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Microsoft as an Alternative to Google Products

The changes Google announced make it harder, not easier, for people to stay in control of their own information. We take a different approach – we work to keep you safe and secure online, to give you control over your data, and to offer you the choice of saving your information on your hard drive, in the cloud, or on both.

Ok, I get it. Switching to different services/products sounds great; I am frustrated with with Google, like many others. But when they list their products and services, how can I take them seriously when they list Internet Explorer as a legit alternative?

You can view Microsoft’s new “Putting People First” here.

Technology and Unhappiness

Having a job based on information and consumption, “Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic” really hit home with me. I’ve taken steps in the past to distance myself from over-consumption and even wrote about my views on “Hyper-Connected, Ultra-Casual Waste of Time.” It’s actually quite funny that Brian compared technology to a hammer, because I wrote the exact same thing (or close, I suppose).

Informationally, we are becoming lard-asses. In the pageview and ratings driven media economy, too much of the content these days is designed to be just like junk food to quickly boost quantifiable viewership. If you make content that is the intellectual equivalent of gummy bears, your site will appear to grow quickly. Advertisers reward size, and growing fast is expected in most places I’ve seen. Last month I visited Xeni Jardin, my blog-sister from Boing Boing and she said to me, “Only cancer and bullshit websites grow fast.”

I can’t agree with this more. The sad part is I have been pulled in by the bait before. The lack of quality is overwhelming, and I really need to focus my energy on information that is important; if I am not served that important information, I need to step away from the computer and focus on the things that bring true happiness to my life.

Exploring the world away from the digital one is not so important for the sake of finding new ground. Internally, exploration is also about testing and growing the self and to live a life that isn’t painted by number. (I think exploration and adventure are essential to the happiness of every person, but I can’t presume to present this as anything but my own opinion. Most people are pre-naturally more happy than I am, out the gate.)

Again, I couldn’t agree more. Exploration leads to self-growth. Growth, in my eyes, leads to happiness.

Time to take a step away from this computer!

Online Piracy: The Exaggerated Effect on the Economy

Freakonomics provides two significant problems with the data behind online piracy’s effect on our economy based on what supporters on SOPA and PIPA want us to believe. As with all data, it is very simple to hide behind numbers that are hard to prove valid:

These numbers seem truly dire: a $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010.

The problems?

First, that these numbers “cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which is polite government-speak for “these figures were made up out of thin air.”

Second, it isn’t clear whether a person pirating intellectual property would actually spend their own money for the same privileges. In essence, “yeah, I’ll watch that movie if it was free, but there is no way I’d actually waste money on it.” I feel like RedBox is my outlet for that; I’ve rented so many terrible movies for $1 that I wouldn’t ever actually spend hard earned money on to own.

I feel like there may be a third option, a positive outlook, that may affect the numbers as well: Discovery that turns in to [financial] loyalty. I have found many great bands that I would have never have found if I were forced to blindly buy. Since discovering those bands, I’ve purchased many of their albums, merchandise and tickets to their shows.

Regardless of the data presented, it is too difficult to attribute [crazy] numbers (as claimed above) to the effects of online piracy.

Reducing Dependency on Google Search

Ben Brooks put together a nice starter guide for beginning to phase Google out of your internet routine in “Let’s Ditch Google for DuckDuckGo.“

 It’s my go to search engine right now and I am trying to not use Google for anything.

While that seems like a grand plan, I think I am going to start with giving up Google Search for the time being; during this period, hopefully I can discover alternatives for Google’s other products. Unfortunately, Gmail, Reader, Calendar and Documents have woven themselves pretty tightly in to my daily routine (work probably fostered that relationship more than I would like). But I think I am in the majority when I say it is hard to give up Search when their other products have become such a convenience.

If you are looking to change your default search engine within your broswer to DuckDuckGo, there are pretty simple instructions on the bottom right corner of the page.

Are you going to stick with Google? Is there already a search engine you prefer over Google? Or do you have alternatives to Google products that you’ve integrated in to your daily routine?

One of Many Reasons I Love Albert Camus

Getting Back to Basics: SEO

A few years back I was an SEO Analyst for an electronic payment processing company. I absolutely hated it; in fact, I don’t really know how I landed that job because I knew absolutely nothing about SEO going in to it. But my philosophy is that there is no better way to learn than by being thrown in to the lion’s pit.

