Ray Ozzie “optimized” (I just want a new office chair)

Jim Posner just asked me in email “any thoughts?” about Ray Ozzie’s speech recently at Microsoft’s annual financial analysts meeting.

You might have missed it, but about halfway down the speech Ray started talking about “optimization.”

That’s code for “all your attention data are belong to us.”

OK, OK, call off the black helicopters. This is the new “fuzzy bear” Microsoft. And, anyway, they are just copying Google.

You think that Google’s datacenters are just holding search indexes?

No, now Google is holding Scoble’s corporate email too! And, those servers know which emails I delete, which ones I forward, which ones I click on. It even “optimizes” those emails by pulling out spam. How nice.

Anyway, I’m getting off track. I went through and read Ryan Stewart’s thoughts on Microsoft. That brought me to Richard MacManus’ thoughts. Which brought me to Dana Gardner’s thoughts. Hey, ZDNet has some great bloggers, doesn’t it?

But Dana brought me to Joe Wilcox’s thoughts. The experience hub.

That’s all very interesting, but I think we’re all looking in the wrong direction.

It all starts with the blog. Now, why can’t I put my blog on the map? When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information for you?

When I search on “Office Furniture” why is the first thing I see stores? I don’t wanna see freaking corporate info. I wanna know what HUMANS like to use in their offices.

None of the big search companies have figured out that it’s the humans who “optimize” the Web.

They just wanna collect the big company paychecks.

I’m hearing that too here at Podtech. It’s all bunk. If there is no audience, there is no advertising. I’m not an “eyeball” to be tracked, or optimized.

I’ll be looking for who lets me get to the other humans the fastest.

Here, let’s try this. If I can spend less than $500 for an office chair, which one is best?

Optimize that!

Get me the humans and you’ll add $2 billion in value. And, yes, Ray, I believe you know how to do it. You’re still the only Microsoft executive to show up at a grass-roots event in Silicon Valley.

Remember Active Desktop and Channels? Microsoft could have OWNED the blog world and RSS. Why did that fail? Cause when we looked at it all we saw were big companies.

If you optimize for them you’ll fail.

My attention data +is+ valuable. But if you forget about the little people we’ll remember and we’ll go with systems that put us on stage. Why was Channel 9 magical? Not cause of the shaky video camera work I did. It was cause it was the first corporate site that put CUSTOMERS ON THE HOME PAGE!

I’m missing the humans when I visit Live.com. Actually the new Spaces thing got us to pay attention to Live.com again. Take heed off of that.

Give +us+ control of our “optimizations” (er, attention data) and we’ll be on your side. Behave like Microsoft of old and we’ll just stick with Google.

Advertisement

153 thoughts on “Ray Ozzie “optimized” (I just want a new office chair)

  1. Just gotta make sure all those “little people” have money to spend on what you are selling. Eyeballs without $$ doesn’t mean much in the business world.

    I mean, did you guys have any idea if Channel 9 was having a postive impact on sales or not? Just curious.

    Like

  2. Just gotta make sure all those “little people” have money to spend on what you are selling. Eyeballs without $$ doesn’t mean much in the business world.

    I mean, did you guys have any idea if Channel 9 was having a postive impact on sales or not? Just curious.

    Like

  3. Just gotta make sure all those “little people” have money to spend on what you are selling. Eyeballs without $$ doesn’t mean much in the business world.

    I mean, did you guys have any idea if Channel 9 was having a postive impact on sales or not? Just curious.

    Like

  4. Scoble, you’ve got to read Stephen Johnson… This via Boingboing: (How is this about blogs at all?)

    “if you’re writing an article or a blog post about this issue, and your argument revolves around one or more of these points — and doesn’t add anything else of substance — STOP WRITING.”

    1. Mainstream, top-down, professional journalism will continue to play a vital role in covering news events, and in shaping our interpretation of those events, as it should.

    2. Bloggers will grow increasingly adept at covering certain kinds of news events, but not all. They will play an increasingly important role in the interpretation of all kinds of news.

    3. The majority of bloggers won’t be concerned with traditional news at all.

    4. Professional, edited journalism will have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than blogging; examples of sloppy, offensive, factually incorrect, or tedious writing will be abundant in the blogosphere. But diamonds in that rough will be abundant as well.

    5. Blogs — like all modes of contemporary media — are not historically unique; they draw upon and resemble a number of past traditions and forms, depending on their focus.

    It is not and will never be about blogs with a company like Microsoft who have their hands in everything.

    Most of the time I could give a flying fck what some individual likes.

    And Active Desktop and Channels failed because they were horrible, aweful implementations of half-decent ideas 5 years too early. (As Microsoft frequently does: creates a pathetic hack of what will be a good idea in 5 years which turns the audience off of it until it is timely and well implemented.)

    Like

  5. Scoble, you’ve got to read Stephen Johnson… This via Boingboing: (How is this about blogs at all?)

    “if you’re writing an article or a blog post about this issue, and your argument revolves around one or more of these points — and doesn’t add anything else of substance — STOP WRITING.”

    1. Mainstream, top-down, professional journalism will continue to play a vital role in covering news events, and in shaping our interpretation of those events, as it should.

    2. Bloggers will grow increasingly adept at covering certain kinds of news events, but not all. They will play an increasingly important role in the interpretation of all kinds of news.

    3. The majority of bloggers won’t be concerned with traditional news at all.

    4. Professional, edited journalism will have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than blogging; examples of sloppy, offensive, factually incorrect, or tedious writing will be abundant in the blogosphere. But diamonds in that rough will be abundant as well.

    5. Blogs — like all modes of contemporary media — are not historically unique; they draw upon and resemble a number of past traditions and forms, depending on their focus.

    It is not and will never be about blogs with a company like Microsoft who have their hands in everything.

