 
Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ | One word... GREED! They have to have it all! | |
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tsu9
join:2001-08-17
Wheeling, IL
| Re: One word... Which, ironically, they fail at miserably. If they understood that the "content portals" they mimic as may as well be renamed "useless crap nobody wants" they'd have more green in the bank, or spent upgrading their network.
Unless they're going to innovate (R&D costs a ton more than spawning look-a-likes!), they're doomed to failure.
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"You do not secure the liberty of our country and value of our democracy by undermining them, that's the road to hell." - Lord Phillips of Sudbury. | |
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Sabre
Di relung hatiku bernyanyi bidadari
join:2005-05-17
 ·Comcast
| Re: One word... Back when I worked in Comcast Tier 1, we always dreaded the rollout of new content-style technology. It never worked right at first (not necessarily a Comcast thing, it's always hard to get new technology to work right) and thousands of people would call and whine about the changes.
I remember one old lady who furiously demanded to cancel her service because we moved the search bar on the homepage. *shrug*
My thought then, echoed by many I knew, and what I still think now, is simpler. In a nutshell, creating content takes man-hours away from making it work. But content also keeps people coming to the site.
Since there's already successful specialised portals and tools out there (YouTube for video, iTunes for music, Adaware/Spybot for security, etc, etc), why not put some of that money instead toward forming corporate partnerships?
Sure, I understand that would be hard with Google owning YouTube, Apple owning iTunes, and suchlike, but aren't there ways this could be made to work? Instead of creating your own content to mirror what someone else provides, link up with them and offer a co-branded version yourself! Comcast already does this with Giganews as their newsgroup provider. Then you get the innovation, spend probably the same amount as you would on design and development, and without most of the maintenance overhead.
It never occurred to me why so few providers seem to want to pursue an avenue like this. Certainly it seems to me like it's worth at least a look. There may be practical limitations I don't know about, but hey, it's worth a shot.
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With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. | |
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Juke Box
Free From Marketing
Premium
join:2001-01-29
Bar & Grill
·Comcast
| Re: One word... said by Sabre  :Back when I worked in Comcast Tier 1, Dude, what planet do you think people live on? Way back when when you were tier one.. You had no clue...
So how does that give you insight on this company accounting practices? Maybe I missed something in your remarks.
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If you are having half as much fun as I am, then I must be having twice the fun than you are. Do The Math! | |
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Titus Pullo
I came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
 ·Embarq
| said by tsu9 :Which, ironically, they fail at miserably. If they understood that the "content portals" they mimic as may as well be renamed "useless crap nobody wants" they'd have more green in the bank, or spent upgrading their network. Unless they're going to innovate (R&D costs a ton more than spawning look-a-likes!), they're doomed to failure. I guess owning the road with a toll isn't enough anymore, is it? Comcast . . . just the name makes my skin crawl, and I still pay for their TV service (at $3 more a month for nothing since they took over Adelphia). I digress 
Look, these clueless and witless fuktard marketing mavens have their heads so far up their accountant's backside they need a stock split to eat lunch. Have you ever HEARD a marketing person talk? They don't speak English, they blather some sort of asinine piffle that amounts to a very bad verbal PowerPoint presentation --complete with bullets and 'wipe' (pun intended) transitions.
Marketing is the con dept of your favorite corporate entity. That's it in a nutshell. The fledgling jerk off in the Armani with the manicure finishes another wasted hour with the board and calls his ASSistant who calls marketing to do a group-think on a white-board that POPS into brrrrrrrrrrrrr another f'n stupendously hideous crawling horror of an idea to twist up Benny Broadband's backside that, in the final analsysis, isn't worth the fuzz in a cat's stool.
This is why you have shiny new Comcast trucks carrying a bozobob splitter sucker in his new Comcast shirt and hat spread across the country like f'n army ants ready to sleep on your couch at a moments notice.
Presentation, penetration, palpitation, POP. Can't you feel it? It's C O M C A S T I C !!
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"I am not young enough to know everything."
Oscar Wilde | |
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Vig
Thread-safe since 1997
Premium
join:2004-03-23
San Diego, CA | Re: One word... I just wish I could tell how you really feel about Comcast... | |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL | That was a great post! | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | Usually those who are in marketing are simply studying just to lie.
