Web 2.0... another bubble?

I found the folllowing video title "Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1 - The Richter Scales” which chronicles the rise and fall of some prominent Web 2.0 companies among other things. And it sparked my interest and got me thinking, are we headed for a dark place in 08?

The web is a fast moving place where one thing is guaranteed .... change! What was the status quo in 2007 won't be in 2008. Techcrunch has an article that discusses a possible Web 2.0 crash in 2008.

Companies will come and go. But one thing is certain, last time the web crashed in the dotcom era it seemed your website was an optional expense, something that could be cut from the budget. Now things have shifted, a companys website is mission critical, so to are the services offered by many websites! The web is the first place people most people go to find things. So your website is as important if not more than your bricks and mortar establishment, especially when its got an ecommerce component attached :)

So without further ado heres the video, see you in 2008.

The Web comes to the Wii

Due to the depressing winter weather conditions here is Wisconsin I decided it was time to relax on the couch and play with my new toy, my much loved Nintendo Wii. To be honest i've been out of gaming for quite some time, the Wii got me excited about gaming again. Up until now the Wii has had wireless internet connectivity through Wifi that really hasn't been leveraged. Updating the system and downloading the weather were all it could really accomplish.

Today I check out the Wii shopping channel and noticed you can now get Opera browser for the Wii! Being a web enthusiast I downloaded it right away and i've got to admit its quite impressive.

Opera is added under the "Internet Channel" from the Wii menu. Browsing with the Wii remote is simple and easy, and use the Wii controller directional arrows, A for selecting, B for back and zoom in (+) and zoom out (-). Your menu is simple:

• Enter WWW address


• Back / Forward


• Search: Via Google or Yahoo


• Reload page


• Forward link via email

Unfortunately Opera on the Wii does not support browser plug-ins or downloads, however it does support Flash 7 . So it is much like the light weight Safari browser that ships with the Iphone. Regardless this is a really solid release for the Wii which can only help Nintendo boost the Wii's popularity. Just like the Iphone, with 10 million Wii consoles out there its another platform developers need to consider when building websites.

Update on the Target and accessibility on Techcrunch

At the beginning of the month I weighed in on my feelings on the Target accessibility class action law suit. Now it seems others are doing the same in a heated way on comments in Techcrunch blog on the subject. This debate definitely is gathering momentum, ultimately I think the days of building websites that are inaccessible are over.

Amazon secures patent for SEO friendly URL's... What?

Wow this truly floored me. The US Patent Office (USPTO) has granted a patent for placing a "search string at the end of a URL without any special formatting.". See the diagram left that helped them seal the deal with the USPTO.

A popular technique known as URL aliasing and URL rewriting evolved which allowed developers to move away from non friendly URL's like this:

http://www.domain.com/index.aspx?id=63304&mode=wide

To friendly URL's like this:

http://www.domain.com/vacation packages wisconsin

URL Aliasing been around for many years, and was popularized by Google's search engine. Using this URL format is beneficial in two ways, it's ultra search engine friendly give the pages ranking a boost, and its more user friendly.

On doing some research on this the subject the USPTO is meant to granted patents for something that aren't obvious. Also unless you can prove you were using this technology prior to Amazon filing this patent in 2004 you could be in trouble. This is pure madness! It would seem that this technique utilized by hundreds of millions of data driven websites and blogs are now in breach of Amazon's patent?

Accessibility, Standards and Targets class action lawsuit

The other night I was talking at length to my brother in law Steve about his field of engineering and its various certifications and standards and comparing it to my field of web development. This isn't the first time i've thought about this issue, In a previous blog of mine I went hunting for professional organizations for web development.... there weren't many.

He argued that "no one is going to die if a website doesn't work in Firefox, however in my field if a wall collapses and kills someone we got a problem. Thus we have standards, rules and regulations to make sure that doesn't happen". I agree that no one is going to die if a website doesn't render right but as more mission critical services move online web standards become more important.

Steve is a member of an independent professional organization for engineers known as Ashrae which develops standards among other things for the field of engineering. In the web world we have the W3C which is independent and then corporations like Adobe, Google and Microsoft who play a part in helping to innovate and drive web standards. However nothing is really enforced unless your designing for government who demand section 508 compliance.

He said that engineering has been around for thousands of years, and web development is a new field of expertise and standards and enforcement of those will take time. So it was funny today when stumbled across two separate articles:

• http://ajaxian.com/archives/two-rulings-that-could-improve-web-accessibility


• http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071003-lawsuit-over-website-accessibility-for-the-blind-becomes-class-action.html
  

Both talk about Targets class action lawsuit for not being 100% accessible to the blind? I shouldn't need to state it, but I will for clarification, Target is a corporation not a government body so no standards apply right? I guess not!

