Radio silence for many months, broken with some fun news that our story-telling site, StoryJumper is finally a public beta.

What is it?

StoryJumper is a platform that makes it easy for anyone to create a children’s story. You can quickly create a story where the text is integrated with the art you create by dragging and dropping props on a book canvas. You can also upload photos to include in your story.

One very cool aspect of the product is that you can personalize and remix stories that others have written. While there are a handful of sites that allow users to personalize, we've taken this a giant step further by literally letting you change any element of the story.*

Perhaps you don't like the story's ending or the language? Maybe you want to change the main character from a boy to a girl? Find a great story, but it's too scary? Not a problem -- just click "personalize" on the story page and you'll be whisked into our story creator tool, where you can change whatever you like, creating your very own spin-off of the original.

And of course, pretty soon you'll be able to print hardback (or soft copies) of the book.

You can see some of the stories that are already up, here.

So give it a try and tell us your story!

(* The feature is permission-based, so the original author must enable "Personalize" in their story settings before others can copy and edit.)]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/10/storyjumper_beta_is_live.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/10/storyjumper_beta_is_live.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:19:44 -0800 I am not a heavy Twitter user, but this seemed like an ideal chance to find out what was happening locally (ala the Szechuan earthquake hype).

Indeed, a search on "caltrain" pretty much immediately summed up what I had guessed: an apparent suicide. And sadly the second in as many days.

As I scanned the results, though, I was really struck by the content of the tweets. Friends and family will laugh at my late-adoption tendencies, but I thought it's worth recording some of these observations for posterity:

1) CalTrain saturation: In less than 90 minutes, there were over 200 tweets about the accident from mostly CalTrain riders. Outside of a tech conference, you'd be hard-pressed to find that much chatter from that many people over such a localized incident. If I were in the mobile product space, I would camp my marketing team on that train or at the stations as often as possible to get customer input.

2)Better than local TV news: While the print media continues its downward spiral into obsolescence, we hear less from those in the local TV news space. I think they have much to fear from platforms like Twitter, even without full video integration.

a) This suicide was not news I *needed* to know, but I was curious. Twitter scratched that itch in real-time. No reason to remember to wait for "film at 11" tonight at home.

b) Twitter actually delivers on the promise of user generated content. The comments (below) have more color than I'd get in the same segment covered on TV.

c) Twitter actually beats TV at its own game of delivering the formulaic, staccato snippets of content that TV news has traditionally covered.

3) Local online news is also in trouble. Online news is going to have trouble keeping up. I was excited to see a Topix result via twitterfeed in the result set, but turns out it was from *yesterdays* suicide. The local ABC affiliate is doing a pretty good job, although their post was over an hour after the first report. But it lacked any insight or observation that I hadn't already gleaned from the other posts. The MercuryNews also joined the fray late, but spammed the results with 3 posts and no additional info. The Twitter stream obviates not just the TV medium, but the news team as well. I can parse my own "man on the street" impressions more efficiently.

Here are some choice bits:

The first report:
alonblue @caltrain 329 just hit something hard, stopped

The fact checker:
icoe According to Twitter search, there was the 2nd suicide on the Caltrain at Palo Alto...yep on my laptop on a bus with other irate yuppies...

Mr. Real-Time:
nbrosnahan NB #caltrain still stopped on tracks south of Cal ave. Apparently it was a suicide. Just saw a SB train slide past us.

The oblivious:
Mnkleo getting ready to take CalTrain, big cup of coffee in hand I am ready to go..CHOO, CHOO

The optimist:
pankaj The announcement on the speakers said 20-55min delay but the train in other direction just moved, so good sign. @caltrain says 10mins

The ponderous:
fureousangel Why was a pedestrian on the caltrain tracks or better question, why didn't he move.

The practical:
sares If your going to kill yourself plz jump off the golden gate. When you jump in front of caltrain it makes everyone late.

The harsh:
TinaTBone Another day another caltrain suicide. what a jerk. Stuck in menlo park grabbing oj at borrones.

The Ugly:
Mojo4Melo @simonp67 (caltrain) Ugh, damn can’t these people go do their final act somewhere’s else? LOL

The know-it-all:
eclaires1 @barrys if you followed @caltrain on twitter, you would know that it's going to be at cal ave in 10 min!

The New Guy in Town:
Marston CalTrain suicide :-/, first I've heard of so far. Hope it doesn't start to get as bad as Holland (or Japan).

