Shaving Bieber.... why is none else doing it?

A BIG thanks to Briar for bringing this to my attention.

It is a brilliant little app built to plug into firefox. Basically...

* 1 - Go to Shaved Bieber
* 2 - Download or bookmark
* 3 - Enjoy Bieber-free browsing!

It's funny because well... there is an audience who wants to escape Bieber Fever BUT it is clever because to my knowledge, there are no brands using this type of functionality yet.

I think that there is a great opportunity to think about 'browser' apps rather than just the traditional (I can't believe I'm saying that) i-phone app. The greatest opportunity would be to add utility in terms of consumption filtering but you could also create some entertainment value.

Imagine an app that highlighted all the rude words on a page or even combinations of words to make funny sentences. It could completely change the user experience of written content consumption.

Does anyone know why brands haven't broadly entered into this space?
What opportunities can you see for thsi type of filtering application?

Becoming street wise online

Yesterday afternoon something funny happened. I retweeted a message that one of my 'real life' friends had tweeted.

The tweet said something along the lines of "this guy is awesome & looking for a job in SEO".I sent it onto another friend who I knew was recruiting for an SEO job.

It didn't take long for the original friend to start poking fun at the fact that I hadn't clicked on his link to see that he was in fact, recommending Rick Astley for the job....

Ha. Ha. Ha. The joke is on me. However, in light of this personal experience and yesterday's fake BP twitter account, it got me thinking about what trust means and how it operates differently between the on and offline worlds.

There are some people in my life (ie grandparents) who wouldn't trust the internet for a second. There's no way that they'd make purchases online or believe that once they pressed 'send', an email would safely arrive at its destination. These are also the same people whose words of advice to me as a child were 'don't believe everything you read'.

So, it raises the question 'why do I seem to trust the internet and what I read on it, more so than traditional broadcast media?'

And, I think its due to the personal factor. I have a higher degree of trust in those that I interract with online and whom I also know in real life BUT, these lines are easily blurred.

Take twitter for example, I have started following people (and trust the links that they post plus, I value their opinions) but simply because they are part of the network of other people that I trust.

Its somewhat of a viscious circle.

Having now experienced an unharmful yet eye-opening breach of trust online by an offline friend, I'll be aiming to limit my levels of trust. I don't expect this to be easy though given that I expect people to trust what I endorse or post online. I guess its just about being more thorough & having what would be akin to street-sense when navigating the web.

The beauty of simplicity

I am going to start simplifying my work.

I've been inspired by the wonderful Mark Pollard who manages to clearly articulate most of his arguments (here's an example).

I find myself struggling to demonstrate the volume of thinking that goes into an end product without putting a whole heap of physical evidence on the table. This is possibly due to an element of immaturity and a desire to prove my worth.

Irrespective, what I've learnt from Mark is that a clear articualtion that people just 'get' is much more powerful than a detail laden document that demonstrates one's 'smarts'.