    Most of the time I could give a flying fck what some individual likes.

    And Active Desktop and Channels failed because they were horrible, aweful implementations of half-decent ideas 5 years too early. (As Microsoft frequently does: creates a pathetic hack of what will be a good idea in 5 years which turns the audience off of it until it is timely and well implemented.)

    Like

  6. Scoble, you’ve got to read Stephen Johnson… This via Boingboing: (How is this about blogs at all?)

    “if you’re writing an article or a blog post about this issue, and your argument revolves around one or more of these points — and doesn’t add anything else of substance — STOP WRITING.”

    1. Mainstream, top-down, professional journalism will continue to play a vital role in covering news events, and in shaping our interpretation of those events, as it should.

    2. Bloggers will grow increasingly adept at covering certain kinds of news events, but not all. They will play an increasingly important role in the interpretation of all kinds of news.

    3. The majority of bloggers won’t be concerned with traditional news at all.

    4. Professional, edited journalism will have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than blogging; examples of sloppy, offensive, factually incorrect, or tedious writing will be abundant in the blogosphere. But diamonds in that rough will be abundant as well.

    5. Blogs — like all modes of contemporary media — are not historically unique; they draw upon and resemble a number of past traditions and forms, depending on their focus.

    It is not and will never be about blogs with a company like Microsoft who have their hands in everything.

    Most of the time I could give a flying fck what some individual likes.

    And Active Desktop and Channels failed because they were horrible, aweful implementations of half-decent ideas 5 years too early. (As Microsoft frequently does: creates a pathetic hack of what will be a good idea in 5 years which turns the audience off of it until it is timely and well implemented.)

    Like

  7. “When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information?”

    You can already do this, just add a meta description tag in your HTML header block. E.g.

    If you search for Andrew Grant you’ll see I’m at the top (yay!) of Live Search and the short blurb is my description, not text from any post.

    This works with both Live Search and Google. Alternatively you can add an entry for yourself in the Open Directory project (www.dmoz.org) and Google will use that if no meta-description tag exists. DMOZ isn’t an automatic service though, and their updates seem to be quite slow.

    HTH,

    Andrew

    Like

  8. “When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information?”

    You can already do this, just add a meta description tag in your HTML header block. E.g.

    If you search for Andrew Grant you’ll see I’m at the top (yay!) of Live Search and the short blurb is my description, not text from any post.

    This works with both Live Search and Google. Alternatively you can add an entry for yourself in the Open Directory project (www.dmoz.org) and Google will use that if no meta-description tag exists. DMOZ isn’t an automatic service though, and their updates seem to be quite slow.

    HTH,

    Andrew

    Like

  9. “When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information?”

    You can already do this, just add a meta description tag in your HTML header block. E.g.

    If you search for Andrew Grant you’ll see I’m at the top (yay!) of Live Search and the short blurb is my description, not text from any post.

    This works with both Live Search and Google. Alternatively you can add an entry for yourself in the Open Directory project (www.dmoz.org) and Google will use that if no meta-description tag exists. DMOZ isn’t an automatic service though, and their updates seem to be quite slow.

    HTH,

    Andrew

    Like

  10. Oops, guess I your blog doesn’t convert tags to text. Let me try again, the syntax is;

    <meta name=”description” content=”Scobleizer, the wonderful writings of Robert Scoble, onetime Microsoft employee and now PodTech employee”>

    (If this doesn’t work, I give up. Just search for meta description on the web! 🙂

    Like

  11. Oops, guess I your blog doesn’t convert tags to text. Let me try again, the syntax is;

    <meta name=”description” content=”Scobleizer, the wonderful writings of Robert Scoble, onetime Microsoft employee and now PodTech employee”>

    (If this doesn’t work, I give up. Just search for meta description on the web! 🙂

    Like

  12. Oops, guess I your blog doesn’t convert tags to text. Let me try again, the syntax is;

    <meta name=”description” content=”Scobleizer, the wonderful writings of Robert Scoble, onetime Microsoft employee and now PodTech employee”>

    (If this doesn’t work, I give up. Just search for meta description on the web! 🙂

    Like

  13. oh let’s go ahead and try that one again:

    “The funny thing about attention data is, it’s what happens BETWEEN the clicks that’s important.”

    Like

  14. oh let’s go ahead and try that one again:

    “The funny thing about attention data is, it’s what happens BETWEEN the clicks that’s important.”

    Like

  15. oh let’s go ahead and try that one again:

    “The funny thing about attention data is, it’s what happens BETWEEN the clicks that’s important.”

    Like

  16. Even when it comes to Google I spend far more time figuring out what terms I need to use to exclude the garbage I don’t want to see from the information I need. Almost exclusively when I search for an item, product, or other physical object I’m NOT looking to buy one – I’m looking for concrete information, opinions, and experiences beyond the released marketing fluff and descriptions. If I ever find a search engine that separates commercial pages (any page that you can buy from, plus a few others) from the rest it will IMMEDIATELY become my default search engine.

    Like

  17. Even when it comes to Google I spend far more time figuring out what terms I need to use to exclude the garbage I don’t want to see from the information I need. Almost exclusively when I search for an item, product, or other physical object I’m NOT looking to buy one – I’m looking for concrete information, opinions, and experiences beyond the released marketing fluff and descriptions. If I ever find a search engine that separates commercial pages (any page that you can buy from, plus a few others) from the rest it will IMMEDIATELY become my default search engine.

    Like

  18. Even when it comes to Google I spend far more time figuring out what terms I need to use to exclude the garbage I don’t want to see from the information I need. Almost exclusively when I search for an item, product, or other physical object I’m NOT looking to buy one – I’m looking for concrete information, opinions, and experiences beyond the released marketing fluff and descriptions. If I ever find a search engine that separates commercial pages (any page that you can buy from, plus a few others) from the rest it will IMMEDIATELY become my default search engine.

