Giving us Choices or Restricting Them?

Look! It's really simple here.

Some companies are working to give us choices in the marketplace.  Some companies work very hard to limit our choices.

Google works to give me choices through innovation and by empowering businesses that surround it in the marketplace. (Android phones for instance, are available from a number of vendors, and on a number of cell phone carriers' platforms.)

Apple endeavors to limit my choices. (The iPhone will at soon be available at last, on more than one cell network, but is still available from only one vendor. And of course, some of us are having a hard time believing Steve Jobs' claim that Flash is unfit for the iPad.)

Hulu and TiVo work to give me choices. (The ability to select programming according to my wishes and schedules is no longer revolutionary, it's what I demand.)  Comcast and Viacom endeavor to limit my choices.

Memo to the marketplace:  If you actively engage in an effort to restrict the number of choices in the marketplace, we will see who you are and you will fail.  Players who work to innovate and compete in the marketplace by innovating and standing for excellence will be the winners.

What's Got My Attention?

...because the field is constantly evolving, the answers to this question change regularly.

So the real question is, what parts of the Social Media Platform consume my time and give me value?  Today I think it is these things:

Google Mail
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube

There are some parts of the platform that cry out for my participation, but continue to fail me (mostly by not providing value in proportion to the amount of effort required).

MySpace

Yahoo Groups

Plaxo

Google Wave

Here's why I say that:

Consumer speaks: Four Principles for Ads that Work With Me

...we'll be hearing a lot about ads and ad models this week as Twitter announces the rollout of its own scheme for advertising revenue.  Although I've never been a big fan of the advertising industry and when I meet former players from that game, they invariably exited with a bad taste in their mouth, I have to say that it's becoming an increasingly interesting (and relevant) area for me. (I wrote a little bit about it earlier here.)

The industry (like many others) is undergoing a revolutionary transformation.  With the shakeups that came from TiVo, from Google, from Amazon, and from Hulu, there is bound to be some churn here that will invalidate many sacred industry practices. Customer evaluation and interaction with advertising, micro-distribution points (which this blog could be, although it's not), customer generated advertising -- the number of revolutionary forces is increasing.

Here are some principles I currently hold about advertising. Perhaps your thoughts on them will contribute to the consideration that is sure to be amplified this week on the heels of Twitter's news.

Blogger and Wordpress

...a number of my friends want to have blogs, some think they do but they really don't and some don't know if they do -- but they would if they did.

It's okay if you made yourself read that sentence more than once. I wrote it more than once.

Anyway, the choice between Blogger and Wordpress is an easy one. Choose one and use it. Doesn't matter which one.  Put in some content, put in a lot of content, try to manage it and see what happens to you.

I was pleased to find that there is an easy method for creating a "fold" or a "Read Me" line in posts that you put on Blogger. The same can be said of Wordpress.  There is abundant support on both platforms for keywords, management of posts, scheduling posts, and more. Both offer ample support for themes, layout control and more.

Probably if you are going to want to do the more complex things in your blog, you may find that Wordpress takes you further.  I found that I was rapidly able to create a lot of posts and populate a blog history stream well.  I was able to queue up a series of posts that will appear on schedule now, and manage the schedule visually.

But Blogger seems to be evolving and may become a favorite child among the multitude of children that live in Google land.

No matter what you do, I think you'll be fine.  You may find that one or the other approach appeals to you and by all means take that path.  For now, I'm maintaining one blog using each one and I'll have a different opinion later on.

 ---v

Just the Videos M'am

...it seems a little "anti-patriotic" to plug my blog on another platform from here, but it does have a technology connection.

My friend wants to start a blog and I'm not sure that Blogger is the right platform for her.  I like it well enough, but it doesn't offer many of the more sophisticated options that are available on platforms like Wordpress.

Although I've been blogging since before we knew to say "blog" I don't know that I am in tune with the current state of the art.  So as I continue to write here about technology, I'll also look at the choices that are available to me on this new Wordpress blog about online video.

Hope you enjoy it too.

 ---v

How Many Votes

...I've been studying this for a long time. Since long before the days of Facebook, I've been interested in the effects of consumer/community ratings of products and services. Voting systems for online content have always been a source of fascination for me. So I have a few opinions about how online voting should work.

Google Chrome for the Mac

...I've been borrowing a Macbook Pro from my friends at Apple to prepare for a Python course we're teaching there late this month. I've been dying to have a Mac to work from for a while and this was a tremendous opportunity to gain exposure without having to lay down the bucks required to own a new one myself.

One thing that has happened since I've been carting this jewel around in my carry-on bag is that Google has released Chrome for the Mac.