Schmidt Speak

On adage.com, browsed through Eric Schmidt's interview. It's always fascinating to tap into the mind of this internet era sage...Some nuggets from the article.

1. The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives! Brands, therefore are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the internet cesspool.

2. Branding may be an essential element that helps people navigate the world. Brand affinity is clearly hard wired. It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component.

Interesting stuff...Chewable!

Think Hatke. Think Widgets

Am trying to learn a little more about widgets and then maybe write an article on the subject - How brands and marketers can use them. Are there some examples of Indian brands using widgets?

Widgets are mini-Web applications that are downloaded onto a desktop or transported into personal Web pages, blogs or social-network profiles. For users, they are a source of constantly updated information, from weather and sports scores to personal photos, which can eliminate the need to visit multiple Web sites.

Stumbled upon these links while I was in google-yahoo mode!

1. This is a 2006 post on OpenGardens blog. It's about how advertisers/ marketers/ brands can use widgets?

2. Then there was this piece on imediaconnection.com - The what, who, why, how and wow of widgets.

3. And then there was this article - Marketers Wend Widgets Into Interactive Tactics at brandweek.com

Okay going back to my learning mode...

Spatial Reach of Brands and Us

Have been down with an eye infection which has severely curtailed net-surfing or substantial reading...Bored I figured book-surfing a better way to kill time!

Was flipping through 'Revolutionary Wealth' - the Alvin & Heidi Toffler book...Stumbled upon the chapter on Spatial Reach(chapter 11, pp73-77)...Found it quite interesting and relevant.

Some quick mental notes before the eye starts hurting again:-(

1. The Tofflers talk about the increased geography of our travel reach. We travel between countries as our parents travelled between cities...

2. Then there is our new on-line/ virtual reach. What co-incidence...I just discovered(through Google Analytics) that this blog reached 23 countries over the space of last week. Of course the bulk of the visitors being from India...What an amazing Spatial Reach we have today. Toffler says in 12th century Europe, the average peasant in his entire life-time just travelled in an area of about 15 miles around his village...

3. The spatial reach at the workplace is also global these days. I often respond to a mail from Singapore in the morning, then check for updates on the 'Digital Sparks' Ning site(which has members from all our 14 offices across Asia. There might be a stray comment on the blog from another city. A chat with my brother during the day on Google Talk. Another with a quali researcher from Bangalore on a collaborative project.
Quick phone calls with my planners in Delhi and Bangalore...A mere click on the blogroll transports me to US/ UK/ parts of Europe...What a fascinating web this personal spatial reach has become. Unimaginable a few years back!!

4. And what about Brand Spatial Reach? Today, we have access to brands, it's marketing and marketer's POV across geographies...It's both a boon and a challenge. Because with the growing spatial access, people also communicate about their brand relationships as much as the brands can reach to different parts of the globe...

It would be really cool to draw my personal spatial reach...I hope a software exists somewhere to do this. Maybe Google can help:-)