Well this week (as well as the last one) has been a quite hectic. But the diffrence has been though I was damn occupied and got damn tired out of these day's work, I kinda enjoyed it. for one reason that it was my work that on display to the leadership ( although I know they couldnt care less bout what I do and did, but whatever it may be, I would not let anyone spoil that moment for me). Yeah my work, my own work was being presented.
and who all were there to see my tiny thing, Ron grant (COO, AOL), Jeff bewkes (CEO,president, times warner), Ann moore ( CEO& president, Times Inc) and a couple of other hot shots from HBO, Turner, n all that(yeah, you get the idea).
Although it wasnt me who was presenting ( yeah I was just thebackground) but still it wsa my work and those guys DID talk to me and thought its a good idea ( yeah yeah I know they were being couteous but still) the feeling that you get from that moment, my 15 minutes of fame, my glory, oh man it wsa such a high, I just cant describe.
And the most noticeable thing about those guys is that the humility they have.
All of them were so warn and humble. No airs of superiority, no prejudices ( they were coming here after laying off some 2000 employees in US), nothing.
Just simple calm and humble look on their face. And they might have just appreciated the idea for the sake of it ( as one of my colleague said) but still it was one of the best appreciation that I have got . This was one of the most important day of my life (yeah it comes straight after the day I got my choclate after telling the name of one mammal in my first standard (kidding!!))
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Friday, November 2, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
What's with the guilt??
Hmmmmppphhh!!!!!
Right now am in the middle of a call (which fortunately my manger decided not to attend and so this blog was born) and all of us ( by us I mean me and all my colleagues) are totally pissed with the situation, which is due to two basic reasons.
1. We dont get an ounce of wat those firangs talk about
2. We dont care an ounce of what those firangs talk about.
So all in all we are just trying to make out what these guys are talking about and cursing our manager at regular intervals for leaving us here like this.
In the middle of all thsi I kinda had an argument with oen of my colleague and me being me said a couple of rude things and just a second later felt guilty about, which in turn made me wonder about the mechanism of guilt.
What is with guilt?
We feel guilty about doing anything that pleases us. we feel guilty about eating too much, bout playing too much, eating too good , indulging too much, roaming too much and at time we feel guilty about feeling guilty?
I mean why is anything that is even remotely close to making us happy makes us feel guilty?
May be its with how much confortable we are under our skin and how much confidence we carry with ourself.
Its just about how much wrong we think we can go. The more we think we are wrong the tighter is the grip of guilt on us.
Simple correlation?
Well right now ma feeling guilty about not attending the call properly, so with a heavy heart and hand I would get back to my call.
Right now am in the middle of a call (which fortunately my manger decided not to attend and so this blog was born) and all of us ( by us I mean me and all my colleagues) are totally pissed with the situation, which is due to two basic reasons.
1. We dont get an ounce of wat those firangs talk about
2. We dont care an ounce of what those firangs talk about.
So all in all we are just trying to make out what these guys are talking about and cursing our manager at regular intervals for leaving us here like this.
In the middle of all thsi I kinda had an argument with oen of my colleague and me being me said a couple of rude things and just a second later felt guilty about, which in turn made me wonder about the mechanism of guilt.
What is with guilt?
We feel guilty about doing anything that pleases us. we feel guilty about eating too much, bout playing too much, eating too good , indulging too much, roaming too much and at time we feel guilty about feeling guilty?
I mean why is anything that is even remotely close to making us happy makes us feel guilty?
May be its with how much confortable we are under our skin and how much confidence we carry with ourself.
Its just about how much wrong we think we can go. The more we think we are wrong the tighter is the grip of guilt on us.
Simple correlation?
Well right now ma feeling guilty about not attending the call properly, so with a heavy heart and hand I would get back to my call.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Self appraisal:)
Another one from Avinash kaushik.
Was skimming through his blog and found a lot of articles worth a read.
Go to http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/06/ if you have some time on hand.
Till then you can read it here at my blog
This one is how to identify a good anlyst AKA 10 salient features of a good analyst.
Here is my personal point of view, a check list if you will, on what makes a great Web Insights Analyst (it is important to caveat that this is not me, I only wish I were this good, this is something I aspire to be) :
# 10 You have used more than one Web Analytics tool extensively.While each tool is the same in our field, each tool is really different. The way Omniture computes Unique Visitors is very different from ClickTracks, or how either one of them handles sessions. Using different tools gives you a broad perspective on how the same thing can be counted ten different ways and at the same time a rich understanding of why some tools are great and some sub optimal. The interesting outcome of a diverse experience is that a great Analyst can work with any tool and yet find meaningful insights.
You don’t have to be limited to what you have at work. If you do a View Source you’ll see that this blog is measured using MapSurface, Google Analytics, ClickTracks and AnalogX (so tagging and web logs and real time data and a paid and free tool, great for learning).
