Category Archives: Corporate Criticism

Data-Driven Decision Making: The Google Breaker

When Google displaced Altavista and Yahoo! over a decade ago it seemed like we’d been rescued from bad search.  Google’s PageRank algorithm – and page design – pushed away the clutter of Altavista while their deep indexing beat out Yahoo!’s … Continue reading

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Pissed About The Fisher-Price Recall? Rate Down Hazardous Toys At Your Favorite Product Review Site

Yesterday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a report that made this blogger feel just a tad defensive of her favorite childhood toy (I admit it was Barbie). Mattel’s subsidiary Fisher-Price recalled 11 million toys on grounds of being hazardous … Continue reading

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And The Winner Is… P&G! The Pharmaceutical Company’s Marketing Spending Exceeds 4x Spending On R&D, Beating Out Microsoft, Cisco And Google

Major corporations know that the fastest way to increase revenue is not to create more innovative, user-focused products, but to spend more time convincing customers to buy their old products. We investigated the spending reports of 17 corporations, only five … Continue reading

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And The Winner Is… P&G! The Pharmaceutical Company’s Marketing Spending Exceeds 4x Spending On R&D, Beating Out Microsoft, Cisco And Google

Major corporations know that the fastest way to increase revenue is not to create more innovative, user-focused products, but to spend more time convincing customers to buy their old products. We investigated the spending reports of 17 corporations, only five … Continue reading

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Demand Media Web Content Isn’t Only Insanely Boring, It’s Dangerously Misleading To Consumers

Since Wired’s 2009 piece about Demand Media, there have been a flurry of articles covering “content farms,” or massive, sprawling sites with huge amounts of content, that produce their content extremely cheaply by paying the writers of the content very … Continue reading

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Demand Media Web Content Isn’t Only Insanely Boring, It’s Dangerously Misleading To Consumers

Since Wired’s 2009 piece about Demand Media, there have been a flurry of articles covering “content farms,” or massive, sprawling sites with huge amounts of content, that produce their content extremely cheaply by paying the writers of the content very … Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Criticism, The Pikimal Mission | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Evolution of Product Search: 1991-2010

Though Pikis represent an interface to product search that you may not have seen before, you’ve encountered modern product recommendation if you’ve ever made a buying decision online (and almost everyone has). If you’ve browsed books on Amazon, rented a … Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Criticism, The Pikimal Mission | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Evolution of Product Search: 1991-2010

Though Pikis represent an interface to product search that you may not have seen before, you’ve encountered modern product recommendation if you’ve ever made a buying decision online (and almost everyone has). If you’ve browsed books on Amazon, rented a … Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Criticism, The Pikimal Mission | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How shoppers find products with Google

Last Friday we talked about about choice architecture, or the presentation of choices and how it influences decisions. As choice architecture alters choices significantly, it’s up to the people who create that presentation to responsibly influence those who choose. In Thaler and … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles, Company News, Corporate Criticism, Piki Toolkit, The Pikimal Mission | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment