Tag: Xerox

Xerox, Yahoo and Google

With the exception of Yahoo, we can pretty much use the other two as verbs i.e. to Xerox s/t or to Google it.

When your company is a household “action” verb, you have it made.

Yahoo got a head start, with strong brand recognition.

But it flounders (even MySpace, as cool as it once was, couldn’t escape this mayhem).

AOL, Yahoo and MySpace belong to Web 1.0 era, the Valley’s equivalent of Big Band music.

We are commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

And candidates from both parties are now running for 2012.

Get a move on.

Don’t believe me? just Google it.

The speed of data processing and forced “choice architecture” results in shorter attention span.

We can’t recall but the top 3 (Incidentally,  World Economic Forum ranked the US as number 5 this year, after Switzerland, Singapore and Sweden).

Here in the US, we can’t even use the old Avis motto (We’re number 2, we work harder).

What belong to the previous decade stays with the previous decade.

No one could predict the rise of Singapore back in 1967 (or China in 1978).

In fact, much of the criticism was about its attempt at social engineering (match making its college educated).

Now, it’s number 2 and keeps working harder.

If I were to draft US policies, I would Xerox its road map, after Googling it.

This tiny country in Asia miraculously catapults into the big league.

If you understood how culturally advanced Sweden was, you would be able to appreciate the enormity of Singapore accomplishment.

Its secret sauce, turns out to be a right mix of social control and laissez faire .

Throw in a strong-handed leadership doesn’t hurt (remember Clinton had to plead so the gum-thrashing kid wouldn’t get spanked).

I wonder any of the folks who were on TV last night, purported to hold a recipe for recovery,

had ever set foot on this tiny island called “Sing” (short for Singapore)

or known precisely where it was.

Thank God for Google Map. Now, xerox it.

Reality cross-over

In a  God-Father scene, the execution order was carried out as cut-away from the black-tie wedding scene.

Lately, President Obama in Brazil attending state dinner (while France-led air strike was carried out over Libya no-fly zone ), and two nights ago at the White House Correspondents’ dinner (while the takedown was carried out in Pakistan). Hollywood materials. (at this edit, Hurt Locker’s Oscar-winning director was slated to direct “killing BL”).

Then there was Tom Clancy‘s Dead or Alive just out late last year.

People are confused and intrigued more with reality than fiction. China news agency published a different version, and I am sure, in the dark corner of Islamic extremism, we will find a Moon-Landing type of  conspiracy to vent their anger.

Meanwhile, our Reality-Show star (as of this edit, he withdrew after the birth certificate debacle) wanted to run for President.

And our current one could be cut out of Hollywood billboard (with the God Father’s sound track, of course).

One reality that should overshadow everything else: Twitter rules the day, as far as  scooping.

140 characters is hard to beat.

Until some young guys in a garage  come up with another disruptive technology, Twitter is King of the Hills.

It jolts you out of your seat. Sparks a conversation. Triggers further inquiries into said topic.

To Tweet is now our 21st-century verb, as common as Xerox and Google (whose re-org charted a new course, that of “knowledge creation” as oppose to just Search, or document handling as Xerox).

Our attention span can always handle one more tweet. And one more.

Same 24 hours a day. Same sleeping pattern and daily habits. But a tweet can always enter and intrude our lives.

Until we can no longer do without it.

There are lots of  lessons in short-burst communication. Use imagery that strikes the chord, like :

“I will be back!” (in this case, the same actor, making a real Hollywood comeback after trying his hand at governing).

Reality finally has another way to creep into our lives, in new format.

No more newspaper on the train. Just me, and my tweets, 140 characters at a time. Until eternity.

No one wants to be left out of the loop.

Now, the meaning of “up to speed” just gets more refined, or should I say, re-calibrated. Up to the second.

We will sort it all out later. Is he dead or alive? The guy who broke the story had to tweet good-night “I did not kill him, now can I catch some sleep”.  Twitter is our 21st-century communication conveyor belt, and excellent source of materials for Chaplinesque school of comedy. Communication in short bursts. Think in chunks of 140 characters. I was told there was a margin of allowance, but the limits were set for optimal transmission and reception.

For sound bites such as “I’ll be back” or “Dead or Alive”, we don’t even use up all the Twitter’s allowance.

Last Sunday night, a short burst of tweets i.e. we’ve got him,  was enough to turn college students into monkeys. Catharsis it was.