Goodbye Google, hello Bing

I’ve been an avid fan of Google and its products over the years.  I installed their web browser and toolbar and also set up Google Calendar and Docs on my wife’s new Netbook.  Even so, I’ve become increasingly frustrated with the company, to the point where I’ve decided to make the big switch over to Bing.

It wasn’t an easy decision, and I’m still getting used to it.  It’s tough breaking a habit formed over years of internet use.  However, I’ve become fed up with them for a number of reasons.

I haven’t been overly impressed by Google’s recent product releases.  Does anyone actually think Google Sidewiki is a good idea?  Giving people the chance to write anything about your site for all to see was always going to be open to abuse.   I also hated the little icon floating on the left hand side of my browser!

And don’t get me started on Google Buzz.  This product made public a list of people who you emailed most frequently from your Gmail account.  Google has openly admitted that this product didn’t go through their thorough testing procedure and apologised.  This will do little to appease those users who will have been caught out for one reason or another!

Google Wave was also a huge disappointment.  I highlighted a number of issues in a previous blog post and haven’t been back to wave at anyone since.

Finally, the big one, privacy. I don’t want to share my location with Google. I don’t want you to read my emails and display adverts you think I’ll like. I don’t want you to store all my searches and I certainly don’t want you to drive past my house and take a picture of my front room!

So, it’s time to say Goodbye to Google and hello to Bing.  From looking at recent usage stats, I don’t think I’m the only one either. In October last year, Bing held only 9.9% of the market share but this is rising.  I also read recently that Bing is in talks with Apple to become the default search provider for the iPhone.  Since Google developed the Nexus One mobile, it seems like a logical move for Apple to distance themselves from their latest rival.

I’d be interested to hear your experiences and thoughts on Google and whether you’ve made the switch over.  I’ll check back soon and let you know how I’m getting on.

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Tags: Bing, Google, privacy, search engines, SEO

OVER THE RAINBOW? MORE PIE IN THE SKY…

As a predominately female team, the Peppermints were horrified to see headlines in one national paper suggesting that Denise Van Outen had been stripped of her presenting role on ‘Over the Rainbow’, simply for being pregnant. A stream of angry comments ensued, but our frustrations were redirected as we continued to read.

Further through the paper’s analysis, it emerged that none of the five judges from the previous series are being asked to return, and that the show is, in fact, undergoing a complete revamp. As is done with many long-running programmes, Lord Lloyd Webber has decided to spruce up the show and replace all the judges and presenters, including John Barrowman. We can only imagine the coin toss to choose the headline – “Denise Van Outen axed for being pregnant!” or “John Barrowman axed for being gay!”

Matters went from bad to worse as the journalist changed tactic, and began to emphasise the age differential between Denise and her successor, Charlotte Church. This inevitably rolled into a resurrection of the Arlene-Phillips-replaced-by-Alesha-Dixon debate, and culminated in the portrayal of a BBC institution riddled with ageism and sexism.

Clearly, discrimination on the basis of age or sex is wrong, and it is certainly not something we would like to see inherent in our public media corporation. But surely, creating a story out of nothing and branding it as sexism in order to sell newspapers is just as damaging.

It is true that cultural progress is made by highlighting debates such as anti-discrimination and ensuring they are discussed at dinner tables across the country – this is exactly how change is ushered in. But this should be reserved for honest cases of genuine wrong-doing, and not tagged onto every non-story to give it added “juice”.

Suffice to say, we wish both Denise and Charlotte the best of luck with their new challenges, and we wait with bated breath for the next over-the-rainbow, pie-in-the-sky headline.

