Small Business

Intel went on the record with Reuters saying netbooks are not a good first computer in the article Intel Sees No First-Time PC Buyers for Netbooks. Why not? According to Intel's Sean Maloney, the first time you buy something, like a PC, you want the “real deal.” Does this make sense to you, or is this is subtle plea for buyers to stick with higher margin products like laptops and desktops?

If you watch CNN, you may have noticed some of the shows now include comments by viewers in the crawl section at the bottom of the screen. People send those messages via Twitter. Is this a brilliant tool for viewer engagement or the equivalent of drunks waving in the background when an athlete is interviewed immediately after a game?

Small businesses tend to forget about the US Post Office for shipping once they get past a handful of packages per week. And if you deal with the Post Office as a consumer, or your particular Post Office treats consumers like annoyances, you run happily to FedEx or UPS and never look back. So I was surprised to hear from a company called Endicia that can make the Post Office a viable shipping option for businesses, including services like volume rebates, flat rate shipping, and Saturday delivery for no extra charge.

Just after my post about The Facebook Productivity Sink Hole, the Internet monitoring company 8e6 Technologies sent me a note about their recent study. They surveyed 1000 businesses, 500 in the US and 500 in the UK, and found the problem crosses the pond faster than bad reality TV plots stolen by Hollywood.