shawn.me

Month: February 2009

  • 5 things Yelp should do to avoid future lawsuits

    ,

    My last post, “How to win at Yelp: a guide for businesses” was inspired by the recent controversies surrounding Yelp, and the gist of the post is just what it sounds like. However, I think there are some things Yelp can – and should – do to address allegations of fraud and extortion (beyond a…

  • How to win at Yelp: a guide for businesses

    ,

    Last week, the East Bay Express published a lengthy story accusing Yelp of extortion. Among other things, the article charges Yelp of offering to take down negative reviews of businesses who agree to become “sponsors” and pay for advertising on the site. It’s not the first time Yelp has been the focus of controversy. Last…

  • The Financial Crisis explained… again

    In the tradition of The Giant Pool of Money, its spinoff Planet Money and this fine piece of writing by Henry Blodget in the Atlantic Monthly, here’s a nice piece of animation that explains how we blew up the economy: The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

  • Scout Labs launches its social media and brand monitoring solution

    ,

    From ClickZ: More than two years after its founding, San Francisco startup Scout Labs has unveiled its first software suite, an assortment of Web monitoring tools that allows marketers to monitor chatter about their brands across social and consumer-generated media. The first phrase of the article says a lot. The launch of Scout Labs was…

  • Travel Channel uses Kyte to power “No Reservations” Facebook app

    Kyte’s super-simple content production features are perfect for engaging fans of a show like Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, so it’s cool to see how the Travel Channel used the Kyte platform to power their new “No Reservations: Hungry for More” Facebook app. Foodies are passionate people, and Bourdain has a way of provoking them, which…

  • Are iPhone apps the new CD-ROMs?

    , , ,

    Remember CD-ROMs? Remember how cool they were and how for a brief moment in the early 90s it seemed every possible thing was being CD-ROMified – from children’s books to topo maps to baseball cards? CD-ROMs were briefly so cool that people would pay $200 a pop for the latest and greatest titles. Then they…

  • The other opportunists

    ,

    There are a lot of people lining up for stimulus dollars, a lot of ambitious and long-dormant projects being dusted off by governors and mayors across the country. But there’s another group of opportunists taking advantage of the debate. I’m talking about the G.O.P. who are stonewalling and stalling in the name of prudent spending.…

  • We could have saved the economy… who knew?

    Here’s a remarkably simple formula for personal finance. It’s genius, and I wish someone had told us this sooner.