    Like

  19. I just love my chair Humanscale Freedom chair, but it costs more than you want to spend. A good chair is one of those personal choices that requires actually putting your butt down in one. I’ve tried the Aeron and a lot of others, but the Freedom chair was the best one for me. I love how it self-adjusts as I move my weight around. Lean back a bit, and it stays put until you shift to an new position. And the headrest is great, too. As you lean back, it comes forward and cradles your head.

    Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools blog has a couple entries on inexpensive task chairs as well…

    http://www.humanscale.com/products/freedom_index.cfm
    http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000917.php

    Like

  20. I just love my chair Humanscale Freedom chair, but it costs more than you want to spend. A good chair is one of those personal choices that requires actually putting your butt down in one. I’ve tried the Aeron and a lot of others, but the Freedom chair was the best one for me. I love how it self-adjusts as I move my weight around. Lean back a bit, and it stays put until you shift to an new position. And the headrest is great, too. As you lean back, it comes forward and cradles your head.

    Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools blog has a couple entries on inexpensive task chairs as well…

    http://www.humanscale.com/products/freedom_index.cfm
    http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000917.php

    Like

  21. I just love my chair Humanscale Freedom chair, but it costs more than you want to spend. A good chair is one of those personal choices that requires actually putting your butt down in one. I’ve tried the Aeron and a lot of others, but the Freedom chair was the best one for me. I love how it self-adjusts as I move my weight around. Lean back a bit, and it stays put until you shift to an new position. And the headrest is great, too. As you lean back, it comes forward and cradles your head.

    Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools blog has a couple entries on inexpensive task chairs as well…

    http://www.humanscale.com/products/freedom_index.cfm
    http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000917.php

    Like

  22. Aeron chairs are poor ergonomically UNLESS you get one that is the right length for your thighs…definitely not one size fits all kind of chair.

    If you want a good no-frills comfortable chair that you can sit in all day long look at Office Master http://www.officemaster.com/

    Used those at my old law firm and they were good chairs for the value and you can find their chairs either through Just Ergonomics http://www.justergonomics.com or an online retaler for 40% or more off of MSRP.

    We used Just Ergonomics as well at the law firm (Ernst & Young also uses them) and they were knowledgable, easy to work with and did their best to make sure that you got a product that fit you and even helped put chairs together.

    Like

  23. Aeron chairs are poor ergonomically UNLESS you get one that is the right length for your thighs…definitely not one size fits all kind of chair.

    If you want a good no-frills comfortable chair that you can sit in all day long look at Office Master http://www.officemaster.com/

    Used those at my old law firm and they were good chairs for the value and you can find their chairs either through Just Ergonomics http://www.justergonomics.com or an online retaler for 40% or more off of MSRP.

    We used Just Ergonomics as well at the law firm (Ernst & Young also uses them) and they were knowledgable, easy to work with and did their best to make sure that you got a product that fit you and even helped put chairs together.

    Like

  24. Aeron chairs are poor ergonomically UNLESS you get one that is the right length for your thighs…definitely not one size fits all kind of chair.

    If you want a good no-frills comfortable chair that you can sit in all day long look at Office Master http://www.officemaster.com/

    Used those at my old law firm and they were good chairs for the value and you can find their chairs either through Just Ergonomics http://www.justergonomics.com or an online retaler for 40% or more off of MSRP.

    We used Just Ergonomics as well at the law firm (Ernst & Young also uses them) and they were knowledgable, easy to work with and did their best to make sure that you got a product that fit you and even helped put chairs together.

    Like

  25. Actually I think maybe Microsoft figured out that it’s “humans that optimize the web.”

    Have you tried out Windows Live Q&A?

    It doesn’t look like anything now, but the idea is promising. You should be able to type “what’s the best office chair for less than $500?” and actually get a human response.

    People vote on the best answers, and more importantly, user accounts are reputation-based.

    Where’s the Google version of this? I doubt it exists. They’re probably trying to figure out how to get an AI to answer the question for you. 🙂 (“Never send a human to do a machine’s job…”)

    Microsoft needs to add one tiny little ingredient to Live Q&A to make it really take off, though: the ability for someone answering a question to get PAID for recommending something. 🙂 If you actually do go out and buy the $500 chair I recommend, I want a piece of that. 😉

    Then we’d all be salespeople, I guess… hmmm…

    If they complete the loop, and pay people for the best answers, it could be a kind of human-powered AdSense… 🙂

    Like

  26. Actually I think maybe Microsoft figured out that it’s “humans that optimize the web.”

    Have you tried out Windows Live Q&A?

    It doesn’t look like anything now, but the idea is promising. You should be able to type “what’s the best office chair for less than $500?” and actually get a human response.

    People vote on the best answers, and more importantly, user accounts are reputation-based.

    Where’s the Google version of this? I doubt it exists. They’re probably trying to figure out how to get an AI to answer the question for you. 🙂 (“Never send a human to do a machine’s job…”)

    Microsoft needs to add one tiny little ingredient to Live Q&A to make it really take off, though: the ability for someone answering a question to get PAID for recommending something. 🙂 If you actually do go out and buy the $500 chair I recommend, I want a piece of that. 😉

    Then we’d all be salespeople, I guess… hmmm…

    If they complete the loop, and pay people for the best answers, it could be a kind of human-powered AdSense… 🙂

    Like

  27. Actually I think maybe Microsoft figured out that it’s “humans that optimize the web.”

    Have you tried out Windows Live Q&A?

    It doesn’t look like anything now, but the idea is promising. You should be able to type “what’s the best office chair for less than $500?” and actually get a human response.