Just like a debate club is sponsored by politicians for kids to debate in schools. | |
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TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ | Now THAT is one hell of a gonzo rant. Kudos, man. I hope you didn't need to get all wretched on Ether to write that. | |
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Juke Box
Free From Marketing
Premium
join:2001-01-29
Bar & Grill
·Comcast
| Dude, we live in America and greed is good.
Keep your money in a shoe box and I guarantee that someone will swindle you out of it eventually.
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If you are having half as much fun as I am, then I must be having twice the fun than you are. Do The Math! | |
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Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: One word... said by Juke Box :Keep your money in a shoe box and I guarantee that someone will swindle you out of it eventually. Lol, you may be right, but I am one cheap-ass tightwad. | |
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Nate425
Premium
join:2005-02-03
Charlottesville, VA
clubs: | Hmmm But that would make sense. Won't happen. | |
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xlimitx
join:2001-12-31
Wilkes Barre, PA
·ProLog
| Dumb Pipe.... Unfortunately not everyone wants a "dumb" pipe to their house for internet connectivity. Many people have broadband now and their choices for their service provider are increasing and or changing.
The companies are now using differentiators in order to pull people in, not just my bandwidth is bigger than your bandwidth.
Those differentiators create stickyness that cause some customers, possibly not BBR readers, to think about possibly losing all of their tunes if they move from Comcast to Verizon if they use the new Comcast ITunes knockoff.
It's all about customer retention and creating the glue that makes someone stay with a provider. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Re: Dumb Pipe.... said by xlimitx :Unfortunately not everyone wants a "dumb" pipe to their house for internet connectivity. Many people have broadband now and their choices for their service provider are increasing and or changing. The companies are now using differentiators in order to pull people in, not just my bandwidth is bigger than your bandwidth. Those differentiators create stickyness that cause some customers, possibly not BBR readers, to think about possibly losing all of their tunes if they move from Comcast to Verizon if they use the new Comcast ITunes knockoff. It's all about customer retention and creating the glue that makes someone stay with a provider. I have never chosen an ISP because of thier portal no would I ever. I can find my own stuff thank you. Give me a dumb fast pipe at the cheapest possible rate and the best uptime and I'll stay your customer. Everything else is fluff. | |
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| | xlimitx
join:2001-12-31
Wilkes Barre, PA
·ProLog
2 edits | Re: Dumb Pipe.... said by BF69 I have never chosen an ISP because of thier portal no would I ever. I can find my own stuff thank you. Give me a dumb fast pipe at the cheapest possible rate and the best uptime and I'll stay your customer. Everything else is fluff.
That's exactly my point. Average Joe user may or may not like this. Your normal BBR users probably don't care about the portals since we get our content elsewhere.
The point is that they're creating differentiators to their competition, but at the same creating stickyness.
We may be the exception to the rules here at BBR. | |
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tsu9
join:2001-08-17
Wheeling, IL
| Re: Dumb Pipe.... It's pretty obvious by the overwhelming success of prior portals that this targetted strategy is a sure-fire winner.
..if by 'winner' you mean 'bleeding money'
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"You do not secure the liberty of our country and value of our democracy by undermining them, that's the road to hell." - Lord Phillips of Sudbury. | |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| My in-laws probably count as "Average Joes". They don't know much about the Internet. They can check e-mails and browse the web a bit, but that's about it. In fact, my father-in-law's favorite activity is playing Snood.
When they purchased their new laptop and wanted to move away from AOL dial-up (yay!), they looked at Verizon DSL and Time Warner Roadrunner. They chose DSL. ISP content offerings didn't factor into the decision at all. They looked at price first and speed second. It just so happened that Verizon DSL's $15 plan was fast enough for their needs. (Much faster than their old dial up AOL, that's for sure.)
I think most "Average Joes" shop for Internet access in the same way. How much does it cost? How fast is it? (In general terms since 3Mbps is too technical for them.) | |
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| | | | systems2000
What? You Say It's Fixed. Hah
join:2001-11-29
Cyberspace
·Embarq
| Re: Dumb Pipe.... Here! Here!
