I’m never organized enough to clip coupons (or even remember to collect them from the supermarket) so Cellfire seems like an ideal solution.

It’s a small application that runs on your Windows Mobile phone (or can be accessed via a web browser interface) which downloads available local offers (you tell it your postcode) and you can search and redeem them in stores.

The offers range from half price coffee to free slices of pizza, video rental or music downloads and many others, frequently updated and offered at no cost to you (beyond data costs if you download updates over the air)

I love the idea, but I think there are some ways it could improve to make it a much more useful.

• Searching and filtering offers is a bit rudimentary, I’d like to see more granularity so I can quickly see if there’s something relevant to my current needs, but at the same time it’s important for their business model to have the serendipity of discovering new stores so a general browse mode is still needed. I’d like to be able to specify things I’m not interested in (diapers or all-you-can-eat Seafood Diners for instance) and raise the priorities of things I am (eg non-chain coffee shops, organic produce, independent music stores).
• Location appropriate offers. I’m not going to drive 20 miles for a half price latte so it’s not worth showing those to me when I look for coffeeshops, but by talking to the GPS on my phone (or maybe integrating with something like Navizon for users without GPS) the offers can be much better targeted to where I am right now. A neat, but slightly freaky, extension would be to look ahead in my calendar to see what locations I’ve entered and find offers in those areas as well.
• Smart sorting. Similar to the location appropriate offers it makes sense to show me the closest offers first as I’m more likely to use them, but it would be good to have options to also sort based on other factors such as value of offer or loyalty to a specific store.
• Mapping integration. Don’t just give me the address give me a hot link to Windows Live Search for Mobile or (if not available) to Live Maps so I can get directions. Also with map integration you could plot offers and let me optimize my shopping trips ;)

The other thing I’d like to see is better integration with supermarket coupons – I’d be willing to pair my QFC Club Card to my Cellfire account in order to have relevant offers/coupons made available electronically (and it would be great if I could scan them at the quick checkout and not need to queue at the counter – similar to what we showed at Advance08). It would greatly enhance the value of the application and make more more likely to take advantage of some of the promotions offered. In fact if managed well it could be a real loyalty bonus as you’d have a constant reminder of the value of your continued patronage.

One new feature Cellfire could accommodate would be Club Card membership. Rather than me need to carry around the barcodes for QFC, Blockbuster and Borders I could enter the information (either in the app or via their website) and have the card image delivered to my phone so I can scan that and dump the plastic chits. It’s a much simpler solution and even more practical than some other solutions I’ve seen.

Just like the Zune commercial no-one has ever seen when I see things like this I wonder why Microsoft are not smarter with their advertising.

Sync has made a good start but to start fighting back, and maybe there’s more of a move in the right direction.

The search engine wars are heating up with shopping a prime mover … why advertise or try to get your search results higher if you don’t want to promote something after all.

Apart from helping us find things search hasn’t traditionally been a very “giving” process. The search engine providers, advertisers and folks creating pages to serve us click-through's are the ones making all the money.

Now that’s set to change with the introduction of Live Search CashBack. The idea is simple… you look for something you’re interested in and… you have the option of buying it from someone who will put money back into your pocket (via PayPal, bank transfer or check) just for shopping with them. Everyone gets part of the reward, advertisers get more customers, users get value, Live gets more search and everyone is happy.

The service was announced at Advance08 and has already received some positive reactions.

I had a quick play for the first time today… sign-up is quick and simple, and the process fairly straight forward. Give it a try…

I recently bought a Zune and I’m surprised how pleased I am with it. I guess I shouldn’t be, but after being an iPod user for some years and listening to the haters it was easy to pick on the flaws.

Then I got one and now I don’t think I’ll go back. It works really well, the audio quality is great and I prefer the Zune Marketplace and ZunePass to the alternatives.

I found this advert for the Zune (the original from Digital Kitchen is here, but requires QuickTime)… Most of the Microsoft adverts on TV don’t move me (and don’t get me started on the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads) but if we could get Digital Kitchen to cook up some more like this I’d be a fan!

