Vista — I Love It
Personally, I’m diggin’ the Vista name. Scoble’s brother didn’t like it, but I think it works. Why? Allow me to explain.
Why did Windows 98 work? Because that was the year it was released. Same for 95 and 2000. But, by naming their next version of the OS "Vista", Microsoft really is breaking a mold; their own. We’ve seen their love for the two-letter acronym (NT, ME, XP) — all great names. But, I think breaking the naming conventions they’ve had, they are going to be able to do a whole lot more in terms of marketing the product.
It’s true, Hugh does not care for it either. His argument is a great one: Microsoft should stop being bland. I think though, they have (reference points above). However, staying with this notion, I don’t think that by following the current cutting-edge of PR and Marketing techniques, Microsoft would get any further than by simply doing what Hugh says will fault them in the end:
Now all you need is some uninspired-but-really-expensive Madison Avenue ad campaign (e.g. "What do you want your Vista to see?") just to seal the deal. With an RSS-free, Flash-intro fake blog designed by a hotnewyorkcreativeshop. Rock on.
This isn’t a bad way to go about it. Don’t get me wrong, because I totally see where he is coming from. I just think the mass market will still respond to this better than a direct RSS-feed / blog, "hip", "trendy" approach at the present time. How many middle-aged, beginner-to-advanced computer users (that Microsoft would die to have upgrade to Vista upon its release) are aggregating RSS feeds? I realize the numbers are growing, but it won’t touch as many right now as dangling a huge "buy me" banner from Trump Plaza, or having Gates pound the pavement. That’s just me.
Now, on the flip side, having Gates start a blog that would run from now until Vista’s release, talking about his daily activities geared around it would get some attention.
IceRocket, Redux
So, the day after I post an entry regarding IceRocket, I get a note from their main go-to guy, Blake Rhodes. The note is short, sweet, and goes something like this:
Adam, Thanks for mentioning us! Blake RhodesIceRocket.com
Cool! Gotta love them start-ups, huh? I wouldn’t be surprised if Cuban saw the post too, seeing as how I read on his blog the other day that he does RSS searches from IceRocket, for the company name. Now, why do I say cool? Is it because Mark is a celebrity? Not at all (even though he is). I thought he was cool when Broadcast.com came out. He’s got all the attitude needed to be a successful entrepreneur, as he’s proved time and time again.
OK, enough of the Cuban love-fest.
IceRocket vs. Google
Apparently, I’m not aware of the best kept secret on the Web. The secret being, how similar IceRocket is to Google. I’m going out on a limb to assume that Mark Cuban has made this decision conciously. Take a look:
Personally, I like this design. Why? Because it looks so similar to Google. That’s right; I love the fact Cuban had the balls to do this. By putting myself at risk of trying to sound “old school”, I’ve used Google since it first came out in the late 90’s. Wanna know who turned me on to it? My high school librarian. Yep, that’s right. Cardigan sweater, big glasses, and all.
This will only help further the IceRocket vision. Everyone recoginzes Google’s features and unique attributes, right down to the Adwords that appear on the right hand side of every search. IceRocket’s design and business model plays right into all of those key things. I suppose in the end, they will either moderately compete, find themselves having to do something a lot different, or kill in the market. They have about a 1 in 100 Googleplex’s of chance for the latter.
Of course, while comparing IceRocket to Google, who can leave out the way Microsoft has just released VirtualEarth, which is an attempt at competing with Google Earth. Regardless of which product is better, when was the meeting to determine there’s a business in looking up buildings and other people’s houses? For myself, it gets really boring after about 15-20 minutes.
According to Scoble it’s already causing quite a stir. However, he mentions in a later post, MSFT is already playing catch-up in the buzz department. Cheese, anyone?
