Add Different Html Contact Form to Blogger Website

Add Different Html Contact Form to Blogger Website

After Login Blogger Go to Blogger Dashboard >> Layout >> Choose Your Widgets Location Where You Want Publish Your Contact Form & Click on Add a Gadget >>  Select HTML/JavaScript >> Copy & Past Below HTML Code.

<!-- Add HTML Contact Form to Blogger / Websites starts -->
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<form action="mailto:Your Email Add Here" enctype="text/plain" method="post">
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;">
<tbody>
<tr><td>Your Name * </td><td><input id="Name" maxlength="20" name="Name" type="text" value="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Email * </td><td><input id="Email" name="Email" type="text" value="" /></td>        
       </tr>
<tr><td>Date * </td><td><select id="Date" name="Date"><option selected="selected" value="">Date</option><option value="01">1</option>
<option value="02">2</option>
<option value="03">3</option>
<option value="04">4</option>
<option value="05">5</option>
<option value="06">6</option>
<option value="07">7</option>
<option value="08">8</option>
<option value="09">9</option>
<option value="10">10</option>
<option value="11">11</option>
<option value="12">12</option>
<option value="13">13</option>
<option value="14">14</option>
<option value="15">15</option>
<option selected="selected" value="16">16</option>
<option value="17">17</option>
<option value="18">18</option>
<option value="19">19</option>
<option value="20">20</option>
<option value="21">21</option>
<option value="22">22</option>
<option value="23">23</option>
<option value="24">24</option>
<option value="25">25</option>
<option value="26">26</option>
<option value="27">27</option>
<option value="28">28</option>
<option value="29">29</option>
<option value="30">30</option>
<option value="31">31</option>
</select>-<select id="Month" name="Month"><option selected="selected" value="">Month</option> <option value="01">January</option>
<option value="02">February</option>
<option value="03">March</option>
<option value="04">April</option>
<option value="05">May</option>
<option value="06">June</option>
<option value="07">July</option>
<option value="08">August</option>
<option value="09">September</option>
<option value="10">October</option>
<option value="11">November</option>
<option value="12">December</option>
         </select>         -         <input id="Year" maxlength="4" name="Year" size="4" type="text" value="2012" />         </td>        </tr>
<tr><td>City * </td><td><input id="City" maxlength="40" name="City" size="20" type="text" value="" /></td>        </tr>
<tr><td>Country * </td><td><select id="Country" name="Country"><option value="">Country...</option><option value="Afganistan">Afghanistan</option><option value="Albania">Albania</option><option value="Algeria">Algeria</option><option value="American Samoa">American Samoa</option><option value="Andorra">Andorra</option><option value="Angola">Angola</option><option value="Anguilla">Anguilla</option><option value="Antigua & Barbuda">Antigua & Barbuda</option><option value="Argentina">Argentina</option><option value="Armenia">Armenia</option><option value="Aruba">Aruba</option><option value="Australia">Australia</option><option value="Austria">Austria</option><option value="Azerbaijan">Azerbaijan</option><option value="Bahamas">Bahamas</option><option value="Bahrain">Bahrain</option><option value="Bangladesh">Bangladesh</option><option value="Barbados">Barbados</option><option value="Belarus">Belarus</option><option value="Belgium">Belgium</option><option value="Belize">Belize</option><option value="Benin">Benin</option><option value="Bermuda">Bermuda</option><option value="Bhutan">Bhutan</option><option value="Bolivia">Bolivia</option><option value="Bonaire">Bonaire</option><option value="Bosnia & Herzegovina">Bosnia & Herzegovina</option><option value="Botswana">Botswana</option><option value="Brazil">Brazil</option><option value="British Indian Ocean Ter">British Indian Ocean Ter</option><option value="Brunei">Brunei</option><option value="Bulgaria">Bulgaria</option><option value="Burkina Faso">Burkina Faso</option><option value="Burundi">Burundi</option><option value="Cambodia">Cambodia</option><option value="Cameroon">Cameroon</option><option value="Canada">Canada</option><option value="Canary Islands">Canary Islands</option><option value="Cape Verde">Cape Verde</option><option value="Cayman Islands">Cayman Islands</option><option value="Central African Republic">Central African Republic</option><option value="Chad">Chad</option><option value="Channel Islands">Channel Islands</option><option value="Chile">Chile</option><option value="China">China</option><option value="Christmas Island">Christmas Island</option><option value="Cocos Island">Cocos Island</option><option value="Colombia">Colombia</option><option value="Comoros">Comoros</option><option value="Congo">Congo</option><option value="Cook Islands">Cook Islands</option><option value="Costa Rica">Costa Rica</option><option value="Cote DIvoire">Cote D'Ivoire</option><option value="Croatia">Croatia</option><option value="Cuba">Cuba</option><option value="Curaco">Curacao</option><option value="Cyprus">Cyprus</option><option value="Czech Republic">Czech Republic</option><option value="Denmark">Denmark</option><option value="Djibouti">Djibouti</option><option value="Dominica">Dominica</option><option value="Dominican Republic">Dominican Republic</option><option value="East Timor">East Timor</option><option value="Ecuador">Ecuador</option><option value="Egypt">Egypt</option><option value="El Salvador">El Salvador</option><option value="Equatorial Guinea">Equatorial Guinea</option><option value="Eritrea">Eritrea</option><option value="Estonia">Estonia</option><option value="Ethiopia">Ethiopia</option><option value="Falkland Islands">Falkland Islands</option><option value="Faroe Islands">Faroe Islands</option><option value="Fiji">Fiji</option><option value="Finland">Finland</option><option value="France">France</option><option value="French Guiana">French Guiana</option><option value="French Polynesia">French Polynesia</option><option value="French Southern Ter">French Southern Ter</option><option value="Gabon">Gabon</option><option value="Gambia">Gambia</option><option value="Georgia">Georgia</option><option value="Germany">Germany</option><option value="Ghana">Ghana</option><option value="Gibraltar">Gibraltar</option><option value="Great Britain">Great Britain</option><option value="Greece">Greece</option><option value="Greenland">Greenland</option><option value="Grenada">Grenada</option><option value="Guadeloupe">Guadeloupe</option><option value="Guam">Guam</option><option value="Guatemala">Guatemala</option><option value="Guinea">Guinea</option><option value="Guyana">Guyana</option><option value="Haiti">Haiti</option><option value="Hawaii">Hawaii</option><option value="Honduras">Honduras</option><option value="Hong Kong">Hong Kong</option><option value="Hungary">Hungary</option><option value="Iceland">Iceland</option><option selected="selected" value="India">India</option><option value="Indonesia">Indonesia</option><option value="Iran">Iran</option><option value="Iraq">Iraq</option><option value="Ireland">Ireland</option><option value="Isle of Man">Isle of