I just did a speaking gig at Microsoft. Spoke to Nestle executives from around the world. Nice group of folks. Asked some interesting questions. Couldn’t believe that they could actually watch what everyone around the world would say about Nestle. Yes, I introduced them to Technorati!
It was the last of my Microsoft responsibilities. A freebee for Mr. Gates! Heheh.
Then off to dinner where I met the technical staff from Quixtar. Again, wonderful people. Smart, interesting, not anything like what the stereotype of a multi-level marketing company employee is. At least in my mind (a friend got me into Quixtar about 15 years ago and I just couldn’t take to it).
Now, what is the Web these companies are gearing up for? Yes, you’d be right if you guessed a bloggy Web. A Web with real people talking about real stuff on it. Not a manufactured site that has no life. No soul.
Why? Cause they are seeing that what they are doing now isn’t working. People aren’t engaging with their company the way they want. They aren’t getting the Google page rank they want (or the MSN or the Yahoo rank either).
They see that their advertising dollars are bringing them less and less and they are seeing that a new word-of-mouth network has been built that’ll get stories from 15 small conversations to around-the-world newspaper, TV, and magazine coverage in 36 hours and they are scared!
Quick, do a little project with me. Visit the home pages of Nestle and Quixtar.
Without clicking anywhere find me a real human being. Not one made out of a stock photo agency.
You don’t need to look. There aren’t any. Not to mention that you can’t talk to a real human being. And I don’t see anything on those two pages that I’d like to link to. Which means they won’t get high search engine rankings no matter how many SEO firms they pay.
Which is like throwing money down the toilet. If you met THE PEOPLE behind these companies I think you’d be far more likely to listen to what they have to say. Or sell. And they ARE experts on their business. It’s a damn shame that they aren’t allowed to talk with us on their Web sites.
When I speak I’m just telling audiences about what Dave Winer and Dori Smith showed me six years ago — really blogs haven’t changed a whole lot since then. There’s no reason to bring up OPML or Second Life or AJAX, or Trackbacks or the latest thing that WordPress or Six Apart are showing off. They are still discovering that there’s value in simply encouraging their people to talk with their customers.
Until all the big companies get to the place where they understand the power in that then I guess there’s no reason to talk about anything else. Which, Dave, probably explains why I get invited to speak at Next Web conferences. I’m willing to talk about what you did in 2001.
Translation: we’re not ready for the next Web. The world is still catching up to the last Web. The 2001 Web.
But, I’m ready to learn something new. The audiences are catching up. Next year 2001 will really seem like 2001. 🙂
Hopefully in 2007 I can sit in the audience again and let the real gurus take the stage.
Oh, one other thing. Where are the freaking women? They are doing the most interesting blogging. One of the Nestle members said “no one in my country is doing blogging.” I said “bull.” And told them about Global Voices Online where there are bloggers from nearly every country around the world. Get Rebecca McKinnon to speak (she was one of those behind the Global Voices blog). She’s doing more important stuff than I am.
Or, at least get Mena Trott to speak. Six Apart is about to launch a new blogging initiative that at least deserves a speech or two.
I guess this is why BlogHer is doing so well. They are doing the next Web over there. Why aren’t any of their speakers at the Next Web conference?
I give you a front-row seat on the future. Focusing most of my efforts now on next-generation augmented reality and artificial intelligence, AKA "mixed reality."
SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER: http://clevermoe.com/scobleizer-news/
BUY OUR NEW BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Transformation-Robert-Scoble/dp/1539894444 "The Fourth Transformation: How augmented reality and artificial intelligence will change everything."
WATCH MY LATEST SPEECHES:
State of VR with Philip Rosedale (done in VR itself, very cool): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zAA1EVGUZU
At GEOINT, June 2017: http://trajectorymagazine.com/glimpse-new-world/
Augmented World Expo, June 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4xHILvLD8E
At Leade.rs, April 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI
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BIO:
Scoble gives you a front-row seat on the future.
Literally. He had the first ride in the first Tesla. Siri was launched in his house. He's been the first to share all sorts of technologies and companies with you, from Flipboard to Pandora to Instagram.
Today he's focusing on mixed reality, AKA "next-generation augmented reality" which will include a new user interface for EVERYTHING in your life (IoT, Smart Cities, driverless cars, robots, drones, etc).
That's based on his view thanks to his past experience as futurist at Rackspace.
Best place to find Scoble? On his Facebook profile at https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble
He has been a technology blogger since 2000, was one of five people who built Microsoft's Channel 9 video blog/community, worked at Fast Company Magazine running its TV efforts, and has been part of technology media businesses since 1993.
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SPEAKER PITCH:
Apple and Facebook now have revealed their Augmented Reality strategies, which means your business needs one too. Rely on Robert Scoble, the world's top authority on AR, to bring to your conference what businesses should do next.
SPEECH ABSTRACT #1:
TITLE: The Fourth Transformation: What's next in mixed reality (AR and AI) and the future of technology?
Here's an example of this talk at Leade.rs in Paris in April, 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI
Why "the Fourth Transformation?"
Soon we will have phones and glasses that do full on augmented reality. Everything you look at will potentially be augmented. This world is coming in late 2017 with a new iPhone from Apple, amongst other products. Microsoft is betting everything on its HoloLens glasses that do mixed reality and the industry is spending many billions of dollars in R&D and funding new companies like Magic Leap.
This future will be the user interface for IoT, Smart Cities, autonomous cars, robots, drones, and your TV.
This is a big deal and Robert will take you through what mixed reality is and how it will change every business.
Learn more about Robert's speaking style and contact his agent at http://odemanagement.com/robert-scoble/Robert-Scoble.html
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SPEECH ABSTRACT #2:
"The Next Two Clicks of Moore's Law."
Over the next four years, or two clicks of Moore's Law, a ton about our technology world will change. Scoble will bring you the best from his travels visiting R&D labs, startups, and innovators around the world.
He views the world through his rose-colored-mixed-reality glasses, which will be the new user interface for self driving cars, Smart Cities, IoT, and many other things in our world.
He'll send you off with some lessons for companies both large and small.
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SPEECH ABSTRACT #3:
"Personalized Meaning: What is Augmented Reality For?"
As we enter a far more technological world where even cars drive themselves, I predict we'll see a blowback toward the analog, more authentic world.
What role does augmented reality play in both worlds?
Get Scoble's insight into where augmented reality is going, see tons of real-world demos, and understand what he means by 'personalized meaning.'
CONTACT:
If you are looking to contact me, email is best: scobleizer@gmail.com.
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ENDORSEMENTS:
IZEA Top 25 Tech Influencers: https://izea.com/2017/07/07/25-top-tech-influencers/
Time: One of the top 140 Twitterers!
FT: One of the five most influential Twitterers!
Inc. Top 5 on list of Tech Power Players You Need to Know: http://www.inc.com/john-rampton/30-power-players-in-tech-you-need-to-know.html
Next Reality: #4 on top 50 AR influencer list: https://next.reality.news/news/nr50-next-realitys-50-people-watch-augmented-mixed-reality-0177454/
View all posts by Robert Scoble
Published
106 thoughts on “The next Web is the human Web”
It must be great to watch them start to get it. Especially, when they realize that they can make some real connections simply by talking about the things they already have passion for.
It must be great to watch them start to get it. Especially, when they realize that they can make some real connections simply by talking about the things they already have passion for.
Quixtar employs Scientology-like tactics –intimidate, slam, smear, character assassinate and sue, sue, sue. Their ‘blogging’ thrust long been around: Google-bombs, PR blogs, splogs, smear blogs, anon no-commenting blogs, motivational materials sales blogs, wild passionate frenzied promises about making millions of dollars in-just-a-few-hours-a-week blogs, duplicated-content swarm blogs, love-fest blogs. I’d say they know their so-called blogging karate pretty darned well.
The only question they should ever get asked is, ‘How do you plea?’
Quixtar employs Scientology-like tactics –intimidate, slam, smear, character assassinate and sue, sue, sue. Their ‘blogging’ thrust long been around: Google-bombs, PR blogs, splogs, smear blogs, anon no-commenting blogs, motivational materials sales blogs, wild passionate frenzied promises about making millions of dollars in-just-a-few-hours-a-week blogs, duplicated-content swarm blogs, love-fest blogs. I’d say they know their so-called blogging karate pretty darned well.
The only question they should ever get asked is, ‘How do you plea?’
Fair call Robert, fair call. I was reading for the MS content and I am still subscribed.
On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn’t support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.
Fair call Robert, fair call. I was reading for the MS content and I am still subscribed.
On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn’t support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.
