As much as I enjoy the world of web marketing and the infinite possibilities of measuring media, specifically web analytics, there are days where I simply find my job mind-numbing and painful. OK, OK, OK. I’ll admit that web analytics can deliver the euphoria of discovering hidden nuggets of insight and the ecstasy of uncovering an untapped market segment. And I’ll also admit that I like to liken myself to Indiana Jones – following trails, using my intellect to find hidden treasure. However, just like Dr. Jones, I feel like I get beat up a lot as I crawl through a good amount of filth to get where I’m going. It’s during times like these when it feels crappy to be a web analyst. Avinash Kaushik never told me there’d by days like these… Read more…

Humour, Rant, Web Analytics Avinash Kaushik

With all this talk about Social Media, I thought to myself, “What is being social anyways?”. The way I was raised, it was about interacting with people. While it’s true that social media does indeed open new ways to interact with people, it also gives us  a way out of actually interacting with others. Oh and don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. If you’ve ever been on Facebook, you know exactly what I’m referring to. How many times have you checked a friend’s Facebook (“FB” for all your cool cats) profile to see what they’ve been up to rather than to drop them a line? How often have you checked a person’s LinkedIn account profile instead of e-mailing them? Don’t know about you, but this seems pretty anti-social, no? (I’ll bet a few of you check out my LinkedIn account in a few minutes… prove me wrong.) Read more…

Humour Anti-Social Media, Random thoughts, Social Media

Here we go again. Back when I was in high school, one of the coolest things to do was to be into a band that no one heard of. We’d look down our noses at the very happy pop music lovers, thinking that they had no idea what good music was. And when we were asked what music we were into, we’d proudly fire off a half dozen names and praise their awesomeness. We’d even lend our friends tapes, and records in hopes that they, too, could see what they were missing. But, inexplicably, the moment that one of our favorite bands got popular, we considered them “sell-outs” and swore that all the new “fans” were into them just to be cool. These so-called “fans” didn’t “get it”, they were posers.

As immature as doing this was, I guess it was our way to express how we felt, how we lost a bit of our coolness, and we resented it. Well, I’m sorry to say, this high school pettiness is happening all over again. But this time, we’re not talking about R.E.M. or NIN, we’re talking about Twitter, you poser. Read more…

Humour, New Media, Rant Oprah, Twitter