The Bobbler

Pollbob Joins the QuestionPro Family

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 08:21:00 -0500

We are excited to announce that Pollbob has been acquired by QuestionPro, a Seattle, WA-based company. QuestionPro is the leading provider in web-based survey solutions. They are a great fit for Pollbob! Moving forward, the Pollbob team will continue working with QuestionPro to build new and exciting things!

Like Pollbob.com, QuestionPro is focused on making it simpler than ever for consumers to express their opinion and to find out what people think on the go. They have over 2.5 million clients across 40 countries using their online survey software that allows users to create, publish, and distribute online surveys and analyze the results. Founded in 2002, QuestionPro software includes not only an intuitive set of tools for creation, distribution, and analysis of surveys, but also for polling, tablet and mobile research apps, and data visualization. For over ten years, QuestionPro has provided reliable technology to Fortune 100 companies, academic institutions, small businesses, and individual researchers.

This business has been our life for the last 2+ years. It’s been a great ride so far. We would like to thank our community and all of our customers, employees, mentors, friends and family that helped us get where we are today. We look forward to new and improved things for Pollbob in the months ahead!

Thanks,

Ben and Zach

Would E.T Still Phone Home?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:21:35 -0600

It’s no question that cell phone usage has exploded over the past 20 years leaving one Pollbob user wondering if home phones are a thing of the past. That curious user, and winner of this week’s contest, Matt A., asked his fellow bobblers “Do you still have a home phone?” The results showed that 61% of people still have a land line, while only 39% do not. It seems pretty amazing that 39% of people no longer have land lines, when just 20 years ago, land lines were pretty much the only way to make phone calls. The thought of no cell phones really gives us respect for previous generations and their ability to meet up, get in touch with, and make plans with friends and family. The thought of no cell phones also saddens us to think about all of those cell phoneless people having to live without the joy of Pollbob in their pocket. Until next time…

Michael Jackson Outdoes Madonna

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:06:07 -0600

We have heard a lot of chatter about last Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime performance by Madonna. And most of it seems to conclude that the performance was pretty average. In case you were wondering exactly how the percentages broke down, Julian J. was nice enough to ask this week’s winning question “What did you think of the Super Bowl halftime show?” As for the results, 32% of bobblers did not watch the Super Bowl halftime show. The second most popular choice with 22% of the votes was “It was OK” while only 8% chose “It was amazing.” But don’t fret Madonna fans. Her average performance seems to fall in line with most Super Bowl halftime shows. And while we are not sure exactly what qualifies for a great Super Bowl halftime show, our diligent research leads us to believe that no one has come close to competing with Michael Jackson’s performance at the 1993 Super Bowl.

Spanking Children OK?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:18:59 -0600

According to Wikipedia, spanking is “the act of striking the buttocks of another person to cause temporary pain without producing physical injury.” Whatever the exact definition, many people disagree over whether it is actually OK to spank children. Civilization has come a long way, but believe it or not, spanking was widely accepted and widespread for thousands of years up until just 1946, when Dr. Spock wrote the book “Baby and Child Care” which advocated for treating children as individuals. And while 30 countries around the world have since outlawed spanking, it is still legal in all 50 US states. It should be noted, however, that California and Massachusetts proposed spanking bans in the past, but in both instances the motions were heavily defeated. So what do Pollbob users think? Matt A. asked this week’s winning poll “Is spanking children OK?” 54% responded “Yes, kids need a good spanking,” while 30% said “It’s abuse,” and 16% said “No, poor kids.”

Whether you believe spanking is an OK punishment or not, we know three Pollbob users who are not deserving of a spanking for their performance on Pollbob last month. The three top voters of last month were Matt A. with 4215 votes, Random G. with 3710 votes, and Amanda F. with 3409 votes. Congrats to all that won and to everyone else, thanks for coming out.

Baby Got Bump

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:42:59 -0600

From Beyonce to Natalie Portman to Tina Fey, celebrities across the country have been catching baby fever. And although we are pretty certain that celebrities have been getting pregnant ever since there was such thing as a celebrity, this week’s winning bobbler wanted to find out if all this pregnancy has created a “fashion epidemic.”

Sunflower L. asked this week’s winning poll: “Is pregnancy becoming a fashion epidemic?” The results revealed that 42% of Pollbob users believe that pregnancy is in fact becoming a fashion epidemic. This seems like a pretty large percentage to us. Hopefully it’s not the cause of too much concern. Perhaps movies like “Juno” and TV shows like “16 and Pregnant” have attributed to the mainstreamatization (if that’s even a word) of the baby bump. Whatever the case may be, hopefully woman think before they act and are not just doing it for the intrinsic fashion value.

