Not all User Generated Content (UGC) is Valuable – Exhibit A: Mixtent.com

Posted on May 18, 2011 by TheManager

If you have more than a few connections on LinkedIn, then you’ve surely been exposed to the most asinine website dedicated to UGC since CompanyNameSucks.com: mixtent.com. (You’ll have to learn why CompanyNameSucks.com is asinine all on your own, I’m going to use the rest of this blog to tell you why I think you should opt out of mixtent.com – and opt out quickly.)

I’m not the first to write it, but the Internet really is just one big bathroom wall. Often it’s just a place where anyone can express any opinion at any time with little or no recourse. The difference, as I see it, is the Internet is filled with small-minded billionaire wannabes who will gladly stomp on your privacy and dignity while they construct a new enormous bathroom wall and then encourage others to step up with their Sharpies and write whatever the hell they want without any regard to the veracity or value of their opinions.

This, my friend, is the essence of most sites 100% driven by user generated content. The rub for those of us who just want to live our lives in honest and ethical fashions is that without users generating content (any content) these sites will not be able to be flipped for the billions the founders expect. We, you see, get included in this content whether we deserve or even want to be included.

Enter mixtent.com

I doubt there has ever been a more ridiculous, misguided or pointless effort allegedly directed at professionals and cloaked in some misstated mission about helping sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to which person is better at what skillset. This site is nothing more than a HotOrNot.com for professionals, only this one ranks you without your permission.

The primary problems with mixtent, as I see them, are two-fold: 1) You are ranked as hot or not on a multitude of skillsets by those in your LinkedIn network – whether you want to be or not, and regardless of whether or not this particular contact has seen you demonstrate this particular skill; and 2) Like all ranking, rating and review sites, this one can be gamed. In fact, mixtent (in my opinion) seems to be actively participating in and encouraging the gaming by helping you send messages to everyone in your network that you’ve just ranked them… now will they please go and rank you.

Here is one such auto-generated message: “My Entrepreneurship percentile is 89%. Help me increase it and find out where you rank…” This is followed by a link to join mixtent so you can start ranking others.

The ranking process is really a joke because you are presented with two of your LinkedIn contacts (who may not have opted in to mixtent, but have certainly not opted out) and you are asked which of these two is better at __________. The tendency for most human beings is to give the nod to the person they like or know the best, not necessarily the person most deserving of the honor.

This means a well-liked dufus is likely to rank higher on most skills than a hard-charging doer. (My guess is that most hardened, yet accomplished women executives will be butchered on sites like this, as they generally had to step on one or two toes on their way through the glass ceiling.)

Okay, How Do I Opt Out of mixtent.com?

The greatest part about all of this nonsense is that you cannot opt out of mixtent.com without first granting them access to your LinkedIn profile. That’s right, you have to first let them suck all of the personal and other information from your LinkedIn profile before you can tell them you don’t want to play their shitty little game.

That, my friends, is ballsy. Of course, once you’ve opted in, you can (as of this writing) fairly easily opt out by clicking on the tiny “opt-out” link at the very bottom of the homepage.

Interested in mixtent.com’s About Us page?

I thought it would be fun to read between the lines of mixtent.com’s About Us page (the bold text in parentheses is mine):

About Us

Our goal is to help you connect with the most talented people. We want to help you hire, get hired and find talent to do amazing things. (We just don’t think you’ll be able to do that by using this website.)

Mixtent is building a professional reputation graph on top of the main social and professional networks. We believe we can become a driving force in making online recruitment and talent management materially more efficient. (Or, at the very least, we can help companies find unqualified people who have the most friends or don’t rock any boats… ever.)

Mixtent is built on the core notion that collective intelligence gathered through engaging experience can provide the right data to solve the hardest problems online. (That is, are they hot or not?)

Our mission is to reduce structural unemployment driving down asymmetries of information and increasing liquidity on the labor market. (What the fuck?)

We are looking for crazy talented engineers. Take a look at our jobs page (Why do they need to have anyone apply? Don’t they already know who the crazy talented engineers are by just looking at the ratings on their own website?)

We are located in Redwood City, CA. (Okay, finally something I can believe here.)

How about the geniuses behind this monstrosity?

Here are the links to the LinkedIn profiles of two guys listed as Founders at mixtent.com (in case you are a crazy talented engineer in Redwood City looking for work):

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6037432

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=23979582

Oh, and if they’re already in your network and haven’t opted out of mixtent just yet, be sure to rank them appropriately.

