Media
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Google’s latest rival appeared yesterday to great hype and fanfare. Cuil.com was founded by a handful of former Google heavyweights who are getting everyone worked up at the possibility of a “next Google”.
But instead of a roar, Cuil.com got off with something more like a FFFRRRAAPFT! (although any one of Don Martin’s sound effects would apply).
Cuil (pronounced “cool”) dismisses Google’s search methodology as nothing more than a “superficial popularity metric”. They also claim to have an index three times larger than Google’s. Search 121,617,892,992 Web pages, boasts the homepage – a number that hasn’t changed a day later. They also claim that their mission is to index the entire Internet, not just bits and pieces.
Starting with the name, there are a lot of red flags in the previous paragraph.
Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, July 25th, 2008
It is finally here! For all of you that have never had the time for a real relationship but yet want to feel connected to someone special without all the time and effort, your heart can finally find rest. A new online dating service has arrived. TweetHarmony.com!
Unlike all the other online dating services TweetHarmony gives you an option keep it simple with minimal effort and time. Life gets busy when you are a working professional and its hard to even fit in a quick work out at the gym. Yet regardless of how happy your career may make you, you are still longing for a deeper connection than what you are finding at work or with your family. TweetHarmony has 3 wonderful and painless options to meet your individual needs.
1. Slow Tweeting – This option is for those that work way too much and do not find time to socialize. It can be hard putting yourself out there again specially when you have a hard time talking to people with out mentioning work. The Slow Tweeting track will match you to a few individuals that Tweet about the same things your do. All you have to do is continue Tweeting like normal. Thats right! No talking on the phone, no meeting, just Tweet. Slow Tweeting gives you the option to direct Tweet but only if you ready.
2. Direct Tweeting – This TweetHarmony track is for those that are ready to jump in to a direct Tweet with someone. Now, don’t judge those that are ready for this track right away. There are plenty of people that are ready for this and its nothing to be ashamed of. The Direct Tweeting option allows you to directly Tweet someone you may be interested in. Yes, this means a personal Tweet that no one else can see. Direct Tweeting is a great way to find out a little more about another fellow Tweeter without adding the stress of using a phone.
3. Speed Tweeting – This is the final TweetHarmony option there is. This is the Tweeting track that most people are scared of. In this track you can direct tweet, reply tweet and even give out personal contact information if you so choose. This track is for those of you that have passed through the other two tracks carefully and cautiously. It is very rare that anyone would want to jump into this track without going through the first two. This TweetHarmony option requires more effort and could possibly take up more of your time so enter into this stage with care.
TweetHarmony.com is a great way to meet people and get connected with an option to start a life long relationship with your Tweet Match. There is no pressure to take it fast, no one telling you to call or to go out. Its simply Tweeting. Go head…. Its OK to Tweet!
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Often times, when clients view analytics reports, they’ll come across a metric that I’ve found to be very misleading depending on their business goals and objectives — bounce rate.
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to your site that enter and then leave after a page view. Many reporting tools will show this metric per page.
It can be alarming to see such a high percentage. Your immediate thought may be that you’re not doing something right but again, depending on your business, this might not be as scary as it appears. For instance, if you’re a commerce site and your objective is to get visitors to buy shoes, book a rental or get an insurance quote, then you may want to take a look at why your visitors are not entering your conversion funnel. In this instance you should take heed of your bounce rate. If you’re in the business of providing information, though, then you might not want to pay close attention to this metric.
To put this in perspective, a zoo’s goal may be providing information to potential customers like hours of operation, events over the weekend or details about breeds of animals housed there. If I navigate to a search engine and query “Denver zoo hours of operation” and I land on a page on the zoo’s website then leave after seeing when the zoo is open; the mission of their online channel is accomplished. A high bounce rate on this page should cause no concern.
A co-worker asked about a personal blog at one point, inquiring about a high bounce rate and how this could be lowered. Again, the blog is informative, heavily spidered by Google and visitors may be finding exactly what they’re looking for. If further engagement is the goal then looking at including relative links to associated content might be a good way to increase stickiness. If you’re writing an article about how to care for tomatoes during the summertime, then consider including links to other articles you may have written about fertilizers, watering or health benefits. The chances of a user browsing your blog have increased.
So, it depends on your online business and your objectives. Remain cautious of dependency on this metric as it may not completely apply to you!
My Grandmother’s Cherry Bounce
Ingredients
- 1/2 gallon Louisiana wild cherries (or fresh bing cherries)
- 1/2 gallon bourbon
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
Instructions
Wash the cherries and put them in a gallon crock or jug. Add the whiskey, cover with cheesecloth or cork loosely. Set aside for 3 months or longer (mark you calendar) in a dark closet until the whiskey has absorbed the cherry flavor. After three months, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and continue cooking until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and cool.
