FREEDyourMind

The Convergence of Internet and Entertainment Devices

Is the convergence of the internet and entertainment devices that we've been promised so long finally coming? 

Two recent news items on this subject: one about how Amazon is teaming up with TiVo to allow viewers to buy items featured in television shows and commercials (don't you use TiVo to SKIP the commercials?). The second is about how Netflix is teaming up with Microsoft to offer movies through Xbox 360 consoles.

What’s next, play MP3s on my car stereo? (oh, wait, I can already do that).

Comcast Cares About You and Your Twitter

Another interesting anecdote from the cutting edge of Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 . . .

I've been reading a lot about Comcast's use of Web 2.0 to respond to the now infamous customer complaints. There was another article yesterday in the Boston Globe about how companies are responding to complaints voiced on blogs, message boards, and even Twitter. Comcast now has an employee monitoring Twiiter full-time just to look for and respond to complaints (twitter.com/comcastcares).

Considering Comcast's well-documented customer service problems (including an all-time low score in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index ratings), this seems like a step in the right direction. They are at least listening, and they're using a pretty innovative online application to track and respond to complaints.

The question is, will this catch on? Will other companies start tracking--and addressing--complaints on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc? And if it does become widespread, will the effect be to either a) overwhelm the companies doing the tracking or b) overwhelm the users who are always getting pinged by Dell and Comcast and Snickers and Toyota when they say something bad about a product?

Grandfather Builds Browser for Autistic Grandson

Check out this AP story (that I got from Matt Roush's GLITR newsletter) about a grandfather who built a new web browser for his autistic grandson: fewer (and less overwhelming) choices, bigger icons, and disabling of extraneous keyboard buttons and the right mouse click: "commands most children don't need anyway, and [reducing] the chance an autistic child will lose confidence after making a counterproductive click."

What a great example of technology and innovation. And the grandfather is offering it for free to anyone who needs it.

Ask ... and Listen

Very interesting announcement by Ask.com, introducing a service called AskEraser. 

And what does AskEraaer do?  It allows you to configure your Ask.com searches so that your search activity will be deleted form Ask.com servers.  NY Times Article

Ask.com listened to their customers.  Consumers today are concerned with protecting the privacy of their searches ... and Ask.com listened to these consumers and created an easy to use, easy to find capability to protect the privacy of the data.  Not that I have anything to hide!

Ask.com continues to innovate.  They have added great features to search, definitely worth checking out.  These features should raise the bar for all search engines.

 

For full disclosure, Ask.com is a ForeSee Results (satisfied) customer.  In fact, here is a recent webinar they participated in. Ask.com webinar                Other ForeSee Results Webinars

Not a surprise -- a ForeSee Results customer listening to their customers!