Why Wesabe Lost to Mint - Marc Hedlund's blog

Why Wesabe Lost to Mint - Marc Hedlund's blog:

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Interesting article on how one startup company (Wesabe) lost to a later entrant in the same market (Mint.com).

There are so many good memes on this post - I want to grab it all, and highlight the stuff I like.

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There's a lot to be said for not rushing to market, and learning from the mistakes the first entrants make. ...
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...Mint focused on making the user do almost no work at all, by automatically editing and categorizing their data...

...I was focused on trying to make the usability of editing data as easy and functional as it could be; Mint was focused on making it so you never had to do that at all. Their approach completely kicked our approach's ass. (To be defensive for just a moment, their data accuracy -- how well they automatically edited -- was really low, and anyone who looked deeply into their data at Mint, especially in the beginning, was shocked at how inaccurate it was. The point, though, is hardly anyone seems to have looked.)...

...it was far easier to have a good experience on Mint, and that good experience came far more quickly. ...

... most people simply won't care enough or get enough benefit from long-term features if a shorter-term alternative is available. ...


...  Focus on what really matters: making users happy with your product as quickly as you can, and helping them as much as you can after that.  If you do those better than anyone else out there you'll win.     I think in this case, Mint totally won at the first (making users happy quickly), and we both totally failed at the second (actually helping people). ...

English Canadian in 1837/8?

English Canadian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

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I attended a house concert by a Quebecois band yesterday.

In the lead-up to one of their songs they said, wrt the revolutions of 1837 in Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario) "At that time the only Canadians were French Canadians".

But... this abortive revolution established an English Canadian identity, already evolving as a result of the Loyalists and the War of 1812.

The colonies were called "Upper and Lower CANADA", after all. Upper Canada was majority English and/or American.

William Lyon Mackenzie briefly established the "Republic of Canada". (Per wikipedia - they did not teach this in my schools in Quebec. :-( )

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_units_of_the_War_of_1812

Earlier: in the War of 1812, The Frontier Light Infantry were two English speaking companies of the otherwise mainly French Canadian Voltigeurs.

Coleman's Troop were officially The Canadian Light Dragoons.
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English Canadian identity was probably tentative in 1837, as it is tentative in many ways even in 2012.

But saying that there were no English Canadians is just the sort of myth that a nationalist movement like Quebec creates to justify itself.

Example of a Wide-Open Google Drive Document found by Google Search

Bank Link List - Google Drive:

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I was just googling for links wrt a Portland area bank, and found this Google Docs page.

While I see nothing sensitive in this document, it nevertheless seems odd to see it shared with the entire world. Although perhaps that was the intention.

Of more concern is the fact that I cannot easily see who "owns" the document.  Not that that means much on the web, but it means something.