Archive for February, 2008
Friday, February 29th, 2008
YouTube launched a new beta this week, which allows you to customize your homepage. It still has the same look and feel, but allows you to move the modules around on the page, so you can keep what is most important on top where you want it. I have two favorite modules I can now keep on top.
The first is recommendations, in which YouTube provides you an algorithmically-selected set of videos based on your viewing history. I personally find to think this is too scientific. I like to think magical fairies watch the videos I liked in the past and then pull videos off the shelf to upload them to my homepage. It just sounds warmer.
The second is subscriptions. I subscribe to all things Marie Digby. She is an amazing singer I am stalking, so I like to know what she has done in an instant. Is stalking illegal?
The goal with all of this is to gauge people’s interest in having a YouTube
What I like best about the beta is that YouTube, along with many other social networking sites, has accepted that everyone is an individual and cannot create a single homepage for all users. Everyone interacts with a social networking sites differently, so why not let us decide where we want each module. This way, we can click and scroll less. A win/win. We set up the homepage the way we like and we spend more time on YouTube.
Check out the beta by clicking this link.
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Have you seen the recent iPhone advertisement on TV featuring a custom Facebook site!? Well if you haven’t - you can check it out here. The iPhone and Apple in general are doing amazing things with interaction design and now it seems Facebook has teamed up with them and created a fantastic web-based interface. “Who cares” you ask “I don’t have an iPhone.” - well neither do I, but an estimated 10 million of us are projected to by the end of the year. 10 million users! After the initial wow factor after seeing the ad, I put on my “practical” hat (I wear a lot of hats, both literally and figuratively) and said to myself - “Hey self - are we going back to the days of creating browser specific web-sites - well that sucks!” However, 10 million people are using perhaps the most inspiring web device that any of us have seen - maybe it’s time to throw caution into the wind and consider creating custom sites just for this tool. The cool factor alone might be worth it - but browsing a newspaper or reserving a car would be so sweet on one of these things with a little iPhone customization. I started thinking - how are they doing it? How is it that Facebook can look so different on an iPhone - what’s the secret? Well, I honestly haven’t done all my research (sorry), but what I did find surprised me a little. I can actually open the iPhone interface in my regular browser! I typically use Firefox and Safari, but I checked ie and sure enough - it’s broken (what did you expect?). Anyway, if you are on a standards compliant browser check it out: Facebook on an iPhone - but not an iPhone (I’m taking the liberty of resizing the window for you to approximate an iPhone). Granted you have to use your mouse instead of you finger to navigate the thing, but it still seems very cool to me. Could we do this for our clients? I sure don’t see why not.
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Every 6 months, the affiliate world gets together for Affiliate Summit. These events are the biggest and most well known affiliate conferences in the country. I had the opportunity to attend Affiliate Summit East in Miami in July as a first-timer, and it was a little intimidating. This time I had more experience and knowledge under my belt, and it was a blast!
Day 1, Sunday February 24: I got to the gate with approximately one minute to spare for my flight to Vegas. The good news is that our flight got in on time; I made it to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino (they do it right for the Summits) by 10:30 am, and was ready to change and start networking! Unfortunately, since it was so early, there weren’t any rooms available. So I had to check my bags at the bell desk and wear my sweatpants to play video poker for about an hour…classy. I finally got a room, changed, got my business cards ready, took a Dayquil, and I was finally ready to work it!
Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, February 29th, 2008
LinkedIn launched their latest redesign of their site this week. Overall, I love it and feel it is a huge improvement to the site.
In my opinion, it is cleaner and has a better overall user experience. The biggest change I see is that it uses a new navigation which moves from a tab structure to a left hand navigation. Most of all, I feel they simplified the site and how to benefit from using the site. Users will now easily understand how they can engage with the site and the value of LinkedIn. To me, a redesign that does this is extremely successful, but time will tell. It also seems to have more a social networking feel, which I think is a very positive change.
Take a look and share your opinions in the comments. Good? Bad? Better? Worse?