Dave: I know it, you know it, but they say that out of their customer base there aren’t many Firefox users. I sorta believe them and can understand the need for prioritizing workload but I think that decision may come around to bite them. It depends how fast they’ll be able to get an update done and out, though. And how good IE 7 is at holding enterprise market share.
Dave: I know it, you know it, but they say that out of their customer base there aren’t many Firefox users. I sorta believe them and can understand the need for prioritizing workload but I think that decision may come around to bite them. It depends how fast they’ll be able to get an update done and out, though. And how good IE 7 is at holding enterprise market share.
but let me go even further. in general, it’s not only that businesses are losing “soul” on their marketing and websites. they’re losing the “soul” of business altogether.
but let me go even further. in general, it’s not only that businesses are losing “soul” on their marketing and websites. they’re losing the “soul” of business altogether.
The Human web has been around for quite some time. The Internet was intended to be a social place. It was simply a matter of time; a matter of when, not if.Although, the lines of thinking in this Post and the one on the linked page are quite different, it somehow maintains the same essence.
I can’t help wondering what you might make of this…
The Human web has been around for quite some time. The Internet was intended to be a social place. It was simply a matter of time; a matter of when, not if.Although, the lines of thinking in this Post and the one on the linked page are quite different, it somehow maintains the same essence.
I can’t help wondering what you might make of this…
Right on. This is about a whole new benefit of the Web, the power of inverse scale. The 2001 Web is mostly about outward scale — grab all the eyes and clicks you can. But blogging and podcasting and RSS allow for even global companies to have relationships with a relatively small group of the most important people to them — the engaged and passionate members of their affinity communities. The value of having a human-level relationship with these folks is immense. And you can be authentic in the process; real give and take. BTW: this works for any size business, organization or government. I guess we could call it tribe building for your cause or concern. We are, after all, more wired for tribe-level interactions than mass markets.
I started an independent consumer advocate blog about Quixtar in November, 2002. What I’ve seen since then is a corporation discovering blogs, understanding some of the principles of the cluetrain manifesto and trying to embrace the openness of the Web in the midst of a culture of information control.
What I’ve been “screaming” for almost four years is for Quixtar (and any other corp with a 1984 perspective of information) to engage their critics and remove the veil of secrecy.
I met Mark Glaser at a BlogNashville last year and explained some of the ill-conceived SEO tactics Quixtar employed. I believe his article, and subsequent attention to the tactics in the blogging community, helped convince Quixtar that the old “information control” strategy doesn’t work. And as you mentioned, they’re learning how to change.
However, Quixtar is faced with a bigger issue and it’s probably one that similar companies face. Their distributor force is independent and can pretty freely undermine the Human Web that the corporation is trying to embrace. As recently as last month one of their top level distributors issued a statement encouraging the rank and file to help “eliminate negative not only on the Internet but to eliminate negative period.” Their strategy is essentially what Glaser detailed in his article – spam the Web with cheerful, keyword loaded blogs describing the virtues of Quixtar and their fearless leader.
So, how does a corporation like Quixtar (who is obviously trying to become more human and embrace the free-flowing nature of the Web) overcome the efforts of its independent distributor force that seemingly works to undermine its best efforts?
I started an independent consumer advocate blog about Quixtar in November, 2002. What I’ve seen since then is a corporation discovering blogs, understanding some of the principles of the cluetrain manifesto and trying to embrace the openness of the Web in the midst of a culture of information control.
What I’ve been “screaming” for almost four years is for Quixtar (and any other corp with a 1984 perspective of information) to engage their critics and remove the veil of secrecy.
I met Mark Glaser at a BlogNashville last year and explained some of the ill-conceived SEO tactics Quixtar employed. I believe his article, and subsequent attention to the tactics in the blogging community, helped convince Quixtar that the old “information control” strategy doesn’t work. And as you mentioned, they’re learning how to change.
However, Quixtar is faced with a bigger issue and it’s probably one that similar companies face. Their distributor force is independent and can pretty freely undermine the Human Web that the corporation is trying to embrace. As recently as last month one of their top level distributors issued a statement encouraging the rank and file to help “eliminate negative not only on the Internet but to eliminate negative period.” Their strategy is essentially what Glaser detailed in his article – spam the Web with cheerful, keyword loaded blogs describing the virtues of Quixtar and their fearless leader.
So, how does a corporation like Quixtar (who is obviously trying to become more human and embrace the free-flowing nature of the Web) overcome the efforts of its independent distributor force that seemingly works to undermine its best efforts?
Right on. This is about a whole new benefit of the Web, the power of inverse scale. The 2001 Web is mostly about outward scale — grab all the eyes and clicks you can. But blogging and podcasting and RSS allow for even global companies to have relationships with a relatively small group of the most important people to them — the engaged and passionate members of their affinity communities. The value of having a human-level relationship with these folks is immense. And you can be authentic in the process; real give and take. BTW: this works for any size business, organization or government. I guess we could call it tribe building for your cause or concern. We are, after all, more wired for tribe-level interactions than mass markets.
We actually have a whole wishlist of women listen at the speaker page and we welcome more suggestions!
Actually, most of them didn’t want to come until they heard that we also invited Robert Scoble. Now they all want in! The sex appeal on that guy is just amazing…
We actually have a whole wishlist of women listen at the speaker page and we welcome more suggestions!
Actually, most of them didn’t want to come until they heard that we also invited Robert Scoble. Now they all want in! The sex appeal on that guy is just amazing…
Companies as big as Nestle can’t look to blogging as a means to transform consumer opinions. Not unless they are prepared to filter out comments, which is the biggest feature of blogging. If everyone were given a fair chance to speak, much of it would be negative. Heck even a mention of Nestle here brings wiki links to the boycott from 1977. And to say the least, they are known for not pandering to anyone but themselves.
Companies as big as Nestle can’t look to blogging as a means to transform consumer opinions. Not unless they are prepared to filter out comments, which is the biggest feature of blogging. If everyone were given a fair chance to speak, much of it would be negative. Heck even a mention of Nestle here brings wiki links to the boycott from 1977. And to say the least, they are known for not pandering to anyone but themselves.
I love the sentiments expressed here about big companies embracing blogging, but I’m still not sold I guess. Outside of PR and addressing a crisis, does anyone really want to read a corporate blog? Maybe, but I don’t ever see myself eagerly opening up my feed reader to check up on the latest from Nestle.
Blogging is a home run for small business, but it remains interesting to see how and if large enterprise can find (and deliver) any day-to-day value via a blog.
Now maybe a “cooking with chocolate” blog would work, but it seems like it would make more sense for Nestle to sponsor those types of blogs than to bring it in house. See Christoper Locke’s “Gonzo Marketing” for some early treatment of a subject we’re still struggling with today.
I love the sentiments expressed here about big companies embracing blogging, but I’m still not sold I guess. Outside of PR and addressing a crisis, does anyone really want to read a corporate blog? Maybe, but I don’t ever see myself eagerly opening up my feed reader to check up on the latest from Nestle.
Blogging is a home run for small business, but it remains interesting to see how and if large enterprise can find (and deliver) any day-to-day value via a blog.
Now maybe a “cooking with chocolate” blog would work, but it seems like it would make more sense for Nestle to sponsor those types of blogs than to bring it in house. See Christoper Locke’s “Gonzo Marketing” for some early treatment of a subject we’re still struggling with today.
Amen Robert – thanks for the props. Mena and Rebecca are terrific suggestions. And, as I wrote to Boris in response to Jeneane Sessum’s post this morning (here: http://blogher.org/node/7340), I recommend anyone interested in finding great women speakers:
(a) Come post what you’re looking for on BlogHer (http://blogher.org) and the community will help you;
Amen Robert – thanks for the props. Mena and Rebecca are terrific suggestions. And, as I wrote to Boris in response to Jeneane Sessum’s post this morning (here: http://blogher.org/node/7340), I recommend anyone interested in finding great women speakers:
(a) Come post what you’re looking for on BlogHer (http://blogher.org) and the community will help you;
If corporate ethics were an issue in who he took money from, what would he have been doing at…never mind.
As for humans, well, corporate execs have in my experience always wanted more SPLASH. Less information, more splash. Put in the 500K animations and the massive stock photos. Don’t bother with information or contact forms.
I don’t think blogging is a cure; I think it’s a symptom. If companies put any work into the CONTENT of their sites instead of the presentation, if they took away the sites from the marketing people, it would probably eliminate most of the need for company blogs.
“You only get a grapevine when there’s no official information.”
If corporate ethics were an issue in who he took money from, what would he have been doing at…never mind.
