Borislav Kiprin's Blog

No, this post is not about some poor family’s drama. It is about the reality in today’s consumerism society. A matter that started few decades back and turned quality and long lasting products and services into a use-it-and-throw-it approach.

How many of us have experience short life batteries on their cell phones? How many of us decided to go with another vendor just because he was smiling genuinely, whereas the competition was looking condescendingly upon you? And how many of you saw” Lowest price on the Internet”, started the checkout process and ended up with close to twice the initially advertised price? Continue reading →

• Just got back from my trekking trip. 186 emails to read… But replies will be done tomorrow morning. #
• Firefox 4 Beta 4 Introduces Sync and Panorama http://bit.ly/9A3RSX #
• Facebook Privacy: 6 Years of Controversy [INFOGRAPHIC] http://bit.ly/cDCnTB # Continue reading →

• Twitter Allows Tweets Longer Than 140 Characters (By Accident) http://t.co/LS3Xb1M via @mashable #
• 15 Great Geeky Web Comic Strips [PICS] http://t.co/lVzoqNy via @mashable #
• If It’s On The Internet, It Must Be True http://t.co/sPJ2oCL via @techcrunch # Continue reading →

My dear reader,

I know I have been absent for a while and unfortunately, I will be absent some more. At least until the end of next week.But here is a bit more info on the topic. Continue reading →

• Back from a great long weekend of trekking and camping.. . Pics on my @posterous soon. Stay tuned! #
• Trekking in Rila Mountains, Bulgaria – B@Posterious http://ow.ly/2mE0O #
• What Games, Places, Music And News Could Mean For Google Checkout – http://ow.ly/2mLnT (via @techcrunch) #
• RT @mashable HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster http://bit.ly/97BMEo #avoid #business #community #
• Biggest broadband providers: China clicks | The Economist http://ow.ly/2nUih # Continue reading →

Yesterday I had yet again to meet a friend over beer and talk about life and business. At certain moment the conversation came to a previous post of mine concerning expandable banners (so far my most popular post by views and comments left) .

My friend, who is a marketing professional with extensive brand management experience for a major global brewery with quite few labels here in Bulgaria, was shocked how personally I am taking this issue. She argued that in our country about 4% of the advertising budget goes to online and very few CMOs take the Internet seriously. So, it is very often indeed that whatever the agency offers or the CMO thinks that should be done, is executed without research, analysis and true measurement.  The approach is rather ATL-ish, which means mass media – “Yo, the client! This is the ad. Deal with it!”. Continue reading →

• I liked a YouTube video — The Insiders http://youtu.be/Ml-rxMwcaf0?a #
• Indoor climbing http://post.ly/psPE #
• RT @imediatweet A primer for marketers who are scared of analytics – iMediaConnection.com http://bit.ly/dqcT3g #
• RT @TechCrunch Twitter User Steams Is Crack For Realtime Web Junkies http://tcrn.ch/ap0RCa #
• My blog just got AdSense approved… Anyone against me placing ads on my site? Text or Display? # Continue reading →

Google Inc. decided to turn off its Google Wave product. This was published at the official Google blog yesterday (August 8, 2010)

I wrote before about Google Wave at the beginning of my weblogging experience here and here. I still believe that it is a great application that somehow turned out to be way ahead of its time and a bit too overwhelming. Adoption was tackled by the unusual complex design for Google products. It was a bit too hard on the eyes and this scared off users. Once again the User Experience (UX) turned out to be a major reason behind traffic drive and usage. And funnily enough so far this was one of the major drives to turn Google from a Garage Inc. into a monster with a little over 161 Bn USD market cap.

So complexity is out and simplicity stays. No comments! The crowd has ruled. If you still have doubts, look below to compare Google Wave and Google Buzz. Continue reading →

Twitter is a very dynamic social network. Just imagine how many people can not get everything they want to say within 140 characters and you will get the picture. This particular social network just hit the 20Bn tweets, while it was only 15Bn two months ago (According to Mashable.com). So, while there are gazillion tweets out there, I’ve decided to share some of the Twitter related services that I am using:

• Klout – This tool allows you to see how influential you are online. The whole algorithm is based on on who you follow and who follows you. So as little as my follower base is, you can imagine that I have a low score, too. But then my reward is that according to Klout I am an Explorer that gets Twitter (whatever that means). Yay! Continue reading →

If you plan to start a blog , or you have a small business that you wanted to take online using WordPress.org as CMS (Content Management System), this post is for you. Naturally, every site has its why, what and how. Here, I will focus on the how and more specifically on the back-end of your online presence. These back-end solutions will make your life easier, speed up publishing process, search engine indexing and word-of-mouth marketing through social networks status publishing.

And without further bragging, here we go with the list:

• WordPress Importer – A plugin that allows you to import all your posts, categories, tags, comments etc. from you WordPress.com exported website or a backup you have done earlier on you WrodPress.org based one. Continue reading →