AlphaGrip Makes Finals of Yahoo! Contest

[Mike W]

AlphaGrip was chosen by Yahoo! and Ivanka Trump as one of five
finalists (out of over 9,000 entries) in Yahoo!'s Ultimate Connection
Contest. Winning this contest could be big for us. Please go here,
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5,
to vote.

Thanks.

Mike

[Doug Sims]

Yeah, I checked that out. The one thats winning right now is the kids
crooked house thing, but the AG does seem to be in third. Is it the
top 3 of these five, or just one?
I don't care how much marketing you do, I ain't paying $600 dollars to
have a crooked house shipped to me. They do have a nice website
though.

I did vote for the Alphagrip, and told my wife to do the same at the house.

DougS

--
--Doug Sims

[Mike Willner]

Top 3 win, so we're in the running. Thanks for voting.

[Mike Willner]

FYI, you can vote once a day.

[ivanwfr]

You got my vote today but we all know you can't win against kids :-(

Please post a reminder everyday, just in case we forget...

-ivan

[Mike Willner]

Thanks. Will do.

-----Original Message-----
From: alph...@googlegroups.com [mailto:alph...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of ivanwfr
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:12 PM
To: alphagrip
Subject: [alphagrip] Re: AlphaGrip Makes Finals of Yahoo! Contest

[Daryl Stultz]

On Jun 14, 1:12 pm, ivanwfr <i...@club-internet.fr> wrote:
> You got my vote today but we all know you can't win against kids :-(

Really, 4 out of 5 are arguably geared towards kids.

[Avery Sawaba]

I've forward it to everyone I know that I've let play with the
AlphaGrip, so there should be 10-20 more votes for AG coming in!

--A

On Jun 14, 11:45 am, Mike W <M...@AlphaGrip.com> wrote:
> AlphaGrip was chosen by Yahoo! and Ivanka Trump as one of five
> finalists (out of over 9,000 entries) in Yahoo!'s Ultimate Connection

> Contest. Winning this contest could be big for us. Please go here,http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina...,
> to vote.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Mike

[Mike Willner]

That's great! Looks like we're in a 3-way race for 2nd right now.

-----Original Message-----
From: alph...@googlegroups.com [mailto:alph...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Avery Sawaba
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 2:11 PM
To: alphagrip
Subject: [alphagrip] Re: AlphaGrip Makes Finals of Yahoo! Contest

[Mike Willner]

The Candyman moved into first place yesterday after starting the day dead
last. I bet he's got his Oompa Loompas working overtime. We're only in 4th
place right now. Got to get into the top 3!!

Please vote today - here's the link:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5.

Thnx.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: alph...@googlegroups.com [mailto:alph...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of ivanwfr
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:12 PM
To: alphagrip
Subject: [alphagrip] Re: AlphaGrip Makes Finals of Yahoo! Contest

[ivanwfr]

Maybe you'll crunch the kids after all... But their candies are still
in the way!

* http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5

I did my share, now it's your turn

[ivanwfr]

Candies swallowed, keep on pushing...
* http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina...

[avery....@gmail.com]

Mike has taken a significant lead! 1st place! Lets keep it there!

--A

[Mike Willner]

This Group is great. Not only are you helping us design the next AlphaGrip,
but helping us get the resources to do it too!

Thank you!!

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: alph...@googlegroups.com [mailto:alph...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of avery....@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 10:56 AM
To: alphagrip

[Scott]

Excellent! Gap widening.

[ivanwfr]

Yeah, I know of some who must be happy!
...and some of all those they aren't (1/9000)

> > fina...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Mark]

I voted yesterday and was about vote with an extra yahoo account that
I keep. But we are steaming ahead as it is. Loved the Comment in the
video about NASA, budding astronauts we are!

