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Tues News: 2/2 (Groundhog Day Edition)
Michael Block | February 2nd, 2010
When the Cheat comes out of his grill, I wonder if he'll see his shadow?
Today is Groundhog Day, which means that the world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, came out of his hole to give us a prediction. Well, it’s bad news, unfortunately, as Phil saw his shadow and doomed us to another six weeks of winter. That’s bad news, however, much like in the movie Groundhog Day, starring the irreproachable Bill Murray, it’s just more of the same. Phil, you see, has seen his shadow in ten out of the last eleven winters! It seems that life is imitating art with this sort of repetition.
Well, repetition and “business as usual” seem to be the order of the week in the field of search marketing as well. This time, I’ve brought you three stories of what feel like old stories but are actually hot off the presses in honor of Groundhog Day and the eponymous movie. Let’s get going!
- Microsoft can’t make money online. No, this story isn’t from when Microsoft created the inferior adCenter after breaking away from Overture. No, this story isn’t about Microsoft failing to purchase Yahoo. This story is about how after the big push for Bing, the gains don’t seem to have outweighed the losses. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing, Microsoft still lost over $2 billion last year. Hey, Microsoft! Maybe if you made adCenter about half as good as Google AdWords, you wouldn’t be in this mess! But no, don’t listen to me; it’s not like I’ve been saying this forever. I just can’t imagine why Microsoft can’t put two and two together: advertising is a three party process involving 1. users/consumers, 2. advertisers and 3. a medium (in this case adCenter). If Bing is an improvement for the user/consumer, wouldn’t it make sense to improve the experience for the advertiser? Maybe give it a try or just enjoy losing the GDP of Greenland every year. [BusinessInsider]
- Google and Apple are fighting. No, this story isn’t about the Android feuding with the iPhone. It’s not about Apple denying Google Voice native apps on the iPhone. It’s not about Safari vs. Chrome or anything like that. Nope, this is just a good ol’ fashioned cat fight between Jobs and the Google faithful. You see, Jobs said that Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” slogan was BS, only he didn’t say “BS,” he said the actual words that refer to the defecation of a male variety of cattle. Google fired right back, saying “Nuh uh!” which was followed by Apple retorting with “Yuh huh!” I believe that, after that, someone pulled someone else’s pony tail and, I think, someone stole somebody’s Sun Chips from their lunch. It’s getting really personal and really petty. If I might weigh in, though, I think that the jig actually may be up on Google’s “don’t be evil,” thing. I’m not saying that it’s BS; I’m just saying that every public company is beholden not to the greater good of society but, rather, to the shareholders. This means that, quite often, there are, in fact, conflicts of interest between doing what’s best for everyone and doing what’s best for the company. So, Steve Jobs, you’re not wrong, you’re just an ***hole! [Valleywag]
- Obviously, the biggest news of the past week was the introduction of Apple’s iPad. There are more opinions on this product than there are features and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it in the Tues News. As it relates to Groundhog Day, the hype surrounding the release of the iPad was very, very typical. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had high hopes for this thing. My girlfriend’s family is from Israel and I had a conversation with her sixty-year-old uncle about it at a party last weekend! By the way, for those keeping score, he predicted that it would be called the iSlate and I predicted iPad: Block 1, Uncle Manny 0. Just like the release of just about every Apple product, the hopes for the iPad were high. And, just like every Apple product except for the original iPhone, many were disappointed. I know, that doesn’t sound, right, right? The iPad was the first disappointment from Apple since the Newton, right? Not so. Think back to all the releases that Apple has come out with in the past few years: the short, fat, ugly iPod nano, the too skinny, multi-colored follow-up, the iPhone 3G and then the 3GS, the super-expensive but cool-looking new MacBooks, the various iterations of the iPod shuffle… a lot of these products either left people disappointed, wanting more or discouraged by the price. They weren’t “flops” necessarily, though, so don’t expect the iPad to be a flop either. [CNET]
Just remember, the next time you think to yourself, “How could Apple drop the ball like this? They always make outstanding products,” that you may be reading revisionist history. Other than the original iPod and the original iPhone, Apple has made some good stuff and some bad stuff but nothing else revolutionary (albeit, two revolutionary products in a decade is nothing to sneeze at). This cycle of hype, release and arguing over the merits of the new Apple product is nothing new, really. It’s just like Groundhog Day! I’m an Apple fanboy, myself but I’m not ready to drink the Apple Kool-Aid. In fact, I don’t think I’d drink any Kool-Aid! It’s either going to kill you (Jonestown Kool-Aid), make you a mindless follower (Apple Kool-Aid) or just really spike your insulin levels (Cherry Kool-Aid). I’ll stick to coffee and ice water, thank you!
Thanks for stopping by. Read up on and keep up with the online world; keep reading Tues News! Catch ya later!
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Always enjoy the Tuesday News Mike. I’m an Apple fanboy to an extent as well so I’m interested to see how the iPad works out. I agree people are discounting the possibilities for further iterations of the device as they had with previous Apple products. Time will tell I guess. Also, Google finally implemented full multitouch gestures into their phones when they had previously agreed not to at Apples request. Should be interesting how that further affects their relationship.
Did you hear that? Wait for it… wait for… REARRRRR. Claws are unleashed! As Google and Apple are big cats (or rather, mountain lions for that matter), it should be interesting to see how this plays out.