My point to my brother in law is that as more services move online, whether its shopping, banking, bill payment or yellow pages there need to be standards enforced to ensure everyone, young and old, 56k or broadband, iphone or pc can access your site. The lawsuit against Target could prove to be a big factor in enforcement of standards online..... Time will tell but this will be an interesting case to watch!

The website development process told by Lego :)

This article is both informational, and humorous! :)

http://www.pingmag.jp/2005/12/09/the-website-development-process/

Create collection of articles on "Planning, Managing Web Sites and Web Site Projects"

Today I was looking for some example document for a web content plan. I have a structured approach i've used for years, but I always want to keep abreast of things and see what others in the industry are doing. I didn't really find anything concrete howevers on my Google hunt I stumbled across the following page that had a great collection of articles on "Planning, Managing Web Sites and Web Site Projects". Definately worth a look if you need help.

Agile isn't an excuse for sloppy project management or development

Those who have read 37Signals book: "Getting Real" should be well versed in what Agile Development is all about. Basically the theory you can do more with less is the easiest description I have of what Agile Development boils down to. I am warming up to the idea of a development process that is less linear, and more pliable to the demands of a fast paced on demand "Web 2.0" world.

That being said in a recent Dr Dobb's newsletter I read this article on the disciplines of development using Agile methodology.

Google to take on Facebook by more open API

It was only a matter of time before one of the top three: Google, Yahoo or MSN did something with respect to Facebook.

Google is apparently working on opening up its API's for existing services even more than Facebook. See this article for more detail.

Ditch your news section or press room and build a blog!

It still amazes me to see sites launching with a news or press room. This seems like one of the legacy web 1.0 items thats still makes its way into most corporate domains.

Granted if you are a fortune 500 company perhaps you still need your official new release section. However for most small to mid size companys this seems like serious overkill. The "one to many" broadcast approach is clearly over with the rise of social media, web 2.0 and functionality that allows for your users to engage in a conversation with you!

Some blog facts:

• Blogs are hip
• Authentic
• Let you engage with your user = two way conversation!
• Let your users identify with a personality along with your news
• Build Community: They create repeat visits (stickyness) by users
• Content can be syndicated via RSS and email subscriptions
• Build Traffic: Ultra SEO friendly helping to get you found
• They create conversation on other blogs = Online PR +Seeding!
• Cross Sell: Generally they create a lot of referrals back to your corporate site

Recent validation of Linkedin - networking 2.0

I recently had a situation in my day job where more work than we could handle. I needed a qualified group of five internet developers with varied skill sets such as: XHTML/CSS, Flash, .NET, PHP and we needed them quickly.

Formally we would try two things:

• Mine existing freelance resources
• Go to a local staffing firm that specializes in interactive to find the desired candidate(s)

We tried option one, and everyone we knew was committed. Option two takes time and we were under the gun with tight deadlines.

So what do you where you in a bind and need to recruit in a vacuum? Networking 2.0 utilizing your social networks!

Within a few hours of identifying the need I hit my LinkedIn network. By the end of the day I had answers and people lined up to do the work. It was instant validation to me of the power of social networking tools like LinkedIn, and putting my network that i'd built overtime to work for me.

How to filter feature requests on your web application

Yesterday I attended the iPhone Tech Talk conference in Chicago. Many items where covered from requirements, usability, design and application development for the iPhone plaform. One part of the presentation that resonated with me was how Apple approaches development of software applications. Below is an excerpt from the presentation:

Good Design at Apple….

“Comes from saying “No” to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.”

- Steve Jobs

Define Your Solution

What problem will your application solve?

• Create an Application Definition Statement
• Summarize the intended purpose of your application
• Let it guide everything you do
• Filter every aspect of your application through definition statement
  

This is also inline with a chapter in 37signals book “Get Real” titled "What's the Big Idea".

Its an interesting approach i'm looking to incorporate into future projects I work on. Often with web project you can get bogged down in features that are outside of the core objective and vision of the site, using this methodology means you can abandon a lot of traditional distracting features before you burn you time and money.

Good user experience can improve your bottom line

I came across the following presentation when I was browsing on Slideshare and it really resonated with me. I often talk to designers or information architects about improving the usability of a web app by simplying things. For instance use more descriptive form buttons - "submit" is vague, include functionality such as breadcrumbs and site search as people expect them to be there etc. Essentially don't make me think!

