Saturday, June 02, 2007

This is NOT a Nuffnang VS Advertlets Comparison Chart

I was telling a friend earlier this morning that on a personal point of view (read: personal), I find that Advertlets' comparison chart to be a bit childish, and mean-spirited. I've only seen Josh Lim once, during a presentation for one of Microsoft's events and he seems like a nice chap, but this is certainly not a very, well, nice way to present things to people, or to do business.

The problems described in the TenthofMarch blog (here, here) potray a rushed product which would have failed any decent usability test, and the comments do make for a decent read. Honestly, companies, especially fledging ones, shouldn't hide behind the BETA software moniker as an excuse to cover up software bugs and yes, this is a software developer talking from a user's/consumer's point of view.

I'm in favour of closed beta tests, and even if you chose to make your beta software public, be forthcoming with the bugs and be courteous to those who actually find them in the first place. The point where you decided to let your beta software out the door, is the same time where you let your ego die.

A simple: "I'm sorry, I'll go about and fix it. Thank you for your efforts, please help us to better ourselves to service you better", so on and so forth, makes for better PR than the comments in the previously mentioned blog, some of them being very caustic.

Having worked in the CRM/Timeshare industry for several years, the thought of actually comparing SalesForce's or SugarCRM's (both are competitors) logos to that of my company's product has never crossed my mind, nor does it sound like fun. So please, grow up.