Darren Herman - Marketing, Media and Technology Conversations - Latest Comments

Re: My Rule of Introductions

Howard Yeh — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 10:53:31 -0000

This guy writing in Quartz (http://qz.com/457699/youre-... is using a fancy-schmancy name (calling it the "Double Opt-In Introduction") for what I have already have called in my head as "the Darren rule for intros". I've been using it for myself since you pointed it out. I would encourage more people to apply it.

Re: Come work on the most differentiated product vision in advertising technology

Ashley King — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:54:26 -0000

Definitely talk to Michael Masters sooner than later before he gets scooped up!!! I think ya'll know each other :)

Re: Ads that fit in

Aaron Lassila — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 21:12:29 -0000

Sounds like a fun challenge, and amazing opportunity!

Re: Ads that fit in

Darren Herman — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:33:18 -0000

That's our huge challenge - but we feel that if you give the user the control, provide it transparently... you'll ultimately gain their trust.

Re: Ads that fit in

Darren Herman — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:32:36 -0000

That's what we're focused on and it's a fine line. Especially doing it with all of the privacy principles of Mozilla. But we're onto something...

Re: Ads that fit in

michael_nurse — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:29:17 -0000

That's a really interesting place for an ad. I guess the thing that ultimately determines whether an ad "fits in" or not is whether or to what degree, it adds value to the task the user is actually trying to perform. The beauty of search ads is that they are theoretically helpful in answering the user's query.

As a tile in my most visited sites, I can imagine finding it useful and therefore valuable to see recommended websites based on my behaviour. If those recommendations can be monetized without sacrificing too much of the quality of the recommendation, that sounds like a winner to me

Re: Ads that fit in

Ashish Datta — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 09:26:06 -0000

Finding an advertising medium that feels "right" in the context of the UX along with nailing relevance is hugely important. Looking at Twitter's promoted tweets vs. Facebook's sponsored sidebar is a great example of this. The tweets usually look "right" in my stream whereas the Facebook sidebar feels like a banner and is usually much less relevant.

I think a challenge for Mozilla tiles is how can you push relevant ads without getting into creepy "we capture all your data" territory?

Re: Manchester Vermont – Our Winter Kingdom

Darren Herman — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:12:17 -0000

I'm sure it would go far. do it!

Re: Manchester Vermont – Our Winter Kingdom

Darren Herman — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:12:08 -0000

We might have been up there then too. We love the town.

Re: Manchester Vermont – Our Winter Kingdom

Robin Bectel — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 15:28:25 -0000

Funny - we just went to Manchester in December to visit my sister-in-law who lives there. Nice town. It was a winter wonderland when we went. The kids (8&10) loved Stratton which feels/looks like a little Bavarian village, but my nieces tell me Bromley is the place for kids and families because its low key. We stayed in the no frills Casablanca Hotel on Main Street because it was the only one in town that allowed dogs to stay in the room when you went out. We couldn't exactly take him skiing with us! Glad you enjoy it there too.

Re: Manchester Vermont – Our Winter Kingdom

Dan Reich — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 12:52:34 -0000

I might have to do one of these for Mount Snow :)

Re: Thinking About 2015: payments, home security, video content, and content consumption

Ashish Datta — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 14:52:07 -0000

Some interesting points.

Regarding credit card payments, credit card issuers in the US have been painfully slow to roll out the EMV (chip and pin) systems primarily because of cost, http://www.quora.com/Online... lays out real numbers.

"Next generation" video content is also going to be really exciting with companies like https://www.fullscreen.com/ leading the charge. The combination of SmartTV penetration and "smart sticks" (Chromecast/Amazon Firestick/etc.) are making it easier than ever to bypass traditional cable companies and watch "native digital" content directly on your TV.

Re: My journey in becoming a Mozillian

James Willcox — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 12:13:08 -0000

I really enjoyed talking with you at breakfast last Friday, and I'm very happy to hear you've decided to stay. I think you have a lot of great ideas to make ads on the web more effective for advertisers and less annoying for our users.