Man</option><option value="Israel">Israel</option><option value="Italy">Italy</option><option value="Jamaica">Jamaica</option><option value="Japan">Japan</option><option value="Jordan">Jordan</option><option value="Kazakhstan">Kazakhstan</option><option value="Kenya">Kenya</option><option value="Kiribati">Kiribati</option><option value="Korea North">Korea North</option><option value="Korea Sout">Korea South</option><option value="Kuwait">Kuwait</option><option value="Kyrgyzstan">Kyrgyzstan</option><option value="Laos">Laos</option><option value="Latvia">Latvia</option><option value="Lebanon">Lebanon</option><option value="Lesotho">Lesotho</option><option value="Liberia">Liberia</option><option value="Libya">Libya</option><option value="Liechtenstein">Liechtenstein</option><option value="Lithuania">Lithuania</option><option value="Luxembourg">Luxembourg</option><option value="Macau">Macau</option><option value="Macedonia">Macedonia</option><option value="Madagascar">Madagascar</option><option value="Malaysia">Malaysia</option><option value="Malawi">Malawi</option><option value="Maldives">Maldives</option><option value="Mali">Mali</option><option value="Malta">Malta</option><option value="Marshall Islands">Marshall Islands</option><option value="Martinique">Martinique</option><option value="Mauritania">Mauritania</option><option value="Mauritius">Mauritius</option><option value="Mayotte">Mayotte</option><option value="Mexico">Mexico</option><option value="Midway Islands">Midway Islands</option><option value="Moldova">Moldova</option><option value="Monaco">Monaco</option><option value="Mongolia">Mongolia</option><option value="Montserrat">Montserrat</option><option value="Morocco">Morocco</option><option value="Mozambique">Mozambique</option><option value="Myanmar">Myanmar</option><option value="Nambia">Nambia</option><option value="Nauru">Nauru</option><option value="Nepal">Nepal</option><option value="Netherland Antilles">Netherland Antilles</option><option value="Netherlands">Netherlands (Holland, Europe)</option><option value="Nevis">Nevis</option><option value="New Caledonia">New Caledonia</option><option value="New Zealand">New Zealand</option><option value="Nicaragua">Nicaragua</option><option value="Niger">Niger</option><option value="Nigeria">Nigeria</option><option value="Niue">Niue</option><option value="Norfolk Island">Norfolk Island</option><option value="Norway">Norway</option><option value="Oman">Oman</option><option value="Palau Island">Palau Island</option><option value="Palestine">Palestine</option><option value="Panama">Panama</option><option value="Papua New Guinea">Papua New Guinea</option><option value="Paraguay">Paraguay</option><option value="Peru">Peru</option><option value="Phillipines">Philippines</option><option value="Pitcairn Island">Pitcairn Island</option><option value="Poland">Poland</option><option value="Portugal">Portugal</option><option value="Puerto Rico">Puerto Rico</option><option value="Qatar">Qatar</option><option value="Republic of Montenegro">Republic of Montenegro</option><option value="Republic of Serbia">Republic of Serbia</option><option value="Reunion">Reunion</option><option value="Romania">Romania</option><option value="Russia">Russia</option><option value="Rwanda">Rwanda</option><option value="St Barthelemy">St Barthelemy</option><option value="St Eustatius">St Eustatius</option><option value="St Helena">St Helena</option><option value="St Kitts-Nevis">St Kitts-Nevis</option><option value="St Lucia">St Lucia</option><option value="St Maarten">St Maarten</option><option value="St Pierre & Miquelon">St Pierre & Miquelon</option><option value="St Vincent & Grenadines">St Vincent & Grenadines</option><option value="Saipan">Saipan</option><option value="Samoa">Samoa</option><option value="Samoa American">Samoa American</option><option value="San Marino">San Marino</option><option value="Sao Tome & Principe">Sao Tome & Principe</option><option value="Saudi Arabia">Saudi Arabia</option><option value="Senegal">Senegal</option><option value="Seychelles">Seychelles</option><option value="Sierra Leone">Sierra Leone</option><option value="Singapore">Singapore</option><option value="Slovakia">Slovakia</option><option value="Slovenia">Slovenia</option><option value="Solomon Islands">Solomon Islands</option><option value="Somalia">Somalia</option><option value="South Africa">South Africa</option><option value="Spain">Spain</option><option value="Sri Lanka">Sri Lanka</option><option value="Sudan">Sudan</option><option value="Suriname">Suriname</option><option value="Swaziland">Swaziland</option><option value="Sweden">Sweden</option><option value="Switzerland">Switzerland</option><option value="Syria">Syria</option><option value="Tahiti">Tahiti</option><option value="Taiwan">Taiwan</option><option value="Tajikistan">Tajikistan</option><option value="Tanzania">Tanzania</option><option value="Thailand">Thailand</option><option value="Togo">Togo</option><option value="Tokelau">Tokelau</option><option value="Tonga">Tonga</option><option value="Trinidad & Tobago">Trinidad & Tobago</option><option value="Tunisia">Tunisia</option><option value="Turkey">Turkey</option><option value="Turkmenistan">Turkmenistan</option><option value="Turks & Caicos Is">Turks & Caicos Is</option><option value="Tuvalu">Tuvalu</option><option value="Uganda">Uganda</option><option value="Ukraine">Ukraine</option><option value="United Arab Erimates">United Arab Emirates</option><option value="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</option><option value="United States of America">United States of America</option><option value="Uraguay">Uruguay</option><option value="Uzbekistan">Uzbekistan</option><option value="Vanuatu">Vanuatu</option><option value="Vatican City State">Vatican City State</option><option value="Venezuela">Venezuela</option><option value="Vietnam">Vietnam</option><option value="Virgin Islands (Brit)">Virgin Islands (Brit)</option><option value="Virgin Islands (USA)">Virgin Islands (USA)</option><option value="Wake Island">Wake Island</option><option value="Wallis & Futana Is">Wallis & Futana Is</option><option value="Yemen">Yemen</option><option value="Zaire">Zaire</option><option value="Zambia">Zambia</option><option value="Zimbabwe">Zimbabwe</option></select>       </td>        </tr>