One thing I often notice with new site designs is they are tested by power users, we know that the logo links back to the homepage, we know how to use utility nav and how to filter results in a datagrid. However the best test i've ever had is my wife or my mom. To be honest if they can't perform a task or find something on a new site chances are other users will have the same problem. Ultimately a bad experience frustrates users and ensures they will give up on your site and go to the next listing on Google.

I encourage you to view the following presentation by Brian Winter from CareerBuilder on providing a better user experience.

Interview with Jakob Nielsen

I just was over at e-consultancy.com and stumbled across an interview with Jakob Nielsen. Neilsen weighs in on AJAX, Flash, RSS/XML icons and his general feelings on usability as it relates to the web. An interesting read.

Humor - Internet crash in Web 2.0 world!

Agile development: Get more done with less - "Get Real" by 37signals

I've just finshed reading the book "Get Real" by 37signals (developers of Basecamp) and i've got to saw its a fairly controversial and radical way to look at developing web 2.0 apps using the Agile development methodology.

My key take aways from the book are you can get more done with less. Less people (superstar developers), no meetings, no information architecture and no web farm to start. I recently met with a client of ours at Hanson Dodge Creative and talked with them about the shift from the web 1.0 brochureware "website" to the fire breathing always changing web 2.0 "web application". Already a developer of desktop applications, his final words where "welcome to the world of software development" which is so true.

Modern day web apps are complex with true object orientated programming and 3 tier architecture:

• Presentation Tier (XHTML, CSS, XSLT, Flash, AJAX)
• Logic Tier (.NET, Web Services, API)
• Data Tier (Database, XML

So yes todays web 2.0 application is becoming more complex to build, 37signals "Get Real" offers a different methodology and approach to breaking things down and building web apps using their Agile method from inception through completion. If you haven't read it already you can read it free, buy the pdf, or book at 37signals site.

The power of community and social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Myspace

Lately it seems the shift to community driven websites and social is becoming bigger and bigger, everyone is jumping on the Web 2.0 band wagaon. Whether you look at the success stories of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook or any of the other bigger user generated content (UGC) sites it seems "community is king". I've got to admit I was a late adopter of MySpace and Facebook, but I have been a member on the UK equivalent of Classmates.com known as Friends Reunited since 2001. As someone who's lived in 3 countries: Australia, England and the U.S. Through these sites i've noticed first hand the power of social networks and community first hand as I began to reconnect with classmates and old friends who lived all over the world. My 10 year high school re-union was organized through it… I can’t even imagine the effort involved in doing this prior to the internet!

Now in my professional life one site that has had a profound effect on me is LinkedIn. Again I embarrassed to say I a late adopter, a sales rep from a software company invited me after a pitch and I was on the way to becoming LinkedIn.

In my opinion LinkedIn has become the most important and useful professional community and social networking site I use today. Gone are the days of word resumes, my rolodex full of business cards and costly searches for new hires and vendors. LinkedIn has provided a great platform for helping prospective, existing and former clients keep in touch (networking). Not to mention a great tool for recruitment. Having your LinkedIn profile linked on my blog has also helped in the seeding giving me an SEO lift.

I've been involved in participating in question and answers sessions centered on the internet and web technology. I've also been approached by software vendors, headhunters and job seekers who instantly qualified me as they know who I am and what I do, some of this can be good or bad depending how you look at it.

So if you are looking for a way to build your professional network and get connected with a community that opens up networking and career opportunities today I suggest you to get LinkedIn.

The Media Revolution lead by the Prosumer!

I stumbled across the following video on the Logic and Emotion blog. It lays out an interesting view of what the future of the internet and user generated content might look like. I encourage you to view it:

What professional organizations exist for web professionals?

I recently attended a conference by David C Baker on "Resourcing the Creative Process". One of the items we discussed during the seminar was "what is it about this (creative) industry, that no real standards or professional organizations for people that work in the creative / interactive world" and it got me thinking. My brother in law is a HVAC engineer and his girlfriend an architect. Both of them belong to numerous professional organizations. In many other industries including law, finance, accounting etc there are plenty of organizations professionals can join to increase their level of certification, enforce standards and best practices, provide updates on industry trends, improve overall education and provide them networking opportunities.

So I asked myself the question "What Professional organizations for Web Programmers and Developers?".