Mr. Meta:
joshwolf The real-time Web is a trip... RT: @alonblue @caltrain 329 just hit something hard, stopped

The Loco Moco puff: Meatloaf, a runny sunny side-up egg, GRAVY, served in a cream-puff shell. If it had bacon + cheese in it, the deal would've been sealed. In retrospect I should have tried it, but passed because it was late in the evening.

Still, quite a submission to the pantheon of cardiac cuisine. I wonder why it is that Hawaii seems to have such an awesome array of food that is spectacularly unhealthy (but of course tastes fantastic)? ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/04/hawaiians_are_the_kings_of_jun.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/04/hawaiians_are_the_kings_of_jun.html Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:35:54 -0800 Discovery Communications -- best known for the Discovery Channel -- is suing Amazon for patent infringement... for the Kindle. They claim to have submitted a patent back in the 1990s that was finally granted in 2007.

That just ain't right.

I'm reminded of a post from Fred Wilson a few weeks back on Patent Trolls. I'm all for protecting the small inventor, but it's been nearly 10 years and to my knowledge Discovery hasn't pursued any e-book strategy worth mentioning.

There really should be a statute of limitations on latent patents.

Bottom line: Use it or lose it.]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/boycott_shark_week.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/boycott_shark_week.html Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:40:29 -0800 I'd been thinking good thoughts about this place for the last few days, and then checked my inbox to find that they'd sent me an online survey. 99.9% of the time I delete these, but given my recent experience I thought what the heck -- I'd help them out with a response.

Why are online surveys always such a dreadful experience?

There are at least a couple of big problems that I've experienced:

1) Too many questions, too little focus

The survey formats and questions are designed to solicit average responses from average customers -- not the passionate folk that have opinions (they are bored after the 5th question and drop off). Moreover, the "Strongly Agree/Disagree" multiple-choice format lures marketers into thinking that -- because they are so easy and quick to answer -- they can ask for the moon from their responders (e.g. 100+ questions).

So the only people that complete the surveys are those that enjoy the process -- which equals meaningless data from meaningless people. That is, the scores become diluted to the point that there are few data points worth communicating from the results. I used to see this all the time with Big Co. annual employee surveys. ("The overall employee satisfaction dropped from 2.8 to 2.7. What is the cause???")

2) Marketers don't understand or ignore available technology

Most marketers aren't taking advantage of obvious technology that would eliminate the need for many many of their questions. For example, if I'm entering their survey via a link from a mail they sent, why do they then ask me the dates of my stay, since they should be able to correlate this data with my mail account? (e.g. user "blake@mail.com" stayed here on dates X) Or, regardless of state, if on the very first question I've marked my stays as "Awesome" or "Horrendous", why march me through 50 screens of BS, when presenting me with a simple text-entry box on the next screen would probably elicit significantly richer, albeit subjective, feedback? At least they should take advantage of the flexibility in form-variables that you get with an online experience.

THE survey from THE Hotel was so annoying that I closed it after the 5th question out of boredom and irritation. Then, inspired to write this post, I tried to re-open the survey to cull some choice banality for examples. No dice -- Here is the message:

The survey you are attempting to access is still currently active on our servers. This may occur if there was a disruption in your connection to our servers and the survey has not yet been completed.

Please wait 60 minutes before attempting to re-enter the survey and use the URL link and password in your email invitation. When you re-enter the survey, it should resume at the point where your connection was lost.

I'm actually surprised by this. Vegas is infamous for cutting edge analytics in their customer loyalty and retention. You'd think they'd be able to get the art of the survey right. You'd imagine they'd be reluctant to abuse the Permission Marketing model, too.

In contrast, they could learn a lesson from Eric Ries -- He recently ran a survey on his blog the other day with one required question: "How likely are you to recommend [this blog] to a friend or colleague?" That's it. (And incidentally, yes, I would recommend it). Every other question was gravy, but still thoughtful as well as 10x shorter than the dross I received from THE Hotel.

How could they improve? I like Seth Godin's post about this a few weeks back - abridged here for your amusement:

1. Don't ask a question unless you truly care about the answer.

2. Every question you ask changes the way your users think.

3. Make it easy for the user to bail.

4. Make the questions entertaining.

5. Shake up the format.

]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/i_stayed_a_night_at.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/i_stayed_a_night_at.html Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:39:17 -0800

(Thanks SallyPNut)]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/how_did_it_come_to_this.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/how_did_it_come_to_this.html Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:49:37 -0800

Flying back from Vegas the other night, I'm reminded of a time I was on a Southwest (SW) flight a few years ago. As the drink service came through, a woman says to the attendant that she absolutely l-o-v-e-s these pretzel-mabobs they hand out, and would buy them if she knew where to get them. The attendant nods, smiles and agrees they are tasty. The attendant disappears and 30 seconds later comes back with a carton of ~50 of these pretzel packages and hands them to the woman, gratis. The woman gushes and accepts gratefully.