# 9 You have not only heard of the Yahoo! Web Analytics group but 20 mins of each day is spent reading all the posts.Mr. Eric Peterson has had many great accomplishments but IMHO his best one is the Yahoo! Web Analytics Group. This is the most awesome collection of smart people in our industry who share their wisdom on every topic under the sun that touches our world. I personally read all the posts every day and I learn about challenges others are facing, innovative ways to solve those challenges, general trends in the industry, pointers to the latest and coolest happenings that impact us and on and on. There are repeat questions, the interesting thing is that even those get different answers all the time.
I attribute 90% of my knowledge to this group and I’ll be eternally grateful to Eric for the love and energy he has put into it over the years. (Do you meet this criteria? If you know the story of the button on the right, you meet the criteria. : )).
# 8 Before doing any important analysis you visit your website and “look” at the web pages (site experience).This one probably sounds stupid. But it is amazing how many times, how many of us, simply look at tools and numbers and data but often have no idea what the website looks like. It is impossible to analyse the data without a solid understanding of the customer experience on the site, what the pages look like, where the buttons are, what new “great” navigation change went live yesterday. A great Analyst stays in touch with the website and the changes constantly being made the the designers and marketers on the website.
For example: Great Checkout Abandonment rate analysis is powered by actually going through the site, adding to cart, starting checkout (using all options available), going through checkout all the way and getting a order confirmation email. Then you will look at numbers in a new and more meaningful way, I assure you that you will then not have to torture them for insights rather they will sing to you.
# 7 Your core life approach is Customer Centric (and not Company Centric).In the morass of data quality and TV and UV and cookie values and ab test id’s and sessions and shopper_ids we look at massive amounts of data and forget that real people are using our websites. Great Analysts have a customer centric view that makes their mind a lot more amiable to think like customers, all 1,000 segments of them, and you are aware of their personas and challenges (this is awesome by the way for data segmentation). This keeps you grounded in realityand will help you apply Occam’s Razor (because data trends and patterns without a “customer mindset” will always complicate thinking).
A great Analyst is capable of descending to the Customer level from the “analytical heights” and help her/him to move forward (because customers can’t fly).
# 6 You understand the technical differences between page tagging, log files, packet sniffing & beacons.This is specific to Web Analysts. How data is captured is perhaps the most critical part your ability to “process” the data and find insights. Each data capture methodology comes has its benefits and dangerous negatives. You understand hard core the technical differences between each data capture methodology and then appropriately adjust the kind of analysis you do and the value you extract from whatever your company uses.
# 5 You are comfortable in the quantitative and qualitative worlds.Clickstream, on its best day, should be the source of 35% of your data. Rest comes for site Outcomes or Qualitative data (the Why, see post on qualitative data). Great analysts are just as comfortable in the world of parsing numbers as the “open ended / ambiguous / soft” world of observing customers, reading their words, inferring their unspoken intentions, sitting in a lab usability study to glean insights etc.
You have a inherent ability to hear people and their problems and all the while in your brain you are thinking of 10 interesting ways in which you can slice the Site Overlay or other clickstream metrics to validate. Great analysts follow a slide on core clickstream / outcomes KPI’s with a slide on Segmented VOC Pareto Analysis.
# 4 You are a avid “explorer”. Reporting is straight forward. There are inputs, outputs, KPI’s, tables and rows. Analysis is not, it has no predefined paths to take, it has no preset questions to answers. It requires having a open mind, a high level of inquisitiveness and after hearing a ambiguous business questions a deep desire to find new and better ways to use data to answer those ambiguous questions. You don’t worry about the if and how it will work, you save that for later. You seek out possibilities and the non-obvious.
When faced with “incomplete / dirty” rather than think of all the reasons why you can’t analyse data you make reasonable assumptions and can find a nugget of gold in a coal factory. A vast majority of us fail at this, we face bad or incomplete data and we get paralysed. Framed another way you are really really good at separating Signal from Noise (be it using data segmentation, using statistics, using common sense, understanding your customer segments, or other methods).
# 3 You are a “smooth talker”.In our world Analysts rarely have the power to action things or implement recommendations. Great analysts are great communicators, they can present their message in a very compelling easy to understand manner, and be a passionate and persuasive advocate of company customers / website users. The 15 hours of complex multivariate statistical regression model analysis is hidden, they keep ego aside, and tell the “simple minded” decision maker that the changing product content presentation will have the highest correlated impact on revenue. They are just as comfortable talking to technical folks as presenting to the VP of xxx or yyy and selling either one of them a boat that they don’t need.
# 2 You are “street smart”.Great analysts are not “theory sprouting making things complicated and much harder than can be in the real world types.” Think Occam’s Razor. They have oodles and oodles of common sense and a inherent ability to degrade a complex situation to its simplest level and and look at logical possibilities. This does not mean they can’t look at complex situations, on the contrary they have a awesome ability to absorb complexity but they are also scrappy enough to look through the complexity rather than end up in rat holes. They know how & when to keep things simple.
(The original version of this was: You are Business Savvy. I think that is a incredibly hard quality to find, even harder to judge in a standard interview. Yet it is perhaps the one thing that separates a “report writer” from a “analyst”. The ability to see the big picture, the ability to understand and solve for strategic objectives. But in my own experience I have found that people who are “street smart” inherently have this ability and hence the framing of #2 as you see above.)
