Monday, February 19, 2007
Xbox Meets Toll Basket
The other day I was pulling up to a tollbooth on I-294 in Chicago and the car in front of me ceremoniously dumped an Xbox into the toll basket. I wish I had taken a picture. In any event, I have no idea if this was supposed to be some kind of statement against Xboxes or Tollways but it was one of the stranger things I've seen in a while. In case you're wondering, I just threw my change into the basket with the game console. Who knows, maybe they were hiding evidence in plain site.
Web Ad Attack
This morning I clicked on a digg.com link to a story in Forbes about the best and worst selling cars of 2007. I was first met with a splash ad for Symantec which could not be skipped. I waited for it to finish and went on to the story where I was immediately met with a loud video for an investment advice book from Fischer Investments along with the requisite banner ads. In addition there was one of those annoying pop-ups for a Forbes survey that moved with me as I scrolled down the page.
This is a lousy user experience. I understand that Forbes.com needs to make money, but this is overboard. I didn't even read the story because I was so annoyed and I'll likely think twice about the next link I see to Forbes. Here's what I think:
This is a lousy user experience. I understand that Forbes.com needs to make money, but this is overboard. I didn't even read the story because I was so annoyed and I'll likely think twice about the next link I see to Forbes. Here's what I think:
- If you force people through a splash ad, let them skip it. Most of the time they won't find the "Skip Ad" link until they've seen most of the ad, so you don't lose much eye time. But at least give the option.
- No self-starting video ads. Present the ad, with the embedded video and let me click on it if I'm interested.
- Pop-up ads are bad enough, but one that follows you around like a hungry little yelping puppy is just amateurish. Just don't do pop-up ads.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Butts in Seats
As I trudged through several inches of snow and the bitter cold of a Chicago Winter this morning I started to think how ridiculous some companies are when it comes to working at home. I've worked for a lot of bosses who demanded "butts in seats" and a few who couldn't care less where the team was as long as they got the work done. Currently my job requires my butt in my seat in my cube at our headquarters.
The nature of my job is such that I can pretty much work from anywhere, whether it's my home, a Panera, an airport, wherever. If I can get an Internet connection I can be at work. So why am I taking two trains and walking two miles every day to get to work? Because someone above me is old school and doesn't trust people he can't see.
The good news is that these types will eventually retire.
The nature of my job is such that I can pretty much work from anywhere, whether it's my home, a Panera, an airport, wherever. If I can get an Internet connection I can be at work. So why am I taking two trains and walking two miles every day to get to work? Because someone above me is old school and doesn't trust people he can't see.
The good news is that these types will eventually retire.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Creating a Brandtastrophe
One of the divisions of the organization I work for decided to build their own prototype for their section of the Web site. They sent it to us (the Web team) and said this was what they wanted us to build them. We had already prototyped their section for them, staying of course, within our own Web site and branding standards. However they apparently felt that their level of "specialness" extended beyond our brand and therefore required a new, bastardization of our brand. What they sent us I can only refer to as, a "brandtastrophe."
Brandtastrophe: The bastardization of an organization's existing, established brand to suit the needs and preferences of a subgroup of an organization.
We've all seen this a thousand times, from the department that creates its own letterhead by smashing the organization's logo into a piece of Microsoft Word Wordart to the division that works with an outside contractor to develop a piece of collateral that has the organization's logo, but bears little resemblance to anything else from the organization. Perhaps it also has some myopic messages that were put together by the division's director during a brainstorming meeting but that no one else outside the division has ever even seen.
Brandtasrophes suck the life out of a brand and muddle the public's perceptions of it. At their worst, they effectively vandalize the organization.
Brandtastrophe: The bastardization of an organization's existing, established brand to suit the needs and preferences of a subgroup of an organization.
