Filed under: Utilities, Office, Productivity

Doodle.ch is a straightforward, highly-usable tool for scheduling events or making decisions with a group. It generates polls that the members of your group can use to fill in their availability for an event, or even simpler polls that let you make a list of options (What should we serve at dinner? Which motion picture should we see?) and see which ones work for your group members. We last wrote about Doodle two years ago, and it’s gotten a lot superior since then, so I thought it was time for an update

You can now export your Doodle appointments to other calendars (Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.). Some power user options have been added, like hidden polls and an ifneedbe option. The latest new feature is a Facebook application, which brings the power of Doodle into a space where a bunch of people you know probably already hang out. Now you don’t even have to get people to wander over to a Doodle URL to fill out your poll. How much easier can it get?

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising

Not a day goes by that the market is not obsessed with the latest move or product launch at Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Most recently, the media has been all over the company’s energy initiatives and its Android smartphone launch. To a massive extent, the coverage takes attention away from the fact that the recession is slowing the company’s size growth. But very few people seem to spend a lot of news cycles on that.

Google is currently having an internal debate about whether it should spend money to advertise its own brand and products. It is probably a waste of money because the company is already in a number of businesses that drive up its expenses without bringing in a dime.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “The search giant has recently held discussions with several Madison Avenue agencies, including Wieden + Kennedy and the boutique firm Taxi New York, about new efforts to promote some products, according to people familiar with the matter.”

The question is what does Google have worth promoting? It already owns the search business, so marketing that product would seem to be a waste of money. Its other major products for searching images, news and maps don’t bring in any revenue, so advertising them would appear to be burning money.

A lot of corporate advertising is meant to make management feel good. Google does not need name recognition and it is hard to see why the search company would want to promote one of the most famous brands in the world or any of its free offerings.

But Google does have cash to spare, and that usually drives a temptation to spend it.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Fun, Productivity, Social Software

Sleep.fm is a personalized alarm service for your personal, phone, or Internet-enabled alarm clock that lets you and your friends leave each other personalized wake-up messages. While I concur that waking up to the radio, the standard alarm clock beep, or some obnoxious fake birds is less than best, I’m not sure I’m 100% sold on the utility of Sleep.fm.

I started to get the picture a little more clearly after checking out a video on the Sleep.fm FAQ page. In this tiny demo, a woman who had missed her Japanese studies the day before wakes up to a teasing message from a friend, in Japanese. I think that states a lot about what Sleep.fm is trying to do: turn the wake-up alarm into another useful way to communicate. I wouldn’t object to waking up to a message that all of my meetings for the day were cancelled, for example, or finding out about a change of lunch plans with a friend.

Isn’t that what we have voicemail, email, text messages and Twitter for, though? I agree with the Sleep.fm theory that waking up is personal, but for me that means just wanting to be left alone. If you’re the kind of person who likes to jump right into the day with new information, someone who checks email and rss feeds before even getting out of bed, this might be a good new tool in your arsenal. The site is taking signups now for its upcoming relaunch.

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Filed under: Rants and raves, Marketing and advertising, Sprint Nextel Corp (S)

No wonder Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is losing customers fast. The third-largest wireless provider in the U.S. announced a new “MyMoneyManager” program last Thursday that sounds like the nicest thing for your Sprint phone since sliced bread. The only problem is this: the new downloadable application meant for your Sprint handset lists compatible Sprint cellphones that looks like the “who’s who” of the Sprint handset lineup from sometime in 2007. Umm, Sprint: it’s October 2008.

This is the kind of thing that not only makes Sprint subscribers confused and angry, but gives a terrible PR black eye to a wireless company that has lost hundreds of thousands of customers in the current year. Sprint should work hard to announce new applications that actually are meant for and usable by its current product lineup — not from outdated models that are not even for sale any longer.

The reason customers have not embraced using applications on their cellphones is due to the “works there/doesn’t work there” framework that the wireless industry just can’t seem to figure out. Unless it’s universal across a product line, why even bother? Sure, there are lots of wireless phone manufacturers and models, all of which are different. Add to that the protectionist tendencies wireless providers have and it’s no wonder why consumers find it hard or impossible to do things on these technologically-advanced phones that marketing departments want them to. With examples like this, it’ll never happen. Can you hear me? Good.

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