    People vote on the best answers, and more importantly, user accounts are reputation-based.

    Where’s the Google version of this? I doubt it exists. They’re probably trying to figure out how to get an AI to answer the question for you. 🙂 (“Never send a human to do a machine’s job…”)

    Microsoft needs to add one tiny little ingredient to Live Q&A to make it really take off, though: the ability for someone answering a question to get PAID for recommending something. 🙂 If you actually do go out and buy the $500 chair I recommend, I want a piece of that. 😉

    Then we’d all be salespeople, I guess… hmmm…

    If they complete the loop, and pay people for the best answers, it could be a kind of human-powered AdSense… 🙂

    Like

  28. live.com is garbage. When I use the scroll wheel to look at results (in firefox, of course, I won’t use IE), I can only scroll forwards. So I start at results 1-5, move the scroll wheel a notch, see results 6-10, another notch and see results 11-15. Now I scroll up, but I don’t get to see results 6-10: I get results 1-5 again. Damn. Now I scroll down, except I see results 16-20. Scroll up again, 1-5.

    How does a $200 billion+ software/technology company manage to create a website whose scroll bars don’t work? Whose in charge of that piece of crap?

    Like

  29. live.com is garbage. When I use the scroll wheel to look at results (in firefox, of course, I won’t use IE), I can only scroll forwards. So I start at results 1-5, move the scroll wheel a notch, see results 6-10, another notch and see results 11-15. Now I scroll up, but I don’t get to see results 6-10: I get results 1-5 again. Damn. Now I scroll down, except I see results 16-20. Scroll up again, 1-5.

    How does a $200 billion+ software/technology company manage to create a website whose scroll bars don’t work? Whose in charge of that piece of crap?

    Like

  30. live.com is garbage. When I use the scroll wheel to look at results (in firefox, of course, I won’t use IE), I can only scroll forwards. So I start at results 1-5, move the scroll wheel a notch, see results 6-10, another notch and see results 11-15. Now I scroll up, but I don’t get to see results 6-10: I get results 1-5 again. Damn. Now I scroll down, except I see results 16-20. Scroll up again, 1-5.

    How does a $200 billion+ software/technology company manage to create a website whose scroll bars don’t work? Whose in charge of that piece of crap?

    Like

  31. Okay, processing through the super-secret human expert system at Google.. waiting.. waiting.. (remember this is a complex query) and done.

    The right chair for you is the Steelcase 462 Leap series.

    Query processed in 18.2 seconds.

    Like

  32. Okay, processing through the super-secret human expert system at Google.. waiting.. waiting.. (remember this is a complex query) and done.

    The right chair for you is the Steelcase 462 Leap series.

    Query processed in 18.2 seconds.

    Like

  33. Okay, processing through the super-secret human expert system at Google.. waiting.. waiting.. (remember this is a complex query) and done.

    The right chair for you is the Steelcase 462 Leap series.

    Query processed in 18.2 seconds.

    Like

  34. I have a good friend that worked at Microsoft. He left because the way Microsoft does business went against his values, Microsoft only cares about the bottom line and little about the customer.

    I think this is clearly evident how Microsoft has done over the years, how behind they are compared to the likes of Google and how they are compared to small companies like 37Signals.

    I think Microsoft will be paying for a long time to come with the way they do business.

    Like

  35. I have a good friend that worked at Microsoft. He left because the way Microsoft does business went against his values, Microsoft only cares about the bottom line and little about the customer.

    I think this is clearly evident how Microsoft has done over the years, how behind they are compared to the likes of Google and how they are compared to small companies like 37Signals.

    I think Microsoft will be paying for a long time to come with the way they do business.

    Like

  36. Matt: LOL

    Of course, I’m forgetting about Google Answers. Robert, you can get a human answer to your question for somewhere between $2.50 and $200.50 (kind of like Windows Live Q&A, but run by Jason Calacanis).

    Note: If they’re beta testing the AI, the answer will only sound human, and it may make disparaging remarks about the compressive load capacity of the human spinal column while talking about lumbar support.

    After paying $200.50, you might not have enough money left over to actually buy the recommended chair… but, at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing what the best chair is… better to be Socrates chairless…

    Like

  37. Matt: LOL

    Of course, I’m forgetting about Google Answers. Robert, you can get a human answer to your question for somewhere between $2.50 and $200.50 (kind of like Windows Live Q&A, but run by Jason Calacanis).

    Note: If they’re beta testing the AI, the answer will only sound human, and it may make disparaging remarks about the compressive load capacity of the human spinal column while talking about lumbar support.

    After paying $200.50, you might not have enough money left over to actually buy the recommended chair… but, at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing what the best chair is… better to be Socrates chairless…

    Like

  38. Matt: LOL

    Of course, I’m forgetting about Google Answers. Robert, you can get a human answer to your question for somewhere between $2.50 and $200.50 (kind of like Windows Live Q&A, but run by Jason Calacanis).

    Note: If they’re beta testing the AI, the answer will only sound human, and it may make disparaging remarks about the compressive load capacity of the human spinal column while talking about lumbar support.

    After paying $200.50, you might not have enough money left over to actually buy the recommended chair… but, at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing what the best chair is… better to be Socrates chairless…

    Like

  39. anon:

    “When I use the scroll wheel to look at results (in firefox, of course, I won’t use IE), I can only scroll forwards”

    Using the mouse scroll wheel on live.com with FF 1.5.0.5 works perfectly fine for me. Must be user error or just plain BS!!

    Like

  40. anon:

    “When I use the scroll wheel to look at results (in firefox, of course, I won’t use IE), I can only scroll forwards”

    Using the mouse scroll wheel on live.com with FF 1.5.0.5 works perfectly fine for me. Must be user error or just plain BS!!

