Snooping Microsoft Zune marketing exec perhaps?

It’s funny sometimes what your visitor stats can reveal. A glance at mine this morning shows an early morning hit from a Microsoft Ireland employee reading my “Zune is Rubbish” related post.

I wonder if it’s someone involved with European marketing of the Zune trying to gauge opinion / market perception of the unit from the blogosphere. I wonder if they’re thinking about a different approach to it’s marketing in Europe, particularly in Ireland where the iPod is so huge. Let’s hope they get rid of those ridiculous “Join the social” ads. The Zune tag line just had to include the word “social” since the whole direction of the web changed with the social networking explosion of 2006 didn’t it! Someone at Redmond thought so anyways.

Perhaps even more curious is the unknown Windows version registered for the same hit. Is BlogPatrol not registering hits from machines running Vista? Has Microsoft already (probably long since) rolled out Vista internally?

If you know, please leave a comment and let me know !

technorati tags:Microsoft, Zune, Marketing, Promotion, Vista, Blog

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Ssshh dont tell but …YouTube gets the Google Labs Treatment – TestTube

Scroll down the end of the YouTube home page today and you’ll find a new link. It seems Google is further helping to shape the direction and hone the creativity of YouTube development by giving it the Google Labs treatment with the release of Test Tube.

It’s the same deal as Digg Labs and others, an incubation area for new site features. Unlike the main site though, you do need to sign up for a YouTube account to gain access.

Go sign up right now because the Stream idea just might be worth a look. Stream allows you to chat with the people online who are watching the same videos that you are. It’s Flash based  and slow to load (forgiveable for Beta!) but worth a look.

The odd thing about it is the very low key mention of it. I’d have had the logo on the main video site, but I guess Streams cant handle the traffic volume the main site gets on a daily basis right now, so don’t tell too many folks ok!

technorati tags:YouTube, TestTube, Google, Labs, Digg, Streams, Beta, Site, Launch, Testing, Incubation

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Topping Google with curiosity around Zune

It looks like I’m finally getting the hang of the whole traffic generation / SEO deal. I just discovered a reader to my blog was referred by Google for the search term “Zune is rubbish” so I decided to replicate his search and find that I’m on top of Google …YEAH!

That Zune related post has had a lot of traffic over the last few weeks with the Christmas shopping public doing their homework on the web. Thanks to all who have visited recently, my traffic is up 300% and more every day ( the “porn on your ipod” drew the crowds too!)

I hope you find an interesting opinion and keep coming back for more 😉

technorati tags:Google, Zune, SEO, Search, Engine, Optimisation, Traffic, Generation, iPod, Porn

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Vista finally here with Irish Launch Dec 5th!

Hey all! Last Thursday saw the official launch of Windows Vista, and for the first time ever in Microsoft history, the simultaneous launch of Office 2007. Enough folks blogged about Steve Ballmer’s speech in NY on the day so I wont bore you with it.

What you may not know is that tomorrow is the official launch of Vista in Ireland, and you can read the keynote etc on this specially created virtual launch site.

Get the full buzz from the horse’s mouth – Technet Ireland Blog

technorati tags:Microsoft, Windows, Vista, Ireland, Irish, Launch, December, Office, 2007, Exchange, Groove, Infopath, Sharepoint

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Would you like porn with your iPod?

One of the top stories on Digg and other tech news sites today tells the story of a guy who bought a “refreshed” ( read refurbished ) laptop from a London based Apple store only to find a desktop folder full of porn images when he got home. Apparently an Apple tech didn’t quite do his job right and the 11 year old intended owner had a lucky escape when dad had to reformat himself at home.

Apple sells refreshed laptop filled with porn to 11 Year Old Girl

It’s a worrying trend as this is yet another example of standards slipping at Apple. It’s only about 6 weeks since we saw about 1000 iPods ship infected with a Windows virus thanks to an infected pc at the manufacturing site.

Apple accessories are outselling Zune units themselves this week and Apple are struggling to keep up with the demand. It seems like the world and his dog wants an iPod this Christmas too. My concern is, after so much success in recent years, it would be a real shame to see more serious cock ups in the run up to the holidays, as they rush to stock the shelves and neglect the basics that’s made their name, like build quality.

Let’s hope nobody opens a video iPod under the tree this holiday season to find it preloaded with “Debbie does Dallas” or worse !

technorati tags:Apple, iPod, Porn, Quality, Slippage, Video, Zune, Accessories, Windows, Virus

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