Mike's blog

QR codes are everywhere. Your ads. Your shirt. Your business card. And now you can get one when you die.

When you talk about QR codes people no longer have that look on their face like they just ate bad teriyaki, and when they see one, they don't remark on how much your "sudoku" sucks because there are no clues.

A few days ago Mashable provided us with an article on "beautiful and creative" QR Codes (which was actually just a less useful version of a prior article). This got a 3 of 10 on my "shrug factor" before it really started to get on my nerves.

Before you starting asking "Where can I get one?" consider -- is your QR code strategy so complete that nothing is left to do but make a designer code?
 

I've remarked before on how many blogs focus on what you should be doing with your web strategy, while never telling you what not to do (like in Don't Drive Your Mass Email Campaign Off a Cliff).

Here are four basic things you should (and probably do) know, and can stop doing on your website, TODAY.

Yesterday Google replaced its logo with an interactive Google-fied version of Pac-Man to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the game.

And the web went wild.

It trended on Twitter. It was in the news. In the news for goodness sakes.

I’m surprised about how many articles tout the supremacy of social media while ignoring the importance of email.  I get it.  Email isn’t sexy. 

Last week I went to San Francisco for a conference, and I left a few days early to enjoy some California weather, food, and wine.  I spent my first day in Los Gatos and, as luck would have it, I had time to watch the Cat’s Hill Classic.  This is an exciting cycling criterium that repeatedly takes racers up a 23% grade climb in its mile-long neighborhood loop. Tough road. Tough climb. Tougher cyclists.

I promised myself when I got home tonight, I was going to work on some coding and a presentation I have due tomorrow… and then I saw this sign. Yes, I pulled over and took a picture of it, just so you'd believe me.

The recent announcement by Facebook can be likened to electricity in the late 1800s, and Mark Zuckerberg is Thomas Edison.  Unfortunately, Edison was a loser when it came to electricity.

I couldn’t believe it. I think Pete Cashmore of Mashable (a website I enjoy) took a massive payoff of Farmville cash to write a Facebook puff piece.

I’m sorry Pete, but I’m not buying it. In fact, your first paragraph was so weak I couldn’t believe my eyes:

The recent volcano eruption in Iceland and its subsequent ash-spewing raises a pretty good question concerning social networking. The scale of this crisis was huge -- $1.7 billion in lost revenues; 1.2 million passengers affected… EVERY DAY; 100,000 flights canceled (source portfolio.com). As usual, I have to ask the question (if even just to myself):

What Is My Point? (beware of circular logic)