It’s an interesting idea in that the human vetting element does add a measure of quality to the process, but it also impedes the scalability of the entire process. It also opens up a number of questions as to how authenticity of commentors will be verified and whether the whole system is open to social engineering and manipulation. One thing is for sure, the PR world will be having an interesting day with this one, as it’s another channel they can use to get their clients in the spotlight.

There’s some interesting debate on Techmeme on what this means, with people picking out different points of interest. From the fact that comments will not have a link to the commentor’s website, to the impact this move has on jounalism to why the story was announced by techies (and there are some that are more cynical than most). This is definitely one to watch

I came across an interesting story today as Apple announces that their new OS (Leopard) will be delayed. But wait, that’s not the leading line in their story! The leading line is:

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned.

This sets the tone for the rest of the article and minimises the impact of announcing the delay. The press release ties the delay to the iPhone release, thereby justifying it,? dismissing the fact that people close to the product had known for some time? that? it would’nt be ready for shipping on the scheduled date.?

The net effect: the share price of Apple seems to be holding steady for now, so the news seems to have been well received. In truth, iPhone sales are probably seen as more lucrative than a new release of the OS, so it’s a good news story for the investors, albeit bad news for the Macheads. On my part, I’ve promised myself an iPhone .. so as long as that’s not delayed; I’m a happy bunny.

Anyway, back to the article, it goes into a number of ways you can tap into the medium, from pitching your wares directly to bloggers, to setting up your own blog and also includes a number of tips on how to structure the information. There are also some resources at the end for people planning to tap into the medium:

• Free articles on PR and publicity
• List of sites where you can post your Press Release
• Publicity Hound Newsletter
• International Association of Online Communicators

Happy Reading

So, why are they doing this? Well, at the end of the day it’s all about comsumer confidence. Even if this exercise proves to be extremely expensive, it’s still a drop in the ocean compared to what their daily revenue from fuel sales it. And the last thing they want to do is alienate their customers. So their strategy is to pull out all the stops and make sure their consumers are happy. And I’m sure it works, instead of people talking about how “Tesco ruined my car”, they not talk about how “Tesco fixed my car”

If only Tesco would move into the airline business .. it would be nice to see someone operate to the benefits of their customers!

Anyway, this morning I spotted a news article titled “Tesco takes on Microsoft in battle for software market“, and thought to myself “Wow! Is Tesco backing Open Source? Do they have something up their sleeve? Maybe a Tesco branded flavour of Linux?”. Shaking in trepidation, I clicked on the link to have a read …

The first line read “Tesco, the UK’s biggest retailer, will go head-to-head with Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, by entering the £8.5bn computer software market.” Amazing! An audacious plan! Will Tesco displace Microsoft in the software market. The next paragraph read “The retailer will launch Tesco-branded software in 100 stores this month. An initial range of six products, which will include office software and security suites, will sell for less than £20 each, massively undercutting rivals’ prices. Microsoft Office sells for up to £300.”

What exactly does that sound like to you? Well .. it sounds like Tesco was launching a Microsoft Office killer which presumably consists of, maybe a word processor or a spreadsheet at £20 each which rivaled Word and Excel in terms of functionality, right?

The rest of the article is pretty depressing as the truth finally hits home. Turns out that what Tesco is really selling consists of some finance, CD burning and photo editing products. This begs the question: how does this compare to Microsoft’s target market? How is this going to steal market share from Microsoft? WHY DID THE REPORTER FEEL HE HAD TO MENTION THAT MICROSOFT OFFICE COSTS UP TO £300???

Thoughts?