    Like

  41. anon:

    “When I use the scroll wheel to look at results (in firefox, of course, I won’t use IE), I can only scroll forwards”

    Using the mouse scroll wheel on live.com with FF 1.5.0.5 works perfectly fine for me. Must be user error or just plain BS!!

    Like

  42. For what it is worth, I have an Aeron chair but I am not that happy with it. I can’t get the ergonomic angles worked out just right, and always end up with a sore neck.

    However, I swear by a special “wingback” shaped back cushion that a colleague gave me. It is not memory foam, but it is shaped like the ones pictured here: http://www.vitalityweb.com/backstore/WingBack.htm. A couple times, when my back has been hurting, using this custion has fixed me up within a couple days.

    I have posted this question to HelpShare, with a reward of $5. We’ll see if any one else has further recommendations.

    http://helpshare.lockergnome.com/qhome.asp?qid=2660

    Like

  43. For what it is worth, I have an Aeron chair but I am not that happy with it. I can’t get the ergonomic angles worked out just right, and always end up with a sore neck.

    However, I swear by a special “wingback” shaped back cushion that a colleague gave me. It is not memory foam, but it is shaped like the ones pictured here: http://www.vitalityweb.com/backstore/WingBack.htm. A couple times, when my back has been hurting, using this custion has fixed me up within a couple days.

    I have posted this question to HelpShare, with a reward of $5. We’ll see if any one else has further recommendations.

    http://helpshare.lockergnome.com/qhome.asp?qid=2660

    Like

  44. For what it is worth, I have an Aeron chair but I am not that happy with it. I can’t get the ergonomic angles worked out just right, and always end up with a sore neck.

    However, I swear by a special “wingback” shaped back cushion that a colleague gave me. It is not memory foam, but it is shaped like the ones pictured here: http://www.vitalityweb.com/backstore/WingBack.htm. A couple times, when my back has been hurting, using this custion has fixed me up within a couple days.

    I have posted this question to HelpShare, with a reward of $5. We’ll see if any one else has further recommendations.

    http://helpshare.lockergnome.com/qhome.asp?qid=2660

    Like

  45. Robert, not to put too fine a point on it but this IS a post about human value in a social blogging context, right?

    You’re Robert. Scoble.

    You call any chair company with products at ANY official price point and you say “I’d like to have a chair to blog about” and poof! Instant chair.

    Both serious and facetious.

    And of course searches are optimized for corporations, because advertising revenue is a captialistic thing. As a screamingly lefty socialist I don’t particularly resent it except when you can’t strip out the paid placements.

    My own blog posts about certain corporate entities outscore those entities’ websites (which I linked to in my post) but that’s rare. If they hired a competent professional blogger (ahem!) I’m sure they’d kick my ass.

    Like

  46. Robert, not to put too fine a point on it but this IS a post about human value in a social blogging context, right?

    You’re Robert. Scoble.

    You call any chair company with products at ANY official price point and you say “I’d like to have a chair to blog about” and poof! Instant chair.

    Both serious and facetious.

    And of course searches are optimized for corporations, because advertising revenue is a captialistic thing. As a screamingly lefty socialist I don’t particularly resent it except when you can’t strip out the paid placements.

    My own blog posts about certain corporate entities outscore those entities’ websites (which I linked to in my post) but that’s rare. If they hired a competent professional blogger (ahem!) I’m sure they’d kick my ass.

    Like

  47. Robert, not to put too fine a point on it but this IS a post about human value in a social blogging context, right?

    You’re Robert. Scoble.

    You call any chair company with products at ANY official price point and you say “I’d like to have a chair to blog about” and poof! Instant chair.

    Both serious and facetious.

    And of course searches are optimized for corporations, because advertising revenue is a captialistic thing. As a screamingly lefty socialist I don’t particularly resent it except when you can’t strip out the paid placements.

    My own blog posts about certain corporate entities outscore those entities’ websites (which I linked to in my post) but that’s rare. If they hired a competent professional blogger (ahem!) I’m sure they’d kick my ass.

    Like

  48. >> When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information for you?

    Of course you can do that!! Isn’t that called paid search results or sponsored search results or whatever?

    I guess you want to be able to do that for free?

    Well, if someone is looking for you and you only, then irrespective of how many Scobles there are in this world, they would definitely reach you. They would probably refine the search by adding more keywords and pin your location down.

    Take my example. If you search for my name, there are three people who pop-up and all of us are active bloggers. Unlucky? WE just might reserver a common website for the three (and more, if any) of us and start co-blogging as the Shrikants.

    Hmmm, I think I should contact the others immediately…

    Regards,
    Shri.

    Like

  49. >> When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information for you?

    Of course you can do that!! Isn’t that called paid search results or sponsored search results or whatever?

    I guess you want to be able to do that for free?

    Well, if someone is looking for you and you only, then irrespective of how many Scobles there are in this world, they would definitely reach you. They would probably refine the search by adding more keywords and pin your location down.

    Take my example. If you search for my name, there are three people who pop-up and all of us are active bloggers. Unlucky? WE just might reserver a common website for the three (and more, if any) of us and start co-blogging as the Shrikants.

    Hmmm, I think I should contact the others immediately…

    Regards,
    Shri.

    Like

  50. >> When you go to Live.com and search on “Scoble” why can’t I customize my results there with more information for you?

    Of course you can do that!! Isn’t that called paid search results or sponsored search results or whatever?

    I guess you want to be able to do that for free?

    Well, if someone is looking for you and you only, then irrespective of how many Scobles there are in this world, they would definitely reach you. They would probably refine the search by adding more keywords and pin your location down.

    Take my example. If you search for my name, there are three people who pop-up and all of us are active bloggers. Unlucky? WE just might reserver a common website for the three (and more, if any) of us and start co-blogging as the Shrikants.