Re: My journey in becoming a Mozillian

Jeff Walden — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 20:49:13 -0000

I remember the IAB kerfuffle at the time, and thinking that 1) this seemed clearly not some hugely momentous mistake as harbinger of complete disaster, 2) except to some obviously apparent degree in terms of its communication (but such things are temporary roadbumps whose importance fades with time); 3) totally empty space at first use in the tiles view was really not doing users, or us, any good; and 4) the nature of the ads to fill that space would be critical in terms of whether the space-filling was valuable or not (or at an absolute minimum, not harmful). So from my point of view, no real worries, as I assumed (...maybe wrongly, from how close you came to leaving :-\ ) that conversations and such would help everyone learn from mistakes about how to talk about what, fundamentally, was really not a bad thing at all. Good to see you sticking around and making things start to gel a bit more. \o/

(And for what it's not worth or worth, to have some gauge of how irrelevant or relevant my opinion is: I was one of the people still standing in the audience when they asked people who'd worked on Firefox 1.0 to keep standing. :-) Not an employee then, which is part of why I've never thought of employment as integral to being a Mozillian. Didn't manage to say hi at the meet-and-greet Thursday [?] afternoon, although I talked to others there -- will try to say hi next time you're in town.)

Re: My journey in becoming a Mozillian

Les Orchard — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 23:28:29 -0000

I guess another way to look at this is: Thank you for giving Mozilla a second chance! It's treacherous ground, but I think we're better off with your perspective than without.

Re: My journey in becoming a Mozillian

Sandip Kamat — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 19:24:53 -0000

Thanks for sharing this, Darren. I'm in my second year and learning to be a mozillian too!

Re: Data Dashboard: eBay Auctions, Autotrader, Manheim Data Sets

edward — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 09:34:24 -0000

Does anyone have this software? Please contact me a shammy8626@aol.com

Re: Mobile Display Networks & DSPs

Sofía Santucho — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:58:59 -0000

Adtomatik has been my predetermined ad network for a long time. Never tried anything better. Higher fill rates and the best ecpm.

Re: Investing in Startup Index Funds

Brian Thopsey — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:01:44 -0000

We are very interested in this topic as well and are starting to build tools to help https://fundwisdom.com/crow...

Re: First Week with Surface Pro 3

jutholmes — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 22:37:59 -0000

My gf is a graphic designer and although she's not a "fanboy" of Macs, she uses them 80% of the time. She tried one of these and said "Those are really nice, the first thing I've used that could replace my desktop and iPad." I was surprised because she doesn't normally care about technology platforms. This is the first thing that she's endorsed since the original Kindle.

Re: VRM, The Intention Economy, and The Thank You Economy

RJ Lewis — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 15:59:51 -0000

I have this discussion all the time with publishers and advertisers alike when it comes to sharing CRM data for purposes of online message targeting. Since data is fungible, the question of "who owns the data" inevitably comes up. My stock response is, "The customer owns his or her data. We are all just privileged stewards of that data they are willing to share with us". This exemplifies the point, and I agree that the tools that empower a customer-centric profile and customer driven data sharing are on their way.

Re: VRM, The Intention Economy, and The Thank You Economy

Alan — Sun, 04 May 2014 14:27:00 -0000

Sounds quite interesting. I would like to read the book. What about situations where a company wants to market a product to an individual who is a good fit for the product, even if the individual is not AWARE of that product?

Re: Sherri's Resume Writing & Editing Service

Jual Jaket Murah — Thu, 01 May 2014 23:44:02 -0000

Fantastic Read! Looking forward to more! Bookmarked the site and will be back again!

Re: Data Dashboard: eBay Auctions, Autotrader, Manheim Data Sets

Bora — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 01:40:06 -0000

Jonathan,

I'm working on something similar. It would be great to speak with you about the progress you made.

Re: Are You a Mozillian?

Darren Herman — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:19:12 -0000

Noted. We're working on that!