Pour the cherry and bourbon mixture through cheesecloth or a coffee filter into 1-quart sterilized bottles or decanters. To two-thirds of the cherry bounce, add one-third of the simple syrup. If you prefer it less sweet, use less simple syrup. Cork and store in a dry place.
Makes about 2 1/2 quarts
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Beginning in September, Google will distribute original cartoons by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane (MacFarlane is Scottish for, “I’m rich, b!*%$ “). What’s interesting about this deal is the method of distribution – Google’s AdSense program will be the delivery channel.
The New York Times reported a few weeks back that Seth MacFarlane’s Calvacade of Comedy will consist of 50 2 minute cartoons that will appear on various websites that cater to favorable demographics (tags: male, 14-35, crotch-injuries-hilarious).
Distributing wildly popular content through an existing infrastructure is a brilliant move on Google’s part. Rather than hosting the cartoons on a single site, MacFarlane/Google are running them all over the web, distributing them as far and wide as they see fit. The cartoons will make money with a pre-roll, sponsorship tag or something along those lines.
Personally, I don’t like Family Guy because it’s stocked with weak characters (except for Stewie – how can you go wrong with Dr. Smith from Lost in Space in a baby’s body?) with grating voices who deliver a slapdash collection of random jokes. Check out South Park’s brilliant interpretation on the Family Guy phenomenon.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
The title of this post is deceiving as Wordpress and Drupal do not supply identical functionality and therefore cannot truly be compared. Before I had experience working with either of these web frameworks, I assumed they held a doppelgänger-like relationship; both serving the same purpose. My assumption was wrong and the differences between Wordpress and Drupal must be addressed before any comparison is to be had.
Wordpress is a blogging platform. It is relatively simple, easy to modify, and shines in instances where the website owner only needs to communicate with users. If you are new to web development and are looking for a place to start, I would recommend downloading the latest release of Wordpress and giving it a shot.
Drupal is an entire content management system (CMS) and is directed towards building full websites. A Drupal site may contain a blog within it, as well as many other features. It is hefty, extremely configurable, and should be considered if you are going to want more out of your website than just a communication tool.
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- Installation: Both Wordpress and Drupal “install” by you downloading the core files, unzipping them, then placing them on a web server. You must set up a database for each installation and upon activating the install script, supply some simple options (site name, admin login). Both platforms installed very easily on my server and never gave any problems.
- Creating/Maintaining Content: As both Drupal and Wordpress manage content, this category is important to address. Wordpress allows for the creation of a “post” or a “page” where Drupal allows for those as well as an unlimited amount of other types via the Content Construction Kit (CCK). Lets say I wanted the ability for users to create a personal calendar. Since a calendar is neither a post or a page, you would have to do some serious tweaking with Wordpress to implement it. With CCK however, you can create a “calendar” content type and allow users of your site to start using their own calendars. Although CCK isn’t perfect (trust me) and also takes some tweaking, it will be a lot easier to work with than a plugin for Wordpress.
- Ease Of Administration: Hands down, I found Wordpress easier to work with. The glistening admin panel welcomes you by presenting options that you are looking for. In Drupal, I would find myself turning to google just to find out where a configurable option is located in the pages upon pages of settings.
- Theming: Drupal and Wordpress offer the ability for you to customize the general look and feel of your site, aka: themed. I found the theming for Drupal to be a tad daunting with “what variables are available” and “how do I just do this” type of issues. Wordpress uses a system called “The Loop” that retrieves content to be displayed on a page, then allows you to have your way with each piece of it. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it allows for customization.
- Modules and Plugins: Modules (for Drupal) and plugins (for Wordpress) allow you to expand and customize your site beyond what is included in the core installation files. Both Wordpress and Drupal offer tons of free modules and plugins to choose from that are easy to install and activate, but the big difference between the two systems comes when you are creating your own. Drupal proved to beat out Wordpress in this regard with the sheer number of hooks available. In Wordpress, it’s difficult to create a plugin without having to modify another feature (page or theme) of your site. Drupal alleviates this by giving module-writers a lot more control as well as a form system that is hard to beat.
- Support: I realize that it’s better to read documentation and figure problems out yourself, but sometimes the need for advice is unavoidable. Being that both Drupal and Wordpress are open source, the community is what supports any issues you might come across. I found help for Wordpress hard to find compared to Drupal’s forums which are monitored continuously. The couple of posts I made on the Drupal site were answered within minutes where some of my Wordpress questions still have zero responses.
- Upgrading: Updating is an important part of any open source software, but it can also lead to a lot of headaches. Add-ons will stop working, mysterious things will happen, and you will be left to clean it all up. Drupal implements an “update script” which is to be run every time a newer version of a module, theme, or database is installed. Often times, this script would error or timeout without any explanation. Wordpress’s update process is as direct as copy/pasting files and served no real problems to me.
Overall, both platforms are great tools. Wordpress is easier to use but offers less. Drupal is completely open, but the learning curve is a tad steeper. Decide what you want out of your site and then discover which is right for you.