# 1 You play “Offence” and not just “Defence.”Most of us in this field play “Defence”: we supply data or we provide reports or we at times provide dashboards. Mostly we react. But we don’t play “Offence”: we don’t get in front of the business and say this is what you should measure, we don’t reply to the question “show me what the tool provides” with “tell me your strategic objectives and I’ll tell you what insights I can provide with the data I have”.
Great analysts spend 30% of their time looking at all the available data just to look for trends and insights, time they don’t have and doing things that no one asked them to do. But that 30% of the time that allows them to play Offence, to provide insights that no one thought to ask for, insights that drive truly impactful actions. You do it because you realize that you are smarter about the site and data than anyone else out there and you do it because it is a lot of fun. :~)
This was supposed to be a Top Ten but here is a bonus:
# 0 You are a “Survivor.”The reality of the world of our web decision makers is that most of them just want to measure HITS (Jim Sterne Definition of HITS: How Idiots Track Success). The other day someone asked me to give them a “Site Counter” to put on the website for measurement, I am sure you have not heard the words Site Counter to measure anything in the last few years.
A key skill of being a great analyst is the ability to have patience, survive and stay motivated in a world where people might ask for sub optimal things. Of course you know better but transforming perceptions is a very hard job and take a long time. But you are a survivor, except the part about a million dollars in the end! ; )
Well, I think I would honestly give myself a three out of 11.
yeah that's all I am doing right now, but I am on my way to greatness.
Will soon get 10 outttaa 10.
Till then 3 is the IN thing:)
Was skimming through his blog and found a lot of articles worth a read.
Go to http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/06/ if you have some time on hand.
Till then you can read it here at my blog
This one is how to identify a good anlyst AKA 10 salient features of a good analyst.
Here is my personal point of view, a check list if you will, on what makes a great Web Insights Analyst (it is important to caveat that this is not me, I only wish I were this good, this is something I aspire to be) :
# 10 You have used more than one Web Analytics tool extensively.While each tool is the same in our field, each tool is really different. The way Omniture computes Unique Visitors is very different from ClickTracks, or how either one of them handles sessions. Using different tools gives you a broad perspective on how the same thing can be counted ten different ways and at the same time a rich understanding of why some tools are great and some sub optimal. The interesting outcome of a diverse experience is that a great Analyst can work with any tool and yet find meaningful insights.
You don’t have to be limited to what you have at work. If you do a View Source you’ll see that this blog is measured using MapSurface, Google Analytics, ClickTracks and AnalogX (so tagging and web logs and real time data and a paid and free tool, great for learning).
# 9 You have not only heard of the Yahoo! Web Analytics group but 20 mins of each day is spent reading all the posts.Mr. Eric Peterson has had many great accomplishments but IMHO his best one is the Yahoo! Web Analytics Group. This is the most awesome collection of smart people in our industry who share their wisdom on every topic under the sun that touches our world. I personally read all the posts every day and I learn about challenges others are facing, innovative ways to solve those challenges, general trends in the industry, pointers to the latest and coolest happenings that impact us and on and on. There are repeat questions, the interesting thing is that even those get different answers all the time.
I attribute 90% of my knowledge to this group and I’ll be eternally grateful to Eric for the love and energy he has put into it over the years. (Do you meet this criteria? If you know the story of the button on the right, you meet the criteria. : )).
# 8 Before doing any important analysis you visit your website and “look” at the web pages (site experience).This one probably sounds stupid. But it is amazing how many times, how many of us, simply look at tools and numbers and data but often have no idea what the website looks like. It is impossible to analyse the data without a solid understanding of the customer experience on the site, what the pages look like, where the buttons are, what new “great” navigation change went live yesterday. A great Analyst stays in touch with the website and the changes constantly being made the the designers and marketers on the website.
For example: Great Checkout Abandonment rate analysis is powered by actually going through the site, adding to cart, starting checkout (using all options available), going through checkout all the way and getting a order confirmation email. Then you will look at numbers in a new and more meaningful way, I assure you that you will then not have to torture them for insights rather they will sing to you.
# 7 Your core life approach is Customer Centric (and not Company Centric).In the morass of data quality and TV and UV and cookie values and ab test id’s and sessions and shopper_ids we look at massive amounts of data and forget that real people are using our websites. Great Analysts have a customer centric view that makes their mind a lot more amiable to think like customers, all 1,000 segments of them, and you are aware of their personas and challenges (this is awesome by the way for data segmentation). This keeps you grounded in realityand will help you apply Occam’s Razor (because data trends and patterns without a “customer mindset” will always complicate thinking).
A great Analyst is capable of descending to the Customer level from the “analytical heights” and help her/him to move forward (because customers can’t fly).
# 6 You understand the technical differences between page tagging, log files, packet sniffing & beacons.This is specific to Web Analysts. How data is captured is perhaps the most critical part your ability to “process” the data and find insights. Each data capture methodology comes has its benefits and dangerous negatives. You understand hard core the technical differences between each data capture methodology and then appropriately adjust the kind of analysis you do and the value you extract from whatever your company uses.
