On "The Verge" of Greatness

Who is "The Verge"?



As a new technology fan and lover of interesting online content, I must say that "The Verge" (http://www.theverge.com/) may be one of my new favorite technology blogs. It was founded in 2011 by Joshua Topolsky and Marty Moe (in partnership with Vox Media) and has made it main goal to "offer breaking news coverage and in-depth reporting, product information, and community content via a unified, modern platform." With new articles being published by staff writers about everything ranging from the iPad 3 to social media trends, it is no surprise that The Verge has quickly become one of the leading sources for breaking news in the technology world. Even though it is a fairly new publication, it has delivered some really interesting and thought provoking content about not only the current state of technology but the future of innovation and creativity. I was really surprised by the amount of writers and interns that they have on staff and how experiences they actually were. From experts in computer and electrical engineering like Thomas Ricker to politics fans and ramen noodle connoisseur like David Pierce, the team working for the blog comes from so many different places with different perspectives that are apparent in their wide array of articles.

So What's It All About?

"The Verge" delivers its content using 5 main categories: products, reviews, features, show, and podcast. The "Product" section is pretty self explanatory. It offers different details about different types of technology. They literally talk about everything from phones to laptops, tablets, television, gaming, etc. The "Reviews" section goes into detail about each individual product. It gives you the in-and-out of each product (from the software to the camera power) and then gives you an overall rating of the product with a detailed breakdown of how the score was distributed. The "Features" section is where the personality of the website really comes out. They have different articles about up and coming technological geniuses like Kieron-Scott Woodhouse (head designer at ADzero) to special articles about the publications current playlist or what's in the co-founders bag. Articles like these give the publication a personality and shows people a little sneak peek of what the people behind the magic are like. One thing that I think makes them stand out from the blogger crowd is the fact that they have their own show. Web show, that is. They've created a show that talks about different trends in the technology world as well as new ideas and products that are on the rise in terms of popularity. They've only done 3 episodes so far but they are becoming more and more popular so I wouldn't be surprised if there were many more to come. Along with the show, The Verge also produces a podcast about once a week and talks about interesting things going on in the technology world.

Their Electronic Signature

Blogging style is one of the most important parts of a blogging website. In my opinion, you could have some of the best information about your topic that he world has ever seen, but if you present it to me in a very mundane with no form of interesting appearance, I probably won't read it all. I am very easily bored by something that isn't visually appealing, so the blogging style is one of the main reasons that I continue to read a blog. This blog, in my mind, has one of the most dynamic layouts that I've seen on a blog. The homepage alone catches your eye as soon I visit the page. The different tabs on the homepage are not just typical links that take you to the article. They have text and a picture of the product or service that they're talking about so that you have a little visual sneak peek about what you're going to read about. I also really like the way that they set up their review section. Let's say that you're looking for a specific product and you know what it looks like but you don't know the name of it. This website shows you the pictures of each product rather than the name which makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for. Not to mention, the information that they provide about each product is a lot more relevant that I thought it would be. Instead of using a lot of tech-y terms that I wouldn't be able to understand, they give you information about the different aspects of the item in terms that everyone can understand. There is a ton more features that I could go on and on about but I think that the best thing that this site has to offer is the fact that it's user-friendly. Even though it talks about technology, the site isn't geared towards just tech nerds. It can be read and enjoyed by anyone who has even the faintest interest in technology which is why it is one of my favorites. So whether you want to be the next Steve Jobs or just really like learning about what new technologies are out there, log onto http://www.theverge.com/, and check out "The Verge". I promise you won't regret it.

Leave It In The Clouds

“In A Bind” is an interactive site that searches the web for the cheapest prices on your textbooks based on the information that you give it about your classes. Once you've picked everything you need, you can purchase or rent the books and we'll ship them right to your doorstep.

The Cloud

Cloud computing, also known as cloud storage, is an internet service that provides storage to computer users. The difference between this service and using a different type of storage like a hard drive is that all of the storage is floating on the internet and will never have a physical presence. It has many great aspects to it like allowing users access to their information from any computer and having large amounts of storage space. There are different types of cloud computing that serve different purposes. If you want to store pictures online, you can use services like Picasa or Flikr or YouTube for digital videos. There are also general online services that let you store whatever you want like Box.net or Windows Live. It's a really convenient way for businesses to give their clients access to their information from any computer with access to the internet. Let's say that a customer has a problem with a service or product that you're providing and you're not in the office at the time that you're contacted about the issue. With cloud computing, you can get a hold of your customer's information no matter where you are and fix the problem as quick as possible. So, how will "In a Bind" use cloud computing? Well.....

