What happened to my blog?!

After the last blog post I found strange thing happened in my blog. I set the counter to track the number of visitors, which is on the left side of my blog, and I found that after the last blog post, the number of visitors dramatically increased. I also used Google Analytics to see who and how many people visit my blog. So I checked what happened. Below is the information given by Google Analytics.

#--------------------------------------------------------
# Profile Name: vg-ryo.blogspot.com/
# Report Name: Executive Overview
# Date Range: 4/19/2007 - 4/25/2007
#--------------------------------------------------------
#--------------------------------------------------------
# Visits and Pageviews
#--------------------------------------------------------
Date Range	Visits	Pageviews
Thu 4/19	1	3
Fri 4/20	1	1
Sat 4/21	0	0
Sun 4/22	1	1
Mon 4/23	1	1
Tue 4/24	13	15
Wed 4/25	32	36
You can see that the number of visitor suddenly increased 4/25.
#--------------------------------------------------------
# Visits by New and Returning
#--------------------------------------------------------
Visitor Types	Visits
New Visitor	44
Returning Visitor	5
#--------------------------------------------------------
# Geo Map Overlay
#--------------------------------------------------------
Country/Region/City	Visits
Washington|389376|-770928	9
Tokyo|356850|1397514	1
Houston|297755|-954152	1
Bangalore|129832|775833	1
Stanford|374178|-1221720	1
Minneapolis|449823|-933063	1
Georgetown|306728|-976673	1
Moscow|557522|376156	1
London|429833|-812500	1
Fairfax|388357|-773375	1
Cairo|300500|312500	1
Durham|359954|-789019	1
Arlington|388782|-771054	1
La Porte City|423049|-922062	1
Huntsville|347018|-866108	1
London|515000|-1167	1
Bellingham|487413|-1224337	1
Irving|328569|-969629	1
Hubli|153500|751667	1
Lattimer Mines|409943|-759613	1
Hohendodeleben|521000|115000	1
Tallinn|594339|247281	1
Sydney|-338833|1512167	1
Hyderabad|173753|784744	1
Pleasant Grove|404647|-1116332	1
San Jose|373073|-1218569	1
Newbury|514000|-13167	1
Atlanta|338004|-843865	1
Duluth|468144|-921270	1
Williamsport|412845|-769204	1
(not set)|(not set)|(not set)	1
Simpang Empat|49500|1006333	1
Praha|500833|144667	1
Albany|426929|-738380	1
Kirk Ireton|530333|-16000	1
Roslyn Heights|407809|-736415	1
Boscombe|511500|-17167	1
Victoria|484333|-1233500	1
Wow, people all over the world see my blog!
#--------------------------------------------------------
# Visits by Source
#--------------------------------------------------------
Sources	Visits
googleblog.blogspot.com	39
nicole-melander.blogspot.com	5
www2.blogger.com	2
mixi.jp	1
6degreesofgeorge.blogspot.com	1

39 people from Google's blog? Why is that? I made links to the post on 4/17, but did it make any difference? Ya. There is big difference. Since I made link to the Google's blog post, the link to my blog is appeared on the list of "Link to this post". That's why many people came from Google's blog to my blog.

I was little bit surprised because I didn't expect that just making link to Google's blog increased the visitors. Famous page like Google Blog has huge number of visitors, so the connection to such page has huge influence on your blog. If you want to increase the number of visitors, why don't you put the link to some popular pages like Google Blog.


Oh, by the way, Google Analytics is a great tool. You can see the changing number of visitors by line chart, which Web pages they come from, visitors physical location by map, which page contents are clicked, etc. I recommend you to use this tool. Its interesting.


Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you enjoyed reading.

Web 2.0 helps poor students

Since Web 2.0 doesn't have presice defenition, Most trend in Web world is called Web 2.0. , I think one of the great feature among them is that everything happens on "their" server, not on "our" server. For example, if you use Gmail, you don't have to install anything. You just have to create account on Google, type address, and enter. You don't have to care about security and use your memory to store all messages.

