Layoff Tracker from Adotas

Layoff Tracker

• AOL – 700
• Google – 100
• IBM – more than 2,800
• LiveJournal – 12
• Microsoft – 5,000
• Sprint Nextel – 8,000
• Viacom – 850
• World Avenue – 30 percent of workforce
• Yahoo – 1,520
• Zango – more than 100

Beer Goggles for Email?

If you didn’t think the folks over at Google were geniuses before, think again.  I just came across an article on Reuters indicating that Google is offering a Gmail feature called “Mail Goggles”

“Mail Goggles” helps users avoid sending regrettable email or Gchat messages, an instant messaging system, by making them pass a simple math test before sending.

A MATH TEST!!!

Genius…pure, simple genius.  Great ideas are the ones that seem so obvious that you slap your forehead when someone else releases them.  I’m sure this has been thought of before (I remember sitting around in college dreaming about phones with breathalyzer tests after having made one too many drunken calls to an ex). 

I’m sure this handy little application will save a few jobs (breathe and try to solve a math problem before you rip off that ticked off email to your boss, or high maintenance client).  I’m also certain it’ll save more than a few relationships (hasty break up messages, or even inappropriate notes to exes will be hindered).  Alcoholics of the world rejoice…

Google – not being evil, and helping you keep your reputation intact. 

Outstanding.

MIVA News

Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement

 

Item 1.01. Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.On November 10, 2008, MIVA, Inc. (“MIVA”) and Google, Inc. entered into an Amended and Restated Google Services Agreement (the “Google Agreement”), effective January 1, 2009, which amends and restates MIVA’s current Google Services Agreement which was set to expire on December 31, 2008. Under the Amended and Restated Google Agreement, MIVA, and its subsidiaries, have agreed to utilize Google’s WebSearch, on an exclusive basis, and AdSense Services, on a non-exclusive basis, for approved websites and applications. Approved websites and applications include websites and applications from MIVA’s subsidiary MIVA Direct, Inc. that have implemented Google WebSearch and AdSense Services under the current Google Services Agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the Amended and Restated Google Agreement, MIVA and its subsidiaries will generate revenues when consumers click through listings to Google advertisers’ websites. The Agreement has a term of two years and contains customary termination provisions.

Media and Wedia

Last week I ran into my daughter’s room and excitedly told my wife that I thought I may have coined a term (this heady little insight is on my list of things to “do before I die”)….I was thrilled.  I’ve been immersing myself in everything Web 2.0, ever since attending the Web 2.0 Expo.  I was thinking about MIVA, Alot.com, and how interactive Media is being effected by the wave of Social Media.  I was feeling relatively pleased with myself after having labeled my Miva project (We)iva – so that I can track my first 100 days at the company  – and it hit me…this isn’t MEdia, it’s WEdia!  

WEDIA!

I did it! I coined a term…the euphoria was short lived, after I did a quick Google Search and realized the term has been around for a while now.  

Bummer. 

I’m not discouraged – I’m sure some day I’ll coin a term – either way – Wedia is a term I’m diggin’ right now.

WordPress VS. Google’s Blogger

Last week I made the leap from Google’s Blogger platform to WordPress, and I have to say – I’m impressed. It took me a bit longer than I would have liked to transfer all of my posts for the past 2 years to WordPress, but so far it seems like it’s been worth it. The skins in the design portion are much sleeker, and professional looking. The ease of use seems unsurpassed.  I’ll be playing around with the system for the next few weeks.  

I’m going to check out the WordPress slide application to share some of my more recent presentations, and look for your feedback. Stay tuned.

I’m interested to hear if anyone has any WordPress horror stories?  It seems almost too good to be true?  

Either way – for right now – I’m a HUGE fan.

When Google said NO, discovering opportunity out of adversity.

About 5 months before Google went public, I had a very interesting experience. I had been working at AGA, a creative design agency that develops catalogs brochures etc. AGA is a great company, and I loved working there. I had just come back from a phenomenal year in London that had been hugely successful for me as well as the AGA. I came back thinking I could conquer the world (in my mind I had).

My first order of business when I got back to NY was to get my life back in order, and try to recapture the life I had before I went to London.

That wasn’t going to happen. Things got better! I met my (now) wife Laura!

Things were looking great for me. I was at a job I loved, met a great girl, and I had just started interviewing at GOOGLE! Wow! I thought I was a shoe-in. Three years earlier I had worked in the interactive space at a company called Mediaplex. I yearned for those glory days of the Internet. I missed the face paced environment, and the speed of light business that occur ed. I have a Masters of Science in Direct Marketing from New York University, international sales experience, and all the confidence in the world!

I spent a long time preparing for my interviews, and thought that each time I met with the team at Google, that I was certainly going to get the job offer. There was even a series of odd coincidences that I thought pointed directly to my getting an offer. I ran into an old college friend at my first interview (actually DURING the interview)!

I was sitting with the HR person, when her paper blew off her desk (they had a great deck at the former Google offices). When I got up to get the paper I saw my friend! She was just as shocked to see me, as I her! We exchanged pleasantries, and she wished me luck! WOW! If they highered Meghan McGarry, and she and I went to the same school, Loyola College in Maryland (even if only for a semester, because she transferred to the University of Connecticut)! Well… this was EASY!!

Not so fast. I had just started the arduous task of numerous interviews at Google. They don’t get the creme of the crop for nothing. They take their time, review, and review, and review. They taped my sales calls with them to analyze my pitch. This was not easy for me. I felt as if I had been “out of the game” for a bit. The sales process at AGA was much slower, and things were NOT closed over the phone. I was the king of face to face meetings.

After my first few interviews, I even found out that the woman that had been organizing all of my interviews at Google (Sandy Feigenbaum) was a college friend of my wife Laura! At the time Laura and I had just started dating, were in the midst of falling madly in love, and I had mentioned her to Sandy on more than one occasion (before I even knew that they knew each other)! Another odd cooincidence in my favor!!

Long story short, after 7 interviews, two taped over the phone (apparently the final taped call was a tie breaker between myself and another candidate), I was not offered the job.

This was the BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY CAREER!

If I had not been turned down by Google, I would have not been where I am today. Currently I am the Director of Sales, Northeast Region at Azoogleads, Inc.

I have had such a phenomenal time at Azoogleads. I was the 3rd person to be highered in the NY office, and we currently have close to 40 people in that same office! My thoughts are always on the positive, and my life is abundant. For a long time, I held onto negative feelings about my experience with Google. Now I can look back, and say that they had made the right decision. Before coming to Azoogleads, I made a brief stop at Responsys. I was selling software, and was working from home for a short period of time. I grew tremendously during that job, and I feel that I needed to mature as a business person. I have been lucky to have met the people I have since my Google experience, and I hope that this story can inspire others that may not see the “silver lining” of a seemingly bad situation.

Have a great day everyone!

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought”
-Buddha