We've all seen this a thousand times, from the department that creates its own letterhead by smashing the organization's logo into a piece of Microsoft Word Wordart to the division that works with an outside contractor to develop a piece of collateral that has the organization's logo, but bears little resemblance to anything else from the organization. Perhaps it also has some myopic messages that were put together by the division's director during a brainstorming meeting but that no one else outside the division has ever even seen.
Brandtasrophes suck the life out of a brand and muddle the public's perceptions of it. At their worst, they effectively vandalize the organization.
Digg Zealots Suck
I saw on Threadwatch how Digg zealots are attacking various Yahoo! properties who use a voting system similar to Digg. These people are true idiots. What I find amazing is that many of these Diggers also espouse how the Internet should be free and they should, for instance be allowed to post copyrighted content on YouTube or share MP3s and other intellectual property freely. But if anyone "shares" the idea of a voting-based content system they attack like a bunch of old biddies with their bloomers in a bunch. "You stole Digg's idea!" "You aren't cool enough to be like Digg!" Then they swarm the Comments sections of these "thieving sites" and prevent anyone else from enjoying them.
I've got news, Digg zealots: The Internet is about sharing—sharing ideas, sharing what works, sharing conversations. Who came up with the idea of a search engine? Should they have started attacking everyone else who put a little field on a page with a "Search" button? I know Digg wasn't the first site to come up with a "vote for this" model.
In the larger scheme, zealots of anything suck. Whether it's Digg zealots, Mac zealots, religious zealots, sports team zealots, or whatever, please, just stop. Can't you be a fan or follower without being a blinder-wearing, crazed lunatic? You like the Green Bay Packers. I get it. Do you have to start fistfights in bars because someone else in the bar isn't? You like the iPod. I get it. Do you have to openly mock anyone who has something else, repeatedly boast about how wonderful your iPod is, and canonize Steve Jobs? You're a Jehova's Witness. I get it. Can you worship with your congregation in peace and stay away from my front door?
Digg.com is a nice site, I'm a member. I think it's still got some serious issues, most of which are human/idiot-based. People successfully game the system for profit or glory instead of using Digg as it was intended. The technology itself is fantastic. So instead of attacking everyone else who uses a voting system for content, why don't you focus on making Digg.com better?
I've got news, Digg zealots: The Internet is about sharing—sharing ideas, sharing what works, sharing conversations. Who came up with the idea of a search engine? Should they have started attacking everyone else who put a little field on a page with a "Search" button? I know Digg wasn't the first site to come up with a "vote for this" model.
In the larger scheme, zealots of anything suck. Whether it's Digg zealots, Mac zealots, religious zealots, sports team zealots, or whatever, please, just stop. Can't you be a fan or follower without being a blinder-wearing, crazed lunatic? You like the Green Bay Packers. I get it. Do you have to start fistfights in bars because someone else in the bar isn't? You like the iPod. I get it. Do you have to openly mock anyone who has something else, repeatedly boast about how wonderful your iPod is, and canonize Steve Jobs? You're a Jehova's Witness. I get it. Can you worship with your congregation in peace and stay away from my front door?
Digg.com is a nice site, I'm a member. I think it's still got some serious issues, most of which are human/idiot-based. People successfully game the system for profit or glory instead of using Digg as it was intended. The technology itself is fantastic. So instead of attacking everyone else who uses a voting system for content, why don't you focus on making Digg.com better?
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
No Linking Allowed in Belgium
So apparently linking is now wrong. I can understand there being a concern about Google's cache containing archived stories that are normally charged for by the copyright holder, but what is all this other piffle about Google News using material without consent? So no one is allowed to link to free content without the linkee's consent? Is Belgium on the planet earth?
Court rules that Google breaches copyright with news service-News-Tech & Web-TimesOnline
Court rules that Google breaches copyright with news service-News-Tech & Web-TimesOnline
Widgets Deliver New One-to-One Opportunities
An informative post from Chad Stoller at ClickZ about getting into the branded widget game. He makes some good points about how to ensure your widget is sticky (sticky widgets?) Namely, make them simple and uber-functional. I haven't seen a lot of articles like this and it's nice to see widgets being taken seriously and not just as toys.