I'm started looking both at national and international organizations for Web developers and programmer. None of them really offered all the attributes I was looking for, but here are the ones I managed to find:

• International Webmasters Association
• American Association of Webmasters
• Interactive Web Development Association
• HTML Writers Guild
• Guild of Accessbile Web Designers

There was an interesting one in Australia called "Port 80" but that has morphed into the Australian Web Industry Association. Content Management Professionals comes close, but is a little restrictive as I wanted a organization for professionals in this industry that goes beyond content management. Most of these organizations cater to Designers, Webmasters and System Administrators but not towards the Web Programmer / Developer.

Sure Microsoft has MSDN and MCAD certifications and other organizations offer similar programs. But I was looking for an organization that is platform-agnostic, and devoted to the people that do all the Web 2.0 wizardry these days. The hunt continues....

Podcasts, way better than books on tape!

When I used to work in computer sales in Australia I had a crazy boss that used to subject me to audio tapes / cd's while we would drive in his car. Tony Robbins, Zig Ziggler and Tom Hopkins where all his favorites. He would tell me that this is the best way to learn when you are have no one annoying you and your mind kind absorb whats being said.

So it got me thinking most people these days put up with at least a half and hour commute to work every day, whether it be car, bus, train or bike. Generally I zone out and listen to the radio but I really get nothing out of it and the content is becoming increasingly, well crap. So following my old bosses advice I feel I could use my hour plus commute more effectively each day and i've decided to use Podcasts, my Ipod and the AUX jack on my car radio to broaden my knowledge and education in the field I work in. For those who don't know what a podcast is essentially its generally a free broadcast of audio or video that can be downloaded to your portable media player and then played back at your convenience. The content available via Podcasts is amazing, and grows everyday. They exist in just about every category or field of interest you can think of, and come in all shapes and sizes. :)

Here are a few of the podcasts I currently subcribe to:

• O'Reilly Web 2.0 Summit Podcasts
• Diggnation
• The Web 2.0 Show
• the .NET magazine
• boagworld.com: web design podcast

Each night I dock my Ipod in my craddle, eat dinner and then return to see its filled with fresh brain food. I create my playlist for the following day and voila i'm all set "get my learn on". If I ever get tired of Podcasts, I can always switch to the vast array of audiobooks available on Itunes! :)

Joost Beta - dubbed "The Youtube Killer"?

I just signed up for Joost beta today and i've been added to the list of users waiting inline to get a glimpse at this new internet service. It promises DVD quality video over the internet while offering fun and interactive content. Some are dubbing a "Youtube Killer"

If you haven't heard about it I suggest you head on over to their site and check it out.

Web App Project Management & Workflow Holy Grail? Part 1

Building web apps is getting harder and harder. When you build a desktop application whether it be for a PC or a Mac you know what the platform and environment allows. In this 2.0 age of web development where technologies change frequently based on industry demand, timelines get shorter and costs need to be controlled. It is becoming increasingly difficult to control and manage a project timeline and costs with so many moving parts.

I've done a lot of research on a software package that could control things from end to end. Call this the web development and project management holy grail? The following are some of the requirements I think an all encompassing solution needs:

• Permission granted access / user rights to system functionality
• Workflow Management (Interactive real-time)
• Assist with budgeting and estimating
• Document Management (Proposal, Strategy, Architecture, Sitemap, Wireframes, Concepts)
• Centralized Content Management / Data Warehousing
• Real-time Project Plans
• Milestones
• Team/Task Assignment (who's doing what)
• Versioning of project documents (Check in/Check out)
• Code Library / Shared Assets
• Group Communication and discussion / Feedback
• Bug Tracking (Tickets)
• Quality Assurance and Testing
• Deployment between environments
• Technical Infrastructure Management
• Source Code Protection
• Centralising Server Architecture (FTP/WebDAV etc)
• Faciliate Deployment - Pushing files/databases between environments (Staging/Production)

It must be said no amount of software no matter how good can fix a disfunctional environment with no process or guidlines in place, where team members are disfunctional and kaos rules. You've got to have a system in place before you can start refining it! So let assume you have a process and some guidlines but your projects are growing in size and scope and its time to move on from static project plans, excel documents and email... whats next? I will delve into some system options more in Part 2.

Web 2.0 and The Changing Role Of IAs

I found this great presentation on Slideshare that outlines demands and changes required by Information Architects with the shift to Web 2.0. Check it out:

CNN.com redesigned

I just noted CNN have completely redesigned their website. The new interface is alot cleaner, less cluttered, and has fewer graphic and widgets. And to me its more aesthetically pleasing:



I encourge you to check it out, and tell them what you think. Great job in my opinion!