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Maybe it was Tom’s blog entry on Brilliant Advertising that made me notice this, but I went to check my Yahoo email and noticed an ad for Mike Myers’ new movie called The Love Guru. This is a flash image and for a split second while the ad is loading the background looks like one of those old Magic-Eye posters that you can stare at and see a 3d picture magically appear. I did a print screen and stared at it for a few seconds. I was able to get it to work (that feeling where you’re pulled into the image), and I got a secret message that said “be sure to drink your Ovaltine”. Just kidding, there was no secret image or message.
It seems like they made the background look like one of those posters on purpose. They should have included some additional advertising here or at least something funny for the 20 people around the world who will bother to do a print screen to check.
Below is the actual screen grab. Take a look and let me know if you get anything (other than the pounding headache which is sure to ensue).
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Okay, earlier this morning I blogged offering warm wishes of a great Leap Day. I gave some history and tried to build some excitement. I take all my good wishes back!
It is now almost 9:30 AM and Leap Day has been a complete bust so far. What is with this holiday this year? Has everyone lost their Leap Day spirit? What is next, no Arbor Day?
Here is how the day has gone wrong so far:
- I ran downstairs in my pajamas this morning and there were NO gifts under the Leap Day tree. Way to go Dale!
- I turned on the TV and could not find the Leap Day Parade on any of the major networks. Maybe Bravo or Oxygen is carrying it this year?
- I checked the backyard and the Leap Day Frog did not leave me any eggs or other goodies with candy inside.
- None of the neighbors have their Leap Day flags up. What the hell? Don’t they care about the holidays?
- For some reason, Dale has NOT started on cooking the traditional Leap Day Dinner of frog legs and tator tots. The day is going to be ruined.
- For some reason the banks, schools and Post Office are still open. Hello! Don’t we take these days off???
All I have to say, is when I get dressed up tonight in my Leap Frog costume and go door to door, the neighbors better have candy for me.
Happy Leap Day! For what ever it is worse. I hope you are at least doing something Leap Day-ish where you are.
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Since it is Leap Day, I figured it would be good to learn more about this not-so-festive holiday. Below is a cornucopia of what the good folks at Google gave me.
However, you must read all the way to the bottom of this post to learn a special piece of information that may make Leap Day more fun for our very own Ronnie Guidry.
February 29, 2008
The year 2008 is a leap year. If you look at a 2008 calendar, you will see that February has five Fridays–the month begins and ends on a Friday. Between the years 1904 and 2096, leap years that share the same day of week for each date repeat only every 28 years. The most recent year in which February comprised five Fridays was in 1980, and the next occurrence will be in 2036. February 29, the leap day, has been associated with age-old traditions, superstitions and folklore.
What is a leap year?
A leap year is a year in which Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
There’s a big realization when you’re seperated from the day-to-day that becomes somewhat rythmic and throw yourself into a large pool of professionals concentrated on the same industry. It’s not to be compared with throwing a wrench in the gears but really, it gives you the opportunity to broaden at such a pace that if you don’t take inventory of it, it might steam by without allowing you to take in how much can happen in a short amount of time.
To write a summary of everything presented to me, both new ideas and the affirmation of old ones, I’d most likely need to learn how to summarize better. The overlying themes that seemed to flow between every conversation I’ve had over the last three days, now that’s something I can attempt to convey in a summarized version. After all, with all this attention around being green, I’d hate to lay waste to the digital forests with reckless abandon.
Search Engine Marketing is not a magic potion
I think this point is something that is a rule of thumb for every marketing option available currently. Marketers and those in the industry of helping their brand sell things have long been cursed with tunnel vision. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
I get requests every so often to put Indigio employee faces on funny pictures. It’s really a simple process once you learn the steps. I can crank them out in about 5 minutes (finding good source photos can take much longer).
The first step is to find the source photos. The face of the Indigian has to be turned in a very similar direction to the photo on which it will be placed, otherwise it won’t look right.
Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Each month Indigians are encouraged to nominate fellow Indigians for our monthly Peer Award. This award is for recognizing employees’ contributions, building self-esteem, promoting teamwork and inspiring excellence at Indigio.
I am proud to announce Jim Halligan, our Media Manager and Laurie Halvorsen, our Controller, as the winners for January 2008. Here are why they were nominated and why they won, in the words of those who nominated each of them: Read the rest of this entry »
