India is Buzz-ing, will RP do the same?

Two buzz-worthy news that’s really worth checking out.  First, Yahoo! Buzz just underwent a major face lift.  The new look now more prominently features contributions from the site’s community.  There’s a new “Buzz Updates” tab to make it easier to follow, vote for and comment on what your friends just buzzed up.  Also, you’ll notice that when you submit a URL, the story headline and description will automatically be populated, this certainly makes submitting stories faster and easier.

The other news is Yahoo! Buzz just launched its first international version in India.  Check out http://in.buzz.yahoo.com and see how Yahoo! Buzz looks like once it’s localized.  The people in India can now vote for the most buzz-worthy stories to Yahoo! India and beyond.  I understand the site is starting off with more than two dozen featured Indian publishers, but of course, users in India can submit, vote and comment on the stories that they personally find most interesting.

Do you think a localized Yahoo! Buzz in the Philippines would be a big hit?  It will be interesting to see how many Pinoys are into Digg, Reddit, or Buzz because that will give us an idea if there’s a signifant number of Pinoys who will submit, vote and comment on Philippines-related stories.  I remember before when Digg was starting to get recognition for revolutionizing social news that some Pinoys tried to jump on the bandwagon but with a local twist.  One of them was Oks.ph (it’s now an aggregator of Philippines-related news), Astigg.com (a cool name with tip of the hat to Digg), and Yehey’s Hukayy.com,  all of them never really built a following in order for the sites to be, well, “self-sustaining.”  Social news sites need a critical mass in order for them to be successful and buidling this community is not as easy as it looks (as Jason Calacanis learned with Netscape).  However, localizing social news certainly has its advantages and appeal, I just wonder why it didn’t work here in the Philippines before and if Yahoo! does try to launch a Pinoy Buzz version, will it take off?  Maybe it’s just a matter of timing.  Maybe the critical mass for a Pinoy social news site is here now, not 3 years ago.

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An e-commerce lesson from a local cafe

Every morning I start my day at work by buying coffee in one of Singapore’s very familiar local cafes, Toast Box.  I order two cups of coffee for me and my wife, the normal coffee with condensed milk & evaporated milk,  to go or as they say it in SG, ‘take away,’ in separate plastic holders since we’ll be bringing our coffee to our respective offices afterwards.  That’s my morning coffee routine.

After ordering almost the same thing for about two weeks in a row, the guy who makes the coffee when he saw me behind the person ordering at the counter looked at me and asked, “two kopi?”  I said yes, and a minute later when I got to the counter and ordered, the 2 cups of coffee were waiting, according to how I’ve been ordering it  After that, it’s become an easy routine for me every work day.  I just say yes every time the coffee guy asks me if I’m still ordering the same stuff and when I get to the counter, the coffee is there, ready to go, and I just pay for my coffee.

Amazing how a guy who makes coffee in a local cafe here in SG actually gets a very basic principle in e-commerce.  This is how an online store should be.  When a repeat customer comes back to your online store, you should be able to recognize them, have an good idea of what they wish to purchase again and make it as easy and smooth as possible, from the time they reach your store until they reach that point when they’re about to pay for their purchases.  If you do this, then your repeat customers will not only keep coming back, they’ll be thrilled to tell others of their experience.

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Starting anew

It’s been weeks since I last updated and thanks to a much better work schedule now, I finally found the time to write again.  Going back to blogging started with changing the blog design.  The old one was okay but it took more time to update because of images I had to prepare.   This new template I discovered is sleek, simple, and super easy to manage.  And it’s always inspiring to write when you have a new blog design, hehehe.  This is still a work in progress so expect changes in the future.

Not blogging for a while made me realize how important blogging has been to me in so many ways.  It’s  a surprise for me that until now, my post about my not-so-pleasant experience with Cebu Pacific’s online ticketing service still gets a number of comments.  It’s great to know my post has helped people and I intend to blog about it soon, sort of a follow-up to that experience.

Another thing that’s become quite clear to me is that for a blog to be successful, one really has to work on it.  It takes time, effort, and a considerable amount of thinking and planning for a blog to reached a certain level of success.  And really, there’s no such thing as an overnight success.  And right now I’m still currently learning along the way.  This quote sort of sums up what I feel should be one’s attitude towards blogging:

Nothing worthwhile comes easily.  Work, continuous work and hard work, is the only way to accomplish results that last. - Hamilton Holt

It’s great to start anew, to not remain sidetracked or derailed.  Because with all that’s happening in and around me, there’s really much to blog about.

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