As mentioned previously, I do use a few branded widgets, notably from Acura and Allrecipes.com. Not to mention the Yahoo! branded widgets. With Windows Vista, I think Widgets will explode in the next year. That's, of course, contingent on Microsoft getting people to buy it.
Widgets Deliver New One-to-One Opportunities
As mentioned previously, I do use a few branded widgets, notably from Acura and Allrecipes.com. Not to mention the Yahoo! branded widgets. With Windows Vista, I think Widgets will explode in the next year. That's, of course, contingent on Microsoft getting people to buy it.
Widgets Deliver New One-to-One Opportunities
WIRED Blogs: Listening Post
Great discussion of DRM and the effect of switching to a no-DRM system on Wired.com. It's nice to hear all the arguments for and against. No one can really predict exacly what will happen, but with enough discussion like this I think we can come up with a close approximation. Will the artist lose money? Will the customers ever get what they really want? Will the record companies diminish? Hopefully those are all "Yes."
WIRED Blogs: Listening Post
WIRED Blogs: Listening Post
Will Widgets Kill the Webpage? (Exclusive Netvibes video). (Erick Schonfeld/The Next Net)
I was discussing widgets with a friend recently and they thought widgets were to complicated for most casual computer users. I think if anything, they're easier. They focus on one thing and leave out all the other impediments to finding and using information.
Check out what NetVibe's founder thinks:
Will Widgets Kill the Webpage? (Exclusive Netvibes video). (Erick Schonfeld/The Next Net)
http://www.techmeme.com/070212/p107#a070212p107
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Web 2.0 Explained Through Video
This is a cool Web 2.0 video that's popping up everywhere from Lawrence Lessig's blog to Boing Boing. It's very cool and shows the evolution text and the Web. Very slick.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
That Would Be a Great Band Name
If you're like me, and pray God you're not, you occasionally realize something that just came out of your mouth would make a great name for a band. I think this happens to me at least once a day. You'll be talking to a coworker about stepping on a rancid peach outside the produce stand by your house and suddenly you stop and say "Rancid Peach would be a great name for a band!"
Well you can now save time in this ridiculous pursuit by using the Band name generator.
Either enter a few words of your own to mix into the generator or just create utterly random band names like "Pungent Lager Wormlings" or "Crafty Hamburgers." I'm pretty sure I don't want to hear the next download from "Sphincter Bulbous Holidays," but who knows, maybe they're the next "Speedcake Protocol Cherries."
Well you can now save time in this ridiculous pursuit by using the Band name generator.
Either enter a few words of your own to mix into the generator or just create utterly random band names like "Pungent Lager Wormlings" or "Crafty Hamburgers." I'm pretty sure I don't want to hear the next download from "Sphincter Bulbous Holidays," but who knows, maybe they're the next "Speedcake Protocol Cherries."
Jobs Votes to Give DRM the Heave-Ho
As sick I am of Steve Jobs and despite the fact that I consider him an arrogant, overrated shill, I am really heartened by his essay favoring the drop-kick of DRM. He makes some great points and I'm sure this essay will become the next big thing (probably it already is).
Especially well-written are the last few paragraphs where he points out that record companies have always sold DRM-free music in the form of easily-rippable CDs:
"In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves."
Great point, Mr. Jobs. I still won't buy an iPod though.
Apple - Thoughts on Music
Especially well-written are the last few paragraphs where he points out that record companies have always sold DRM-free music in the form of easily-rippable CDs:
"In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves."
Great point, Mr. Jobs. I still won't buy an iPod though.
