Dear Valued Best Buy Customer,

On March 31, we were informed by Epsilon, a company we use to send emails to our customers, that files containing the email addresses of some Best Buy customers were accessed without authorization.

We have been assured by Epsilon that the only information that may have been obtained was your email address and that the accessed files did not include any other information. A rigorous assessment by Epsilon determined that no other information is at risk. We are actively investigating to confirm this.

For your security, however, we wanted to call this matter to your attention. We ask that you remain alert to any unusual or suspicious emails. As our experts at Geek Squad would tell you, be very cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown senders.

In keeping with best industry security practices, Best Buy will never ask you to provide or confirm any information, including credit card numbers, unless you are on our secure e-commerce site,www.bestbuy.com. If you receive an email asking for personal information, delete it. It did not come from Best Buy.

Our service provider has reported this incident to the appropriate authorities.

We regret this has taken place and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information. For more information on keeping your data safe, please visit:
http://www.geeksquad.com/do-it-yourself/tech-tip/six-steps-to-keeping-your-data-safe.aspx.

Sincerely,

Barry Judge
Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Best Buy

UPDATE: Since posting this article Google has updated their terms of service for the Google Chrome product. Still not entirely consumer friendly it is *much* better than the original and even carries a Google apology along with the terms of service amendment.

Is it just me or does that new model car on the road make the model only 1 year older look like it has aged decades? You know the feeling. You put down a massive amount of money on a new car and 1 year later the new model comes out. Your car looks completely outdated at that point. I suppose we can chalk the sensation up to good design.

Speaking of which…..I hopped on the Google Chrome bandwagon as soon as it was released. Switching back to Firefox 3.0 gave me that old car sensation. Is Google onto something? I wouldn’t say that they have completely changed the landscape but they have created something very useful.

Pros –

1. Javascript heavy web apps load a heck of a lot faster. Noticeably faster. I mean *really* fast.
2. The minimalist design is worth mentioning. The amount of screen real estate available for websites is increased without sacrificing necessary browser features.
3. Desktop shortcuts for your favorite web applications: Similar to Mozilla’s Prism offering you are able to create desktop shortcuts for any web app that you frequent. Handy.
4. The name….Google Chrome. While I may not have tricked out my car, I have tricked out my internet experience.

Cons –

1. Third party cookie support…ugh. This is the biggest con for me and something that everyone should be paying attention to. Google Chrome allows for third party cookie support out of the box. You are then required to turn this feature off in the options menu if you so desire. My opinion: By default, all browsers should disable third party cookies thereby creating an opt-in solution vs. an opt-out solution.
   <sarcasm> I wonder if this has anything to do with DoubleClick? </sarcasm>
2. Privacy. Google Chrome has the potential to leak massive amounts of information about you….the internet user. While nothing catastrophic in the way of an overflow or other attack has been discovered, the potential is there.
3. As per usual, the Google terms of service is not very consumer friendly.

Why is this so important?  I’ll spell it out for you:

• Site visitors demand ease of use.  A site that is easy to use is more likely to increase sales.  That’s a no-brainer at this point.
• Search engines demand ease of use.  The equation is a simple one:  A well designed site attracts more visitors…which attracts more links…which attracts a higher ranking in the search engines.  And that’s just one example of a key benefit regarding a well designed site.

If you are struggling with the design of a site or the conversion rate of a particular feature than this is the place for you.  Run….don’t walk….to the nearest browser tab and pull up this link.

UPDATE:  Since writing this post a watchful and attentive reader (Michael of CloudSherpas.com) has pointed out that PicLens has been re-branded and launched as Cool Iris.  I find myself using Cool Iris almost exclusively for image searches via Google images or Yahoo photos.  Extremely useful and worth everyone’s time.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Right? Well, along that same line of thought several visual search engines have been developed.  Here is a quick rundown:

- Kartoo: This is the best visual search engine for determining relationships of sites based on your search term.  They group similar listings in folders and show the interconnected web that we weave….presumably through a link popularity algorithm.

- Quintura:  This site is visual only in the sense that related search terms are displayed in a large column on the left hand side.

- Searchme:  Coverflow for your search results.  ‘Nuff said.

Overall, I prefer Searchme as a visual search engine.  The interface is clean and the results are comparable to Google.  We all love eye candy and Searchme delivers in this area.

One thing to note about visual search engines would be their SEO/SEM implications.  If visual search catches on (I wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in Gng sometime soon) than not only will your current SEO/SEM efforts contribute to your success but the visual layout will also be an important factor.  An interesting mix of SEO and user interface design efforts will be required to rocket you to the top and……more importantly……capture those eyeballs with a click.

What I really like about Seth’s blog posts, books and public talks is his ability to boil things down to the most simple terms.

You should read his most recent post on B2B marketing. Twice.

The challenge for B2B marketers is still how to most effectively use the internet to their advantage. I’m still seeing far too many corporations struggle with how to engage their prospective clients online. Sure, sure….you can do some basic things.

- Publish a white paper.
- Hold webinars for new product releases.
- Make sure your email marketing habits are consistent.

But at the end of the day I can easily argue that B2C marketers have mastered the “art of the close” online.

With the success of Microsoft Office comes that awkward stage in technology when some of us are using Docx files and others are using the tried and true Doc file. What’s the difference? Docx files are generated by Office 2007 and Doc files are generated by older versions. This isn’t an issue unless you are still running an older version in which case you cannot open Docx files with a handy double-click of the mouse.

Here are your options:

1. Install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 File Formats. Here are the instructions from Microsoft. Good luck with that.

2. Using an online converter. There are plenty of them out there. Here is an example Google search. One that pops to my mind is Zamzar. Clean interface. Quick conversions. Move on with your life.

So, while we sit in technology limbo with half of us using Office 2007 and half of us using an older version of Microsoft Office we will have to deal with file compatibility issues. Make your life easier and use one of the options detailed above if you find yourself in a jam.

Now, Facebook is a different beast altogether. You have a generation of college students out in the workforce who spent a good portion of their college careers hanging out on Facebook. They are still visiting the site regularly but their lives have shifted to the business world.

Enter Twitter. This short messaging phenomena has had a solid 1.5 to 2 years of growth and even Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have an account. Evan Williams strikes again.

OK…still with me?

Enter Qik. This one was a point of no return for me. Buy a Nokia phone (more will be supported as this product moves out of Alpha) and stream *live* (fairly decent quality) video to the internet. An impressive service indeed…

So lets pull it all together.

You are a real estate agent (for example). You build a network of prospective buyers on Facebook (immediate notification is not key but staying in the loop for your clients is a must). You build a network of real estate professionals on Twitter (immediate notification in short message form is a must for this group). Then you stream live video of properties for sale via Qik.

Qik sends an automatic update to Twitter (immediate notification for real estate professionals). The whole thing is eventually archived on Facebook (to keep your prospective clients in the loop).

Your cost for these services? Currently they are all free but require that you painstakingly build a network of individuals and groups that are interested in what you have to say.

I hope you’re still with me.

ShipGooder [link]

“Your order has been shipped. Your tracking number is 3456234256893462. Please logon to the [Carrier X] website to track this shipment.”

Me too! Use Track My Shipments to help streamline your shipment tracking information under one website. I’m thinking that this is an ideal service for all of you eBay power sellers out there.

BUT! I did find this analysis of how Google could derail the process extremely insightful. It’s worth your time.