The Central Hub

"In A Bind" is a great idea as a company, but there is no guarantee that it will take off and soar as soon as we officially launch our website; which means that business is going to be running a little slow for a while. We won't have all the man power that we want at first which means that people are definitely going to have to double up on tasks; so any tools that can make things a lot easier and more organized for us will be great. This is where cloud computing comes in handy. When it comes to keeping track of our expenses and customers information, Google Docs is going to be our go-to tool. We'll be able to make spreadsheets with our customers' information in it so that no matter where we are, we have what we need. If one of our employees needs to contact a customer about an issue with their order, all they have to do is log on to our Google Docs account, look at our customer information spreadsheet, and get whatever they need. If there is a presentation that has to be made, we can create the entire online and save it to our Google Docs account. That way, we can get the presentation wherever it has to be without any hassle of having to save it to an outside source and if we ever need to refer back to it, we know exactly where it is.

 You've Got Mail

Our customers will be able to send email us about any concerns and issues that they may have. Whether it be about not receiving a textbook that they ordered or if there is a problem with a money transaction, once they send in an email letting us know what the issue is, we will make sure that we get back to them within 24 hours with the best solution. One great thing about this is that any employee of the company will have access to the email account which means that if one person doesn't know the right way to go about handling a situation, but someone else within the company does. The person with the most knowledge about the issue can be contacted about the problem, read the email for themselves (no matter where they are), and be able to respond to the customer with a resolution to their problem. For example, let's say that someone working for us (we'll call him Bob, the intern) receives an email from a customer about a transaction and Bob can't find any information about the transaction in our records. Bob can then call Susie in the finance department, even though she's out of the office, and Susie can look through our records in our Google Docs account, find the information that Bob is looking for, and send it to Bob. Bob can then take all the necessary steps to help our customer out with whatever they need, and everyone ends up happy.

The cloud will definitely be an essential part of our company. It will hold all of our customer information and company records in one convenient place. Thus, making is easier for people to find what they're looking for and help everything run a lot more smoothly.

Us Against The World

“In A Bind” is an interactive site that searches the web for the cheapest prices on your textbooks based on the information that you give it about your classes. Once you've picked everything you need, you can purchase or rent the books and we'll ship them right to your doorstep.
Where Do I Begin?

When I came up with the idea of creating a textbook selling website, I immediately thought of my competition. I wanted to make my company something that people had never seen before but I realized that with sites like Amazon and Chegg, that would be impossible. So instead, I decided to figure out what exactly they were missing and what were some of the complaints that people had with these services. After a little bit of research on both of these sites as well as on some online forums where you can comment on the different services you've used, I realized what I needed to do in order to make this company stand out. So how do we compare to these other services? Well . . . .

Amazon.com
URL: Amazon Link

Amazon.com is definitely one of my top competitors. They're known for their low prices and their ability to get books to you in a small amount of time. One of their features that I also found to be really helpful would be their discounts for college students. They have a deal where you can get a certain percentage off of your textbook purchase if you use your school email address. Even though they have all of these great features there are some flaws. The first would be when you buy a book from amazon but it's technically from a 3rd party, they cannot guarantee that your book will get to you in a timely fashion. I've actually had experience with this. I ordered a programming book from an outside party in last month and it was supposed to be here within 3 to 5 days. It's now February and I still haven't received it or a refund. One thing I want to do to prevent this from happening is make sure that I keep a close eye on the third parties that we work with to make sure that they don't just take the money and never send our customers the product. I would also put a cap on the amount of time that a seller has to get back to the customer. I would probably give them 2 or 3 business days after they receive payment to either ship out their product or contact us so that we can keep our customer in the loop throughout the process.

Chegg.com
URL: Chegg Link

Chegg is one of my main competitors for 3 important reasons:

1. They also allow you to look up courses at the university that you're attending and find reviews and information about the class.
2. They have a social media type of network aspect that comes with your account that you create on the website
3. They have really impressive study tools attached to the website like a flashcard app and online tutoring

Now, even though all of these ideas are really cool and would definitely appeal to college students, there is a tiny problem with each of them. I like that they let you look up your courses and see what other students that have taken the course say about it, but it doesn't tell you what textbooks you need for each specific course. This part of the site is also maintained by the people who have accounts with the site. So, if no one takes the time to add the information, then you won't find any. Their homework help aspect is also a good idea but it doesn't guarantee that your questions will get answered. Not to mention, the help that you're getting is not from trained educators who know a lot about the field. The information comes from other students and members of the website; so there's no guarantee that the information is accurate. I do think that the social media aspect of the site is one aspect that could definitely give "In A Bind" a run for its money, but who's to say that we can't incorporate that as well. We would just need to figure out how to make it so that it's not just another account that people have to maintain.

