The power of the web to spread the word…

Now I am sure that everyone has heard at some point something similar to: “You must start blogging! It’s an incredible tool to spread the word!” and equally we are all constantly hearing things like “Twitter can project your voice instantly to huge audiences.”

Well I want to share a couple of examples that I’ve come across. Yesterday, we probably all heard about the amazing job done by a brave American Airlines pilot, dumping his plane into the Hudson river without any loss of life. What is different though, is a large number of you probably heard about it first through twitter. It turns out that one of the first ferry’s on the scene happened to have a man by the name of Janis Krums. Mr. Krums by luck had an iPhone on him and was in his twitter application so as the Ferry approached the plane to help the survivors he took a picture which went straight onto twitpic (the photo part of twitter) and the word was out…beating any professional reporter even though this is NEW YORK!

Now at least I can say that Mr. Krums didn’t take his micro-blogging quite as seriously as a certain Mike Wilson did in December. Mr. Wilson was actually in a plane crash and twittered updates throughout the entire ordeal leaving some to question the state of mind of a man that is trying to save his own life. The initial message of “Holy bleep bleep – I was just in a plane crash!” was followed with peaches like “Ugh … My glasses fell off in the mass exodus getting off the plane .. Can’t see very well” and “Continental keeping us locked up at the presidents club until they can sort everything out. Won’t even serve us drinks. ” (Another link but be warned of no censoring!) Now this is obviously the other extreme side of the scale, but it is facinating as news agencies will give their right arms for eyewitness and survivor accounts. Well I would be scared if I were them, because now these eyewitnesses and survivors have their own voice without the need to use a news agency. Powerful stuff!

Lastly I want to share with you a little story that demonstrates the power of blogging. If I told you that I could create life with a blog you probably wouldn’t believe me. What if I told you, not only could I create life, but I could do it in the form of a prodigal 16-year old Moldovan football star that will be the next big signing for a team like Arsenal or Real Madrid. I kid you not…it’s happened. Now fortunately the scandal has been uncovered as a clever ruse – they still don’t know who was behind the scam or even the motivation – but through a series of blog postings, an update to Wikipedia and some other clever uses of imagination, certain news agencies were fooled into thinking Masal Bugduv was the next big thing, even going so far that the Times listed him number 30 in their list of fledgling superstars. Of course this has left a lot of red faces, and even yesterday (24 hours after it was discovered to be a scam), the cleanup operation had begun and poor old Masal is being wiped out – although an amusing apology can be found at the bottom of this page from goal.com. Well it just shows the power that each and everyone of us have to communicate to the world…so why not start using it?

WordPress on the iPhone and iPod Touch!

I’m (somewhat slowly) writing this post from my iPod Touch!

The latest 2.0 release from Apple has opened both models up to third party applications, and when I saw an official WordPress app I had to try it out!

After entering your login details it instantly pulls down all your posts, allows you to add and edit them, and it even has a multiple selection field with all of your categories in it! Even cooler than that though, you can upload photos! I don’t have many on here but I tested it and it works great… Right now it can only add them to the end of your post, hopefully that will change in a future version.

I’m very impressed and I think that it’s just the beggining of what the iPhone and other mobile devices can do.

Now if only I could type a bit faster on this thing!

What is Web 2.0?

The term Web 2.0 has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue for a few years now, but there is still a lot of confusion about what it actually means.

The O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004 was the first notable use of the term, where Tim O’Reilly described it as:

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.

While I truly believe in the Internet as a platform (just look at how Google are dominating the online applications market), the rules for success are rather blurred.

[Read more]

Internet World 2008

We were lucky to visit INTERNET WORLD 2008 in London.
It gave us some fresh ideas and directions as to where the INTERNET is heading.

So Where?
Content is King.
After the web 2.0 chaos, where key to success was to create channels of communication, now comes the age of content. And the content is not only text and images, but…

Virtual 3D Web
There is one trend which we can call Virtual 3D Reality. Now we can find it in Second Life, but the point is that the changes might go even further. At the moment we have two  dimensions to navigate the internet. We saw the same situation in the gaming industry 20 years ago. There were 2D games only, but now… So maybe in the next year or so we will use IE 3D and browse 3D Models in a 3dgoogle?

Video Web
If we observe the success of YouTube, we can discover that internet video can be a powerful marketing tool. But video content can be much more interactive and much more connected with the text content of a website.

On the www.inteliwise.com website, there is an example of internet video customer service. In fact the content of websites can be presented in mixed video and text format. Not only for customer service, but also for product presentations to demonstrate usage.
There is an example of the Thomson.co.uk website, where we can find over 2000 product videos. The Effect? Thomson is number one in the e-travel industry.

