Katelyn M. Thompson’s Blog

I’m sorry I’m confused.

I was a $9.99 streaming and 1-DVD member of Netflix for about a year. I enjoyed the DVDs, but it usually takes me a few weeks to watch them, so they sit there unwatched for a while, but I figured for $2 more, why not. In July, Netflix announced that they would be changing their pricing structure so that my plan would now cost me $15.98. Well, bah humbug!

Just a few weeks ago (on Sept 1) the new pricing went into effect. I wasn’t sure if I was going to drop the DVD, I figured I would try it out and see if I can increase my DVD consumption (while simultaneously vowing to watch less TV in general).

Last week, Netflix announced that it was cutting the customer forecast as they were losing a ton of customers over the price hike (DUH!).

Well, this morning I awoke to find that Netflix has apologized and decided to make up for their mistakes by splitting the DVD service and streaming service onto two different websites. UH, WHAT? Is it just me? This doesn’t make sense to me. I like to be able to search all movies and see if one is streaming or DVD and to move things between queues if it becomes streaming. Why split them into two websites? What is the business plan behind it?

According to the Netflix CEO: “So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.”

Now that’s all fine and dandy, you probably should have two different teams working on things to make each one the best it can be, but does that mean you have to push that split onto consumers? Just because your internal team is structured that way doesn’t mean that’s how the customers want to interact with your product.

After checking out the comments on the announcement, I can see that I am not the only one who feels this way! You’re splitting up a single experience (I want to watch a movie, preferably by streaming, but if it’s not available yet, send me the DVD).

This has pushed me over the edge, and I will be canceling my DVD subscription (just as soon as I watch Schindler’s List).

UPDATE 9:45AM: I just came across this blog post by Joshua Porter about how Netflix in Danger of Ruining their User Experience (via @ryaninteractive).

10 years ago I was a sophomore in high school. I don’t have a good idea of what I was doing or exactly how I was told, but I remember sitting in D block Spanish and having someone come on over the speakers and make an announcement about what was happening. We didn’t have TVs in any of the classrooms, but there was a TV in the band/chorus room and I remember throughout the day that my friends who were in band telling us about what they had seen on the TVs. I came home and was glued to the TV watching the news coverage. I couldn’t really comprehend the things that were going on. I had never been to the World Trade Centers, I didn’t know anyone working or living in NYC, but I still knew that this was a big deal.

Last year I had the opportunity to go to the Pentagon Memorial and it was different from any other Memorial I visited in D.C. – I had witnessed the events. I was not alive during the Vietnam War or the Korean War. But on 9/11/01 my life changed, as it did everyone else’s. It was moving to be faced with the reality of the events. I went to the World Trade Center site which to me looked like a large construction site. Having no comparison of what the area had been like before, it was difficult to fathom the difference and the impact off the attacks on the lives of those in NYC on that day. But seeing the Memorial, seeing the parts of the building that was damaged and the number of people who had died at the Pentagon that day to me was very meaningful.

Today I will remember how lucky I am and will think of those directly impacted by the events on 9/11. I hope that I have a chance to return to the World Trade Center site to visit the Memorial and better understand the impact and see how we are rebuilding.

“The covers of this book are too far apart.”

– Ambrose Bierce

At a family gathering this weekend I overheard a conversation about Google search results. Not all search results are made equal. If two people search for the same thing at the same time, they probably won’t get the same results. (This shouldn’t surprise you).

Tony Bradley over at PCWorld had this to say:

Google’s personalized search already keeps track of your Web surfing habits and search history to present you with search results that are more specifically tailored for you. Your likes and associations in social networking, as well as the comments and reviews you post regarding books, movies, restaurants, and so forth also paint a picture of you as an individual.

Google’s newest feature – called +1 – aids in this personalization. The way that I see it: +1 allows websites/companies to promote their products/sites to you through your friends on Google.

The way it works is that as you’re trolling the web you see something that you like and you can +1 it. (SN: As I’m writing this I’m wondering if this “+1” is going to become part of our vocabulary. Instead of, “Let me go Tweet about it.” Someone might say, “Oh, I’ll +1 that!”) By +1ing something, you’re essentially recommending it to all of your friends, without them knowing it. That is, until they do a search and the article/product/website that you +1ed shows up along with your +1 recommendation.

