11 May 09
I’m constantly surprised at the lack of attention that large companies put into their search experience - even the “technology leaders”. Search is a major interaction that many have with a company’s brand, yet search results are treated as a undifferentiated list of links (read: Google).
Many companies cite the huge undertaking it would take to properly tag their mounds of content. Fair enough. But why not try to be a little creative with this problem. Let your employees and visitors help you. Employees whose jobs are linked to the retrieval of this content will certainly be incented enough.
Search results need to be looked at as an opportunity not a utility. Publishers and retailers get this. Funny how those selling them the solutions don’t.
13 March 09
Last week the news media and the blogosphere were all abuzz about Skittles new “website”. The quotations are around “website” because it really isn’t a website, it’s a widget that sits on top of a series of non-Skittles sites - a siteless site. The widget points you to various social sites around the web, most notably Twitter, where you can see the communities comments about Skittles in real, unedited -time. Critics have declared this everything from “breakthrough” to “idiotic”. But all seem to agree that this won’t sell more Skittles.
What interested me through this whole affair was the headlines and abstracts that were popping up in Google News as I searched for “Skittles” last week. A large majority of the stories mentioned the name of the agency “Moderista!”. Modernista! was not however the agency that created this experience, it was Agency.com. Modernista! was mentioned because they used this same siteless approach to their very own website which launched a year earlier.
While most of the chatter focused on this brave move by Skittles, all of the subtext felt like the creative wind was knocked out of Agency.com’s sails in “adapting” this concept. Maybe the Agency.com folks felt that enough time had past or that the Modernista! audience was too industry-inside for anyone to care. In any case I wonder if Modernista’s phones might be ringing more than Agency.com’s this week.
25 February 09
You’ve probably never heard of Warren Ellis. Unlike a few of the comic book luminaries that have transcended the industry, such as Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Frank Miller, Warren hasn’t. Yet. This is in no way related to his talent — he’s one of the most widely regarded and respected writers in comics, and has been for a while. One of my favorites in fact.
Four or five years ago a friend recommended that I sign up for Warren’s mailing list Bad Signal, describing it as “chaotic and random, but good”. After signing up my inbox quickly began to fill up with emails (several often from the same day) on topics ranging from what comics he’s working on to the state of the world to profanity-filled ramblings to technology. Most of these sent from the pub using a fold up keyboard plugged into his cell phone.
08 February 09
There’s a whole host of sites out there that let people share bookmarked imagery from around the web. These sites are great for creative inspiration, or for just wasting time. Recently launched Elements, doesn’t seem to add anything to the mix. FFFFound! and vi.sualize.us are two of the better ones that also seem to have the most critical mass.
Source: Mashable
31 January 09
First we had citizen journalism. Now we have citizen photojournalism. UK-based Demotix gives independent photographers a global reach to major news media outlets such as France’s Le Monde and the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
Scoopt and Citizen Side are two other similar services.
In related news, Getty Images began sending out invitations this week where select Flickr users will be able to license their images through Getty’s Flickr Collection.