For the past few months I’ve had terrible back pain. (stay with me, I have a point). I finally broke down and made an appointment with an orthopedic doctor near my home. During this process I thought to myself … “Man I wish there was a website that reviewed local businesses like this, so I would know if the place I just booked an appointment with is any good.”

Of course, only AFTER I scheduled the appointment did I discover Yelp.com, a website designed to “find, review, and talk about” businesses in local areas. Funny enough, the day after I found Yelp, Jeff Hilimire emailed me about it, and later shared a recent Fortune article. The article tells success stories from businesses who have been positively reviewed on the website, including a hairdresser who has so much business now that he has to “ice his hands on weekends.”

It’s fair to say that not everyone will experience the kind of sucess the hair salon did, but it is interesting to see this concept working. Certainly online reviews are nothing new, but Yelp does a great job of creating community around the reviews. The Fortune article says “Yelp doesn’t require users to reveal themselves, but it coaxes a lot of them into the open as a way to keep everyone honest and civil.”

I kinda think that Yelp has a bit of a Facebook feel. Users can write reviews and post images for any business. And, Yelpers can even develop an “elite” status by uploading a profile picture, using their real name, and remaining active on the website. Fortune called these Yelper-Elite the “squeaky wheels” - who, with their ability to get invited to exclusive events, can determine the fate of a new restaurant.

Well, I’m about to test Yelp. I actually did find my orthopedic doctor in Yelp, who was favorably reviewed. We’ll see after my appointment today if the review stands up!

In case you haven’t heard, the real identity of Fake Steve Jobs has finally been revealed. If you still want to believe that Jobs is behind the wildly successful The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs blog, then please click on the little X at the top right corner of your browser and get back to whatever you’re doing before you were distracted.

An attempt to expose Fake Steve Jobs fails

Many have wanted to uncover the true identity of the Fake Steve Jobs (aka FSJ). In May, BusinessWeek covered the blog once news surfaced that the author was selling a book about the FSJ parody on Amazon. And then three weeks ago, the heat was turned up as Fake Steve Jobs posted an entry about how Valleywag was attempting to uncover his true identity. That’s when the story really changed because that’s also the time when a significant list of potential bloggers was posted. The list included:

• Leander Kahney, managing editor of Wired News and author of the Cult of Mac blog.
• Eric J. Savitz, the West Coast Editor on technology investing for Barron Magazine.
• John Paczkowski, a technology news blogger for All Things Digital.
• Andy Ihnatko, a technology columnist for Chicago Sun-Times and opinion columnist for Macworld Magazine.

All of the these authors seemed like good candidates for the anonymous blogger job. Unfortunately, they all denied involvement or simply avoided answering the question of whether they were/were not the person behind FSJ. There was even speculation at some point that Valleywag was behind the blog but all things changed yesterday.

Fake Steve is finally exposed

Well, it turns out to be Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine who covers enterprise computing and consumer electronics. For over a year, Fake Steve Jobs has been entertaining many of his readers (including myself and several other notables at Spunlogic) with his “candid thoughts.” For instance, he pokes fun at the ideas of Steve Wozniak, talks about how Apple’s responsible for the rise in the stock market, and even talks about iPhone snafu’s. Daniel has “channeled” Steve as if he was Steve Jobs — as a reader, you know that there’s no way that the blogger is Steve Jobs but you still want to believe that it is (in a Santa Claus kind of way).

But just like the video drama marketing spoof lonelygirl15, all things must come to an end! At least it was fun to read while it lasted.

Not since David Hasselhoff joined reality TV have two of my favorite things come together like this. R.E.M. has embraced Web 2.0 with their recent R.E.M. in Dublin website. In a recent concert there they actually encouraged people to bring video cameras to record the concert and put it on Youtube and other social networking sites. They’ve got Flickr photos, a blog, tags and even RSS feeds. Might Athens, GA be the next Silicon Valley???

PS - for those of you that don’t know me, I was kidding about “the Hoff” being one of my favorite things. He’s barely in my top 10. Again, kidding.

Who said that Microsoft isn’t doing anything cool these days? Oh wait, that was probably me. In light of the iPhone and absolutely everything Google does, who could blame me? But I was wrong! If you haven’t seen this product, check out their new Photosynth technology. In the words of our own Dan Dooley, it’s just sick.