Congrats again to Sunflower L. and don’t forget there is just one day left in the monthly contest. Make those last minute votes count. Until next week…

Pollbob to Save the US Economy

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:37:14 -0600

It’s no surprise that the US economy has been struggling ever since the financial crisis came to a head back in August 2008. However, it still remains a surprise as to when the economy will be back in good health. There are many different predictions out there, but none of them seem too certain as to what the future holds. This week’s winning poll asked Pollbob users “How would you rate the economic conditions in the USA today?” And if the results are any sign of the times, things are not looking great, but could certainly be worse. An overwhelming 50% of users voted “somewhat poor”, while 28% voted very poor, and 22% said somewhat good. However, 0% of people rated the economic conditions as very good. Rumor on the street is that polling on Pollbob can single handedly reverse this negative trend, although nothing has been scientifically proven to date. Congrats to Carl L. (username Carl) for creating this week’s winning poll.

Tebowmania Hits Pollbob

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:22:21 -0600

Fittingly, or maybe not so fittingly (after Saturday night’s game), the top poll of this past week asked the age old question “Do you like Tim Tebow?” Surprisingly, 32% of users did not know who Tebow was, which given all the recent hysteria, makes us wonder if these users are spending too much time on Pollbob and not enough time in front of the TV. Anyhow, a solid 43% of you said that you like Tim Tebow compared to just 25% who said they do not like him. We can only wonder how people’s opinions might change after Saturday night’s crushing loss. We will continue monitor the results to this poll over the next week and let you know if we notice any drastic opinion swings. In the meantime, congrats to Kevin J. (username Kevin) for creating this week’s winning poll.

Chopsticks: The Honorable Utensil

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:39:22 -0600

Confucius once said “The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table.” We don’t even want to begin to get into the first part of his quote, but the second sentence is said to refer to Confucius’ belief that chopsticks are more acceptable than knifes when it comes to eating. Chopsticks supposedly have many benefits over the fork and knife, including forcing you to slow down, eat deliberately, and take smaller mouthfuls of food, resting in between bites, and giving your stomach time to tell your brain that it is getting full. Although these benefits may exist, the winning poll this week “Do you know how to use chopsticks?” revealed that only 50% of users actually know how to use chopsticks. We are not sure why this number is so low, but assume that the invention of the fork has really given the chopstick a run for its money. Maybe the fork can learn a thing or two from the chopstick. Nevertheless, congrats to J Y (bob) for creating this week’s winning poll.

And good luck to all you bobble heads in this coming week’s poll contest.

New year's resolution suggestion: More Pollbob!

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:46:01 -0600

Welcome back and happy New Year! It seems like just yesterday that we were launching our beta and welcoming our first users to the wonderful world of Pollbob. Less than a year since then, we never expected our user base to grow so quickly, and to have already witnessed over half a million opinions shared. During the coming year, we plan to expand on what you’ve told us you like, and add some things that will take your Pollbob experience to new heights.

The weekly poll winner is Jay Brown (bugbrownjay). He won with the poll “In what decade do you think the best music was written?” The 1970’s received the most votes with 30 percent. The decade with the next highest percent of the votes was the 2000’s with 28 percent. The 1990’s of all decades received the least amount of appreciation with a measly 10 percent. Congrats to Jay for closing out the year with the win!

Now on to the top voters for the month of December, the third place finisher was Matt Southworth (Matt_in_the_hat) with 2,082 votes. Next was J S (CrazyJS) with 2,994. The top voter of the the month was J Y (bob) with an impressive 3,495 votes! You guys killed it this month!

All the best to everyone in 2012!

Marriage: What's the Rush?

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:48:07 -0600

Our winning poll for the week was “At what age do you think it’s appropriate to get married?” Most of us were in agreement that the mid-late twenties is appropriate. The top two responses were 22-25 (43 percent) and 26-30 (39 percent). Everybody knows at least one couple that was ready to take the plunge earlier than the rest of us, but for most it appears waiting until after college and being several years into the real world is the right time. Newsweek reported that your chances of divorce go down every year you wait so the longer you “hold out” the better off you may be. Congrats to our winner Janne Clod for creating the poll.