Is the woman a SW customer for life? We can bet that her bridge club and grandchildren have heard the story 100 times.

Obviously the attendent didn't run off to ask for permission to give away a ton of pretzels to the lady -- he just reacted with remarkable customer service that left all of us thinking SW really knows how to treat people.

Well, fast forward to the other day -- I'm trying to switch my evening flight to one that is earlier. There are plenty of seats on the earlier flight, and as it turns out the later flight I had originally booked was completely full. So, I call SW thinking I'm doing them a big favor by opening up an additional seat on the later flight for one of their erstwhile standby passengers.

Yes, says SW reservation agent -- for $50 they can make that change.

Really? $50? If they just allow me on the earlier plane, it costs them nothing, makes me happy, as well as the person that gets my seat on the later flight. What happened to the employee empowerment to make everyone's life a bit better? Where is the win-win(-win)?

I expect policy like this this from UAL or AA, but SW? No amount of quirky FAA emergency preambles or tossing peanut packs down the aisle during take off offsets something so stupid. Years of positive experience washed away in a single incident.

Of course, I'll probably still fly SW since they're still much better and cheaper than the alternatives (for now). Just a bummer that they seem to be losing their edge. ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/the_decline_and_fall_of_southw.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2009/03/the_decline_and_fall_of_southw.html Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:47:35 -0800 Quantum of Solace starts this Friday, and as a veteran 007 fan I'm pretty excited to see it. Casino Royale was breath of new life into the franchise, and I expect an excellent sophomore effort from Daniel Craig and first-time-Bond director, Marc Forster.

But over the years it's been a crap-shoot on quality. Some great ones... some not so great. Some seemed really cool at the time (i.e. when I was 10) but have not held up, while others age like a fine claret.

So I thought it would be fun to take a stab at ranking some of the Bonds -- Here are the three best Bond movies:

CRITERIA:

1. Plot: Does the premise simply taunt your suspension of disbelief? Or does it openly mock it?
2. Dialog: Does the dialog -- especially the one-liners -- hold up? Or does Bond sound like a douche?
3. Car & Gadgets: Relative to other Bond films -- Great, or simply good?
4. Bond Girl: Hot or not?
5. Villain: Bad ass?
6. Pre-title sequence interesting? Is the title track insufferable?

BEST

1. GOLD FINGER (1964)
For me, Gold Finger is the most balanced and classic of the films -- not too over the top at any point, but taut and engaging. There is a little bit of everything "Bond" present in this movie, and it holds up especially well for a film that is now over 40 years old.

1. Dialog: The most famous exchange in the franchise: "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"
2. Plot: Nuking Fort Knox to corner the world's gold market is far-fetched but intriguing.
3. Gadgets: Totally bad-ass Aston Martin with ejector seat + machine guns.
4. Bond Girl: Not that hot, but the writers did name her "Pussy Galore".
5. Villain: Auric Goldfinger is a great megalomaniacal villain, but his henchman Odd-Job (with the decapitating bowler hat) is second to none.
6. Title track: Shirley Bassey is tough to beat.
Bonus Misogynist line: James Bond: [speaking to a woman when another spy arrives to talk business] Run along now, man talk...

2. GOLDEN EYE (1995)
Yes, I know - Pierce Brosnan in the #2 slot? But this movie is fantastic for the Bond fan. Great plot, good twists. The most amazing opening 10 minutes of any of the films. It's easily one of my faves.

1. Dialog: Probably some of the most overt sexual innuendo in all the films.
2. Plot: Stealing control of military satellites to release an EMP that wipes out the financial grid long enough to steal gobs of lucre is cool!
3. Gadgets: The car is a BMW Z3. Not bad, but I'd have preferred something more exotic.
4. Bond Girl: She's be the pretty-hot girl next door... if you lived in Minsk.
5. Villain: Best friend Sean Bean 006 twist is great, and Alan Cummings is well cast as the Russian computer nerd. I'm not into Russian women, but if I were, I'd put Xenia Onatopp of that list. Heh, get it? Ooof.
6. Pre-title sequence: My favorite of all time. When Bond runs out to the middle of the dam and then bungee jumps off the edge, I freaking stood in my chair and yelled. Unfortunately I was at matinee showing in Osaka Japan -- surrounded by house wives that couldn't quite understand my enthusiasm.
Bonus sexual innuendo exchange:
Bond: It appears we share the same passions: three, anyway.
Xenia Onatopp: I count two: motoring and, uh, baccarat. I hope the third is where your real talent lies.
Bond: One rises to meet a challenge. [OOF!]

