Benjamin Koe

Killin' it like Gary V

via youtube.com

I don't mean to do two posts in a row on Gary V, but this guys is simply amazing. He's a real personality and I think of all the talents on can have in the world, Gary's got honesty.

I'm constantly surrounded in the corporate world by people who are saying things like "try to be tactful" and "CC the boss because its safer". Why not just be dead honest if you have something of value to give?

This talk made me wonder if people don't want to be as transparent and open as Gary because in reality they suck at what they do and hide behind their tact and corporate speak.

I know nothing about wine, but it appears that Gary knows a whole lot and that's probably the reason why he dares be open because no one can challenge him on that.

I'm going to be more mindful now about how I communicate. I'm going to try and be more open, more transparent, and more real from now on.

What happened to Technorati?

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Technorati used to be my favorite blog search engine. But all of a sudden, they decided to make "big changes" and go the way of the advertising network. Once upon a time they used to index some 100 million blogs, but now when you do a search on their site you get statements like:

 Blogs relating to “iphone” (1610 blogs found out of 825402)

What happened? How did they go from 100 million in 2007 to 825,402 in 2009?

It also appears that they don't care much about blogs that are not in the top 800,000. My blog now has an Authority Score of: nil. Even prominent local blogs such as Mr Brown's has a score of 0 (at least his has a score).

I have no issues with them wanting to expand into the advertising business, but why purge the rest of the blogs from the search engine? I'm just glad there are alternatives like Google Blog Search and IceRocket around.

Update: To add to my this news on Technorati, Technorati Japan will be ceasing operation by the end of the month. (Hat tip to Walter)

Concept EVs from Renault

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via renault-ze.com

I'm quite amazed at Renault's ambition to launch 4 new electric vehicles by 2012. And we're not talking just about tiny city-movers but large sedans and even utility vehicles like the Kangoo is going EV.

I wonder when these EVs will reach us here in Singapore. Singapore is definitely an awesome test bed for EVs since we're small and electrical infrastructure pretty much blankets the island.

Is every technology Google creates for the sole purpose of advertising?

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via adage.com

Seem like even the Android platform is meant to get Google a foothold in mobile advertising.

Google's foray into mobile has largely been defined by its investment in high-end smartphones, most notably its high-profile lead in the development of Android, which gives the company a seat at the table to ensure the mobile operating system powering smartphones can optimally support advertising.