In the last few days I seem to have visited an inordinate number of sites that instead of engaging with me in the 2 seconds they have to get my attention they've shown me a Flash plug in that sits there going "Loading" and has a percentage bar crawling across the screen.

These sites had all sent me email inviting me to come and learn about a wonderful seasonal opportunity or great offer. They'd managed to engage me enough to click the link in the email (note - this isn't an invite for Spam. Even if you get through Spamcop and the other blocks I've got in the way I'm not likely to click unless you've managed to target me accurately with something I actually care about).

Then they blow it by assuming I want to watch a progress bar for 2 minutes simply to watch an ad.

Now, the smart ones feature a prominent "skip intro" button I can click and get to the main course. Others actually optimize their Flash experience so that they do display something useful within a couple of seconds that I can interact with and continue my journey (while they finish loading stuff in the background).

The dumb ones (and sadly they seem to be in the majority) suffer the unintended consequence of totally disengaging me (and put me off returning because I assume I'll get the same gatekeeper).

Oh, and I'll add news sites that show me an interstitial advert before I can even get engaged with their homepage. It's just my daily reading workload down!

Now Microsoft have unleashed Silverlight on the web and so we can expect to see a new wave of creative, imaginative splash pages. Even if the creators of those don't do anything totally earth shattering they will make the web a better place if they think about the first 2-5 seconds of engagement.

And maybe just use Silverlight to spice up a page rather than force me to do everything in a RIA where I can't deep-link to content or navigate with the keyboard.

In the meantime... I'll keep clicking [close] - I wonder how many analytics packages report that sort of behavior and flag it as something site owners need to correct....

Looks like I was right when I said that I guessed it was just an unintended consequence when Facebook implemented the beacon that accidental data leakage count occur.

The process has now been tweaked and looks like it's working just how I'd expect it to - keeping me in control of my personal information.

Good on you Facebook for listening and doing the right thing.

I'm a fan of Facebook and the concept of social networking and their particular slant on things. I'm also really intrigued what's going to happen as their platform continues to evolve over time.

One thing I'm a little wary of however is invasive advertising and accidental leakage of personal data.

I was initially quite surprised when I logged into my wifes Blockbuster account today and had it offer to send my data to my Facebook profile.

Luckily I managed to hit the "no thanks" button before it did (not that I have any credibility in my taste in movies, but my daughters SpongeBob wish list wouldn't help!)

I did a little bit of searching on the web to see what was going on and discovered I was behind the curve on the outrage that had accompanied this which meant I was able to look at it with less vehemence than some had visited upon Facebook and their partners.

My biggest concern I guess it having Blockbuster and others sharing data without giving me obvious and timely control over the process, especially when the data it's about to share is wrong!

I elect to share my twitter posts, or Last.FM data publicly because there's nothing private and personal. But I do consider my movie and TV viewing or Amazon purchases to be private - not just because I don't see value in sharing them simply to help someone (be it Facebook, Google or Amazon) track data about me but also because I don't like the potential inferences they may make because they don't have context surrounding the decisions. I don't watch SpongeBob, my daughter does. I didn't rent Forever Young with Mel Gibson, my wife did. I didn't buy a book on Renaissance painters for me, it was a gift for my Mum.

If I can control what is shared and when (so I can give it context or filter the irrelevant) then I'd be happy to share data with them. If Blockbuster or Amazon included something like the MadKast "ShareThis" widget or AdaptiveBlue Smartlinks on every line (ideally with a multi-select option for my Blockbuster queue).

If it makes the advertising and personalization more appropriate, just in the same way I love the idea of fine-tuned TV advertising, I'd be happy to share.

For now though, I've added a new AD Blocker filter rule to IE7Pro - all calls to *.facebook.com/beacon/* get blocked ... when I get a bit more granular control I'll be happy to turn the rule off again.

FWIW I don't think Facebook did it to be sneaky or "evil", they simply didn't look at it quite as carefully as they could have and think about the unintended consequences.

I used to work a lot with folks in the advertising industry. With small independent producers, big name agencies and really smart digital delivery companies (and of course that has continued since joined Microsoft as projects need). In that game you try to be as clever as you can, create a buzz, deliver a message, do good for a brand, sell some product or whatever.