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[seabrook]

I'm happy to see that you're in the lead. I'll continue to vote each
day. :)

Matt

On Jun 18, 1:05 pm, "Mike Willner" <m...@alphagrip.com> wrote:
> This Group is great. Not only are you helping us design the next AlphaGrip,
> but helping us get the resources to do it too!
>
> Thank you!!
>
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alph...@googlegroups.com [mailto:alph...@googlegroups.com] On
>

> Behalf Of avery.saw...@gmail.com

[Mike Willner]

Here's a copy of an email I sent out to people who I know don't mind seeing
a regular update:

AlphaGrip Getting Plastered by Crooked House Guy

Hello to all AlphaGrip friends and customers,

For your convenience, here's a link to the voting page:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5.

Crooked House Guy hammered the competition yesterday by surging into first
place erasing a 13 point deficit and taking a 5 point lead! AlphaGrip held
on to 2nd place, but clearly lost its Mo as Fairy Lady cut our lead from 15
points to 4 as she prepares to battle for 2nd. CandyMan, in 4th, narrowed
his deficit relative to AlphaGrip from 15 to 8, and Naughty Spot Moms, after
dropping to a deficit of 24, came back strong, cutting it in half to 12.

So what happened? Granted, Crooked House Guy has an attractive product and
a very nice video, but it can't hurt that he's first on the list and his
video starts playing automatically when you link to the contest page from
Yahoo's Search Marketing home page:
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/index.php. We believe Yahoo! recently
began driving traffic to the contest page by putting a large "ad" on that
main Search Marketing page, making placement on the Contest page more
important. This was an early concern of ours. When the contest first
began, we asked Yahoo! if they could rotate the order so all finalists would
have a shot at top billing, but Yahoo! said they couldn't due to technical
difficulties.

But no excuses, with your help we'll stay competitive. Please vote here:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5,
and ask your friends to do the same.

The current "scores" are:

Crooked House Guy 49
AlphaGrip 44
Fairy Lady 40
CandyMan 36
Naughty Spot Moms 32

Thanks for your support.

[Doug Sims]

Are the actual numbers only available to you? I have tried to look for
numbers instead of the vague graph they give.

As far as rotating the starting vid. I agree. Its a little confusing the
way it is laid out on the webpage. It also doesn't render correctly in
firefox from what I can tell. I get text and graphics out of alignment.
Technical limitations, my a$$, they just don't want to put any more time
into it. Another thing, who did the video editing/formatting and
uploading? The crooked houses guy has a much higher quality video than
the other ones as well, not just the alphagrip. It seems very biased
towards him to me.

Anyway, I voted again. I'll get my wife to do the same again.
Doug

--
--
This message created with an Alphagrip AG-5, 3D Keyboard & Trackball.
To learn more about the best device for comfortable computing visit:
http://www.alphagrips.com/

"Using a computer can be as comfortable as watching TV..."

[ivanwfr]

Another way to have people look at the right video is by a vote
through http://www.stumbleupon.com/

And if you are curious or just plain bored sometimes, you can always
click the Stumble toolbar button... I do that from time to time and I
can tell it works! - The web is full of surprises drawn among a lot of
crap but Stumble users help sort them out.

-ivan

On Jun 20, 4:38 pm, "Mike Willner" <m...@alphagrip.com> wrote:
> Here's a copy of an email I sent out to people who I know don't mind seeing
> a regular update:
>
> AlphaGrip Getting Plastered by Crooked House Guy
>
> Hello to all AlphaGrip friends and customers,
>

> For your convenience, here's a link to the voting page:http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina....

>
> Crooked House Guy hammered the competition yesterday by surging into first
> place erasing a 13 point deficit and taking a 5 point lead! AlphaGrip held
> on to 2nd place, but clearly lost its Mo as Fairy Lady cut our lead from 15
> points to 4 as she prepares to battle for 2nd. CandyMan, in 4th, narrowed
> his deficit relative to AlphaGrip from 15 to 8, and Naughty Spot Moms, after
> dropping to a deficit of 24, came back strong, cutting it in half to 12.
>
> So what happened? Granted, Crooked House Guy has an attractive product and
> a very nice video, but it can't hurt that he's first on the list and his
> video starts playing automatically when you link to the contest page from
> Yahoo's Search Marketing home page:http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/index.php. We believe Yahoo! recently
> began driving traffic to the contest page by putting a large "ad" on that
> main Search Marketing page, making placement on the Contest page more
> important. This was an early concern of ours. When the contest first
> began, we asked Yahoo! if they could rotate the order so all finalists would
> have a shot at top billing, but Yahoo! said they couldn't due to technical
> difficulties.
>

> But no excuses, with your help we'll stay competitive. Please vote here:http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina...,

> *http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina...- Hide quoted text -

[Mike Willner]

Thanks for voting. Our supports' votes may turn out to be the difference
between making it into the top three or not.

