Monica Yoo

technology. science. marketing.

Ch, Ch, Check-In

Wow. Fascinating. (Click on the chart to see a larger version of it)

I have to admit that the results of what apps the Early Adopters use greatly surprise me. I never would have guessed that 90% of social location app users would use Facebook Places to check-in versus 22% for Foursquare. For years now, the only form of “checking-in” I’ve heard has been through Foursquare (since 2009 actually, which was when Foursquare was founded), until recently when Facebook launched their own form of it. Here’s an interesting read about Foursquare vs. Facebook Places, if you’re interested. And this one too.

Also, with 17% of Early Adopters choosing to participate in location based apps, and 12% for Mass Consumers, it would have been interesting to see how having SCVNGR would have changed the results.

My Monday Chuckle

Normally, my Mondays are less than entertaining. It usually consists of weekly planning and prioritizing, catching up on emails, wearing glasses (not contacts) and an afternoon cup of joe. However, today was different. As I was perusing my usual nerd blogs that I follow, I saw a post about how Rackspace’s servers went down. I didn’t really react because things like that happen once in a while, but this caught my eye:

Justin Timberlake and Rackspace

Yep. That is what you think it is. Justin Timberlake made a sarcastic comment about Rackspace’s servers going down on TWITTER. It’s quite possibly one of the nerdiest things he’s done. It’s almost as though he’s actually a nerd? No, no, can’t be (but a girl can wish). Maybe I don’t give mainstream celebrities enough credit, but I’m surprised and impressed that Mister JT knew what a hosting company was. It just doesn’t seem like his thing, you know? Nonetheless, this whole incidence trivial incidence has made JT several notches cooler in my book.

When Rackspace’s servers were back up and running, he followed up his last tweet with this:

Justin Timberlake and Rackspace 2

I <3 JT!

Seth Godin Is The Man

Seth Godin

There’s more to social networking in a business environment that need to be accounted for and I’m so appreciative that Seth Godin has summed it up perfectly in his Q & A session video. We’ve all heard it a million times, but it’s about quality and not quantity of who is in your network. Unless you have a relationship with substance behind an alias or screen name, it’s all a facade – one that means little to pretty much nothing.

I love Godin’s reference to the internet as a “giant cocktail party.”

Mac and PC Love

As I’m sure you all have noticed, Mac and PC are openly going head to head with each other through their branding efforts. It all started with the playful Mac commercials stereotyping PC users as being old-school and boring. However, the once playful and light-hearted commercial bits have left the building and seems to have joined forces with the dark side. In this Mac versus PC feud, it is Mac that appears to be making the direct and aggressive attacks against its opponent. What happened to the easy-going persona we all fell in awe with?

Before anyone starts to judge me for my seemingly pro PC entry, I want to put it on the table that I am neither pro PC or biased for one operating system over the other. I’ve grown up using Windows and truly opened my eyes to the experience of the Mac not too long ago. As I own both a PC and Mac, I couldn’t tell you which one I would prefer to own if I were in some hypothetical situation where I had to make a daunting decision to only own one. They each have their pros and cons, which makes it difficult to choose. This is why I own both – to get the best of both worlds. (You can have your cake and eat it too!) I’d go into more detail about which aspects of the operating systems give me butterflies in my stomach, but that would deserve an entire blog entry to itself. These are just my observations and surface-level thoughts. =)

Going back to what I was previously saying, Mac looks to be on the offense. It wasn’t until recently Microsoft decided to retaliate by defending their image by revealing that real PC users are diverse and don’t fit a stereotype or mold. And from what Mac’s most recent commercial, “Bake Sale” tells me, they don’t seem to be too pleased with it. Watch a few of their latest videos and see for yourself.

On the flip side, I think Microsoft is making a healthy effort. This video sums it up nicely.

I’m glad to see that Microsoft is finally being proactive about their brand management because they needed it. With Microsoft’s “The Real PC” campaign, you get to see a real human aspect of its users which is a very refreshing. Microsoft is also encouraging people to get involved in this effort by uploading your own PC videos, which could be selected to have aired on TV.

I find the whole Mac and PC rivalry highly entertaining and interesting. It’s something I’ll be watching closely to see how it all unravels.

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