FREEDyourMind

Welcome Walter Rothschild

We're thrilled to announce that Walter Rothschild is joining us to act as Chief Marketing Officer, a newly created position to help us advance strategically in the coming years.

Walter has actually been with us a little while, and we've just had such a busy spring, it took us awhile to get the release out. He's already helping us develop our brand and expand our full range of marketing initiatives.

You can read all about his background in the press release, and you'll have a chance to meet him at our upcoming user summit at the end of May in Ann Arbor. He's a great guy with experience and vision that will really strengthen our capabilities.

It's already shaping up to be a great year!

Welcome Dave Lewan!

Our work in the government and nonprofit space has been exploding lately...between our thought leadership (our new e-gov transparency research, our report on satisfaction with nonprofit websites, and the quarterly ACSI E-Gov Index) and our client work (hundreds of federal, state, and local clients, along with numerous nonprofits and associations), we needed someone great to lead our work in this area.

Enter Dave Lewan, our new Director of Government and Public Sector Markets. You can read all about his excellent qualifications in our press release or on Linked In, but the main point is that we're excited about his strong leadership, which will help us continue to serve government and nonprofit clients with the solutions, methodology, and technology that will help them make the most of their online initiatives.

Feel free to email Dave (dave.lewan@foreseeresults.com) or visit him on Twitter to say hello (@davelewan) and we hope he'll be contributing to a new e-gov blog we have in the works. You'll have a chance to meet him and share your ideas with him next week at the Gov2.0 Summit in DC and again at our annual public sector user conference: Digital Citizen (Oct.8th in DC).

Welcome, Dave!

In a Blind Search Test, Which Do You Choose?

Our annual ACSI rating of search engines and portals is coming up next Tuesday, and in doing some research about the measured companies, I found this article in TechCrunch about the Blind Search Tool.

Here's the theory: Google gets a lot of credit just for being Google. If you take Yahoo or Bing search results and put a Google logo at the top, people will like it better, but when you compare head-to-head functionality, Bing and Yahoo hold their own. Google's market share hovers around 70% of searches, but in a blind test of which search results are actually the ones you're looking for, people choose Google as the best 44% of the time, Bing 33% of the time, and Yahoo 23% of the time.

This kind of distribution would suggest that there is room for more than one search engine. I did the test four times and chose Bing twice and Google twice in the blind test, requiring a tie-breaker, in which I chose Yahoo. Pretty representative of the numbers above, actually.

It is interesting to look at those results and compare them to the market share numbers.

Which do you choose in the blind search test? And is it time for a Facebook quiz: what search engine result are you? (in other words, enough with the Facebook quizzes, already!) 

Welcome Kevin Ertell, our new VP of Retail Strategy!

I couldn't be happier to announce that Kevin Ertell has joined ForeSee Results as Vice President of Retail Strategy. For those of you who don't know Kevin, he was SVP of e-business at Borders, and before that, he was SVP at towerrecords.com. Kevin has actually been a client of ours for years now, so he's a true believer in the ability of online customer satisfaction metrics, and more specifically the ACSI, to transform the way retailers are doing business online and across channels.

We brought him on board for a few reasons. Our retail business is growing so much, that we really needed someone to ensure that the quality of our products and services remained as high as it has been, even as we grow. And I don't think you'll find someone with more expertise, thought leadership, and the respect of the retail community than Kevin. Because he comes from a retail background and had so much success transforming the online businesses of Borders and Tower, he's going to bring a unique perspective that will really help our product, delivery, and marketing teams create and implement solutions that retailers really need.

Kevin is blogging at Retail: Shaken Not Stirred--so go check it out and leave him a comment. Hes also on Twitter @kevinertell.

Happy Earth Day!

More and more corporations are figuring out that one easy way to go green is to drive more business online. Think of all the paper saved by bills and statements and newsletters and information that can be viewed online instead of on paper.

Ann Arbor Comes Out On Top - Go Blue!

Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, takes the top spot in Forbes Top College Sports Town ranking edging out Palo Alto (Stanford).  And this coming off a 3-9 football season and breaking the longest running streak of going to a bowl game.  Just imagine where we will be next year!

The study was not only based on the strength of the Sports environment but also the quality of life.  And I couldn't agree more.  Ann Arbor is a great town for many reasons, not only the strength of the sports programs but also the culture, entertainment options, quality of schools, high quality of the educated workforce and the economic environment environment and community support for entrepreneurial pursuits.

 

Almost Famous

Remember that television ad that the state of Michigan filmed at ForeSee last year? Well, it's up and running all over the place--CNN, CBNC, Fox, etc. A friend's family even saw it on CNN in Bangladesh! Supposedly there will be billboards in airports all over the country too--so let me know if you see one!

The Internet Presidency

As a technologist (or as others like to say, a closet tech geek) it is great to see the Obama administration embrace the Internet and technology.  I thought I would do my part. 

I wasn't able to watch the inauguration live -- far too busy of a day.  But on my drive home I wanted to get caught up.  Now my satellite radio provides me the most current news, and many different channel/station choices, but I wanted to hear his speech. I didn't want to wait until I got home and watch it on the DVR.

Hmmm... what could I do?

Well, I got out my trusty iPhone, accessed YouTube, clicked on the inauguration, and spent my ride home listening to his speech.  How is that for the use of technology!

So what other role will the internet play in this administration?  More on that tomorrow.

Good Reaction By President

If you haven't seen this story yet it is worth checking out.  President Bush shows pretty good quickness up there, I guess he is used to ducking things.  But the Secret Service seemed a bit slow getting up to the podium.  Check it out here.

Bad News In The Tech Industry

Just what we need, a log of bad news in the tech industry.  TechCrunch has a layoff tracker.  They are reporting 107,193 layoffs in the tech industry since August 27 of this year.  This includes 294 different layoffs across the industry.  And my guess is we have not yet seen the worst of it. 

There has been talk about the Obama administration's works program to put people back working rebuilding the infrastructure of this country.  But what about all those tech workers?  We will also need a government stimulus program that drives R&D in established technology companies and more support for emerging and start-up companies.

However, I am happy to report that at ForeSee Results we keep growing!.