What is the conclusion?
The Website is on the way to be the most powerful marketing tool. If we have all the media inside (text, video, music, images, 3D), do we need anything else? Maybe this idea is strange. But if we look at the research, we will discover that UK teenagers browse the internet more than they watch TV. There is also Wimax( Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) which means that the internet can be accessed everywhere.

What is the conclusion for Web Design Companies?
We have to be open for new features, such as video and 3D, to be able to deliver to clients the best possible marketings tools.

Web 2.0 for small business

I was at a recent breakfast meeting where the guest speaker had not turned up. Mr Paul Bolton, the CEO of Refer-On, asked that I stand in. Great! Just exactly what was I going to say about this subject? I had actually been looking forward to my bacon and eggs….   Now it was internal panic and a need to come up with some ideas.

Web 2.0 is all about blogs, communities, self service, interaction with users…… and so what does this mean for the small business?

All of the above is relevant but not practical, there is a lot to take in, where do you start?

If the small business owner wants to explore the future of the internet they can take some simple steps ….

a) Start updating your own web pages. (example of self service)
Macromedia contribute is great for this, and you can trial this for FREE for 30 days:
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/contribute/

b) Self help marketing. Go find your own clients using your website.
Mr Google to the rescue: http://adwords.google.co.uk/select/Login
BUT here is a tip from us. Think about your landing page. Make sure your visitors arrive on a web page that deals with their concerns. If they are looking for a “modern garden” – then talk about modern gardens and provide some examples.

This is all about control and power. The small business owner can, at low cost, dip their toes into the waters of the future internet and make their own website pay. So does this mean we, Imre, are out of business? No, the actual opposite -  we are freed up to work with these self help clients – we can actually work with them to get to the next level.

We just had a similar conversation with a potential client, and this was the response:

Hello,
Paul I just wanted to say a big thank you for the time you spent talking to me today about my website.  I very much value your suggestions and will certainly follow them up.  If I can re-pay you at any time with some garden design or planting advice I would be delighted to do so! Best wishes and thanks again.

Jilayne

Web 2.0 and the Xbox 360

Here at Imre web design isn’t just a job, it’s a passion. We’re interested in anything vaguely related to computers and the internet, and we get genuinely excited about the progress of new products, services and mentalities. One of the things we’ve kept a keen eye on lately is Web 2.0 (read my Internet World Web 2.0 post below to find out more), and it seems to be cropping up in more places than we originally imagined.

I hear alot of people saying they don’t understand Web 2.0, they think networking is just a buzz word and they say they’re not excited about or don’t even use products related to it. I find that most of the time this is untrue, it’s just they don’t actually realise it. We have several clients who use eBay, this is most definately Web 2.0. Networking is a huge factor in it’s success (without feedback nobody would buy anything) and last time I checked it’s pretty popular, even to those who don’t use computers often. Myspace is another example of Web 2.0 and how accessible it is. The point I’m trying to make here before moving on is that being open to new trends and technologies shouldn’t be daunting, as alot of the time you’re already using them.

Now that you’re hopefully more open to different technologies this brings me onto the main point of this post. I’m an avid video gamer. Most of my free time is spent playing games on either the computer or game consoles. I recently purchased Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console and also bought an “Xbox Live” subscription which allows me to play games over the internet with anybody. I’ve been a PC gamer for years and it’s all very simple you join a game and play, if there’s people ruining the game you either stick it out or hope there’s an admin about to ban them. There’s not usually many achievements or points carried over from game to game, each game you start with nothing. I’m talking mainly about shooters / action games rather than role playing games like World of Warcraft as the whole point of these games is to gather stats and build up your character.

Xbox live (the online service) is fantastic. You have a friends list which shows you who’s online, what they’re playing and what achievements / statistics they have for the game. You can click a button to jump straight into the game with them, or send them a text, voice or video message using a webcam. You can also compare games so you can see which of you has the highest score and there’s even Windows Live Messenger built in so you can talk to PC users and they can see what game you’re playing while you chat.

When playing online you’re bound to find people who ruin the game. You also occasionally find a player who makes the game interesting and fun to play. There’s a brilliant feature that lets you rate players by giving them rep, or reputation, points. Clicking Avoid this Player will teach the 360 to look out for this player when trying to connect you to a game and if he’s there, to try and find a different server to play on. Alternatively, clicking the like this player button will increase the chances of you joining the game they are playing in. Players start with 3 out of 5 rep stars, and they increase or decrease based on the rep given by players. 1 star players should be avoided while 5 stars should be great fun to play with. This point system is global so you always know who to avoid, no matter what the game.

This kind of community rating and networking is what I think Web 2.0 is really about, and while there is no real browser (you can only access special Microsoft sites, you can’t access the world wide web) the same principles are obviously being adopted by other types of internet use. I know this isn’t directly linked to what we do but it’s given me some ideas and I think it’d be dangerous not to keep an eye on as much as we can.