Conferences and Seminars to keep on the calendar

In our industry things are constantly changing. One of the best ways to keep on top of that is using the internet; the other is attending conferences and seminars. Below is a list of some you should keep on your calendar. Regardless of your role: architect, designer, developer, strategist or manager these events are a vital parts of keeping up to date. So here are some that I cherry picked to give you a rounded view of “what’s what” online, hopefully you find them useful:

• http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/
• http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/webdesignworld/
• http://www.aneventapart.com/events/chicago07/
• http://www.ad-tech.com/
• http://www.internetretailer.com/
• http://www.fitc.ca/
• http://futureofwebdesign.com/

These events are great source of education and offer huge networking potential. Of course their are others, but these my favorites for this year. If you think i've missed any critical ones let me know.

Web Technologys Explained

I just read the following article title "Advanced Web Design: A Primer" over at Sitepoint, its offers a pretty comprehensive breakdown and explanation of all the current web technologys including:

• Clients and Servers
• Client-side Technologies: JavaScript, VBScript
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) & Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
• Java
• Server-side Technologies
• Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
• Server-Side Scripting Languages
• Perl, PHP, ASP
• Cold Fusion, Server-Side Java (Servlets, JavaServer Pages, etc.)
• Database Servers, MySQL

Interestingly Flash, Silverlight, .NET and Ruby on Rails where left out of the list, but apart from that its a good overview and read. So if you need to brush up on the state of web development technologies out there I suggest reading it. If you want to learn even more about building web applications check out 37Signals online book.

Groundbreaking new products: Apple iPhone and Microsoft Surface

This year we will see two groundbreaking products released from Apple and Microsoft that make the web more accessible and easy to use:

• iPhone
• Surface

If you haven't heard about these products, then i suggest you view the above linked sites...

Education And The Future of Technology

Today it seems to becoming increasingly challenging to hire and find qualified workers in the web and new media field a co-worker sent me a link to the following video. Some interesting facts I extracted from it were:

"... the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn't exist in 2004.We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist... using technologies that haven't yet been invented... in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

Definitely some interesting statistics on the future of education and technology! One thing I’ve learnt about one of the webs leading company's Google recruitment doctrine is that they hire their programmers and engineers to be agile. For instance you may be hired to work on Gmail, but could also be tasked to work on Google Maps. They believe in hiring workers with skills and aptitude that don't pigeon hole them into a specific job or career path. Add to that the 20% time they give you to work on R&D which has given birth to Google Transit among other amazing projects and you can see why they are the leader. So maybe Google is ahead of the curve here! They realize that hiring people with a broad base of skills and the ability to learn quickly and multi-task is an asset to their organization.

Steve Job's 2005 Stanford commencement speech still an inspiration

When ever i'm in need of inspiration or feeling a little down I can always listen to Steve Job's 2005 Stanford commencement speech.



Download:

• Video - Itunes
• Audio - Itunes

Yep i'm a fan of Microsoft and Bill Gates, but Job's is the man. So next time you need a lift, take a listen... I recommend putting this on your Ipod. And remember "stay hungry, stay foolish"!

Buzzillions the ultimate in site taxonomy & user generated content!

Yesterday I met with Jeff and Arun from Powereviews about their consumer product portal Buzzillions. This website is a great example of the use of taxonomy and user generated content to create a website with a wealth of content and an intuitive user experience.

They've used their rich database of tags and their search/taxonomy engine to provide a fresh way to drilldown and find the right customer reviews with their "Consumers Speak" navigation, see below:



Fresh approaches to navigation like this are exactly whats needed with modern websites with content that is so deep and often hard to find (requiring to many clicks to drill down). I encourage you take a look at Buzzillions it's a well designed site, and just might help with your decision next time you want to buy any type of product.

Product Information Management ... beyond traditional CMS/DMS

I saw a lot of cool products at the Internet Retailer Conference (IRCE 2007) in San Jose. However the one technology that resonated with me the most was Production Information Management (PIM). In this modern day and age when building a website generally it’s generally always on a Content Management Systems (CMS) platform which enables you to truly split content from the design of the site.

The one limitation of traditional CMS is that they are generally focused on doing page level copy very well, but don't offer enough flexibility and scalability when it comes to warehousing large amounts of product specification and data. Enter PIM.

