Your Web Site Has Changed ... Maybe Without You Knowing It
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American
If You Have a Web Site, the World Just Changed a Little
Google has introduced Google Sidewiki as an add-on to the Google Toolbar. Google's Sidewiki is an option that allows anyone to make comments on any Web site, and those comments can be seen by anyone who has the Google Toolbar with Sidewiki installed in their Web browser. (It requires the Google toolbar to be installed, then you have to enable Sidewicki.)
In short, people can now leave comments on your Web site, even if you don't want them to.
Once you have SideWiki running, you have the ability to review any product, right there on any company's Web site. And you can read what others have said. You also have the ability to respond to comments.
As a Web site owner you can claim your Google Sidewiki space and your introductory comment will always appear at the top of the "comments." This is a good idea because if you don't enable Sidewicki and put in an introductory remark, others may be leaving comments that you can't see ... but visitors with Sidewiki will be able to see.
If you're a B&M client, we can help you to claim your Web site's Google Sidewiki and set it up in a few minutes. Give Steve a call.
Obviously, Sidewiki presents the potential for abuse. Users could "graffiti" a Web site with spam/negative comments, offensive material, etc., and Web site owners would have to contact Google to have the material removed. But, this is just another example of how empowered customers are becoming, and how their ability to express themselves online can no longer be ignored. As with other social tools, Sidewiki will be a potential problem for companies that ignore it ... and a potential advantage for companies that embrace it.
If you have questions, email B&M's technical guru, Steve, at steve.borgwardt@bmpr.com. We've already claimed our Sidewiki space on our Web site http://www.bmpr.com/.
Last Tuesday's Blog
Last Tuesday's blog contained a flash animation of me as Achmed the Dead Terrorist. I thought it was funny ... which it was. Unfortunately flash animations don't work in email or RSS feeds. They only work on web pages. So unless you clicked on the title and went to my actual blog site, or you follow my blog on something like www.blogged.com you just saw a big red "X." I learned this from the IT people who work in our office and who helped me imbed the flash annimation in my blog. Of course they only told me about it not showing up in email and RSS feeds after the blog had been published ... which is the way IT geeks usually operate.
Sesame Street Mad Men Parody
They're "Mad. Mad. Mad." Or they could be "Sad. Sad. Sad." Whatever they are, I have an understandable infatuation for the Muppets.
I guess you know you've made it when Sesame Street does a parody about your show. Never mind the double digit number of Emmys that Mad Men has received. Click here to see the 90 second spot.
There's a Reason They're Always Smoking on Mad Men
It was a different era. Just about everyone smoked. I remember on TV series like Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare, doctors would routinely light up while talking to patients in hospital rooms. Seriously.
More significant, at the time real doctors not only condoned smoking, they promoted it ... as the ad below demonstrates.
Even the Flintstones promoted cigarettes during the show in this commercial that seems pretty amusing today.
Yes, it was a different era. Today Michael Jordan can get in trouble for smoking outside! A San Francisco city official asked the PGA Tour to remind Michael Jordan that he can't smoke cigars at Harding Park during the Presidents Cup because it's a public facility and smoking is banned. Jordan was serving as an honorary assistant to United States captain Fred Couples.
A photo of Jordan smoking his cigar was published in the San Francisco Chronicle and caught the attention of city officials. It seems that the Nanny State keeps getting Nannier.
Craig Ferguson Found His Job of Being Funny a Bit Challenging ... But He was up to the Challenge
"The person you work for, the person you admire and respect, is caught in an embarrassing situation. And your job is to be funny about that whilst trying to keep your own job. So if I inadvertently say something that gets me fired I hope it's funny."
Watch this entertaining clip of Craig Ferguson's comments the day after David Letterman made public his extortion and office indiscretions.
Packers are First in Something ...
The Minnesota vs. Green Bay game was the most-watched program in cable history. A mammoth 21.8 million viewers watched Brett Favre annihilate his former team, add to his list of records and prove beyond any doubt that he's still capable of winning games and perhaps going to the Super Bowl. The enormous audience that viewed the event means that the level of Green Bay's (Ted Thomson's) embarrassment should also be some kind of record.
