The 800 pound search engine

After my last post about how Google has totally screwed up their recent attempts at taking over social media it was nice to read Steven Levy's article "How Google's Algorithm Rules the Web" in this month's Wired. With all the attempts Google makes to branch out in different directions it is important to remember that their value proposition is still their ability to return relevant search results. The article is well worth reading as it gives both an interesting history as well as some "under the hood" insights of the ever changing logic that drives the worlds most successful search engine.

Google's anti-social network behavior

Google is sure having a tough time lately with it's recent product releases.

First they had to deal with the backlash against the Wave product as the overwhelming consensus from the public was confusion. Wave was supposed to be the new generation of online communication taking aspects from email, instant messaging and social media but in the end it seems Google missed the mark from a usability perspective.

Now the company is dealing with the public's privacy concerns over Google Buzz. The new social networking product which is competing with FaceBook was released as a component of Gmail without any "opt in" options and automatically considers anyone in the users address book as a "friend". Of course, the advantage of this approach to Google is the tool was automatically linking folks together and not requiring them to seek each other out over time (think FaceBook). But just because someone is in my address book does not mean I want them in my social network.

It looks like Google is at least smart enough to recognize their mistake and is already taking steps to correct the mistakes made with Buzz. They announced they will stop automatically linking you to the folks in your address book. Also, they will stop forcing Buzz in the Gmail menu but rather it will be an option users can turn on and off.

Back and busy as ever!

It has been a while since I last posted on LFW but I am committed to making a habit of it once again. The last two months have been spent surviving the holidays, working hard as usual and spending some well deserved time with the family.

One of the things I have been working on recently is the launch of my companies new brand, Reed Krakoff. The brand's website is a big part of the launch and will continue to evolve this year. The new luxury line which gets it's name from Coach's head of design will be making it's grand entrance this coming week during Fashion Week in New York. Check out the new site and be sure to check out video from the fashion show which will be posted Wednesday evening.