List of Companies collecting your online activity

List of 26 companies that track your online activity, I have not included facebook or twitter in this as they do it explicitly. 7 companies including Fox Interactive Media , RadiumOne make it hard to opt-out

Trader Joe's Business Secret Recipe

Great article on Trader Joe's Business philosophy and history. (Saw it on Yahoo)

Some take aways from the article:

>> Strike a balance between choice and customer experience

"Swapping selection for value turns out not to be much of a tradeoff. Customers may think they want variety, but in reality too many options can lead to shopping paralysis. "People are worried they'll regret the choice they made," says Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore professor and author of The Paradox of Choice. "People don't want to feel they made a mistake." Studies have found that buyers enjoy purchases more if they know the pool of options isn't quite so large. Trader Joe's organic creamy unsalted peanut butter will be more satisfying if there are only nine other peanut butters a shopper might have purchased instead of 39. Having a wide selection may help get customers in the store, but it won't increase the chances they'll buy. Read More Learn More about Choice - Go to blog post "Insight into choice"

>> Value pricing of product matters even if its the hottest trend

The success at Trader Joe's validates the behavior economics idea about "The Compromise Effect" - Customers rejecting the idea of shopping at higher priced Whole foods (and other gourmet retailers) or the lower priced Walmart products but end up finding value at Trader Joe.  Read More

>> Employee help in customer experience - take care of your employee

"An employee, noticing that he has his arms full, brings him a basket. At the register the perky cashier offers up that the mango sorbet Flickinger has selected is on her top 10 list of favorite Trader Joe's items.Read More

>> Manage and be deliberately careful in growth plan

Grow only after you worked out your supply chain issues and more importantly grow only after you can keep delivering the same customer experience that made you what you are. Read More

CNBC's 10 Best Business Books 2010 Summer

Watch The slide Show on CNBC - The 10 Best Business Books

• Multipliers
• On The Brink
• Delivering Happiness
• Blind Descent
• The Big Short
• Adventures Among Ants
• The End of Wall Street
• The Upside of Irrationality
• Rework
• The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

To read more detail review on business books visit Gloria McDonough-Taub CNBC.com blog, "Bullish On Books"

Google at 6 - What do analysts have to say about that

Here in an article in Yahoo Finance via cnbc

Remember that old saying from the 1920s retailer, John Wanamaker? He knew half his ad budget was wasted, now if only he knew which half. Google promised to change all that.

Instead of focusing ever harder on its core-providing smarter search results and better-tailored ads for what you're looking for, thereby boosting the only real revenue stream the company has-Google has wanderlust.

Goes on to compare it to Sun Microsystem Read More

Fools.com evaluate Google Moat and found the following

For a company in a constantly evolving industry, Google has a surprisingly sustainable series of competitive advantages over its peers. Read more about the Moats fools.com analyzed (namely Intellectual property rights. Customer switching costs, The network effect, Cost advantages)

Mark Hulbert: An exclusive Google birthday party Hulbert Financial Files - MarketWatch

Mark Hulbert warns it's a mistake to assume other tech IPOs will see the same level of success.

Charlie Rose - On the growth of Google with Chris Anderson of 'Wired,' Michael Copeland, senior writer for Fortune and Jessica Vascellaro of 'The Wall Street Journal'

Interesting Books - Zoo Story

Yesterday Thomas French was interviewed on CN about his new book "Zoo Story: Life and Death in the Garden of Captives" (Kindle)

Locate a local Independent Store - at IndieBound

Reviews:

"Inside the zoo, time was not human. Time moved outside human expectations. It did not settle into a single groove," French writes. "Zoo time was fluid, changeable, unpredictable. It unfolded in different rhythms, at variable speeds, calibrated to the heartbeat and breathing patterns and behavior of each species." Read full Review on USA Today

Listen/Read NPR Interview - The 'Zoo Story,' Both Beguiling And Repellent

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Thomas French
www.colbertnation.com
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