This trend helps me a lot. Before I came here I needed to buy my PC, but I didn't have much money, so I had to choose as cheap PC as possible (remember my presentation?). Therefore, my PC doesn't have much functions and software. However, I have almost no problem with my PC (its speed is a big problem, though). Think about what you really need in your PC. You can use Gmail or Yahoo mail for e-mail, and they can store more than GB. You can write paper by Google Docs, and also create spreadsheet. You can make slides for presentation by Web pages such as SlideShare. Also I heard Google Docs will be available for presentation slides from this summer. If you can use the Internet, you can do almost everything. And more importantly, they are all for free. If you have basic functions of PC, you don't need anything to be pre-installed.

Using tools on "their" server has some other advantages. Since you don't use tools on your server, you don't have to install and use your PC's memory. Moreover, you don't have to update those tools. If you used Microsoft Office and they published Microsoft Office 2007, you would have to purchase CD-ROM and update them in your PC. However, you don't have to purchase anything, they will update the system and you can automatically use updated version.


By the way, I found the interview of Tim O'Reilly, who created the word Web 2.0, and he seems to disagree that Web 3.0 is about Semantic Web. You can read it in here

SNS recruitment & traditional recruitment

Today's readings mention that many SNS is started to be used for recruiting. What's good or bad about SNS recruiting? Let me compair the recruiting by SNS and traditional way of recruiting.


SNS

1. Easy to find someone who can fulfill a company's need.

Many users of SNS for recruitment provide detailed information about them. Thanks to the development of search enigine technology, it is very easy to find someone who have necessary ability or experience. You can find good people through traditinal processes (cover letter, resume, interview... is it same in America?), but you need a lot of energy to read all resumes and find proper people. However, if you use SNS, you can find them by just one click.

2. Reliable because of referral.

It is possible that users put wrong information on their profile on SNS or resume. However, if they have the referral by employees in your company, they are more reliable. Referral is important to find good potential employees. SNS is superior in that point. It can reach various people through network. Not only your employees, but also your employees' friends and their friends... can be referred.

3. Not suit when you recruite many people or plan to hire someone and educate him/her through work.

Sometimes company just want labor force and many new workers. In that case, SNS may not be a preferable way because you have to search them and offer them a job individually. Also, when you want to hire someone and educate him/her through work, it is not good way. In that case, you will focus more on their personality than their experience or ability. On SNS, it is difficult to assume users personality. You need to actually see that peroson and talk with him/her.

4. You wil target "passive" candidates.

If you find someone who will fulfill your company's need, it doesn't necessariry mean that they wnat to join your company. You can offer them a job, but they may reject your offer because they may not like your job.

Traditional way

1. Easy to hire many people.

If a company is popular, more people than it needs will apply for that company. Therefore, traditinal way is good way to hire many people because it can gather large number of people.

2. Applicant want that job.

Generally, if you don't like one job, you will not apply for that job. Most applicants want that job, so if you tell them you will hire them, they won't reject your offer, unless they are offered better job by other companies.

3. Difficult to find outapplicant's ability.

Finding out one's ability only by a resume is difficult. You need interview or referral to judge one's ability.


These are what I can come up with now. Both have good point and bad point. I don't think you can rely on one of them. You need to combine or use them separately according to what you want.

SNS recruitment & traditional recruitment

Today's readings mention that many SNS is started to be used for recruiting. What's good or bad about SNS recruiting? Let me compair the recruiting by SNS and traditional way of recruiting.


SNS

1. Easy to find someone who can fulfill a company's need.

Many users of SNS for recruitment provide detailed information about them. Thanks to the development of search enigine technology, it is very easy to find someone who have necessary ability or experience. You can find good people through traditinal processes (cover letter, resume, interview... is it same in America?), but you need a lot of energy to read all resumes and find proper people. However, if you use SNS, you can find them by just one click.

2. Reliable because of referral.

It is possible that users put wrong information on their profile on SNS or resume. However, if they have the referral by employees in your company, they are more reliable. Referral is important to find good potential employees. SNS is superior in that point. It can reach various people through network. Not only your employees, but also your employees' friends and their friends... can be referred.

