WebProWorld eCommerce Forum |
Rent a Car Shopping Cart
Can anybody guide me to choose the right solution for
a client, that has as rent a car business. I have to choose
between a proven solution or in-house.
Paypal is costing me a fortune
As my website just got out of the Google sandbox, I have
an increase of sales. However, when I check my stats this
month, I have 35 out of 45 carts abandoned this month.
Do I have to go to a different site for payment?
I am going to have a go at making a shopping cart from
scratch using php and mysql. I'd rather have complete
control over the product.
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07.11.05
A New Kind Of Conversation Is Needed With Microsoft
 By Robert Scoble
Last week Microsoft made a big step on working with the community.
We saw what can happen if you put something out there, put your
ear to the ground, and then refactor based on what you hear.
But, now, it's time to step up the game. I'll be honest. We
haven't been listening to the rumbling herd very well. We got
blogging pretty well. MSN Spaces is on fire. More than 15 million
spaces have been created since opening in December. 15 million!
The IE team is on fire. They understand the power of browse,
search, subscribe. That's a deep transformation that I thought
would take a lot longer to happen.
The Mappoint Team is coming soon with Virtual Earth. Yeah, Google
Earth is 3D and all that (congrats to Google -- it's freaking
awesome), but Virtual Earth is gonna suprise you as to what
it helps you do and how it helps you connect to real-world things
around you. Chandu over there understands the power of letting
people put their own stuff on maps (he's the guy who built the
blog map to my right).
But, there are other trees in the new media forest still to
evolve. We need a new kind of conversation to make sure these
teams not only do what's right, but do what's best for you as
a customer and someone who uses this stuff.
"But I hate Microsoft and don't want to help you out," I can
hear some of you saying.
Fine, but let's turn it around.
Let's say you're an iTunes user. Will Steve Jobs make sure that
he keeps iTunes ahead of Microsoft's stuff? So far he has. He
added podcasting support yesterday. Why? Cause he wants to make
sure customers are given best-of-breed capabilities. He knows
that the minute a better player or podcasting service comes
along that the word-of-mouth network will bring that new service
or player huge numbers of new customers.
So, let's go at it another way. What do you want in future versions
of iTunes? Do you want to be able to take your feeds out of
iTunes and put them into iPodder, for instance? Or Doppler?
Or vice versa?
33,000 of you watched the RSS video on Channel 9 over the past
few days. But, we've only heard from about 100 of you. That
means there's a HUGE number of people who just are staying quiet
and not becoming part of the conversation. Why? You think you
have nothing to say? I tell you, if 1,000 of you wrote "I listen
to podcasts" over on Channel 9 product planners around the world
would pay attention. It takes a very small number of people
to move companies. But they MUST show up, otherwise those of
us who think we are hearing a new customer base get ignored.
Here's my agenda for the next couple of years:
1) I want an "Internet Content Sharing Suite" that does it
all with simple, common, interfaces. Think back to 1989.
Back then you needed to buy a word processing program from one
vendor. A spreadsheet from another. A presentation program from
another. And a database from yet another. Then Microsoft came
out with the Office Suite that did it all. Why was that important?
Cause the four apps in the suite worked together (yeah, I know
it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it used to be).
They all came for one price. One support system. In one box.
Now, think about the Internet Content Creation software
out there today. You need a blog tool from one vendor. A photo
sharing tool from another. A wiki from yet another. A podcasting
service from yet another. And a video blogging tool or service
from yet another. None of these work together. Really. You should
come and talk to me about how they COULD work together someday.
But, they don't. The neat thing about RSS is that it shows the
way how they all COULD work together. Everyone missed Dave Winer's
demo of his OPML tool. Even Dave missed the power of that thing.
OPML is the glue that COULD bring all these things together.
But, Microsoft is so far away from understanding that it isn't
even funny. And I work there, so I can't imagine how far away
other big companies are from understanding this stuff.
A challenge to Microsoft: can we work together with the community
to build such a suite without needing to own it all? Can we
work with Google, Yahoo, iPodder, Technorati, Pubsub, Feedster,
and all the others to build a really killer world where my son
can share his info and his lists and his other stuff? Or, are
we going to only want to live in our own world? Hint: this isn't
like 1995. If we try to own it all we'll end up owning none
of it. Apple is already kicking our ass. So is Google. Are we
ready to cede EVERYTHING on the Internet to those two? (Hint:
Yahoo isn't getting much of the PR -- yet, but they have grown
their traffic dramatically over the past few months I hear.
How did they do that? By supporting RSS before other big portals
did).
Read
the Rest of the Article
About the Author:
Robert
Scoble is the founder of the famous Scobleizer
blog. As an employee of Microsoft, Robert Scoble is recognized
as the most prominent corporate blogger in the world. |
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