Rockmelt Browser - Awesome Search Capability

I wanted to take a minute to give a shout out for my new favorite web browser, Rockmelt. It is a recently released browser developed by a crack team of people, headlined by Marc Andreessen (of Netscape fame). The browser is trying to nail the social aspect of web browsing by integrating Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and other RSS feeds. This is great by itself.

Another great feature they have though is their new search capability - how it works is that you type in the search term in a browser search bar. The results of that search using google are then presented to you in a simple drop down bar. What's best about this is that it doesn't actually take you to a google search page. Not good for google, but great for the browsing experience, you're spared any meaningless advertisements, and you can actually scroll through the various search results and see the pages loaded in the browser before committing to any given page. AWESOME, and worth a try (see below).

As a final note, Rockmelt is built off of Chromium so brings with it the speed and flexibility that just doesn't exist in anything Microsoft has put out in a long time.

Overall great experience. Check it out, try it out, enjoy!
1984

TurboTax Pricing... Brilliant

TurboTax is America's #1 tax software - it has been the main driver behind the shift towards online tax filing in America and it has done this by steadily eating away at a market traditionally controlled by accountants and companies like H&R block. This is a great story in itself of how a leader in an industry (H&R Block) totally missed the boat in the online space due to their presence in the offline bricks and mortar business (Very comparable to the Kodak story - also see: Innovator's Dillema)

What is perhaps even more impressive about the TurboTax story is the fact that TurboTax can charge such a massive price premium above and beyond the major competitors in the market. The reality is that all of the main tax filing offerings available likely do an equally good job of filing your taxes and getting you a return - it's also probably true that TurboTax is the best software available, in that it is the easiest to use. But it's hard to believe this would warrant the massive price differentials you see in the market. The only competitor that comes near TurboTax pricing is H&R Block, which is clearly trying to mimic pricing at the high end of the market in order to maintain pricing for their offline business:

So seeing that TurboTax is able to across the board charge from ~50-100% for their tax software, one is left asking why. As best I can tell the following factors contribute to this:

1. TurboTax legitimately has a better product - having used the product myself and read a broad spectrum of reviews I am convinced, all things equal, that TurboTax is the best software from an accuracy and ease of use perspective
2. Marketing up the wazoo - The one thing that is certain is that TurboTax outspends their competitors in marketing and advertising. This only makes sense, as they should be spending their fair share (which I estimate is ~70-80% of the online software market)
3. Human Psychology - Intentional or not, I believe TurboTax has irrational human behavior working in their favor. People will tend to go with the 'safest' looking tax software, as they are afraid the of the potential 'unknown' of what might happen should their filing be done incorrectly. This psychology is explored in some ways through Dan Ariely's book 'Predictably Irrational' - check it out
4. Barriers to switching - Once someone uses TurboTax for one year, it becomes a much higher hurdle for them to switch, as they're both comfortable with the software and they have some data carrying over from the prior year so it makes the current year easier to complete your filing

All of the above are contributing factors, but by no means a definitive answer. What's makes this even more interesting is that TurboTax does not enjoy nearly as high pricing in Canada, a smaller market where they also own the leading online tax software brand. If you have any thoughts or comments on what allows TurboTax to maintain and grow such premium pricing, I would love to hear about it! Please comment on this article!

Until next time,

1984

Groupon Retention Program

Today I un-subscribed from Groupon. My reasons for un-subscribing are many and varied and will be the subject of another post on this whole 'group buying' phenomenon. I may eat my words (particularly if Google pays $6B for Groupon), but I think it's a load of horseshit. Time will tell.

More interesting though is the way Groupon treated me as I tried to leave their email distribution list - most sites have some basic way of un-subscribing you and you're done. Groupon has truly excelled in this regard - instead of just saying 'Thank you - you're un-subscribed', they took things a step further and immediately tried to get me to 'Re-subscribe'. The key here is that they did it in a fun way, by making light of beating the crap out of some random non-descript dude (Derrick - see below) whom they blame for having signed me up - AWESOME! Everyone loves random acts of relatively harmless violence. Particularly when it's against someone other than yourself. 

So what did I do? I punished the shit out of Derrick and hilarity ensued.

Scene1: Derrick is clearly watching porn on redtube while pretending to work late. Douche.

Scene 2: My Attorney has arrived and is hassling Derrick for having signed me up to the mindless-barrage-of-emails-that-is-groupon.

Screen 3: My Attorney, once a mild mannered man, has turned violent and thrown some sort of hot liquid into Derrick's eyes. Booyakasha!

Scene 4: Do I need say more?

Scene 5: Here's the rub. Groupon now, after entertaining me with violence, appeals to my more human side and tried to capitalize in Derrick's misfortune by guilting me into signing back up for Groupon. A clever ploy, but you'll need to get up earlier in the morning to trick this one.

But on a more serious note. I actually legitimately considered signing back up for Groupon - the scourge of my email inbox. Yes, their marketing tactic was that good. So to them I say bravo, for both knowing how to have fun as an organization and for trying new things. Truly brilliant. I tip my hat. Though I won't sign back up for the sleazy wares they're hawking day-in and day-out.

On a related note - more companies in America should invest in corporate beating bags. This would be some sort of anti-mascot that you can use to vent your rage after having been jerked around for hours by some faceless corporation. Think of how happy it would make you if, after a United flight that was delayed for 2.5 hours, you could get off the plane and deliver a Chuck-Norris-roundhouse-face-kick to some stupid looking United mascot. It would be instant Serenity Now. Maybe there's a business here...

Signing off for now.
1984