Simplicity Rules

GMail unveiled a new feature: vacation messages.

I used to have this feature back in my university days and I might have even used it a few times. I certainly helped a whole bunch of folks use it when I worked at the help desk, so I know some people like it. While Google did add the feature of only letting current contacts know you’re away, it mostly left me unimpressed.

Is this because I’ve caught onto the Google backlash? Maybe a little. Most likely, it’s because I rarely am away from email. In 2005, there were only eight non-weekend days that I didn’t send an email. And two of those days I was in Phoenix within typing distance of my laptop.

Then again, many have such constant access to email. Perhaps as internet ubiquity becomes expected, features like this will befome more useful for those rare occasions when we’re disconnected?

This morning Mike Duffy sent along this wacky traffic scheme:

My friend who became a multi-millionaire from internet marketing bet me $1 Million dollars that I couldn’t send 2 million visitors to an individual website by his birthday, April 18th 2006.

Seth Godin see it as a poker site’s obviously transparent ploy for traffic. It seems to be working. The counter was at 30,000 this morning, now it’s at 67,000. I witnessed it go up at about 200 visits per minute.

I, too, was a little skeptical, given the guy felt the need to hide affiliate links. Everywhere that his page mentions PokerRoom.com, he links to to http://www.pokerroom.com/?ref=####. I don’t have a problem with affiliate programs, but you have to wonder why he is hiding it.

Google doesn’t list any page with his affiliate code, meaning it’s probably new. The affiliate code makes me think this might not be a poker site. It could be a real guy.

Now, whether he really bet his finger is another question. But I’ve watched me a little bit of poker on TV (during SNL commercials) and those players might just be crazy enough to do something like this. Another meaning of “all in,” I suppose. Someone should tell his friend that life is not a zero sum game.

This week, tech portal CNet bought a tiny dating website, Consumating. The site was created by two guys who’ve been around the Web for awhile. One is an Internet rockstar and the other created the Google bomb (and now works for Google).

Contrast that with Yahoo!’s purchase of a social bookmark site. While del.icio.us started as a personal side project, too, it was VC-funded in April.

Comparing these two is sort of apples and oranges, but that’s my point. Though terms weren’t disclosed for either deal (both tiny for their buyers), one would assume that del.icio.us went for millions and Consumating did not. I’m an avid user of del.icio.us and have never touched Consumating, but I can’t help but think CNet got the best deal here. CNet went outside of the bounds of what we’d expect from a big company.

Enter Moneyball, the 2003 book about baseball, the Oakland A’s, and “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.” Using simple baseball statistics, General Manager Billy Beane was able to field a competitive team with a relatively small payroll. Many have noticed the similarity to venture capital.

So, CNet took a Beane/VC approach. Invest in something good that no one else has. It’s cheap and could have just as positive an outcome.

My office is directly above a Borders book store. I recently went down to buy a book. As I walked out and looked at these identical prices side by side it hit me. For the first time in a long time, I had paid full price for a book.

This got me thinking about convenience, which seems to play a big role in pricing. Examples like the brick and mortar full price sales are pretty easy to come by–ever bought a beer at a professional sporting event? Convenience obviously goes beyond location. We hire accountants not only for their expertise, but to save us time. Ditto the landscaping company for those of us who have a lawn and don’t mow it ourselves.

Netflix makes a big deal about having no late fees. That’s one type of convenience, but I think many of their customers are equally jazzed by receiving DVDs in the mail. Then again, Hollywood and Blockbuster are still around because sometimes we don’t want to think ahead to what we’ll want to watch a couple days from now.

It’s strange that so much on the Internet is free given convenience is such a large selling point for online services. It’s safe to say that Wrigley Field charges as much as possible for refreshments. Why do so many on the Internet leave money on the table?