Photosynth is a product of Microsoft’s Live Labs. On the Live Labs site they claim to “believe that the Internet is as important as the Industrial Revolution or the Renaissance. Our mission is to help realize this vision by advancing the state-of-the-art in Internet products and technology. We are scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs with a passion for building and understanding complex things, but with an eye towards simplicity. And above all else, we aspire to bring together the online community to make the world a better place.” Or, if I may paraphrase, they try to “be more like Google.” Or maybe to be tongue-in-cheek, to “do less evil”. Dang, I’m doing it again.

The Photosynth product essentially takes photos of something (object, place, Chevy Chase, whatever) and analyzes them for common traits and similarities and then makes a 3D-ish view of that object. It’s really one of those things you have to check out to really “get”. So good for you Microsoft, now make Outlook 2007 actually work and I’ll stop sending you all that hate mail.

* Thanks to our friend Jason @ Target for letting me know about this!

Can you develop Frito-Lay’s brand and produce their “Mockumentory” ad campaign? Of course you can! With the power of social-media and a bold “hot dog” flavor, you can not only do these things, you also have the chance to be one of the lucky winners to have a year’s supply of Doritos . . .

So why my sarcasm? Other than the fact that social media is by far the tastiest spice currently being traded in the marketing world, I believe that social should be social. Can you still taste that “social” football-flavor left over from the Doritos’ SuperBowl campaign? Do you think that engagement with your community/customers betters your brand online?

The one great thing that Frito-Lay has done is understanding that the online channel is a viable one, and that consumers have no problem going from offline to online. Now let’s see if they will really ever get social.

Check out the Dorito’s X-13D Website.

We have all asked our friends, families, and co-workers the simple question, “What are you doing?” because communication with those individuals is important for our relationships.  Depending on the time of day, mood, or inflection of tone when asked, the response can vary. And you never know what you’re going to get.  The same is true with the site called Twitter that provides users a forum to answer this one little question – with no more than 140 characters (more detailed description here). 

Jeff called this site to my attention earlier this week, and though I felt the site was slightly egotistical, I decided I should research a little before I made any judgments.  But honestly, to think that Twitterites would want to know what I’m doing “right now” would be very self-centered.   Apparently, Helen A.S. Popkin, a contributor to MSNBC, agrees as she writes “Nobody cares what you’re doing.”

After spending many hours on the site (yes, I take my research seriously) I have to admit that I’ve become addicted to refreshing the public timeline to see the types of answers users are submitting.  Posts occur almost every second, from users all over the world:

• At the Rockies game chatting w/ our sales guys. Fascinated by the lives they lead - tons of travel & critical interactions. [tiny twitter]
• just now remembering to take happy pill. crap. no sleep until… 6am?
• Waiting for the Comcast man to arrive… I wonder if he’ll do anything this time?
• Long day. I am thinking about the alligator physicals and a surgery on a snake tomorrow. My feet are killing me. I need bionic feet.
• Found a Fanta Orange soda in the fridge…haven’t had a Fanta for years, didn’t even know they still existed

Twitter can be used to communicate with others, but why through this medium?  Why not through email or instant messaging?  Is society getting to the point where everyone feels the need to tell anyone interested what they’re up to?  And why do we get so caught up in the information provided by the online communities we participate in?

It’s highly unlikely that any of my family or friends will adopt Twitter.  They follow the mindset of “I’m already using this site – I don’t want to keep up with another,” and I can’t say that I blame them.  I have too many accounts, more than I’d like to admit, but I’m intrigued by Twitter now (Thanks Jeff…).  As it’s new to me, I’ll keep playing with the site and see how it I feel about it later on down the line. 

But for now, I’m closing the browser and getting back to work.

In these days of technology marketing, many marketers dream of going “viral.” Ahhh yes. Your video, so loved that it is sent by one person to 10, and by those 10 to 10 more … becoming a virtual phenomenon.

I recently read a blog post from Ad Age about Diesel’s latest viral campaign. No, I wasn’t a recipient of the viral campaign. Apparently I’m not young and hip enough to wear Diesel clothing. Marketing such trendy fashion to me could in fact tarnish their otherwise “cool” brand.

Anyway. This campaign is crazy (check out the ransom video). Essentially, what they did was stage a kidnapping that played out in video on their website. Two young and beautiful women (the “Two Heidies” as they were called) steal a Diesel underwear collection, kidnap the sales manager and lock themselves in a hotel room saying that they want to be “famous supermodels.”

