Alex Barnett's blog

Since my earlier post on RSS in relation to email marketing, I've come across many related articles...I thought I'd point to some of these...bottom line is that Email as a sales driver has had dramatic success over the years...the debate should move away...

(Warning relating to this post. Chowbay's Food and Article Center advises to maintain proper etiquette while attending dinner parties: one should, " try to avoid heavy subjects such as politics and religion.". I'm going to stay out of the politics ...

I'm going to nominate Nameplanet , a webmail provider Kate (my wife) uses, for the worst customer support for any online-based company. Kate was unfortunate enough to delete her entire inbox after a new IA was launched. She's tried mutliple times to...

I have a few 'non-technical' friends who think RSS (Really Simple Syndication) sounds like interesting idea but say it all sounds a little bit complicated. So, I've created a 'how-to' screencast (Flash movie), 'Using RSS 101' . The screencast shows how...

In late July I have an appointment with a surgeon who will remove my thyroid. Technically, this is known as a Total Thyroidectomy - a complete removal of the thyroid. In case you don't know, this is where your thyroid is (unless you've had yours removed...

Mary Jo Foley pointed out an article that I thought was a little odd to say the least. "It seems to have become trendy to sound the death knell for Microsoft these days. I guess I'm not quite as much of a purveyor of doom and gloom when it comes to the...

Only in the US I'm afraid... Pepsi is running a sweepstakes competition, giving away an Xbox 360 every 10 minutes until 10/31/05. Starts 8/28/05. "To play, consumers will collect codes found under the caps of Mountain Dew and other participating...

How many RSS feeds do people subscribe to? This is one of the questions Wolfgang Bartelme asked his blog (feed?) readers and he's got 86 responses so far. As Chris points out the average seems number of feeds being subscribed to as reported within...

I've been carrying a number of thoughts relating to Attention and rather trying to create a huge essay, I've decided just to offload these as a partially random list. Would be great to get your feedback, discussion, agreement and brutal rebutal. ...

Backup Brain recently highlighted one of the problems with the tagosphere - the 'which tag do I use' problem. I say 'one' of the problems, because there are at least three tagospheric problems that are creating a Tag-Hell: 1. When in content tagging...

IanD wants to know: "have been searching for ways to record skype calls for pocasts and its not as simple as it looks I saw Audio hijack pro for the mac would do it, is there a windows program like that? I looked at virtual wires but that wouldn't do...

According to PC Magazine’s John Dvorak there is no such thing as a disruptive technology. “The concept of disruptive technology goes to the top of my list as the biggest crock of the new millennium...There is no such thing as a disruptive...

Rick Bruner at Business Blog Consulting gives ' One (Percent) Reason Why Not to Switch From Email to RSS' . The general gist is right - the debate should move away from RSS v Email and move to how RSS can become part of the marketing mix. In the article...

OK, Friday silliness starts here. Steve Rubel is featured in an article of the current edition of Business Week, 'Blogs Will Change Your Business' . I saw this pic, and thought...let's have a daft caption competition! OK, I go first: "Steve...

Microformats Podcast Here's a great podcast for you. All about microformats ... Joining me are Tantek Çelik , Dan Connolly and Rohit Khare . I think it's safe to say these guys know a thing or two about the web and microformats. As usual, show...

The word 'memetracking' or ('meme tracker') has been used to describe services such as Memeorandum , Megit , Tailrank and Chuquet . I can't call them 'memetrackers'. I like them, they're useful sites and all that, but they aren't 'meme' trackers. ...

Frank has some Windows Live Messenger Beta Invites . Update Jan 07: so have Mark and Philip . Update 23 Jan: I don't have to give away. Have turned off comments on this post.

Major Nelson spotted this free new SyncToy PowerToy at Microsoft.com's Download Center . I've just finished the set up and synchronized my laptop pic and mp3 files with my spanking new Buffalo Network Storage Center . It works. I'll do the same with...

A perfect storm has emerged for marketers using email and dm vehicles in particular. The 2 main factors are: unsubscribe numbers are on the increase due to spam and poor targeting the new EU directive moving to an opt-in contact basis (the rest...

"Your RSS reader is abusing the Slashdot server. You are requesting pages more often than our terms of service allow. Please see the FAQ link for more information" I'm apparently nailing the Slashdot servers with my RSS reader requests to the point...

I lost my shaving stuff somewhere between London and Seattle last week. So I went off to the local shop and was confronted by an array of choice. I've been a Gillette 'man' for as long as I can remember shaving. So when I looked at the Gillette shelf...

This Allofmp3.com news doesn't look good.... ( disclaimer time) I've been a customer for around 2 years, have been recommending the site for some time and currently have about $20 unspent credit caught up in there. I've never had problems with the...

On Monday I start my new role at Microsoft, this means I'll be relocating from London to Seattle, taking my family with me at the end of Feb. As you might imagine, I'm really excited: New role, new city, new country! I've been to Seattle a few times before...

Paul Thurrott provides a three-part historical look at MSN : " So here is the story of MSN's rebirth as an Internet services powerhouse. In part one, I quickly examine the convoluted history of MSN, which has been repurposed and re-imagined repeatedly...

Have you thought of your browser history as attention data? I have some thoughts on this. Not all good. Two companies are thinking this way. Tailrank is one. You can go to this Import page and give the site permission to look at your browser history...