<tr><td>Cell Number * </td><td><select id="Country Code" name="Country Code"> <option value="+1">+1</option>  <option value="+20">+20</option>  <option value="+211">+211</option>  <option value="+212">+212</option>  <option value="+213">+213</option>  <option value="+216">+216</option>  <option value="+218">+218</option>  <option value="+220">+220</option>  <option value="+221">+221</option>  <option value="+222">+222</option>  <option value="+223">+223</option>  <option value="+224">+224</option>  <option value="+225">+225</option>  <option value="+226">+226</option>  <option value="+227">+227</option>  <option value="+228">+228</option>  <option value="+229">+229</option>  <option value="+230">+230</option>  <option value="+231">+231</option>  <option value="+232">+232</option>  <option value="+233">+233</option>  <option value="+234">+234</option>  <option value="+235">+235</option>  <option value="+236">+236</option>  <option value="+237">+237</option>  <option value="+238">+238</option>  <option value="+239">+239</option>  <option value="+240">+240</option>  <option value="+241">+241</option>  <option value="+242">+242</option>  <option value="+243">+243</option>  <option value="+244">+244</option>  <option value="+245">+245</option>  <option value="+246">+246</option>  <option value="+247">+247</option>  <option value="+248">+248</option>  <option value="+249">+249</option>  <option value="+250">+250</option>  <option value="+251">+251</option>  <option value="+252">+252</option>  <option value="+253">+253</option>  <option value="+254">+254</option>  <option value="+255">+255</option>  <option value="+256">+256</option>  <option value="+257">+257</option>  <option value="+258">+258</option>  <option value="+260">+260</option>  <option value="+261">+261</option>  <option value="+262">+262</option>  <option value="+263">+263</option>  <option value="+264">+264</option>  <option value="+265">+265</option>  <option value="+266">+266</option>  <option value="+267">+267</option>  <option value="+268">+268</option>  <option value="+269">+269</option>  <option value="+27">+27</option>  <option value="+290">+290</option>  <option value="+291">+291</option>  <option value="+297">+297</option>  <option value="+298">+298</option>  <option value="+299">+299</option>  <option value="+30">+30</option>  <option value="+31">+31</option>  <option value="+32">+32</option>  <option value="+33">+33</option>  <option value="+34">+34</option>  <option value="+350">+350</option>  <option value="+351">+351</option>  <option value="+352">+352</option>  <option value="+353">+353</option>  <option value="+354">+354</option>  <option value="+355">+355</option>  <option value="+356">+356</option>  <option value="+357">+357</option>  <option value="+358">+358</option>  <option value="+359">+359</option>  <option value="+36">+36</option>  <option value="+370">+370</option>  <option value="+371">+371</option>  <option value="+372">+372</option>  <option value="+373">+373</option>  <option value="+374">+374</option>  <option value="+375">+375</option>  <option value="+376">+376</option>  <option value="+377">+377</option>  <option value="+378">+378</option>  <option value="+379">+379</option>  <option value="+380">+380</option>  <option value="+381">+381</option>  <option value="+382">+382</option>  <option value="+385">+385</option>  <option value="+386">+386</option>  <option value="+387">+387</option>  <option value="+389">+389</option>  <option value="+39">+39</option>  <option value="+40">+40</option>  <option value="+41">+41</option>  <option value="+420">+420</option>  <option value="+421">+421</option>  <option value="+423">+423</option>  <option value="+43">+43</option>  <option value="+44">+44</option>  <option value="+45">+45</option>  <option value="+46">+46</option>  <option value="+47">+47</option>  <option value="+48">+48</option>  <option value="+49">+49</option>  <option value="+500">+500</option>  <option value="+501">+501</option>  <option value="+502">+502</option>  <option value="+503">+503</option>  <option value="+504">+504</option>  <option value="+505">+505</option>  <option value="+506">+506</option>  <option value="+507">+507</option>  <option value="+508">+508</option>  <option value="+509">+509</option>  <option value="+51">+51</option>  <option value="+52">+52</option>  <option value="+53">+53</option>  <option value="+54">+54</option>  <option value="+55">+55</option>  <option value="+56">+56</option>  <option value="+57">+57</option>  <option value="+58">+58</option>  <option value="+590">+590</option>  <option value="+591">+591</option>  <option value="+592">+592</option>  <option value="+593">+593</option>  <option value="+594">+594</option>  <option value="+595">+595</option>  <option value="+596">+596</option>  <option value="+597">+597</option>  <option value="+598">+598</option>  <option value="+599">+599</option>  <option value="+60">+60</option>  <option value="+61">+61</option>  <option value="+62">+62</option>  <option value="+63">+63</option>  <option value="+64">+64</option>  <option value="+65">+65</option>  <option value="+66">+66</option>  <option value="+670">+670</option>  <option value="+672">+672</option>  <option value="+673">+673</option>  <option value="+674">+674</option>  <option value="+675">+675</option>  <option value="+676">+676</option>  <option value="+677">+677</option>  <option value="+678">+678</option>  <option value="+679">+679</option>  <option value="+680">+680</option>  <option value="+681">+681</option>  <option value="+682">+682</option>  <option value="+683">+683</option>  <option value="+685">+685</option>  <option value="+686">+686</option>  <option value="+687">+687</option>  <option value="+688">+688</option>  <option value="+689">+689</option>  <option value="+690">+690</option>  <option value="+691">+691</option>  <option value="+692">+692</option>  <option value="+7">+7</option>  <option value="+800">+800</option>  <option value="+808">+808</option>  <option value="+81">+81</option>  <option value="+82">+82</option>  <option value="+84">+84</option>  <option value="+850">+850</option>  <option value="+852">+852</option>  <option value="+853">+853</option>  <option value="+855">+855</option>  <option value="+856">+856</option>  <option value="+86">+86</option>  <option value="+870">+870</option>  <option value="+878">+878</option>  <option value="+880">+880</option>  <option value="+881">+881</option>  <option value="+882">+882</option>  <option value="+886">+886</option>  <option value="+90">+90</option>  <option selected="selected" value="+91">+91</option>  <option value="+92">+92</option>  <option value="+93">+93</option>  <option value="+94">+94</option>  <option value="+95">+95</option>  <option value="+960">+960</option>  <option value="+961">+961</option>  <option value="+962">+962</option>  <option value="+963">+963</option>  <option value="+964">+964</option>  <option value="+965">+965</option>  <option value="+966">+966</option>  <option value="+967">+967</option>  <option value="+968">+968</option>  <option value="+970">+970</option>  <option value="+971">+971</option>  <option value="+972">+972</option>  <option value="+973">+973</option>  <option value="+974">+974</option>  <option value="+975">+975</option>  <option value="+976">+976</option>  <option value="+977">+977</option>  <option value="+98">+98</option>  <option value="+992">+992</option>  <option value="+993">+993</option>  <option value="+994">+994</option>  <option value="+995">+995</option>  <option value="+996">+996</option>  <option value="+998">+998</option> </select>
        <input id="Mobile" maxlength="13" name="Mobile" size="15" type="text" value="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Message </td><td><textarea id="Message" name="Message"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="35%"></td>
<td width="65%"><input name="Submit" type="submit" value="Submit" />
<input name="reset" type="reset" value="Reset" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="35%"></td>
<span><a href="http://www.musicrootz.com/HTML">+Get This!</a></span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="35%"></td>
<td width="65%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</form>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Add HTML Contact Form to Blogger / Websites ends --> 