    Hmmm, I think I should contact the others immediately…

    Regards,
    Shri.

    Like

  51. You cannot even entertain a THOUGHT per getting an Aeron…it’s already the ‘poster-child chair’ for start-up failure. And anyways, you missed the firesales at the end of the dot.com crash, Aeron’s were going for a nickel song. Of course, now that Web 2.0 and new money is back in, they seem programmed to repeat all mistakes and completely ignore history. Plus Areon’s are a VC short-sell signal tip-off. Just whatever looks good and sits well, on sale at Office Depot would be a-ok by me.

    Grooooan. “Optimized”, yet another meaningless buzzword, add them to “attention metadata” to “gesture algorithms”. Hang out with Steve Gillmor, learn a few new verbs a day, your brain on LSD, only without illegal chemicals; hang out long enough it chains to your DNA. Plus didn’t “optimize” used to be called the “word-of-mouth network”? Whatever happened to that meme? I am guessing the words weren’t strong enough to eternally network?

    And isn’t the “optimized” answer in the truckload of epinions.com and ResellerRatings.com type of sites? Least that was the attempt in 1999, didn’t work that well, as you know, hundreds of similar sites, all phased out. Some of the remaining do a good job, but altogether too utopian idealistic, it all falls apart when the 20% get tired of pulling up the other 80%, but good for fraud spotting.

    Like

  52. You cannot even entertain a THOUGHT per getting an Aeron…it’s already the ‘poster-child chair’ for start-up failure. And anyways, you missed the firesales at the end of the dot.com crash, Aeron’s were going for a nickel song. Of course, now that Web 2.0 and new money is back in, they seem programmed to repeat all mistakes and completely ignore history. Plus Areon’s are a VC short-sell signal tip-off. Just whatever looks good and sits well, on sale at Office Depot would be a-ok by me.

    Grooooan. “Optimized”, yet another meaningless buzzword, add them to “attention metadata” to “gesture algorithms”. Hang out with Steve Gillmor, learn a few new verbs a day, your brain on LSD, only without illegal chemicals; hang out long enough it chains to your DNA. Plus didn’t “optimize” used to be called the “word-of-mouth network”? Whatever happened to that meme? I am guessing the words weren’t strong enough to eternally network?

    And isn’t the “optimized” answer in the truckload of epinions.com and ResellerRatings.com type of sites? Least that was the attempt in 1999, didn’t work that well, as you know, hundreds of similar sites, all phased out. Some of the remaining do a good job, but altogether too utopian idealistic, it all falls apart when the 20% get tired of pulling up the other 80%, but good for fraud spotting.

    Like

  53. You cannot even entertain a THOUGHT per getting an Aeron…it’s already the ‘poster-child chair’ for start-up failure. And anyways, you missed the firesales at the end of the dot.com crash, Aeron’s were going for a nickel song. Of course, now that Web 2.0 and new money is back in, they seem programmed to repeat all mistakes and completely ignore history. Plus Areon’s are a VC short-sell signal tip-off. Just whatever looks good and sits well, on sale at Office Depot would be a-ok by me.

    Grooooan. “Optimized”, yet another meaningless buzzword, add them to “attention metadata” to “gesture algorithms”. Hang out with Steve Gillmor, learn a few new verbs a day, your brain on LSD, only without illegal chemicals; hang out long enough it chains to your DNA. Plus didn’t “optimize” used to be called the “word-of-mouth network”? Whatever happened to that meme? I am guessing the words weren’t strong enough to eternally network?

    And isn’t the “optimized” answer in the truckload of epinions.com and ResellerRatings.com type of sites? Least that was the attempt in 1999, didn’t work that well, as you know, hundreds of similar sites, all phased out. Some of the remaining do a good job, but altogether too utopian idealistic, it all falls apart when the 20% get tired of pulling up the other 80%, but good for fraud spotting.

    Like

  54. “…no audience, there is no advertising.” brings up the quality of advertising and the ROI for the advertiser. We look forward to seeing great things from Podtech and are wishing that you will be able to sell lots of office chairs for your advertisers 😉

    Like

  55. “…no audience, there is no advertising.” brings up the quality of advertising and the ROI for the advertiser. We look forward to seeing great things from Podtech and are wishing that you will be able to sell lots of office chairs for your advertisers 😉

    Like

  56. “…no audience, there is no advertising.” brings up the quality of advertising and the ROI for the advertiser. We look forward to seeing great things from Podtech and are wishing that you will be able to sell lots of office chairs for your advertisers 😉

    Like

  57. All you people who posted links to chairs under $500 missed his point. You forgot the whole second part of the question. Which one is best? Big companies will always say THEIRS. Chair users represent the actual usage experience and are qualified to answer “Which is BEST?”.

    Like

  58. All you people who posted links to chairs under $500 missed his point. You forgot the whole second part of the question. Which one is best? Big companies will always say THEIRS. Chair users represent the actual usage experience and are qualified to answer “Which is BEST?”.

    Like

  59. All you people who posted links to chairs under $500 missed his point. You forgot the whole second part of the question. Which one is best? Big companies will always say THEIRS. Chair users represent the actual usage experience and are qualified to answer “Which is BEST?”.

    Like

  60. You actually cannot find a good ergonomic chair at Office Depot…Trust me…I’ve looked.

    Oh and did I mention that I was the ergo guy at my law firm for a time?

    Call Just Ergonomics and they’ll help you out. Even do a free ergo assessment of your work area for you.

    And no I don’t get paid by them, heck I’m not even in the same city as them anymore, but I had good success working with their Palo Alto rep (wish I could remember the name) and recommend them.

    Or you can get an Aeron by yourself and be uncomfortable after sitting for an hour.

