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Once upon a time there was a commercial printing company. Of course this wasn’t just any company. This particular company was once regarded as a leader in its region, often winning awards for excellence. However, as time passed technology evolved and changed not only the process of printing but also the consumer demands. Needing to respond to these changes, the owner of the company upgraded their production capabilities by purchasing a digital press. In layman’s terms a digital press is similar to a giant computer printer. With it, a company can produce the same high quality printing that a large commercial offset printing press can but at smaller quantities and directly from a computer or workflow server. Digital presses not only allow for companies to streamline the production process but they also open up new avenues for more customized products such as variable printing.
Cup of Joe: A Story Of Fear And Failure
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Time to Take Out the Social Media Trash
The average, large company in the US has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts.
I’ll let that sink in for a moment.
Twitter has the highest number with an average of 39.2 accounts per company and Facebook is right in there with 29.9. Here’s the full layout from Altimeter’s new report: “A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation.”
Companies create multiple accounts to split out brands or for a specific marketing campaign and since hosting the accounts is free, why not? Here’s why not.
1. You’re throwing spaghetti at the wall.
The concept here is, if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, eventually, some of it will stick. Since you don’t know which strands will hang on, you keep on throwing, everything you’ve got, and you hope for the best.
Mobile Commerce Dollars Nearly Double But Not Everyone is Buying
Statistics are a funny thing. 118% growth and 6.7 billion sound like great numbers. But let’s take a look at how things really add up.
This chart from eMarketer shows some amazing growth in the mobile commerce market. Look at that 118.8% increase in 2010. Sounds great, until you realize that prior to 2010, mobile commerce didn’t really exist. It was just people using the internet access on their phones in order to buy something.
The dollar hop from $3.5 billion to $6.7 billion in 2011 is very nice. But folks spent $37.2 billion online just this past holiday season alone. So, it’s still a very small part of overall spending.
I’m not knocking mobile, or the rise in m-commerce. I just want to look at it with glasses that aren’t tinted a rose color.
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Google v MSFT Market Cap Comparison Tells Story
I am not a stock guy. Never have been. I also find discussions about who has the larger market capitalization number equivalent to the “My dad can beat up your dad” playground stuff kids engage in. The following chart, though, is interesting because it tells the story of two companies and gives insight into the larger picture of where we are today in the increasingly digital world we all live in. This come from SAI.
Once Google reached a zenith sometime in 2007 the companies have mirrored each other. They have been slaves to the same market conditions and swings and have acted accordingly. That is until very recently. As Microsoft continues to struggle to make itself into a digital company for the future, the market is starting to see it for what it may very well be: a big company that may not be nimble enough to transform itself for the future.
Bing Starts New Maps Routing Engine But Points to Bigger Issue
I have to give Bing credit. They are still plugging away at the whole “We’re really going to compete with Google in search etc etc” task they have in front of them. The latest push to show that they are are the Avis of the search world (We’re #2 so we try harder!) comes with their announcement of the latest change made to their maps routing engine.
From the Bing blog
Did you happen to notice the new routing engine we implemented on Bing Maps? No? I suppose that’s a good thing since your service was never interrupted. However, I can tell you that we’re enjoying the reduced latency, high performance, low overhead benefits of a new route calculation algorithm that changes the game in how driving directions queries are computed.
Chrome Releases Beta Claiming Faster and Safer Experience
For the next 60 days or so Google is going to need to create some new buzz around Chrome since it can’t rank for certain searches anymore 
. The first step is the release of a beta version that is claiming to be faster and safer than its predecessors.
From the Chrome blog regarding speed
Today’s Beta release improves on two of Chrome’s core principles: speed and security.
One of the things people like best about Chrome is that it loads web pages quickly. To get you where you want to go even faster, Chrome will now start loading some web pages in the background, even before you’ve finished typing the URL in the omnibox. If the URL auto-completes to a site you’re very likely to visit, Chrome will begin to prerender the page. Prerendering reduces the time between when you hit Enter and when you see your fully-loaded web page–in some cases, the web page appears instantly.
Consumers Still Don’t Know What to Do with QR Codes
QR codes are popping up everywhere. Not long ago, these mysterious patterned squares could be found in an occasional magazine or on a mailer. Now you can find them on grocery displays, packaging, even on bus shelters.
More QR codes must mean more people are using them! Right? Sort of. A new study from Chadwick Martin Bailey shows that people are scanning, but they don’t know what do with the results.
Here’s a visual from Marketing Charts:
I’m part of that top line, too. When QR codes were new, I scanned them all the time. Now, I rarely bother. I find that most codes just lead me to a website that I could have arrived at more easily by typing in the URL. Other than that, I’ve been led to a few recipes and some behind the scenes videos for movies. Nothing thrilling and certainly nothing worth sharing.
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