Social Design Principles

Here are some Insights into Designing a social Network

• Aggregate displays are a primary element of social design.
• Predicting what will happen in social influenced situations is impossible.
• But Early arrivers have a surprisingly high influence on the followers.
• Early leaders tend to stay in the lead simply because people see they are leading and are influenced by it.
• Even A-Listers drop like a rock if they don’t continue to post and get linked to!
• Much of the success in social systems is based on that most horrible of reasons…luck.

If you would like to read more on Social Networking Design Principles, check out http://www.bokardo.com

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Innovation in Banner Ads!!!

You thought Banner Ads were a nuisance, may not be anymore – or may be even more!!
Check out the New concept by Tailgate, which enables you to Buy from the Banner Ad!!!
Trail the following Link to get an Idea : http://www.gettailgate.com/navman/

I think it is a great idea, but am not sure if a small company like Tailgate is the right company to do it. On the outset there are several problems that could come to one’s mind

• Users may not want to give their credit card number on a banner.
• Another issue could be that most of the banner ads may not have a product to sell over the internet. They may be just brand ads!
• Buying is pretty much impulsive, and has to be done without much research at that point in time.
• Phishing is a big problem here, with the conventional site level security not really applicable.It is actually very easy to come up with a similar flash banner akin to what tailgate gives in no time.

But if we think a bit harder, it seems to be an interesting idea.

• Evolution from Pay-per-Click into Pay-per-Transaction needs to happen. May be this would turn a potential target for Google’s appetite for innovation in online-advertising.
• The user being skeptical of paying by Credit card can be taken care of. An easier way would be to register your credit card information and shipping details with Tailgate and let them log you in while the ad loads.Then you have a password or some sort of a pin to authorize your purchase, may be an RSI token can be given to the user too.
• The product which might be purchased this way would be “impulse buy” products. But then comes the question which are these.Most convenience goods and impulse goods are simply not sold over the internet, because the transaction cost and consumption delay for these are just too much.

Strategic Impact: Amazon can do this right away. The advertisement provider needs to guarantee the Ad and the seller. Credibility comes from him. Give the right to the user which would restrict him to viewing ads coming from reliable sources or places where he has registered. This actually would shift the power from Online retailers to Ad/Banner Providers. Yahoo!, Google should also think of doing this.

If a really powerful player comes out with a similar concept, by sharing their credibity with the product advertised and if they create an application that enables the user to let in only ads from reliable sources, i think the rules of the ad game can change. The bigger question is can advertisers become policemen of fraud transactions? or would amazon products replace ads?

Google is also not keeping quiet – check out Gadget Ads by Google!!

Marty Cagan and SVPG

I recently attended a two day workshop on Product Management conducted by Marty Cagan. For Product Managers across the world i believe that it would really help to read his views on Product Management. It may be a good idea to subscribe to his blog – you can get his news letter too. Check out http://www.svpg.com/

Check out his resources page for useful reads on Product Management – http://www.svpg.com/resources/resources.html

About Marty Cagan – Is a Stanford Grad, who worked at HP Research Labs from 81 to 90. He has also held executive positions in Netscape, AOL and EBay before starting SVPG. During his career, Marty has personally performed and managed most of the roles of a modern software product organization, including product management, software development, product marketing, user interface design, usability engineering, technical writing, software testing, engineering management, and general management. Personally, i felt the workshop did a world of good to me – felt like that oracle which asks you to stop, reflect, correct and proceed at a greater pace and efficiency!