Wednesday, April 30, 2008

iGoogle Themes

Last year Google introduced iGoogle, an addition to the Google Web site that allows customization, thereby creating an individual homepage for each user. You can login to your personalized page via the iGoogle top right menu on the Google homepage.

Not only do you get to use the predefined gadgets, but you can add your customized RSS feeds or create your own gadgets via the Web developer tools.

Today I noticed that Google was featuring theme images for the iGoogle homepage. It got me intrigued and I starting browsing the many themes available. Thus far I had been using the beach theme which changes it looks depending on the weather and time of the day. However, there are many other themes available. You can even give it a world and create your own themes. I haven't experimented yet, but hopefully I will be giving it a whirl soon.

The bottom line is that Google chooses to keep improving every product, first came iGoogle, then came Google Tabs, followed by Google Themes, now iGoogle social networking via design your own themes, user rating, user comments and FAQ. This company knows how to get things going and keep going. Google guys, forget American Idol, you are my new idols.

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posted by Death is Endless at 9:50 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, April 11, 2008

Instant Information

The Web is designed as an avenue for providing and finding information, yet many media companies insist on holding back on their content until after their publication is released to the market.

This is a fatal mistake, folks who read periodicals are not the folks tuned in to the Web. A once a month read is not bad, but what about the media junkies who just can't get enough, how do you deliver to that audience?

Some companies don't even bother to put their content online, while others drop 20 to 30 articles onto their site typically on a random fashion and without any organization. To most publishers, their Web site is but an after thought, designed to serve as an advertisement to drive subscriptions for the periodical. Other simply place news and press release items, but leave their readers hanging with original content living strictly on the print pages.

The bottom line is that in today's world the business and money is online. Publishers can save millions of dollars by turning their periodical into digital editions first. That is, release the content to the site as it comes in. Use the print medium as a place to publish the most important stories/articles. Showcase a variety of product and product release, while driving the reader to the site to see a list of all items. Use the medium as a way to sum up the news for the month, but the site as a way to keep the reader vested and interested in checking that site often to see the goings on of the profession.

The reader benefits because:

1. they can reach all the content instantly on the Web site
2. Monitor the RSS feed in their favorite rss reader
3. Get a weekly newsletter with all new content via email.
4. Get a monthly filtered view via print.


The Publisher benefits because:
1. More viewers to their Web publications
2. More viewers means a higher CPM for their Ads
3. A inherited CMS (Content Management System) for their Print Publication
4. A better staffed editorial team that is cross trained for Print and Online
5. Less crunch time, since the articles are pre-edited.

and many more benefits. Now go on and designed a great site with proper navigation.

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posted by Death is Endless at 9:47 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Travel Sites

With the holidays soon approaching, it seems I'm getting a lot of calls from relatives and friends about booking trips. Of course, these all comes about because of our recent relocation to sunny Florida.

I typically turn to the usual suspects when it comes to researching flights and tickets, Expedia and Travelocity. These sites are designed to be easy to use and with the user in mind. Their designs and architecture are always improving. The most recent of updates is the ability to quickly search nearby airports to the destination or departure cities.

A new travel search engine is, however, on the rise. Kayak.com is designed to allow the user to not only get the cheapest tickets, but to run comparison of nearby airports. The site also allows you to use its interface to compare prices on Expedia, Travelocity and Hotwire, all with the click of a three checkboxes. The site also remembers your previous searches in order to save time on future searches. As you type in the city or airport code in the search boxes, a drop down similar to that of the Google toolbar comes up to aid you in locating your departure or destination cities.

Kayak is also designed to present a very user friendly results page which quickly allows you to select if you prefer nonstop, one stop, or two stops flights. As well, you can narrow down via flight times and price.

The bottom line is that I can now understand why Kayak.com is such an up and coming site, after all they have now achieve an Alexa ranking of 1782. Competition promotes better features and alternatives, while providing the best prices for consumers. Kayak.com is also a great example of conveniences presented to users. It is amazing what great design and information architecture can do for a site. Expedia (Alexa of 542) and Travelocity (Alexa of 781), better get up to speed on the technology back end or they will loose their placing among the travel sites.

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posted by Death is Endless at 10:38 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Social Bookmarking

Today I was reading an article on Google privacy issues where the author was trying to explain the evil of the company. I, for one, think that Google is out to make money like everyone else, however they do it gracefully and with no mal intention in mind.

However, the interesting part of the article was found at the footer where they placed a widget I never seen before. It is called Add This! The widget allows any blogger, Web designer, or Web guru to allow folks to quickly add the article to the countless sites now available for social sharing.

I typically make it a habit to be in tune with all the goings on of the Web and stay up to date in all the popular sites, but somehow this one slip under my radar until today. Add this! ranking on the top 5000 Web sites of the world as measured by Alexa, seems to be a popular widget site with such sites as ABC, PC Mag, Template Monster, and many others using it, seems to make sense to start using this.

The bottom line is that sometime sis best to rely on some one's tool rather than reinvent the wheel and create your own tools. It is very easy to create and add a social bookmarking site to your pages, but why should you spend the time designing and developing it when someone else already did it and is providing it to you free of charge.

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posted by Death is Endless at 10:24 AM 0 Comments Links to this post