Thank You Delta: An Open Thank You Letter to Delta Airlines from a Regular, Long-Time Delta Customer

Posted on December 1, 2010 by TheManager

Thank you Delta Airlines for all that you do for today’s airline passenger. Whether our trips are for business or just for vacation, we owe you a hearty “thank you” for making us feel so special.

Specifically:

Thank you to the Delta ticket counter clerks who immediately act annoyed when they have to answer another dumb customer question. (Don’t these people read? Can’t they see this is not the line for dumb questions? Why don’t they just use the kiosk instead of bothering me?) It’s because of you that Grandma starts every trip with an upset stomach and explosive diarrhea.

Thank you to the Delta gate agents who never seem to be able to be where they are actually needed. It’s because of you that all of the passengers have more time to get to know each other’s unique smells while we wait at the gate for you to move the jet bridge a whopping ten feet. (I think I’ve developed a bladder infection from sitting for long periods when I have to pee.)

Thank you to the Delta Airlines logistics team who ensure that if your plane arrives ten minutes early, they’ll keep your gate blocked for another twenty minutes just to ensure they are able to maintain the proper balance in the universe. It’s because of you that we are all learning to count better. (Hmm, I count twenty empty Delta gates, why don’t they just park the plane in one of those?)

Thank you to the Delta Airlines baggage handlers who ensure that no matter how long your layover at a Delta hub, you and your bag will not both make your connecting flight. It’s because of you that I have learned to love wearing the same underwear two days in a row. (The trick, you see, is to turn them inside out on the second day.)

Thank you to the Delta Sky Club attendants, clerks and bartenders for shutting your club 10 minutes early. Because of this, I realize that Delta employees are more like Wendy’s employees than someone I should trust with my life.

Thank you to the Delta Airlines pilots who are allegedly qualified to fly a jet plane, but cannot seem to properly operate a microphone or enunciate clearly enough for anyone on the plane to hear what they are saying. It is because of you that “uhhhh crackle, scratch, crackle, crackle, scratch, crackle, uhhhhh, scratch, crackle, scratch” makes me wonder whether we are crashing or just passing over the Grand Canyon.

Thank you to the Delta Airlines flight attendants who, like a Macy’s cosmetics department sales clerk, have a unique and misplaced sense of superiority over everyone in coach. You are nothing more than glorified barmaids, and if you were really any good at it, you’d be slinging drinks at the Applebee’s in Omaha – and making more money. It’s because of you that our young people unfortunately look up to women who are too dumb to operate a circa-1995 video player that plays the onboard safety message.

Thank you to the Delta Airlines baggage office clerks who make certain that the customer knows via your exaggerated hand gestures and head bob that “it’s not my fault that your bags are lost.” In fact, you do such a wonderful job of pointing fingers that I often leave your counter wondering what I could have done better to ensure my bags were on my flight before takeoff. (Shame on me for being such a passive flyer – I should have taken a more active role in moving my checked baggage from flight-to-flight.) It’s because of you that so many Americans are self-medicating.

Thank you to the Delta Airlines procurement officers who work so very hard to get the absolute lowest bid on everything Delta offers today’s traveler. I want to give a very special thank you to the person on this team who buys the Made in China roll-on antiperspirant for the toiletries bags you distribute to those of us who were dumb enough to trust Delta with our bags. It’s because of you that I now know that “antiperspirant” actually means “hellfire rash-inducing highly carcinogenic lotion-like near-liquid substance” in Chinese.

Thank you to the Delta Airlines marketing department. I assume it was your team who decided to allow the Google/GoGo/Delta Free WiFi program for the Holidays this year. Nothing sparks Holiday Cheer more than 159 people trying to login to a WiFi service that is barely capable of handling nine. What a great and productive experience you have given me (a paying GoGo customer), and what a terrific first impression you are making on those GoGo novices on the plane who also cannot access anything while in the air. It’s because of you that so many of us have cut back our travel plans for next year.

And a special thank you to anyone who answers a phone at Delta Airlines. I know this is an incredibly short list, but you do a great job of both blaming me and calling me a liar simultaneously… sorry to have troubled you at 3:00 AM when I am unable to sleep because I am wondering where my bag that you made me pay $25 to check is… go back to playing solitaire. It’s because of you that Americans are now demanding companies outsource more of their call centers to Bangladesh.

Finally, to the entire Delta family who seems to think that I am, as the regular customer, there only for them and not the other way around, I thank you for your patience with me – I am learning and will work to become a better customer. One who gladly forks over thousands of dollars every month to you while getting nothing but grief in return.

