Dopp Juice Archive

I came back from four days of data-fasting to find a very entertaining lil’ webtoy…

Bullshitr: The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator

See, you just press a button and…

Hmmm… AJAX-enabled podcasts… Would that be like a drag-and-drop interface for creating audio mashups from a library of creative commons user-generated music and interviews? HMMM…..

(Thanks to Doc Searls for the link.)

I also went looking for interesting tech news today, only to find tools, tools, and more tools. There are a heckuvalot of tools out there! And we’re still excited about making new ones.

Want to keep track of your expenses on the go? Use Buxfer. Want to do it through Twitter? Use Xpenser. Want to be coached while you do it? Use Banzai. Don’t like any of those? Keep looking, there’s more.

And I think it’s wonderful. The web-based tools market has reached the point of genuine competition. Most of the slots for “First Web-Based Tool to Handle ____ for You” are taken, and now it’s a matter of who has the best interface, who’s making the customer feel most comfortable, and who’s keeping their promises.

We’re past the point of announcement marketing — web surfers have all heard the rhetoric. They roll their eyes and groan now when they hear the phrase “Web 2.0” — we can AJAXify it, incentivize it, and podcast it all we want. And no amount of Trebuchet MS font, pastel colors, or block-style design is going to convince them to give us their email address and favorite password before we prove our value. They’re past that.

This is where it gets interesting. This is where the winners become the ones who listen.

Even if our tools are free to use, our users are still our customers. They have a limited quantity of time to spend, and if we want that time spent with us, we have to prove our value. These customers want the same thing customers have always wanted — to be heard, to be helped, and to be treated like human beings. They’re not interested in “beta-tested rss-capable value*.”

There’s a lot of bullshitting going on out there. Don’t be that guy. Be the one who still remembers how to speak in plain English and address real needs.

*this phrase also courtesy of Bullshitr.

Translation: “It’s Not Going to Be What You Want it To Be”

• generally
• prospectively
• in essence
• ideally
• basically
• potentially
• probably
• technically
• categorically
• in theory
• sort of

Translation: “It’s Not Going to Happen The Way You Want it to Happen”

• straightforward
• easy
• automatically
• at some point
• ultimately
• try

Translation: “Do it Yourself.”

• That’d be great.

Seth Godin cracks me up and seduces me with his absurd grand ideas at the same time. Read his reposted article, NoBS, the End of MBA, about the true purpose of business school and his attempt to help us bypass the stupid stuff.

I want to apply.

No, really. I want to apply.