I'm at Heathrow, Terminal One, sitting in the giraffe cafe, logging on to wifi. I was offered tmobile and BT Openzone and selected tmobile without even thinking about it. Even though I really don't like the tmobile brand. It's just that signing up for a limited pass with Openzone is so bloody laborious. It's not like tmobile is easy or fun, it's just that BT is rubbish.
Who'd have thought you could screw up a commodity thing like that? Turns out you can.
Same problem I had with Ofoto [now kodak photo gallery or whatever] when compared to Flickr.
Make it simple, stupid!
Hilariously - Kodak have recently started emailing me offering 10 free prints for filling out a survey to help them improve the service. Too late.
Trying to understand why, apart from the really poor functionality of the site and the fact that you can't browse without signing up, which stunted any viral growth, the 2 are so different.
Maybe:
Kodak - online photo gallery used as tool to sell prints.
Flickr: online photo sharing. Then went on to sell subs and eventually a printing service.
I think that's the lesson that Web 2.0 stuff is teaching us.
Be useful.
To begin with make fans, not customers.
Then offer additional services to build revenue. Your fans will be happy to support you.
Posted by: Faris | April 19, 2006 at 03:55 AM
Funny to see this on your blog - I was planning on taking a first date there on Sunday! Would it be a good place for such a thing? Assuming she doesn't hate Mr Men or that an ex didn't used to pet name her "Little Miss XYZsomething"? In fact I've answered my own banal question. Sorry for wasting the Internet.
Posted by: anthony | April 20, 2006 at 01:10 AM
omg, Double-sorry, I obviously meant to post this under the Mr Men gallery post.
Sincerely,
Mr Dull and Inept
Posted by: anthony | April 20, 2006 at 01:14 AM
Dear Mr Dull and Inept,
Assuming, as you say, that your date has had no childhood Mr Men related traumas then I think it'll be a fine first date. A quick one though, it's more of a shop than a gallery. But once you've been there your very close to Carluccio's for a lovely lunch.
Posted by: russell | April 20, 2006 at 09:43 AM
You could always take her to Giraffe, Terminal One for the second date.
Posted by: Ben | April 20, 2006 at 02:35 PM