Quick reminder that our monthly voting contest ends on the 31st.

Thanks for a great year! See you in 2012!

To be gay or not to be gay...is that a question?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:44:00 -0600

Our top poll this week was “Is it a choice to be homosexual?” 53 percent of all the bobblers who answered said no. The remaining 47 percent said yes. This topic can be a strongly emotional one for lots of people on both sides.

So here’s what we pulled from the American Academy of Pediatrics: “No simple, single cause for sexual orientation has been conclusively demonstrated, but research suggests that it is by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences, with biological factors involving a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment.” It seems the jury is still out due to the complex factors that determine one’s sexuality, but so far studies are pointing toward an explanation other than free will.

The poll creator and winner this week was Ed Liebeno (Ugleking).

Bieber Fatigue

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:13:33 -0600

KatelynNicole won our weekly polling contest this week with the poll, “Do you like Justin Bieber?” And we’ve got some bad news for the teen pop star, he’s not winning any popularity contests with our users. The breakdown of responses was 79 percent anti- to 21 percent for-the Biebs. We may not all like him, but there’s no denying the guy can sell records…movies, collectibles, toothbrushes, hairstyles…anything. The thing about teen pop stars is they usually rise and fall pretty fast. To that 21 percent of you with Bieber fever, we say enjoy it while it lasts. To the rest of you, give it a couple years and we’ll be able to forget Bieber ever happened.

Can a Poll Make You Hungry? This One Might.

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:47:55 -0600

No celebration is complete without a cake. Choosing to have one is pretty much a no brainer, but deciding on a flavor, that’s a serious dilemma. This week’s question asked out of chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and marble, “Which is your favorite cake flavor?” Chocolate was the most popular response (46 percent). We’re a little disappointed that the funfetti got left out. We feel for those of you who can’t eat cake for health reasons or who haven’t acquired a taste for this important part of a happy eaters diet. Congrats to CrazyJS for creating the winner this week.

With the start of the month of December, it’s also time to announce November’s top voters. The top two out of the three are established pillars of the community, but the third place voter is a relatively unknown bobbler who joined up early last month. Biancaca’s 1,991 votes was enough for the third place finish, and a strong showing for a newcomer. Our second place voter was Creamsoda with 2,543. Welcome back to the winners circle, CreamSoda. Our first place winner for November was CrazyJS with 2,700. Looks like it’s Christmas come early for you. Nice going!

Good luck to all of you during December!

Shake off that Food Coma...It’s Monday

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:54:11 -0600

Over the past week, we’ve reflected on all of the things happening at Pollbob that we’re grateful for so far in this, our first year. The one at the top of our list is YOU! You may not realize it when you log on for 30 seconds and take 10 polls, but even in that short time you are sharing a part of yourself with other people and leaving your mark on Pollbob.

We have some great news for one of you! Grace H. (vball107) topped the polling contest for the second week in a row. Her thanksgiving themed poll was “What do you do with that full belly of food after Thanksgiving dinner?” No surprises here, the top response was “Lean back… And fall asleep”.

Happy Cyber Monday!

Feel The Flow

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:57:40 -0600

Well, for the second week in a row we’re back in your bedroom thanks to the large number of people who responded to Grace H.’s (vball107) poll “Do you sleep with your bedroom door open?” Looks like without even trying most of you are practicing the ancient art of Feng shui (60 percent responded - no, closed tight). According to feng shui, keeping the door (actually all doors in your bedroom) closed at night creates a nourishing flow of energy that strengthens your health. We wish more healthy activities required as little effort as this one. Too bad there isn’t anything in the Feng shui playbook to help us deal with the extra poundage we expect to put on from Thanksgiving dinner this week.

Also, we are putting a slight twist on this week’s contest. The winning poll not only needs to get the most votes in order to win, but it also must be related to Thanksgiving to qualify.

Have a safe and happy holiday! And Happy Turkey Day Polling!

What you don’t know about sleeping with a fan could kill you

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:38:00 -0600

Fun factoid: the top result for the google search “sleeping with the fan at night” is a wikipedia file called fan death. It’s a surprisingly long entry, but here’s the gist, people in South Korea (only the South) fear sleeping in the same room as a running fan. That’s right. And apparently this is a widely held belief in South Korea that has been supported by a South Korean consumer safety organization. Don’t worry though, this obscure myth doesn’t appear to be based on any scientific evidence so the 43 percent of you who answered yes to this week’s poll “Do you sleep with the fan on at night?” should have nothing to worry about, we think. Each of the explanations for how the fan kills have been debunked and appear in the wikipedia entry.