As for humans, well, corporate execs have in my experience always wanted more SPLASH. Less information, more splash. Put in the 500K animations and the massive stock photos. Don’t bother with information or contact forms.
I don’t think blogging is a cure; I think it’s a symptom. If companies put any work into the CONTENT of their sites instead of the presentation, if they took away the sites from the marketing people, it would probably eliminate most of the need for company blogs.
“You only get a grapevine when there’s no official information.”
Quixtar really sucks. People from quixtar have employed underhand tactics to get many people I know to attend ‘meetings’ like saying it is a ‘success seminar’ or similar crap. Many of these people accost you at kroger or publix or walmart and pretend to be friendly, get your number and then keep calling you on the phone. It gets to be very irritating! Scobe you shouldn’t be pitching for companies without taking into account their full behavior. This is the first time I have seen something I don’t condone on your site. Just sayin’
Quixtar really sucks. People from quixtar have employed underhand tactics to get many people I know to attend ‘meetings’ like saying it is a ‘success seminar’ or similar crap. Many of these people accost you at kroger or publix or walmart and pretend to be friendly, get your number and then keep calling you on the phone. It gets to be very irritating! Scobe you shouldn’t be pitching for companies without taking into account their full behavior. This is the first time I have seen something I don’t condone on your site. Just sayin’
My “Filter of the Month” is the central premise of Ray Kurzwiel’s “The Singularity Is Near”. That premise it that we are at the knee of a steeply accelerating curve of technological development.
It seems to me that you are saying that even as folks are building the information systems of the future, megacorps are struggling to assimilate the web of 5 years ago.
If that is the case, I have to say I have grave doubts that they’ll even be around in another 5 years.
My “Filter of the Month” is the central premise of Ray Kurzwiel’s “The Singularity Is Near”. That premise it that we are at the knee of a steeply accelerating curve of technological development.
It seems to me that you are saying that even as folks are building the information systems of the future, megacorps are struggling to assimilate the web of 5 years ago.
If that is the case, I have to say I have grave doubts that they’ll even be around in another 5 years.
Has everyone gone totally daft? (some Lobsterback Redcoatish lingo there).
a friend got me into Quixtar
If my “friends” ever attempt such, they stop being my friends, actually that’s a Congressionally-approved Declaration of War.
Quixtar is false-dreams-fraud hooking the gullible, pure and simple. So they blame the SEO company? Ironic, as they say that every year, and every new company. They sure have a darned hard time picking vendors, and it’s always and forever, the third parties fault, funny that. But Quixtar’s tactics go far beyond just simple SEO company methodologies, far far beyond. Why they aren’t already hounded out of biz, is a grand-failure of the so-called self-correcting market system.
But you know what could help Dell far more than some goofy blog? People on the phone that speak UNDERSTANDABLE English. Gee, imagine that.
Has everyone gone totally daft? (some Lobsterback Redcoatish lingo there).
a friend got me into Quixtar
If my “friends” ever attempt such, they stop being my friends, actually that’s a Congressionally-approved Declaration of War.
Quixtar is false-dreams-fraud hooking the gullible, pure and simple. So they blame the SEO company? Ironic, as they say that every year, and every new company. They sure have a darned hard time picking vendors, and it’s always and forever, the third parties fault, funny that. But Quixtar’s tactics go far beyond just simple SEO company methodologies, far far beyond. Why they aren’t already hounded out of biz, is a grand-failure of the so-called self-correcting market system.
But you know what could help Dell far more than some goofy blog? People on the phone that speak UNDERSTANDABLE English. Gee, imagine that.
Robert, it sounds like you’ve had a number of conversations with Quixtar employees lately! I chatted with you briefly at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference a couple weeks ago in San Francisco, where you spoke with your good friend Shel.
Anyway, I wanted to respond to your post and the response of Eric Janssen. Quixtar is indeed interested in a better dialog with all of its key audiences, including our own Independent Business Owners (IBOs), their customers, potential IBOs, employees, and more. When we launched Quixtar in 1999, we were counting on the web’s ability to increase the speed and effectiveness of communications. Of course, the speed and effectiveness of web communications was increased for everyone else as well.
We’ve worked hard to figure out ways to have our voice heard above the fray. We’ve created several websites to address different audiences on different topics, including product brand sites, informational sites, and even a few blogs. In fact, our Director of Communications has one that links off of Quixtar.com. Please note: She is a real person and you can communicate with her directly. Also, we do provide other opportunities for anyone to contact the company directly–in multiple ways and languages–right from the home page at Quixtar.com.
I’d also like to point out that Quixtar.com is ranked #1 at Google for the search term “Quixtar.” Right behind us are a number of our critics’ websites. We certainly have tried to optimize other websites we’ve created to make sure they’re part of a surfer’s web experience and not buried several pages deep in a Google search. Some people, friends and foes alike, have opined that our “Web Initiative Strategy” (not our term, by the way) is purely about drowning out the opposition. Frankly, if that were our goal, we would simply open up the floodgates to several hundred thousand IBOs to create web content and share their positive experiences. We are exploring ways to provide more opportunities for our IBOs to share their experiences, since right now our critics have much freer rein to share their opinions than do our own representatives.
Our business rules were created many years ago to provide a level playing field for all IBOs. Before the web, our rules prevented IBOs from mass advertising that would give a few established, successful individuals a better opportunity of reaching new prospects than other IBOs who had just started in the business. That rule has extended into the web era and, frankly, we’re struggling to determine the best way to provide our IBOs the best of what the web has to offer while providing new IBOs that same level playing field. Also, we want to ensure we don’t entirely lose control of our brand messages by unleashing a multitude of voices on the web.
Over the past few years, we’ve created web sites where we respond to our critics, where we share IBO stories, and where we provide perspective and context on what’s being said about the company. Most of that is available within one or two clicks from the homepage of Quixtar.com. There are almost as many different perspectives on our business opportunity as there are current and past participants, however, which means we’re never going to satisfy everyone’s needs. That means there’s a lot of pressure building up under the cap. In the same way you open up a shaken bottle of Coke, we’re trying to ease that pressure little by little through various experiments and initiatives currently underway.
Thanks for your input, Robert, and thanks to Eric for leading us to your post. We may not always agree with Eric and those who post at his site (and in fact we often don’t), but nobody disputes the need for an open and transparent dialog about our business opportunity. We’re paving the way for that dialog to happen, and we hope you’re ready!
Robert, it sounds like you’ve had a number of conversations with Quixtar employees lately! I chatted with you briefly at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference a couple weeks ago in San Francisco, where you spoke with your good friend Shel.
Anyway, I wanted to respond to your post and the response of Eric Janssen. Quixtar is indeed interested in a better dialog with all of its key audiences, including our own Independent Business Owners (IBOs), their customers, potential IBOs, employees, and more. When we launched Quixtar in 1999, we were counting on the web’s ability to increase the speed and effectiveness of communications. Of course, the speed and effectiveness of web communications was increased for everyone else as well.
We’ve worked hard to figure out ways to have our voice heard above the fray. We’ve created several websites to address different audiences on different topics, including product brand sites, informational sites, and even a few blogs. In fact, our Director of Communications has one that links off of Quixtar.com. Please note: She is a real person and you can communicate with her directly. Also, we do provide other opportunities for anyone to contact the company directly–in multiple ways and languages–right from the home page at Quixtar.com.
I’d also like to point out that Quixtar.com is ranked #1 at Google for the search term “Quixtar.” Right behind us are a number of our critics’ websites. We certainly have tried to optimize other websites we’ve created to make sure they’re part of a surfer’s web experience and not buried several pages deep in a Google search. Some people, friends and foes alike, have opined that our “Web Initiative Strategy” (not our term, by the way) is purely about drowning out the opposition. Frankly, if that were our goal, we would simply open up the floodgates to several hundred thousand IBOs to create web content and share their positive experiences. We are exploring ways to provide more opportunities for our IBOs to share their experiences, since right now our critics have much freer rein to share their opinions than do our own representatives.
Our business rules were created many years ago to provide a level playing field for all IBOs. Before the web, our rules prevented IBOs from mass advertising that would give a few established, successful individuals a better opportunity of reaching new prospects than other IBOs who had just started in the business. That rule has extended into the web era and, frankly, we’re struggling to determine the best way to provide our IBOs the best of what the web has to offer while providing new IBOs that same level playing field. Also, we want to ensure we don’t entirely lose control of our brand messages by unleashing a multitude of voices on the web.