From GoGo to NoGo, Delta Stubs Their ToeToe

Posted on September 22, 2009 by TheManager

Delta Renames In-Flight Wireless Internet

Dubbed GoGo when released (see our original excited post about GoGo Wi-Fi published on January 12, 2009), it is rumored that Delta has decided to rename their in-flight wireless Internet service NoGo to signify that the service is still not available on all flights nearly nine months since its release. More importantly, GoGo is surprisingly absent from many cross-country flights (where travelers would most welcome it). “It has become clear to us that we should rename the service NoGo,” stated a fictitious Delta executive.

Okay, so this is a rumor that I’m starting, but for good reason. Today I sit on a four-hour, thirteen-minute flight from Atlanta to Orange County on a Delta 737. Once we reached 10,000 feet, I was excited to remove my laptop from its bag, power up and surf to my heart’s content.

Oops, someone forgot to install GoGo on this flight.

Makes perfect sense, right? Why would a planeload of businessmen want to check email during a cross-country flight in the middle of a weekday? My last three flights, all less than 40 minutes in total EDUT (Electronic Device Usage Time), came equipped with GoGo wireless. At just under $10 per flight, GoGo is often not worth purchasing on such short hops. On a flight like today’s, GoGo would be a welcomed bargain that would also help Delta squeeze some additional revenue from its customers.

Leaders Remember Important Lessons

I admit it: I’ve forgotten most of what I learned in college. Much of what I do remember, I have to say, I will never, ever use. I’m hopeful, of course, that I can recall the important lessons when required. The lack of GoGo Wi-Fi on today’s long flight reminds me of one of the first lessons I learned during a basic marketing course in my freshman year in college; perhaps you recall this lesson, as well: it was called The Four Ps of Marketing.

Price, Promotion, Product, Place

With regards to the GoGo rollout, Delta has done a done a decent job with three of the Ps, but they forgot all about one of them.

Price. At $9.95, the service is priced particularly well. A dollar more and they would likely lose 20-30% of their users, a dollar less and they gain nothing.

Promotion. Between the early 40% discounts and the constant bombardment of seat pocket flyers and preflight announcements I have become nearly addicted to the service.

Product. I can surf the web at 30,000 feet. ‘nuf said.

Place. Oops… it’s clear Delta didn’t think this one through. To provide the service during a quick jaunt between ATL and JAX is meaningless to consumers (and probably costly to Delta). However, to not provide the service between Atlanta and John Wayne International is downright criminal. What is Delta thinking? Obviously (as is becoming commonplace with Delta product/process rollouts) they were not.

Like the on-again/off-again Breezeway rules, Delta leadership doesn’t seem to grasp simple concepts. Is it because running an airline is so complicated? I have no doubt it’s damn tough to achieve much of what Delta has achieved, though I find it incredibly disappointing when they fail at the simplest of tasks. (As a frequent Delta flyer, I’m just hopeful they don’t screw up like this on the important stuff.)

The Truth about Cash for Clunkers

Posted on August 16, 2009 by TheManager

Leadership Decision Making and The Law of Unintended Consequences

Certainly you’ve heard the axioms “nothing happens in a vacuum” and “for every action there is a reaction” before. We’re pretty sure that every thinking adult not only understands these sayings, but also believes them to be true.

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed – Ralph Waldo Emerson

RWE is correct, but he fails to mention that each cause actually has multiple effects; every mean leads to numerous ends; and that each seed can bear bushels of fruit. Cause and effect, like means and end, can imply both good and bad outcomes; and both scenarios – unlike the planting of a seed – often create results that are unintended and unforeseen.

The law of unintended consequences is not a new phenomenon, and it’s especially not new to government action. History has shown at every turn that government intervention, regardless of the benevolent intention, leads to numerous unforeseen and unintended consequences. Certainly, some of the outcomes are beneficial, though the vast majority are not.

The Truth about Cash for Clunkers and The Law of Unintended Consequences

In a nutshell, the US Government created a program that requires taxpayers to spend $3 billion help 750,000 people to buy a new car. The program, officially the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) though more commonly known as Cash for Clunkers, was created solely “to energize the economy; boost auto sales and put safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles on the nation’s roadways” – this, according to the government’s official cars.gov website.

