Archives for category: Trends

2 Weeks with Google Chrome

December 8, 09 //
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Most people are creatures of habit.  Just look at almost any Analytics report now days and you’ll still see that around 20% of most “average” web visitors still use Internet Explorer 6… a browser that was released in 2001 and is EXTREMELY out of date.

So, in an effort to change some of my own habits and try something new, I decided to try setting my default browser from Internet Explorer 8 to Google Chrome.

The following paragraphs are a few of my observations on the browser and how well it performs in everyday environments.

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Bing’s Smoke-In-Mirror Growth

October 1, 09 //
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In the month’s since Microsoft’s launch of their new search engine Bing.com, much has been said about it’s amazing market share growth.

Some even proclaiming a 10% market grab since it’s launch. However, much of that is smoke in mirrors and not “real” traffic…

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The Internet Manifesto… A Must Read for ANY Journalist

September 9, 09 //
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This has been stirring up some controversy lately in and around the journalism field over the past few days.

The Internet Manifesto – How journalism works today. Seventeen declarations.

What originally started as small declaration by a few German bloggers has recently been translated into English and several other languages and has quickly turned into the front line of the fight between “traditional” journalism and the web.

Since I work in both the print and the web side of this issue, it’s interesting to see how these declarations play out from both perspectives.

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Why Twitter is Significant

August 7, 09 //
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Twitter LogoIt seems lately that on almost a weekly basis I get asked or overhear someone talking about how they don’t understand what the all fuss is about Twitter.

At first Glance, this is a rather obvious and understandable statement.  After all, what can you REALLY do with 140 characters?  Just take a look at this article on CNN Money as a perfect example of this mis-understanding.

The problem is that people are viewing Twitter at face value… a free, easy to use service that asks the simple question - ”What are you doing?” – in 140 characters or less.

But wait… did you catch that?  Those four little words in the previous sentence:

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Mr. Internet… Please Kill IE6

August 6, 09 //
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Bring Down IE6!I really don’t know who mr. Internet is… or if there really is such a thing. I tend to think of him (at least in my mind) as the wizard behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.

But, unlike the Wiz’, I’m not asking him for a heart, for courage, or for a brain… I’m asking him to kill, murder, all around X-Out Internet Explorer 6.

It was born in 2001, lived a good live… but it has since been replaced by Internet Explorer 7 and 8.  So, it’s time to put it to pasture or… frankly, just put a bullet in it’s source code and be over with it.

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Is Twitter the Google-Killer we’ve been looking for?

May 10, 09 //
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Twitter Replacing GoogleThere are literally hundreds of thousands of articles on, about, or around Twitter.  Most of them have to do with the communication side of things.

It is a change-agent to the way we communicate and consume information from person-to-person.

However, what most people don’t realize is Twitter’s real future, may lie in search… in one form or another.  More info after the jump.

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Amazon gets into the URL shorten biz with amzn.com

May 8, 09 //
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a_com_logo_rgbHere’s a nice little tid-bit I found today… Amazon.com has (unofficially) launched a URL shortening service for it’s products.

This really doesn’t come as a huge suprise, considering Jeff Bezos has invested in Twitter and the huge explosion in Twitter’s popularity lately, it only make sense that they would harness this power to integrate with their services.

How it Works:

First, find the product ID of the item you’d like to distribute… in this case, let’s use Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader: B00154JDAI then simply add it to the url http://amzn.com/ like this http://amzn.com/B00154JDAI

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1 Second Ad = Hours of Free Publicity

January 27, 09 //
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1 Second AdAs I’m watching the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the second guest tonight is the lead actor in a 1 second SuperBowl commercial for Miller High Life. I had heard about this on CNN, Yahoo! News, and a few other news feeds I subscribe to and really haven’t given it much thought until now. 

However, as I’m watching this, I’m starting to realize that this is actually a genius piece of marketing by Saatchi & Saatchi of New York.

Think about it… they may have only bought a one second spot during the Superbowl, but they’re getting a ridiculous amount of publicity… simply because it’s different. 

After all, this guy isn’t on the tonight show because he delivered a brilliant piece of acting in less than a second.  He’s there because the advertising is new, creative, and therefore causing a buzz.

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The Curious Case of JPG Magazine

January 13, 09 //
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For those of you following the publishing industry and it’s current growing pains (or death throws if you’re on the other side of the fence), you may have heard of the recent demise of JPG Magazine.

What’s interesting about this and makes it worth following, is it provides us with a real-life test case for the problems (and possible solutions) facing the industry today. 

The Industry Problem

JPG Magazine, Issue 19

JPG Magazine, Issue 19

As is painfully obvious to most people born after 1975, getting your news or magazine content from an actual print magazine may be an archaic way of getting your news.  Everything that is in print is currently out of date and old news on the web.

People are quickly moving towards online magazines, blogs, and other digital media outlets for their news and commentary.

Naturally, the advertisers are following in kind.  Steadily moving from Print to the more less expensive, measurable, and profitable online ads.
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Google Chrome – It’s Not a Browser… It’s a Revolt.

September 18, 08 //
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By now, most of you have probably heard of the release of Google’s new Web Browser called Chrome. You may be thinking… big whup, another browser to account for when designing a site. Well, the big picture is actually much larger than that.

The Following paragraphs will demonstrate how this just isn’t a simple new application in the market place – it’s the tip of the spear in an assault on how we view and interact with a computer.

The Revolution Will be Streamed

Before I can talk about the application itself, I first need to discuss a relatively new concept in the industry called “Cloud Computing”.

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