>> Replace Your Email Add Here With Your Own Email Address Where Top Of The Code Mark With Red Color.
>> Then Click On Save. 

Hope You Like This Post So Please Share Or Post Your Valuable Comments.

Click Below Button for Add Contact Us Form to Your Blogger.
 

Remove Youtube Logo from Embeded Video

If you want to remove youtube logo from your embed video on your site then edit default code look like below with ?modestbranding=1

See the below default code that got it from youtube:

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/L5jbXuq_S3A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 

Now after edit ?modestbranding=1 embed code:

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/L5jbXuq_S3A?modestbranding=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 

Result:

Remove Title and Rating from Embeded Youtube Video

Remove Title and Rating from Embeded Youtube Video

YouTube added titles and ratings frames in embed players & when you add the YouTube video to your website, that video shows a grey bar at the top with the title of the video. but they might not blend well with all site layouts. That’s why YouTube has included an option to remove them. Just add &showinfo=0 to the video URL in your embed code.

Edit Default code look like below code:

<object width="640" height="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/L5jbXuq_S3A?version=3&hl=en_US&showinfo=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L5jbXuq_S3A?version=3&hl=en_US&showinfo=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="480" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Optimize Blog Post Title to Encrease Search Traffic

Optimize Blog Post Title to Encrease Search Traffic

After Login Blogger Go to Blogger Dashboard >> Template >> Edit HTML >> Proceed >> Click on Expand Widget Templates.

Now find the following code:

<h3><data:title/></h3>

And replace it with the following:

<h2><data:title/></h2>

Now you've successfully completed.

