Did you know that Googling an image, right clicking on it and saving it to your desktop does not give you the right to use it on your website?  If the image is copyrighted and you do not have the rights, you can be fined thousands of dollars (per image) and forced to remove the image from your website immediately.

There are lots of sites where you can purchase the rights to use royalty-free stock images.  iStockphoto.com and fotolia.com are two that we frequently use when sourcing images for website projects.

Credits can be purchased in bulk or on a pay-as-you-go basis.  You then use the credits to purchase the images.  The variety of stock images is immense and chances are you will find the image you are looking for.

It is easy to sign up for an account, purchase the credits and cash them in for the photos.  Cover your tail and use images that you have the rights to use on your website.

I’ve been a coffee drinker for over 15 years.  I have ranged from casual consumer to caffine addicted, and will drink it any way from black to muddy.  When I am out and about, Tim Horton’s has filled my need, but I’m afraid that’s changing.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed a shift in the corporate culture and service levels at Timmies?  Just to make sure you don’t write me off as a whiner, let me be clear I’m not worried about a mistaken order here and there.  That’s a natural part of doing business.  And I’m not picking on any specific employee or franchise location, though we all know some are better than others.  I’m talking about corporate-wide changes that are not headed in a good direction.

20-Minute Kick-Out

I’ve never seen anyone be asked to leave a Tim Horton’s for loitering, but I’ve seen signs in several places suggesting that you  may only occupy a chair for 20 minutes.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting to bring a sleeping bag and stay the night, but 20 minutes seems quite draconian.  I frequently use Tim Horton’s as a location to meet friends and socialize before or after other events.  If you don’t want us doing that, Mr Horton, I’m sure we can find a competitive coffee joint that does.

Gooey Fingers

Though I most often go to Tim Horton’s for the coffee, I often find that something sweet to eat would hit the spot.  And the quality and consistency of such treats at Tim’s has always been high.  But who’s hair-brained idea was it ti stop supplying napkins?  From glaze to powdered sugar to maple icing, there’s a good chance I’m gonna have gooey fingers.  I’m sure that you can make a business case for all the money that’s saved by reducing consumables, but where will that leave you if each napkin-less finger-licker decides to satiate their sweet-tooth elsewhere?  Also in the consumables department are the little wax paper inserts that keep the donut from sticking to the paper bag.  Great idea, but where have they gone?

It’s All About the Cup

Lots of us drink our coffee on the go and while in transit.  Check out the number of cup holders available on modern vehicles to back up this claim.  I don’t think it would take much market research to find that Tim Horton’s is behind nearly everyone in supporting coffee drinkers on the move.  No insulation sleeve means the cup is often too hold to hold easily, which sucks when you’re on the bus.  Heck, the sleeves even exist in the United States, so why not here, the home of Tim himself.

Almost every other take-out place that I have visited has a better lid design; slightly raised to combat splashing and spilling, and an opening that avoids tearing off, stays open and stays shut.  How can this oversight exist in a company who’s flagship product is a hot beverage?

Dear Tim Horton’s – Please Suck Less

I have been a loyal customer for over 15 years.  I like your products, your brand, your community involvement.  However, each of the aforementioned customer service gaffs add up to make me wonder if you want me as a customer any more.  I hear McDonalds brews a decent cup!

I am not sure why, but it makes sense to other people that if your baseball/football/squash team wins the world series or whatever, the next course of action is to cause a massive riot in that team’s home town. Such happened when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series this past week. (Sorry for the spoiler if you didn’t know).
What made this rioting different is that thanks to smart phones it was broadcast in real time into the social media world.
I’ve seen Tweets and photos come out of riots before, as in the Toronto G20 ones this past summer, but what made the SF ones more involved is that the different rioting areas were marked as check-in points on FourSquare.

Photo via intomobile.com

People in or around the riots were actually checking in with smart phones. There were also live broadcasts on uStream.com from smart phones and you could follow it on Twitter using the hash tag #sfriot. You can also see uploaded photos from people around the riots, some found on Mashable.com

So this is the future of public demonstrations, where riots can be checked into. I personally think this is funny, because if the police wanted to question people about the riot, it used to be hard to find them after they scattered. Now they just need to log into FourSquare and see who checked in. This is not at all a bash against 4Square, which I use and have fun with. As with all social media, whatever you broadcast, make sure you want the world to see it.