While nearly everyone in Washington was breaking their arms patting themselves on their collective backs after just two weeks of CARS, the truth is that this program, like all government programs, has already spawned numerous unintended consequences (and none of them positive). Here are just a few:

Kelley Blue Book analysts are predicting a bubble in used car prices as a result of the CARS program. This means the cost for a used car is going to be higher, creating a burden on the working poor and lower middle class.
Charities are reporting that donations of used cars are down 20% since the start of the CARS program.
Already hurt by the economic downturn, used car lots are seeing an additional 20% drop in sales since the beginning of the program – these lots are more often owned by local businesspeople and not large corporations.
Some independent auto repair shops – precisely the kind that would service an older car – are reporting up to 25% decreases in their business.
Because of the increased demand for many models, car dealers are not discounting beyond the required manufacturer’s rebate. This means that all consumers are paying more for these models.
Economists blame the drop in overall July retail sales on the CARS program; arguing that consumers spent on new cars, but cut their spending elsewhere – deepening the recession the program was meant to help stop.
The top new model sold so far under the Cash for Clunkers program is an SUV – the Ford Escape – and two large trucks (Ford’s F-150 and Chevy’s Silverado) and a Jeep are among the Top 10 new models sold. (Hardly the pro-green movement for which the government was hoping.)
750,000 working automobiles will be taken out of service and replaced with 750,000 new vehicles. The process of manufacturing each new car (when you account for the acquisition of all material required) is a much more polluting proposition than driving each old car until its natural demise.

It’s clear that Cash for Clunkers will do little, if anything, to stimulate the overall economy; but what about the nation’s car dealers and manufacturers? While dealers are making more per car sold and manufacturers are seeing their inventory backlogs shrink, both of these benefits will likely be short-lived.

The increased demand created by the CARS program cannot be sustained without better economic news. The dip in overall July retail sales signals to us that the end is not as near as we had all hoped. Instead of kick-starting the US Auto Industry, Cash for Clunkers likely pulled ahead many consumers who would have purchased later this year and in 2010. This means many dealers should look for softer than expected new car sales from September through the end of the year.

For the manufacturers, it seems they never learn. Ford announced this week that as a result of the “success” of the program they are ramping up production in the US. While this should be good news for the economy, it likely signals that Ford will be cutting production more than usual this November and December. Rather than enjoying the higher prices brought on by the momentary (and sure to be short-lived) spike in demand, Ford plans to run with the standard Detroit playbook and chase demand by building more cars, trucks and SUVs in the next couple of months. It’s as if Ford is proclaiming “Forecasters be damned, the recession is over.”

…

The leadership lesson in all of this is that the world is always more complex than it seems on the surface. Whether we’re talking about the US Economy or the five people in your workgroup, there is an equilibrium that must be considered before major changes are enacted. Understanding how these changes will affect all stakeholders is an important first step towards reaching your goals; but it is only a first step.

It is equally important to make assumptions about the unintended consequences that will inevitably define the success or failure of any major project, program or transformation. While you’ll be wrong more often than you’re right, just knowing that unforeseen outcomes are expected will make you a better leader – if for no other reason than you’ll be better prepared to manage the unanticipated results.

Cash 4 Clunkers Causes Conservatives 2 Clamber 4 Gov’ment Cheese

Posted on August 8, 2009 by TheManager

Cash 4 Clunkers Causes Conservatives 2 Clamber 4 Gov’ment Cheese

An interesting sociological experiment and a great leadership lesson has emerged from the US Government’s Cash For Clunkers program: We observed the previously fiscally-conservative put their hands way out, looking for their version of Government Cheese.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

We love using this quote by Upton Sinclair because it explains so much about how humans, even staunchly conservative ones, act when money is involved. We understand why so many car dealers are fiscally conservative: They want to keep their hard-earned money in their pockets and not in the government’s. We get it, and we agree with them. What’s interesting here, however, is the nation’s car dealers – mostly old, rich white guys – argue against virtually every welfare program and any government involvement in their businesses. But, when it’s their turn to suck from the government teat, they will knock you and me down to get theirs.

No one doubts that without the collective efforts of NADA member dealers …, the cash-for-clunkers program would not exist today. – National Automobile Dealers Association Chairman John McEleney

We certainly don’t doubt it. It seems that greed trumps principle. The same businessmen and women who routinely vote against liberal candidates were salivating last week while lobbying for President Obama and the Democratically-controlled Senate to pass legislation putting another two-billion tax dollars in their pockets. Do they have any sense of who will pay for this? Do they care?

WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?

Not that we expected the nation’s car dealers to react any differently than virtually anyone else would, we just thought it was interesting what strange bedfellows can be made when there’s something in it for someone. In a weird way we half expected that at least the conservative members of the NADA to remain so… Wow, are we naïve.