# 5 You are comfortable in the quantitative and qualitative worlds.Clickstream, on its best day, should be the source of 35% of your data. Rest comes for site Outcomes or Qualitative data (the Why, see post on qualitative data). Great analysts are just as comfortable in the world of parsing numbers as the “open ended / ambiguous / soft” world of observing customers, reading their words, inferring their unspoken intentions, sitting in a lab usability study to glean insights etc.
You have a inherent ability to hear people and their problems and all the while in your brain you are thinking of 10 interesting ways in which you can slice the Site Overlay or other clickstream metrics to validate. Great analysts follow a slide on core clickstream / outcomes KPI’s with a slide on Segmented VOC Pareto Analysis.
# 4 You are a avid “explorer”. Reporting is straight forward. There are inputs, outputs, KPI’s, tables and rows. Analysis is not, it has no predefined paths to take, it has no preset questions to answers. It requires having a open mind, a high level of inquisitiveness and after hearing a ambiguous business questions a deep desire to find new and better ways to use data to answer those ambiguous questions. You don’t worry about the if and how it will work, you save that for later. You seek out possibilities and the non-obvious.
When faced with “incomplete / dirty” rather than think of all the reasons why you can’t analyse data you make reasonable assumptions and can find a nugget of gold in a coal factory. A vast majority of us fail at this, we face bad or incomplete data and we get paralysed. Framed another way you are really really good at separating Signal from Noise (be it using data segmentation, using statistics, using common sense, understanding your customer segments, or other methods).
# 3 You are a “smooth talker”.In our world Analysts rarely have the power to action things or implement recommendations. Great analysts are great communicators, they can present their message in a very compelling easy to understand manner, and be a passionate and persuasive advocate of company customers / website users. The 15 hours of complex multivariate statistical regression model analysis is hidden, they keep ego aside, and tell the “simple minded” decision maker that the changing product content presentation will have the highest correlated impact on revenue. They are just as comfortable talking to technical folks as presenting to the VP of xxx or yyy and selling either one of them a boat that they don’t need.
# 2 You are “street smart”.Great analysts are not “theory sprouting making things complicated and much harder than can be in the real world types.” Think Occam’s Razor. They have oodles and oodles of common sense and a inherent ability to degrade a complex situation to its simplest level and and look at logical possibilities. This does not mean they can’t look at complex situations, on the contrary they have a awesome ability to absorb complexity but they are also scrappy enough to look through the complexity rather than end up in rat holes. They know how & when to keep things simple.
(The original version of this was: You are Business Savvy. I think that is a incredibly hard quality to find, even harder to judge in a standard interview. Yet it is perhaps the one thing that separates a “report writer” from a “analyst”. The ability to see the big picture, the ability to understand and solve for strategic objectives. But in my own experience I have found that people who are “street smart” inherently have this ability and hence the framing of #2 as you see above.)
# 1 You play “Offence” and not just “Defence.”Most of us in this field play “Defence”: we supply data or we provide reports or we at times provide dashboards. Mostly we react. But we don’t play “Offence”: we don’t get in front of the business and say this is what you should measure, we don’t reply to the question “show me what the tool provides” with “tell me your strategic objectives and I’ll tell you what insights I can provide with the data I have”.
Great analysts spend 30% of their time looking at all the available data just to look for trends and insights, time they don’t have and doing things that no one asked them to do. But that 30% of the time that allows them to play Offence, to provide insights that no one thought to ask for, insights that drive truly impactful actions. You do it because you realize that you are smarter about the site and data than anyone else out there and you do it because it is a lot of fun. :~)
This was supposed to be a Top Ten but here is a bonus:
# 0 You are a “Survivor.”The reality of the world of our web decision makers is that most of them just want to measure HITS (Jim Sterne Definition of HITS: How Idiots Track Success). The other day someone asked me to give them a “Site Counter” to put on the website for measurement, I am sure you have not heard the words Site Counter to measure anything in the last few years.
A key skill of being a great analyst is the ability to have patience, survive and stay motivated in a world where people might ask for sub optimal things. Of course you know better but transforming perceptions is a very hard job and take a long time. But you are a survivor, except the part about a million dollars in the end! ; )
Well, I think I would honestly give myself a three out of 11.
yeah that's all I am doing right now, but I am on my way to greatness.
Will soon get 10 outttaa 10.
Till then 3 is the IN thing:)
Friday, March 30, 2007
Work today
I loved this one. This is how i make reports [:D]. Well almost.
Today I was suppose to finish off a particular report and I slogged since morning but at the end of the day am still fighting to complete it. So thot of taking some time off and coming here writing bout it, well not about it but how I have been dng on it.
I am getting bored even thinking bout it plus havent slept well becoz of the same report so am damn sleepy.
Would continue at night if I feel like it.
For right now I will just sign off.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
What the hell !!!!
This is not the optimum time for me to write a scrap for three simple reasons
One I have not slept well last night so my thinking capability is screwed to a great extend
Second I am really pissed with some of the people in my working environment (wont call it an office) due to their sheer lack of capability to understand that girls can actually have brain and they can use it as well.
Third I am drowning in work (literally)
But I guess this is the only way I can calm myself down and thinking a li'l more clearly.