Web 2.0 Thoughts and Suggestions

Yesterday Imre visited the Internet World exhibition in Earl’s Court, London. We attended a couple of seminars on Web 2.0 and found some very interesting ideas and suggestions.

· Web 2.0 is about harnessing the structure of the internet to network with others.

· Web 2.0 is a mentality.

· A 1.0 company treats everyone as a user, there is no communication. They’re not interested in feedback. Any research or changes are done through a “one way mirror”. They think they know what the user wants.

· A 2.0 company has a flat management structure. Google is a good example they have roughly 1 manager to 40 staff as opposed to the average 14. Too many chains of command can cause communication problems. Google also give 20% of the time their staff work to letting them choose their own projects to work on. Most of Google’s new products come from this 20% “free time”.

· AltaVista was a limited search engine as it compared purely by page content. Google realised it was the links that were important web structure.

· Another Web 2.0 example is MailWasher. You can only stop spam addresses in programs like Outlook by blocking them individually yourself time consuming and non efficient. MailWasher not only blocks spam but reports it to everyone else. The more reports a mail gets, the higher the priority climbs until it gets blacklisted.

· More people = more trust and strength. For example, the concept of eBay, buying goods online from faceless merchants, is about the most untrustworthy idea you could think of. What makes it successful and trustworthy? The users. Rating sellers means you can instantly find someone who will deliver a quality product and service.

· Employment through networking. LinkedIn is the grown-ups MySpace. Web 2.0 is about social networking, and LinkedIn provides you with a platform to collect professional contacts. Say you have 5 contacts, who each have 20 contacts, who in turn each have 20 contacts. You’re quickly exposed to a wide network of people and potential business.

· Social networking is Web 2.0. 1 to 1, 2 to 2 or n to n communications, not one way.

· Web 2.0 is about bringing people together connecting and communicating.

· When speaking of products or services, speak of the benefits not the features. Example Feature – AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core CPU. Benefit This makes your computer run faster. Don’t be too technical unless user asks for it, keep it simple.

· Don’t expect people to know what you do. Example :

Pandora.com

What do they actually do?

Last.fm

We know straight away what last.fm does.

· Trust is harder in 2.0. You’re connecting freely with thousands of others so trust will be an obvious issue; there are strength in numbers though. For example, Sony hired a marketing agency to pose as a young boy blogging about how much he wants his parents to buy him a Playstation Portable (PSP) for Christmas. People quickly worked it out and, through using the blog comments, ripped Sony apart.

· How do you reassure people that you’re genuine? Tough Policies. Make sure they know that fake comments, reviews, ratings, listings etc. earn instant bans / blacklists. Tight registration can also help such as image caps (dynamically created images where the user has to type in a sequence of characters). Other options are referred registration and member ratings.

· Web 2.0 is about making the internet fun and safe.

· How to make it fun? Interaction. Ajax and Flex are quickly becoming the norm in Web 2.0 interaction. Sending small amounts of data instead of refreshing the whole page makes your site faster, smoother and more accessible.

· Never think about what you can do, always ask what do your users want to do.

· Explain the purpose, benefit and usage of interactions. Teach the user how to use your site.

· Ajax and Flex can be extremely helpful for registrations forms, shopping carts, blog comments and ratings. Being able to update part of a page without a refresh is the way forward, but don’t forget to let your users know what is going on! “Yellow fades” that last a few seconds after data has changed on a page seem to work well (BaseCamp and WordPress use this feature).

· Tags are becoming an integral part of Web 2.0. Allowing users to tag pages and items they wish to keep for future reference is accessible and fun. Tags are notorious for being hard to grasp at first so make sure to explain them to your users, for example, “Tag this product (what’s this?)”. Don’t be embarrassed to explain how things work, while the designer knows the layout the user does not teach them.

· More interaction can come with drag and drops on the web. Using familiar move cursors found on OS desktops provide a natural transition from desktop interaction to web interaction. Context sensitive cursor cues are very important. Example, Flickr You have a photo and title field. Hover over the title and a box will display “click to edit”. Clicking the box allows you to enter a different title, then Ajax takes over and updates it without refreshing the page.

· Teach users the “rules” of your site. For example, on Google Maps you may have just zoomed in on an area and want to zoom back out. The instant web user reaction is to click the back button, which obviously kicks them back to the main page. Ajax and Flex are great at providing interaction but let users know when they are being used.

· When possible, provide alternatives and conform to W3C standards and the ARIA roadmap. Web 2.0 can make things hard to validate but you must try.

· Usability testing, eye tracking.

The talks really opened my eyes to what Web 2.0 will mean to internet users and I’m looking forward to seeing it develop!