Leadership Lessons from the NBA – When Bold Moves are Required, Leaders Don’t Care About Popularity

Posted on July 18, 2009 by TheManager

Leadership Lessons from the NBA – The Surprisingly Aware Richard Jefferson

Weeks after being acquired by the San Antonio Spurs, star NBA forward Richard Jefferson was scheduled to marry his redundantly named fiancé, Kesha Ni’Cole Nichols, last Saturday. As you’ve likely heard, Jefferson, late of the New Jersey Nets, got cold feet and called the wedding off just hours before he was scheduled to become Mr. Ni’Cole Nichols.

While most in the blogosphere have lined up to crucify Jefferson for his last minute email to Nichols calling off the nuptials, the editors of AskTheManager.com believe he showed great leadership in recognizing a bad decision and rectifying it before it was too late. (Of course, there are reports he spent more than $2 million on the wedding that never happened, so we’re not entirely sure he couldn’t have made the decision a few weeks earlier.)

Leaders Make Decisive Moves

While Jefferson spent more than $2 million on the ceremony, he likely saved himself millions more by avoiding the inevitable divorce from KNN. Many have called him a coward, though we call him bold.

A coward, you see, wouldn’t want to face his fiancé, her family, his family, their friends and the rest of the world with the embarrassing news that he made a bad decision in asking her to marry him. A coward, you see, would live with his bad decision and compound it with more and more bad decisions for the rest of his life. Leaders are bold enough and comfortable enough with their own abilities to say “I screwed up, and this is how I’m going to fix it.”

Leaders Do What’s Right

The popular move for Jefferson would have been to go through with the wedding and make the best of a bad marriage. Certainly millions of others before him have done just that. Jefferson, for whatever reason, stepped up and did what was right – that’s what leaders do. Leaders care about popularity only when it doesn’t get in the way of what is right, and marrying someone you just don’t love isn’t right.

Sarah Palin is a Quitter, and Quitters Never Win

Posted on July 3, 2009 by TheManager

Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit

Argh! I can hear my mother misquoting Vince Lombardi in my sleep: “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.” A simple saying that forced me to keep my word throughout my life – even when it cost me money.

Why is it these simple clichés can hold such importance as to guide our every decision? (This particular phrase was so particularly annoying that it’s guided my decisions both in and out of business for over thirty years.) There are certainly others, but this mother’s saying carries special weight; as much an integrity statement as an indictment of those who would give up without a fight.

‘Quitters never win and winners never quit’ could be the primary rule dictating everything from a second grader’s soccer game to a governor’s fulfillment of her term.

Palin is a Quitter

We’ve written good things about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the past, including a post that chronicled why she was a better leader than Barack Obama. That was September 2008 and this is now.

In demonstrating the worst leadership trait possible, Palin has decided that she cannot operate as a lame duck governor. (She had previously announced that she would not seek reelection.) Palin has decided to step down on July 26, 2009. Her current term was scheduled to end next year.

“I Want to Spend More Time with My Family”

While this is not the soon-to-be-former governor’s stated reason for quitting, her actual reason might as well be as lame as all the on again/off again retirements of star athletes. All we got from Palin was a quick Tweet: “We’ll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election … this is in Alaska’s best interest, my family’s happy … it is good. Stay tuned.”

Well, as long as your family is happy…

Not so fast, Sarah. You are a quitter and we are disappointed. You were elected by the citizens of Alaska to serve them as their governor until 2010. Whether you were planning another term or not is irrelevant: they were counting on you to keep your word. When you chose to become the governor of Alaska, you agreed to serve the citizens of that frigid state and now you’re giving it up for personal reasons.

(Not to mention that you’ve passed on an extraordinary chance to shove through your agenda; an agenda you claimed was in opposition to the Washington elite. Who is going to carry your torch now? Who is going to keep your promises to the people of Alaska?)

Sarah Palin is not a Winner

News flash: True leaders don’t let personal reasons get in the way of their commitments to others. True leaders don’t let personal reasons get in the way of doing what is right. They keep their word and they never quit. True leaders are winners.

Palin is not, as we once thought, a true leader.

Much like Dan Quayle, Joe Biden and Admiral Stockdale, Palin lost more of her luster every time she opened her mouth. Her latest spat with David Letterman painted her as a died-in-the-wool Republican; someone willing to give up any sense of right for a chance to bash the Left. (Pun intended.) Every day since November 4, 2008 Palin has become more of a clown; a caricature of someone who once professed she was going to change the world of politics in Washington.

