This post is much better is you read it in his voice.

Google+ is Google’s third attempt (Buzz, Wave, Plus…) to launch a social media platform and they still haven’t gotten it right.

1. I can put my friends in circle. Who cares? Its a pain in the butt. I have 370 Facebook friends. I would be putting people in circles all day.
2. We can create a hangout.  Did someone tell Meetup.com because I’m sure they will be terrified.
3. No ones on Google+ but digital marketers, social media gurus, tech people, and Brittany Spears (at least her PR agency).
4. There is no added value to brands.  Can brands create compelling app/space/content that would convince non-users to check out Google+?  No.
5. Verification sucks.  I wouldn’t create a link to some random social network if I was worried about it succeeding (see Buzz, Wave). Why would I create a link to Google Plus?  Additionally, most companies have to pay a developer to do this.  Google Places is more business friendly with that awful postcard verification system.  PS. Most companies don’t allow development on sites during the Holidays.
6. The help section sucks.  Hire someone to make it user friendly and complete.  Ask Matt Cutts to help with your searchability.
7. I know you are in a war with Facebook but release your API so we can use it from Hootsuite.
8. Why won’t you allow contests & sweepstakes on Google Plus?
9. Javascript is this language developers can use to tell people their website will not work in a user’s browser. It would be nice to tell users that certain functions do not work.  I just spent several minutes trying to find out a why a coworker’s couldn’t get the “add to circle” button to work in an older version of IE.
10. How about putting the added functionality like hangouts, invites, and create pages in the navigation at the top where people will look for it?
11. Why is it such a pain in the butt to navigate between pages? (Facebook sucks at this too)
12. Like 7, release the API so we can get cool Chrome and Firefox Plug-ins.

Here are our three most recent loans (translated from partner website).

Lilia Joy is 51 years old and lives in the Philippines. She is married with 3 children. Lilia Joy has a shop that sells canned goods, snacks & beverages. She has had this business for 10 years. She requested a loan of PHP 10,000 to buy stock for her shop.

Magdalena is 42 years old and lives in the Philippines. She is married with 5 children. Magdalena has a shop that sells canned goods, snacks & beverages. She has had this business for 4 years. She requested a loan of PHP 8,000 to buy canned goods, snacks & beverages.

Violeta is 45 years old and lives in the Philippines. She is married with 6 children. Violeta has a shop that sells green & yellow bananas. She has had this business for 6 years. She requested a loan for PHP 11,000 to buy bananas for sale.

Chea Nen

Dongkor, Cambodia Personal Use | Vehicle

Chea Nen, 62, is a farmer and her husband is a construction worker, and they can earn a daily income $1.66 per day. Chea Nen has six children, five of whom are married while the remaining one is single. There of her children were employed as sewing workers and have a formal salary every month.

She intends to buy a new motorcycle and repair her old house. This loan can make life easier for them as they can go anywhere faster than before. As for her future expectations, she hopes to sells all kinds of meals and vegetables in front of her house.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/287951

Chak’s Group

Location Undisclosed, Cambodia Agriculture | Farm Supplies

For privacy reasons, the Field Partner has requested that last names and location be undisclosed

http://www.kiva.org/lend/281488

Here are some of my projects and why.

Name: A City in Portraits : The Ypsi Project Exhibit
Why: Wanted to help a local Michigan photographer capture the beautiful and special people in her neighborhood. Big picture, special people are often overlooked. This project that takes time to celebrate the small differences and a communities beautiful diversity.

Name: Decentralize the web with Diaspora
Why: Four NYU students want to create an alternative to Facebook. It’s a noble goal which will spawn ambitious projects and new ways of thinking on privacy and sharing information. Too many companies are trying to imitate Facebook. I think it will take individuals to dream up something different.

Name:Libyan Youth in the Revolution: video reports from Libya
Why: first the background, reporter is in Libya embedded with youth groups. Revolution breaks out and funds dry up. Reporter asks for funds to cover events since it is being overlooked by mainstream media at the time.I didn’t think this story would be told. I didn’t think anyone would come to defend the people of Libya. I wanted to make sure this story was told unlike the story of Bahrain.

Name: No Time To Explain indie game
Why: More dreamers that want to use technology to make something cool and entertaining. Plus, I get a free copy of the game when done.

The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.

Sponsored the Bicycle City movie project today. Pretty excited and I can’t wait to see it.

Click the box below for more info.

Become a Gold Sponsor for only $500. What a deal.

Updated loan amounts to Kiva.org. Very close to my goal of 50 kiva loans.

Sara Patricia Herrera Alemán

San Rafael, Nicaragua Housing | Personal Housing Expenses

Sara Patricia Herrera Alemán currently works for a government organization in San Rafael as the assistant treasurer, and has worked for this organization for twenty three years. She is married. She has had seven loans with CEPRODEL and each one has been used to purchase building materials such as sand, cement, stone, gravel, blocks, etc., to improve and enlarge the house where she lives. These loans with CEPRODEL have been of great help to her since through them she has improved her living conditions and those of her family.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/278406?_te=ty

Edik Grigoryan

Ijevan, Armenia Services | Auto Repair

Edik Grigoryan was born in 1966. He lives in Ijevan city. Edik is married and has three children. His elder daughter is married and lives separately. His younger daughter and his son go to school. Edik’s wife is at home.

