Information Overload - Ecommerce

I came across this study on information overload recently and wanted to highlight a few points from it.

SOLVING THE INFORMATION OVERLOAD PROBLEM: THE
ROLE OF UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHT IN ENHANCING ONLINE
PURCHASING DECISIONS

"This assumption implies that people who have made a good decision often experience a high level of satisfaction during and after the process. Thus, in this study it is reasonable for us to use satisfaction with the decision as our measure of decision quality."

"H1: When one is dealing with rich information, using unconscious thought results in better decision quality than using conscious thought."

"H2: When one is dealing with rich information, an increase in the total quality of the information leads to an increase in the quality of the decision."

"H3: When one is dealing with rich information, an increase of the quantity of the information results in a decrease in the quality of the decision."

"When the information supply exceeds the information processing capacity, an individual usually has difficulty in identifying the relevant information, becomes highly selective, ignores much of the information, and fails to reach a satisfying decision."

"H4b: When one is dealing with rich information using unconscious thought, the greater the quantity of information, the higher the quality of the decision."

Worth Reading - Burn The Ships and Hail Mary’s…

Just read this great blog post.

Burn The Ships and Hail Mary’s…


"Unless you’ve got the basics of food and shelter sorted and a break from the relentless calls of the credit card companies that gave you the easy credit in the first place…
You’re not in any state, to start a business."

SEO and its Hats.

Read two great post today on the effectiveness of White/Grey/Black hat SEO and what really does or doesn't work.

White Hat SEO is a Joke by Kris Roadruck
White Hat SEO: It F-ing Works by Rand Fishkin

Both have great points, but I think the best point was made in the comments of Rand's post by Ross Hudgens.

• I think it's important to not justify white hat SEO techniques (building really great content then spreading it), as white hat alone - often times - no, always - the most effective SEO in the world is extremely strong content and links that effectively "covers up" the grey hat techniques that large brands use to pick up exact anchor text citations. JCPenney didn't do this effectively - others, in verticals where links come in droves - it seems intelligent - and indescrinable - for them to blend in grey techniques, as it it extremely difficult to be picked up by a sniff test - and it is also the best way to pick up exact anchor citations. 

It may look white hat, but at the end of the day, all SEO is intended to boost/improve the rankings within the SERPs.  Whether or not its white or grey hat is just a matter of how the SEO technique is percieved.

Black Hat however, is another story and is outright deceptive and spammy and should be avoided.