Search – When It’s Good to Be at the Bottom of the Page

There is one source that I have found to consistently have been more helpful then Google when researching a topic for business or educational purposes – Wikipedia.   Suppose you are researching a topic such as US Health Care Reform or Global Climate Change to better understand what it is all about.  You could Google the phrase, but a healthy percentage of the content that will be displayed as results is from vendors promoting a product that relates to your search term.  Google, of course, makes money by selling keyword advertising and analytics tools that allow companies to improve their search rankings. 

Does Awesome Customer Service Trump Excellent Marketing?

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to read Tony Hseih’s book Delivering Happiness.  Tony is the CEO of Zappos, the phenomenally successful online shoe retailer that grew to $1B in sales within less than 10 years then was acquired by Amazon.com.  Zappos has many non-traditional approaches to its business model.  One of its relatively unique philosophies surrounds its views on marketing.  Zappos believes that excellent customer service is the best form of marketing.  In fact, Zappos takes the money it would have spent on paid advertising and instead invest it into customer service and experience.