Background: Mini’s Mission Control

Typically, I am very pro-Mini. They are amazingly fun to drive and to auto-cross, and I came very close to owning one in the recent past. However, their latest feature, available on the limited Mini 50 Camden Edition, has everyone scratching their heads.

The best way I can describe Mission Control is that it’s what your car would sound like if it were a spaceship, and it had a crew of 3 people in addition to you, the pilot. It is 10% useful information read aloud to you (current fuel level, adverse weather warnings, etc) and 90% inane dialog between those 3 other crew members. And by 3 other crew members, I mean that the car talks to itself in different voices while you listen. In that respect, perhaps it’s more akin to what your car would sound like if it had multiple-personality disorder, and you were stuck in the middle.

But enough description, check out the video Oh, and this “feature” costs $5000.

Be sure to check out AutoBlog’s reaction as well

Get Feedback Before Development

In order to make this post at least a little on-topic, let’s see if we can derive some sort of lesson from this faux pas. Let’s say we’re developing a web application (LeadNuke for example). If we follow Mini’s example, we would spend weeks (I’m assuming this “feature” took Mini some time to develop) developing this ground-breaking new feature called Mission Control.

Our Mission Control feature would be incessant dialog boxes that popup every time our server is doing something. These popups would let you know, in a cute British accent no less, what exactly our server is trying to do.

“HTTP Connection established, love!”

“Returning javascript to manipulate the DOM, Great Scott!”

Now, anyone could anticipate how annoying and counter-productive this would be. But in many scenarios, this is not quite so obvious from a developer’s point of view.

The Useful Feature That Wasn’t

In fact, I recall one such instance a couple years ago, when I was developing RateMyStudentRental. I had a “eureka!” moment. I decided that one of the problems with searching for rental housing was that, a rental that meets your criteria exactly is rarely available when you need it. So, I thought, what if I create a new feature called a Watch List. You can input your criteria, and the site will alert you when something becomes available. If you started your search early enough, this could make the entire process passive and automatic.

I receive minimal feedback, and everyone (like myself) thought it was a great idea. I spent a week developing it (I was still a full-time student at the time). And when I launched it in a wave of triumph… no one cared. To this day, I believe this feature has been used only a handful of times.

You could argue that it was presented properly, or maybe it wasn’t marketed just right. But the point is that I could have spent that week developing something much more useful. Perhaps I could have fulfilled a request ticket that someone actually submitted.

Get Feedback Before Wasting Time

The point I’m trying to make here is to get feedback before you waste your time with anything, whether it’s a new feature, or maybe a new startup idea entirely. No one will steal your idea. And if they do, who cares? You’ll execute it better anyway, because it was your idea, right? The trade-off between sharing your ideas, and keeping them in secret “stealth” mode have been very clear for us.

Don’t be Mini. Don’t waste resources. Don’t develop before soliciting feedback. Otherwise, you might just find yourself the punch-line of a very un-funny joke.

*the post below was originally written Dec 9, 2009, while this screenshot was captured on Dec 30, when the post was *published, which explains the slight discrepency... I didn't feel like going back and rewriting it

The Point

The other day, I went to search for something on Google and noticed some interesting results from Google’s suggest feature after typing just one letter. Wow, I thought. How presumptuous of Google to think it can guess my will and desires from one letter. Of course that then led to curiosity, and hence this post. What terms manage to garner the top 10 spots for each letter of the English alphabet? So without further ado, the top 10 terms for each letter on Google’s suggest feature (along with some of my comments).

Interesting Statistics

• Brand names: 195 (75%)
• Generic Search Terms: 44 (16.9%)
• TV Shows / Movies: 6 (2.3%)
• Famous People / Bands: 9 (3.5%)
• Search Engines: 6 (2.3%)

Award of Awesomeness:

It’s a tie between Facebook and Yahoo, both for earning top spots in “w” for “www.facebook.com” and “www.yahoo.com” of all things. My hat is off to you both.

Multiple Entries

The winner for multiple entries is Yahoo, followed by Google (thought this is no doubt helped by the fact that most of Google’s competing services are directly linked to from Google’s home screen and thus don’t need to be searched for… not to mention the fact that there is less competition for the letter “y”).