PIM enables you to create your central data store or content warehouse where web copy, product information and specifications, files and assets are all housed in one place and are truly versioned. Depending on the package the technology lets you create structured or un-structured relationships with the content that is housed in the system via taxonomy. Adding targeted or personalized content to users becomes a much easier prospect with a PIM engine behind the scenes.

This of a system where every content item or asset is housed in a data warehouse that is truly version and can be shared with any number of platforms (web, print etc) via XML, Web Services or through an API and you have one very useful tool.

The two vendors I met at IRCE 2007 where Stibo and Catapult. The following diagram is an excerpt from Stibo's sales presentation of its STEP product. It really helps to show how a PIM software solution can be implemented and used to its full effect:

You can centralize it all in one place and provide a system to divide labour to keep things up to date and fresh in one place as well as enforce workflow. It also provides a framework to allow true de-centralized content, so you can offer direct feeds to suppliers, partners, dealers or other 3rd partys.

By truly embracing a PIM system you can throw away your old offline spreadsheet or Access / Filemaker database. And Forget dated versions of Quark, Word or other electronic documents that store product data. Breathe a sigh of relief! :)

Internet Retailer 2007... Community is King!

Last week I visited in the Internet Retailer 2007 conference in San Jose, California with a co-worker Chris Larson an Interactive Strategist at my employer Hanson Dodge Creative. It was an amazing trip to the Silicon Valley, my first time and I've returned with plenty of new information and ideas on how the web is breakdown down the barriers of traditional bricks and mortar establishments.

We started a blog while we were out there for 5 days to record some of our learning and our antics.

My three major takeaways from this conference were:

1. Community driven websites, sites that give users a sense of ownership and contribution are the way of the future. Community is King!
2. Buy versus Build. ASP or Hosted web software solutions with solid API's and support for Web Services and syndication are replacing the need to build it from scratch. They are cheaper, turnkey and will offer a greater ROI.
3. Big company’s do their research and development by merger and acquisition.

I have much more to share, but wanted to get these high level idea's down and expand on them at a later date.

Create Gadgets another way to build web traffic!

I'm amazed at the number of Gadgets that are being created for Window Vista sidebar and personal portal sites like Igoogle.com. This seems like a no brainer way of driving more traffic to your website, by offering users a way to syndicate certain portions of your sites content.

For developers check out Codeproject who offer some great insight on how to develop them for Windows Vista, or Googles developer site.

Powerpoint meets Youtube = Slideshare

A co-worker shared this new web start-up with me called Slideshare. It basically offers the same feature set as Youtube but with Powerpoint. Once you upload your presentation you can share it with others, embed it in a blog etc. I found this article that explains it in a little more detail.

This comes after a recent project where we reviewed a number of Powerpoint to Flash tools on the web, I was amazed at how many exist.

Kudo's to Slideshare, this is a really great tool!

Content is part of design to!

It seems so many websites really don't get it when it comes to content. I can't even count how many websites I’ve viewed where they have a killer header graphic, nice navigation and overall good looking page template and then when you look at the content it’s sad. There is no consideration given to how it flows, or make it enticing enough for the user to actually read it. There are just paragraphs stacked on top of paragraphs, generally at 8 point making it impossible to read!

In this era of everything being on demand and with the popularity of services like Youtube with its rich media, chances are if you haven’t made you content engaging users won't read it.
It’s easy to dress up page content to make it more appealing.

Here are some ideas:

• For one break up your content, no one will read a big blog of text! See BBC website for a good example
• Use call outs – Use CSS or graphical items to show excerpts of quotes from text
• Use underline, and background color to jazz up content, 37signals have perfected this technique
• Have a linking strategy, it helps people to deep dive and view other content on your site
• Provide content intelligence – Show a list of related content (see my taxonomy blog)
• Embed stuff… take a look at any blog: video, flash, images, audio are all ways to keep people interested and enhance the content
• De-centralized your content by providing a feed in RSS, getting people to read it in any form is still good!
• Add tools like text size, search, email, embed (digg etc) and print so people can interactive with it

So there you have it, hopefully some of these idea’s are helpful. I’ll leave you with some recent sites I visited that have done this well:

• http://www.articulate.com/
• http://meetmenow.webex.com/
• http://adage.com/

Cool uses of Flash video.. a trip down memory lane

I first discovered Flash video for a project at my former employer, and blogged about it. Nowadays whether its Youtube, video blogs, Presidential Campaign or just a regular website it seems like you can't visit a site without seeing embedded web video. 99% of the time it's done using Flash Video - FLV format.