Apple - Thoughts on Music
Monday, February 05, 2007
The Morning is Your Friend
In Tapping the Power of Your Morning Routine, Yahoo! Finance writer Jim Citrin collected responses from 20 business leaders about their morning routines. The main bullets:
I've always said that any idiot can get to work early. However I've seen people who consider this the height of work ethic. Never mind they spend 7-10am reading CNN or shopping on Amazon, as long as they're at work before the boss, they're golden. However, if you can plan out your day, catch up on e-mail, and get a little research done before 9am, I'd say you've made the most of getting an early start. A tip If your boss is impressed by early risers: few days a week make sure to send your boss an e-mail early. Make sure it's relevant though, or you'll look like a brown nose. You might try holding off on response from the afternoon before and then sending it when you get in the next morning.
One thing the article doesn't mention directly is breakfast. I've started eating breakfast every morning and I can say from experience, it helps. For a good article on the subject check out "How to Feel Like Eating Breakfast First Thing in the Morning" on WikiHow.
The article didin't mention RSS either, which may be because many business leaders may not be geeky enough to use Feed Readers or other RSS tools (granted, some may be using it without realizing it on their My Yahoo pages and such). RSS can be a powerful way to catch up on industry and business news in your morning hours. Build a page of RSS feeds with Protopage, PageFlakes, Netvibes, etc. and make browsing headlines faster and more thorough.
- Start early.
- Get a jump on email.
- Exercise every morning.
- Be thoughtful about the source, form, and timing of your news.
- Problem-solve.
- Be creative with your morning routine.
I've always said that any idiot can get to work early. However I've seen people who consider this the height of work ethic. Never mind they spend 7-10am reading CNN or shopping on Amazon, as long as they're at work before the boss, they're golden. However, if you can plan out your day, catch up on e-mail, and get a little research done before 9am, I'd say you've made the most of getting an early start. A tip If your boss is impressed by early risers: few days a week make sure to send your boss an e-mail early. Make sure it's relevant though, or you'll look like a brown nose. You might try holding off on response from the afternoon before and then sending it when you get in the next morning.
One thing the article doesn't mention directly is breakfast. I've started eating breakfast every morning and I can say from experience, it helps. For a good article on the subject check out "How to Feel Like Eating Breakfast First Thing in the Morning" on WikiHow.
The article didin't mention RSS either, which may be because many business leaders may not be geeky enough to use Feed Readers or other RSS tools (granted, some may be using it without realizing it on their My Yahoo pages and such). RSS can be a powerful way to catch up on industry and business news in your morning hours. Build a page of RSS feeds with Protopage, PageFlakes, Netvibes, etc. and make browsing headlines faster and more thorough.
The Bears Have Made Me Sad
The Bears looked awful last night in the Super Bowl and had it not been for copious amounts of Guinness I may have cried when the game ended. So this frigid Monday, which I wisely took off well in advance, will consist of moping, whining, and likely some punching of inanimate objects. Tuesday will be better. After all, it looks like the Bulls will be in the playoffs and Spring training (Go Sox!) is right around the corner.
MetaWeather: A Good Idea with Mixed Results
MetaWeather is a weather aggregation site that describes itself as "An automated weather data aggregator that takes the weather predictions from various forecasters and calculates the most likely outcome." Oddly enough I was just chatting with someone about how a "Metacritic for weather information" would be a good idea and it could be called "MetaWeather." So I checked the URL and sure enough, there are no new ideas under the sun.
Disappointed that I hadn't come up with the idea first, but excited that it existed, I checked it out. It's got a definite "side-project" look to it and has some rendering issues in the three browsers I tried it in (IE7, FF2, and Opera). For instance, it shows temperature ranges on a bar graph and if the range is small (for instance between -12 and -9 the two numbers are smashed on top of each other.)
The sources for Chicago listed are Weather.com Homepage, Weather.com weather for Chicago, BBC Homepage, BBC Weather for Chicago, Weather Underground Homepage, and Weather Underground weather for Chicago. I'm not sure why it lists all those weather site home pages, which don't list anything about specific cities. Also, I'd rather see Accuweather and The National Weather Service incorporated. However this may be an API issue.
