Check out the new Water Incorporated website…it’s a brilliant spoof where Mother Nature’s company is being threatened by Vitamin Water 10…Glaceau’s new drink, which is so natural, that it’s threatening Mother Nature’s regular old water. As the competitor of Vitamin Water, Water Incorporated slanders Vitamin Water all over the site, and now even in television commercials. Love the concept.
Luxury leather powerhouse takes internet powerhouse to court. Apparently, Louis Vuitton has been battling Google for years, because they don’t like how when someone Googles the name, other advertisers and competitors come up in the search engine results.
Google argues that they do not make money off of displaying results, but rather their revenue comes from user clicks. And Google does not control what users “click on”!
I am on Google’s side here. Did Louis Vuitton forget that Google is one of the few companies these days that is stimulating the economy? Google helps retailers SELL products. If there was no internet, no Google, billions of dollars in online-generated revenues would be lost! Shoppers would not be able to view new products from the luxury of their homes! What the F is Louis thinking? Louis is just suffering in this economic crisis like the rest of us and are trying to take Google’s hard earned money from their REVOLUTIONARY products.
Anyway, you can read the full article here. If Louis Vuitton actually wins in court, they are setting a precedent for many many other brand names to sue Google as well - imagine what would happen if company after company sued Google because of trademark protection issues. Could something like this actually bring Google down?
I have been running Google Adwords campaigns for quite some time. I started a new campaign just last week for a Manhattan rental building. Over the past few days, I have been getting notices from the Google Adwords Team that my destination URLs were not working. I went back and checked, and my URLs were certainly working! Could not figure out the problem.
Finally, I decided to call the Google Adwords help line, 1-866-2-Google. In about 10 seconds, the Adwords specialist discovered the issue: in the “Ad Variations” section, in Edit Ad, next to the Destination URL line is a drop done containing http:// and https://. I must have accidentally set this box to https://, secure server. In my nearly 2 years of running Adwords campaigns, not only has this never happened to me, but I never even noticed what was in the drop down box. Amazing.
In case you haven’t yet heard, a new shopping-coupon-social media website launched yesterday, called MallCrawl.com, “The Only Online Social Community for Shopping Malls”.
MallCrawl is a fabulous new site, in that it allows users to post their findings after a trip to the shopping mall! The site launched with about 500 shopping malls across the country, with more malls to be added in the very near future.
Users can find coupon and sale info on the site, as well as job postings, restaurant menus and reviews, weather, directions, movie times, and so much more. New features are to be added soon as well.
The benefit of MallCrawl to its users, or “MallCrawlers”, is that it is one place that encompasses all shopping mall-related info. Users no longer have to search individual mall or store websites to find what they are looking for; everything is consolidated in one place on the site. Also, check out the MallCrawl Blog, which contains postsing about fashion, store events, and much much more, contributed by Manhattan fashionistas.
I love this site already. I waste so much time looking for deals and steals, coupons, and store events. For example, whenever I run out of my Lancome makeup, I find myself calling all the department stores to find out when the next gift with purchase is. Well, no more! All the good stuff can be found at MallCrawl.
Make sure to join MallCrawl today, and spread the word to your friends!
Here’s my Seinfeld question: Have you ever noticed that everyone in New York City thinks they are “laid-back”? Take, for example, a Craigslist search for an apartment share.
Today I found 552 results in the apartment share section of Craigslist who consider themselves to be “laid back”. Then, I decided to visit the “women seeking men” section of Craigslist.
70 men adverstise themselves to women as being “laid back”. To even further prove my point, I decided to visit the “Jobs” section of Craigslist.
19 people looking for a job think it’s important to market themselves as “laid back”!
Who are all of these people that are laid back? Are they from California? No one in New York is laid back! I am not laid back and I’m from Jersey! New Yorkers are over-stressed and always in a rush! So here is my plea to you, fellow New Yorkers! If you must write an ad on Craiglist, it’s ok to describe yourselves in other ways! Do you have hobbies, interests, talents? Accept yourselves for who you are and stop deluding yourselves and others that the only way you can be have a job, a roommate, a date, is if you are a laid back person! And if you are a real New Yorker, and you are really laid back, I’d love to hear all about it.
Finally, some good news for us female migraine sufferers! A recent study in Health Day news suggests that migraine sufferers are at lower risk for breast cancer. 30% lower in fact. The reason has to do with levels of estrogen. Women who have high levels of estrogen have an increased risk of cancer, while migraine sufferers typically have lower levels of estrogen. It could be just a coincidence based on the study conducted; read the article and decide for yourself.
