Monday List – Save Lives, Energy, Money, Time

A few familiar names here, a few maybe some not so much. Everybody has their list, but hey, at least I give some rationale. If you don't agree, please share some!

#5 Blackle

• Energy saving black version of Google, thats just a cool idea

• Saves energy yeah, but seems how much is a debate

• Needs to just be Google search, not sure what “Blackle” vs. “web” means!

• Green is mainstreaming, other sites should grab this as a marketing/PR/Environmental play

#4 Woot

• If you buy any tech stuff, you will like this site

• One product, one day, until its sold out

• Simple, compelling, social (yeah, some verbz happening here for sure)

(btw - “woot” is an on-line/IM/gaming term used to express excitement, it means “heck yeah!!”

#3 LinkedIn

• This is a great site for professional networking

• There seems to be very little if any competition

• Nearly everyone I know is on it (not sure if that says more about me or the site?)

• Bottom line, much easier than trying to to do this in Outlook or on my Blackberry!!

#2 Google

• No I am not talking about the search interface

• That's still cool (unless you believe Ask's new ad campaign, then it may suck) but how about all this: Blogger, Calendar, Ad Sense, Mobile, Gmail, Reader etc.

• Almost don't need other websites

• Powerful, easy to use, free. For me; they are on the top of the pile at the moment.

#1 Distributed Computing

• OK, so this is not really a website, so what, its my blog!

• This is just great stuff; these programs use your PC's extra processing bandwidth to work on fighting diseases such as cancer, MD, Parkinson's and more!

• As you read this my PC is working on Stanford's Protein Folding project (Protein Folding is a cause of Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.)

• Just find one you are moved by and do it, what an easy way to be part of the solution.

J

Digital as a Verb – Part I

We have all heard it, but maybe not noticed, “Google it” (check Wikipedia) , “Hit the Space”, “Blog”, “Surf”, “Post”. The web is about action, it is about doing and experiencing. Many web-age brands get this, Yahoo for example got it early and played to it with their “Do you Yahoo” campaign. Of course, it may have done well for the Yahoo brand but we all “Google” and I have never heard anyone say they were going to “Yahoo” something, but it was a good attempt to harness this phenomenon.

So what is it that moves a brand into this space? From being an abstract product or service provider to being a part of what we do, a verb? For Google is seems to me that it is very much about the way they started. In 1998 Google was just a logo and a search box (check WebArchive.org). One word, one page, one function (and a few links that I had forgotten about, Linux...) . For this reason the brand name is forever tied to the activity. They were relatively early into the space also, and had at the time the best search algorithm. It is worth nothing that it appears the search function is still what we think of as “Googling”, not so much the newer services they have rolled out.

Also, many web brands are so wrapped around their services it is hard to separate them. Used to be that we would see an ad on TV, billboard, or magazine and we would go visit a store or make a phone call. These activities are separated by time and by medium. Enter the web and it can all happen within minutes and all in the on line space. So even if your product is not purely web based it can be closer to this model than you might think.

But why are all on line brands not experienced as actions, used as verbs, or social powered waves? This is the mystery to crack. We have identified here a few factors:

1. Be a pioneer or at least early into a space

2. Be sure that the service or product is from the heart of your brand

3. Simple is better than complex

4. Be surprisingly good, better, or different

In installment two I think we will take a look at some other companies that have some of this happening right now, Apple is worth a look. Also, we will talk about this phenomenon outside of the actual verb usage proper; what are the essential elements of this phenomenon and how can brand and product marketers create the catalyst to spawn and harness them?

J