Over the past few years, we’ve created web sites where we respond to our critics, where we share IBO stories, and where we provide perspective and context on what’s being said about the company. Most of that is available within one or two clicks from the homepage of Quixtar.com. There are almost as many different perspectives on our business opportunity as there are current and past participants, however, which means we’re never going to satisfy everyone’s needs. That means there’s a lot of pressure building up under the cap. In the same way you open up a shaken bottle of Coke, we’re trying to ease that pressure little by little through various experiments and initiatives currently underway.
Thanks for your input, Robert, and thanks to Eric for leading us to your post. We may not always agree with Eric and those who post at his site (and in fact we often don’t), but nobody disputes the need for an open and transparent dialog about our business opportunity. We’re paving the way for that dialog to happen, and we hope you’re ready!
Wow, a perfect invocation of David Miscavige…amazingly spooky.
But she backed into a corner, contradictions ahoy, if ‘opening the floodgates’ becomes ‘drowning out the opposition’. Then censorship, walling up those floodgates, now somehow becomes an open and transparent dialog? If IBOs were allowed to speak freely, it would supposedly ‘drown out the opposition’. But then they aren’t allowed to speak, as the need for a socialistic ‘level playing field’. You can’t have it three or four ways. But then all sorts of cultic planned-economy “experiments and initiatives” will somehow suffice. And they the trip up over the Cluetrainish cults main rule, free speech directly MEANS you “lose control of brand[ing] messages.” Knock, knock, to the bloggers, the customer is in control. What a mess.
Scoble, I love yah and all, but lying down with sickly stray diseased dogs, is gonna getcha a ton of fleas. Frankly I am amazed that anyone with a basic level of Economics would ever even take Quixtar seriously. Suckers born a minute, second even.
Also take note not one word about ‘products’, all about ‘IBOs’.
PS – Only lawyerish-legalese documents ever use the dialog variant, if you want a “dialogue”, try and spell it first…
Wow, a perfect invocation of David Miscavige…amazingly spooky.
But she backed into a corner, contradictions ahoy, if ‘opening the floodgates’ becomes ‘drowning out the opposition’. Then censorship, walling up those floodgates, now somehow becomes an open and transparent dialog? If IBOs were allowed to speak freely, it would supposedly ‘drown out the opposition’. But then they aren’t allowed to speak, as the need for a socialistic ‘level playing field’. You can’t have it three or four ways. But then all sorts of cultic planned-economy “experiments and initiatives” will somehow suffice. And they the trip up over the Cluetrainish cults main rule, free speech directly MEANS you “lose control of brand[ing] messages.” Knock, knock, to the bloggers, the customer is in control. What a mess.
Scoble, I love yah and all, but lying down with sickly stray diseased dogs, is gonna getcha a ton of fleas. Frankly I am amazed that anyone with a basic level of Economics would ever even take Quixtar seriously. Suckers born a minute, second even.
Also take note not one word about ‘products’, all about ‘IBOs’.
PS – Only lawyerish-legalese documents ever use the dialog variant, if you want a “dialogue”, try and spell it first…
Robert,
My only experience with blogs was the last presidential election and I concluded blogs were no different then people standing in the town square hurling insults at each other. Although there may be something of substance, wading through the emotional diatribes was too high of a price to pay. I have a good friend who obviously excels in his efforts based upon the people who have hired him who convinced me to read your book.
Even though it was difficult for me to admit I may have been wrong, the logic and clarity in your book made complete sense.
Tonight, to celebrate his victory, he decided I was ready for the next step and took me to your blog. The most recent were comments about Dell blogging and the next talked about Quixtar and Nestle. There were some obviously emotional comments about Quixtar and a long post from a Quixtar consumer advocate named Eric Jannsen. My tutor showed me how to go to his site and the front page talks about a Quixtar web strategy to drown out the other side. After a five minute lesson on Google bombing we went to Quixtar’s home site and then spent the next hour on other corporate sites affiliated with Quixtar. I discovered they were part of a multinational company that sells billions of dollars a year in product that appeared to be mostly consumables with an emphasis on their nutrition line. They appear to have a good standard in consumer protection via a substantial return and refund policy for those that are dissatisfied. Quixtar is actually a successor company to Amway in North America while Amway operates in most of the rest of the world. In short, if I was interested in purchasing or involvement I could find the information. My expert explained to me SEO and showed me how Quixtar and the other sites optimize for better search engine ratings but said he could see nothing they were doing that was not industry accepted. Admittedly, I know nothing of this field but it is his field.
We then went back to the site that represented themselves as a Quixtar consumer advocate and waded through the blogs. After thirty minutes I realized I was back in the town square again. Most everyone is screeching about Quixtar with little of no substance and it appears a few Quixtar people trying to respond rationally and getting trashed for their temerity.Quixtar needs to be exposed to Google, they need to be shut down, etc. I felt like I was reading the transcript of a late night talk show. I finally concluded that if this is a consumer advocate site then Ralph Nader is a capitalist. There may be something of substance somewhere but the effort that would be required to find it is too high of a price to pay. It is a critics site that misrepresents itself which brings me to the question my expert and blog proponent can not answer.
I realize corporate sites only give us corporate speak. I wish they didn’t but everyone understands that is what we wade through. What is the premise for the belief that there is more value in acquiring information by wading through people’s rantings on blog sites, such as the one I visited, rather then a corporate site. Neither is transparent but as least I can recognize the corporate site for what it is and it is also has legal obligations that don’t extend to blogs.
I apologize for the length of this. My “coach” is telling me this is improperly lengthy for a blog. Your book is the only thing I have read that made sense to me and while I believe in the value and power of word of mouth discussion I don’t think I am the only person who doesn’t know how to discern where to get accurate information from blogs.
Robert,
My only experience with blogs was the last presidential election and I concluded blogs were no different then people standing in the town square hurling insults at each other. Although there may be something of substance, wading through the emotional diatribes was too high of a price to pay. I have a good friend who obviously excels in his efforts based upon the people who have hired him who convinced me to read your book.
Even though it was difficult for me to admit I may have been wrong, the logic and clarity in your book made complete sense.
Tonight, to celebrate his victory, he decided I was ready for the next step and took me to your blog. The most recent were comments about Dell blogging and the next talked about Quixtar and Nestle. There were some obviously emotional comments about Quixtar and a long post from a Quixtar consumer advocate named Eric Jannsen. My tutor showed me how to go to his site and the front page talks about a Quixtar web strategy to drown out the other side. After a five minute lesson on Google bombing we went to Quixtar’s home site and then spent the next hour on other corporate sites affiliated with Quixtar. I discovered they were part of a multinational company that sells billions of dollars a year in product that appeared to be mostly consumables with an emphasis on their nutrition line. They appear to have a good standard in consumer protection via a substantial return and refund policy for those that are dissatisfied. Quixtar is actually a successor company to Amway in North America while Amway operates in most of the rest of the world. In short, if I was interested in purchasing or involvement I could find the information. My expert explained to me SEO and showed me how Quixtar and the other sites optimize for better search engine ratings but said he could see nothing they were doing that was not industry accepted. Admittedly, I know nothing of this field but it is his field.
We then went back to the site that represented themselves as a Quixtar consumer advocate and waded through the blogs. After thirty minutes I realized I was back in the town square again. Most everyone is screeching about Quixtar with little of no substance and it appears a few Quixtar people trying to respond rationally and getting trashed for their temerity.Quixtar needs to be exposed to Google, they need to be shut down, etc. I felt like I was reading the transcript of a late night talk show. I finally concluded that if this is a consumer advocate site then Ralph Nader is a capitalist. There may be something of substance somewhere but the effort that would be required to find it is too high of a price to pay. It is a critics site that misrepresents itself which brings me to the question my expert and blog proponent can not answer.
I realize corporate sites only give us corporate speak. I wish they didn’t but everyone understands that is what we wade through. What is the premise for the belief that there is more value in acquiring information by wading through people’s rantings on blog sites, such as the one I visited, rather then a corporate site. Neither is transparent but as least I can recognize the corporate site for what it is and it is also has legal obligations that don’t extend to blogs.
I apologize for the length of this. My “coach” is telling me this is improperly lengthy for a blog. Your book is the only thing I have read that made sense to me and while I believe in the value and power of word of mouth discussion I don’t think I am the only person who doesn’t know how to discern where to get accurate information from blogs.
I am one of what you may term the “Black Market” bloggers. I steal time at work to post and comment when no-one else is looking. I must compliment you on the quality of this blog. It has the power to distract me and send me on all sorts of adventures through the links to the blogosphere.
Thank you.
I am one of what you may term the “Black Market” bloggers. I steal time at work to post and comment when no-one else is looking. I must compliment you on the quality of this blog. It has the power to distract me and send me on all sorts of adventures through the links to the blogosphere.
Thank you.
