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Today I’m reminded of a story I heard years ago, but it’s something that always stuck with me. Back in the early 90′s, after the fall of communism, a co-worker of mine had the opportunity to host a family from Romania.

When the family got here, my friend loaded up the family in the van and headed home. On the way, they went to get groceries. They entered the store, and the whole family stopped dead in their tracks. The Romanian father looked around and quietly started to weep. At the entrance of the grocery store was the produce department. The family had never seen anything like the abundance of food at a North American produce section, everything fresh, no lines, more than enough for everyone. Sometimes in life the things that seem so small, so everyday, are really a wonder to behold if we stop and give thanks.

This month I have some time available, as the sports are in full retreat. Today I spent some time going through my bulging file cabinet for a much needed purge. They say that in order for new things to come into your life, you should create space for it. We’ll see what happens tomorrow…

From the Podtech network, this is an interview with Darren Aftahi, vice president of Equity Research at ThinkEquity Partners. He’s in the business of looking at online trends for investment banks and venture capital firms.

Darren is particularly excited about the prospects of using video online as a marketing tool. It’s a quick 13 minute interview, an interesting discussion.

Listen to the interview here

Just when Google Maps couldn’t get any cooler, out they come with Street View. Now when you’re browsing Google Maps, in select cities you can click the Street View option, which then gives you panoramic photos of the particular intersection you’re looking at. You can then navigate along at street level. Very cool.

Best way to try it…
1. Go to maps.google.com
2. Search to New York, NY
3. Click on the street view icon

Apparently it’s now available in Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.

Straight link to the service in San Francisco is here.

An article in the New Yorker explores the phenomena of “feature creep”, where products end up offering more and more features until the end user can’t figure out how to use it. At least half of all products returned to the store have nothing wrong with them, people take them back because the product is so bloated they can’t figure out how to use it. The problem is, most people when asked would prefer more product features, so the initial excitement of a digital camera that also washes the dishes can be potent sales driver.

While this is true of gadgets, this is also true of videos and television shows. When we lose sight of the original intent of the presentation, we can end up overwhelming the audience. Better to present one thing well than 12 things that you won’t remember at the end.

Read the article here