I've always believed that comcast would attract more customers if they would get rid of the CATV "Blackmail Fee" and supply lower bandwidth tiers for lower prices. Why not just kill off dial-up with this idea?
As for their content, who cares? It gets more bandwidth and CPU intensive everytime I stop by (which is about once-a-year).
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Personal Theme Song:RUSH - Mystic Rythms from Power Windows.
Rush Radio Website -- WinAmp Stream 24/7 | |
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| | | cwilliams194
join:2006-12-04
Hamilton, ON
| I don't really know if that's true, but then again maybe its a Canadian thing, but I know a lot of people that know pretty much nothing about the ISP they use and they dont care, including whether or not they have a portal.
These people include alot of people that are in the kinda technically challenged group, which I would believe to be the ones these marketing people are aiming for.
I'll give you an example, my dad, he is getting better with technology, but honestly he doesn't know anything when it comes to his internet connection, including the ISPs website, when he needs something changed I go over there and eigther walk him through it step by step with customer service on the phone or if its a self care thing just do it for him. So to him and many people like him having a portal doesn't matter simply because of ignorance.
I know my ISP has a portal and I choose not to use it.
So I would really like to know how many people know that their ISP has a portal and actually use it.
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You want a piece of me? Well come and get it!-Prof. Farnsworth | |
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kyramilan
join:2006-11-26
Pensacola, FL | xlimitx - Don't go confusing the nerds with the fact that 99% of HSI companies don't really care about them.  | |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| said by xlimitx :Unfortunately not everyone wants a "dumb" pipe to their house for internet connectivity. Many people have broadband now and their choices for their service provider are increasing and or changing. The companies are now using differentiators in order to pull people in, not just my bandwidth is bigger than your bandwidth. Those differentiators create stickyness that cause some customers, possibly not BBR readers, to think about possibly losing all of their tunes if they move from Comcast to Verizon if they use the new Comcast ITunes knockoff. It's all about customer retention and creating the glue that makes someone stay with a provider. Good analysis.
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My BLOG
My Web Page | |
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tsu9
join:2001-08-17
Wheeling, IL | Re: Dumb Pipe.... And history has shown precisely how well this strategy has worked. | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL
| Or instead we can go back to contracts? After all you make a minute plan change Sprint adds you another spanking new year of contract service. I don't seriously mind as there service is top notch and only improving. But to someone who wants to leave, it must be hell on earth. | |
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| | thehpkid
join:2006-11-16
Fort Myers Beach, FL
| Google, Itunes,Etc, How many more portals do you want in an INTERNET PROVIDER? I din't want one that requires six rows of toolbars to view and navigate before I get to where i want go. I want to get to my desired sites fast. Load up home pages with more crap? Look how well Google has done and how sinple their start page is. It works! I would rather have more speed than another Itunes store.
Get the speed and simplicity and we will flock there faster than lemmings to the sea. | |
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bolt
Former Broadband Exile
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| said by xlimitx It's all about customer retention and creating the glue that makes someone stay with a provider.
[/BQUOTE :Show us where they want to retain customers. Almost every company puts money into getting customers, but they hardly spend a cent trying to retain the customers once they get them. Provide proof or I'm calling shenanigans. | |
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| | xlimitx
join:2001-12-31
Wilkes Barre, PA
·ProLog
| Re: Dumb Pipe.... Hrm...
If they hardly spent a cent keeping you online, then how are you online now?
They spend money on their operations to keep their(your) infrastructure up and running so there aren't significant unplanned outages, etc. That way, the retention is created by providing a reliable, well maintained network.
Right? | |
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bolt
Former Broadband Exile
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Re: Dumb Pipe.... I have a perfect example. My coworker is an Insight BB subscriber. When her introductory pricing ended, she canceled her account, as it was too expensive. Less than a week later, they were calling her and offering her the same deal she just finished with. Why didn't they just offer that to her while she was still a customer? They couldn't possibly artificially inflate their numbers if the did that, could they? Why must current customers have to cancel services in order to get the deals that new customers get? I think it's a sad business model.
