A Round Up of 2012... And some seminal trending photos...


Oh what a year it’s been ladies and gentlemen, and of course in the world of web one week adds up to a lifetime, so what were the seminal moments of 2012. Just for a bit of nostalgia, here are Cybergirl’s top five moments (with a few seminal ‘trending’ FB images thrown in for posterity):

1.    Tax avoidance – yes 2012 was the year that Goliath companies such as Google, Starbucks and Amazon finally got called to account over their corporate (read tax avoidant behavior) – what was the result, tentative boycotting of Starbucks and their resolution to pay 20 million pounds worth of corportation tax over the next two years, well aren’t they admirable. Next time Cybergirl goes for a large Americano – there’ll be soe negotiating at the till let me tell you. On the plus side, is the tide finally turning? Has the subject that Cybergirl has been banging on about since this blog first started four months ago finally caught the public imagination enough to warrant winder scale boycotting?
2.    The launch of the IPhone 5, it came, it saw, it conquered with 5 million sales and counting, and then well everyone realized that it was almost identical to the iPhone 4S – surprise surprise (ditto for the IPad mini).
3.    Hoaxes dominated Facebook, if Cybergirl had ten pounds for every time a copyright statement/human rights infringement/ridiculous legal terminology was posted, reposted and then went onto insight general hysteria across the world’s largest social networking site, well Cybergirl would be a very rich woman indeed.
4.    The Kindle Fire hit the shops! Yes at last there was a viable contendor to the Apple Monopoly (see point 2.) By October the device was said to be ‘the best selling product on the company’s website.’ Which can’t be said for the IPad Mini.
5.    Gangham Fever spread like wildfire across the world… Yes if you had a beady eye on what it takes to constitute a viral hit – well just rethink that, multiply it by 100 and add a dance akin to a horseback rider swaggering into a western bar.
6.    And last but certainly not least the tragedy that was Apple Maps. In the 24 hours since Google Maps was released for the IPhone it was downloaded 10 million times – a statistic that surely speaks for itself.

So there they are; our top five web related news stories of 2012. What lessons can be learnt from these archane and yet often completely revelatory stories? 1) Fame is a heady mix of electro beats, canny marketing and strange dancing – yes it’s all about luck at the end of the day. 2) no matter how badly Apple behave people will still buy their products (sad but true) and finally 3) if it’s a written in a status update the majority of people will believe it – use this at your peril…

Now for those images - my favourite of 2012:











Till next year ladies and gentlemen. Merry Christmas from all at The GWG...

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Social Media Becomes Customer Service.... Is this the way it's going?




Ah yes folks, it’s that time of the week again! Time for a well, timely little anecdote. So here we go! Cybergirl’s boyfriend (read ‘date’) is a rather nice young man who scoured the web for the perfect birthday present for his beloved mother. What could he get her that would really improve her quality of life? No, not pearls, no not a bottle of champagne swiftly necked in ten minutes, but what about a lovely new Dell computer complete with Windows 8? Wouldn’t that just be the loveliest present to mark a significant birthday? Bien Sur! Absolutement! Definitely!

So off ‘the date’ goes on Saturday morning – all the way to the UPS delivery office in Kilburn to retrieve said parcel, and, after much negotiating (and a rather tricky interchange with UPS – no a photocopy of your passport is definitely not allowed) he finally gets the Dell computer home (nicely wrapped up in it’s big cardboard box). Mum appears, spying the huge parcel with glee (yes it’s present hand over time!) She turns it over, rattles the box (just a little!) and then tears through the brown parcel tape with the nearest knife to hand. And what does she find? A computer that doesn’t work - a computer stuck on the Dell page – not even Windows 8, (no shiny happy birthday experience either).

So what does ‘the date’ do given that it’s a Saturday night and Dell do not have a customer service line open ready and waiting to fix the problem...? He goes on Facebook of course, and there, hopeful that the power of social media will prevail, he uploads a video of the Dell computer doing, well absolutely nothing at all. Now here’s the interesting part.... What happens in the minutes that follow? Well not only does ‘the date’ get a very swift email from UPS apologizing for his rough treatment (yes he mentioned that too), but the next morning Dell send one message requesting the serial number of said computer. Now that was Sunday, we are now (at the time of writing) Wednesday, and what was happened? Again, Absolutely (drumroll) nothing at all.... So much for the power of social media... Now I know I haven’t always been the greatest advocate of Apple and their corporate behaviour, but at least they have a shop you can walk into if something goes wrong, and a lovely Genius bar attendant to wipe your tears away and assure you that your problem will be swiftly dealt with. When customers are reduced to tracking down Facebook Pages in order to get a response from technology companies, well something has gone very wrong in the area of customer service. Dell – I’m sorry to name and shame, but you won’t be on Cybergirl’s Christmas list come 2013.

Just for posterity, here's the link to the video in question:




Over and out. 

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