SociaLight Media Blog

This week, I wanted to ask a question and open up the SociaLight Media Blog to our hordes of readers. Have you used Google’s new Internet browser, Chrome, and what do you think of it? How would you compare it to Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3, Opera 9.5, and others?

Surfing the web today and writing this post on Chrome has been a pleasant experience. The user interface is extremely simple and minimalistic. I love the buttons in the top right; simply “Control this Page” and “Customize Chrome.” Simple as can be. I also like that the address bar, or Omnibox, highlights the URL’s domain name, so this page for example will appear as http://blog.socialightmedia.com/google-chrome-what-do-you-think on any other browser, on Chrome it will appear as http://blog.socialightmedia.com/google-chrome-what-do-you-think. Nice for truncating long URLs or simply identifying the source of information quickly.

Chrome seems fast and intuitive, however (without having played with it for long) it doesn’t seem to have as many of the features, or plug-ins, that Firefox has. I’m still poking around Chrome, so expect an update to this post, and I’m really looking forward to hearing some reader comments! Tell me what you think about Google’s brand new Internet browser, Chrome.

I LOVE this video (click the play button to watch). This is a perfect summation of how the advertising industry (and many B2C companies) have worked for the past half-century, and how some are still working today: One-way Communication. I love how suave, smooth-talking Advertising is using all of these canned phrases (which you can picture him using on his other “girlfriend” consumers) like “Hey now! Lookin’ good!” - while not even looking at her - rather than having authentic conversation on Consumer’s terms. And how he responds to her complaint that they never really talk anymore with a barrage of survey-style questions about his one-way advertising methods. “You can talk on our website, can’t you?” Yeah, if I want to say “Order this product.”

Simple call-to-action communication is becoming rapidly obsolete. Consumers want to become involved; they want genuine dialogue; they want to have authentic communication with someone and not feel as though their being advertised to, demographed, and targeted. And they get this kind of conversation from other consumers. Real and raw. Recommendations on Amazon, reviews on Yelp, lists on Netflix, finding out through Facebook what their friends just purchased. Conversation between real people, online.

Now that isn’t to say that they don’t want to hear from the business - far from it. But they want to be approached on their terms, and by a real person with a response just for them. Twitter is a social platform that allows for microblogging, which in itself is a relatively nascent concept (what is microblogging?). People, like you and I, write snippets about what we’re doing, whether it’s having a bowl of soup to arguing with Comcast on the phone.

(Aside: here’s a great article about Twitter from USA Today if you’re still hesitant or skeptical about microblogging)

Now, we can see why Comcast would want to know that we are currently unhappy because we’ve been on hold for 35 minutes, and by responding to this Tweet, they can deliver a level of customer service that we, the consumer, aren’t expecting. Because we have, unfortunately, come to accept the many atrocities of customer service we experience, things like waiting on the phone with the cable company are now expected. So when we Tweet about it, and a representative from Comcast responds us directly with a Tweet of their own, the customer’s expectations are exceeded, and customer satisfaction may or may not occur. It’s a heck of a lot better than having to sit on the phone, listening to elevator music, fuming, and feeling as though Comcast doesn’t care about our business.

Customer service. Genuine dialogue. Things that seem obvious but have been muddled by slick advertising for too long. Welcome to Web 2.0. What do you think?