But all I have come here for is just how chauvinistic guys can be.
I mean they can’t
They just can’t stand a girl sitting with them working with them and try and go to any extent to make the work environment unpleasant for her.
Things like abusing in front of a female colleague ( I am really not asking for them to be chauvinistic to the extend that pulling chairs for their female counterpart but talking decently is the least that can be expected out of them), leaving her out of the conversation to ignore her to the extend that she feel she has the superpower of invisibility, showing of by throwing in the, oh I know it all, jargon so that even despite of being ignored and if she tries to follow the conversation she can't.
I am not talking about the people from slums and the people who are illiterate. Am talking about some of the most literate and well designated people, who possess few of the fanciest degrees from some of the "premier institutes". What is the bloody point in holding such degrees when you cant even hold urself with the least of dignity.
These guys don’t just stop here; they try to pull the same stunts in front of the seniors (the premier strategy). These shmucks will try to ignore you (again to the verge of invisibility) and then even if you try to put in some point they would write it off by saying something "Smart" (which they will tell in some party with other MCP's).
And when you are stuck somewhere helping is out of question.
Rather first thing they would laugh at you, Then they would there best that u can't get anything that might be helpful and u stay in the same pathetic situation for your life. But thanks to google that is no more possible ( I seriously wonder the pathetic situation of women in pre-google era).
And even if due to some miracle they do agree to help you they would expect you to:
1. Mention it everytime you breath
2.Mention it everytime your manager crosses you in his presence
3. Mention it to the client and everyone associated with the client.
4. Thanks him till you live.
5. Never say no to any of his work
That's all they want.
When it happened to me a couple of times I felt irritated and helpless but now all I feel for them is pity.
I really feel sorry for them coz the century they are living is a century without fire and wheel (That time was without a century even!!).
So best of luck to them I hope they get female managers every time they change their jobs that would be their biggest punishment :)
One I have not slept well last night so my thinking capability is screwed to a great extend
Second I am really pissed with some of the people in my working environment (wont call it an office) due to their sheer lack of capability to understand that girls can actually have brain and they can use it as well.
Third I am drowning in work (literally)
But I guess this is the only way I can calm myself down and thinking a li'l more clearly.
But all I have come here for is just how chauvinistic guys can be.
I mean they can’t
They just can’t stand a girl sitting with them working with them and try and go to any extent to make the work environment unpleasant for her.
Things like abusing in front of a female colleague ( I am really not asking for them to be chauvinistic to the extend that pulling chairs for their female counterpart but talking decently is the least that can be expected out of them), leaving her out of the conversation to ignore her to the extend that she feel she has the superpower of invisibility, showing of by throwing in the, oh I know it all, jargon so that even despite of being ignored and if she tries to follow the conversation she can't.
I am not talking about the people from slums and the people who are illiterate. Am talking about some of the most literate and well designated people, who possess few of the fanciest degrees from some of the "premier institutes". What is the bloody point in holding such degrees when you cant even hold urself with the least of dignity.
These guys don’t just stop here; they try to pull the same stunts in front of the seniors (the premier strategy). These shmucks will try to ignore you (again to the verge of invisibility) and then even if you try to put in some point they would write it off by saying something "Smart" (which they will tell in some party with other MCP's).
And when you are stuck somewhere helping is out of question.
Rather first thing they would laugh at you, Then they would there best that u can't get anything that might be helpful and u stay in the same pathetic situation for your life. But thanks to google that is no more possible ( I seriously wonder the pathetic situation of women in pre-google era).
And even if due to some miracle they do agree to help you they would expect you to:
1. Mention it everytime you breath
2.Mention it everytime your manager crosses you in his presence
3. Mention it to the client and everyone associated with the client.
4. Thanks him till you live.
5. Never say no to any of his work
That's all they want.
When it happened to me a couple of times I felt irritated and helpless but now all I feel for them is pity.
I really feel sorry for them coz the century they are living is a century without fire and wheel (That time was without a century even!!).
So best of luck to them I hope they get female managers every time they change their jobs that would be their biggest punishment :)
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Late to work
Got so damn late to work today.
Have loads on my plate and a deliverable today tommorrow and on tuesday
God I need u now more then any other time :(
Have loads on my plate and a deliverable today tommorrow and on tuesday
God I need u now more then any other time :(
Monday, March 26, 2007
Old one
I had an account with blogspot but I was a lil lazy n all that so was not regular in posting.
and one fine day I forgot my password or was the ID.
Anyways somehow I recovered those posts today and now wud add them here.
Here goes
8/30/2006
my mechanism
confusion=more confusion=irritation
Feeling really pathetic rite now
dont even feel like writing anything
how one thing can lead to another and things can take a 360 degree change in a day, I came to know today.
Dammit !!!!!!
and one fine day I forgot my password or was the ID.
Anyways somehow I recovered those posts today and now wud add them here.
Here goes
8/30/2006
my mechanism
confusion=more confusion=irritation
Feeling really pathetic rite now
dont even feel like writing anything
how one thing can lead to another and things can take a 360 degree change in a day, I came to know today.
Dammit !!!!!!