I work for a company (netalter) which is heading towards developing an alternative web model. I joined this company in Jan 2006 and very excited about the prospect of being part of something this big.
To give you some idea of what the vision of netalter is; it basically forms an alternative network and implement SOA architecture for inter-application interface within its browser.
I work for a company (netalter) which is heading towards developing an alternative web model. I joined this company in Jan 2006 and very excited about the prospect of being part of something this big.
To give you some idea of what the vision of netalter is; it basically forms an alternative network and implement SOA architecture for inter-application interface within its browser.
Allow me to contribute with some words of a brasilian who wants to become a blogger: Luiz is my name and I simply guess the articulist got to the point. As a matter of fact, a bunch of minutes ago, I was about to manifest my human love for http://www.google.com – my home page. Then, I decided to insert in search box: Thank you, Google – My human web love! Well, the search took me here, I am very pleasantly participating with you all, in the human web! Last, but to the First, I give thanks to Jesus Christ, our Lord, 'cause He's got me going, flowing and navigating on the web now! LjsFri, Jun05,2009-2:54pm.
On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn't support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.You do a great job mate, keep it up.
On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn't support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.You do a great job mate, keep it up.
It must be great to watch them start to get it. Especially, when they realize that they can make some real connections simply by talking about the things they already have passion for.
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It must be great to watch them start to get it. Especially, when they realize that they can make some real connections simply by talking about the things they already have passion for.
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I have to say, I _never_ thought I’d see you blogging about how Amway understand the power of open and transparent communication.
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I have to say, I _never_ thought I’d see you blogging about how Amway understand the power of open and transparent communication.
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Dave: I didn’t say they got it yet. But at least they are asking the right questions.
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Dave: I didn’t say they got it yet. But at least they are asking the right questions.
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Quixtar employs Scientology-like tactics –intimidate, slam, smear, character assassinate and sue, sue, sue. Their ‘blogging’ thrust long been around: Google-bombs, PR blogs, splogs, smear blogs, anon no-commenting blogs, motivational materials sales blogs, wild passionate frenzied promises about making millions of dollars in-just-a-few-hours-a-week blogs, duplicated-content swarm blogs, love-fest blogs. I’d say they know their so-called blogging karate pretty darned well.
The only question they should ever get asked is, ‘How do you plea?’
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Quixtar employs Scientology-like tactics –intimidate, slam, smear, character assassinate and sue, sue, sue. Their ‘blogging’ thrust long been around: Google-bombs, PR blogs, splogs, smear blogs, anon no-commenting blogs, motivational materials sales blogs, wild passionate frenzied promises about making millions of dollars in-just-a-few-hours-a-week blogs, duplicated-content swarm blogs, love-fest blogs. I’d say they know their so-called blogging karate pretty darned well.
The only question they should ever get asked is, ‘How do you plea?’
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Christopher: they plea guilty, but say they aren’t doing that anymore and they were misled by a SEO firm that told them to do such things.
Me? Just take the negative folks head on. Link to them. Listen to them. Engage them. It takes their power away.
Demonstrate passion and authority over your marketplace and everything else will come out in the wash.
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Christopher: they plea guilty, but say they aren’t doing that anymore and they were misled by a SEO firm that told them to do such things.
Me? Just take the negative folks head on. Link to them. Listen to them. Engage them. It takes their power away.
Demonstrate passion and authority over your marketplace and everything else will come out in the wash.
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Fair call Robert, fair call. I was reading for the MS content and I am still subscribed.
On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn’t support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.
You do a great job mate, keep it up.
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Fair call Robert, fair call. I was reading for the MS content and I am still subscribed.
On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn’t support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.
You do a great job mate, keep it up.
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Dave: I know it, you know it, but they say that out of their customer base there aren’t many Firefox users. I sorta believe them and can understand the need for prioritizing workload but I think that decision may come around to bite them. It depends how fast they’ll be able to get an update done and out, though. And how good IE 7 is at holding enterprise market share.
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Dave: I know it, you know it, but they say that out of their customer base there aren’t many Firefox users. I sorta believe them and can understand the need for prioritizing workload but I think that decision may come around to bite them. It depends how fast they’ll be able to get an update done and out, though. And how good IE 7 is at holding enterprise market share.
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What country was that Nestlé person from, Robert? Not Switzerland, I hope? 😉
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What country was that Nestlé person from, Robert? Not Switzerland, I hope? 😉
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If you want Swiss bloggers, you should put Nestlé in touch with our friend Stephanie Booth.
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If you want Swiss bloggers, you should put Nestlé in touch with our friend Stephanie Booth.
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Steph: not sure. There were execs from all over the world there.
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Steph: not sure. There were execs from all over the world there.
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exactly! well said Robert.
but let me go even further. in general, it’s not only that businesses are losing “soul” on their marketing and websites. they’re losing the “soul” of business altogether.
what do i mean? if you still haven’t done so, check out the book GOOD BUSINESS by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. there’s a cool chapter there on The Soul of Business.
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exactly! well said Robert.
but let me go even further. in general, it’s not only that businesses are losing “soul” on their marketing and websites. they’re losing the “soul” of business altogether.
what do i mean? if you still haven’t done so, check out the book GOOD BUSINESS by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. there’s a cool chapter there on The Soul of Business.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
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Robert, I am not sure whether you’ll actually read this, but I thought I’d share it with you. Your post just freaked me out.
Why? Because of the Human Web.
The Human web has been around for quite some time. The Internet was intended to be a social place. It was simply a matter of time; a matter of when, not if.Although, the lines of thinking in this Post and the one on the linked page are quite different, it somehow maintains the same essence.
I can’t help wondering what you might make of this…
Regards,
Shri
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Robert, I am not sure whether you’ll actually read this, but I thought I’d share it with you. Your post just freaked me out.
Why? Because of the Human Web.
The Human web has been around for quite some time. The Internet was intended to be a social place. It was simply a matter of time; a matter of when, not if.Although, the lines of thinking in this Post and the one on the linked page are quite different, it somehow maintains the same essence.
I can’t help wondering what you might make of this…
Regards,
Shri
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Right on. This is about a whole new benefit of the Web, the power of inverse scale. The 2001 Web is mostly about outward scale — grab all the eyes and clicks you can. But blogging and podcasting and RSS allow for even global companies to have relationships with a relatively small group of the most important people to them — the engaged and passionate members of their affinity communities. The value of having a human-level relationship with these folks is immense. And you can be authentic in the process; real give and take. BTW: this works for any size business, organization or government. I guess we could call it tribe building for your cause or concern. We are, after all, more wired for tribe-level interactions than mass markets.
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Robert,
I started an independent consumer advocate blog about Quixtar in November, 2002. What I’ve seen since then is a corporation discovering blogs, understanding some of the principles of the cluetrain manifesto and trying to embrace the openness of the Web in the midst of a culture of information control.
What I’ve been “screaming” for almost four years is for Quixtar (and any other corp with a 1984 perspective of information) to engage their critics and remove the veil of secrecy.
I met Mark Glaser at a BlogNashville last year and explained some of the ill-conceived SEO tactics Quixtar employed. I believe his article, and subsequent attention to the tactics in the blogging community, helped convince Quixtar that the old “information control” strategy doesn’t work. And as you mentioned, they’re learning how to change.
However, Quixtar is faced with a bigger issue and it’s probably one that similar companies face. Their distributor force is independent and can pretty freely undermine the Human Web that the corporation is trying to embrace. As recently as last month one of their top level distributors issued a statement encouraging the rank and file to help “eliminate negative not only on the Internet but to eliminate negative period.” Their strategy is essentially what Glaser detailed in his article – spam the Web with cheerful, keyword loaded blogs describing the virtues of Quixtar and their fearless leader.
So, how does a corporation like Quixtar (who is obviously trying to become more human and embrace the free-flowing nature of the Web) overcome the efforts of its independent distributor force that seemingly works to undermine its best efforts?
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Robert,
I started an independent consumer advocate blog about Quixtar in November, 2002. What I’ve seen since then is a corporation discovering blogs, understanding some of the principles of the cluetrain manifesto and trying to embrace the openness of the Web in the midst of a culture of information control.
What I’ve been “screaming” for almost four years is for Quixtar (and any other corp with a 1984 perspective of information) to engage their critics and remove the veil of secrecy.
I met Mark Glaser at a BlogNashville last year and explained some of the ill-conceived SEO tactics Quixtar employed. I believe his article, and subsequent attention to the tactics in the blogging community, helped convince Quixtar that the old “information control” strategy doesn’t work. And as you mentioned, they’re learning how to change.