The "scores" I've been using are just relative numbers based on the width of
the boxes measured in pixels.

I noticed the Contest page was down for a several hours a few days ago,
which was about the time they said they would try to get the rotation going.
So, I think they really did try to implement a rotation, but had some
serious problems. I'm pretty sure Yahoo! hasn't done anything to
intentionally skew the results. Everyone I've dealt with there has been
very supportive. Stuff happens. Maybe they'll just let every finalist be a
winner, regardless of the voting results.

[Doug Sims]

I see. I was just wondering if you had some insider knowledge about all
this.
Doug

[Sausage]

Guys, if you are a member of various forums, post into the offtopic
sections to rally support from there.

[ivanwfr]

Good idea! - I've just done that here:
http://fingerfans.dreamhosters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3368#3368

There was a dedicated topic here already, from fans of FingerWorks
MuitlTouch users... You know those who made what's so cool with
Apple's iPhone. I have a TouchStream keyboard and the AG5 had just to
be part of the family.

-ivan

[Sausage]

I have the iGesture which I love. But I didn't have an account at
Fingerfans. Must do that sometime. Those guys will definately support
Alphagrip. Don't want another great invention to dissapear.

[Adrian Sanabria]

Crooked House has taken off! Current scores (relative, not a literal count):

Crooked House = 60
Candy Man = 24
Made in Heaven = 28
Moms on Edge = 28
Alphagrip = 34

Forget oompas, something "Crooked" is going on here...

--A

> http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/index.php .  We believe Yahoo! recently

[Mark]

Make note everybody, you can once per day. Hopefully Crooked House
voters aren't committed enough to come back... I am sure AlphaGripers
are!

On Jun 21, 1:24 pm, "Adrian Sanabria" <adrian.sanab...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Crooked House has taken off! Current scores (relative, not a literal count):
>
> Crooked House = 60
> Candy Man = 24
> Made in Heaven = 28
> Moms on Edge = 28
> Alphagrip = 34
>
> Forget oompas, something "Crooked" is going on here...
>
> --A
>

> >http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina...

> > .
>
> > > Crooked House Guy hammered the competition yesterday by surging into
> > first
> > > place erasing a 13 point deficit and taking a 5 point lead! AlphaGrip
> > held
> > > on to 2nd place, but clearly lost its Mo as Fairy Lady cut our lead from
> > 15
> > > points to 4 as she prepares to battle for 2nd. CandyMan, in 4th,
> > narrowed
> > > his deficit relative to AlphaGrip from 15 to 8, and Naughty Spot Moms,
> > after
> > > dropping to a deficit of 24, came back strong, cutting it in half to 12.
>
> > > So what happened? Granted, Crooked House Guy has an attractive product
> > and
> > > a very nice video, but it can't hurt that he's first on the list and his
> > > video starts playing automatically when you link to the contest page
> > from
> > > Yahoo's Search Marketing home page:

> > >http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/index.php. We believe Yahoo! recently

> > > began driving traffic to the contest page by putting a large "ad" on
> > that
> > > main Search Marketing page, making placement on the Contest page more
> > > important. This was an early concern of ours. When the contest first
> > > began, we asked Yahoo! if they could rotate the order so all finalists
> > would
> > > have a shot at top billing, but Yahoo! said they couldn't due to
> > technical
> > > difficulties.
>
> > > But no excuses, with your help we'll stay competitive. Please vote
> > here:
>

> >http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina...