3. Not suit when you recruite many people or plan to hire someone and educate him/her through work.

Sometimes company just want labor force and many new workers. In that case, SNS may not be a preferable way because you have to search them and offer them a job individually. Also, when you want to hire someone and educate him/her through work, it is not good way. In that case, you will focus more on their personality than their experience or ability. On SNS, it is difficult to assume users personality. You need to actually see that peroson and talk with him/her.

4. You wil target "passive" candidates.

If you find someone who will fulfill your company's need, it doesn't necessariry mean that they wnat to join your company. You can offer them a job, but they may reject your offer because they may not like your job.

Traditional way

1. Easy to hire many people.

If a company is popular, more people than it needs will apply for that company. Therefore, traditinal way is good way to hire many people because it can gather large number of people.

2. Applicant want that job.

Generally, if you don't like one job, you will not apply for that job. Most applicants want that job, so if you tell them you will hire them, they won't reject your offer, unless they are offered better job by other companies.

3. Difficult to find outapplicant's ability.

Finding out one's ability only by a resume is difficult. You need interview or referral to judge one's ability.


These are what I can come up with now. Both have good point and bad point. I don't think you can rely on one of them. You need to combine or use them separately according to what you want.

CRM & Privacy

Two weeks ago, I posted the blog about the relationship between convenience and privacy. I wrote that convenience and privacy are the relationship of inverse proportion. Today's post is also related to it.

Recent marketing trend shifted from mass marketing for gaining new customers to targeted marketing for maintainig existent customers. It was because low economic growth made it difficult to gain new customers. (I heard that according to the research by an automaker, they have to spend $7,000 to gain new customer. If it's true, it's ridiculous.) It is easier for them to maintaining existent customers, so they focused more on maintaining the good relationship with customers. That's why CRM is important today.

To maintain the good relationship with customers, it is important to give personalized service to each customer. They must collect each customer's personal information such as name, age, interest, etc, as much as possible, and analyze it to give them adequate service. Thanks to the development of technology, the management and analysis of customer information became much easier, and also there are many CRM software to help them.

However, as the management of customer information become more important, they have to store more personal information. They will use it for better CRM, so they store it in their server. Of course, I believe they place strict control on such information and anyone can't access it easily. But again, we have to give up privacy for convenience.

Virtual collaboration tools & its ideal vision

Rob Cross argues that physical distance affects the effectiveness of networks. However, the problem of physical distance can be solved by the virtual collaboration tools.

I don't know much about and have much experience of such tools, so I don't know the quality of them. However, if their quality is same level as what we experienced in virtual class, I think they are good enough to use. Even if there is a distance between each attendant of meeting, since they can talk or see each other and share documents online, its almost same as facing each other.

But for effective virtual collaboration, both being able to talk or see each other and to share documents are necessary. I think only document sharing is not enough. Only using Google Docs without any tools to communicate can result in chaos because many users can modify a same part at the same time. They need the tools to communicate and tell something like "Hey, I will modify this part, so wait just a few minutes."

If companies have these tools and they have enough quality, what you need is to fully utilize them. Like Robert D. Hof mentioned, it takes time to get used to these tools. If only those who are familiar with technology can use these tools, virtual collaboration will decrease its value because the diversity of opinion will not exist in such situation. Therefore, they must be simple and easy.

Privacy & Convenience

Privacy and covenience is always the relationship of inverse proportion. To gain more convenience, you have to give up more privacy. For example, social-networking software called Visible Path takes into account the strength of relationships, so it considers the number of e-mails the workers exchanged. It argues that it never check the content of e-mail, but to improve its function, it should consider the content of e-mails. Without caring about the content, it values a very important business e-mail as equally as an e-mail sent by mistake. The content of e-mail is important factors to decide the strength of relationships. Checking the content of e-mails is necessary for the convenience, but it means less privacy.

Another example is Amazon.com's personalization. It gives the recommendation list, and it is based on users' purchase records. It is very useful function, but it means that Amazon.com keeps the record of purchase by every customer who has their accounts. Remaining record of purchase may be uncomfortable for some users. Again, it is the problem of privacy.

There are much more examples, such as Google Earth, Google Desktop Search, etc. They are all convenient, but privacy issue always involves. As Ghahremani mentions, "people have widely different notions of what's invasive". How far users and service providers compromise on privacy is difficult issue.