However, Quixtar is faced with a bigger issue and it’s probably one that similar companies face. Their distributor force is independent and can pretty freely undermine the Human Web that the corporation is trying to embrace. As recently as last month one of their top level distributors issued a statement encouraging the rank and file to help “eliminate negative not only on the Internet but to eliminate negative period.” Their strategy is essentially what Glaser detailed in his article – spam the Web with cheerful, keyword loaded blogs describing the virtues of Quixtar and their fearless leader.
So, how does a corporation like Quixtar (who is obviously trying to become more human and embrace the free-flowing nature of the Web) overcome the efforts of its independent distributor force that seemingly works to undermine its best efforts?
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Right on. This is about a whole new benefit of the Web, the power of inverse scale. The 2001 Web is mostly about outward scale — grab all the eyes and clicks you can. But blogging and podcasting and RSS allow for even global companies to have relationships with a relatively small group of the most important people to them — the engaged and passionate members of their affinity communities. The value of having a human-level relationship with these folks is immense. And you can be authentic in the process; real give and take. BTW: this works for any size business, organization or government. I guess we could call it tribe building for your cause or concern. We are, after all, more wired for tribe-level interactions than mass markets.
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Not sure if you had seen this Nestle’s page . I kinda posted a long time ago on that here
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Not sure if you had seen this Nestle’s page . I kinda posted a long time ago on that here
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We actually have a whole wishlist of women listen at the speaker page and we welcome more suggestions!
Actually, most of them didn’t want to come until they heard that we also invited Robert Scoble. Now they all want in! The sex appeal on that guy is just amazing…
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We actually have a whole wishlist of women listen at the speaker page and we welcome more suggestions!
Actually, most of them didn’t want to come until they heard that we also invited Robert Scoble. Now they all want in! The sex appeal on that guy is just amazing…
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Companies as big as Nestle can’t look to blogging as a means to transform consumer opinions. Not unless they are prepared to filter out comments, which is the biggest feature of blogging. If everyone were given a fair chance to speak, much of it would be negative. Heck even a mention of Nestle here brings wiki links to the boycott from 1977. And to say the least, they are known for not pandering to anyone but themselves.
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Companies as big as Nestle can’t look to blogging as a means to transform consumer opinions. Not unless they are prepared to filter out comments, which is the biggest feature of blogging. If everyone were given a fair chance to speak, much of it would be negative. Heck even a mention of Nestle here brings wiki links to the boycott from 1977. And to say the least, they are known for not pandering to anyone but themselves.
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I love the sentiments expressed here about big companies embracing blogging, but I’m still not sold I guess. Outside of PR and addressing a crisis, does anyone really want to read a corporate blog? Maybe, but I don’t ever see myself eagerly opening up my feed reader to check up on the latest from Nestle.
Blogging is a home run for small business, but it remains interesting to see how and if large enterprise can find (and deliver) any day-to-day value via a blog.
Now maybe a “cooking with chocolate” blog would work, but it seems like it would make more sense for Nestle to sponsor those types of blogs than to bring it in house. See Christoper Locke’s “Gonzo Marketing” for some early treatment of a subject we’re still struggling with today.
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I love the sentiments expressed here about big companies embracing blogging, but I’m still not sold I guess. Outside of PR and addressing a crisis, does anyone really want to read a corporate blog? Maybe, but I don’t ever see myself eagerly opening up my feed reader to check up on the latest from Nestle.
Blogging is a home run for small business, but it remains interesting to see how and if large enterprise can find (and deliver) any day-to-day value via a blog.
Now maybe a “cooking with chocolate” blog would work, but it seems like it would make more sense for Nestle to sponsor those types of blogs than to bring it in house. See Christoper Locke’s “Gonzo Marketing” for some early treatment of a subject we’re still struggling with today.
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How come you didn’t link to the women you mentioned? They must be blogging, right? I know I can make a trip to Google, but it struck me as odd.
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How come you didn’t link to the women you mentioned? They must be blogging, right? I know I can make a trip to Google, but it struck me as odd.
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whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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If you think Nestlé are nice, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
and
http://www.babymilkaction.org/
They have engaged in highly unethical practices for decades, with much documented proof of this.
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whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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If you think Nestlé are nice, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
and
http://www.babymilkaction.org/
They have engaged in highly unethical practices for decades, with much documented proof of this.
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Amen Robert – thanks for the props. Mena and Rebecca are terrific suggestions. And, as I wrote to Boris in response to Jeneane Sessum’s post this morning (here: http://blogher.org/node/7340), I recommend anyone interested in finding great women speakers:
(a) Come post what you’re looking for on BlogHer (http://blogher.org) and the community will help you;
(b) Surf the Speaker’s Wiki started by our conference advisor, Mary Hodder, after BlogHer ’05: http://www.socialtext.net/speakers/index.cgi
Look forward to meeting you at BlogHer ’06 in a few weeks.
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Amen Robert – thanks for the props. Mena and Rebecca are terrific suggestions. And, as I wrote to Boris in response to Jeneane Sessum’s post this morning (here: http://blogher.org/node/7340), I recommend anyone interested in finding great women speakers:
(a) Come post what you’re looking for on BlogHer (http://blogher.org) and the community will help you;
(b) Surf the Speaker’s Wiki started by our conference advisor, Mary Hodder, after BlogHer ’05: http://www.socialtext.net/speakers/index.cgi
Look forward to meeting you at BlogHer ’06 in a few weeks.
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Here’s another way of surfing the speaker’s wiki, via tags and photos, developed by Chris Carfi: http://haystack.cerado.com/html/view_all.php.
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Here’s another way of surfing the speaker’s wiki, via tags and photos, developed by Chris Carfi: http://haystack.cerado.com/html/view_all.php.
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If corporate ethics were an issue in who he took money from, what would he have been doing at…never mind.
As for humans, well, corporate execs have in my experience always wanted more SPLASH. Less information, more splash. Put in the 500K animations and the massive stock photos. Don’t bother with information or contact forms.
I don’t think blogging is a cure; I think it’s a symptom. If companies put any work into the CONTENT of their sites instead of the presentation, if they took away the sites from the marketing people, it would probably eliminate most of the need for company blogs.
“You only get a grapevine when there’s no official information.”
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If corporate ethics were an issue in who he took money from, what would he have been doing at…never mind.
As for humans, well, corporate execs have in my experience always wanted more SPLASH. Less information, more splash. Put in the 500K animations and the massive stock photos. Don’t bother with information or contact forms.
I don’t think blogging is a cure; I think it’s a symptom. If companies put any work into the CONTENT of their sites instead of the presentation, if they took away the sites from the marketing people, it would probably eliminate most of the need for company blogs.
“You only get a grapevine when there’s no official information.”
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Quixtar really sucks. People from quixtar have employed underhand tactics to get many people I know to attend ‘meetings’ like saying it is a ‘success seminar’ or similar crap. Many of these people accost you at kroger or publix or walmart and pretend to be friendly, get your number and then keep calling you on the phone. It gets to be very irritating! Scobe you shouldn’t be pitching for companies without taking into account their full behavior. This is the first time I have seen something I don’t condone on your site. Just sayin’
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Quixtar really sucks. People from quixtar have employed underhand tactics to get many people I know to attend ‘meetings’ like saying it is a ‘success seminar’ or similar crap. Many of these people accost you at kroger or publix or walmart and pretend to be friendly, get your number and then keep calling you on the phone. It gets to be very irritating! Scobe you shouldn’t be pitching for companies without taking into account their full behavior. This is the first time I have seen something I don’t condone on your site. Just sayin’
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You are too funny! If I ever need help can you be so kind to help me out?
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You are too funny! If I ever need help can you be so kind to help me out?
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YOu are soo smart! If I ever need your expertise in manageing my site can you help me out? Please?
Sincerely,
Marisela Molina
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YOu are soo smart! If I ever need your expertise in manageing my site can you help me out? Please?
Sincerely,
Marisela Molina
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I could use your help can you help me out sometime and show me the ropes?
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I could use your help can you help me out sometime and show me the ropes?
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M.: Sure! What do you need help with?
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M.: Sure! What do you need help with?
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My “Filter of the Month” is the central premise of Ray Kurzwiel’s “The Singularity Is Near”. That premise it that we are at the knee of a steeply accelerating curve of technological development.
It seems to me that you are saying that even as folks are building the information systems of the future, megacorps are struggling to assimilate the web of 5 years ago.
If that is the case, I have to say I have grave doubts that they’ll even be around in another 5 years.
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My “Filter of the Month” is the central premise of Ray Kurzwiel’s “The Singularity Is Near”. That premise it that we are at the knee of a steeply accelerating curve of technological development.