    Like

  61. You actually cannot find a good ergonomic chair at Office Depot…Trust me…I’ve looked.

    Oh and did I mention that I was the ergo guy at my law firm for a time?

    Call Just Ergonomics and they’ll help you out. Even do a free ergo assessment of your work area for you.

    And no I don’t get paid by them, heck I’m not even in the same city as them anymore, but I had good success working with their Palo Alto rep (wish I could remember the name) and recommend them.

    Or you can get an Aeron by yourself and be uncomfortable after sitting for an hour.

    Like

  62. You actually cannot find a good ergonomic chair at Office Depot…Trust me…I’ve looked.

    Oh and did I mention that I was the ergo guy at my law firm for a time?

    Call Just Ergonomics and they’ll help you out. Even do a free ergo assessment of your work area for you.

    And no I don’t get paid by them, heck I’m not even in the same city as them anymore, but I had good success working with their Palo Alto rep (wish I could remember the name) and recommend them.

    Or you can get an Aeron by yourself and be uncomfortable after sitting for an hour.

    Like

  63. Robert, yup. Whenever I switch to a new location in Google (which at one point was every 5 months, on average), I drag it with me. I do think you’d like it.

    Like

  64. Robert, yup. Whenever I switch to a new location in Google (which at one point was every 5 months, on average), I drag it with me. I do think you’d like it.

    Like

  65. Robert, yup. Whenever I switch to a new location in Google (which at one point was every 5 months, on average), I drag it with me. I do think you’d like it.

    Like

  66. @

    >> Most of the time I could give a flying fck what some individual likes.

    And Active Desktop and Channels failed because they were horrible, aweful implementations of half-decent ideas 5 years too early. (As Microsoft frequently does: creates a pathetic hack of what will be a good idea in 5 years which turns the audience off of it until it is timely and well implemented.)

    Like

  67. @

    >> Most of the time I could give a flying fck what some individual likes.

    And Active Desktop and Channels failed because they were horrible, aweful implementations of half-decent ideas 5 years too early. (As Microsoft frequently does: creates a pathetic hack of what will be a good idea in 5 years which turns the audience off of it until it is timely and well implemented.)

    Like

  68. @

    >> Most of the time I could give a flying fck what some individual likes.

    And Active Desktop and Channels failed because they were horrible, aweful implementations of half-decent ideas 5 years too early. (As Microsoft frequently does: creates a pathetic hack of what will be a good idea in 5 years which turns the audience off of it until it is timely and well implemented.)

    Like

  69. I wish people would get over themselves. Business is not a great social experiment, it’s about making money. Why criticize companies like Microsoft, Google, GM, etc., etc. for doing what they’re supposed to do, which is turn a profit and increase shareholder value. The haves will always have and the have-nots won’t. Here’s a social experiment for you to try: give away all your worldly possesions and move to an “open-source” commune in Idaho. Until then, please shutup.

    Like

  70. I wish people would get over themselves. Business is not a great social experiment, it’s about making money. Why criticize companies like Microsoft, Google, GM, etc., etc. for doing what they’re supposed to do, which is turn a profit and increase shareholder value. The haves will always have and the have-nots won’t. Here’s a social experiment for you to try: give away all your worldly possesions and move to an “open-source” commune in Idaho. Until then, please shutup.

    Like

  71. I wish people would get over themselves. Business is not a great social experiment, it’s about making money. Why criticize companies like Microsoft, Google, GM, etc., etc. for doing what they’re supposed to do, which is turn a profit and increase shareholder value. The haves will always have and the have-nots won’t. Here’s a social experiment for you to try: give away all your worldly possesions and move to an “open-source” commune in Idaho. Until then, please shutup.

    Like

  72. Every once in a while, Scoble hits one out of the park and this one is it and the ball landed on top of my head with a loud gong. Thanks Scoble.

    Like

  73. Every once in a while, Scoble hits one out of the park and this one is it and the ball landed on top of my head with a loud gong. Thanks Scoble.

    Like

  74. Every once in a while, Scoble hits one out of the park and this one is it and the ball landed on top of my head with a loud gong. Thanks Scoble.

    Like

  75. The reason you got the “corporate” results you did when you searched for “office furniture,” is because you are thinking like and using words like a corporate weenie. That’s not a “regular person” phrase, nor something you’d say in a conversation when talking to a buddy about why your back hurts or how your butt’s falling asleep:

    “Scobe! My man! You look like hell. What’s the prob? Why all bent up”

    “Dude… My office furniture is out of whack. I so need a new piece of office furniture. Do you know any good places where I can go to get a comfortable office furniture?”

    Why do you expect to get “personal” results when you do a search on a non-personal, generic, top-down, marketing-department term?

    People expect the Internet — at some magical, fruity, future point — to correct for all our flaws. Nope. You still gots to know how to use the language in all its wonderful, different, specific ways. And if you want to know about a “comfortable chair,” try searching for that. Or for results based on how *you* might blog on such were you to do so.

    Try searching for:

    comfortable chair
    comfortable chair review
    comfortable chair review blog
    my favorite chair
    good chair

    Or on del.icio.us, try tags like chair and review

    I get your point, Scobe; the Web isn’t currently being organized and search-optimized for people, per se, but for companies and pages. OK. Fine. But even if it were… whaddya want? You need to know how to ask for stuff in order to get it. You walk into Blockbuster and ask for that movie with Dana Carvey, and you got him mixed up in your head with David Spade… you’re outta luck.

    Like

  76. The reason you got the “corporate” results you did when you searched for “office furniture,” is because you are thinking like and using words like a corporate weenie. That’s not a “regular person” phrase, nor something you’d say in a conversation when talking to a buddy about why your back hurts or how your butt’s falling asleep:

    “Scobe! My man! You look like hell. What’s the prob? Why all bent up”

    “Dude… My office furniture is out of whack. I so need a new piece of office furniture. Do you know any good places where I can go to get a comfortable office furniture?”

