Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Browsers

Vyew My Computer is a flash-based instant desktop sharing product with a lot of fun features.

Basically, go to the Vyew My Personal computer web page and click begin sharing my desktop. You will be given a one-of-a-kind, unguessable URL. You can then share that URL with anyone you’d like to share your desktop with. There are some features you need an account to use, but the basics are usable by anyone.

You can upload files to be shown on the Vyew My Personal computer desktop, use the whiteboard features, chat and with registration, use audio/video features. You can’t however, view anything outside the Vyew My Computer desktop area. So, if you want to switch to a new window and show a web page you’re viewing, it’s not going to show up unless you take screenshots and present those.

It moves smoothly and all the features seem to work. Now, I didn’t go in and have a full-fledged sales presentation to a CEO or anything but I did show a powerpoint to two of my friends who logged in from two separate locations.

My main concern was about security. Showing a powerpoint to my friends is quite a bit different than important company information. So, this is what I found out; the packet data for your session is not encrypted but the URLs seem to be unique enough that someone wouldn’t just stumble into your meeting without being invited. SSL encryption is not offered publicly but could be a possibility for some clients.

Continue reading Vyew My Personal computer easy on the web desktop sharing for anyone

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Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising, Target Corp. (TGT)

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Tar-Zhay below in the comments.

Have Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) shoppers all of a sudden become French citizens? In the last decade or so, I’ve heard many, many people refer to the discount retailer as “Tar-Zhay,” instead of the boring “Target.” Where did that pronunciation come from, you ask?

There are opinions all over on this one, but one strikes me the best. Target, despite its discount niche, has also become a favorite destination for fashion-savvy consumers who might otherwise shop at high-end boutiques — except for the fact they want a good deal. The French accent is a way of poking good-natured fun at the apparent sophistication of Target’s deal-seeking shoppers.

In fact, Target carries much of the same discount, commodity stuff we purchase at other retailers, but markets that merchandise in a cheerful and upscale way. The shopping experience, is clean, bright, and cheerful. Just look at the gleaming floors in your local SuperTarget and the white and red colors that make it seem like a test for the senses rather than a dull retailer. Bonjour, Tar-Zhay practically flows off the tongue, as a result.

Due to the retailer’s successful positioning of its upscale retail experience compared to larger competitor Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), it has competed on the same ground in a very determined way. Unlike most competitors who have challenged Wal-Mart’s self-imposed status of retail king, Target has marketed itself alongside the Bentonville behemoth with aplomb.

In the process, its enlightened retail shopping experience must remind many of us of shopping in the ritzy streets of a Paris clothing store. Hence, we make our way to Tar-Zhay for those well-marketed (but discount) clothes, food, and houseware products. Target, no. Tar-Zhay, yes.

I highly doubt Target’s corporate folk are pining to disassociate the company’s actual name with a take on it that sounds like an upscale retail destination in Europe. So as long as people are willing to trek to Tar-Zhay for their goods, it’s highly doubtful the company will care.

Achat à la cible aujourd’hui? That is, shopping at Target today?

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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, International Business Machines (IBM), Technology

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Huge Blue below in the comments.

Even though there shall probably always remain unanswered speculation as to exactly how the nickname came to be, most people in business or industry today know, when you mention Large Blue, you’re talking about IBM, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM). It’s a name that invokes a respect of power, much in the same way that motorists pull aside for a fire engine or stop for a moving train. As reflected in the three letter company logo, Large Blue is solid and steady, yet quite on the move.

People have attributed the company nickname to a past company dress code, when employees were required to wear white shirts and most of them wore blue suits. That theory seems a bit shallow to me. Besides, that policy was done away with in the 1990s by CEO, Lou Gerstner. Since that time, I haven’t noticed anyone calling IBM, Massive Business Casual.

A second theory about the company moniker follows a more logical theme. It relies on the fact that IBM uses blue for its company logo and equipment, blue being a color that denotes strength. People also naturally associate blue with largeness, similar to the sky, the oceans, and even outer space. When used in context, people just know what massive company you’re speaking about when you use the name. For instance, if I asked my step-mom; “How are you and Big Blue doing?” she’d immediately know I was referring to one of her independent engineering contracts with IBM.

The third Huge Blue name theory is the one I ascribe to because it ideal fits my view of industry and corporate culture. It’s the ground-level theory, and it appears to have taken root through the field sales and tech forces. In its first part, it rests in the pervasive IBM attitude of “What can Huge Blue do for you?” It’s a query that must echo daily, in different languages, around the world. In its second part, it takes the form of a report to the corporate offices at the completion of an equipment installation job, when company technicians confidently report the status of their installation clients, stating: “They’re all blue now.”

Regardless of how the Big Blue name came about, somehow it seems entirely appropriate. Whether it’s true blue, blue-blooded, or my darling blue-eyed boy, blue is a color of loyalty, depth, and love. For IBM’s part, it simply added its own bigness to the concepts that the color blue already embodied. And might I say, the company’s done a mighty fine job of honoring its well-known nickname.

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Filed under: Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about HoJo’s below in the comments.

Howard Johnson’s and its 28 flavors gave mid-20th-century Americans a view of the future: choice. In a time of eight-color boxes of Crayolas and three TV stations, the implication of HoJo’s abundance fired our imaginations. Though the restaurant chain had been in business since 1925, it took off during the depression when the founder adopted the now-traditional Cape Cod building with an orange roof topped by a weather vane of Simple Simon and the Pieman.

The company was also among the first to franchise, a major contributor to its growing success. With the advent of the national freeway system in the 1950s, Howard Johnson’s swiftly monopolized the rest stops and exits, making it bigger than Micky D’s, the King, and the Colonel combined.

Part of its success was in devising superior prepackaged foods and a standardized menu, allowing the common Joe to work the grill. By 1954, the chain had grown to 400 restaurants, huge enough to support expansion into the motor lodge business, catering to the increasingly mobile American traveler.

In the ’60s, HoJos served more food to Americans than anyone except the U.S. Army. By the time the descendants of the founder sold the firm in 1980 to Imperial Group, the chain included 1,000 restaurants and 500 motor lodges.

Eventually, though, the company’s business model was widely adopted and improved upon. The company gradually lost market share and changed hands several times. Various new initiatives proved unsuccessful, and finally the restaurant and motor lodge sectors were sold off separately (hence the existence of Howard Johnson’s (restaurants) and Howard Johnson (lodging). Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN) owns the motor lodge business, while the restaurant sector is owned by La Mancha Group LLC, which is attempting to use it to brand groceries and open a chain of ice cream shops.

So how did Howard Johnson’s become HoJo? We can only speculate, and I speculate the nickname came about for two reasons:

One is the human love of rhythm; in this case, the double O, as in yo-yo, polo, cocoa, Han Solo, the dodo, and FloJo’s mojo. HoJo flows pleasingly off the tongue. Howard Johnson’s flows out like a handful of rusty bolts.

Also, it might have been a way for the young, returning from the war, to stake their claim, differentiate their favorite hangout from the staid restaurants of their parents. Where Howard Johnson’s sounded like a meeting place for accountants, HoJo’s was informal, hip, youthful, the kind of place a guy could bring his main squeeze and show off his street rod. And, of course, gorge on 28 flavors.

Either way, the company was savvy enough to pick up on the nickname and trademark it. To this day, Wyndham’s site for their piece of the HoJo pie is www.hojo.com.

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