3. CASINO ROYALE (2006)
Like I was saying, this film gives new life to a pretty old series. What I like most about the Daniel Craig choice is that he's a perfect fit for the movie's gritty realism. The fight scene in the stairwell of the casino is absolutely knock-down, drag-out brutal. And while there are definitely some questionable "coincidences" in the story (did someone say "heart defibralator"?) it holds together well, and is a great set-up for future films.

1. Dialog: Polar-opposite of the Roger Moore cheekiness from the 1970s. More like what you'd expect from Guy Ritchie flick.
2. Plot: Shorting stocks and then committing acts of terror to drive the price down? Almost too believable.
3. Gadgets: Aston Martin DB5... which he wins in a poker tournament. Now that's a player
4. Bond Girl: Vesper Lynde is smart and sassy. A more balanced character than any previous actress in this role.
5. Villain: Le Chiffre? C'mon the dude bleeds from his eye. Gross. The torture scene near the end still leaves me queasy.
6. Pre-title sequence: Bond's first and second kills, chronologically speaking. Nice way to get the refresh calibrated and booted-up

Bonus back-door-man exchange:
Vesper Lynd: Am I going to have a problem with you, Mr. Bond?
Bond: No, don't worry, you're not my type.
Vesper Lynd: Smart?
Bond: Single.

In our next post: The 3 WORST Bond films... (hint: they all have Roger Moore in them)

Meanwhile, I welcome your wrong differing opinions in the comments... ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/11/best_bonds.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/11/best_bonds.html Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:18:26 -0800

Listening to local radio (KFOG) on the way into work this morning, the DJ mentions that all archives of the show can be "found by Googling 'fog files' or by going to (url/directory I've already forgotten)."

Well done. Much easier for my brain to remember a keyword search than trying to remember and then entering the damn URL (Google finally capitalized on this with the dual-purpose URL bar in their Chrome browser).

I've seen this pattern before. Japan has such verbose URLs, and with seemingly arbitrary application of the country-code extension for many sites (example: asahi.com vs asahi.co.jp) that many marketeers have simply gone to a model where they show a screenshot of the search term that will generate the desired page:

I haven't noticed this pattern in print ads in the U.S., but radio seems like a natural application for the 'Google this term' message, since the listener's attention span is much shorter and there is no 'rewind' to hear an url repeated.

Is there room here for black hat SEO sophistry against terms like this? Possibly, but I can't think of a scenario where it would be worth the effort/expense to game something on a local level, and certainly any Coke, Apple, or Budweiser has enough brand and page-rank mojo to ward off evil-doers.

So maybe there's still hope for the folks at Dillon Edwards...]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/10/_listening_to_local_radio.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/10/_listening_to_local_radio.html Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:55:05 -0800 For example, when composing a portrait, a photographer needs to consider where the subject is looking -- especially if it is away from the camera. All sorts of visual tension is created depending on how you frame your subject.

You'll often see this rule in action while reading newspapers. For example, if you have a person in the photo looking to the right, then that is where the page designer will try to position the text. If he puts it on the left, the article will seem disassociated from the photo.

Used effectively, it can create an interesting look. Used poorly, it just seems like bad photography.

Exhibit A:

Remarks: WTF???

However, when it comes to advertising I rarely see creative that uses visual tension without being completely intrusive and annoying. The window-shade, roll-down units are probably the worst, followed closely by the floating fly-bys for solicitations to register or take surveys.

So I'm intrigued with this new composition by Apple:

They've occupied both the 728 banner position, as well as the right rail. You've basically got Mac-guy and PC-guy having a conversation that physically (virtually?) flows across the upper-right corner of the content you are reading. Even with the sound off, I am intrigued to hear what they are saying!

Certainly, sustaining the dialog between these characters is a great (and obvious?) campaign-extension from the TV ads, but it's also neat how they're able to get my attention without being intrusive. And somehow I doubt shoving their two heads at opposite ends of a 728 banner would have been as effective.]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/09/when_you_are_composing_a.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/09/when_you_are_composing_a.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:17:24 -0800 UPDATE:

I can't remember how quickly I've ever rescinded a ringing endorsement for a product, but let me attempt to break that record:

1) Turns out Chrome is dog slow on my wireless connection at home, while IE and FireFox run circles around it. What gives?