Since 1990, Edik has engaged in auto servicing. Now he is renting a workshop where he repairs cars, but he also has his own dilapidated workshop. He is asking for a 600.000 AMD loan to reconstruct this workshop. This will allow him to run his business at his own workshop and thus cut down his business expenses.

This is Edik’s third loan from Nor Horizon.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/280453?_te=ty

Maria Del Transito Rodriguez Pozo

Leon, Nicaragua Retail | Cosmetics Sales

Maria Del Trancito is 42 years old and married. She lives with her partner and their four children. For the last 3 years she has worked selling cosmetics. All of Maria’s customers are located in areas near the city and she gets around easily on foot while taking advantage to show her products to passers-by. Her dream is to have a larger inventory to offer variety to her customers. He greatest challenge is her competition, which with her experience she has managed to control and which is why she is always in search of new markets and good prices. She is requesting this loan for the purchase of lipstick, creams, perfumes, bags, underwear and general cosmetics.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/283418?_te=ty

Added three more Kiva loans bringing the total to 43.  50 loans will be a big milestone for us and I can’t wait to hit it.

Erika Del Rosario Orozco Aguirre

• Location: Managua, Nicaragua
• Sector: Clothing
• Activity: Clothing Sales
• Loan Use: To invest in the purchase of school uniforms and cosmetics to increase her sales

Erika is a small merchant. She began her activity six years ago with the aim of giving financial support to her family. She began selling clothes and cosmetics through catalogues. She acquired customers thanks to her husband who is a supervisor in a private company, and she was granted loans by the microfinance institution Afodenic. She expanded her product range and successfully won and kept customers. She sells for cash and on credit.

She will use her new loan to buy school uniforms and cosmetics to meet the higher demand over the course of years.

Mut Vang’s Group

• Location: Tuol Krang village, Cambodia
• Sector: Food
• Activity: Food Market
• Loan Use: To buy more rice to resell

This group loan consists of four members. They are located in Tuol Krang village in Kandal province.

Mrs. Mut Vang was born in 1968 and is a group leader. She was selected to be the group leader by the other members.

Her husband, Mr. Hing Hun, is a farm laborer and can earn a small income to help support his family. He also owns a plot of land for growing rice. This couple has two children; both children are laborers.

Mrs. Mut Vang earns her living by selling rice in the local village. In order to support and enlarge her business, she would like to ask for a loan to buy more rice to resell. With this loan, she hopes to increase her income to improve the living conditions of her family.

Nathalia Rivas

• Location: Caaguazú, Paraguay
• Sector: Agriculture
• Activity: Flowers
• Loan Use: to buy ornamental plants, flowers, and seeds for seedlings that will be used for reforestation

Ms. Nathalia Rivas is 24 years old, single, and lives with her parents and five siblings. They work together to run their family business, which is a nursery they have had for 11 years.

Nathalia is working to continue this business, which is very important to the whole family because they depend on it to cover their daily needs, school expenses, and other typical family expenses.

She finished a two-year technical program in plastic arts and she would like to pursue another university degree sometime in the future.

Nathalia is requesting this loan to buy ornamental plants, flowers, and seeds for seedlings that will be used for reforestation.

A new Lifehacker article, Be Aware of the “Unit Effect” to Avoid Marketing Tricks, got me thinking of other times that consumers see unit pricing and use it in decision making.  I believe it happens a lot more regularly than the author suggests.

I commonly buy way too much of a product because the unit pricing is better in bulk purchases.  Costco shelf tags are a great example of this.

From everydayfoodstorage.net - Grocery Shopping 101 Tip #2: Unit Pricing

Some people would argue that unit pricing should be the most important asset in purchasing decisions but I feel that this metric often overshadows other important decision points such as budget, storage space, consumption vs spoilage rate, and past usage.

Recently, I was going to try a new product and the purchase price for 5lbs was $25, while  1lb was $10.  I was so caught up in the unit pricing that I failed to take into account that I had never tried this product and wasn’t sure I would continue to use it.

Multiple Pricing

Another example of an instance that unit pricing overshadows logic is grocery unit sale signs.

commonsensewithmoney.com - New $4/10 Smart Ones Coupon + Target deal

I frequently see buy 10 yogurts for $4 when I see them on sale, but there is no reason to buy 10.  The example in the photo above, you can get one item for the same price as purchasing 5.  However, for some reason, I bet most peoples behavior is to purchase the exact number of units listed in the shelf tag.

[From our rep]

Attached you will find our latest Facebook Post, as well as a few extras:

A guide to our new Sponsored Stories Product – if I haven’t sent this to you already, please find the attached guide that speaks to our latest product on Facebook. This product leverages the word of mouth recommendations that are happening every day on Facebook. Now with sponsored stories you can utilize the benefits of earned media, with the guarantee and scale of paid. We are now offering this product in the Marketplace! This product has fully rolled out to all accounts so I encourage you to check it out (facebook.com/ads/create – after selecting your Facebook Page as your ad destination, you can select your sponsored story through the ad ‘type’).

Page Transition Guide – Hopefully you’ve taken a tour of the new Page design – we’ve taken a lot of great feedback from our advertisers, developers and users to re-design the new Page layout.

Pages_Transition_Guide_Feb2011
PremiumSponsoredStories_Jan2011
The Facebook Post- February 14 2011