    Why do you expect to get “personal” results when you do a search on a non-personal, generic, top-down, marketing-department term?

    People expect the Internet — at some magical, fruity, future point — to correct for all our flaws. Nope. You still gots to know how to use the language in all its wonderful, different, specific ways. And if you want to know about a “comfortable chair,” try searching for that. Or for results based on how *you* might blog on such were you to do so.

    Try searching for:

    comfortable chair
    comfortable chair review
    comfortable chair review blog
    my favorite chair
    good chair

    Or on del.icio.us, try tags like chair and review

    I get your point, Scobe; the Web isn’t currently being organized and search-optimized for people, per se, but for companies and pages. OK. Fine. But even if it were… whaddya want? You need to know how to ask for stuff in order to get it. You walk into Blockbuster and ask for that movie with Dana Carvey, and you got him mixed up in your head with David Spade… you’re outta luck.

    Like

  77. The reason you got the “corporate” results you did when you searched for “office furniture,” is because you are thinking like and using words like a corporate weenie. That’s not a “regular person” phrase, nor something you’d say in a conversation when talking to a buddy about why your back hurts or how your butt’s falling asleep:

    “Scobe! My man! You look like hell. What’s the prob? Why all bent up”

    “Dude… My office furniture is out of whack. I so need a new piece of office furniture. Do you know any good places where I can go to get a comfortable office furniture?”

    Why do you expect to get “personal” results when you do a search on a non-personal, generic, top-down, marketing-department term?

    People expect the Internet — at some magical, fruity, future point — to correct for all our flaws. Nope. You still gots to know how to use the language in all its wonderful, different, specific ways. And if you want to know about a “comfortable chair,” try searching for that. Or for results based on how *you* might blog on such were you to do so.

    Try searching for:

    comfortable chair
    comfortable chair review
    comfortable chair review blog
    my favorite chair
    good chair

    Or on del.icio.us, try tags like chair and review

    I get your point, Scobe; the Web isn’t currently being organized and search-optimized for people, per se, but for companies and pages. OK. Fine. But even if it were… whaddya want? You need to know how to ask for stuff in order to get it. You walk into Blockbuster and ask for that movie with Dana Carvey, and you got him mixed up in your head with David Spade… you’re outta luck.

    Like

  78. I returned to sit4less an aeron chair I purchased from them. The chair was uncomfortable and unsatisfactory. It was returned in the same new condition in which it was received. The return was received by sit4less on Aug 30. I have been attempting unsucessfully since then to obtain a correct refund. Sit4less does not acknowledge or respond to emails. On numerous occasions I have been disconnected while on hold with their “customer service” department. Sit4less has been impossible to deal with. They engage in deceptive trade practices. Consumers will be better off dealing with another vendor, if they prefer not getting ripped off.

    Like

  79. I returned to sit4less an aeron chair I purchased from them. The chair was uncomfortable and unsatisfactory. It was returned in the same new condition in which it was received. The return was received by sit4less on Aug 30. I have been attempting unsucessfully since then to obtain a correct refund. Sit4less does not acknowledge or respond to emails. On numerous occasions I have been disconnected while on hold with their “customer service” department. Sit4less has been impossible to deal with. They engage in deceptive trade practices. Consumers will be better off dealing with another vendor, if they prefer not getting ripped off.

    Like

  80. I returned to sit4less an aeron chair I purchased from them. The chair was uncomfortable and unsatisfactory. It was returned in the same new condition in which it was received. The return was received by sit4less on Aug 30. I have been attempting unsucessfully since then to obtain a correct refund. Sit4less does not acknowledge or respond to emails. On numerous occasions I have been disconnected while on hold with their “customer service” department. Sit4less has been impossible to deal with. They engage in deceptive trade practices. Consumers will be better off dealing with another vendor, if they prefer not getting ripped off.

    Like

  81. sit4less.com is a scam, the person who owns healthyback.com, opened sit4less.com and uses customer information. Their customer service reps, answer calls for healthyback and sit4less. sit4less.com trojan horses their customers to gain bigger profits! Your money is better spent elsewhere. The owner of these two is Tony Mazlish, you can email him, tony@healthyback.com

    Like

  82. sit4less.com is a scam, the person who owns healthyback.com, opened sit4less.com and uses customer information. Their customer service reps, answer calls for healthyback and sit4less. sit4less.com trojan horses their customers to gain bigger profits! Your money is better spent elsewhere. The owner of these two is Tony Mazlish, you can email him, tony@healthyback.com

    Like

  83. sit4less.com is a scam, the person who owns healthyback.com, opened sit4less.com and uses customer information. Their customer service reps, answer calls for healthyback and sit4less. sit4less.com trojan horses their customers to gain bigger profits! Your money is better spent elsewhere. The owner of these two is Tony Mazlish, you can email him, tony@healthyback.com

    Like

  84. The truth is it isn’t always easy to find a cheap ergonomic chair or a low cost ergonomic office chair. But when buying an ergonomic chair you’ll want to choose a chair that has all the necessary features and adjustments and still be affordable.

    Like

  85. The truth is it isn’t always easy to find a cheap ergonomic chair or a low cost ergonomic office chair. But when buying an ergonomic chair you’ll want to choose a chair that has all the necessary features and adjustments and still be affordable.

    Like

  86. The truth is it isn’t always easy to find a cheap ergonomic chair or a low cost ergonomic office chair. But when buying an ergonomic chair you’ll want to choose a chair that has all the necessary features and adjustments and still be affordable.

    Like

Comments are closed.