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Tags: BBC, Denise Van Outen, discrimination, newspaper sales, Over the Rainbow

Love Hearts for the Pricey this Valentine’s Day

We were all thrilled to see the Love Hearts IT bag (a product innovation of Team Peppermint no less), take pride of place on the Valentine’s pages of OK! last week. It seems our fabulous take on the celeb must-have Birkin shopper, also caught the eye of a certain Mr Katie Price…

The excitement around Peppermint HQ was even higher than normal last Tuesday morning, when the Love Hearts’ account team received a phone call from the Price/Reid publicity machine: “Alex has seen the Love Hearts IT bag in OK! and would like to get one for Katie for Valentine’s Day.” 

The replica designer IT bag clearly works as a fabulous pressie not just for us mere mortals, but also for the Katie Prices of the world – who I’m sure already own one or two of the real thing. Mrs Reid is now the proud owner of her own bling bag of sweet treats personalised with the message ‘Sweet kisses Katie. Love Alex. X’.

We were told that Alex was putting together three huge packages for Katie, containing personal mementoes, framed photos, chocolates and a certain bit of ‘arm candy’! No subtleties for our favourite newlyweds then? I guess that’s hardly surprising given her on-going tabloid war with Peter Andre – publicising her marital bliss with Alex is clearly of paramount priority at the moment, whether it be through tweets or tabloids.

But we’re not complaining – a wonderful bit of celebrity endorsement for the Love Hearts brand as a result of a fabulous bit of coverage.

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Tags: Alex Reid, IT bag, Katie Price, Love Hearts, Peter Andre, Valentine's

Cameron gives a lesson in the art of communication

I’ve recently undergone a bout of psychometric profiling to decipher my personality! The behavioural analyst – who explained what make up people’s characters – warned me: ‘you’ll start to watch everyone now to try and work out their personalities’; how right she was!

There’s no greater profiling target than an MP… and the Tory leader at that. As I sat and watched David Cameron flex his political muscles after being invited by a client to a West Midlands business leaders’ lunch, I marvelled at his ultra polished performance and tried to rank him on the ‘1-9 vector scale’ for assertiveness, sociability, calmness and conformity.

What quickly became apparent – from my brief lesson in psychometrics and years of watching MPs on the public stage – is that it’s difficult to tell whether his performance was his actual ‘self’ or the ‘role’ he takes on.

My own scoring in both circumstances is apparently rather similar; I’m not sure the same can be said for Mr Cameron. I imagine his communications team, scattered around the room, looked on with approval as he remained on message, whilst dropping in a dash of humour and self-mocking at perfectly timed intervals.

The art of communication is a difficult one to master, particularly in front of a crowded room of businesspeople with an axe to grind. While staunch Labour and Lib Dem supporters were probably less than convinced by his performance, as a public relations professional I thought he delivered it with real aplomb. I’m still trying to figure out where he ranks on the psychometric scale. But, like many MPs, his ability to promote the Tory brand is definitely one to admire.

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Tags: David Cameron; communication; personality; psychometrics

How the mighty battle with the forces of news

It seems the PR penny has finally dropped in the Jones household. While watching Something for the Weekend, my fiancé (an English teacher) turned to me and said: ‘I bet the PR company’s not happy with that’. He was referring to the rather lackadaisical performance by a young actor, who seemed nonplussed about where he was, where he’d been, and why he was on the show.

While we’re not in the game of managing people, per se, we are in the business of building brands and the people who sit behind them. Each has similar challenges. Stick a young twentysomething on live TV and you have to hope and pray that he says all the right things. Send out a highly manicured release, set up an interview and arrange a picture and again, it’s in the lap of the gods as to what a journalist chooses to do with it.

As PRs our fate often lies in the hands of others. We can prep, research and write the greatest of releases, but if the news agenda conspires against us, or the person chooses not to perform, then even the mighty is likely to fail. Think of all those hardworking executives who had their fantastic stories lined up last week for a rigorous sell-in, only to be scuppered by a certain Mr Terry whose love life even managed to shift Haiti and MPs’ expenses from the front pages.

We’re constantly battling with forces beyond our control, but I guess what doesn’t kill us makes us more persistent and creative (oh and stronger).

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Tags: PR; News; Forces of Nature;