I’ve had a couple sites go live this week – first, some niche websites with NameMedia, Hotcars.com and Dreamwheels.com as well as Cats.com (I didn’t work as much on that one, it was in the hands of the talented Matt Busby and David Rodal). These come on the tails of the launches on March 1 of Biking.com, Cycling.com, Boating.com, Yachting.com and Mommy.com. I was lucky enough to work with Eugene Bernstein, Tom Willmot, Joe Hoyle, Peter Kuhn and Neema Dhakal…
A very nice step forward for WordPress, but not without it’s issues. Basically I’m liking what I see, but I think it’ll be another release before they really can sort it out and deliver on the real promise. What I like: Finally an integrated photogallery that works. Click my gallery link above. The ability to put a photo gallery in a post. Admin works nicely, and is a whole lot better to work in. Tagging and categories that work. They…
Okay, I hadn’t seen this when I posted my previous bit. All in all its a very bad day for the print media. Quoting from Eric Alterman’s article: …trends in circulation and advertising––the rise of the Internet, which has made the daily newspaper look slow and unresponsive; the advent of Craigslist, which is wiping out classified advertising––have created a palpable sense of doom. Independent, publicly traded American newspapers have lost forty-two per cent of their market value in the past…
The NAA (National Association of Newspapers) has revealed that newspaper ad revenues are off 9.4% to $42 Billion in 2007 vs. 2006. That’s a huge number, even for the sinking fortunes of print media. And one we’ll surely eclipse when the next round of figures are released next year. I have worked with newspapers for years, and frankly, I don’t often pick them up looking for ad info anymore. If I want to look at used boats, I go to…
Like almost every one of you, I get a regular “Apple Software Update” due to my ITunes installation. I got a little surprise today when the Apple update said it had Safari ready to install. Safari? On my PC? What’s next, dogs and cats living together in peace and harmony? Normally, I’d start off railing about this. I hate it when software update functions, which I generally consider intrusive and unnecessary, try to install software other than that which they…
Computerworld has an interesting article up masticating on the notion of what the laptop may look like 7 years down the road. The article, entitled “Hello, gorgeous! Meet the laptop you’ll use in 2015” has some rather interesting feature ideas, such as the keyboard superimposed over the screen. Very interesting, very compelling, but I think that touch screens have always lacked one crucial item: tacticle response. I might be able to get used to typing on a keyboard like that,…
Who’d have thunk it? An article in Wired Magazine entitled “Algorithms Are Terrific. But to Search Smarter, Find a Person.” notices the growing trend of search firms using real meat-space residents to fine tune their results rather than relying on algorithms. The dirty little secret: algorithms can be gamed while humans are tougher to fool. Personally, I’ve been using Mahalo, Jason Calacanis’ new company and I am really liking what I see. The results are pertinent, and spam/splogger free. Give…
Read his post here… A quick taste: The question comes down to Long Tail economics in a mass audience world. How can a small, but strong “niche” site, get paid for its pageviews without assuming the massive cost structure of its own salesforce and ad ops team? How can a mass site move its unsold remainder inventory without devaluing itself? Egads, the truth shall walk up and punch you in the kidneys… I’m on the bandwagon, once you start running…
Yech, the University of Pennsylvania is recommending students and faculty stay away from Vista SP1, which is something I guess we should all consider. The problem is, there are some heinous deficientcies in Vista which many of us are hoping SP1 will solve, including: Utterly slow file moves – simply moving a file or folder on you computer can take 20 or 30 minutes. A dog slow file compression system which is also prone to error. This weekend I downloaded…
Apparently much of my email from the weekend has gone into the ether…I’ll try to reconstruct later. Also, for those trying to contact by phone, it pains me to relate the untimely demise of my cell phone, which was the victim of a Sunday afternoon trip through the rinse cycle of the Maytag. If you need me by phone, try using 4092 instead of the standard 4091 for the last 4 digits. Of course, I’m in a building which is…