Rising Stream, LLC

My alma mater has pointed to the latest annual University rankings from US News & World Reports. In this case, the University of Missouri - Rolla ranks 118th among the nation’s doctoral granting institutions.

I am a 1978 graduate of the university with a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. It is an education that has provided me the foundation I have needed to succeed in technology, sales and marketing. Go Miners!

As I think back, this has to be my Dad’s all-time favorite quote as I was growing up. As a kid, you shake your head and wonder if you’ll be that square when you get to his age. The answer in my case is yes.

I bring this up because of the recent announcement Yahoo made - an offer of unlimited free email storage starting in May. There are some caveats, for example Yahoo noted that it is for personal use only and they will monitor to ensure that a business does not offer the Yahoo services for a fee.

There is another downside that we are all becoming more aware of. In order to pay for this service (remember, no such thing as a free lunch) Yahoo has begun a more aggressive advertising model on their services. There are examples of what to expect in the Beta services they currently offer with both email and the My Yahoo portal that was Yahoo’s monster hit. Before Search and Advertising were the breadwinners, the online world revolved around portals.

I was recently invited to try the new Beta My Yahoo. There were two noticeable differences immediately. The first was to my content, the reason behind My Yahoo - it was replaced by a very large square ad in the top right column. Not my content, theirs. On My Yahoo. Because of the pretty changes, I also had to make some changes to my preferred layout that were not as easy as it should have been. Finally, the service continues to be slow. I use Hotmail and Gmail as well and have begun to migrate several email addresses to Gmail due to ease of use, layout and quite frankly speed.

The one thing that keeps me coming back is the Music Launchcast Plus Streaming Radio service. This is a premium service and it was nowhere to be found on My Yahoo page after the migration. I had to go find it, then I had to find the button that ultimately allowed me to add it back. While I do the majority of my internet work via Firefox, Yahoo continues to force me to use Internet Explorer with this service. That would be OK, I open it up first thing in the morning and beginning streaming music. The problem is it crashes regularly now. One minute I have music, the next I don’t. I wonder how much Rhapsody is these days?

I’ve been a big proponent of My Yahoo and the other personalized web pages that are available from Google and Microsoft, recommending them to my SGFsoccer.com readers as well as my genealogy compatriots at Ozarks Genealogical Society.

I’m not the only one that is unimpressed.

Big news from the world of advertising - Nike has chosen to look for a new ad agency. Why is that important to you? Nike has been working with Weiden & Kennedy for decades, a firm that has come to be recognized for their role in turning Nike into a marketing monster. Yet, despite their lofty position in the advertising hemisphere, Nike has identified a weakness - Wieden has been slow to adapt to the Internet — an important arena for a marketer as focused on the youth audience as Nike.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The message is clear: No matter how talented an agency’s creative team or how well the client’s management likes the firm’s executives, the agency is of limited value unless it embraces digital media.

The decision Nike has made is focused on the youth market. What about your market? How are they using the internet and what steps have you taken to address their needs in working with your organization?