Category: Customer Experience

Customer Experience

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Google Acquires Youtube – 10 Unanswered Questions

Congrats to Michael Arrington on breaking the rumor and upstaging all of the rest of the media and business press in this matter that became a reality very quickly. Frederick Marckini of iProspect stated that Youtube would be acquired for more than Myspace was, I bet he didn’t think it would be almost three times as much as his guess stated in July! I joked with him that he held a position in Youtube during the session, he probably wishes that he did now…

10 Unanswered Questions:

1. Will users stay with the recently scrubbed and censored Youtube or will they migrate to other alternatives?

2. Why are the investment analysts and “major media” only allowed on the announcement conference call? Why not bloggers, why not the person, Michael Arrington, who broke the rumor and story in the first place?

3. Why can’t the Investor Relations, Press and Blogs at Google ever be in sync? The Official Google Blog still has no information about it. Instead there are posts on “Inside Macs at Google”…very strange.

4. This is what a multi-million dollar rat looks like, will the next of kin receive their fair share?

5. The Google Press Release states “This afternoon, we announced that we are acquiring YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. YouTube will operate independently following the close of the transaction, which is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.” Why is this the first company that Google has ever kept independent?

6. There are a few theories on number five. I’m no lawyer, but if it’s kept as a separate legal entity, it might be able to limit any content liabilities to that entity?

7. How much is 44 seconds of everyone’s time (maybe a bit more now) worth?

8. Eric was forceful in the call about stating that these will remain separate entities and curiously he asserted Google Video will become even more important. Am I the only one that is mildly confused by this statement? Or is there some larger segmentation or story here?

9. Many people have asked “Why didn’t Microsoft buy Youtube?” With a large stake held by the people who funded Google, it was clear that Google had the right to make the last bid. Microsoft also likely would have had to pay cash due to it’s lack of a high growth currency to purchase Youtube and it’s not certain they could monetize it as well.

10. How long ago did these talks start? I’d say around this time.

What do you think the answers to these questions are?

UPDATE: Due to the popularity of this post, it’s getting alot of spam thrown at it. Comments are closed as of 6/4/2007.

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Cutting Edge Sourcing at Fox Interactive Media

Human Capital Management, HR Technology Conference 2006 #9

Virtual Edge Software: Roger Coker – VE Pilot:
– Zero-Talent Outages
– Succession not Replacement
– 360 view of talent pipeline

Fox Interactive Media: Conrad McGinnis

50% Professional
35% College
15% Other

FIM Talent Sources
35% Employee Referral Program
25% Direct Sourcing
15% Job Boards
25% Our Career Website

1400 Employees based in the US currently

Traditional Sourcing Method
– Old Media Mentality
– Dated and geared to film and TV
– Limited to local universities

New Strategic Sourcing Strategy
– Targeted to Tech
– Tech tools for better communication
– Global versus local
– Recruiting structure – Personnel
– CRM – VE Pilot

Search Engine Marketing – overall has found Google to be most effective

Why Search Engine Marketing?
– Reach Active and Passive Candidates
– Inclusive and Broad Approach
– Pay for Performance
– Workforce Planning
– VE Pilot

Other Tools:
– Fox Careers Site
– Myspace Careers Site

Reference Checker and Sourcer are separate

Frees up recruiter to build relationships with hiring manager and candidates

Training and Networking Events:
– Recruiters must know the business
– Recruiters need to spend more time in front of the desk than behind it
– Recruiting teams are true partners in moving the business forward

Employee Referral Program
– Myspace friend branded
– Ticket themed logo for concert – B.Y.O.F.
– Increased cash incentives
– Teaser campaign

Tracking Referrals
– Keeping track of individual job referrals
– Link track (like affiliate marketing campaign

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Goolge Sitemaps, er, WebMaster Tools – Odd Behavior

Google Webmaster Tools tells me:
https://www.daviddalka.com/createvalue
Indexing summary
Pages from your site are included in Google’s index.    [?]
Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page on Sep 24, 2006 .
Potential indexing problems:
We do not know about all the pages of your site. You can submit a Sitemap to tell us more about your site.
————————————————————————————————————-
One problem, I already did that! Hey Matt Cutts/Vanessa Fox, if I already have an active Google Sitemap, er Webmaster Tool, how can you not know about all the pages of the site and give me an inaccurate message???

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Costco (COST) – Needs Customer Focused Perspective – Post #2

On my last trip to Costco, September 3rd, I discussed some problems and things needing change.

My return visit today showed that they still haven’t changed any of the items mentioned, in fact some were worse today.

The Palmiers had not been restocked.

The romaine lettuce all had expiration dates two days from today. Being in a single person household, I don’t mind buying the six stalks, but I expect there to be stock that has expiration dates of at least a week from today at all times, I mean I’m not buying wilted lettuce from a half price store.

The cashier experience was again disappointing. Somebody in front of me had a paper check (why do they even still allow that at all?). The cashier then forgot to ring up the juice in my cart. Worse, there were long lines *again* due to not enough cashiers being open, yet there was an army of folks at the manager’s station. I mean every week this place acts surprised and like it’s a new experience to have customers come up the registers ten minutes after the store opens.

This store continues to be the most disorganized Costco I’ve ever visited, I wonder why they aren’t taking the customer feedback more seriously.

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Email crisis!!!

Yahoo! and Gmail both need to put work into their e-mail software. I’ve outlined this in previous posts.

Yesterday was the last straw though.  My Yahoo! webmail lets spam through that it shouldn’t – all the time – while classifying real email as spam. Yet yesterday I was told that an email from a relatively new gmail account that I sent was classified as spam by a Yahoo! Mail account I sent it to. Gmail lets some spam through to my Inbox, while other e-mails not only haven’t made it to Inbox, they didn’t even go to the spam folder. Then inappropriately classifies one of my shared domain servers as spam.   

Alright enough! How in the world is is anyone supposed to communicate in a reliable fashion? Maybe you guys should have some people work on fixing this stuff?

It’s a serious problem whether you are in London, New York, San Francisco or Singapore. Regardless of what portal you apply, no matter what your job or career.