Overtime i've collected some links to a list of cool uses of Flash video. Below are some highlights and descriptions of stuff that’s been created with Flash video especially using the chroma key/green screen technique.

Some of these are a little dated, but I still like them all the same:

• Imagine this kind of demo as another helpful layer of navigation for client websites:
• Investment firm Janus has some great home page Flash video and a nice multi-video interface in their page headers
• Ektron’s CMS demo, a little cheesy but the zooming is cool
• Geico Caveman - I love these commericals, imagine this concept for virtual tour:
• Nice video console
• I don't know if you watch MythBusters, but Discovery Channel has a nice video gallery done with Flash
• This is an awesome Flash video example for a popular European deodorant brand, a little raunchy:
• I like how they customized the interface and link to different movies from within it
• Clean interface
• Elmbrook Church
• World Trade Center - Build the Memorial
• Original Macromedia Studio 8 demo (now Adobe overview of Flash video):

Taxonomy Strategy Part 1

It seems that when most websites are built these days at least some consideration is given to traffic building by using any number of strategy’s: SEO, SEM and Online PR / Seeding. However that is all about getting users to your website.

So what consideration is being given to keep users their once they arrive? It would appear that if Web 2.0 is all about creating a more interactive user experience. Web 3.0 is all about providing users the right information they want on-demand. The answer? A Taxonomy strategy.

So what is Taxonomy? Simply put taxonomy is categorization of content that doesn't suffer the traditional limitations of content tagging such as metadata. It allows you to create simply or complex content relationships that grow with your website as content is added and categorized with multiple categories.

Why is this useful? With the amount of data being added to a modern dynamic website via a Content Management System, E-commerce engine, Blog or any number of tools we are seeing traditional website navigation has hit the limits of its effectiveness. The simplest example I can offer is when you buy an item on Amazon.com you are told "Customer who bought this also bought this". Behind this kind of web application intelligence is taxonomy creating those content relationships.

It provides developers another way to interact with site content and provide more intuitive and intelligent navigation that allows refinement and drilldown to the nth degree if needed.

Creating a sound Taxonomy strategy is not an easy task. First you need to make sure you select software for your web application that includes this as a feature, most don't. To learn more about taxonomy check out the following link on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy#Applications

More to come on taxonomy strategy at a later date! :)

Googles answer to directory assistance - voice local search

My wife used to call me all the time, as i'm in front of a computer most of the day I used to be her personal assistant and 411 operator, running searches on Google for a phone number or address depending on her request. You would be suprised how vague some of her details where! It seems finally relief is at hand.

Google have chalked up another first with the Google Voice Local Search. My wife and I have been using this service for more than 2 months now and i'm impressed. Simply dial 1-800-466-4411 (1-800-GOOG-411) and your asked by an automated voice "City and State", it verifies what you said then asks your business name or category, say that and you are presented with a list of results that match your description, it will then read you the address and either directly connect you via phone to the business or send you the results of your voice search via text SMS message to your cell phone.

Since giving my wife this number it has reduced 99.1% of her calls to me about running searches for businesses! So if you have a co-worker, significant other or even a mother that needs help tell them to give 1-800-GOOG-411 a try! I end this blog with a sigh of relief.

Loving Google Analytics

I just got notified of the upgrade to the new and improved version of Google Analytics. After logging in and checking it out I've got to say i'm impressed. The new version has some killer features, and a bold new interface that uses a line graph for most overviews in favor of the old 3D horizontal bar graphs.

Having worked with a number of analytics packages and vendors over the years including Deepmetrix, Urchin (before Google bought them), Webtrends and Omniture i'm amazed at features in Google Analytics. Granted everything ties back to their ad network but name another analytic provider that current offers so much for free?

I recently attending a Webex demo with an Omniture sales rep and has show their stat's system. They definately have an amazing interface, and some great feature including the ability to customize your stats to the nth degree. However their package is not cheap.

At my former employer I was looking at upgrading from our hosted web analytics package Urchin 5.7 (after Google bought them). I really liked Deepmetrix from my experience with version 6 of their Livestats product. It was funny to see then (in May 2006) that Microsoft acquired them. Now it seems we are only months away from seeing the release of "Code Name Gatineau" a similar offering in the free analytics space from Microsoft. It's a little bit of history repeating!

Web 2.0 design

I read an article this week on BBC's site titled "Web 2.0 'neglecting good design'". The article describes web usability guru Jakob Nielsen assessment of a sloppy approach by a lot of design firms to include dynamic web 2.0 functionality without a lot of thought, the term "glossy but useless". I have tend to agree with some of his comments, but I think it all depends on the user.