Here’s a video if it still doesn’t make sense.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAyUNI3_V2c]

I also realized it kind of looks like the Uno card game, which in my mind is a major plus!

via @mashable

Well, I was watching Celebrity Apprentice (I know, I know, it’s bad. But I like watching them complete the tasks and then fight it out afterwards. Get over it!) on delay by about 15 minutes when I saw the message pop-up that the President would soon be addressing the country. I wasn’t really sure what it was. Were we attacked? Did we attack someone? Was the economy cured? So, instead of stopping the DVR and jumping to live TV I grabbed my phone to check Twitter. Scrolling through the previous 60 minutes of Tweets I finally arrived at the tweets saying that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

I then stopped the DVR and turned to live TV to the news coverage discussing what they had been told, the events that transpired years ago leading up to this, as well as speculation about what had happened. I then continued to check Twitter and update my status while I waited the hour before President Obama came on and made the speech. I’m glad I waited. Even though I knew what he was going to be talking about, it made it all real and he was able to put things into perspective.

But enough about that, why I’m writing the post. I was reading a CNN article titled Bin Laden’s death sets Twitter record and when I got to the end, I read a lot of stories that were similar to mine.

“While watching a show on the Tivo, my son was checking twitter on his phone and told us to put on live TV.”

“Saw a post on FB, verified it on NYT, and then yelled for my fiance to turn on the news.”

“I saw comments on Facebook, and then read about it on my NPR News App on my phone, and then turned on the TV.”

There has been a lot of news coverage about how people are getting more and more of their news from the Internet and Twitter, but it’s interesting that when a breaking news story hit, people turned to the TVs. Part of this might be explained by the fact that it was a Sunday evening and most Americans were probably at home where many of them have a television. I know when I’m at work (or as on 9/11 at school) I didn’t have access to a television where I could find the news.

What are your thoughts? Where did you first hear/see that Osama had been killed? What did you do next?

My friend @certaintragedy just tweeted about the new Go Green Forever stamps being sold by the USPS.

Overall a very interesting campaign that I’m sure will raise some eyebrows when the letters arrive in people’s mailboxes. However, I’m wondering where the “send an email” stamp is. After all, it’s much greener (see comments) to send an electronic letter than to mail and deliver a paper letter.

You may or may not have heard of Groupon or the idea of it. But basically, it’s a service that offers (usually) daily coupons on various things, restaurants, spas, golfing lessons, gift certificates. One example is a $40 gift card to a local restaurant for $20 that expires in 3 months. It works for the restaurant, because it might get some new customers into their restaurant and it works for current customers because they get something at a discount.

Well, yesterday LivingSocial offered a deal for an Amazon gift card at 50% off. A $20 gift card for $10 with no expiration. Too good to be true? Well, maybe. They’re definitely losing money on the deal. By the end of the day, over 1.3 million coupons were sold.

So why do something like this? Well, they’re currently losing to Groupon (or at least they were). According to Website Magazine, as of September 2010, Groupon had 40% of coupon seeking traffic while  LivingSocial had 20%. I’m sure that this not only increased traffic but it also increased LivingSocial’s member base and awareness in the marketplace. I bought the deal. How could you not? And I told my friends and my mom. My mom had never heard of things like this. Well now she knows, and now she’s bought one. And I can pretty much guarantee she’s going to buy another and maybe even more than that. So how much will the dropped $10 on her first LivingSocial purchase actually net for the company? Probably more than $10.

Now, since we’re on the topic, I am not very happy with LivingSocial’s website. Here’s just a few reasons why:

• It caches your location. So if you go in and are on a national deal page, it thinks your in D.C., even if you’ve set your preferred city. This is the cause for the other two gripes:
  • Why is the above deal showing for Washington, D.C.? I am not near Washington, D.C. I’m signed in and have set my preferred city. I get it’s a national deal, so show the USofA!
  • When you go to LivingSocial.com, it actually takes you to the 3rd link on the left navigation list (URL: http://livingsocial.com/deals/how_it_works). Why? Why tell me how it works? I’m already signed in, I’ve already bought a deal. Just show me today’s deal!
• I still haven’t gotten my deal!

So what are we to do now? Well, I guess we’ll just wait and see what they follow up Amazon’s deal with. Today, LivingSocial has a European Restaurant in Brighton while Groupon has Indian and Nepal Cuisine in Somerville.

So what else is there?

Read the rest of this entry »

“If you live to be one hundred, you’ve got it made. Very few people die past that age.”

– George Burns

Someone has gone around the hallways here and posted signs on the exteriors of the cubes.

Help me answer the prompt: “On January 3rd, it will be revealed…”

I have decided to incorporate this prompt into my QotD board (photo) in order to allow people to surmise about what will be revealed.

Today’s board reads: “…that Elvis is actually alive.”

Now, I’m not the most clever person in the world, so I need some help to keep this going at least until January 3rd. Please leave a comment about what you think will be revealed on January 3rd.

[Note: the fine print reads “Part 1 in a five-part series of stark PowerPoint slides designed to be highly intriguing”. Don’t limit your answers to this footnote!]