NorthernGeek

12th January 2012

Pondering Personalised Search

We all saw it coming, and it’s already creeped into search results, but a couple of days ago Google confirmed their move towards providing heavily-altered search listings based on the activity of people within your social network - or should I say within their social network.

This has undoubtedly been their plan all along - and while in some ways it marks a revolution for search, it also smacks of nepotism that runs the risk of upending the usefulness and reliability of searching purely for the purposes of getting people to sign up to Google+

It could be said, of course, that search “as-is” isn’t always reliable nor useful; and that the inclusion of a toggle to switch between standard search and personalised search negates any “doomsday” scenarios - however it can’t be denied that this is a radical shift and one for which the motive is quite clearly the proliferation of Google+ rather than the enhancement of user experience.

I haven’t decided whether I think this is a good or bad thing yet, and will be writing a lengthier blog about some of the major pros and cons soon.  2012 is certainly going to be an interesting year for search!

3rd November 2011

Stefan Thomas speaking about business networking and social media at Kimberly Davis’ Marketing Masterclass

noredbraces:

Me at Kimberly Davis’ Marketing Masterclass series

Stefan Thomas at Kimberly Davis’ Marketing Masterclass Series from Stefan Thomas on Vimeo.

2nd November 2011

Upwards arrows

I’ve always been cursed with an overactive brain.  Now that sounds like I’m one of those people who disguises a compliment about themself in the form of a complaint (i.e. “I’m tired of everyone telling me how amazing I am”) - but it really isn’t.  Hardly a week goes by where I’m not coming up with another big idea for a business or personal project - and while I’m sure some people would love to have that going on, it’s actually a serious problem!

The problem, is that I’m very easily distracted - so when an idea pops into my head, I latch onto it, and start to analyse, plan and visualise every aspect, down to the minutae of logistics, what the logo would look like, how I would market it etc.  I can spend an entire evening walking through a business plan in my head for whatever new idea has popped up.

I combat this, to an extent, through a big fat notebook I’ve carried around for about 7 years now, which contains every idea I’ve had that has made it past the “stupid random thought” stage.  Some of them are pretty fully fleshed out; others are just a couple of words on a page - but that book contains ideas for about two dozen completely new businesses, 30 or 40 website projects, and about 20 other random notions.

I’m not sure whether this is something I should fight or embrace.  Occasionally these ideas fit with what I’m actually doing within my business and so make sense to follow through with.  Others are called up years after the initial thought because the time is now right to put them into practice.  Of the others, there are half a dozen which I genuinely think could be fantastically successful, and these are the ones which fester.  If I’m having a rubbish day, my mind will wander off as I start contemplating switching gears and following through on one of those ideas.

A few years ago I was talking to a guy called Paul Norman who was giving me insight into business.  He waxed lyrical about the idea that if you have a goal, you can do absolutely anything in pursuit of it as long as it represents progress.  He referred to such activities as “upwards arrows”.  As long as what you were doing was an upwards arrow, leading you towards your end goal, you were fine; but if you get stuck going sideways, diagonally or - dread to think - backwards, then you need to give yourself a swift slap.

As simple a notion as it is I always keep what Paul said in my mind whenever a new idea crops up or I’m reviewing old ideas.  Problem being that I’m not sure I have a clear enough picture of my end goal - and so there’s no real way of determining whether something is an upwards arrow, or a backwards one!

Whatever the case may be, at least I know that if things weren’t to work out in my business for whatever reason, I have a plan B, C, D, E….