2) I finally got around to reading the "comic" PR piece. I don't care how great the product is -- you can double your douche-bag points for that piece of tripe. Ugh.

----------------------------

I can't remember the last time a product release actually made me say "wow" out loud.

Wow.

I am generally one of the first in line to slander new products from G that don't live up to their potential (i.e. all of them except Maps and Mail) but my first impressions of Google's new "Chrome" browser is that they've completely captured the essence of what made their search engine so successful: Simple, fast, effortless.

The page load times compared to IE and Firefox on my XP machine are so wildly different, I'm not sure I'll ever go back to using either of these other browsers except to retrieve bookmarks or to test Topix site changes. And finally, a browser that really capitalizes on the user-behavior pattern of typing random search strings in the URL bar? That's just common sense.

Simply put, this is a change that I would recommend to my mother. And I don't think that's happened since I told her to dump Y! search in favor of G.

Another nail in the MSFT coffin. ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/09/chrome.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/09/chrome.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:58:01 -0800

A dirty dance between Venus and Uranus...

I've never been one to follow my horoscope, but if they can sustain this juicy prose, I might be a convert. ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/07/what_do_captain_kirk_and_toile.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/07/what_do_captain_kirk_and_toile.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:39:05 -0800 IMO it's probably too new to rate, and given the number of failed queries I'd have to give it several more tries to have a fair opinion. A lot of the responses from the peanut gallery are pretty negative. Whatever -- I think this is probably a case of "all press is good press".

Some of the comments I found particularly interesting, though, are those berating Cuil for

1) choosing a non-english domain name and
2) allegations that they weren't smart enough to research that transposing the "i" and "l" will take you to a porn site.

IMO if this was intentional, it was actually kinda genius.

By way of illustration, I never had a reason to visit the official site of the White House online. But, had that day ever happened, I was well-versed -- thanks to the cult anecdote of folks who accidentally point to whitehouse.com instead of whitehouse.gov -- that the former was a porn site, while the latter is the current residence of GDubya.

Granted, because it's not English, Cuil is not as in-the-face as say the "FCUK" brand of clothing, but for whatever small percentage of folks mis-typing the domain that end up on culi.com, I'm pretty sure they'll remember how to spell it the second go around. That sequence has a much better chance at brand stickiness than, say, Kaango or Loopt, methinks.

My advice to Cuil is that they should pay whatever the domain-squatters on ciul.com are asking and put a Goatse pic, stat! ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/07/cuil_ciul_clui_cliu_culi.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/07/cuil_ciul_clui_cliu_culi.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:03:27 -0800

Taken at round one of our informal Topix intern talent show. I can't hear what he's saying either - just watch the hands from the half-way point.

Holy mother of ****

Next week, bassoon players in Superman garb. ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/06/can_your_interns_do_this.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/06/can_your_interns_do_this.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:32:06 -0800

That Barney Pell is one lucky (clever) guy -- $100MM+ from Microsoft for Powerset, or so Venturebeat reports.

I find it fascinating that Microsoft -- a group that has had considerable experience with their own search products -- would buy a company that has built its reputation on the potential for 'natural language' search.

Why? Because 'natural language' search is not 'natural' in the context of online search. And MSFT most certainly has reams of log data indicating that people do not approach search by constructing natural language queries.

As I posted way back in Feb 2007, this might have been an interesting acquisition if it were available 10 years ago, before Yahoo and then more importantly Google became our front door to the internet.

10 years ago, online search was still a new concept to most, and the cement was still wet for influencing user behavior. But I suspect now the masses are fairly fluent -- if only by trial and error -- in speaking the language of search.

Why would I search for "What is the capital of Egypt?" or "Who wrote Harry Potter?" when I can get the info I'm looking for with "Egypt Capital" and "Potter Author". The latter is far more efficient in both number of key strokes, as well as focus on the key terms. It rids us of low-context baggage like pronouns, prepositions, and even the notion of constructing an interrogative statement (which is implied in any query).

While 'natural language' might have some niche applications (kids products?) I share the skepticism Howard Roark feels for neo-classical and baroque elements in post-modern architecture: The form no longer serves the function.

Of course, what's a couple hundo' out of MSFT's war chest? That's stamp money, chumps! They probably bought Powerset as a hedge just in case the crazy thing every takes off. Surely they don't intend to retool Live with natural language?

Then again, MSFT does have a history of taking the figurative to literal extremes... :-) ]]> http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/06/me_no_speak_powerset.html http://www.whatihearyousayingis.com/2008/06/me_no_speak_powerset.html Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:13:19 -0800