Community Guy – Jake McKee

iPhone Apps are not dead.

To read TechCrunch and GigaOm, you’d think that the iTunes App Store is crashing and burning. Both articles have used the overwhelming sales numbers as a catalyst for a “too cool for school” rant about how the App Store and iPhone apps in general are destined for failure.

Steve Jobs released the numbers for the first 30 days of the App Store:

• Total Downloads: 60 Million
• Total Revenues: $30 Million
• Sales Going To App Developers: $21 Million
• Sales Going To Top Ten Apps: $9 Million
• Sales of Sega’s Super Monkey Ball: $3 Million

Both Om and Erick have concerns about basically the same issues:

• Too many apps are being downloaded to be manageable
• Email is the killer app for the iPhone
• Usage is minimal, perhaps in only 5 minute bursts
• Users aren’t using the apps daily

All of this is fairly ridiculous. Yes, email and phone is going to be the killer app for a mobile device. Yes, when the store is new and untested people are going to experiment by downloading many more apps than they will realistically use (and probably realize that while doing so). Yes, apps are going to be used in short bursts – it’s a mobile device! Yes, just like the desktop, only a few apps are used daily while others might be wonderfully useful and only used infrequently.

Don’t pay too much attention to either of these articles – they’re focused both on the writer’s personal usage patterns and the very short term view. Personally, I believe we’re only just beginning to see the potential of a platform like the iPhone. While they might not be “killer apps” for everyone, there are three that excite me beyond belief about the iPhone application platform:

• Jott – Incredibly effective way to create voice dictation notes to yourself, which are then transcribed (and available online, on your phone, or via email). I never use Jott on the Web, as cool as it is but find myself using it daily on the iPhone. Of course, never in more than bursts of a minute or two. That’s the point.
• Pandora – Mobile, customized music “stations” that give me a personalized radio anywhere I go.
• UrbanSpoon – While I’m not using this much, and I don’t think it’s close to “killer app” status yet, I’m excited about the interface design that has me shaking the phone to create an action in the application. I can only imagine what this might allow and encourage UI designers to do in the coming months.

I know it’s cool for tech nerds to bash on new, hyped tech platforms to show off, don’t pay much attention to them. The iPhone and the App Store are a platform that has already created a lucrative marketplace for developers, a significant revenue stream for Apple, and tons of great content for users. If this is what can be developed in the first 30 days, imagine what will happen in the next year!

Do you trust your agency?

Several weeks back I wrote (ok, ranted) about the current state of agencies and why I think things are off track. One of my issues was that clients don’t trust their agencies and agencies aren’t going out of their way to give them a reason to. I had some offline push back on that point, so you can imagine how redeemed I felt to see Marty Cooke, Chief Creative Officer at SS+K say that yes, clients have lost trust with their agencies.

So why? Why have clients lost trust in their agencies?

I stick with my original point that it’s because agencies have lost their spine (assuming they ever had one). They’re not partnering with their clients in a way that allows them to say “Look, that’s the dead wrong way to do this project and we’re not going to be part of it.” They’re also not keeping up with the times like they should. Find me a medium to large sized agency who can do great work around social media and online community and I’ll give you a gold star. Even better, find me one who can do it and can also bill for it and I’ll give you a trophy.

Blog comments are broken, and how to fix them

You may have noticed that I’ve changed the comments functionality on this site to use Disqus rather than the default WordPress comments functionality. Why, you ask? Basically because, generally speaking, blog comments are broken and after complaining about it for years I’m ready to be part of the solution rather than the problem.

After five years of blogging, I’ve left bits of pieces of opinion from one of side of the blogosphere to the other. I love a good discussion (ok, maybe debate is a better word), but I’ll be damned if I can remember to check in on 1 out of 10 discussions I join.

Certainly there have been attempts to solve this issue, none of which have really solved the problem.

• Subscribe to comments via email. While these are great to an extent, we all already get enough email and it’s too often difficult to unsubscribe when you lose interest in the discussion. On top
• Subscribe to comments via RSS. Yuck. Seriously, yuck. I have 435 RSS threads in my feed reader. Can you imagine how many I’d have if I subscribed to the comments thread every time I left a blog comment? 5 years later I’d literally have thousands. And imagine how much time that would collectively take to add each RSS thread individually. Perhaps this solution was always a solution waiting for a delivery application, a “comment thread feed reader” application, for instance. Yet another thing to monitor for changes. No thanks.
• Per blog registration. While this sometimes, and not always, helps you see the threads of a single blog that you’ve commented on, this does nearly nothing to solve this same issue outside of the individual blog.
• Large scale Web applications like Vox or WordPress.com that seek to use one identity for both your blogging and your commenting. Things is, if you’re not a blogger or don’t want to be, there’s not much reason to sign up other than to comment on a blog. So unless you comment on a number of Vox (for instance) blogs, it’s not much different than an individual blog registration.
• Global commenting systems that replace core blog platform functionality. Haloscan was an early application, with Disqus being a more recent entry in this space. (More on Disqus shortly)
• Bookmarklet systems like co.comment that require you to click a bookmarklet every time you leave a blog comment on any random site (with limitations). If the site works with the bookmarklet button, your comment is tracked. Great idea, but clicking submit then clicking the bookmarklet button was something that was always well beyond my memory capabilities.

I’m sure there are more options, but let’s move on.

