The Trade of the Tools
By Amit Asaravala, Editor in Chief
When a friend recently abandoned his long-standing distaste for cellular phones and began shopping around for service plans, I began championing the PCS phone that I've owned for almost two years. It's not that I'm a guru of mobile phones and their related calling plans, but I suddenly found myself pitching my phone's features as if they were options on a new car. He was buying, I was selling, and that's really all that mattered. In the end, my friend purchased the exact same phone and the exact same plan that I have.
The phone incident doesn't mark the first time I've been a successful evangelist. Whenever someone asks about hosting companies, I'm quick to refer the one I always turn to when in need of server space. And somewhere in the world, a fellow traveler whom I met in Scotland is scrawling away on the Palm Pilot that he "just had to have" after first seeing mine. It's too bad companies don't pay for word-of-mouth advertising.
I know I'm not alone in wanting to help others make the "right" decisions. We all know people who are excited about their latest purchases and encourage us to follow suit. It only makes sense that we base so many of our decisions on referrals. You're more likely to buy a product that a friend recommends because you know you can trust it. And you're likely to recommend a product to other friends because every additional sell validates your initial decision to buy.
Second Chances
In addition to recommending and validating a number of prominent Web design and development tools, this month's issue is about contradiction and illumination.