Add Energy Saving Mode to Your Blogger

Add Energy Saving Mode to Your Blogger

After Login Blogger Go to Blogger Dashboard >> Template >> Edit HTML >> Proceed >> Click on Expand Widget Templates.

Then add following code just above  </head>

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.onlineleaf.com/savetheenvironment.js?time=60"></script>

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Quick Takes: RIM's Marketing, Microsoft Takes Even More Risks, and A Lesson from Digg

Short thoughts on recent tech news...


How not to turn around a company, part 1

Some day, my friend, you might become the CEO of a major technology company.  (Heck, maybe you're one right now.)  When you are a CEO, you sometimes have to deliver bad news to the public.  Maybe it'll be a poor quarter, or a product that doesn't work as advertised.  Or maybe you'll be in charge of a major corporate turnaround, in which case you'll have to deliver a lot of bad news.

There are some very specific rules for how you deliver that news.  You can't sound like you're in denial, but at the same time you can't surrender to the gloom that will flow like a river from the press and analysts you talk to.  It's their job to make the case for what's wrong; it's your job to make the case for how you will fix it. 

One of the rules of this process is that you can't adopt the language of the people criticizing your company.  If you do, they'll play back that language at you. 

For example, say someone asks "did your company deliberately steal millions of dollars from your customers?"  There are several good ways to respond.  You can go for incredulity:  "Anyone who says that is completely out of touch with reality."  You can accuse the reporter of naivete:  "You've been spending too much time on the bulletin boards.  I talk with our customers every day, and they are very happy with their relationship with us."   Or you can just change the subject:  "Let me explain what we're doing."

What you must not do is repeat the hostile wording in the question ("no, we did not steal millions of dollars").  That's a trap, because you legitimize the accusation by repeating it.  The headline the next day will be "CEO denies stealing millions of dollars," something so inflammatory that a reporter on his or her own could never get it into a headline.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins fell into this trap in an interview he did with CBC in early July.  It's a good interview; I encourage you to listen to it here.

The interviewer, Matt Galloway, is politely professional but relentless.  The interview reminds me of what can happen sometimes with British journalists when they see themselves as proxies for the audience, exposing the misdeeds of the rich and powerful.

Galloway uses death imagery throughout the interview:  "seems to be if not at death's door, it's in the vicinity"..."another nail in the coffin"..."the company may not be around by the time this thing comes out."  So it's a tough interview.

Heins handles most of it fairly well.  He sounds beleaguered at times, and he allows the interviewer to drive the subjects, instead of taking over the flow of the interview.  But he generally sticks to his message.  Until the last question.  Galloway asks:

"The public perception now is that it's a company in a death spiral, on death's door, and about to become irrelevant.  How do you turn that public perception around and make people believe that you can create devices that people will want?"

This is actually the only creampuff question in the interview.  Heins is being invited to talk about the new RIM handsets coming out now, and what's to come next year.  Or he could brag about sales in markets where RIM is doing well.  Journalists, especially on TV and radio, will often give you an easy question at the end so the segment will have an upbeat ending (and so they won't look like total attack dogs).  Unfortunately, Heins chooses this moment to go defensive and start playing back the interviewer's language:

"This company is not ignoring the world out there, nor is it in a death spiral."

So the interview ends on a sour note, and guess what the headlines say the next day:



The only words all of the headlines share are "RIM" and "death spiral."  What do you think people are going to remember?

The problem with doing a turnaround like RIM's is not that the task is impossible, but that it requires incredibly good execution.  You have to get a long list of things just right.  That's hard in any firm, but in a company that's laying off people and shuffling its management, it becomes even more difficult.  So far I don't see the necessary attention to detail from RIM.


How not to turn around a company, part 2

As long as we're picking on RIM, one of the other principles of a turnaround is to underpromise and overdeliver.  Make the situation seem as bleak as possible at the start, so you can surprise people with good news later.  If you think a product will be done in June of this year, promise it by December.  If you expect that the next couple of quarters may be bad, declare that the entire year will be a disaster.  Especially when you're a new CEO, no one's going to fire you for being gloomy in your first couple of weeks, and you will buy time for the turnaround to start working.

And don't worry about the stock price.  Trash it now so you'll look like a hero when it rises later (and so there will be no basis for a shareholder lawsuit).

Thorsten Heins did the exact opposite when he took over RIM.  He reinforced his predecessors' promise that the BlackBerry 10 OS would be out this year, and he made some very upbeat statements when he took over the job.  Galloway even played back a recording of one of them in the CBC interview.  Heins said in January:  "I don't think that times are that difficult...it's an exciting time to take over.  RIM is not a turnaround company.  RIM is a financially healthy and sound company."

Six months later, the OS schedule has slipped, and obviously RIM is in a turnaround.  Instead of looking like the solution, Heins comes across like he's part of the problem.

The consistent theme here is self-inflicted wounds caused by bad marketing and PR.


Surface: Another Microsoft gamble

I continue to be fascinated by the moves Microsoft is making around Windows 8.  The OS has a radically new UI, and violates some of the most basic rules on how to do a platform transition.  I don't know whether to admire Microsoft's courage, or to be appalled at the unnecessary risks the company is taking.

I got the same feeling when I saw the previews of Microsoft's new tablet/PC devices, called Surface.  The pictures of them look swoopy, and I really like the idea of the flexible keyboard/cover that lets you use the tablet (sort of) like a notebook computer.  I'm also extremely intrigued by the model with a stylus (could this, at last, be the foundation for an info pad?)  Surface is giving me a serious case of technolust.