Webanalytics
This was my first blog after I joined AOL.I lost that accnt due to some glitch and found it due to some luck.
Here is the first posts of that blog
Friday, September 01, 2006
I was just going thru this article for a presentation about web analytics and wen I got really bored of it I just came in here to write a lil bout whatever I have learnt. Apart from the learnings that I have had, the most striking thing that I realized is, that how different and at the same time how same are the two kind of marketing.E-commerce is fast replacing the regular conventional commerce.not that it ever going to totally replace it(maybe it can!!) but still the way its making way into ppl's life is remarkable(not that it doesn’t make sense).well for any buyer the convenience is the biggest factor that might make you buy from a e commerce site rather then going thr and then buying it(its applies specially to the bedbugs like me) but the touch and feel factor(which is really important in markets like India) is missing.Now seeing the other side of the story is the e marketing.I feels that this is a very convenient way of marketing provided you know the trick of the game.It has to hit the nail coz here ur actual presence is fairly missing and apart from that thr are so many (seriously!!) people who just come around to see and not to buy.So profiling the exact customer and knowing your audience is very important.Apart from that we need to know that where am I loosing the business and more precisely to whom.Small mistakes some where in the site can lead to a big lose.I mean take for instance what if u are trying to ell something and the submit button doesn’t work.Also the surfing pattern of any consumer is extremely important. In general it the human tendency to just flip thru the first few choices, so making sure that ur product (if there are comp present)or ur most premium product(in case its just ur products which are present) shud come at the top.Then the chances of ur product being clicked and being visible(if not bought) is high.Well but this is just start fo the process the actual trick is in the conversion of visitors to the buyers.When we can do that the game is ours.To solve these kinds of things we use web analytics (which basically is my domain).This is a process of using the available information of page view and visitors to ones site to derive and improve your business.Whether its a customer complaint site or a search engines.This information can not just reveal a lot about the usage patter but also bout who is buying my product and who is just interested in simple harmless(rather harmful) surfing.As the people who use internet or more precisely any portal for advertising pay thru their nose each of the clicks made at their site and each of the page visited is a cost causing thing.So they have to be very careful about how they go about it.
Well let’s see how i face it but rite now is the time to go.Its Friday :) and me leaving
Here is the first posts of that blog
Friday, September 01, 2006
I was just going thru this article for a presentation about web analytics and wen I got really bored of it I just came in here to write a lil bout whatever I have learnt. Apart from the learnings that I have had, the most striking thing that I realized is, that how different and at the same time how same are the two kind of marketing.E-commerce is fast replacing the regular conventional commerce.not that it ever going to totally replace it(maybe it can!!) but still the way its making way into ppl's life is remarkable(not that it doesn’t make sense).well for any buyer the convenience is the biggest factor that might make you buy from a e commerce site rather then going thr and then buying it(its applies specially to the bedbugs like me) but the touch and feel factor(which is really important in markets like India) is missing.Now seeing the other side of the story is the e marketing.I feels that this is a very convenient way of marketing provided you know the trick of the game.It has to hit the nail coz here ur actual presence is fairly missing and apart from that thr are so many (seriously!!) people who just come around to see and not to buy.So profiling the exact customer and knowing your audience is very important.Apart from that we need to know that where am I loosing the business and more precisely to whom.Small mistakes some where in the site can lead to a big lose.I mean take for instance what if u are trying to ell something and the submit button doesn’t work.Also the surfing pattern of any consumer is extremely important. In general it the human tendency to just flip thru the first few choices, so making sure that ur product (if there are comp present)or ur most premium product(in case its just ur products which are present) shud come at the top.Then the chances of ur product being clicked and being visible(if not bought) is high.Well but this is just start fo the process the actual trick is in the conversion of visitors to the buyers.When we can do that the game is ours.To solve these kinds of things we use web analytics (which basically is my domain).This is a process of using the available information of page view and visitors to ones site to derive and improve your business.Whether its a customer complaint site or a search engines.This information can not just reveal a lot about the usage patter but also bout who is buying my product and who is just interested in simple harmless(rather harmful) surfing.As the people who use internet or more precisely any portal for advertising pay thru their nose each of the clicks made at their site and each of the page visited is a cost causing thing.So they have to be very careful about how they go about it.
Well let’s see how i face it but rite now is the time to go.Its Friday :) and me leaving
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
One more day of uselessness
I agian have not done much for my project.I am so going to get busted.I have no clue how will I complete this work thats why most of the time is spent on net searching for ways to solve my problem and thus most of the time is spent in planning how I will complete the work instead of actually doing the work.
I have no clue how in 10 days I will finish up the work.Its very rightly said work spreads into the time you have.
But the trouble is that I dont even have much time left with me.And right now am hoping for some kind of miracle to happen coz this time I serious have the least idea how will I finish up my work.
Anyways I will try and get back to my work.Hoping for the miracle to happen sooon.
I have no clue how in 10 days I will finish up the work.Its very rightly said work spreads into the time you have.
But the trouble is that I dont even have much time left with me.And right now am hoping for some kind of miracle to happen coz this time I serious have the least idea how will I finish up my work.