I am working on optimizing a website for a business on East 65th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. As it turns out, in some places, the zip code is listed as 10021; in other places it is listed as 10065. So what’s the deal?
I found a Manhattan zip code map that does not even have 10065.
As it turns out, effective July 2007, the United States Postal Service has decided to sub-divide the 10021 into two new zip codes: 10065 and 10075.
10065 runs from East 61st Street through East 68th Street; 10021 runs from East 69th Street through East 76th Street; and 10075 runs from East 77th Street through East 80th Street.
This was done to ensure better accuracy of mail delivery in this too-large Upper East Side coverage area, that is expanding with new developments.
Is it just me or did no one else know about this?
At one point or another, everyone who lives in Manhattan has to deal with the extreme frustration of finding an apartment. Especially for 20-somethings on a budget looking for shares. For those of you who are not aware, it is virtually impossible to find a deal and avoid paying a broker fee. Let me explain briefly how it works:
The system in Manhattan is like no other anywhere in the country. Anywhere else, a rental agent is hired to save you the time and leg work, and you pay them a fee for their hard-work and service. In the City, however, a rental agent gets a fee for having a listing, in most cases 15% of the annual rent. You can spend hours every day for weeks looking for a place, you find a broker with access to a good apartment, and voila, you owe him thousands of dollars. I don’t know how the system came to be in the first place; it’s really screwed up. Now, in some cases, you can find a “no fee” apartment, where landlords and managers boast that there are no broker fees involved. But - the rent is typically listed at several hundred dollars a month more than the unit itself is worth. It’s like the landlord is doing us a favor by not charging a fee! I have even seen cases where one apartment is rented with at least 3 different real estate brokers, all for different rental amounts and different broker fees - listed for whichever sucker is willing to pay the most.
There is good logic behind the system: landlords in Manhattan typically own hundreds or thousands of units, and with the high-turnover in the City, they simply do not have the capability to run credit checks, collect paperwork, and qualify applicants all day long. So, they list the unit with the broker, and the agents do the rest. Simple as that. But over the past decade or so the rental vacancy rate in Manhattan has become so low (under 1%) that the brokerage system has become corrupt. I know Bloomberg is busy dealing with Wall Street and all, but maybe we’d all be better off and less bitter if the rental system is Manhattan was more efficient. Sure, agents need to make a living too, but let them work for it like everyone else and not just get paid for hanging their license. And I’m not blaming the agents – I’m blaming the system.
I am helping my sister find an apartment on the Upper West Side. Her budget for a 2-bedroom share is $2,800, no fee. This might sound like a lot of money for a two bedroom, but believe me this is nothing. For $2,800 she will probably not even get a dishwasher and laundry. And for this price, no fee, we are looking at apartments the size of closets that are worth maybe $2,200 per month. Maybe. There is a building on the Upper West Side in a great location, with 10 rental units available. Ten! They are listing the 2-bedrooms at $3,500 no fee. The units have a few appliances against the wall as the kitchen (no dishwasher!), and maybe 600 square feet of living space to share between 2 people. The nerve.
This past week I saw another 2-bedroom for $2,750, listed by the current tenants who need to break their lease. The ad mentioned a small possible third bedroom. The apartment was small but cute, maybe 650 square feet, and the “third bedroom” was nothing more than a walk-in closet or storage area. The current tenant informed me that there was an error in the listing, and the rent is actually $3,100 per month and not $2,750. And, it was just submitted to a broker. So, a 650 square foot apartment, that 3 people are supposed to live in, and each pay over $1,000 a month in rent, and pay a broker fee.
Now, a lot of rental agents are advertising apartments on Craigslist that they themselves have not even seen! This is something else that infuriates me; yesterday when I contacted an agent about a listing, he told me about this $3,100 small 3-bedroom that I mentioned above, and when I told him I had seen it and it was a closet, his answer was “Yeah, I figured”. So, we are living in a city where the brokers themselves don’t even believe in their product. And it doesn’t matter! Someone out there who doesn’t know better will end up paying.
One more scenario I will quickly mention. I saw a 2-bedroom listing for $2,800 in the West 80’s advertised in the “no fee” section of Craigslist. Sure enough, when I contacted the agent, she a) said she had not seen the apartment but heard it was big; b) said their was in fact a one-month fee and c) said the unit requires a first and last month’s security deposit. So, to get this straight, I need to be prepared with $8,400 up front, to deal with someone who has not even seen the apartment? Incredible.
