TeamCushman

Google. The #1 website on the planet. The best search engine wants to be more. Google throws a lot of money into R&D. Somethings are successful some are not. here are a few that I like:

Google Email. Known as Gmail. At first you had to be “invited”, but now it’s opened to the public. Interesting how they keep it in “beta” status. I don’t know why other the fact that its constantly being updated. Google claims that its an experiment in email. The newest version has some great features. Don’t expect this to be like outlook, it’s not. One of the best features is that Gmail automatically lumps all email chains into a “conversation.” That way, you won’t have 2 or more emails from replies sitting in your email inbox. Every account starts with 6 GB of storage, so no need to ever delete anything. Of course, if you need more, $20 gets you up to 10 GB. I have yahoo email as well, the spam feature in Gmail has never let me down. Not one piece of spam has gotten through, as opposed to Yahoo, it’s practically all I get.

I purchased a new computer for my daughter. This time around. No spreadsheet, no excel, no powerpoint. Why? Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Totally compatible with Microsoft. Better yet, the sharing function allows more than one user to share and collaborate (in real time mind you) on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Travel or work on more than one computer? all you have to do is upload your documents to Google and then sign on to the next computer. In the last few weeks, Google has allowed you to upload and powerpoint and they change it to a flash presentation so you can easily email or embed into a blog. Sweet!

Google - 411. If you haven’t had the chance to try this, you’re missing out. A service to find businesses and connect to them or give you directions, all free! Take a look:

Have an old fashion phone without internet service? now you can text google a search and they will text you back with the answer.

Lastly, there is GrandCentral, which Google purchased a few months ago. While not technically created by Google, still a google operation. GrandCentral used VOIP to connect all of your cell phones numbers together. In our household, we have 3 cell phones. Whenever the customer’s GrandCentral number is called, the chosen phone or phones ring, allowing the customer to answer her chosen phone. The phones can be chosen based on time of day; for example, the home phone can be turned off during business hours, and based on groups (Family, Friends, Work, Web Button, Others) or personalized based on an address book.

They are just everywhere! Seems that some coffee snobs will usually thumb their noses at Starbucks, but I think secretly everyone enjoys Starbucks. Retails sales are down, we are in a housing slump, but doesn’t matter. Everyone still wants their $5 cup of Joe. Love em or hate em, here are a few things you may not know about your friendly, ubiquitous coffee house.

On average, two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987

Starbucks has been around since 1971, but it wasn’t aggressive about expansion until 1987, when the company came under the ownership of its current chairman, Howard Schulz. At that time, there were only nine Starbucks stores.

Today, there are about 14,396 (give or take a few). Divide that number by 20 years, or 7,300 days and, after rounding up, you get an average of 2 stores per day opening every day for the last 20 years. Naturally, this figure does not include the few stores that, for whatever reason, were shut down.

Its name comes from Moby Dick

Confirmed by the company’s current fact sheet, Starbucks was named for the first mate of the Pequod in Melville’s Moby Dick. The question is, why? After all, the company seems more like Captain Ahab than Starbuck. In the famous novel, Starbuck and Ahab are at opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum: the first mate is superstitious and conservative, Ahab is narcissistic and monomaniacal. Starbuck is practical, opposing Ahab’s desire to commit the Pequod to circling the world’s oceans in search of the white whale in favor of a commitment to harpooning whales they can sell on the Nantucket Market. Ahab is single-minded, bent on not only killing the white whale, but also on relieving mankind of the source of its evil. Swap out a few of the right words above with terms like “market domination” and “its competition,” and you have Ahab’s, the world’s biggest coffee peddler.

Its founders sold Starbucks in 1987 to build Peet’s Coffee & Tea

Here’s the condensed company time line:

• 1966: Alfred Peet opens Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Berkeley, California.
• 1971: Jerry Baldwin and two other friends of Alfred Peet open the first Starbucks in Seattle.
• 1982: Howard Schultz joins Starbucks.
• 1984: Baldwin et al buy out Peet’s.
• 1987: Baldwin et al sells Starbucks to Schultz to focus on building Peet’s.

Schultz left Starbucks to launch a line of specialty coffee stores in Seattle. He was able to raise enough money to buy Starbucks in 1987.

Part-time employees are entitled to full benefits

Starbucks seems to have a perennial spot on Forbes’ list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For,” and it has little to do with the weekly coffee or tea each “partner” takes home.

For starters, Starbucks takes a page from Warren Buffett’s playbook and calls its employees “partners,” even though they hardly qualify as such in a true business sense. The use of such a loaded word goes a long way in breeding company loyalty.

More importantly, they offer an enviable benefits package, one inspired by the childhood of Chairman Howard Schultz. As a boy, he watched his father work low-paying jobs and retire with little to show for his life, and Schultz wanted something different for employees of his company. The result is a benefits package given to employees who work a minimum of 20 hours per week that includes health, medical, dental and vision plans, a 401k, and access into Bean Stalk, the company’s employee stock option plan.

Starbucks doesn’t franchise its stores

As a rule, Starbucks stores are not franchised to private individuals, and the company has no intention to begin doing so. The mentality has a lot to do with maintaining high company standards from store to store; standards that would be difficult to enforce if they were franchised.

The one exception regards their willingness to enter into certain licensing agreements with companies who hold, or have access to, locations Starbucks regards as desirable. To quote from the FAQs on their home page, these sites include “airport locations, national grocery chains, major food services corporations, college and university campuses, and hospitals.” These licensed locations represent over one-third (36%) of all Starbucks stores operating in the U.S.

The Evolution of the Starbucks Siren

Click the link above for a full description and narrative. I’m too tired to paraphrase and Starbucks is closed right now.

Want to have a successful product? these days, just put an ‘i” in front of it. And make sure its compatible with the iPod. At last count, there are other 3,000 accessories for this thing. Amazing. Or should I say iAmazing! Here are some of the best I’ve seen …

The iPod shoulder bag. No need for a boombox, now you can listen to your songs and shop at the same time. Pretty snazzy, especially in the all white.

How about this one? …. now you can combine your money and your music. All leather and has space for your credit cards as well.

I Personally like this one the best … How about being able to place your iPod on a TP dispenser while dropping some boys off the lake? Just make sure when you read for the paper you grab the paper not the iPod.

How about the nano belt or the iBelt? not sure what to call it but pretty sweet place to put the iPod ….

Perhaps the strangest ending to a football game that I have ever seen. To set this up, the Ravens had just kicked a field goal with 20 seconds to go, completing an amazing comeback. And then …