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bolt
____________________________
"And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order—order out of chaos. But we will."— George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 13, 2003
_____________________
»www.boltweb.com | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL
| Re: Dumb Pipe.... Sounds more like a sales or techie error to me. I remember when my mother lost her screw with Nextel they tried everything in there power to not make her leave. That includes a new phone and bonus minutes till the contract expires.
I can't say the same for Sprint though. | |
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| phantom6294
join:2002-02-27
Abingdon, MD
·Comcast
| Okay... maybe. But there is a huge problem... I can't get Comcast. I have two options: Cablevision's Optimum Online and Verizon's DSL.
If Comcast directly competed with a wide range of other providers, then perhaps creating portals would attract customers.
Though there are certainly exceptions, it seems the average person in the U.S. has two options: ONE Cable provider or ONE DSL provider. In my humble opinion, it seems silly for a company to spend a bunch of money to try and differentiate itself from only one other competitor.
Maybe it's just me... who knows. | |
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| | systems2000
What? You Say It's Fixed. Hah
join:2001-11-29
Cyberspace
·Embarq
1 edit | Re: Dumb Pipe.... Your forgetting about Satellite (Hughes Network) and Wireless. Granted, as for value, xDSl and cable generally corner this arena, there is more than one or two options for connecting to the internet. There are major areas of this country that still can not get any option other than Satellite or dial-up.
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Personal Theme Song:
RUSH - Mystic Rythms from Power Windows.
Rush Radio Website -- WinAmp Stream 24/7 | |
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| moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by xlimitx :Unfortunately not everyone wants a "dumb" pipe to their house for internet connectivity. Many people have broadband now and their choices for their service provider are increasing and or changing. The companies are now using differentiators in order to pull people in, not just my bandwidth is bigger than your bandwidth. Those differentiators create stickyness that cause some customers, possibly not BBR readers, to think about possibly losing all of their tunes if they move from Comcast to Verizon if they use the new Comcast ITunes knockoff. It's all about customer retention and creating the glue that makes someone stay with a provider. Problem is there are so few choices (usually just 1 or 2) that content means nothing.
Most people who get simple emails and surf small websites don't need broadband. Even so, many places it's either DSL or cable. My area has 2 cable providers and DSL but that is not the norm.
I could see if there were multiple ISP choices (like the old dial-up days) but not in the monopoly or duopoly situations we have now. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Because it makes too much sense. "Nokia's CEO this week asked a novel question: what if instead of trying to do everything from social networking to content creation, network operators simply spent their time and resources on operating a network?"
Can't have companies doing things they are actually good at. Why do that when you can waste time, money and resources doing things you don't have a fricken clue at what you are doing and will only end up failing at. | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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xerxes3642
join:2006-02-24
Saint Charles, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| why not? It sounds like a great idea, they would probably dominate the market. let youtube be youtube, let itunes be itunes. I need a good broadband network!!
But working in a corporation leads people to try and expand the business in all directions, till everyone is so far away from eachother, the whole thing collapses. | |
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| systems2000
What? You Say It's Fixed. Hah
join:2001-11-29
Cyberspace | Re: why not? Is it something we should hope for? | |
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jrs8084
Premium
join:2002-03-02
Statesville, NC | Coming Full Circle Gee, feels like we are coming full circle to the Prodigy/AOL days. | |
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markopoleo
join:2003-04-02
Bonne Terre, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| A company clueless what users want? I don't beleive that.. Never ceases to amaze me big companies can't get the simplest things right. I never found anyone that liked portals.
I don't think the future is anything but feeds to the desktop of what the user wants, I already find myself just looking at RSS feeds than actually going to webpages anymore that I used to go to every day.
With Windows Vista soon to dominate the desktop, people will use the widgets to just get what they want to desktop without visiting pages. That eliminates millions of sites itself (loss of traffic/add revenue is going to hurt lots).
Sure people will visit websites, but the idea of "web surfing" is slowly eroding to just stream lining what people want and remove the fluff. This of course is all IMO. | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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Zorglub
join:2000-11-18
Fremont, CA
| They wanna be sexy... Because they want to do something sexy. Being the internet plumber: not sexy.
Like everybody else, I'd love to see statistics on the use of those portals, besides the initial hit whenever a user fires up Explorer since the ISP usually make their portal the default webpage. | |
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voipguy
join:2006-05-31
Forest Hills, NY
| Hedging Their Bets Suppose for a moment that these ISPs are a bit worried about the potential of Network Neutrality legislation?
