Greg Ebbecke

Personal Health Records (PHR) were the “next big thing” when I worked on a major health insurer a decade ago. Needless to say, reality took a bit longer to catch up to the promise.

I hear you on the concern about health data being stored online. It’s certainly uncomfortable in some aspects. That said, PII (personally identifiable information)…[Read more]

Disney generally hits the mark, despite my intense dislike for Be Out Guest.

That being said, the lesson I hope you all take from here is that a good idea on paper does not always equate to a good idea in practice. To the Imagineer who envisioned the ultimate dining experience, this was a slam dunk. To the people paying for that experience,…[Read more]

There are pros and cons to repurposing what works for small children for adults, but that is an entirely different story.

How much of what we “know”, specifically what we get from social media, reflects the headlines we can rather than the content it teases?

When it comes to the ads we place on the page, 5 seconds may be a sever…[Read more]

Really appreciate the story-telling here. It’s crystal clear the challenge you are facing, reinforced because there are few assumptions that “it just doesn’t work”. I really appreciated your efforts to troubleshoot even though driving is well outside of your comfort zone.

As an EV driver, I’ve come to rely on mapping software more than ever.…[Read more]

That was my question as well. I also am slightly disappointed that it’s so difficult to objectively evaluate technology.

I’m not as aware of the ultra-conservative preference for DuckDuckGo (I have many quite liberal friends who swear by it), but given the stereotypical paranoia of elements of the right, I can understand the appeal.

In the…[Read more]

HIPAA, GDPR and CPRA/CCPA all present some pretty stringent standards regarding how any company can use individual health data.

Is that enough though? Who watches the Watchmen?

I’m admittedly not as well versed on this specific venture as you all are, but I appreciate your perspective. The risk with any data collection is that the…[Read more]

We have ~300 employees at my employer and have built and deployed over a 100 “apps” for internal use and for our clients. Keep in mind, we’re not a creative agency so we’re not in the business of building apps on behalf of our clients.

They’re not what you’re all thinking of (available in the app store), but they are very much self-contained…[Read more]

There was a lot of talk that a $15 minimum wage would force this kind of shift to automation. Companies like McDonald’s have the scale to do this, but you regular mom and pop shop probably not.

Unsurprisingly, the labor shortage is having a similar effect on wages, so not surprised to see a similar reaction.

Is it just the voice that throws…[Read more]

I attempted to answer this in my prior post. I think we all see the “penalty” in the inefficiencies of the current system, but it’s harder to imagine a world without targeting.

Paying for content is not ideal. Ads with targeting are worth more, which subsidizes your preferences and also makes business models viable for more…[Read more]

I also opt-in for marketing intelligence but also because as a consumer I realize I simply cannot afford access to all of the content I wish to consumer.

Simply “turning off tracking” isn’t viable in any case, but if it were it’d lead to an even worse user experience dominated by a few mega companies that could afford to “be everywhere”.

If…[Read more]

I love that we’ve reached the point where the “typical” FB user is your elderly Aunt. I’m old enough to remember when FB was just for those rascally college hooligans!

This is probably also why FB is betting so big on tech that Gen Z (and other generations to come) might lean into.

Does anyone get the feeling that Meta might be “punting” on…[Read more]

I’m in no way advocating these “cloisters” are healthy, but free speech cuts many ways (as we’ll talk about on Wednesday!). My personal position remains that any reduction in time “discussing” just about anything on the Internet is a net gain for all aspects of your personal wellness.

4chan and 8chan host questionable content, but also…[Read more]

My money is that this is their way of “getting back” at Apple.

It’s no secret that Apple’s decision to turn IDFA opt-in really cut into their bottom line. By shifting to the meta verse, they move the “device” from the iPhone or Android to something they might control (see Ray Ban glasses, Oculus, etc.).

If they build their own sandbox, they…[Read more]

That’s also a return to the old ways in some respects. TV was originally just the big 3 networks before fragmenting with the arrival of cable. We saw the same as Netflix became the dominant player in the video space before that space fragmented as well.

Seems the way of things, but it does serve the benefit of forcing advertisers to put a…[Read more]

Designed obsolescence isn’t inherently bad, as long as it’s not intentionally masked.

To your point, if there was a reasonable rationale for the battery life being shorter than the rest of the device’s components (usually, the argument is that it saves on cost), then so be it.

The issue becomes when you design devices where replacing the…[Read more]

Great tieback to books. It’s easy to forget how many different ways content can be consumed and that just because an experience is different, doesn’t mean the “old way” is preferred.

Given the sheer volume of content available and the accessibility, is it even reasonable to expect co-watching at scale? It was certainly more viable in the days…[Read more]

All evidence is that the opt-in range is driven in many ways by the content. Opt-in can be universal, but for most it’s likely “partner by partner”.

Gaming in particular offers a serious incentive to use ads to get upgrades rather than pay-for-play. In those cases, 30-40% of users are reported to opt in. Is this a harbinger for the challenges…[Read more]