by tyler on 01/26/2012
When a new feature is launched, especially in the search world, I hold off on writing about till I get some time to play with it. Google launches the Search plus Your World (SPYW) feature which allows you to see sites in the organic search results that are more aligned with Google+ and your friends recommendations. Pages that have been +1′ed will show higher and when searching individuals or brands their Google+ profile will display first (in most cases). The “Don’t be Evil” Google did have the common sense to give searches an option to toggle (see image above) between the personalized results and the universal results that you are used to viewing. Then Google went evil and decided to default to the SPYW option when you are logged into a Google account. Lame.
Originally, I was going to write about how I could see this move by Google to both compete on the social front and help push a few more clicks to the paid search results. The reason, organic results are going to be pulling in results that I probably already have an idea about and seem less relevant. Most pages that are +1′ed and will rank higher in the SERPs are blog posts or popular web services that my friends on Google+ use, and therefore I have usually heard of or already know intimately. Thereby turning to the paid results for “relevant” answers, or so searchers hope.
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by tyler on 01/21/2012
Amazon announced a site redesign at the beginning of September but there has not been much since then. I recently started seeing the new Amazon site design (do you?) on my work computer, but co-workers were not seeing the same. It has been back and forth at home, some days I see it, and others I don’t.
The Amazon site has not seen a full redesign in years. Over that time, as Amazon sells more and more goods, the site has become rather cluttered and there is a ton of content to absorb. The first time I read about Amazon’s site design was in Steve Krug’s popular book, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. The book referenced designs from the late 90′s where Amazon was one of the first sites to use tabs. Amazon has since moved on from the tabs but is this redesign in the right direction?
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by tyler on 01/17/2012
Selling a mobile app (iphone or android) can be a real pain. Over the years I have entertained the idea of selling the first app I came up with in 2008, a soccer app called iSoccer. Apple purposely makes it difficult to transfer ownership of an app from one entity (whether it be an individual or a company) to another. One common solution is for the seller to remove the app from the app store and the buyer resubmits the app under their account. The issue here is certain tracking and relationships are severed when the app jumps accounts. It is the equivalent of buying a house (the app) in a neighborhood (the App Store) but you have to tear the house down and rebuild it down the street. The other option is selling the whole iTunes Connect account, I never felt completely comfortable with that. Then I came across Apptopia.
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by tyler on 01/9/2012
When reading there are few things better than holding a physical book. I read the occasional magazine and was never a huge fan of newspapers but a (hardback) book is by far my favorite. Up to this point I have held off the urge to try an e-reader, or specifically a Nook or Kindle. When I travel I default to reading magazines because I don’t want to lug a book in my bag. For example, I am currently reading the Steve Jobs biography and it is over 600 pages. The weight isn’t as much as an issues as is the thickness with all the other crap I have to bring. I also like the idea that when I am reading around the house my children see that I am reading a physical book and not a device. This has has been reinforced as my son (almost 3 years old) will grab one of his books and sit down next to me and “read” as well. I am however starting to get pulled toward the direction of an e-reader because I have really started increasing the amount of time I am reading, the ease of having it when I travel and just out of pure tech curiosity.
If one were to buy an “e-reader”, which is best?
This decision breaks down into two different segments. The first being a classic e-reader with e-ink that is most like a book, or the new tablets that can double as a reader. In this case that would be a Kindle Fire, or Nook Tablet and even an iPad. I already own an iPad 2 but my children have adopted the device and I don’t see it as often. The second decision point is which brand, Kindle or Nook?
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by tyler on 01/5/2012
The SEO community got all worked up this week when SEO Book and Search Engine Land reported that an advertising campaign by Google for their Chrome browser included links without no follow tags. The assumption was Google is buying links, which is a big no-no, per Google’s webmaster guidelines.
The image above shows a link with the anchor text of “Google Chrome” from one of the paid posts. Google responded to the accusations by claiming that they were buying video advertisements (there is a video lower on the page reference above), and the article that was created had the questionable links added by the authors of the posts. The pages included “This post is sponsored by Google”.
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by tyler on 12/7/2011
In mid-October Google announced that all searches conducted while a user is logged into their account will be secured with SSL encryption. Technically not a big deal, till Google mentioned that all organic searches would not pass keyword data to Google Analytics. Instead, GA would show (not provided) in the keyword column. While this extremely valuable information would now be hidden, Google said that it should only be about 10% of the total keyword volume. Lets see how close to 10% we are.
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by tyler on 11/29/2011
I bought my first laptop shortly after I graduated from college. The problem was I missed the point of a laptop. My first laptop was what they called a “desktop replacement” which meant it had the power and memory of a desktop and weighed about as much but with a flip up screen. This was at a time when the desktop was the norm and years before tablets.
Realizing the error in my ways, I went the opposite direction, bought another Dell, but this time one with a 12-inch screen. Super mobile and short battery life. There wasn’t really a need for a laptop at this time in my career (as my job provided one), and I always had a desktop around but I liked the idea of a laptop. The mobility was great, but when I got my first job at a startup and my laptop became my main work computer, the 12 inch screen was killing me. A monitor was provided but the software was not super excited with the addition of an external monitor and the system was slow. It was time for a change.
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by tyler on 11/22/2011
It was recently brought to my attention that if you visit the Merrill Lynch corporate site using the Google Chrome browser, you would get a “Incompatible Browser Detected” error. That can’t be right. One of the biggest financial companies in the world probably gets hundreds of thousands of pageviews from the Chrome browser every month. Here is a screen shot of the error.
Notice the browser versions they do support; IE 5, Netscape (what is that?), and Firefox 0.8. Talk about being out of touch with current web trends. Netscape doesn’t even register on browser market share reports anymore and Chrome is closing in on FireFox as the second most used browser behind the free falling Internet Explorer.
The only question that comes to mind after experiencing this would be, is this a corporate policy that the internal tech team is fighting? Or is this choice coming from the internal tech team because they are too lazy to get the site to work with modern browsers? Either way, this is lame.
by tyler on 11/18/2011
Local designer and close friend Gabe Shultz won the Best Identity at the CSCA’s Creative Best awards show for rebranding the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) soccer team. The rebranding was a side project that Gabe did for fun.
A recent conversation with Gabe was around the strength of the NY Cosmos soccer brand. A team that had a ton of success in the NASL in the 70′s. The team has been relaunched with the backing of Umbro and is selling a ton of merchandise, but is not part of a professional soccer league (rumors that they are trying to join the MLS are on and off). The brands success is based on the individuals involved (Pele, Eric Cantona, and Cobi Jones) and its heritage.
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