be some more time setting up the highly customizable piece, in the end it's worth it to me to get the usually relativly unique functionality that I'm looking for. Miranda for IM, and an n800 for my portable device of choice.It's too bad that they're not always mutually exclusive. There are plenty of things that are both inconvienant and lack any sort of official customization options, (VZW I'm looking at *YOU*). In some cases, you can always go the unofficial route, but even so, you'll never have the device that fully fits what you're looking for when things are so locked down.

It's too bad that they're not always mutually exclusive. There are plenty of things that are both inconvienant and lack any sort of official customization options, (VZW I'm looking at *YOU*). In some cases, you can always go the unofficial route, but even so, you'll never have the device that fully fits what you're looking for when things are so locked down.

What's in a Backup?

If you lost your cell phone right now, how many people would you be able to call? What about your PDA, or computer? If all the magic smoke came out, how long will it take you to be up and running?

Hopefully, all data that cannot be reproduced, such as your priceless photos and home movies, will have a secure backup of your prefered manner. What about the data that is easily gotten but has taken years to accumulate? Often times this will fly right under the radar.

Then again, it's not possible, at least not yet, to backup any and every piece of information. Appropriate selection is necessary.

Whatever you decide don't be the one to ask the question: "Backup, what backup?"