dannypier.com

I like groupon, quite a bit in fact. I use it a couple times a month. It has some great deals.

The problem is I also use LivingSocial. And I use Denver Daily Deals. And I’ll likely have no problem using the forthcoming Google Offers.

And that’s why Groupon is screwed. The simplicity that makes these daily deals sites so great (I bought $80 of wine for $40 on a chair lift while snowboarding, WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE) also homogenizes them.

Daily deals websites aren’t like others on the interenet. You’re not using their service because you NEED it. Or because it does something others don’t.  Nor are you signing up for them because your internet social circle exists there. You’re just trying to score some sweet deals on cool stuff.

When each deals site offers the same stuff and provides a half-decent user experience, there’s no reason for customer loyalty to one as opposed to another.

Groupon did it first. I think (right now) they’re doing it best. I think the success they’re enjoying is deserved. However, it’s fleeting. Other deals sites will grow, Groupon’s momentum will slow, and in 3 years they’ll be out of business or wishing they’d accepted Google’s $6 billion. Or both.

I’ve been using Google voice for a while now and, as with most things Google, I’m a huge fan. The transcription isn’t perfect by a long shot but a 10 second visual scan is oftentimes good enough to tell you who’s calling and what they’re calling about, saving you precious minutes when your friend tends to ramble.

That being said, transcribing your wife’s phone call from her purse could use some work. Here’s the message that showed up in my inbox today:

For example, bye our company and then bye bye. Yeah. Bye. Yeah them wrong. Wow, Hi Hey Larry, why does Hello, I’m going to bye bye say how evidence. Well fellow nothing. It’s when. Listen, this is a vote of Newton point where okay. And here Hey Danny, Hello Danny, This is I’m going to go. Give me a while or yeah, we probably won’t be out of work a little bit the vocal piece since Hey Danny, Pier this is you has been working. We’re States eve. Okay, Hello, or at work if you could please you go well and he won’t work. Lightning out without what Becker do you do. Nick but I wanted to work with us. Hey registering at all. Well, why don’t you give me a holler figured out. Anyways, yeah, i think you all right there. Okay, okay. Cos I will write paper. Plus, Yeah, we’re really this is as well. Yeah, there’s nothing Hello. This is an woman, but you know that 00. How are you. This bye bye bye yeah hey yeah hey so i want to be. Seems like to be this is when. And yeah okay, yes. Talk to you soon. It was last.

Google voice opened up to the public this week (in the US). In spite of the creepiness with which it translates muffled voices and silence, I highly recommend it: Google Voice

Surprise, surprise, Google wants to get into yet another chunk of your daily existence, your television.  (Not that I mind)

Today at Google I/O, Google announced Google TV.  It does lots of cool stuff, particularly if you’ve got an Android device and there’s no shortage of places you can read about its cool features.

I’ve been using an HTPC with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center for about a year now.  I love it.  Not enough on the DVR?  Switch to Hulu.  Got a documentary you wanna throw on in the background?  Netflix Instant Watch.  Reminded of a HI-LAR-IOUS YouTube where an anchor makes some incredibly uncomfortable sexual innuendo while watching the local news?  YouTube.   Alot of the flexibility that Google TV is promising I already enjoy, but I’m still excited about it.

We’re not yet quite sure of what Google TV will allow developers to do, but here’s a couple scenarios that only make sense:

• IMDB sidebar during movies.  Face/voice recognition?  Even better.  ”What the hell do I recognize that guy from?” is no longer an issue.
• What’s that song in the new iPad commercial?  Auto-Shazam provides an iTunes (more likely Amazon MP3) link. Download.  Booyah.
• Rockies playing the Cardinals?  Hmmm… wonder what the stats of their last game was.  BAM!  No need to wait for an announcer.

Google TV has tremendous potential… but then again, so did Google Wave.

Future tech: A mobile device employing facial recognition to identify the occupants of a photograph and automatically retrieve information about them via the web.

Type: Mobile application.

Tagline: Shazam meets photos.

What’s around today:

• Camera enabled smartphone – photos on the go and the internet readily accessible
• Facebook – the largest database of tagged photographs of individuals in the world
• Picasa – in version 3.5 Google implemented facial recognition.  It can identify people without concern of age, sunglasses, hats, hair, shadow, or direction they’re facing, tag them, and sync them with your Google contacts.

Everyday scenario:

Take a photo of a new contact and their name, email, and phone number is saved to your phone/contacts along with the location and time you met.  Your face is your always available business card.

The future freaks me out scenario:

At a bar, feeling confident, looking to make your move .  Snap a photo, discreetly, from across the room.  Facebook profile retrieved.  Looks like she’s got a German Shepard.  Conversation topic acquired.

What’s preventing this today:

• Though facial recognition has taken tremendous strides it’s not perfect and does a better job of identifying a smaller pool of faces, with 300 million users on Facebook and counting computing time would take days with lots of possible misidentifications
• Privacy issues abound

Estimated arrival: 5 years, 2014