• at&t: 2
• bank of america: 2
• comcast: 2
• ebay: 3
• facebook: 3
• google (including gmail): 6
• itunes: 2
• ikea: 2
• mapquest: 2
• myspace: 2
• quotes: 4
• ups: 2
• verizon: 3
• virgin: 2
• yahoo: 8
• zune: 2

a

• amazon
• aol
• american airlines
• addicting games
• ask.com *interesting that one of the top results in the Google search engine is another search engine
• at&t *people actually type the ampersand into the search box
• at&t wireless
• autotrader
• apple *Apple makes it difficult for people who want to find information about fruit
• american airlines

b

• bank of america
• best buy
• bed bath and beyond
• bank of america online banking
• barnes and noble
• bing *another search engine
• blockbuster
• baby names *notice that the vast majority of suggested terms are brand names… this is not
• burlington coat factory
• borders

c

• craigslist
• cnn
• comcast.net
• costco
• chase
• club penguin
• capital one
• comcast
• continental airlines
• cartoon network

d

• dictionary.com
• dictionary *function people can search… like dictionary “idiosyncratic” where google has a dictionary function
• disney channel
• delta airlines
• direct tv
• dell
• dillards
• dominos *another example of a proper noun making it difficult to search for a common noun… seriously, I want to know more about how to play
• dancing with the stars *this is one popular show
• daylight savings 2009

e

• ebay
• espn
• expedia
• ebay.com
• express
• ebay motors
• english to spanish translation
• evite
• enterprise
• erin andrews

f

• facebook
• facebook login
• fox news
• food network
• firefox
• fandango
• forever 21
• fedex
• free online games
• fedex tracking

g

• gmail
• google maps
• google earth
• google.com *damn kids trying to break the internet!
• games
• gamestop
• glee
• google translate
• google wave
• geico

h

• hotmail
• hulu
• home depot
• halloween costumes
• h1n1 symptoms
• hollister
• horoscope
• hobby lobby
• hotels.com
• hp

i

• imdb
• ikea
• itunes
• inspirational quotes
• itunes download
• irs
• iphone
• ikea usa
• isohunt
• inglorious bastards

j

• jet blue
• jcpenney
• justin tv
• joann fabrics
• justin bieber
• jobs
• jokes
• java
• jimmy johns
• jcrew

k

• kohls
• kelly blue book
• kmart
• kayak
• kinkos
• kings of leon
• kroger
• kanye west
• kim kardashian
• kaiser permanente

l

• lowes
• lyrics
• limewire
• lady gaga
• love quotes
• linkedin
• lands end
• louis vuitton
• ll bean lego

m

• myspace
• mapquest
• msn
• maps *yeah this could conceivably be counted as a brand name (someone on Google searching for maps is probably looking for Google maps), but we’re going to give it the benefit of the doubt as a generic term
• mapquest driving directions
• macys
• mega millions
• mortgage calculator
• myspace layouts
• miniclip

n

• netflix
• nfl.com
• new york times
• nordstrom
• northwest airlines
• nbc
• nickelodeon
• new moon
• nick jr
• news

o

• office depot
• old navy
• orbitz
• overstock
• office max
• oprah
• online games
• olive garden
• owl city
• open office

p

• pandora
• party city
• photobucket
• pizza hut *who takes the top spot for the coveted pizza spot for “p”
• papa johns
• paypal
• poptropica
• powerball
• pirate bay
• people of walmart

q

• quotes *people love quotes
• qvc
• quotes about life
• quest diagnostics
• quicktime
• quiznos
• quotes about love
• qwest
• quizzes
• quotes and sayings

r

• realtor.com
• reverse phone lookup
• radio shack
• redbox
• runescape
• recipes
• rei
• restoration hardware
• rotten tomatoes
• rate my professor

s

• southwest airlines
• swine flu symptoms
• sears
• spanish translation
• skype
• staples
• sprint
• sams club
• sports authority
• sparknotes

t

• target
• twitter
• thesaurus
• travelocity
• translator
• ticketmaster
• tmobile
• tv guide
• tmz
• toys r us

u

• usps
• ups
• united airlines
• ups tracking
• us airways
• urban dictionary
• ufc
• urban outfitters
• usaa
• us bank

v

• verizon wireless
• verizon
• victoria secret
• vampire diaries
• vlc
• virgin america
• vh1
• verizon.net
• virgin mobile
• value city furniture

w

• walmart
• weather
• white pages
• wikipedia
• www.facebook.com
• web md
• www.yahoo.com
• webkinz
• wells fargo
• walgreens

x

• xbox 360
• xm radio
• xbox live
• xkcd
• xanax
• xcel energy
• xm radio online
• xbox 360 games
• xbox 720
• xbmc

y

• youtube
• yahoo
• yahoo mail
• yellow pages
• yahoo.com mail
• yahoo answers
• yahoo maps
• youtube music
• yahoo finance
• yahoo fantasy football

z

• zillow
• zappos
• zip codes
• zip codes by city
• zombieland
• zodiac signs
• zune
• zune hd
• zero punctuation
• zabasearch