My name is Andrew Scott; I am currently Founder/CEO of the location based discovery startup Rummble and spend my time in Cambridge, London, San Francisco and anywhere else that there is interesting digital stuff happening - especially in mobile. This is a blog about social software, mobile and my personal whinges.
Was pleasantly surprised to check my Norwegian air tickets and login only to find this (see below). Lufthansa also has an efficient mobile login option. BA, Virgin, Easyjet, are you listening?
There is no excuse for not doing this these days, its ridiculously easy.
It’s literally TWO MONTHS since I last wrote a post. For this I can only apologise; I’ve been away for business and extremely busy. Much I would have loved to write about, but I simply have not had time. I’ve been in Germany, Spain, California, the Black Rock Desert (Nevada), New York, Poland and of course Blighty … and suffice to say Im happy to be back in the office and having blocked out two weeks with no meetings time to climb the mountain of backlog of work and make some serious progress!
So, as an apology heres a fun URL from Google showing their timeline from inception. It makes for interesting distraction if you dont already know the Google story:
One easy way, is just to understand the breadth of services out there and how they fit together. Here is a fantastic, and fun, starting point by way of AI’s 2008 Web Trend Map laid out like the Tokyo metro. There is an interactive version here.
Why not print one out and stick it on the office wall – you might find your staff take some interest!
I think I preferred the layout of their 2007 map, but who cares what I think… 
It surely wont happen. It would be madness. MySpace is not worth $12 billion dollars. Simple. I rest my case. Nothing else to say on the matter.
Messaging centre. Secure. Whats the point of it if all I can ask is sales enquiries?
Their response when I emailed to ask where my business card is that they didnt send out after 3 weeks of my waiting:
Dear Mr Scott
Business Banking
Thank you for your e-message received 14 June 2007.
Unfortunately we are currently unable to action queries of this nature via this channel. In order for us to assist you further, please could I ask you to either;
Contact your local branch
Or
Contact Business Telephone Banking on 08457 60 60 60(textphone 08457 125 563) 8am to 10pm every day (except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day).
From outside the UK, call us on +44 1792 491 988.
I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.
Additionally, we recommend that users bookmark the BIB Information Centre (www.ukbusiness.hsbc.com/bibinfo) as a Favourite.
Here you can find a list of frequently asked questions, online guides, systems requirements, new features and copies of the forms used in connection with the service.
Please do not hesitate to contact us, should you have any further queries.
Kind regards
Adrian Netto
HSBC Internet Banking Customer Support
My response back:
Rumours of Bebo and Yahoo are rife. Michael Birch (British born) founded the site with his American wife, Xochi, in 2005. They both now live in the U.S. but the Bebo site has a serious UK following. I’d argue its reach and future potential are less than that of Facebook (which turned down a $1 billion Yahoo offer some time ago). Bebo’s brand is attractive to a slightly younger demographic than Yahoo – and in my mind that’s bad. The young people are, the more they change; if they change, they change their brand taste.
In anycase, should it go through it will make Michael the next Internet multi-millionaire; so best of all luck to him!
For those who are not already aware, this is a great site for a bit of fun browsing. More importantly, a belated thanks to Saurier Duval, curator of the Museum of the Modern Betas for adding playtxt.
We’ve had 887 downloads for the playtxt mobile instant messenger client, in 48 hours since posting J2ME version on the www.getjar.com website (hence I thought I’d give them a quick plug ; -) …onward and updward!
I do hate this sort of online advertising. It is normally reserved for the likes of the despised Kelkoo and other lame shopping comparison sites that claim best prices, all products in the world and independent reviews. More often than not, the products are not available when you do click through, there is no review and the information held as a specification is out of date or wrong.
O2 have succesfully learnt from these mammoth over bearing online sites and started advertising phones they dont even have; or even say they WILL have anytime soon. Infact, the O2 site cant even find the very thing it says it is selling. There is no sign on the page you click through to, of an N73, let alone an N95; and the search engine cant find it. I suspect that enough idiots click through and by other things to make it worth while of these sites to keyword advertise everything!
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