... when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, Google put differences aside and added a direct link to Apple's tribute on the Google.com homepage.That's it. None of the clever graphics we usually see on Google's homepage. Just the link. In body type (regular size type), centered below the logo and the search engine with nothing to draw attention to it. No bells. No whistles. Sometimes, as a famous artist once said, less is more.
Beneath its search bar, Google posted: "Steve Jobs 1955-2011," which links directly to Apple.com.
Anything more on Google's part would have been superfluous. So would anything more on my part in this blog.
Other than, perhaps, one small footnote: Jobs, and Apple, certainly changed my world. Before the 1980s, for most of us, computers were big clunky things in ceiling-high metal cabinets set off in an air-conditioned room at work. My first home computer was an Apple II+ - still clunky but small enough to set up on a desk top - and I bought it because Steve Jobs and Apple had the foresight to give away Apple computers to the local schools. The idea was to develop a generation of home computer users, and it worked. One reason I bought an Apple II in 1982 was because my friends taught in the county schools down home and we could exchange files on floppy disks. (Email, blogs and social networking came much later.) In a small way it demonstrates one of the oldest ideas in business: If you want to develop a market for your product, give away samples. You can do pretty darn well by doing good.
In addition to everything else he is being remembered for today, Steve Jobs was a marketing genius.
This is not a tangent. Next week we'll go over Chapter 7 in Vivian on new media. As sort of a segue, let's find out what Jobs' role was at Walt Disney Co. one of the media conglomorates we'll track during class Friday.
This isn't a tangent, either. In broadcast media jargon, a "segue" (pronounced seg-way) is a transition from one segment of a show to another. Originally, it was a musical riff that led from one scene, act or song to the next one.
2 comments:
Steve Jobs changed my world as well. Although I have unfortunately never owned an Apple computer, I was blessed to be introduced to the iPod. This portable music device gave me all the motivation I needed in several different areas in my life.
Steve Jobs has changed lives around the world with his apple creations. From computers to iphones, ipods, ipads, etc he was a genius. The technology is outstanding and has helped the world navigate and have more in common than it ever has.
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