My advice is that if you plan on staying in your new apartment for a few years, it is worthwhile to pay the broker fee, because you save money in the long run. But - who plans anything in New York City? At this point, how do you even know if you are still going to have a job next year? If you end up paying a fee and move out in a year, well, you just got screwed out of several thousand dollars.
So what’s the solution? There really is no solution. You need to be patient and keep your options open as far as neighborhoods and building types. If you have a budget of $2600-$3000 for a 2-bedroom, you are better off in a converted-two in a doorman building, because the layouts of those units lend themselves to convert well. I have lived in a doorman building and a walk-up building, and it’s all the same to me.
And be very cognizant of “no-fee” listings; most likely the rents are a lot more than the unit is worth ($3,700 a month for shitty 2-bedrooms with one bathroom in a walk-up), or the agent pulls the old bait-n-switch.
Some sites to take a look at are NY Bits and Urban Sherpa which are good New York City guides to landlords and no-fee listings.
So I am sitting in the San Jose Convention Center killing time until I head to the airport to fly back to New York. The conference hall is empty, as SES ended hours ago and the convention center staff is cleaning up. I finished earlier live-blogging my sessions for the Roundtable. It’s been a great and productive week. I picked up some great tips from the sessions that I can’t wait to try out, such as optimizing my contextual ad campaigns and tactics to incorporate into my e-commerce campaigns. I got a new Best of the Web t-shirt (as if I don’t have enough already - thanks BOTW guys for keeping them coming, and this time on American Apparel) and of course a couple of glow-in-the-dark Google Dance t-shirts. Oh, I got a great neon green Frisbee from Double Click. But I especially made some new friends this week that I look forward to keeping in touch with and seeing at the next industry conference.
A few things I did not like about downtown San Jose and the convention:
1. The boxed lunches at the convention center. Just because I am a vegetarian does not mean I will enjoy eating a few pieces of vegetables on bread. But I suppose the meat-eaters did not enjoy their boxed lunches much better. By Day 2 everyone was already heading out for lunch.
2. The lack of food options near the convention center. Being from New York - and not having been on the West Coast in a while - I am spoiled by the 5 pizza places and delis and sushi restaurants on every block. We wandered around quite a bit to find some breakfast. Only last night did I realize that walking about 4 blocks would yield me a variety of food options (Good Karma was delicious).
3. The lack of electrical outlets in the meeting rooms. Oh, the perpetual search for laptop power. But Topix saved the day - they gave away splitters at their booth - and I was happy to share my outlet with my peers.
Some things I did love about San Jose:
1. The cleanliness of the town - again, being from New York - I am not used to this at all. And the lack of smokers.
2. The IM Charity Party at Agenda Lounge. The open bar enabled me to meet a lot of new people - and give me a slight hangover the next day.
3. The Google Dance. Read all it about it in the next post.
4. The weather. Of course.
Can’t wait til next year!
I’ve been in San Jose, California all week for the annual Search Engine Strategies conference at the convention center. All the industry rock stars and regulars are here, with a lot of people new to the industry. Avi and I have been live blogging the sessions since Monday on behalf of the Search Engine Roundtable so look for our posts there. There were a lot of interesting and informative topics this year, such as shopping search engine tactics, duplicate content issues, and the hidden secrets of SEM. So make sure you read through the sessions on the Roundtable.
The highlight of the show, as is every year, is the Google Dance, which actually took place last night at the Google Campus in Mountain View, California. The theme of the dance was “glow in the dark”. The Google Headquarters were unbelievable. Like a college campus, video arcade, dance club, and bar mitzvah all in one. There was a sand volleyball court on site, a lawn strewn with bean bag chairs and a stage, - complete with spotlights and a fog machine - where groups were lining up to play Rock Band. Buffets of food set up in at least three different places, a decorate-your-own-cupcake-bar, smoothi bar, photo booth, a large glow in the dark dancefloor, and a few bars with kegs. And that was just the outside. On the inside was a nother dance floor with a large overhead screen (think, NYC night club), and video games everywhere. What really impressed me was the charicature booth - not old-fashion artists with charcoal or pencils, but digital artists drawing Avatar charicatures on their computer. Very cool. Thousands of people were there and everyone appeared to be having a great time - how could you not! Can’t wait for next year’s Google Dance already! Will post the pictures as soon as I get my hands on a USB cable, but you can check out Google’s photos of the dance.
Will keep you posted on the remainder of the conference.
