CRM Update – May 07 : 2:32 pm

If you’re an attentive reader of this site, you know that people are always bringing inappropriate things to fast-food drive-thrus, hoping to get served. Mobility scooters. Snakes. Even pedestrians have tried and failed to acquire food. But when Darcy wandered up to the drive-thru window at a Colorado McDonald’s on foot, employees didn’t just wearily tell her to go inside the restaurant to order like all of the other pedestrians. That’s because Darcy is a dairy cow.

The attention-seeking cow has been known to escape from her pen when bored, and walked to a McDonald’s about half a mile away from her home…

The acquisition of Crowd Factory brings additional personnel to Marketo’s leadership team.

There is an epic battle being fought on the Internet between the mighty forces of the left-brain ‘analytarians’ (those who worship at the feet of the almighty Google analytics) and the upstart underdog right-brain creatives. Lines have been drawn in all out trench warfare leaving the under-manned creatives scrambling for evidence to back their claims of superior marketing influence and impact.
Woe is the plight of the poor creative who dares to challenge the influence of the Great & Powerful Google and its vast cadre of graduate math majors armed to the teeth with a dizzying array of numbers and statistics, all presented in pretty, colorful charts and graphs…

I feel a certain kinship with Alan. Two years ago, both of us purchased HDTVs made by Vizio. Both of us bristled at the idea of buying an extended warranty for an electronic device that really shouldn’t be disposable. Both sets are out of warranty, but mine still works (for now) and Alan’s has black horizontal streaks running across the screen. A warranty’s a warranty, but he wonders: did he really just pay $1,000 per year for the privilege of owning a TV?

I purchased a 55inch Vizio TV two years ago…

Citibank now administers the Sears Card, but in order to keep their branding consistent, Citi is sure to keep the experience of dealing with Sears Card just as confusing and customer-unfriendly as dealing directly with Sears. That’s what Cat discovered while trying to contact their customer service, anyway. While the number on the card promises “24-hour customer service,” in the evening, there’s actually no way to get through.

My Sears Card has a phone number for “24-hour customer service…

Anyone using eBay for buying and selling need no longer battle with the mobile version of the website on their iPad or use a low-resolution iPhone app to keep track of their auctions thanks to the release of the massively updated eBay for iPad 2.0.0. As you would expect, following the release of the new iPad there is support for the high resolution retina display and this means that it is now possible to view higher quality images for the auctions you are browsing, but there’s much more to look forward to in this app that has been completely redesigned from scratch…

In one of the coolest examples of augmented reality use we’ve seen, researchers at UC Davis have created an AR sandbox which overlays a real-time, virtual, colored topographic map on sand surface.
As you change the actual topography of the sandbox, creating mountains, basins and riverbeds, a Kinect 3D camera combined with a projector overlay it with a virtual layer of visual information, including flowing water which adheres to the terrain configuration you’ve created.
It works in real time, meaning you can — for example — connect a body of water and a dry basin with a channel and see it fill with water…

Have you ever left a comment on a blog?How do you feel when the author replies?As we’re all ushered into this age of social media, each and every one of us is looking for ways to form stronger relationships with our audience, especially with current and potential customers.There are many ways to discuss how to cultivate and build relationships. I want to focus on blog comments—an often poorly understood and very underutilized tactic by individuals and businesses.Focus on your blog commenting strategy to build relationships…

Evernote has acquired best-selling handwriting iPad app Penultimate. It is the fifth in a series of acquisitions that Evernote CEO Phil LIbin says will lead up to an IPO within the next few years.
The $0.99 app, which allows users to take handwritten notes with a stylus or finger, has been downloaded more than 2 million times — making it the fourth most-popular paid iPad app.
After the acquisition, Penultimate will remain an independent brand in the iTunes store and a paid app. The “one-man shop” behind the app, Ben Zotto, will join Evernote and help expand handwriting features in its products…

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Unfortunately, when it comes to your small business website, image is everything. How you present your company on the digital sphere is important, and as we’ve learned recently, people are searching for the word “Tumblr” moreso than “blog.”
More and more brands have migrated to Tumblr. The micro-blogging site has become a more serious platform for brands — whether it’s to show brand character, offer a peek behind the scenes, like we do here at Mashable or just to keep customers up-to-date on the latest from their storefront…

Google+ on Monday announced it would gradually roll out its “Hangouts on Air” feature to the masses over the coming weeks. The feature lets you broadcast live sessions for anyone to watch — just like Barack Obama did in January.
Hangouts on Air can be posted on your Google+ stream, YouTube channel or website by checking “Enable Hangouts on Air.” It also allows you to monitor the number of views, record the live session and share it.
The feature previously was available only to a small group of broadcasters starting in 2011…