In my mind, the solution lies in a (better implementation of the) global commenting system. I’ve switched my comments to Disqus because I believe they are dang close to being the right global system. Here’s why:

• It works wonderfully and is easy understand, even for the technology lightweights.
• It does a great job of keeping you logged in across multiple blogs, so you’re always ready to go with a comment without having to fill out name, email address, and URL.
• Threaded replies
• See all your comments in one location
• Fantastic integration process – it’s super easy to add to a blog, forum, etc.

(Fred also shares his opinions on why to use Disqus, as does this blogger)

I will also say that Disqus is far from perfect and the team has some things they need to solve ASAP in order to get non-early adopter adoption:

• Trackbacks need to work
• Exporting back into your own comments system needs to work instantly and without having to be trained as a DBA
• Ownership of content issue needs to be highlighted and explained in no uncertain terms
• Because of the javascript used to display comments, it misses SEO

(Daniel from Disqus has promised me they’re looking at those issues)

But those things said, we have to eventually plant a flag somewhere around something. Any global system is only as useful as the number of people using it. Look at how good Akismet, the spam fighting functionality included in WordPress, is at fighting spam. Every user they add helps every other user.

Speaking of Akismet… imagine if WordPress (the software and the Web platform) implemented Disqus across their properties. In one step, a large percentage of the world’s bloggers would be using a global commenting system. Can you imagine how, nearly overnight, the conversation in blogs would change?

I’d encourage you to check out Disqus for your blog. In fact, just trust me, go install it. It’s worth it. If nothing else, create a Disqus account so that I can see a cool avatar next to your name when you comment rather than the generic icon!

Education is Fluid, or should be

Many have talked about this video already, but I like to set “post-trends” (you know, jumping on after all the cool kids already have!)

Not only is this a wonderfully created video, it tells a powerful message. It’s no wonder America isn’t graduating enough science, tech, and math students and therefore loosing our innovation dominance in the world.

Rant: Online Etiquette Tips

OK folks, it’s that time again. Mr. Online Manners (you know, Jake) has a few helpful tips for engaging in the online interaction space.

Check Snopes.com before hitting send
Before you forward any email that contains some seemingly serious issue to your entire address book, do a quick search on Snopes. It’s a fantastic site that will help you separate fact from fiction regarding the content of that email that you’re about to send to your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, college professors, your PTA group, your colleagues from that job 4 years ago, and your high school reunion organizer.

Value a goodbye in IM
Just because you’re done chatting to your Instant Message contact doesn’t mean they are. Drop a quick brb (be right back) or ttyl (talk to you later) to let the other person know you’re done talking. If you’ve asked the other person to do something for you, give them a simple thanks before you run off.

Remember your offline manners
Smiles, nods, bows, and that cheesy guy finger-pointing-while-making-that-clicking-sound thing aren’t visible when you’re emailing or chatting on IM. If someone gives you a compliment or says something nice, don’t forget to give an overt word of appreciation.

Remember the interpretation
We read messages shared in text form based on whatever mindset we are in at the moment. Don’t forget that if I’m in a bad mood, or reading in a hurry I might interpret your sarcastic humor as plain rudeness. Try to remember this reality when you type messages. If a boss asks an employee for something via IM, for example, then doesn’t respond once the employee shares that thing, it’s hard for the employee to know whether the boss is busy acting on that thing or whether he’s irritated with the answer. Much of the outcome is based on the employee’s mindset that day.

Reply to email you’ve acted on
All too often email is nothing more than a great abyss of communication. You send an email that asks for a specific response, only to hear nothing at all. Did the recipient read the message? Did they delete it? Are they ignoring or acting? An email without a reply is an email never received. I know it’s work, and I know that we all get a metric ton of email, but if you read it, it’s only a couple of extra seconds to say "Message received, working on it".

What about you? What are your must-do tips for online interaction?

Tail wags the dog, RIAA-style

Spike points out a fantastic story about the RIAA suing music fans (not surprising) for trading files that were approved for sharing by the record label’s marketing department (surprising). Story here.

The irony here is so thick I can actually see hanging like Rocky-abused cuts of meat. In most businesses, this is the kind of clear signal that your game plan isn’t working; the ship is sinking and it’s time to consider a life raft. What do you want to bet that his changes nothing, and that the RIAA continues to sue kids and grandparents?

Disappointed with Amazon

I’m more than a little disappointed with Amazon today. If you know me,  you know my crazy deep love for amazon. They’ve had minor mis-steps over the years, but nothing as big at the current one:

Ads.

Amazon is a commerce site, a store; they sell goods. And the last time I checked, they were doing pretty good. Yet, they feel compelled to further monetize the site by shoving non-contextual, ugly, intrusive banner ads into the experience.

Why Amazon? Why?

Why is it that all businesses seem inclined to eventually shove as many ads into your life as humanly possible? Whether it’s banner ads on amazon, ads on airplane tray tables, or random spam included in my credit card statement, why do businesses so often forget that key phrase "Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should"?

Hopefully this is just an experiment that will quickly die. When I’m trying to spend my money, I have very little interest in being hit over the head to spend more money, on completely unrelated, uninteresting products on an completely different Web site.

(Which is particularly funny – amazon doesn’t want to link you back to their home page when you’re in the middle of checking out, yet they apparently have no problem sending you to an entirely different site when you’re shopping. Very odd.)