As a more savvy web user I'm often frustrated by flat boring sites that don't offer a fluid interface and access to the information I want on demand. With advancements that have been made with AJAX, DHTML, Flash and mashups of those technologies I think it offers users an array of great functionality if the Information Architecture has been thought out correctly.

It's true you can create a site and load it full of crazy features no one will use and seem some developers of company's do it just for notoriety.

However their is another element to Web 2.0 that the article doesn't address which is cleaner design. Thank god the days of sites oozing of tiled backgrounds, heavily bitmapped graphics and excessive use of animated gifs and flash are over. Google, 37Signals and others have really been innovators in this space providing us a new cleaner way to approach design in their applications. On that note, here are some great articles on Web 2.0 design I reviewed recently:

• Design style guide (great overview)
• Simple clean designs
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
• Keep it Simple Stupid (more high level)

To end this blog I will leave you with a cool video on I found on Youtube that shows the evolution of the Web from 1.0 to 2.0! :)

Creating a compeling user experience ... the 8 second rule

While talking to a co-worker recently he compared a websites homepage to a shop window. I had never looked at it this way before but when you think of it, he is right. If I walk by a shop and see the same display in the front window every time I walk by, as a consumer I am far less interested in going in and taking a look. The shops that change their window displays frequently and keep me interested and the ones that generally entice me inside to buy something.

It's amazing to me why so many companies’s with bricks and mortar establishments who care know how to sell product in the traditional world, don't apply the same tactics to their website online!

We've all visited websites where it doesn't matter if you return today or 30 days from now nothing changes. I'm not talking about old static websites either, I’m talking about websites that have clearly been redesigned recently and are clearly run on a CMS and have an e-commerce component.

Your website in your online living and breathing marketing tool, so use it like one!

The term "Content is King" has been banded around quite a lot, but it still holds true. Make sure their is plenty of good content on your website, but also make sure it's relevant and targeted to the user. Sure it takes time and money to develop website that enables you to keep content fresh and relevant. But with the ever increasing number of businesses going online today its a competitive market place out there.

If you have the ability to update your website frequently and have the skills to do so then do it! It doesn't matter how much money you've spent on SEO or SEM. Without a compelling user experience, and if you haven't found a way to engage a user after 8 seconds you've lost them you've lost them to the next listing on Google.

I guess the mentality is "it's not my job" could be your downfall. Hmmm a certain viral email image springs to mind (see left).

My point? Don't let your website fall prey to becoming boring and static. Keep the content fresh, relevant and sticky. Give users a reason to return!

Silverlight, Microsofts answer to Flash

I was on MSDN this morning and found out that Microsoft has official released their Flash clone and called it Silverlight. It looks like Microsoft are trying to directly compete with Flash with this release. Formally known as Sparkle and Codename WPF/E this release is Beta and looks a little more polished. I don't expect it to gain much traction initially with the loyalty of the community to Flash, remember SVG... which Adobe has just abandoned.

There are plug-ins for Mac and PC, and they've released an Alpha version of some development software on the Microsoft website. This will be an interesting space to watch. With the growth of the .NET community and Microsofts push in this space with significant investment in Visual Studio and Expression software which now integrate directly with Silverlight it definately looks like we are headed for a showdown between Adobe and Microsoft.

De-centralized content

With the ever growing population of Web 2.0 community enabled sites on the internet it dawned on me that the same technology employed by sites like YouTube, FlickR, MySpace and others use to get visitors to their sites can be easily harnessed by other Business to Consumer and Business to Business .com's. Working in the agency world most clients generally believe a sound SEO and SEM tactics are the best way to get people to their sites. However what if you created your new website with the same embed tools (blog this, link this etc) that the experts use to enable you content to be aggregated?

As with any technology there are some concerns when you open up you websites content to be de-centralized, and that is loss of control. The other is making sure your site can handle the increased traffic if an article, picture of video goes viral. I recently read an article about the pitfalls of Microsoft enabling all their website content to be syndicated via RSS. The increased traffic almost brought their website to its knees, resulting in a less aggressive RSS strategy.

However the pay offs including improving awareness, increased visitors and your sites ranking are worth the risk. These days it seems if your embarking on a website redesign or build you should seriously consider a strategy to de-centralize some of your content. Whether it be press releases, imagery, documents or rich media such as video and audio. Creating buzz around your content is what it’s all about!