Again, this looks like a side project and maybe that's all it is. Or an experiment. But I'd like to see a full-scale version of a meta-weather site at some point tricked out with more features and a little more polish. After a quick check of all the weather sites metaweather.com uses and the ones I mentioned, I'm amazed at the disparity. Averaging all this data in a slick way could be very helpful.
So while I really like the idea and initiative the Metaweather folks have shown, I look forward to its maturity even more.
Disappointed that I hadn't come up with the idea first, but excited that it existed, I checked it out. It's got a definite "side-project" look to it and has some rendering issues in the three browsers I tried it in (IE7, FF2, and Opera). For instance, it shows temperature ranges on a bar graph and if the range is small (for instance between -12 and -9 the two numbers are smashed on top of each other.)
The sources for Chicago listed are Weather.com Homepage, Weather.com weather for Chicago, BBC Homepage, BBC Weather for Chicago, Weather Underground Homepage, and Weather Underground weather for Chicago. I'm not sure why it lists all those weather site home pages, which don't list anything about specific cities. Also, I'd rather see Accuweather and The National Weather Service incorporated. However this may be an API issue.
Again, this looks like a side project and maybe that's all it is. Or an experiment. But I'd like to see a full-scale version of a meta-weather site at some point tricked out with more features and a little more polish. After a quick check of all the weather sites metaweather.com uses and the ones I mentioned, I'm amazed at the disparity. Averaging all this data in a slick way could be very helpful.
So while I really like the idea and initiative the Metaweather folks have shown, I look forward to its maturity even more.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Top Ten-A-Palooza
This Seth Godin post gives me some good ideas. How about a search for the phrase "Some of my favorites..." or "Some good ideas for getting started..."
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/02/the_top_10_ways.html
The Best Yahoo! Widgets
I, like many, have grown to love widgets. I was just starting to use Konfabulator when Yahoo! bought them and I was glad to see Yahoo! did nothing to ruin them. I tend to visit the Yahoo! Widget Gallery a few times a week to see if there's anything new and useful, but I find the interface for finding Widgets a little annoying. Like I wish they had an advanced search that let you filter based on user ratings. That would save me a lot of time sifting through a lot of sub-par widgets. However, I recently found a site called "The Most Downloaded Konfabulator Widgets" by Jon Aquino, which lists all the widgets by popularity and helps hunt down the cream of the crop. Why won't Yahoo! do this?
Anyway, I will likely spend some time hunting down more to add to my cadre. For now, here's what I use now:
Anyway, I will likely spend some time hunting down more to add to my cadre. For now, here's what I use now:
- Yahoo! Weather A beautiful looking widget that shows everything you need at a glance.
- NY Times Reader Another attractive interface with a lot of customization.
- MultiRSSFeed A little on the ugly side but crams a lot of feeds into a small space.
- AllRecipes.com Recipe Finder VERY slick design from a terrific recipe site.
- Acura RDK Traffic A very polished interface with great traffic information.
- Yahoo! Notepad Access to quick notes from all your PCs. Very handy.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
100 Ways to Finds Stuff
Charles Knight breaks down the search engine landscape and you're sure to find some great new search tools. I'm already digging Music Map and The Find and they're just in the introduction. I'll plow through the list and see if I can come up with a Top Ten from his Top 100.
MMMmmmmmm, search.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_100_alternative_search_engines.php
MMMmmmmmm, search.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_100_alternative_search_engines.php
Is Flickr Editing Your Photos?
An interesting discovery by Kara at the Colors...Pretty blog. Apparently, she alleges, Flickr sharpens and improves images when you upload them to their service. Nice for amateurs, but possibly annoying for professionals. What if you intended a photo to look blurry in parts or altogether? Some Photoshop mavens might also prefer to do their own sharpening as well. Does Flickr use an unsharp, a sharpen, a smart blur, contrast enhancement? As Kara points out, this should probably be up to the user.
Colors...Pretty
Colors...Pretty
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