We went to the new Cabela’s just outside Reno yesterday and my word, what a giant outdoor store. The place was packed with people and equipment. I kept imagining being the only one in there the night before and how small you would feel. The fist tank and stuffed animal exhibits (American Mountains & African Plains) were put together wonderfully. Amy was amazed at the size of a Tuna that was mounted on the wall (Blue 450 lbs and a Yellow Fin at 385 lbs).
I got a pair of Rocky hiking boots that were the most comfortable I have ever had.
So Kenzer (my social tech thermometer) turned me on to Utterz.com. This is a pretty cool service that at first glance is cool but not super functional. Basically you can call into a number (712-432-6666), talk and the audio gets posted to Utterz. Of course there are widgets, flash and links that can be posted/integrated into any site for content distribution (see my right hand sidebar). That alone only makes it slightly cool, but not powerful. However there are a few other options that i found out about after reading a little more.
You can also send an email with text a picture or video attached and it will post just as well. This is powerful not from your computer email but from your mobile phone. You have to be able to send an email from your phone (if you can’t get with the times). Simply shoot the picture or video and email it to go@utterz.com. The Subject line becomes the title and the body of the message is transfered over too. When you hit play an automated voice reads the body of the message. You can use a widget for the sidebars or auto post to your blog through a simple authentication process. Just give it your username, password and the url of your Blooger, LiveJournal, Tumblr, TypePad, Twitter or Wordpress site and your golden. Pretty cool.
Now for the not so cool. The widgets or embeds are all flash driven and thus not searchable/indexable for SEO/SEM purposes. There is no text message version for the people who don’t have email setup on their phones. Also the search to find other utterz users is not as effective as you would want.
Overall though a great service and i can’t wait for some community adoption to solve some of the shortfalls.
So one of the kids picked up some styling gel and it made me think about the message marketers send, without really thinking things through. This bottle has a label that says "80% MORE FREE". I realize they were trying to tell us how great a deal it was but really. The 10% or 20% more that I have seen on other products is palatable but 80%? That means whoever bought this product before was getting 20% of the volume and paying the same price.
Translation - We were REALLY ripping you off before.
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