Facebook Ramping Up the Business Model?

Two days ago, Mark Evans said the below, in his post "Five Things That Could Kill Facebook":

1. The evolution of its business model: What many people like about Facebook is it has a clean, easy-to-access look and feel. You log in, you quickly see what’s been happening in your world, you do your thing. What happens when Facebook starts to introduce more advertising into the mix so it can start taking advantage of its billions of pageviews? Suddenly, the lean look disappears as the business model starts to move onto the scene.

Today, for the first time, I have an advertisement in my mini-feed big enough to push the majority of yesterdays actual friends updates off screen. I don't recall seeing an ad in this position before. I'd say thats 1/5, but actually i'm already on board with Mark's 3rd:

3. Application noise. For all the excitement about Facebook opening its API to the world, it’s also more noise for users. I can’t tell you how many multiple invitations I’ve got for Flixster, for example. It’s already getting annoying. This is an issue Fred Wilson focused on.

So far one of the more irritating in this category are applications that tease with statements of "Person X has asked you a question on Facebook." Clicking this link simply gives me the option to add the Question appication. I don't know what this is, and I don't want to add it, probably subjecting my contacts to "has added the Question application" and "has removed the Question application", which also adds to the noise.

Keep an eye on these guys. They could still blow this before they manage to sell it for the money they want.

Speaking of Mahalo

Excellent entry. Still, at least he got the top result.

Yamaha YDP-131 Digital Piano

All major purchases made over the past few years, in my life at least, have been well researched utilising a resource that the world has come to know as "The Internet". Very rarely is it that I want to know about a product and can't find a single objective review (as opposed to cut and pasted copy-written copy-writing bullets). I was sorely disappointed to find that in my quest for opinion on the object to the left, even Mahalo couldn't assist me.

So, I reach out to you here, if you're paying attention. Is the Yamaha YDP-131 something I should consider? I live in a flat so space is an issue. Rows of buttons and features don't interest me - I just want to play a piano. Others in this price range are mostly Casio models that look a little cheap. The above looks like something I could stand to have in my living room and of course, has a traditionally reputable brand. Thoughts?

Help me out here!

The Sopranos

I've never watched an episode of the Sopranos.

Two to three years ago, it seemed everybody was talking about the end of the Sopranos. When it sprung to mind next, I assumed it must have ended. Then suddenly earlier this year, everybody is talking about the end of the Sopranos. A few more weeks and that's the last we'll hear of the Sopranos, I thought. Months later, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that for the last few days, everybody has been talking about the end of the Sopranos.

Maybe I should watch the Sopranos. That is all.

Orange Customer Service - VERY Disjointed

I've just had a painful encounter with Orange (Pay as you Go).

Saturday night my phone drops below 99p and I receive a text telling me to reply with last 4 digits of nominated card, amount and security code. Thinking "cool new quick way of doing it" I complied, and spent the next 30 mins worried that i'd been scammed.

Concluding that it's unlikely anyone other than Orange would know my account balance or the rest of my card details to actually make a transaction, I calmed down as Customer services (3rd attempt, first two offshore or onshore were completely useless) told me it was an Orange service, but didn't necessarily go through immediately. By today, Monday my phone balance hadn't changed, and on checking my bank account, the money was indeed gone.

Calling back to get help with this was like an NTL flashback. The first (free) centre I connected to couldn't check bank data, and i'm not convinced the second (paid) centre could either. At any rate, they couldn't check it tonight - "sometimes systems have problems". Usually when I call.

I won't bore you with the rest of the details. Suffice to say, my account balance now reflects reality, though I won't try to top up in this way again, and I don't recommend anybody else does.

Bottom line, if you take MY money but don't give me MY service for MY money, DON'T YOU DARE then call crediting my account that same amount of money a GOODWILL GESTURE! It is your BARE MINIMUM RESPONSIBILITY.

PS: As I wrote the final paragraph above my plugged in Nokia silently lit up - "From Orange. Thanks for topping up. Your card has been charged [n] and your new balance is [n x 2]." Figures.

PPS: They also asked me, a domestic customer, to fax my bank statement. What year is this? If I didn't work in an office I can't begin to imagine how I would have done this (and I'm sure as hell not doing it anyway).

PPPS: (last one, promise) Orange used to answer the phone immediately, with UK based people behind the headsets. Given that Orange appears to have left it late to get into call centre offshoring, i'd have hoped they might have looked around to see what a mess it clearly creates.

www

I'm thinking of buying a digital piano. Plenty of places to look but when you want detail, if you're anything like me, you'll visit manufacturers sites.

Now, this is an annoyance - I have no problem getting round it, but I expect there are people that would fail to realise the cause of this problem...

If I type yamaha.co.uk into a browser; I get nothing.
In some ways worse than this, if I type casio.co.uk into a browser, I get their UK site front page on which every link leads to a "page not found" with the same links that have just failed to load.

The reason - Yamaha haven't realised that marketers aren't using www at the front of many web addresses anymore. Casio have realised it, tried to implement a solution and haven't bothered to test it beyond the front page.

Why risk losing custom in this way?