If all you are is a provider of equal pipes to all content, your business will quickly turn into a commodity.
I think they see big advertising bucks going to Application Service Providers (such as Google), where none of that money finds its way to the ISP (unless you're an ISP feeding a Google data center). | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Re: Hedging Their Bets said by voipguy :Suppose for a moment that these ISPs are a bit worried about the potential of Network Neutrality legislation? Well considering the whole NN came out of the fact that ISP would favor their own portals and extort fees form companies like Google who is too blame? If ISPs would have stuck to being dumb pipe and be happy that sites like Youtube, Google etc have content that makes people want to shell out $40, $50 or more a month for internet service then there wouldn't be any NN legislation in the first place. | |
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jgkolt
Premium
join:2004-02-21
Lakewood, OH
clubs: | ... i agree with the initial comments
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www.LakeSemaJ.com | |
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majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Lindenhurst, NY
| IN a month or two i will have a ton of choices I live on Long island and have a choice between Cablevision,and verizon dsl. Also in about 1 month - 3 months I will have verizon fios available.
Now cablevision and fios are about the same price andd about the same speed. they both offer about the same quality tv too.
They have to differentiate from each other some how. Cablevisions prices are cheaper and fios has alittle better quality.
So these other things need to be done to differentiate themselves from the other guys. | |
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Asmodeus
join:2004-05-26
Spring Valley, CA
| it's the AOL syndrome all over again... basically the need for these providers to provide content rather than managing an actual network that can get their users to whatever content they want stems from what I call the AOL syndrome... AOL at one time was the biggest game in town, unfortunately what they did was market themselves as not only a provider of content, but as the actual gateway to the internet itself... many people that were AOL customers and who weren't savvy about the internet or how it was constructed took this as the defacto for what the internet is; that AOL was the internet and whatever content they had on their stemmed from the internet that AOL is as well...
now you look at comcast, yahoo, google, at&t, et al. and you see what they are doing is following the AOL model of content provider while cloaking the fact that they are nothing but a dumb pipe provider... it's a shell game and always has been... none of these companies can afford to give up the shell of being a content provider for the sake of being a simple network provider because there is to much money at stake, to much name branding at stake, and to much advertising dollars that would go away, namely from the entertainment and 'intertainment' industry...
nokia's ceo asked a novel question, but he asked it from a perspective that nokia takes, which is simply being a one trick pony of designing and manufacturing phones for upper tier providers of the service their phones will be used for... in essence they are just plain vanilla while their product goes to the sundae makers... that is from their perspective and their perspective isn't in line with the content providers... | |
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squid7
Premium
join:2006-09-02 | My portal of choice is easily the best and none can match it about:blank | |
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thekiefs
join:2005-11-14
Newbury Park, CA | totally agree Great article, broadband providers should indeed cater to the network and not the content on it!!! | |
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Juke Box
Free From Marketing
Premium
join:2001-01-29
Bar & Grill
·Comcast
| Re: totally agree said by thekiefs :Great article, broadband providers should indeed cater to the network and not the content on it!!! Finally something that makes since. I agree, they are ISP's (Internet Service Providers) not ICP's (Internet Content Providers)..
Why they are trying to change their business model is up for grabs.. But I suspect is something about greed I mentioned earlier. 
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If you are having half as much fun as I am, then I must be having twice the fun than you are. Do The Math! | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: totally agree When I fill my car up with gas I don't use the gas station as my travel agent. I wish ISPs would grasp this concept. | |
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sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0
·Rogers Hi-Speed
Host:
Rogers
Bell Canada
| Didn't they learn ANYTHING from the collapse of @home? One of the major reasons for the collapse of @home was the idea that an ISP should be a portal provider too. After all, that's what excite was all about. Of course Excite and @home got way too excited about luring information providers on line and went crazy with profligate spending, but the message was clear from most users that the portals were a waste of their time and hence excite tried even harder spending big bucks trying to woo ips.
Crazy | |
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Forget Portals, How About Running Your Network?
Proof is in the pudding
