Category: Friday Five

Friday Five: The week’s must reads

Five posts for your weekend reading consideration:

  1. The best of #heweb13. Judging from all the Twitter talk earlier this week, the #heweb13 conference in Buffalo was a great success. (Kudos to Mark Greenfield and company for putting together such a stellar event.) For those of us who weren’t able to be there, we had the benefit of excellent coverage by the devoted crew of bloggers at LINK. Now another devoted blogger, Karine Joly, shares her 13 top LINK blog posts from the conference. (And she even gave up the chance to eat maple bacon ice cream to sift through all the LINK posts. Talk about dedication.)
  2. The Show Me State (of the art). I must admit, as a Missourian, I was hooked by Seth Godin’s headline. But the text below the headline should give all marketers pause. We spend so much time showing, revealing, offering samples, giving stuff away, just to draw in customers. Maybe in doing so, we’re hurting our causes. Maybe we should show a little less.
  3. 5 successful rebranding efforts. Every brand needs a little freshening up now and then. What do you think of these five efforts? Were they as successful as the author suggests?
  4. Here’s what the marketing organization of the future should look like. In this post, Forbes’ Jennifer Rooney reports on what a panel of top chief marketing officers (collectively called the Marketing2020 project) think their organizations should look like in 2020. The structures are more hub-and-spoke models of collaboration rather than hierarchical, and the “non-negotiable characteristics of the 2020 marketing organization” will include “a goal of business growth; a clear purpose; complete internal alignment of functional areas; clearly defined roles and responsibilities of each individual; research centers and data-informed efforts; an amalgam of agency partners as well as an in-house agency-like team; cross-platform social-media engagement; a strong CMO-CEO connection.” (Hat tip to @DebHammacher for sharing.)
  5. 10 rules for creative projects from painter Richard Diebenkorn, by Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings.

Friday Five: Google’s best gifts

Happy 15th Birthday, Google.

The Google Search timeline (click to enlarge and go to original location)
The Google Search timeline (click to enlarge and go to original location)

It’s hard to imagine life before the ubiquitous search engine that has changed the way we use the web. But once upon a time, we sorted through Yahoo! directories or tried our luck seeking out information through lesser search engines like AltaVista. And when Google made its debut in 1998, its simple, no-frills interface didn’t thrill many of us. But the company’s superior search algorithm caught on, and soon “Google” became synonymous with “search.”

Google has grown up a lot in its 15 years. It’s made a few missteps along the way (Google Wave and its decision to kill Google Reader are notable examples) but the brainchild of Larry Page and Sergey Brin has made more good and smart moves than bad, boneheaded ones. So, in honor of the company’s quinceanera, here are the five things from Google that I appreciate the most:

5. Search. It seems silly to even mention this. Google has become so much more than a search engine. But this core function still serves as the centerpiece of Google’s business, and advertising revenue from the platform contributes a lot to Google’s bottom line. Google revenues reached $50 billion for the first time in 2012, and 96 percent of that came from ad sales.

4. Google Analytics. “Turning data into insights” is this tool’s slogan, and it’s true. Is there a college or university around today that is not using Google Analytics to improve the user experience?

3. Google News. I love the customizable portal for gathering news from all the world’s news sources.

2. Gmail. As a self-confessed digital hoader and someone who sees “inbox zero” as a fruitless attempt to get ahead of the never-ending stream of email exchanges, I love Gmail’s bottomless pit of storage.

1. The Google Doodle. Sometimes, companies can get away with breaking all the rules of visual branding. Google has done that with its Google Doodle. The Doodle is a creative way to celebrate remarkable achievements or anniversaries. (Just click on today’s Doodle at Google’s search site and play a round or two of pinata-bashing. You’ll see what I mean.)

Those are my five favorites. What are yours?