Greg Ebbecke

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]

My hot take is that this is a “good thing”.

The issue to me is that the echo chambers were allowed to form in the main platforms. “Free speech” applies primarily to public platforms, as I understand it. Commercial entities are freer to regulate what they deem acceptable and no one has a “right” to access a commercial platform (as I see…[Read more]

10 years ago (I know I’m dating myself again), I had the epiphany that we were doing TV buying wrong.

I was lucky to be at a company that let me lean into it, and so I devised an in-house tool that let us equate digital impressions for services like YouTube and Hulu into their traditional TV equivalent (rating points).

I won’t bore you on…[Read more]

Curious if you can go deeper on how effective it is to “talk about shows” in the current environment?

My POV here is that we can all talk “about” Squid Game, but it’s hard to really dissect it or get into the conversation because the experience is so dynamic. Some people may have binged the whole season, others might only be an episode in. Some…[Read more]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/01/covid-19-pandemic-has-increased-stress-say-55percent-in-harvard-unc-study.html

There were a bunch of these articles popping up for the last year.

I actually agree with you more that “busy” is perceived more than real. Similar to how “you can never have enough money” (i.e. your spending tends to adjust to your…[Read more]

The “you” is intended to be the reader. Not assuming anyone has these beliefs, but to put them in the shoes of someone who might / in the presence of someone espousing them.

My expertise is not in behavioral science, so I welcome any outside perspective that validates anything I believe. I believe I understand the general theory enough to apply…[Read more]

Thanks for weighing in! I appreciate that you hit on many of the “personal math” elements as well. It’s really not my place to comment on how anyone spends their money, but I think there is a deficit of financial education especially as these devices and content become “critical” to participating with society at younger ages.

Also agree the…[Read more]

You hit my main point at the end, Humans by nature can be irrational, impulsive beings.

My post was less about hitting on any one point than to highlight that so much is interconnected. If you are concerned about certain behaviors, where do you start?

The temptation may be to blame “social media” for our ills, but it’s not the only way…[Read more]