Congrats to this week’s contest winner Rachel Barr (RachJac99) for creating this poll. Good luck sleeping with the fan on tonight.

Bet You Can't Eat Just One

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:52:04 -0600

The winning poll of the week tapped into one of our most basic primal motivations: chowing down. This was the first poll from the food category to win our top poll of the week. Congratulations to Raven Claw (bowtiesarecool) for creating “What is your favorite type of chip?” Give yourself a big Pollbob pat on the back for being a pollster innovator. Having polls from a variety of categories keeps things interesting on Pollbob.

For the third month in a row, we had a highly competitive voting contest. Over ten users surpassed the one thousand vote mark in October. We wish we could give away prizes to all of you. The third place winner was Rosalina Rosa with 2,313 votes; second place was Cream Soda with 3,314 votes; our top finisher with 4,129 votes was Ari Sharrar. Congrats to our winners!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:43:05 -0500

All of us (excluding our non-human users from Nibiru) have had to deal with the anticipation of a positive or negative event at some point in our lives. Learning how to cope with these situations is an important part of growing up. This week’s winning poll, created by CommonSense (Josh K.) “What do you do when you get nervous?” gave us a chance to compare our quirky nervous ticks with each others. The responses were spread relatively even among the possible responses. It was interesting to see 17 percent of responders are creating polls when they get nervous. We want to let you know that Pollbob will always be here to help you ease the tension.

Today is the last day of October which means next Monday we’ll have some prizes to give away to the top voters of the month. As it stands, the three top voters are so far out in the lead that we doubt anyone will catch up, but you never know, maybe someone will get hopped up on candy tonight and go on a voting spree! Use the final hours of October wisely.

Happy Halloween!

Pollbob User Is On a Roll

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:13:57 -0500

The digital age has transformed practically every aspect of our lives. It’s widely understood that the printed word, newspapers in particular, are one of the biggest losers. We’ve all been hearing this for some time. It was no surprise then that this week’s poll found newspapers most likely to die first out of a handful of core communications tools and one company. The next in line marked for death by Pollbob users may surprise you though. Today, this company is being valued well north of $50 billion, and boasts a user base thousands of times larger than its next closest social media rival. Yes, Facebook was found to be the next to die out in the poll “Which will die out first?” created by Silencer2134 (Julian J.).

It appears all of the negative chatter about this iconic bobbler couldn’t keep him down last week. Silencer2134 took home the brand new iPhone 4S 16GB, courtesy of myPhoneMD. This is the second week in a row he’s won our top poll contest. We’re not sure how Julian is doing it, but we would suggest the rest of you spend less time on the personal attack war path and more time showing him up in the standings. Nothing says I own you like pointing to the numbers on the scoreboard.

Thanks again to myPhoneMD for providing some serious hardware for this contest. Prepare for the unexpected by saving the information for their Smart Device Trauma Center nearest you by visiting them at myphonemd.net/locations/

Win a Brand New iPhone 4S 16GB

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:36:00 -0500

It was only a matter of time before Pollbob user Silencer2134 (Julian J.) won a prize. He is consistently a top performer in every category on Pollbob and just last week reached an unprecedented milestone with the creation of his 500th poll! Chances are you’ve taken one of his poll and/or seen him banter with other users in a poll comments box.

Silencer2134’s winning poll was “Is it their own fault that people are poor?” A majority of those responding said, “Sometimes.” We’ll take that as a sign that the Pollbob community is a fairly reasonable bunch. We should all do whatever we can to promote a more balanced playing field. One way for you to do that this week is to let us help you share a new White iPhone 4S 16GB with a friend not fortunate enough to have one.

We are happy to announce that for our upcoming weekly contest (rules) we’ve teamed up with the one and only myPhoneMD to offer you a brand new White iPhone 4S 16GB! myPhoneMD specializes in smart device repair and accessories, but they’re really experts at calming people down when they bust their high-tech gadgets. Whether you fumble it, soak it, drop it, crack it, throw it, crush it or just plain ol’ destroy it, they can save your iPhone, Blackberry, Android, iPad, Tablet and other devices 99 times out of 100. Put it this way, if they can’t fix your device you should be given a medal—because that almost never, ever happens.

Find the closest myPhoneMD’s Smart Device Trauma Center by visiting myphonemd.net/locations/