Tortus September Newsletter

September 17, 2008

What is the best selling toy ever?

The Rubik cube! A brightly colored twisting and turning piece of plastic that has surprisingly become a universal phenomenon. Did you know that during any given week there is a Rubik tournament somewhere in the world? (Regulated by the World Cube Association, of course.)

The surge in popularity is due in part to countless blogs and forums where players discuss detailed algorithms and strategies; as well as over 26,000 YouTube videos available for those of us not fortunate enough to attend live events. Here we can watch current world record holder Erik Akkersdijk solve the cube at the Czech Open in 7.08 seconds or join over 5 million viewers who have watched a 3-year old from China solve a Rubik cube in under 2 minutes - from the comfort of her high chair.

The Rubik cube is not the only nostalgic game that has found a new global audience. Scrabulous, an online adaptation of Scrabble, has quickly become the most popular game on Facebook.com. In fact, the application was even named as one of PC World's 100 best products of 2008. Scrabulous features a carefree style of playing, where matches can sprawl out over days as players check in at convenient times, make a move and then return to work. As with most forms of popular technology, Scrabulous empowers the user to participate whenever and wherever they choose.

The loyalty of Scrabulous' 450,000 daily players was recently challenged when the application was pulled from Facebook amid copyright infringement allegations. Instantaneously, digital protests were started around the world. More than 55,000 people joined the initial "Save Scrabulous" Facebook group, while 500 similar groups, such as "Give us Scrabulous or give us death!" popped up soon after. Who would have guessed that Grandma's favorite past time would strike such a resounding chord with the youth of the World? In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a backlash of this magnitude since the series finale of the Sopranos.

Let's be honest. Tortus can't take credit for the Rubik cube or Scrabulous phenomenon, but we do create websites that have the same timeless effect. Our philosophy is to arm every client with a tool that they can use not only to grow their business, but also to sustain it as more and more people seek out a new lifestyle on the web. Contact Tortus today to get started on your web strategy!

Tortus Talk

Tortus Technologies Welcomes Jenna Foran as Account Manager

Tortus is pleased to announce that Jenna Foran has joined the company as an Account Manager. Jenna brings experience in sales, marketing and account management. She received a B.A. from Smith College in Northampton, MA. Jenna spent the last 4 years at Incisive Media in Hartford, CT, managing and maintaining accounts in the legal market. Jenna will be covering Eastern Connecticut and can be reached at jforan@tortus.com or 413-788-5080 ext. 242.

Upcoming Seminar

Marketing Your Business Online for the 4th Quarter

Wednesday. September 24th, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Prepare your web strategy for the highly anticipated holiday season. We'll discuss pay-per-click advertising, organic search engine results, promotional email campaigns and more! Did you know that Lawyers are currently paying over $150 per click for a certain search term? Guess what it is!