Ads that don't want you to click

Short article - essentially it details pre-qualifying clickers (read: web surfers that click on your ad). Given that a business pays a banner hosting site by the click - the business is going to want to make sure the right person clicks.

Some ads should be designed to reduce response.... In order to qualify for a loan, the prospective business must accept all major credit cards and have been in operation for at least one year.

This ad does not mention these requirements and generated a 17 percent click-through rate (CTR):

Merchant Account Loans
Business Loans. Fast and easy.
Low rates. Quick approvals.

When we added the two requirements, and presented ad copy with qualifiers, response dropped dramatically -- to around a 10 percent CTR:

Merchant Account Loans
Must accept Visa/MC. Established
1 year. Fast/easy approval process.


...the conversion rate associated with the second ad, with pre-qualifiers, was significantly higher than the ... more generic ad. Not surprisingly, the overall return on investment (ROI) for the campaign improved dramatically.

Read: article

NOVA - Magnetic Storm

Magma in core produces magnetism (unknown why). There are ppl superheating/pressurizing metals attempting to observe.

Basically, the Earth is a liquid magnet - and liquids are just that .... liquidy. So the poles move around, and sometimes you'll have bursts of positive charge appearing in the negative side, etc. When enough bursts occur, the poles start to change strength and even flip. We can see evidence of this by looking through 3 things: cooling lava, cooling clay, and sailor's comparisons of true north. Sailors compare where the compass north is to an astronomical reading and have recorded it - and through history you can see changes. Cooling is seen because after the element is headed - the substance polarizes to the earth's magnetic pull. By knowing when pots are thrown, we can see the magnitude and direction of earth's magnetism. Similarly we can see lava in stages of it being cooled to note changes. There was even a period of time (long ago) where the polarity swapped in a matter of 6 days - you would SEE the compass needle change... if one existed...

So how does this effect us? Well the polarity generates a magnetic field that protects us from the sun's radiation - it reflects it to the north/south (Aurora Borealis) and back into space. The radiation could cause significant amounts of cancer, the loss of atmosphere, etc - in fact, this is what seemed to happen to Mars. It has no poles, but lava is polarized EXCEPT where two asteroids hit it and remelted the rock. Since that rock is not polarized, then there was no field when those asteroids hit.

So when? The magnitude of the poles have dropped dramatically - fastest it's been since civilization, and the rate is increasing. However, if there IS a swap, it's not expected for thousands of years.

Read: online details

Competing on the Basis of Speed

Concept of "fast companies":
Dell: through speed - significant cost advantage due to low cost infrastructure. They have cheap price per component not because they buy cheaper - they buy at same price of course, but cheaper surrounding infrastructure. (1:25)
Toyota: Brought Prius from concept to market in 15 months
Google: competes on speed in software dev area

Competing on basis of speed gives : 1) a significant competitive advantage, and 2) a large barrier to entry - companies need to catch up.

Things that kill speed:
complexity
3 faces of complexity

1. waste: anything that depletes resources/effort/space/money - keep it simple
2. Inconsistency: uneven, unbalanced, etc - make it flawless
3. overload: excessive or unreasonable burden - make it flow

1) waste
Keep common infrastructure
achitecture/convention/tools
keep simplifying the code via refactoring

a dev process that anticipates change will result in software that tolerates change

Toyota's design process:
"set based design" (9:45)
They have 10 engines and pick one before production - not use one and keep making changes.
Makes decision as late as possible

Make decisions reversible whenever possible
-when change creates complexity, refactor

Paused at 13:00... fascinating, but getting sleepy...

Watch: google video

History of the iPod

• Jobbs returns to Apple
• Jobbs says you can't ask the consumer what you want... but you can create an environment where everyone gets together and brainstorms until you say "that's it! that's what we'll do!"
• Decide to do the iPod
• Napster goes down, so need a new electronic way to obtain music
• Designs iTunes
• Same day of iTunes launch, announcement of 3rd gen (windows compatable)
• Sells 1 mil songs in 5 days, 200 mil by 2004
• Now Jobbs wants to expand the iPod line so that there's a size for everyone and for everyone's wallet - this blankets the market and makes it hard for competitors to get a niche
• In Oct 2005, they market the video iPod, something that Jobbs has always said would never happen - the consumer will never get the same feel of video when you watch it on a portable screen. Conspiracy theories state that Jobbs suggests this is bad all along to deter competitors.
• Apple now has 4 iPods at 4 pricepoints, so now there's no excuse not to go with iPod when choosing an mp3 player
• in 2005 - own 75% of US mp3 player market - 32 million iPods
  
• "the reason for such a large % is they stay ahead of competitors and stay unmatched in the market"
• In sept 2006, iTunes sells song # 1.5 bil, 3 mil per day, 5th largest music retailer in the US, bigger than Tower and Sam Goody.
• "80% of Microsoft employees who own mp3 players own iPods"
• Cultish following - noone else makes fake players/phones for other companies
• The iPod system is supposed to goto 1 bil $, making iPod the only device with a $1bil side business. An iPod owner spends $100s on accessories and iTunes - that only works with iPod - ppl won't jump ship after that investment.

Watch: google video