Google's April Fool's Day pranks is an awesome way to get free PR. Google creates a small application around search and then they release on the Internet. And all this is done with as much fan-fare and secrecy as an actual product.
They have played a lot if interesting pranks over the years and no wonder the entire world waits and watches what they would do this year. What is amazing is that even though people expect them to do things on 1st April, they still manage to come up with something that can surprise the world.
Lessons for companies? Start small things like April Fool's Day pranks that can grow bigger with time and people will actually look forward to reading about it. And all these things count in the end. Especially for a small and a growing company.
List of Google April Fool's Day pranks over the years
1. gDay with MATE
2. Google Romance
3. Virgin and Google's Virgile
4. Gmail Paper
5. Google Mentalplex
6. PigeonRank
7. GoogleGulp
8. Google TISP
Did I miss something?
Crossposted
s4ur4bh wiki launched
I have finally launched a wiki where I would compile my thoughts.
Please check it out and share your thoughts.
Link to s4ur4bh.pbwiki.com
Please check it out and share your thoughts.
Link to s4ur4bh.pbwiki.com
The Art of Looking Sideways
The Art of Looking Sideways is an awesome book by Alan Fletcher. I just bought a copy.
I had blogged about it earlier also on SaurabhGarg.com (on 13th Jan 2008).
This book should help me with a lot of inspiration about design, advertising, creativity, decision making and thinking. Looking forward to reading it.
And now this book becomes the second most expensive book that I have purchased after Still Reading SRK.
Other links
A vid on Youtube where Alan Fletcher talks about it.
Designed for Failure
A fortune-teller just told me that I am designed for failure and I would never have luck or fame or money or any other parameter on which they judge a person's success or failure.
Another person to prove wrong :D
Another person to prove wrong :D
Thoughts on Twitter
Randy asked this question about Twitter on LinkedIn. Here is my answer.
Quick answer to your question would be Yes. It is advisable to use Twitter. It helps in dissipating information quickly and to a fairly large set of audience. I would say twitter can be compared to a crowd where everyone has a mic and everyone is talking simultaneously. Some have larger mouthpieces and some have very small.
I am a fairly active user on twitter and still to come across a business where they use twitter. Some companies advertise about it but that is all. II havent seen it being adopted by a company per se.
For your research, I think you should talk to people @ techcrunch where they use it extensively to promote their posts. Guy Kawasaki used it to market alltop.com. A guy proposed his girlfriend for marriage on twitter. People use twitter but users are sporadic at best.
Also, I think we should look at the bigger picture beyond twitter. End of the day its about a platform where you can get the largest audience. These platforms have come and gone. It started with Internet, moved onto myspace, then facebook, now twitter. There would be another platform tomorrow (I have no clue what it would be but there sure would be one). We should be ready to harness these platforms rather than focusing exclusively on one single platform.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you want me to elaborate.
Regards,
SG
P.S.: Posted a link to my twitter page.
Public Service Message: Life is Short
Harold's Planet is one of the best comic strips on the Internet. Here is another gem from them.
Originally posted here.
Originally posted here.
Recommendations from a friend
Monica describes me as an "enthu intelli curious will be something soon guy".
Wow. Thanks Monica for such kind words.
Wow. Thanks Monica for such kind words.
TED 2008: VizThink
I’ve got a security mindset
Wired has this interesting article today on a new course as University of Washington on thinking like a security personnel.
Reading the article and the course blog, I realized why I always had destructive tendencies. I have always wanted to find a way to pilferage things off the markets, way to steal that large gaming console out of that building, why I always want to look at the about page and login page of a website, and other ways a person can break a system.
Does that mean I have what it takes to be a security professional? No. Does that mean I am a negative person with destructive energies? Certainly No. It means that I am someone who is programmed to think like a security professional and I can use it in other interesting ways.
What could be other interesting ways?
1. Launch a business where you consult people. Consulting is a keyword for all MBAs. All MBAs aspire to be consultants some day irrespective of their level of expertise.
2. Identify a vulnerability and create a business idea around it. Make it social, viral, more importantly feasible. Make money from it and retire.
3. Talk to other people about it. Educate them about a different way to look at things.
What next?
Talk to Prof. Yoshi and see if this course can be taken online.
Are there anymore people who think like that and would want to connect? What could be other ways to use this knack rather than feeling sorry about it?
P.S.: One of my all time favorite fictitious people is Jack Bauer. And more I see 24, more I can relate to way Jack thinks. Or may be every can relate to him and thats why 24 was such a big hit...?
Originally posted on Thoughts @ Work
Reading the article and the course blog, I realized why I always had destructive tendencies. I have always wanted to find a way to pilferage things off the markets, way to steal that large gaming console out of that building, why I always want to look at the about page and login page of a website, and other ways a person can break a system.
Does that mean I have what it takes to be a security professional? No. Does that mean I am a negative person with destructive energies? Certainly No. It means that I am someone who is programmed to think like a security professional and I can use it in other interesting ways.
What could be other interesting ways?
1. Launch a business where you consult people. Consulting is a keyword for all MBAs. All MBAs aspire to be consultants some day irrespective of their level of expertise.
2. Identify a vulnerability and create a business idea around it. Make it social, viral, more importantly feasible. Make money from it and retire.
3. Talk to other people about it. Educate them about a different way to look at things.
What next?
Talk to Prof. Yoshi and see if this course can be taken online.
Are there anymore people who think like that and would want to connect? What could be other ways to use this knack rather than feeling sorry about it?
P.S.: One of my all time favorite fictitious people is Jack Bauer. And more I see 24, more I can relate to way Jack thinks. Or may be every can relate to him and thats why 24 was such a big hit...?
Originally posted on Thoughts @ Work
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