> > "Using a computer can be as comfortable as watching TV..."- Hide quoted text -

[ivanwfr]

I hope FF guys will click for AlphaGrip for the sake of their belief
in what's worthy and what is, well, just another thing you forget
about a few weeks later...

And here is another page awaiting some of our clicks:
http://digg.com/search?section=news&s=AlphaGrip

-ivan

> > > sections to rally support from there.- Hide quoted text -

[Mike W]

Here's a Yahoo! Contest update I sent out this morning:

CandyMan Might!

Thanks to your support, we are hanging tough in 2nd place (top 3
win). Only three more days of voting here:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5.

AlphaGrip, still in 2nd place with 39 points, has maintained its 6
point lead over Fairy Lady, who is now floating alone in 3rd as
Naughty Spot Moms dropped a point to 32. CandyMan, however, stopped
his sugar crash at 28, climbing to 30 last night before slipping back
to 29 this morning. Crooked House Guy's high-rise peaked at 66. He's
now resting comfortably at 65.

Our main concern is the battle for 3rd. We don't want AlphaGrip to be
pulled down, relatively speaking, as CandyMan, Fairy Lady, and Naughty
Spot Moms fight for the votes they need to make it up to the winners
table.

Please click over to the Contest page for a quick AlphaGrip vote:

http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5,
and ask your friends to do the same.

The current "scores" are:

Crooked House 65
AlphaGrip 39
Fairy Lady 33
Naughty Spot Moms 32
CandyMan 29

Thank you for your continued support.

Mike

*******

Michael Willner, President
AlphaGrip, Inc.

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Mike W]

Here's the email I sent out today:

No Time Out for Fairy Lady

Hello to AlphaGrip friends and customers,

I can't quite bring myself to projecting AlphaGrip as the 2nd place
finisher, but it's looking very good. Remember, the top 3 place
finishers share the prizes. Please vote today just for the halibut:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5.

Fairy Lady flitted up a point to 34 yesterday morning to solidify her
3rd place spot while Naughty Spot Moms slipped to 31 to stay in 4th.
Crooked House dropped a point and AlphaGrip gained one to remain
comfortably in 1st and 2nd, respectively, with CandyMan in 5th.

This is the last day of the Contest! Halleluiah! Please click on
over to the Contest page to cast your final vote for AlphaGrip:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?finalist=5.

The current "scores" are:

Crooked House 64
AlphaGrip 40
Fairy Lady 34
Naughty Spot Moms 31
CandyMan 29

Thanks again for your support.

Mike

*******

Michael Willner, President
AlphaGrip, Inc.

[Mike W]

Here's the email I sent out today:

AlphaGrip One of Three Winners Thanks to Friends and Customers

Hello to All AlphaGrip Supporters,

It's official. We did it! You did it! Thank you, thank you, thank
you!!!

It was a roller coaster ride, but we held on tight, thanks to the
daily support from our wonderful friends and customers. Yahoo!
analyzed the voting records and said that we had by far the most
repeat voters. Great job!!

AlphaGrip made it to the winners table with a 2nd place finish and a
score of 40, along with the Crooked House Guy in 1st with 63 points,
and the Fairy Lady, who continued flying higher right up until the
last minute gaining 2 points on the final day to finish comfortably in
3rd with 36 points. FYI, Crooked House Guy got a boost from the
governor of Maine, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534589.htm,
and Fairy Lady found support from fans of her band, Voice Of The
Beehive (cut three albums and had a song that made it to #14 on the US
charts), and tourists to the Sawdust Festival, one of the top art
festivals in the country, where she has been plying her trade for
almost 10 years.

Hats off to Naughty Spot Moms (31) and CandyMan (29) for a valiant
effort!

The final "scores" are:

Crooked House 63
AlphaGrip 40
Fairy Lady 36

Naughty Spot Moms 31
CandyMan 29

Thanks again for your support. Now it's up to AlphaGrip to take full
advantage of this victory to help bring comfortable, productive, desk-
free computing to the World.