Anyways I will try and get back to my work.Hoping for the miracle to happen sooon.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Web 2.0 "The seminar"
Web 2.0
hmmmmm......
Yesterday i attended training and it was regarding Web 2.0
I did not like the idea of attending that training owing to the fact, one i had to get up early in the morning (I got up at 7 which not early in the morning but the middle of the night for me) and two I had loads and loads and loads of work sitting on my head to be completed (which am still thinking how to finish).
But anyways with a real heavy heart and sleepy eyes I went for this training named Web 2.0.
The first shock i got after reaching there was that everyone (and I mean every bloody person) was in formals and I was in a crumbled top (I thing ironing clothes is a sheer waste of time) and jeans (which are crying for a wash and have colors sticking to them from other clothes and that’s the reason I wear then during the holi period).
Anyways with an even heavier heart and no more sleepy eyes I approached one of colleagues and asked him if there was a dress code for today's training.
And being helpful as he is always, along with his friends, gave a reply in total honesty "of course, what were YOU thinking".
Not that am scared of anyone or anything, but the very idea of being singled out on my extraordinary dressing sense was not appealing to me, at least not at that moment.
But then by god's grace my manager came (clad in a new shirt and pant) and I ran to him and told him how sorry I am for being "properly" dressed.
But he started laughing and said NP (that's no problems for the tech savvy ppl )
Anyways we proceeded for the actual seminar half heartedly and it began.
There were two trainers Jeff and Francis.
Both very good orator and had full command on the training or seminar despite of the fact it went on for the whole day (I still marvel their energy at 5.45 when they were holding the crowd since 9 in the morning).
The training was about WEB 2.0.
What is it?
How is it different from web 1.0 version...................?
How it is beneficial to anyone and everyone’s..................
And who's the boss in the case of web 2.0..................
At the beginning I thought I know a lot about web 2.0 and its functionalities and what’s going on but to my surprise what I knw was just the tip of the iceberg.
There is so much to it that no one could have ever stopped it from emerging as a winner.
It has to be the most popular thing as the contributions comes from the common man.
It’s us who would be driving the whole thing and that will make the news or the views are always up to date and current.
The fact that amazed me the most was that its not just restricted to Google anymore (although it still is the BIG DADDY in web 2.0, remember how its introduced Ajax in Google earth) but there are so many company who are dipping there hands in this.
Apart from the basic things that we can have there are various things like mashing up which means taking up one particular functionality of a particular site and mixing or mashing it up with the information provided by some other one.
For e.g. combining the info from Google maps and crimes from this we will get the mapped information of a particular place with the time and the date of the occurrence of time.
The above example is what http://www.chicagocrime.org/ is all about.
Similarly the Google maps thingy can again be combined with classified from some other source and VIOLA.... u get the information about anything present anywhere.
http://www.zillow.com/ is one such example which give information about real estates along with their locations.
Apart from this all these companies are also using the resources with utmost optimization.
If they have certain requirements (for their business) which consume lot of resources then companies look out for these requirements in other companies dealing in these filed.
They would then borrow these APIs (application program interface) from the company who has a huge resource of them and in return pay then certain percentage of their profit or it would be with regard to the kind of application they are using.
For example yahoo can lend its friends list to some other company which would use this buddy list for some other purpose and in return would pay yahoo a certain amount.
Also they talked about how everyone is moving away from the conventional mode of checking surfing the net and how it moving to small screen of their mobile devices.
And how companies are adapting themselves to give information, which would fit that tiny screen.
Sony mylo is an excellent example of one such mobile device.
And this web 2.0 is not just restricted to general things the network effect is for seeking out to each other.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/ and http://ficlets.com/ gives everyone a chance to tell people what they have got.
ficlet is for all the writers who would like to contribute their great ideas to an already running story or may be they can start their own story.
similarly craigslist is for telling people what u have through ur resume. apart from the resume thing they also have communities all you need to do is find r group and tell them bout you and ask them whatever you want. apart from these there many other interesting site like http://technorati.com/ (Searches weblogs by keyword and for links. Also provides news from general news services and blogs)
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home (Allows blog owners and pod casters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers)
http://navteq.com/(NAVTEQ creates the digital maps and map content that power navigation and location-based services solutions around the world including automotive navigation)
http://sourceforge.net/ (The world's largest development and download repository of Open Source code and applications.)
http://digg.com/ (determines all site content by discovering, selecting, sharing, and discussing the news, videos, and pod casts that appeal to everyone)
It is so much out in the open that now even the companies are participating and asking everyone to participate in it just to create awareness bout their product.
one such example is GM. when they came up with the idea of Chevrolet Tahoe they hired the common people for marketing.
They asked people to use certain basic things that they provided and come with an Ad.
this idea was totally shunned down by various marketing gurus but then EUREKA...........
they came up with some real cool ads which gave then a lot of publicity and not only that the issues and the concerns raised by these ads were a que for the GM people and they very patiently listened to them and solved them.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4oNedC3j0e4
well there is so so much about the web 2.0 that i wont be able to complete( wonder how did they squeezed everything in a day) but still many things i said above are an example of how much the things appealing to common people matter today and how small the world has actually become.
hmmmmm......