Unfortunately, we don't yet know many of the most important facts about Surface, such as what it'll cost, where it will be sold, and what it's like in long-term use.  If the answers are bad, Surface could become a curiosity on the order of the Palm Foleo (or maybe Microsoft's own Zune).  On the other hand, if everything is right, Surface could be a milestone product that helps reshape personal computing.

The one thing that's certain is that Surface is a high-risk business move for Microsoft.  For its entire history, Microsoft has avoided competing directly with its hardware licensees.  It certainly manipulated and sometimes exploited them, but it did not sell PCs against them.  Surface breaks that taboo.  It has to be putting a chill through Microsoft's licensees.  You want to share your hardware road map with your OS company, to make sure your products are coordinated with the OS.  But who's ever going to share their hardware plans with Microsoft when you know those ideas could sneak into a Microsoft device?  The licensees won't dump Windows, but they could easily reduce their investment in it.  And they might be scared away from the market for Windows tablets, the place where Microsoft is most anxious to grow.

Depending on Microsoft's manufacturing and sales plans, there's a danger that Surface could be just successful enough to damage the market for Windows 8 products without having enough impact to change the competitive situation versus iPad, Android, and Mac.  We don't know how many Surface devices Microsoft is making, or how they will be distributed.  The hints I've seen so far are that Surface will be available in Microsoft stores and online, but no place else.  If Surface is a hit, what happens to the rest of the PC retail channel?  Do Best Buy and its peers around the world just step aside?  And will they invest in promoting Windows 8 computers if the most popular Windows 8 device is not available to them?

Has Microsoft ordered enough Surface devices to fill the demand if it's popular?  If Microsoft has ordered a lot, maybe it'll have extra units for the Best Buys of the world.  But the more Microsoft invests in inventory, the greater the financial risk if Surface doesn't sell well.  Microsoft could be stuck with a huge inventory writedown, or might be forced to sell Surface at a very low price, spoiling the market for other Windows licensees.

I guess (and it's just a guess) that Microsoft will put the price of Surface a bit on the high side, with a fairly low sales forecast.  That would reduce the impact on licensees, and make it easier to manage inventory.  In that case, Surface becomes something like a concept car, not affordable to the average customer but encouraging licensees to do something similar (see here and here). 

Ashlee Vance at BusinessWeek pointed out that it's Microsoft's own fault that it needs a concept car (link):

"Microsoft, in many ways, helped create this mess... Along with Intel, it sucked all the profits out of the PC industry, leaving HP and Dell to rely on manufacturing companies in Taiwan for their innovative twists. The result has been the Great Stagnation."

The rumor mill says the low-end Surface device will be in the $600 range, and the high-end one around $800 (link).  That's concept car territory, in my opinion.

But even the concept car approach has risks.  If Surface doesn't sell well, will the licensees bother to copy it?  They usually want to copy best-sellers.  On the other hand, if Surface is viewed as a lustworthy product, will PC buyers delay purchases of other Windows 8 devices to wait for Surface clones?

The usual rule is never to give hardware customers a reason to wait, and Surface could do just that.

If I were a PC licensee, I'd be thinking very seriously about investing more in Android tablets.  Except that Google, to compete with its rogue licensee Amazon, just announced its own Google-branded tablet at $200.  That pricing isn't a concept car; it's more like a knife to the heart of other Android tablet makers.

Maybe that's why Microsoft feels it can get away with doing Surface; the licensees really have no place else to go.

So I end up back where I started, admiring Microsoft's courage but wondering about its strategy.  From a tech industry standpoint, it's nice to see a big company like Microsoft stirring the pot.  We need more of that.  And I admire Microsoft's willingness to change radically rather than waiting for something bad to happen to it, a la RIM.  But Microsoft is taking a huge number of risks all at once, and some of its plans feel like they were not deeply thought through.  If Microsoft screws up, it could severely wound itself in short order.

It all reminds me of something an Apple exec once told me.  He was a former Sun manager, and liked to quote the often profane strategy pronouncements of Sun executives.  One of his favorites (and forgive me if I offend) was "no brass balls, no blue chips."  In other words, if you don't have the courage to take big risks, you won't win the big payoffs.

I get the feeling that Microsoft these days is operating on the same principle.  It sounds like great advice, until you think where Sun ended up.


Humility

There's been a lot written online about the fate of Digg, one of the original "Web 2.0" poster children.  I don't have much to add regarding its current situation, but I think back to a conference I attended in 2006 called "The Future of Web Apps."  It included many of the most prominent Web 2.0 CEOs, including Kevin Rose of Digg.  Michael Arrington spoke there as well.

Rose talked about evolving Digg into a social network in which people would be connected by shared interests rather than whether they have hot photos (this was back when Facebook was just a college socialization site).  Rose's idea for Digg sounds interesting; you wonder what happened to it.

Rose also said Digg was on the road to profitability based on advertising and traffic growth.  Oh well.

But the most interesting tidbit I remember from the conference was Michael Arrington saying that Web 2.0 companies don't need a perfect revenue model.  The general attitude of everyone at the conference (not just Arrington, and I am not trying to single him out) was that if you attract an audience, you will find some way to monetize it.

In the tech industry, one of the most common mistakes is to look at a trend today and assume that it'll continue in the future.  The reality is that basic economics usually reasserts itself at some point.  For businesses, that means you need to provide real value to real customers, with a realistic way to monetize it.  And you need to figure that out pretty early in the process, or you're taking a huge risk that you'll never get the answer.