In their demands they say that they want to be put in Diesel’s next advertising campaign and want the name ‘Diesel’ changed to ‘Heidies’ … because it’s “much younger, cooler, fresher…” They give until Friday or they will destroy the stolen underwear collection.

For the next five days, visitors to the site were encouraged to participate. One such way to get in on the action was to submit your name, which would be spelled out and placed between “the Heidies”. Users were also permitted to request things of the Heidies, such as “Have a pillow fight.” Imagine that.

The production was indeed elaborate, but it paid off for Diesel. This has to be the most innovative viral marketing campaigns that I have heard of.

Yesterday was either a watershed day in user generated content or at least an important footnote. The popular user-ranked news website Digg received a “takedown” notice after an article on how to crack the HD-DVD encryption specification was displayed on their website. After receiving the notice the company’s CEO decided to remove the article and suspend the user accounts of those who attempted to repost the article. He explained his motivation to do so as being for the rule of law and not as a direct attack against the Digg user community.

The community disagreed and proceeded to en mass post numerous articles with the encryption specification which by that point had already appeared at numerous locations across the web. The result was that the users had essentially hijacked the website from having any other news appear. When faced with either deleting a significant number of its users from the system or allowing the posting of the content in violation of the “takedown” notice the founder of Digg, Kevin Rose, decided to cast his vote with his users. To the possible detriment of Digg, he has decided to fight any legal action that occurs even if it means the end of the company.

So was the action of yesterday one of democracy on the web or one of mob rule? I am not a fan of overly restrictive copyright rules, and the information was freely available on the internet at numerous locations other than Digg, but Kevin Rose had no choice. Once you cast your company as a community that is primarily run by your users you have to accept that you live by the sword and die by the sword. Perhaps the users of Digg understand that, and are willing to see Digg die what they see as a noble death fighting for what they think is right. But Digg itself had no choice in the end, in the face of a swift and powerful user run protest it could either fight for its users or cancel all their accounts.

The possible repercussions of this on unmoderated user forums, discussion boards and other community based sites may start to be felt in the coming weeks. Or maybe the Digg user community is particularly strident. But its something to note, and could go down as a seminal event in user generated content on the web and who is responsible for the ensuing content.

I have come across two great examples recently where doing good is good business. I sense this is more than just a coincidence and is really a trend that should be monitored if not co-opted by other firms. The two things I came across are uniquely well conceived online marketing plans/ideas. So before I riff on the broader implications of the do-good trend let’s take a look at each example.

The first is from Microsoft and launched last month. It’s a new marketing plan involving their Live Messenger product. You may recall it by its previous name MSN Messenger. It is a popular and mature product that is free to use and ad supported. Many of you might not have noticed the rotating banner ads at the bottom of Live Messenger, they are easy to miss, but between pay per placement and pay per click they generate a modest profit. In a brilliant marketing move Microsoft has put a spin on the term “IM” and has created the “I’M Making a Difference” campaign. The essence of the campaign is that by choosing from one of the several worthy charities such as the Boys and Girls Club, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Sierra Club, etc and inserting a corresponding symbol at the end of your display name, Microsoft creates an ad revenue share with that charity.

So at no cost to you some of the revenue Microsoft receives for showing the ads that you are ignoring is sent to the charity you have chosen. An “i’m” symbol shows up at the end of your display name that shows that you are participating in the program. It is a brilliantly simple and well executed idea and should serve to increase users brand affinity for Live Messenger, which is a perfect complement to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’s epic charitable efforts. The halo effect for the advertisers should not be ignored, perhaps leading down the road to higher placement fees which leads to more net dollars for everyone involved. An excellent, and rare, example of making something you are already doing help others. I encourage others who use Live Messenger (over 250 million have a version of it installed) to give it a try.

I came across the other “do good” idea a few weeks ago. The company is Green Dimes, and it has been up and running for the past six months. The company has built an internet based business model around junk mail. No, not the Viagra ads you receive in Outlook, but the junk mail you receive in your mailbox at home. They state that each year the equivalent of 100 million trees are used to create the junk mail we come home to every day and promptly throw in the trash. They act as a well connected intermediary to several “Do Not Mail” lists and let you customize which junk mail you actually want to receive. In a nice marketing twist they plant a number of trees on your behalf. Even their 1 year plan plants 12 trees. They keep a running tracker on their home page of how many trees they have saved/planted and how many pounds of junk mail they have stopped from being delivered. It’s a well conceived business that is venture backed and, to use the classic marketing phrase, “makes a great gift”. Several catalog dependent companies such as Mrs. Fields cookies have noticed a growing number of opt out requests coming from Green Dimes asking for recipients to be taken off of the company’s bulk mailing list. A note to catalog marketers to think about perhaps integrating their email and snail mail preference centers into one area.

