Enjoying the Journey

Somehow blogs make you feel guilty for not posting often enough. Meghan does most of the writing around here, but sometimes I chip in. So I’m going to just post about some things on my mind. Warning: very long!

I am an admitted people watcher. I could sit for hours watching other people go about their lives. Of course, I absolutely hate being watched though. I always try to sit in the back of rooms just so people aren’t watching me, but of course I watch everyone in front of me.

Well, a man named Nicholas White stepped into an elevator after a smoke break and ended up getting stuck there for almost 41 hours. And it’s fascinating to watch how he handled it.

Now that brings me to something I have been meaning to write about for a long time: complaints about some of my favorite Web sites. I spend a significant proportion of my life in front of a computer and work for a Web company myself, so I would like to think I have a bit of insight into the matter.

WordPress: Obviously, I use the site and prefer it over other blogging platforms. The creator, Matt Mullenweg, is a very nice guy (I met him at the Crunchies a while back). But nonetheless I have complaints.

The multi-user platform won’t let me embed videos except from a few sites (all with significantly lower quality video than my site). Ouch. Their explanation is here. There are tons of sites out there that allow video embeds. It’s not a security issue at all. Essentially, they are saying that they don’t trust me to not post illegal or questionable content, despite the fact that it would originate from another site. Without knowing me and without me ever having overstepped the bounds, I am simply not trusted. That’s not the best way to treat your customers.

Spacing. This is incredibly annoying. When I type, I like to put two spaces in between a period and the first letter of the next sentence. WordPress silently strips one of the spaces out if the post is ever edited in the visual editor. Even worse, it will strip out line breaks made either through the visual editor or through HTML the same way. For example, if I wanted to add an extra blank line between two embedded images, the only way to do it is to do a <br> in the HTML tab and publish. If I then edit the post, that line break is suddenly gone and I have to add it in again.

Amazon: Despite being a competitor of a company my father started many years ago, I can’t help but love Amazon. For me, shopping from a trusted online retailer is, for many products, a no-brainer. They don’t have to pay for a storefront, can have significantly fewer employees, sell to me at home or at work, and can serve me up exactly what I’m looking for in mere seconds. I would love to never walk a long Walmart aisle ever again!

Amazon really takes the experience to a level or two beyond any other major online retailer. Their interface is clean, easy-to-use, and fast. The shipping is often completely free, there is no CA sales tax since they don’t have a business presence in the state, they have helpful product information and reviews, and the items arrive really quickly. Unfortunately, their user interface has a few foibles that annoy me to no end.

Naturally Amazon wants to sell me more stuff. And they have collected over the years mountains of data on how I shop, which products I purchase, time until purchase, etc. But what they haven’t figured out is that people often buy a single gift for someone and don’t care at all about buying similar products in the future. They use two main tactics to bait me for similar products: browsing history and recommendations.

Browsing history is on by default and is especially dangerous if you share a computer with your spouse. Meghan and I share an Amazon account, mostly because it simplifies things with cookies (allows us to stay logged in). She won’t go digging through my purchase history, but when Amazon shows her six different sets of lingerie when she goes to the Amazon homepage, she’s going to have a pretty good idea of what I got her for her birthday next week. Fortunately, you can turn browsing history off in your account settings if you manage to find the option. Unfortunately, it’s just a cookie rather than a true account setting.

Recommendations are far worse. They are created off of your purchases. You can’t turn them off in your account settings. All you can do is either stay logged out (no thanks!) or go into your recommendations for every single item you purchase and individually tell Amazon not use each one for recommendations. Otherwise, that terrible Hannah Montana CD I bought my niece will make my Amazon homepage cluttered with glossy lipstick and pink purses.

P.S. Amazon! I’ll give you a hint about another thing: People search for other stuff besides products in your search bar! Try searching for “Amazon Prime Membership”. You get this instead of this.

Netflix: This is the only subscription site I actually pay for (I get my photo sharing for free). Unfortunately, they have some rather annoying problems.

I can’t simply browse with an “only Blu-ray” filter. Instead, there is a separate part of the site for Blu-ray with reduced searching and browsing functionality. Also, their video player requires Internet Explorer. Admittedly, it is quite nice in IE, but it’s a terrible browser! Don’t make me switch from Firefox every time I want to watch something!

Netflix has quietly admitted a few times that they slow down processing returns from very active members. I have noticed this quite a bit. If I go a couple weeks of returning movies quickly (next day), all of a sudden it starts taking an extra couple of days to process each of my returns. While I understand it may save them a bit of money to slow down the processing, they haven’t learned two very important rules of business:

1. Play the averages. You don’t have to make money on every customer. If you own a supermarket and lower the price of items like milk and eggs to convince consumers that all your prices are lower, you have to accept that people who mostly just purchase milk and eggs from you will not give you much profit! You’ll make it back from your 2-dollar markup on potato chips that the other customers purchase.
2. If you’re going to give two different levels of service to your customers (who pay the same price mind you), make sure the higher level is to your most active and loyal customers. In this case, the guy who lets his Netflix discs sit around for a week doesn’t care as much about getting his next disc quickly. But the guy who opens his mailbox with baited breath is also the same guy who will rant and rave about how awesome Netflix is. But only if the mailbox actually has his disc.