It's something to keep in mind for the hundreds of thousands of companies creating mobile apps today because it's the hot thing to do.

The Coming Age of the Context Engine

People talk a lot about information overload, but I think the worst problem we have in information management today is memory overload -- the inability of the human brain to retain all the important information we run into in our careers.  There's more stuff we need to remember than you can possibly hold in your head.  The more successful you are, the more information you need to remember -- and the worse the problem becomes.

I think what we need is a context engine, an app that helps you recall the context around any bit of information in your life.  Unlike a search engine, a context engine indexes just the information in your life, and supplements your own memory.  "How do I know this person?"  "What's the agenda for my next meeting?"  "Who sent me that article last year, and where the heck is the article?"  A context engine will help you answer these questions quickly, anytime and anywhere you need the information. 

The product that I'm working on, Zekira, is a first generation context engine.  In this post I'll discuss the need for a context engine, how it would work, and our status with Zekira.  I'll also give some information on how you can help, if you're interested.


The trouble with information overload

Information overload is a hot topic with a long history.  The term was coined in the 1960s, and popularized in 1970 by Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock, according to an excellent article in Wikipedia (link).  But the idea goes back further.  Xerox implies that it invented information sharing through the development of the photocopier in the mid-1900s (link), And there have apparently been complaints about too much information for as long as we've had writing.  The Bible complains about the proliferation of books, the Romans worried about it, and so did the ancient Chinese.  Once Gutenberg got going with movable type, the complaints increased (link).

Information overload is a popular subject online.  The Wall Street Journal said Google returned 2.92 million hits for it in 2009; the same search today returns 3.76 million, an increase of about 770 references per day.

Prominent authorities opinig on the hazards of information overload include the New York Times (link), Wired (link), and none other than the big consultancy McKinsey, which says it is "killing productivity...and making us unhappy" (link).

The critics of information overload complain that it bombards people with so much data that they are stunned into stupidity.  They become low-grade data zombies, incapable of making intelligent decisions.

The answer, we're told, is to take in less information.  The experts tell us to delete e-mails and limit our exposure to information online so that we can reserve time for thinking deep thoughts and forming long-term memories.

Okay.  It makes sense that we should set aside time to think.  But I believe distraction isn't a function of how much information you bring in, it's a function of how much self-discipline you lack.  There's always something you can distract yourself with; if it's not e-mail it'll be Angry Birds.  You could have the same problem if you had five e-mails a day or five hundred.

I think blaming "information overload" for the problem of distracted people is like blaming "water overload" for the problem of drowning.  The fact is, modern society runs on the flow of information.  The more information you can handle, the more productive you'll be, and the further you'll go in your career.  Given the way the economy works, telling people to limit their information flow is a little like telling them to make themselves stupid.  Instead, I think, we should be increasing our ability to manage that information, so we can be more productive.


The real problem is memory overload

Once you step back from demonizing information itself, it's easier to identify the problems that we have in dealing with so much information.  I think the biggest problem in information management today is the limitation of human memory. 

Think about how you remember things.  It's usually through associations -- I saw it in the newspaper when I was at that cafe, I read it in that article on The Register while I was riding the bus, etc.  When people have more information to remember than their brains can hold onto, those chains of association start to break down.  You remember the fact that you once knew something, but can't recall the information itself.

As I talk with busy knowledge workers -- the type of people who manage the most information -- I hear stories about half-remembered information all the time.  You'll see a person and know that you've met them, but can't recall the details about how you know them or what you discussed with them.  Or a topic will come up and you'll remember that you read something important about it, but you won't recall where you saw it or how you could find that information again. 

Often you know the information is stored somewhere on a computer or smartphone or website, but you have no way to look for it in the moment you need it.  Even if you remember to look up the information later, it's usually extremely hard to find, and you can't take the time to do it. 

The more successful you become in your career, the more information you have, and the more overloaded your memory gets.  Of course it eventually overflows.  The problem is so ubiquitous that most of us don't even think of it as a problem; it's just a feature of life.  We shrug it off as a "senior moment" and uneasily move on.

But it has nothing to do with age; it's a function of experience.  Take all the information held by a mid-career professional and stuff it into a 20-year-old's head and he or she will have the same problems. 

When you add up all those "senior moments" across all the people they happen to, they constitute a huge loss in productivity among the busiest and most pivotal people in the economy.  The only reason we tolerate this situation is because we assume there's nothing we can do about it. 

But I think we can.  The combination of mobile technology, low-cost computer storage, and web services makes it possible to build what I call a context engine -- an app designed specifically to help you recall the information in your life, and all the context around it.

You'll use a context engine to quickly recall:
    -All the details of your relationship with someone -- how you met them, messages and documents you've exchanged, and meetings you've been in together.
    -The backstory to a meeting, including the messages that led up to it, attendees, notes and pictures you took during the meeting, and followup messages afterward.
    -A tweet or Facebook post or e-mail you saw months ago mentioning a great new restaurant that you want to try.
    -That report sent to you five years ago by some guy you met at a half-remembered conference in Boston.


How the context engine will work

A context engine needs to do three things with your information:  Collect, connect, and communicate.

1. Collect.  To build a map of all your information, the context engine needs to gather it from all the places where your information is stored.  That means, first, scanning the hard drives and other storage devices connected to your personal computer.  E-mails, contacts, and meeting records all need to be extracted from whatever messaging and calendar system you use.  For most mid-career professionals, that means digging into old Microsoft Outlook archives, called PST files.  Other documents -- especially presentations and word processing files -- need to be sucked in as well, along with the most ubiquitous file format in business and academics, the PDF.

