MortarBlog

Words are fun

Paste in a bunch of text here, and out pops a cute little word bubble. Neato. Yes, I just wrote neato. Twice. I decided to paste in the text from my resume. So here's me:

Thanks to Dear Jane Sample for the tip.

Primary Twittervision

Google says: "We've joined forces with Twitter and Twittervision to give you instant updates on Super Tuesday. Throughout the day, you can watch Twitter texts from across the country. And send in your own updates!" Very cool use of mashing-up-ness.

Diva Services

Sunday is a new company offering 24/7 personal assistance over the internet.

For 30 bucks a month you get 30 task requests; users can just write an email to have any task taken care of. Book your flights or find a hotel and make reservation. You can give them the name of your doctor and get an appointment. Pretty much anything. They have a whole suite of concierge type services for you to pick from wake up calls, information gathering, etc. Short of time? Can't find away to run errands? They'll take care of it for the small fee of $20 per hour.
 

I see this as a whole new trend of offering diva services via online. There is a market of time strapped people who can't afford these luxuries in the traditional sense. With the net as a distribution system there is a whole suite of services. Brands should be looking at this as missed opportunity, there are people who are willing to pay for "velvet rope" services no matter what category. Our suggestion is figure out how your brand can integrate these kind of seemingly exclusive offers into your brands and products. 

WiTricity - the next big thing?

I have been struggling with management of power cables and chargers for years. Reading this Sci-Tech Today article about "WiTricity" makes me all giddy with hope for a wireless energy solution.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly -- from a device 7 feet away -- potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.

However, the technology has a ways [sic] to go before it becomes practical. The MIT system is about 40 to 45 percent efficient -- meaning that most of the energy from the charging device doesn't make it to the light bulb.

If the technology can be perfected and made "ready for the masses," it could render products like the MultiPot (shown above), ChargePod (which Gizmodo boldly calls "the future of gadget charging"), and websites like CableOrganizer.com obsolete, or at least do some major damage to their bottom lines.

It isn't the END of chargers... if you had WiTricity at home or work, but you were on a business trip, you would still need all your chargers. At least until hotel chains catch up and offer it: "Continental Breakfast / Free WiFi + WiTricity / In-Room Skinimax."

I am going to keep my eye on this WiTricity... hopefully one day in the not-too-distant future, I can say bye-bye to all that cable clutter!

Brand Quiz: Is your brand a sucking, swirling eddy of despair?

We launched our much-anticipated Mortar 360 brand quiz today.

Click through to test your brand management prowess against the Web's most advanced (and we might say pithy) brand analysis tool.

It Rubbed Me the Right Way

Our team went up and chatted with the lovely ladies at Made In Napa Valley last week. After the meeting, Catherine and pals generously sent us off with some of their beautifully packaged artisan food products. I tried the Napa Valley Meritage Herb Rub on some salmon on Sunday night. Just a hint of olive oil on the fish, then rubbed in the rub, let it marinate for about 1 hour, then grilled it. It was so good! So tasty, in fact, that I ate it for dinner Sunday, Monday's lunch and dinner (3 meals in a row!). Check out their site for their super tasty products, including vinegars, tapenades, marinades, dipping oils, and lots more.

Clusty Cloud Creator

This is a very easy, cool tool.

What's a Clusty Cloud?
From: http://cloud.clusty.com/

A Clusty Cloud is a tool that webmasters or bloggers can use to instantly visualize a topic using the familiar tag cloud display. What makes the Clusty Cloud unique is that you can create a cloud based on any topic or query - you don't need tags or months of content on a subject to create an interesting cloud.

Clusty Clouds are generated using our search results for the topic you enter. Since the tags you see come from Clusty, you can click on any of them to go to Clusty's search results. Using Clusty to generate the cloud also ensures that it is always up-to-date because the clusters are generated in real-time.

 What do you do with a Clusty Cloud?

Use the Clusty Cloud for individual blog posts, blog sidebars, your personal site or any other web page. You can also customize the look of your Clusty Cloud to match your site or topic.

Like this:

Loading Clusty Cloud ...

Blog Search Done Better - Sphere.com

Wanted to share a newly found webtool that seems pretty cool: Sphere.com. From their website:

"Sphere's advanced search algorithm helps you discover high-quality, relevant, and timely blog posts that match what you're looking for. The Sphere It! Bookmarklet is a free bookmarklet that makes it easy to find blog posts that relate to what you're reading on the Web.  It may change your life."

We'll see over the next few days if that holds true.