Win a Dell Laptop, Sony Camcorder ...
by Volker Weber
... and lose a few friends by entering their e-mail addresses into a database (*) owned by the marketing gurus at Groove Networks and hosted by Sweepstakes Online.
I don't get it. These people build an application (and a platform) that only works for you, if you convince your friends, partners, and their grandma to also use it. Now, when they download this thing, they need to register. Then they need to activate the product by entering all that information again and finally it goes into the online directory (if you chose to publish that data). Once you installed the application, it will check for updates automatically and tell you when you should be installing new stuff.
If this product is any good, it should ignite a chain reaction, because everybody tells everybody else in order get them on. If it is bad enough, then conventional marketing kicks in. General advertisement is too expensive, weblogs reach only a fraction of the audience, Jon Udell cannot reach everybody else. And Steve Gilmor went out on a limb to declare Notes dead, only to convince the audience that Steve is dead.
Next on the list? Collect e-mail addresses through Sweepstakes and "free" downloads. Stay tuned, the saga continues.
*) Don't forget to read the fine print: Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, Canada (except the province of Quebec) and the United Kingdom age 18 and older.
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