Today I uploaded some recent photos from my camera to my Mac in iPhoto. To share them, i then posted them to Web Shots where I've had an account for some time. The process of getting my pictures from the Mac to WebShots and renaming them was not as simple as i had hoped - i'm not saying it was impossible, but i guess i've come to expect a certain level of automation / integration between all these technologies I'm expected to use and in this case i just didn't find that. I probably just don't have the right knowledge of the Mac, or maybe I'm using the wrong program or maybe just maybe they don't integrate that well.
But one thing is for sure, the level of consumer expectation of technology automation and integration is climbing rapidly and the companies that realize this and build applications with their customers' needs and uses in mind are the ones who will win. As a consumer, think about your own expectations today compared to just a couple years ago -- previously using online automated processes seemed cute and fun to try, but now you expect them to work seamlessly 24 X 7. Online ordering, upgrading, adding features / functionality, integrating between multiple applications, accessing customer service, etc. -- the paradigm has shifted and now consumers are comfortable doing these things online and this is the way we get things done. As such, consumers have come to expect nothing short of perfection from our vendors here.
As I was lamenting this, I completed my photo upload. Then WebShots asked if i wanted to post my pictures to a blog. Sure why not? With one simple clck i had the code, plopped it in here and put it here. The result? It took over the page and rewrote the look of my blog and only showed 13/rd the pictures. Example #2.
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