Gratefully yours,

Mike

*******
Michael Willner, President
AlphaGrip, Inc.

On Jun 24, 2:20 pm, Mike W <M...@AlphaGrip.com> wrote:
> Here's the email I sent out today:
>
> No Time Out for Fairy Lady
>
> Hello to AlphaGrip friends and customers,
>
> I can't quite bring myself to projecting AlphaGrip as the 2nd place
> finisher, but it's looking very good. Remember, the top 3 place

> finishers share the prizes. Please vote today just for the halibut:http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina....

>
> Fairy Lady flitted up a point to 34 yesterday morning to solidify her
> 3rd place spot while Naughty Spot Moms slipped to 31 to stay in 4th.
> Crooked House dropped a point and AlphaGrip gained one to remain
> comfortably in 1st and 2nd, respectively, with CandyMan in 5th.
>
> This is the last day of the Contest! Halleluiah! Please click on

> over to the Contest page to cast your final vote for AlphaGrip:http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/ultimateconnection/index.php?fina....

>
> The current "scores" are:
>
> Crooked House 64
> AlphaGrip 40
> Fairy Lady 34
> Naughty Spot Moms 31
> CandyMan 29
>
> Thanks again for your support.
>
> Mike
>
> *******
>
> Michael Willner, President
> AlphaGrip, Inc.
>
> On Jun 20, 6:22 pm, Sausage <saus...@zeta.org.au> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Guys, if you are a member of various forums, post into the offtopic

[Mike W]

Here's the post-luncheon email I sent to AlphaGrip supporters:

Hello to All AlphaGrip Supporters,

The Yahoo! Ultimate Connection Contest "power lunch" was a lot of
fun. We got to meet the other winners and their partners and I have
to admit they were all very nice. We found out that Fairy Lady's
brother-in-law was responsible for her late voting surge which pulled
her away from the Naughty Spot Moms for a solid 3rd place finish; he
contacted a number of publications which served her target audience -
fairy lovers I guess - and promised to place advertising with them if
they contacted their readers (over 20,000 strong) and asked them to
vote. His efforts paid off as Fairy Lady finished a solid 3rd.

With regard to the actual lunch, going up 60 feet strapped into a seat
connected to the lunch table hoisted by a crane was pretty tame
actually (fortunately so), but the view of the New York skyline was
awesome - at least when the smog lifted. The lunch was pretty simple;
deli sandwiches and potato salad. There was a decent amount of press
and we were on Entertainment Tonight and CNBC.

Even though Ivanka didn't go up in the table with us for lunch, my
partner, Scott, and I got to meet her and talk to her for a couple of
minutes. She was looking gorgeous! Here's a link to an article with
pictures from the event: http://searchengineland.com/070711-123101.php.
Yahoo! also had the winners' names and website URLs scroll across
Yahoo!'s neon sign in Times Square. Here's a link to some pics:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ivanka+yahoo.

Probably our best prize was getting Staples' Executive Vice President
of Marketing, Shira Goodman, assigned to us as our marketing mentor.
Though she did not attend the event, I'm looking forward to meeting
her and getting her advice on how to grow our business.

Thanks again for your votes.

Mike

*******
Michael Willner, President
AlphaGrip, Inc.

On Jun 25, 2:55 pm, Mike W <M...@AlphaGrip.com> wrote:
> Here's the email I sent out today:
>

> AlphaGrip One of Three Winners Thanks to Friends and Customers
>
> Hello to All AlphaGrip Supporters,
>
> It's official. We did it! You did it! Thank you, thank you, thank
> you!!!
>
> It was a roller coaster ride, but we held on tight, thanks to the
> daily support from our wonderful friends and customers. Yahoo!
> analyzed the voting records and said that we had by far the most
> repeat voters. Great job!!
>
> AlphaGrip made it to the winners table with a 2nd place finish and a
> score of 40, along with the Crooked House Guy in 1st with 63 points,
> and the Fairy Lady, who continued flying higher right up until the
> last minute gaining 2 points on the final day to finish comfortably in
> 3rd with 36 points. FYI, Crooked House Guy got a boost from the

> governor of Maine,http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534589.htm,

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -