hile at SXSW a few weeks ago, I got a chance to visit Google's "Playhouse" - an interactive area they had set up that featured some awesome food (gourmet tator tots and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) and prototypes of new projects (some sort of electric shoe!), including a guy walking around wearing Google Glasses.

As I've stated in earlier posts, I believe that the postal system is a less than awesome method of communication for financial institutions. I'd much rather receive an email with my monthly statement than kill a tree or two on a tome of paper that I'll glance at and throw in the trash.

Well, not now. You're about two weeks too late. But, if you were grappling with the tough decision to take 30 minutes out of your day and make one say, around Valentine's Day, then the answer should have been yes.

I recently went through some issues with my cable and internet service. There was an outage of over a week, and then through a billing mishap, I was charged double my monthly bill! Of course, I called and brought it to their attention, but the two customer service reps I spoke to didn't believe me. 

If you tuned into the Super Bowl this weekend (or as I like to call it: Beyoncé Presents: The Super Bowl) you were probably as shocked as everyone else when the lights in the stadium went out in the middle of the third quarter.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing Gabrielle de Papp, Vice President of Corporate Public Relations for Neiman Marcus, speak about emerging trends in her industry and how Neiman Marcus is working to connect with a new generation of shoppers.

Sometimes I feel as if branches were designed with the intent to confuse. When you walk in, you see several cubicles, offices and of course, the dreaded "rope line." Usually there are a few employees milling about who seem to have no specific purpose. TD Bank created a humorous series of videos that showcase the inefficiency of modern branches.

Retailer Anthropologie came under fire earlier this week for selling a candlestick that many deemed offensive. Several blogs and websites called for them to remove the candlestick from their site, and they did. However, their response when it came to addressing the issue on social media left a lot to be desired.

Since we have safely arrived to this new year (sans a Mayan apocalypse or Justin Biber becoming president) I feel obliged to tell you that if you are currently composing tweets like the one in the headline for your credit union's Twitter account, you should cease immediately.

Last month the website Forward Banker hosted a webinar about the decline of physical banking branches. During the interactive event, they received several comments from those watching. The first one, "If I didn't work at a bank, I would never visit a branch."