The worst case outcome is when you drive a customer away. Not leave them apathetic^* or unmoved (heck, most marketing can do that) or reaching for the "skip" button on their media center.

I never thought two of the biggest marketing brands out there would succeed. Especially through such a well meaning campaign that rewarded me, the consumer, for my loyalty, required no change of behavior on my part or had any obvious downside.

As folks who know me will testify I drink quite a lot of coffee (I don't have a problem... I can admit my addiction!) and these days most of it comes from Starbucks thanks to their sheer convenience and weight of number (ah, I miss Zaraffas from Australia).

Despite working for the folks who brought you the much improved Zune 2.0 I still have my old iPod (4G ClickWheel) and despite having some issues with iTunes I still have it running on one machine for synching.

So, you'd think a campaign that gives away a free tune every day just for buying a cup of coffee has to be a winning combination wouldn't you?

At first I thought so. I continued my daily ritual and picked up the added bonus of the card and put them aside meaning to have a frenzy of downloading when the promotion finished.

That was when it hit me. Not how generous Starbucks had been. Not what a great online store iTunes was. Just how much I was spending on over-priced, variable quality coffee in jumped up fast food outlets (that keep tempting me with fattening treats).

The result of the campaign. No more loyalty to iTunes (the moment my iPod finally dies I'll get a Zune. maybe). No more loyalty to Starbucks. But I did pick up a Keurig coffee machine that delivers 10 cups for the price we were paying a day for a morning pick-me-up, so the cost of the machine should be covered pretty quickly.

Oooops! I guess that campaign didn't quite go as planned. Starbucks haven't lost me as a customer, and I don't think any less of them, but I am now more aware in a tangible fashion just how much I spend there! Ironically, thought their rival, Tullys, is one of many suppliers of the Keurig pods... Starbucks aren't. I don't know if it's a deliberate choice on their part or Keurig failing to market the product to them. Luckily we have a "pack your own" attachment so if we miss a particualr Starbucks blend we don't have to miss out - just buy the grind

* I had hoped Hugh would have a witty cartoon on the subject of apathetic marketing. I guess I'll have to ask him nicely.

So, you already know that we're giving copies of Vista Ultimate to MIX07 attendees, and of course you'll get a chance to hear from both Microsoft folks and people from the real world about how the UX game is hotting up and delivering real benefits to developers, users and everyone else in the ecosystem.

What you might not be aware of is the other half of the equation.... while we support developers with WPF/E, Ajax.asp.net and (of course) Visual Studio we also have tools aimed at designers

Expression Studio includes Expression Web, Expression Blend™, Expression Design and Expression Media. Whether you are designing standards-based web sites, creating rich user experiences on the desktop, or managing digital assets and content, the professional design tools and innovative technologies in Expression give you the flexibility and freedom to bring your vision to reality.

To reflect Microsoft's belief that Design is an essential part of the development process, all MIX07 attendees will receive a Commemorative Edition of Expression Studio, complete with the first version of Expression Studio and one-of-a-kind artwork (in addition to a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate!).

Check out  www.visitmix.com for more details right now... tickets are going fast.

I hope to see you there....

Now, I'm not a huge fan of advertising when it's intrusive or detracts from the experience. I do however have a lot of respect for intelligent targeting and inventive engaging campaigns.

In this day and age we're faced with product and brand placement everywhere - billboards, TV, radio, online and even coming to cellphones and all that happens is people tune out.

I've got Google ads running on the side of this page - how many folks actually look at them, and of those how many click (actually, despite my cynicism it's not bad - this site is revenue neutral... advertising just about pays my hosting costs each year).

Anyway, I'm always on the look out for cool new technology that's going to make advertising more effective without it becoming more offensive at the same time. Luckily there's a group here at Microsoft tasked with pretty much fulfilling that niche and they're showcasing some of their cooler ideas on the adLab site so you can check out some of their thinking.

I can't wait for some of these things to start filtering down to live.com as they help improve not only the suggested results and delivered advertising but might even improve the quality of the organic search results based on observed behaviors.