Way back in 1990, before our e-commerce photo imaging company was launched, we began our retail photo business. One way to help differentiate us was to package photo orders like a box of Cracker Jacks, with often unexpected extra treats inside.
Today, we continue that tradition, which has helped shape our legacy for domestic U.S. orders. [Too many postal and customs regulations preclude sending candy and other items internationally.] Often, we include extra treats and gifts with orders. The most recent item is “What Would Google Do?” by author Jeff Jarvis. These spiffs are randomly added to orders.
AMAZON.COM REVIEW:
A bold and vital book that asks and answers the most urgent question of today: What Would Google Do?
In a book that’s one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one part manifesto, and one part survival manual, internet impresario and blogging pioneer Jeff Jarvis reverse-engineers Google—the fastest-growing company in history—to discover forty clear and straightforward rules to manage and live by. At the same time, he illuminates the new worldview of the internet generation: how it challenges and destroys, but also opens up vast new opportunities. His findings are counterintuitive, imaginative, practical, and above all visionary, giving readers a glimpse of how everyone and everything—from corporations to governments, nations to individuals—must evolve in the Google era.
Along the way, he looks under the hood of a car designed by its drivers, ponders a worldwide university where the students design their curriculum, envisions an airline fueled by a social network, imagines the open-source restaurant, and examines a series of industries and institutions that will soon benefit from this book’s central question. The result is an astonishing, mind-opening book that, in the end, is not about Google. It’s about you.
About the Author: Jeff Jarvis is the proprietor of one of the Web’s most popular and respected blogs about the internet and media, Buzzmachine. He also writes the new media column for the Guardian in London. He was named one of 100 worldwide media leaders by the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2007 and 2008, and he was the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly. He is on the faculty of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.
- Notes from “What Would Google Do?” book by Jeff Jarvis. Customers getting revenge on Dell, ranting publicly on BuzzMachine.com
- YouTube works best with amateur clips [we’re adding more next week at ScanMyPhotos.com]. Paul Boutin, WSJ tech writer, has a review today.
- Make sure your business is “public, searchable, and findable,” says VC Fred Wilson. The book discusses no more flipping through newspapers.
- No more reading of business plans for ideas, today VCs search Twitter [hello] for new business ideas. All about Web 2.0 social networks
- “What Would Google Do?” explains businesses must reinvent themselves for the Internet age. [We did that, no film, all digital at ScanMyPhotos.com]
- Provide your customers with public discussion forums and customized services. Jeff Jarvis says to innovate and don’t stick with core products.
- Intelligent marketers understand the power of the Internet and instant feedback. Google always delivers excessive info and services.
- This is a great lesson about always delivering so your brand is not harmed by bloggers (ex: “Dell Hell”). Always address bloggers’ complaints.
