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All around you, people are having ideas. But often these are forgotten, or the person with the idea thinks the companies who could make it a reality aren't listening. Who hasn't used a product, service, or website and thought "Why don't they sell X too?" or "Wouldn't it be easier if this company/product/site worked like this instead?"

Google are setting out to capture some of these ideas and find out which ones their users want to see implemented. They've started by focusing on the mobile arena - Product Ideas for Google Mobile - but I expect to see this expanded if successful to other products. They say as much on their offical blog (23rd Dec post).

So: why are Google doing this?

• They get free ideas that could turn into money spinners, from the very people they want to keep happy - their users
• The voting system provides an indication (not foolproof I'll admit) of want their users actually want
• ideas can be "floated" past this community, to see if they are of interest or a waste of resource
• Google engineers and product managers can stay in touch with the "grass roots" of motivated, engaged users who are advocates for their products

This meets the core principles of Web 2.0 / community marketing / engagement marketing (or whatever you want to call it today) - listen to your customers, find out what they want, and then give it to them; and let them feel like they are part of the process, so they will love your brand.

Silicon Valley Insider have some good coverage of the lay offs and different Tweets, and there’s a blog post by soon-to-depart CEO Jerry Lang, as well as a leaked copy of Yahoo’s instructions to managers (here too - a script) – some of whom laid off their teams, and were then laid off themselves.

I’ve not seen coverage of cuts in Europe, yet.

This follows the sale of Kelkoo and, of course, Yahoo’s decision to not sell to Microsoft – a decision some of the comments attack. Many say they feel managers are avoiding the cuts, keeping their “pet” employees, and some of the best engineering talent is being axed. Delicious' product team were apparently amongst those to go.

Stationing recruiters outside companies who are making talented people jobless isn’t a new idea, but several start-ups have done this to Yahoo (including offering free tacos - ToxBox) - and others are using Twitter in the same way to recruit.

So, if you're making redundancies, don't expect to keep staff sentiment behind closed doors in the 21st century. if you are a recruitment agency - Twitter!

Lay-offs are never easy to see - good luck to all the Y! folks looking for work, and let's hope some kick-arse start-ups are spawned as a result.

Latest Yahoo Twitter content.

Yahoo bought Kelkoo back in 2004 and kept the site as a standalone destination and integrated it into Yahoo search results, too. Over time the quality of search interface and results declined in my opinion - I was once a loyal user (and, full disclosure, almost went to work there earlier this decade). A sale has been rrumoured before.

According to the coverage (PC Magazine, Wikio Blog) there is discontent at Kelkoo about how Yahoo have managed the company and the Yahoo share price, and this seems viewed as a welcome opportunity to strike out again on their own.

Interesting timing as Jerry Yang steps down as Yahoo CEO.

Friday afternoon speculation: Could Yahoo pull out of search altogether in Europe, and outsource SERPs to MSN or Google for a share of paid search revenue, allowing Yahoo to focus their search efforts on the US and cut their European head count and costs?

The Yahoo saga continues and I have to ask: what is their European strategy going forward?

Hat tip to OLS for finding this story. Merci!

Here's the email they are sendng their user base:

Hello,

This is an interesting example of creating an event using Twitter, providing an alternative platform too (the site mentioned above) and using a traditional marketing event approach (delivered via non-traditional Twitter) to entice new customers and boost sales.

It's well established that other media drive consumers to search and there is a growing body of research that shows search results have an effect on brand perception. This is, of course, a double-edged sword: it can help a brand when search results are positive, and hurt if the results are negative. What is a brand to do? I'll be discussing the reputation challenges marketers face online and some search-based solutions they can adopt to protect their brand at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago on December 11th. Please stop by and participate if you happen to be in the windy city next month.