All in all, both of these sites do have really good services. It would definitely be a challenge to make sure that not only do we provide innovative services for people that guarantees quality products but we also have to make sure that we don't become just another textbook site. That's where looking at our competitors will benefit us. We can see what they need to improve and let that inspire us to improve ourselves.

Fort Knox Security

Recap...

“In A Bind” is an interactive site that searches the web for the cheapest prices on your textbooks based on the information that you give it about your classes. Once you've picked everything you need, you can purchase or rent the books and we'll ship them right to your doorstep.

The Bare Minimum

Whenever I put my information on the Internet, I am always a little bit apprehensive. In today's day and age, it's very easy for someone to steal your information from a website that you've ordered from and once they have it, who knows what they'll do with it. So one policy that I would put into effect is the Bare Minimum Policy. It basically means that for the sake of our customers, if we don't need the information, we won't ask you for it. We won't ask for your telephone number, SSN, or anything that could lead someone directly to your personal information. We know that there will be some people who, after they sell back a textbook, might want us to use direct deposit to pay them, but we will not accept anyone’s' personal account numbers. Instead, we'll partner up with a service like Pay Pal so that our customers can receive their money in a timely manner without having to sign their life away.

M.I.B

One thing that I want to have in my company is a special team that works solely on computer forensics. With spam popping up in the most unpredictable places and people creating countless amounts of fake profiles, I want to make sure that my customers are as secure as possible. The main job of this team would be to constantly monitor the actions of profiles to see if they are actually active or not. There will be a feature where my members can message each other through the website to talk about classes they've taken and to discuss whether or not you actually need the book. So if someone receives some spam in their mailbox thinking that it's a message from an actual person, all they have to do is hit a button the message page that will say report it as spam and the forensics team will dismantle the profile that sent out the message. The team will also do routine security sweeps at least once a week just to make sure that everything is in tip top shape.

Security Breach

In mid-January, Zappos.com was hacked and the information of over 24 million of their customers was taken. In order to combat the problem, Zappos asked its users to change their password information and teaching their customer service representatives how to deal with the slew of inquiries they were going to receive via phone and email. This attack on Zappos gave me the idea to have a password update made mandatory for all of my customers. I will have them update their password at the end of every academic semester to make it a little bit harder for hackers to be able to steal any information. If for some reason there is still a security breach and information is taken like there was a few weeks ago on Zappos.com, our site is willing to take no chances with our customer’s information. Our site will shut down for a few days (maybe even a week) until we can figure out what happened. The forensics team will check every single profile to find the source of the stolen information (if possible) and then do everything possible to get the site running. Once the site is up and running again, we will ask our customers to verify who they are through a series of security questions and then to change their password immediately.

Tweet About It

Just to Recap...

“In A Bind” is an interactive site that searches the web for the cheapest prices on your textbooks based on the information that you give it about your classes. Once you've picked everything you need, you can purchase or rent the books and we'll ship them right to your doorstep.

#SavingsTime 

 

So unless you live under some form of a rock that gets no service (3G or not) then you've probably heard of the power and popularity of twitter. With 200 million users and 250 million tweets per day, it's no surprise that information spreads to people in a whole new way. I think that this social media outlet would be perfect for my idea. We could spread the word about our services to countless amounts of people (in 140 characters or less of course). We could also have what I like to call a "Drop Zone". This could be a certain time of the day, chosen at random, where those who have an account with us can get an extra 20% off of their order if they make the purchase by a certain time. People could also tweet at us if they're having technical problems, they have an issue with their order, or if they just want to say hi!

Request Me

We know that not everyone has a twitter (although I don't know why), so Facebook could definitely be another social media tool that could help spread the word. Once people like our page, we can update them on things we're doing and let them know about promotions that we're having. One thing that I would want to incorporate into the Facebook page is a section about job and internship opportunities. I know that, at least for me, looking for internships is very hard unless you hardcore stalk a certain company (and sometimes your academic adviser). There could be a tab on the page that is constantly updated with new information about the types of jobs that are available, the kinds of people we want, and the qualifications that you have to have for each position.

Tip Top Shape

One thing that I would definitely want to do as an employer is make sure that my brand is represented is the best possible way. There are a ton of other ways that I could use social media to get our name out there about who we are and what we do, but I don't want to just keep tabs on the brand. One thing that I will definitely instill into my employees is the principle that you must always on your best behavior. I wouldn't want to look on Facebook and see inappropriate pictures and things being said shouldn't be said. I would do use social media to do routine checkups on my employees just to make sure that they are conveying the appropriate image of themselves and inadvertently enhancing the brand.