It’s been a few years since I’ve actually practiced SEO, but I feel like I still know the basics. To brush up on my skills, in my quest to be the best all around internet marketer possible, I am going to put some work in to getting my name (“chad gardner”) to the top of the SERPs. #5 isn’t that bad, but I don’t feel like it will be too difficult to make it to the top.

Pujols’ Sell Out Price: $44 Million

There had been a lot of reported offers from a variety of teams but for the sake of keeping things simple, let’s assume the Cardinals final offer was $210 million (Angels: $254 – Cardinals: $210 = Sell Out Price: $44).

Pujols wearing a Los Angeles Angels’ uniform is not going to be a comfortable sight for any Cardinals’ fan. He’s provided so much to our small market over the past 11 years and, in return, we’ve provided our unwavering support. That being said, it’s very disappointing for both sides that negotiations this offseason had to be so cold. Maybe emotions are still running high, but I feel we were let down by Pujols. Not because he doesn’t deserve a chance to move on, but because his past words have completely contradicted his actions. Period.

Pujols was very adamant about leaving contract talks off the table during the 2011 season. I always questioned that a bit, like he was excited to see what the free agency market would offer. Of course, it was simple for him to swing this choice as not being “a distraction for the team.” But I remember in 2009 when he was talking about how important it was to be a Cardinal until the end. If I understand the whole picture, he said he cared about winning and being a St. Louis Cardinal, and money wouldn’t play as important of a role:

Do I want to be in St. Louis forever? Of course. Because that city has opened the door to me and my family like no other city is ever going to do … People from other teams want to play in St. Louis and they’re jealous that we’re in St. Louis because the fans are unbelievable … It’s not about the money. I already got my money. It’s about winning and that’s it. It’s about accomplishing my goal and my goal is to try to win. If this organization shifts the other way then I have to go the other way … It’s about being in a place to win and being in a position to win. If the Cardinals are willing to do that and put a team every year like they have, I’m going to try to work everything out to stay in this town. But if they’re not on the same page of bringing championship caliber to play every year, then it’s time for me to go somewhere else. Where? Somewhere else that I can win.

Enthralled!

Annual message to congress in 1862 in the midst of civil war
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty , and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

“I love the word “disenthrall. You know what it means? Thats there are great ideas that all of us are in thrall to, which we simply take for granted as the natural order of things; the way things are.”

I feel like there is something powerful and passionate circulating inside of me — and I have a feeling it will become something tangible very soon.

Use Your Real Name, Even When Representing a Company

Much as Mitch Joel mentions in Your Name Matters, I rarely follow company’s that don’t reveal their real names when interacting with me.

Pundits discuss Social Media as being all about the “conversation.” The value for me, personally, comes from the real interactions between real human beings that takes place. It also comes from great content becoming as shareable and as findable as possible. The way stuff gets shared is, usually, through real people who have developed a semblance of credibility within an established community.

If I am talking to a brand multiple times, I want to know that I am picking up where I left off, with the same person, or at least be given the opportunity to resume a conversation. And if a company wants to use their brand name and not a real name, make it personal. In fact, I’ve had a great experience with @Hlaska in which they found an item in stock after I commented it was sold out and sent it with a personal touch. Yep, I keep going back to Hlaska because that one great experience (aside from great products).

Imitation: The Highest Form of Flattery (when done properly)

Apple’s innovations are the new designer handbags; instead of taking time to design and create a quality product that captivates consumers, it seems like the go-to route for a lot of PC makers is to disassemble Apple’s product, mirror their design and fill their product with cheap parts and sell it for a lot less. Don’t think PCs are mimicking Apple’s products? Marco Arment’s “The Asus Macbook Air, sort of” shows otherwise.

My issue isn’t with the PC makers creating these products, it’s the fact that consumers are willing to spend their hard earned money on these things.

The old idiom “you get what you pay for” stands true (for me) in this case. If a company doesn’t have the passion or innovation capable to create a stand-out product, how can they possibly build something that is radically better than the original (or even on par, for that matter). Will the performance be comparable? If so, will the performance last? My guess is that the answer to both is “No, and you’ll probably be stuck with a poor look-a-like” that you saved a couple hundred dollars on. As Marco remarks:

It looks like people who want to run Windows on something a lot like a MacBook Air are better served by just running Windows on a MacBook Air.