Sometime over the last eight months she stopped being a leader and became a punchline.

Good Riddance, Sarah P.

Likely, most Alaskans won’t care very much that you’re quitting. In fact, many will be relieved. Go away, Sarah Palin. Go back into the obscurity from where you were plucked and leave the future of the world to the leaders… we’ll try our best to hang on without you. (Note our tongues in our cheeks.)

Chaggle.com is the Next Big Thing – Don’t Haggle with The Manager

Posted on June 21, 2009 by TheManager

Chaggle is Cool

Chaggle is the Next (Fill in the Blank)

Last month a colleague told me about this little technology startup that had carved out a pretty cool niche for themselves – and within ten minutes of hearing his description of Chaggle.com, I was happily using what should prove to be the next big thing on the World Wide Web. We’re talking the next billion-dollar company (that’s billion with a b), and that’s not hyperbole; it’s a promise.

Before you think I’ve enjoyed too much Cabernet today, rest assured that I see about 100 new Internet ventures a year, and this is the first one I’ve blogged about – and now I’m giving you a chance to get in on the ground floor.

Ground Floor Opportunity

Unfortunately, Chaggle doesn’t need cash, or I’d mortgage everything just to get a small piece. (If they do look for financing in the future, I’ll have my checkbook ready.) The ground floor I’m posting about is the chance to become one of the first thousand or so to download a service that will soon be used by millions. (Imagine if you were the 125^th person on MySpace… you’d have a great vanity domain and a nice story to tell your friends.)

I’m proud to brag that I was one of the first hundred to join Chaggle, and I easily secured the Chaggle handle “Steve.” I had my pick of vanity handles and could have been TheManager, Stud_Muffin, or Roger; but chose Steve because my name is not Roger and I don’t want to use the Chaggle plug-in under those other names. (Though I’ve always considered myself a bit of stud muffin – okay, I may have had too much Cab today.)

What the Heck is Chaggle?

By now, you’re hopefully wondering “what in the world is this Chaggle anyway?”

Chaggle is an Internet Explorer plug-in that allows you to chat with fellow Chagglers (I think I made that up, so I want the credit later) who happen to be surfing the same site you’re visiting. (While we’re making up words, let’s call it Chaggling instead of chatting and Chag instead of chat.)

After a quick download of the Chaggle software you can open a separate Chaggle window that rides alongside your main browser window. As you move from site-to-site, you take Chaggle with you and you have the opportunity to Chag with fellow Chagglers about what you see on the site.

Rather than try to provide an example in detail of what you can do with Chaggle, I’ll let Chaggle.com co-founder Clayton Smith enlighten you:

The aspect of Chaggle that we feel is so special is that it allows you to bring an integrated, interactive chat capability along with you to every site you browse. So if you’re at CNBC’s website and you’re looking at an article on Chrysler’s bankruptcy, on Chaggle you can either chat about it on the CNBC.com main webpage with everyone viewing the site, or you can post comments (or web “crumbs”) that will be tagged to that specific news article’s URL. There is no other service out there that provides this level of interactivity across the web. Our goal is to make Chaggle the perpetual conversation of the Internet. – Clayton Smith

Well put, Clayton. (If you’re still a little in the dark about how to use Chaggle, check out the homepage video at Chaggle.com.)

To give you a sense of how I plan to use Chaggle, imagine I post about a cool new Web service called Chaggle and you happen to be reading the article and you are a fellow Chaggler. If we both have Chaggle turned on, you can tell me what a great writer I am via a Chag and I can respond with a warm thank you. Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

What’s the Catch?

Chaggle is cool. Chaggle is useful. Chaggle is free. Chaggle is new… and that’s the downside right now. Since its Beta-version rollout on May 1, Chaggle.com only has about 100 Chagglers. (Of course, I look at this as a bonus: you can swoop in and grab that vanity handle you always wanted. Can anyone say “LonelyGirl15?”)

As a brand new service, Chaggle built their platform for the most popular browser (IE) first. To date, Chagglers can only Chag using Internet Explorer, though Chaggle is working on a Firefox version right now, and they expect it to be released in a couple of months. The Firefox version of Chaggle will work on any operating system using Mozilla’s Firefox as its Web browser (Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, etc).

Chag Me, I’m Chagilicious

Once you download the free plug-in, find me surfing online and let’s Chag about whatever site I’m visiting. (Of course, you can just tell me what a great writer I am, and I’ll respond with a warm thank you.)

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