It seems to me that you are saying that even as folks are building the information systems of the future, megacorps are struggling to assimilate the web of 5 years ago.
If that is the case, I have to say I have grave doubts that they’ll even be around in another 5 years.
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Has everyone gone totally daft? (some Lobsterback Redcoatish lingo there).
a friend got me into Quixtar
If my “friends” ever attempt such, they stop being my friends, actually that’s a Congressionally-approved Declaration of War.
Quixtar is false-dreams-fraud hooking the gullible, pure and simple. So they blame the SEO company? Ironic, as they say that every year, and every new company. They sure have a darned hard time picking vendors, and it’s always and forever, the third parties fault, funny that. But Quixtar’s tactics go far beyond just simple SEO company methodologies, far far beyond. Why they aren’t already hounded out of biz, is a grand-failure of the so-called self-correcting market system.
But you know what could help Dell far more than some goofy blog? People on the phone that speak UNDERSTANDABLE English. Gee, imagine that.
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Has everyone gone totally daft? (some Lobsterback Redcoatish lingo there).
a friend got me into Quixtar
If my “friends” ever attempt such, they stop being my friends, actually that’s a Congressionally-approved Declaration of War.
Quixtar is false-dreams-fraud hooking the gullible, pure and simple. So they blame the SEO company? Ironic, as they say that every year, and every new company. They sure have a darned hard time picking vendors, and it’s always and forever, the third parties fault, funny that. But Quixtar’s tactics go far beyond just simple SEO company methodologies, far far beyond. Why they aren’t already hounded out of biz, is a grand-failure of the so-called self-correcting market system.
But you know what could help Dell far more than some goofy blog? People on the phone that speak UNDERSTANDABLE English. Gee, imagine that.
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Robert, it sounds like you’ve had a number of conversations with Quixtar employees lately! I chatted with you briefly at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference a couple weeks ago in San Francisco, where you spoke with your good friend Shel.
Anyway, I wanted to respond to your post and the response of Eric Janssen. Quixtar is indeed interested in a better dialog with all of its key audiences, including our own Independent Business Owners (IBOs), their customers, potential IBOs, employees, and more. When we launched Quixtar in 1999, we were counting on the web’s ability to increase the speed and effectiveness of communications. Of course, the speed and effectiveness of web communications was increased for everyone else as well.
We’ve worked hard to figure out ways to have our voice heard above the fray. We’ve created several websites to address different audiences on different topics, including product brand sites, informational sites, and even a few blogs. In fact, our Director of Communications has one that links off of Quixtar.com. Please note: She is a real person and you can communicate with her directly. Also, we do provide other opportunities for anyone to contact the company directly–in multiple ways and languages–right from the home page at Quixtar.com.
I’d also like to point out that Quixtar.com is ranked #1 at Google for the search term “Quixtar.” Right behind us are a number of our critics’ websites. We certainly have tried to optimize other websites we’ve created to make sure they’re part of a surfer’s web experience and not buried several pages deep in a Google search. Some people, friends and foes alike, have opined that our “Web Initiative Strategy” (not our term, by the way) is purely about drowning out the opposition. Frankly, if that were our goal, we would simply open up the floodgates to several hundred thousand IBOs to create web content and share their positive experiences. We are exploring ways to provide more opportunities for our IBOs to share their experiences, since right now our critics have much freer rein to share their opinions than do our own representatives.
Our business rules were created many years ago to provide a level playing field for all IBOs. Before the web, our rules prevented IBOs from mass advertising that would give a few established, successful individuals a better opportunity of reaching new prospects than other IBOs who had just started in the business. That rule has extended into the web era and, frankly, we’re struggling to determine the best way to provide our IBOs the best of what the web has to offer while providing new IBOs that same level playing field. Also, we want to ensure we don’t entirely lose control of our brand messages by unleashing a multitude of voices on the web.
Over the past few years, we’ve created web sites where we respond to our critics, where we share IBO stories, and where we provide perspective and context on what’s being said about the company. Most of that is available within one or two clicks from the homepage of Quixtar.com. There are almost as many different perspectives on our business opportunity as there are current and past participants, however, which means we’re never going to satisfy everyone’s needs. That means there’s a lot of pressure building up under the cap. In the same way you open up a shaken bottle of Coke, we’re trying to ease that pressure little by little through various experiments and initiatives currently underway.
Thanks for your input, Robert, and thanks to Eric for leading us to your post. We may not always agree with Eric and those who post at his site (and in fact we often don’t), but nobody disputes the need for an open and transparent dialog about our business opportunity. We’re paving the way for that dialog to happen, and we hope you’re ready!
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Robert, it sounds like you’ve had a number of conversations with Quixtar employees lately! I chatted with you briefly at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference a couple weeks ago in San Francisco, where you spoke with your good friend Shel.
Anyway, I wanted to respond to your post and the response of Eric Janssen. Quixtar is indeed interested in a better dialog with all of its key audiences, including our own Independent Business Owners (IBOs), their customers, potential IBOs, employees, and more. When we launched Quixtar in 1999, we were counting on the web’s ability to increase the speed and effectiveness of communications. Of course, the speed and effectiveness of web communications was increased for everyone else as well.
We’ve worked hard to figure out ways to have our voice heard above the fray. We’ve created several websites to address different audiences on different topics, including product brand sites, informational sites, and even a few blogs. In fact, our Director of Communications has one that links off of Quixtar.com. Please note: She is a real person and you can communicate with her directly. Also, we do provide other opportunities for anyone to contact the company directly–in multiple ways and languages–right from the home page at Quixtar.com.
I’d also like to point out that Quixtar.com is ranked #1 at Google for the search term “Quixtar.” Right behind us are a number of our critics’ websites. We certainly have tried to optimize other websites we’ve created to make sure they’re part of a surfer’s web experience and not buried several pages deep in a Google search. Some people, friends and foes alike, have opined that our “Web Initiative Strategy” (not our term, by the way) is purely about drowning out the opposition. Frankly, if that were our goal, we would simply open up the floodgates to several hundred thousand IBOs to create web content and share their positive experiences. We are exploring ways to provide more opportunities for our IBOs to share their experiences, since right now our critics have much freer rein to share their opinions than do our own representatives.
Our business rules were created many years ago to provide a level playing field for all IBOs. Before the web, our rules prevented IBOs from mass advertising that would give a few established, successful individuals a better opportunity of reaching new prospects than other IBOs who had just started in the business. That rule has extended into the web era and, frankly, we’re struggling to determine the best way to provide our IBOs the best of what the web has to offer while providing new IBOs that same level playing field. Also, we want to ensure we don’t entirely lose control of our brand messages by unleashing a multitude of voices on the web.
Over the past few years, we’ve created web sites where we respond to our critics, where we share IBO stories, and where we provide perspective and context on what’s being said about the company. Most of that is available within one or two clicks from the homepage of Quixtar.com. There are almost as many different perspectives on our business opportunity as there are current and past participants, however, which means we’re never going to satisfy everyone’s needs. That means there’s a lot of pressure building up under the cap. In the same way you open up a shaken bottle of Coke, we’re trying to ease that pressure little by little through various experiments and initiatives currently underway.
Thanks for your input, Robert, and thanks to Eric for leading us to your post. We may not always agree with Eric and those who post at his site (and in fact we often don’t), but nobody disputes the need for an open and transparent dialog about our business opportunity. We’re paving the way for that dialog to happen, and we hope you’re ready!
LikeLike
Wow, a perfect invocation of David Miscavige…amazingly spooky.
But she backed into a corner, contradictions ahoy, if ‘opening the floodgates’ becomes ‘drowning out the opposition’. Then censorship, walling up those floodgates, now somehow becomes an open and transparent dialog? If IBOs were allowed to speak freely, it would supposedly ‘drown out the opposition’. But then they aren’t allowed to speak, as the need for a socialistic ‘level playing field’. You can’t have it three or four ways. But then all sorts of cultic planned-economy “experiments and initiatives” will somehow suffice. And they the trip up over the Cluetrainish cults main rule, free speech directly MEANS you “lose control of brand[ing] messages.” Knock, knock, to the bloggers, the customer is in control. What a mess.
Scoble, I love yah and all, but lying down with sickly stray diseased dogs, is gonna getcha a ton of fleas. Frankly I am amazed that anyone with a basic level of Economics would ever even take Quixtar seriously. Suckers born a minute, second even.
Also take note not one word about ‘products’, all about ‘IBOs’.
PS – Only lawyerish-legalese documents ever use the dialog variant, if you want a “dialogue”, try and spell it first…
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Wow, a perfect invocation of David Miscavige…amazingly spooky.