But you can't stop with the PC.  The context engine needs to reach out to your web apps, to extract things like gMail messages, tweets, and Facebook posts and contacts.  And the information on your smartphone needs to be included, everything from contacts to text messages to pictures.

This process should be automatic and comprehensive.  Everything should be indexed.  You shouldn't be asked to choose which files you want to remember, because you can't know in advance what you'll need.

2.  Connect.  Once all that information has been collected, it must be organized.  That means indexing it not just by keywords, the way we would for a traditional web search, but by all of its attributes, including date, time, location, type of content, and so on.

This is a key difference between a web search engine and a context engine.  In web searches, we look almost exclusively for keywords, and we use the wisdom of crowds to determine which matches are most important.  That works great for searches of publicly-available content, but it breaks down when searching your personal archive.  You may not remember the right keyword for a document or message, and the wisdom of crowds is much less useful for ranking results, because everyone's context is unique.  Instead, a context engine needs to offer many search paths through the archive, so people can search using whatever bits of information they do remember about a topic.

The context engine should also present information to you in a way that lets you jump between bits of related data.  Say you're looking for the record of a lunch meeting.  You might be looking for it because you want to find the name of the person you met with, or some messages you exchanged with that person.  Or maybe you just want the name of the restaurant so you can eat there again.  All of that information needs to be cued up so you can jump to it easily.  Again, the goal is to help you re-create those half-remembered chains of association. 

Many of the products that in the past have tried to organize personal information (such as Google Desktop) have mimicked the keyword-centric searching we do on the web.  Web search is so ubiquitous that we're all a bit like the man with the proverbial hammer -- every problem looks like a nail.  But I think personal context requires a radically different structure to the database and UI.  It's not about searching for things, it's about navigating through your context.

3.  Communicate.  You don't know when you'll need to remember something, so the context engine needs to be available on your mobile devices.  In particular, I think a context engine is a killer app for tablets in business.  Imagine always having your entire information history at your fingertips in every meeting and every conversation.  How much more productive could you be if you had a perfect memory all day long?

I can't tell you how many people in Silicon Valley have told me sheepishly that they don't know what to do with their iPads at work.  They generally love them at home, where they access entertainment and informational content.  But at the office, particularly in meetings, they tend to turn into tools for covertly checking messages and browsing when the meeting gets slow.  Please don't misunderstand, I know there are many things you can do with an iPad.  But I'm reporting what I hear from a lot of iPad users.

Far be it from me to judge the way others fill their time, but I think the context engine would give you a good business reason to carry your tablet all day.

That means the database needs to be hosted in the cloud, which creates all sorts of important security challenges.  Having your extended memory hacked is utterly unacceptable.


Building the context engine

As you know if you've been following my earlier updates, the startup that I'm working on, Zekira, is building a context engine.  The company consists of four engineers plus myself, and we've been working on it for more than a year.  Zekira is the fulfillment of a dream for us.  One of us, Rudi Diezmann, has been working on personal search products since the 1980s.  Others of us first thought about this problem when we were working at Palm almost ten years ago.  We were looking at user problems a PDA or smartphone could solve, beyond helping you manage your calendar and contacts.  There was a group of customers who responded very strongly to any product that could help them recall information and the context around it.

But only recently have mobile computers and wireless networks become powerful enough to let you build a full-function context engine. 

The first version of Zekira is in early beta.  It runs on Macs and PCs, and right now it indexes information found on your computer and any storage attached to it.  Our goal is to take Zekira mobile, and to add web data sources, as soon as possible.  But we did the first version on personal computers so we could get started testing the database and search capability.  Besides, there are a lot of people with old Outlook and Office archives who would be happy to turn a context engine loose on them.

Zekira gives you a little search window that you can leave up on the screen, or minimize: 

After you do a search, your results appear in this window:

 The four stacks in the center show you all the items that matched your current search.  In this case, we're seeing things related to Tom Shannon, including documents that he wrote or that mention his name, messages you've exchanged with him, and his contact record.  Click on any of those items and you'll see information related to them.

The tabs on the left are filters that let you narrow the search.  Currently they let you search by time/date (the filter shown), name, word, document type, and folder: 

 You can combine multiple filters to do complex layered searches.  The filters are extensible, and we plan to add additional search tools in the future.

We're doing a crowdfunding campaign for Zekira on the funding website Indiegogo.  If you don't know how crowdfunding works, people can make small financial contributions to a project and receive benefits in return, such as a discounted copy of the program when it's finished.  Supporters of Zekira can also get access to the beta version of the program, and listing as a sponsor in the about box of the finished app. 

Corporate sponsors of Zekira can get advertising here on Mobile Opportunity, a unique offer since I don't generally accept ads (except for one tiny Google ad that gets me access to Google's excellent traffic monitoring tools).  The advertising sponsorship offer is a great way for a company that has a little bit of advertising budget left at the end of the quarter to help itself, and also help support a great product.  The ad offer is limited to three companies, and is first-come, first served.

If you'd like to learn more about Zekira, you can visit our crowdfunding site here, and our website here.  And here's a video of Zekira in action:



If you have feedback and suggestions for Zekira, I'd welcome your comments.  And if you like the idea, please help spread the word about our crowdfunding campaign.  The more support we get, the faster we can move on the project.

No matter what you think of Zekira, I hope you'll agree that the time is right for a context engine.  With that and an info pad, I'd be one very happy camper.