Comments on: Google, Twitter Woo Small Businesses

By: sd12013

sd12013 — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:36:26 +0000

@Tim, I like how you say MS Tags is “currently” free. The MS Tags site hints that they will at some point begin charging for some part of their service. Which part and at what rate is unknown. Your own blog seems to indicate you know or suspect as much as well “I’ll be phoning the Metro first thing tomorrow morning to suggest that they try Microsoft’s Tag service while it’s free.” While it’s free, eh? I wouldn’t recommend businesses use MS Tags until they’re more up front with what their pricing for the service will ultimately be. It’s a tough decision to start placing the MS tags on your products without knowing tomorrow how much it’s going to cost you to see how your tag is doing.

By: sd12013

sd12013 — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:31:34 +0000

@Tim, I like how you say MS Tags is “currently” free. The MS Tags site hints that they will at some point begin charging for some part of their service. Which part and at what rate is unknown. Your own blog seems to indicate you know as much as well: “I’ll be phoning the Metro first thing tomorrow morning to suggest that they try Microsoft’s Tag service while it’s free.” While it’s free, eh? I wouldn’t recommend businesses use MS Tags until they’re more up front with how much they’re going to charge for their service. It’s a tough decision to start placing the MS tags on your products without knowing tomorrow how much it’s going to cost you to see how your tag is doing. Meanwhile, QR tags and many QR tag tracking services remain free.

By: Google May Buy Yelp: A Quick Analysis – GigaOM

Google May Buy Yelp: A Quick Analysis – GigaOM — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:32:28 +0000

[...] out in the past, Google has a Vitamin S deficiency, S being social. For instance, when Google recently announced “Favorite Places on Google” program it decided to tabulate them by “counting how [...]

By: Wednesday Web Resources: The Social Media Edition | Richmond Blogs

Wednesday Web Resources: The Social Media Edition | Richmond Blogs — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:37:00 +0000

[...] (If you thought I was going to mention Google’s new Favorite Places program here…well, I think it’s overexposed. Plus, if you’re not one of the most popular 100,000 businesses on Google or chosen by one of [...]

By: Wednesday Web Resources: The Social Media Edition | Free Business Pages on SMEpages.com

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:45:51 +0000

[...] you thought I was going to mention Google’s new Favorite Places program here…well, I think it’s overexposed. Plus, if you’re not one of the most popular 100,000 businesses on Google or chosen by one of [...]

By: Online Small Business » Wednesday Web Resources: The Social Media Edition

Online Small Business » Wednesday Web Resources: The Social Media Edition — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:21:47 +0000

By: Another Small Biz Title Bites The Dust « Benjamin Tomkins

Another Small Biz Title Bites The Dust « Benjamin Tomkins — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:47:04 +0000

[...] Local Business Center. And as Liz Gannes posits, it can’t be too much longer before Facebook local [...]

By: Google and Twitter Cozy Up to Local Businesses- Financial Eyes & Ears

Google and Twitter Cozy Up to Local Businesses- Financial Eyes & Ears — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:05:02 +0000

[...] Yelp? Google and Twitter are rolling out new ways for you to maintain a positive web presence (via GigaOM). Twitter is partnering with Citysearch, which hopes to help the 200,000 local merchants it has [...]

By: Tim Acheson

Tim Acheson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:21:17 +0000

There are currently thousands of tweets on Twitter about this. Hundreds of Tweets are just regurgitating this exact phrase:-

“See That Funny 2D Barcode In The Store Window? It Might Pull Up A Google Listing”

This is ridiculous, it’s essentially Spam, yet this is typical of the highly effective viral marketing from trendy companies like Google and Apple.

As @maryjofoley noticed, in this deluge of coverage, comentators seem blissfully unaware that Google is not the first or best in this marketplace:-

http://twitter.com/maryjofoley/status/6433724807

Microsoft Tag is better. MS Tag looks nicer, is more flexible, has nice simple reposting features, and is certainly not limited to Bing search results.

By: Tim Acheson

Tim Acheson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:20:57 +0000

Microsoft has already launched their own barcode solution, Microsoft Tag. I tried it, and love it:

http://www.timacheson.com/Blog/2009/sep/microsoft_tag

“Everything Google does is automatically amazing and newsworthy!”

Of course, this logic is flawed, yet this is exactly how many commentators still behave.

MS Tag is excellent. So easy to use. Try it yourserlf, It’s currently FREE! I’ve already used it on my blog. I’ve seen it on various books and posters. The reader software works on my oldest, simplest mobile phone.

Google and Apple do a much better job of PR, making it easy for commentators to help them regurgitate their corporate propaganda. No matter how lazy a blogger is, and no matter how narrowly a blogger casts their net when aggregating news stories, they have a good chance of picking up information released by Google and Apple in a usable format.