But she backed into a corner, contradictions ahoy, if ‘opening the floodgates’ becomes ‘drowning out the opposition’. Then censorship, walling up those floodgates, now somehow becomes an open and transparent dialog? If IBOs were allowed to speak freely, it would supposedly ‘drown out the opposition’. But then they aren’t allowed to speak, as the need for a socialistic ‘level playing field’. You can’t have it three or four ways. But then all sorts of cultic planned-economy “experiments and initiatives” will somehow suffice. And they the trip up over the Cluetrainish cults main rule, free speech directly MEANS you “lose control of brand[ing] messages.” Knock, knock, to the bloggers, the customer is in control. What a mess.
Scoble, I love yah and all, but lying down with sickly stray diseased dogs, is gonna getcha a ton of fleas. Frankly I am amazed that anyone with a basic level of Economics would ever even take Quixtar seriously. Suckers born a minute, second even.
Also take note not one word about ‘products’, all about ‘IBOs’.
PS – Only lawyerish-legalese documents ever use the dialog variant, if you want a “dialogue”, try and spell it first…
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Robert,
My only experience with blogs was the last presidential election and I concluded blogs were no different then people standing in the town square hurling insults at each other. Although there may be something of substance, wading through the emotional diatribes was too high of a price to pay. I have a good friend who obviously excels in his efforts based upon the people who have hired him who convinced me to read your book.
Even though it was difficult for me to admit I may have been wrong, the logic and clarity in your book made complete sense.
Tonight, to celebrate his victory, he decided I was ready for the next step and took me to your blog. The most recent were comments about Dell blogging and the next talked about Quixtar and Nestle. There were some obviously emotional comments about Quixtar and a long post from a Quixtar consumer advocate named Eric Jannsen. My tutor showed me how to go to his site and the front page talks about a Quixtar web strategy to drown out the other side. After a five minute lesson on Google bombing we went to Quixtar’s home site and then spent the next hour on other corporate sites affiliated with Quixtar. I discovered they were part of a multinational company that sells billions of dollars a year in product that appeared to be mostly consumables with an emphasis on their nutrition line. They appear to have a good standard in consumer protection via a substantial return and refund policy for those that are dissatisfied. Quixtar is actually a successor company to Amway in North America while Amway operates in most of the rest of the world. In short, if I was interested in purchasing or involvement I could find the information. My expert explained to me SEO and showed me how Quixtar and the other sites optimize for better search engine ratings but said he could see nothing they were doing that was not industry accepted. Admittedly, I know nothing of this field but it is his field.
We then went back to the site that represented themselves as a Quixtar consumer advocate and waded through the blogs. After thirty minutes I realized I was back in the town square again. Most everyone is screeching about Quixtar with little of no substance and it appears a few Quixtar people trying to respond rationally and getting trashed for their temerity.Quixtar needs to be exposed to Google, they need to be shut down, etc. I felt like I was reading the transcript of a late night talk show. I finally concluded that if this is a consumer advocate site then Ralph Nader is a capitalist. There may be something of substance somewhere but the effort that would be required to find it is too high of a price to pay. It is a critics site that misrepresents itself which brings me to the question my expert and blog proponent can not answer.
I realize corporate sites only give us corporate speak. I wish they didn’t but everyone understands that is what we wade through. What is the premise for the belief that there is more value in acquiring information by wading through people’s rantings on blog sites, such as the one I visited, rather then a corporate site. Neither is transparent but as least I can recognize the corporate site for what it is and it is also has legal obligations that don’t extend to blogs.
I apologize for the length of this. My “coach” is telling me this is improperly lengthy for a blog. Your book is the only thing I have read that made sense to me and while I believe in the value and power of word of mouth discussion I don’t think I am the only person who doesn’t know how to discern where to get accurate information from blogs.
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Robert,
My only experience with blogs was the last presidential election and I concluded blogs were no different then people standing in the town square hurling insults at each other. Although there may be something of substance, wading through the emotional diatribes was too high of a price to pay. I have a good friend who obviously excels in his efforts based upon the people who have hired him who convinced me to read your book.
Even though it was difficult for me to admit I may have been wrong, the logic and clarity in your book made complete sense.
Tonight, to celebrate his victory, he decided I was ready for the next step and took me to your blog. The most recent were comments about Dell blogging and the next talked about Quixtar and Nestle. There were some obviously emotional comments about Quixtar and a long post from a Quixtar consumer advocate named Eric Jannsen. My tutor showed me how to go to his site and the front page talks about a Quixtar web strategy to drown out the other side. After a five minute lesson on Google bombing we went to Quixtar’s home site and then spent the next hour on other corporate sites affiliated with Quixtar. I discovered they were part of a multinational company that sells billions of dollars a year in product that appeared to be mostly consumables with an emphasis on their nutrition line. They appear to have a good standard in consumer protection via a substantial return and refund policy for those that are dissatisfied. Quixtar is actually a successor company to Amway in North America while Amway operates in most of the rest of the world. In short, if I was interested in purchasing or involvement I could find the information. My expert explained to me SEO and showed me how Quixtar and the other sites optimize for better search engine ratings but said he could see nothing they were doing that was not industry accepted. Admittedly, I know nothing of this field but it is his field.
We then went back to the site that represented themselves as a Quixtar consumer advocate and waded through the blogs. After thirty minutes I realized I was back in the town square again. Most everyone is screeching about Quixtar with little of no substance and it appears a few Quixtar people trying to respond rationally and getting trashed for their temerity.Quixtar needs to be exposed to Google, they need to be shut down, etc. I felt like I was reading the transcript of a late night talk show. I finally concluded that if this is a consumer advocate site then Ralph Nader is a capitalist. There may be something of substance somewhere but the effort that would be required to find it is too high of a price to pay. It is a critics site that misrepresents itself which brings me to the question my expert and blog proponent can not answer.
I realize corporate sites only give us corporate speak. I wish they didn’t but everyone understands that is what we wade through. What is the premise for the belief that there is more value in acquiring information by wading through people’s rantings on blog sites, such as the one I visited, rather then a corporate site. Neither is transparent but as least I can recognize the corporate site for what it is and it is also has legal obligations that don’t extend to blogs.
I apologize for the length of this. My “coach” is telling me this is improperly lengthy for a blog. Your book is the only thing I have read that made sense to me and while I believe in the value and power of word of mouth discussion I don’t think I am the only person who doesn’t know how to discern where to get accurate information from blogs.
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I am one of what you may term the “Black Market” bloggers. I steal time at work to post and comment when no-one else is looking. I must compliment you on the quality of this blog. It has the power to distract me and send me on all sorts of adventures through the links to the blogosphere.
Thank you.
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I am one of what you may term the “Black Market” bloggers. I steal time at work to post and comment when no-one else is looking. I must compliment you on the quality of this blog. It has the power to distract me and send me on all sorts of adventures through the links to the blogosphere.
Thank you.
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define: BOGUmeister
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define: BOGUmeister
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Hi,
I work for a company (netalter) which is heading towards developing an alternative web model. I joined this company in Jan 2006 and very excited about the prospect of being part of something this big.
To give you some idea of what the vision of netalter is; it basically forms an alternative network and implement SOA architecture for inter-application interface within its browser.
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Hi,
I work for a company (netalter) which is heading towards developing an alternative web model. I joined this company in Jan 2006 and very excited about the prospect of being part of something this big.
To give you some idea of what the vision of netalter is; it basically forms an alternative network and implement SOA architecture for inter-application interface within its browser.
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Do you want to LOSE 10 POUNDS?
Check out all of the free information available here http://www.lose-10-pounds.co.uk
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Do you want to LOSE 10 POUNDS?
Check out all of the free information available here http://www.lose-10-pounds.co.uk
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Allow me to contribute with some words of a brasilian who wants to become a blogger: Luiz is my name and I simply guess the articulist got to the point. As a matter of fact, a bunch of minutes ago, I was about to manifest my human love for http://www.google.com – my home page. Then, I decided to insert in search box: Thank you, Google – My human web love! Well, the search took me here, I am very pleasantly participating with you all, in the human web! Last, but to the First, I give thanks to Jesus Christ, our Lord, 'cause He's got me going, flowing and navigating on the web now! LjsFri, Jun05,2009-2:54pm.
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On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn't support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.You do a great job mate, keep it up.
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On another often mentioned topic of yours, I just found out today that Sharepoint 2007 still doesn't support Firefox 100% and the product team has no plans to do so by release. Not sure if you have any friends in Office but please tell them (again!) how retarded this standpoint is.You do a great job mate, keep it up.
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