So, do two examples of businesses doing good business by doing good make a trend? Actually, there are many more examples, some of which you may know of and I have yet to come across. So, please comment away on this post if you know more good examples.

The broader trend I see is that, increasingly, customers want to see, or will want to see, everyday companies doing their part to be good citizens. Particularly for the younger generation of consumers, this may become a requirement to prove your brand’s credibility. Old line businesses such as with British Petroleum’s “Beyond Petroleum” campaign and Charlotte-based NUCOR Steel’s “It’s our nature” website stories have been well done. However, those two firms have much to prove as far as whether their intentions lead to credible actions. So keep an eye out on your competitors, they may be more green or charitable than you. Whether they are or not, it may well be time for you to take the initiative to position your brand as a leader in this area. And you might enjoy the monetary benefits while you help everyone else enjoy the more tangible benefits of your efforts.

I recently attended the 8^th Annual Information Architecture Summit where talk of Web 2.0 was all the rage. The theme of the conference was ‘Enriching IA’ with a focus on:

• Rich information: More and more information becomes available to users and systems alike, and these days most of the information comes with metadata, built-in links to other information, and API’s or micro-formats that allow for mashups. How rich is your information?
• Rich interaction: The web is moving towards a more interactive environment, and desktop apps are adapting web metaphors. How does this affect the way you design applications?
• Rich relationships: We’re all already linked through information; and social computing is increasing the possibilities to exchange information. Is your information a social lubricant or is it an obstacle for building relationships?

Web 2.0 obviously dips into all of these areas. As tagging and open APIs allow users to define metadata and create visualizations and overlays of information with things like Google Maps, Mashups and Many Eyes, the web is becoming a users’ market. Users also are sharing and communicating and networking at breakneck speed. Sites like MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr – to name a few – allow users to share and tag their own ‘information’ and to create their own content that they can then put out for all the world to see. So if users are controlling their own content, does that mean Information Architects (IAs) will go away?

Hardly. Web 2.0 may be the next new best thing, but it ain’t the whole ball of wax. There are some User Experience gurus, however, that feel that IA is going away. Josh Porter claims that:

“IA as it has lived will soon die. Not because it wasn’t valuable, not because IAs didn’t do great work, but because the Web is moving on. The problem is that IA models information, not relationships. Many of the artifacts that IAs create: site maps, navigation systems, taxonomies, are information models built on the assumption that a single way to organize things can suit all users… one IA to rule them all, so to speak.”

I need to point out two things here:

1. He says “IA as it has lived” and…
2. “IA models information not relationships”.

One can interpret the first statement to mean that IAs must adapt or die. I’ll agree with that. What career doesn’t follow that process? The second assumes that everything on the web is ABOUT relationships. It is with this statement that I have the most trouble. I’m not convinced that everything on the web is appropriate for Web 2.0 ‘methods’. Does all information need to ‘build relationships’? Does he mean relationships of data or metadata or social relationships? I can’t help but think that the alternative to ‘one IA to rule them all’ is ‘all IAs to confuse them all’. In other words, personal content, metadata, taxonomies etc., means the most to the people who create it. If everyone created their own street signs, where would we be?

Needless to say, I’m skeptical. For one, IA is more than JUST deliverables like site maps, navigation schemes and taxonomies. It is about solving information problems, creating good experiences (on and off the web) and helping people find information (which still applies in a Web 2.0 world). Peter Morville points out a study in which Amazon tried a tagging experiment. What they found was that:

“tagging works well when people tag “their” stuff, but it fails when they’re asked to do it to ‘someone else’s’ stuff. You can’t get your customers to organize your products, unless you give them a very good incentive. We all make our beds, but nobody volunteers to fluff pillows at the local Sheraton.”

As for me, I’m not jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon just yet. At least not to the degree that everything must be 2.0. Sure, it’s cool, it has its uses and it has great potential, but I do believe that there is content out there to be organized for the sake of the users who don’t want to fluff someone else’s pillows.