Yesterday i attended training and it was regarding Web 2.0
I did not like the idea of attending that training owing to the fact, one i had to get up early in the morning (I got up at 7 which not early in the morning but the middle of the night for me) and two I had loads and loads and loads of work sitting on my head to be completed (which am still thinking how to finish).
But anyways with a real heavy heart and sleepy eyes I went for this training named Web 2.0.
The first shock i got after reaching there was that everyone (and I mean every bloody person) was in formals and I was in a crumbled top (I thing ironing clothes is a sheer waste of time) and jeans (which are crying for a wash and have colors sticking to them from other clothes and that’s the reason I wear then during the holi period).
Anyways with an even heavier heart and no more sleepy eyes I approached one of colleagues and asked him if there was a dress code for today's training.
And being helpful as he is always, along with his friends, gave a reply in total honesty "of course, what were YOU thinking".
Not that am scared of anyone or anything, but the very idea of being singled out on my extraordinary dressing sense was not appealing to me, at least not at that moment.
But then by god's grace my manager came (clad in a new shirt and pant) and I ran to him and told him how sorry I am for being "properly" dressed.
But he started laughing and said NP (that's no problems for the tech savvy ppl )
Anyways we proceeded for the actual seminar half heartedly and it began.
There were two trainers Jeff and Francis.
Both very good orator and had full command on the training or seminar despite of the fact it went on for the whole day (I still marvel their energy at 5.45 when they were holding the crowd since 9 in the morning).
The training was about WEB 2.0.
What is it?
How is it different from web 1.0 version...................?
How it is beneficial to anyone and everyone’s..................
And who's the boss in the case of web 2.0..................
At the beginning I thought I know a lot about web 2.0 and its functionalities and what’s going on but to my surprise what I knw was just the tip of the iceberg.
There is so much to it that no one could have ever stopped it from emerging as a winner.
It has to be the most popular thing as the contributions comes from the common man.
It’s us who would be driving the whole thing and that will make the news or the views are always up to date and current.
The fact that amazed me the most was that its not just restricted to Google anymore (although it still is the BIG DADDY in web 2.0, remember how its introduced Ajax in Google earth) but there are so many company who are dipping there hands in this.
Apart from the basic things that we can have there are various things like mashing up which means taking up one particular functionality of a particular site and mixing or mashing it up with the information provided by some other one.
For e.g. combining the info from Google maps and crimes from this we will get the mapped information of a particular place with the time and the date of the occurrence of time.
The above example is what http://www.chicagocrime.org/ is all about.
Similarly the Google maps thingy can again be combined with classified from some other source and VIOLA.... u get the information about anything present anywhere.
http://www.zillow.com/ is one such example which give information about real estates along with their locations.
Apart from this all these companies are also using the resources with utmost optimization.
If they have certain requirements (for their business) which consume lot of resources then companies look out for these requirements in other companies dealing in these filed.
They would then borrow these APIs (application program interface) from the company who has a huge resource of them and in return pay then certain percentage of their profit or it would be with regard to the kind of application they are using.
For example yahoo can lend its friends list to some other company which would use this buddy list for some other purpose and in return would pay yahoo a certain amount.
Also they talked about how everyone is moving away from the conventional mode of checking surfing the net and how it moving to small screen of their mobile devices.
And how companies are adapting themselves to give information, which would fit that tiny screen.
Sony mylo is an excellent example of one such mobile device.
And this web 2.0 is not just restricted to general things the network effect is for seeking out to each other.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/ and http://ficlets.com/ gives everyone a chance to tell people what they have got.
ficlet is for all the writers who would like to contribute their great ideas to an already running story or may be they can start their own story.
similarly craigslist is for telling people what u have through ur resume. apart from the resume thing they also have communities all you need to do is find r group and tell them bout you and ask them whatever you want. apart from these there many other interesting site like http://technorati.com/ (Searches weblogs by keyword and for links. Also provides news from general news services and blogs)
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home (Allows blog owners and pod casters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers)
http://navteq.com/(NAVTEQ creates the digital maps and map content that power navigation and location-based services solutions around the world including automotive navigation)
http://sourceforge.net/ (The world's largest development and download repository of Open Source code and applications.)
http://digg.com/ (determines all site content by discovering, selecting, sharing, and discussing the news, videos, and pod casts that appeal to everyone)
It is so much out in the open that now even the companies are participating and asking everyone to participate in it just to create awareness bout their product.
one such example is GM. when they came up with the idea of Chevrolet Tahoe they hired the common people for marketing.
They asked people to use certain basic things that they provided and come with an Ad.
this idea was totally shunned down by various marketing gurus but then EUREKA...........
they came up with some real cool ads which gave then a lot of publicity and not only that the issues and the concerns raised by these ads were a que for the GM people and they very patiently listened to them and solved them.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4oNedC3j0e4
well there is so so much about the web 2.0 that i wont be able to complete( wonder how did they squeezed everything in a day) but still many things i said above are an example of how much the things appealing to common people matter today and how small the world has actually become.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
