Today I was in the middle of a conversation and hit a proverbial wall. I needed a word to describe a potential product that I’ve been working on. The product is still in R&D and still ‘under wraps’ so I didn’t want to make the mistake of using it’s name. I needed something else to call it, but the word I normally would have used in a situation like this, widget, has been de-definitionized. What I mean to say is that the old definition that I’ve lived with for my whole life has been replaced by a new one. The new definition, while now only adopted by tech savvy geeks such as myself, does not allow for the use of the old definition in most conversations.

Definitions

Old definition: widg-et (wĭj’ĭt); an unnamed or hypothetical manufactured article

New definition: widg-et (wĭj’ĭt); an element that runs on a social networking site or a computer users desktop that provides useful and timely information Continue Reading »

Creative content gets attention.

The great thing about today’s world is that everyone carries a cell phone with them (and hence a cell phone camera) and can get pictures of all the funniest ads and upload them to their blogs, websites, Facebook pages, etc.

If you are going to spend money distributing an ad, make sure you spend the time to make it creative.  If it makes people laugh then they will pass it along, over and over and over again.  This free advertisement distribution can often be more valuable then the payed for distribution (because it is viral).

Here is a tribute to some of the best ads I’ve seen floating around the information highway lately:

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