We’ve talked about numbers before here and will definitely be talking about them again before we are done. In order to have a truly functional Social Business and Social CRM, you have to know what’s working and what’s not and be able to learn from that knowledge.
On the other side of that coin, just because you can measure everything, doesn’t mean that you should. I’ve used that phrase here before, but I don’t mind. I also use it on every client call I’ve ever been on when the topic of analytics and metrics come up…

External variables are useful tools that will make your survey even more powerful. Specifically, the variables are additional information about your customers or survey respondents that is then integrated within the survey. This can result in even more accurate responses.
QuestionPro makes it easy to include external (or custom, as it is also known) variables into your survey creation. Lets take a look at custom variables and how they are best used.
External variables may be used in the Questions / Answer Options on the survey as well as within the email invitation to take the survey…

Death Rally

Tired of opponents getting in the way in racing games? Blow them up! This game offers plenty of dangerous weaponry that you can use to deal with the opposition. Thankfully, you can earn money to armor up your vehicle, repair damage, and upgrade weapons. You know, so you can cause more mayhem.Click here to view this gallery.Whether you feel the need for speed or the desire to run your fellow drivers off the road, we won’t judge. We will, however, suggest you redirect that energy into one of these Android racing games…

In collaboration with author Geoffrey Moore, Social Tornado helps brands move beyond acquiring friends, fans, and followers to build a high-powered engagement and enlistment engine.

Lenovo, best known for its PCs, plans to get into mobile in a big way with an $800 million base in Wuhan, China, dedicated to developing mobile Internet products.
The facility, set to open in October 2013 and house thousands of employees, is charged with developing and delivering “new mobile internet products and bring(ing) them to its customers even faster,” according to a company statement. Such products include smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices.
The move comes as Lenovo continues to build market share in PCs, a tough segment…

Software managers sometimes assume that every talented programmer is also proficient at interviewing customers and writing requirements, without any training, resources, or coaching. This isn’t a reasonable assumption. Like testing, estimation, and project management, requirements engineering has its own skill set and body of knowledge. Unfortunately, computer science curricula often emphasize programming-related knowledge over other software life cycle activities. Self-study and on-the-job learning often neglect softer skills such as those needed in requirements engineering, unless you’re specifically studying in pursuit of a professional business analyst certification…

Edwin’s wife flew to Mexico last week, toting only her carry-on luggage. United Airlines personnel made her gate-check the suitcase, telling her that it was too big and that she would definitely get it back when she landed. She hasn’t seen her suitcase since, and suspects it might have been stolen. United, as of yesterday, refused to give Edwin or Mrs. Edwin any answers.

On Wednesday, my wife flew to Mexico, and was instructed to gate check her carry-on bag because the regional jet was too small to have her regulation-size bag in the cabin…

The Transportation Security Administration trumpeted last week that it had screened a whole one million passengers through its brand new accelerated screening program, PreCheck. But although that seems like a high number, it’s really just the very tip of a large, slow-moving iceberg.

The L.A.Times notes that yes, one million passengers is a lot, but not so much when compared with the fact that the TSA screens a total of around 1.8 million passengers per day at the country’s 450 commercial airports…

These easy guidelines can keep your company fast and flexible.Management gurus often insist that, in order to survive in a rapidly changing business world, companies should become more nimble.Unfortunately, most bosses have only a vague idea of how to accomplish this.Here, based on my observation of hundreds of firms, are eight simple rules that should help you :1. No Meetings Longer than One HourMeetings consume the time and energy of multiple people, leaving less time to get work done. The simple truth is that there is no business concept or idea that can’t be compressed to fit within a one-hour limit…

An interactive billboard in London is making it easy for passersby to get involved in stopping domestic violence.
The ad, at the city’s Euston Station, shows a man yelling angrily at a woman. A prompt on the billboard tells viewers to go to /ncdv.org.uk/stop to drag the man away. As the video above shows, when you go to the site, you can actually do so, albeit for a short time.
The National Centre for Domestic Violence, the organization behind this latest effort, isn’t the first to try to do something different with London billboards…

LG Electronics plans to launch a Google TV-enabled TV set in late May, the company has announced.
“Production of Google TVs will start from May 17 from our factory in Mexico and U.S. consumers will be able to buy the product from the week of May 21,” Ro Seogho, executive vice president of LG’s TV business unit told a group of reporters.
Seogho did not disclose any further details about the product(s), but he said a launch in Europe and Asia will follow if they do well in the U…

Enhancements include an interactive dashboard, emotional index scores, and offline research options

The World at Work is powered by GE. This new series highlights the people, projects and startups that are driving innovation and making the world a better place.

Name: Sparked
Big Idea: Sparked is an online-only volunteer hub for people to donate their talents to non-profits, as well as an engagement tool for businesses to engage and incentivize employees to contribute to volunteer causes.
Why It’s Working: Users can donate expertise and skills instead of money, and make time commitments according to availability and interest level…