I was very excited to not just attend but be a part of Google I/O 2009, Google’s annual developer conference. A Best Buy contingent of Steve Bendt, Gary Koelling and myself as well as uber developers Curtis Thompson and Thomas Bombach made the trip and were part of the Developer Sandbox.

I/O’s Key Points

The keynotes (day 1, day 2) were both great heralding Google’s confidence in the web browser centric future (woo hoo!) powered by what is possible in HTML5, open communications and collaboration systems like the introduction Google Wave and the cloud based power plant that is Google App Engine… among so much more. The whole time they hit hard their belief that developers outside their company, like the ones in the room, are the only way all this becomes possible. They left us inspired for where the web is going and future open architectures we can share versus build ourselves allowing the user, be it the end user or developer, the portability they need… great to see that becoming a reality.

Best Buy and App Engine

Best Buy was asked to come speak about App Engine and our point of view, that we have shared many times, that it projects a strong model for the future of web development that allows the creativity of a web developer to shine through and takes huge infrastructure and scalability best practices from Google and gives them to you on a sliver platter… no pagers to carry and drastically less system set-up and runtime headaches… growing into a true platform as a service not just boxes in the cloud. The Google crew shot a few videos of us, we’ll see what was smart enough to stay off the cutting room floor!

We talked to many in the Developer Sandbox, answering the question “Best Buy? Like you mean the retailer?” more times than I could count
but once we got through that relayed the message that we are out there, experimenting, trying, showing our company what is becoming possible on the web via new methods of getting things done, notably App Engine and open APIs like our own Best Buy Remix. It’s a great time to experiment even… no especially at a large company that can easily slow down as I’ve said here before…

Google App Engine and Open APIs clearly show where the web is going, the playing field is leveled… get out there and deploy those ideas you say you have scrawled on those napkins that you say are going to revolutionize the world, the tools you need to prove it are out there right now.

…these movements only further speed up rapid evolution on the web, jump in now with two feet because it’s not slowing down any time soon. Experimenting out in front is the key no matter your size.
-Ben

Julio Ojeda-Zapata technology writer and columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and author of twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company wrote a nice piece today in the Sunday Pioneer Press titled “To twit or not?” [Update: PDFs here] about three Minnesota companies finding some success on Twitter excited to see one of them was Best Buy.

Julio captures well a few of our early efforts namely @BestBuyTulsa221 and other folks in our stores Tweeting to help customers, @jbweb using Twitter to find others in the company passionate about projects she is working on crossing existing hierarchies effortlessly and @BestBuyCMO shows the power of open thinking and openness to feedback all the way at the top. Really exciting stuff, and I love the sub headline “Best Buy: I Spy Twitter” couldn’t be more perfect!

I am personally excited Julio specifically calls out the ideas behind my work on the application ‘spy’ (more on why I created ‘spy’ here) and how we used it to display Best Buy buzz on in the “Hub” of our headquarters, exposing everyone to the Social Media conversation and it’s relevance to our business. I believe, especially in economies like today’s, finding new ways to tune into the conversation around your company can only help you focus on the right things and solve customers problems more quickly.

Thanks to Julio and the Pioneer Press for great coverage of our early efforts hopefully there will be more fun to report as this whole space moves forward, I know I am not stopping here.

This may be a bit self promotional but capturing Julio’s ‘spy’ coverage here:

Ben Hedrington, a Web developer for the company’s BestBuy.com division, is such a Twitter fanatic that he created a new way to troll the twitterverse — along with other “social media” services such as FriendFeed and Flickr — via a built-from-scratch search engine he has christened “Spy” (spy.appspot.com).

Though fashioned in Hedrington’s spare time, Spy became an instant Best Buy hit. At one point, a big screen in Best Buy’s vast main lobby had Spy displaying the latest Best Buy-related buzz on Twitter. Spy has come in handy for Best Buy-related events, too. A screen behind the speakers is typically present, displaying a rolling series of event-specific tweets so staffers not physically present are able to chime in on discussions by using their Twitter accounts.

Even Barry Judge, Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, has Spy running in his office so he’ll know what is being said about his company on Twitter. Judge, a recent Twitter convert, said the service complements his blog and is a good way to gauge customer sentiment while speaking directly to his clientele in a way that feels genuine.

When Best Buy recently botched a phased rollout of a rewards-card program (meant to initially target 1,000 folks, it was e-mailed to about 7 million instead), Judge used his “BestBuyCMO” Twitter feed as well as his blog for mea culpas.

“Full transparency was helpful for maintaining trust,” Judge said. “Twitter gave me that visibility.”