The Face of Economic Despair
Posted by goodmind on January 5th, 2009
Images of the Dust Bowl are synonymous with the Great Depression. They are as dry and dull as an American History textbook, which is appropriate since most of these pictures can be found in one. We predict that this go round, the symbolic image of economic recession will be found and cataloged online.
The Digital Ramble has an interesting collection of such images including;
Tumblr web sites like The Brokers with Hands on Their Faces Blog or Sad Guys on Trading Floors make hay of trading-floor disheartenment.
You can check out the entire post here. Your grandkids will probably be exposed to similar stuff in their virtual American History e-books.
Happy Holidays!
Posted by goodmind on December 24th, 2008
We’ll be off the grid for the next week, but you can track Santa on Twitter here.
2009: The Year of the End User
Posted by goodmind on December 9th, 2008
Who needs a top ten list revisiting stuff that was big last year? Fast Company has 8 expert predictions on the evolution of Web 2.0 for 2009. Most of them are variations on the same theme -open platforms, increased portability and mobility of user data, etc, etc. Pretty safe bets, though a few experts go out on a limb and see advertisers finally getting social media marketing right.
In our opinion, founder of Hush Labs (and former CEO of Rackspace Hosting) Rick Yoo’s prediction is particularly prescient;
“I’m not sure that things will evolve the way people have seen in the past. I predict that it’ll mostly be about trying to figure out what users really want and what they find most important then fine-tuning things based on that feedback. The pace of evolution may really slow down by comparison, but the user experience will be far better.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Is Research Overrated?
Posted by goodmind on December 4th, 2008
Today’s New York Times poses an interesting question: do we overrate basic research?
It’s a pretty loaded piece that takes on most of today’s favorite faux-controversial topics (Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, the rise of China and India, America’s declining economy, and techno-nationalism). We almost didn’t make it through the entire article, when it seemed to suggest that as a nation, we ought to cut spending on research.
However, the reasoning behind this blasphemy is basically sound. According to Amar Bhidé, a professor at the Columbia Business School, the possibility for “midlevel innovation” is inevitably lost in the shuffle of a big research budget allocated from on high.
Midlevel innovation is defined as anything
…from a venture capitalist tweaking a business model to trim costs by a few percent to a technician fine-tuning his company’s business software to save a couple of data-entry steps in the accounting department.
It basically boils down to finding new ways of using existing technology, not spending big bucks to invent something totally new from scratch. It makes sense, and its something we’ve been helping clients do for a long time through research.
Most companies today need research in the first place, because they have previously relied on the latest technology to solve all of their business problems. Our task is to figure out how to help them use it efficiently, effectively, and profitably.
Black Friday Browser Wars
Posted by goodmind on November 26th, 2008
War is costly – even the browser variety. It’s never a bad thing when implicit standards (ahem, Internet Explorer) are challenged. However, as Firefox, Chrome, etc continue to gain market share, web designers are hard pressed to keep pace with the idiosyncrasies of various browsers.
According to one alarmist press release, page load times, missing graphics, and entire check-out procedures can be compromised if a website hasn’t been optimized to accommodate all manner of web browsers.
Online retailers in particular will be at risk this holiday season, for reasons entirely unrelated to the current economic landscape. The look and functionality of a single site can vary dramatically from one browser to another. For e-commerce websites, this essentially amounts to the entire shopping experience.
The conspiracy theorist in us wants to believe the entire browser war conflict is actually the collective brainchild of brick-and-mortar shops, looking to shore up their books come Black Friday. In all seriousness however, it does beg the question of how an unstable browser market will effect your business. Does it really matter whether or not customers can find your company’s website if they can’t actually use it?
Capital Gains and Losses
Posted by goodmind on September 30th, 2008
Maybe there’s a silver lining to this whole bailout S.N.A.F.U. Maybe, just maybe, network executives have figured out that vast web exposure is well worth the “loss” in ad revenue.
Take CBS for example. David Letterman’s reaction to McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign (among other things) is available on the CBS website (edited and with ads), while pirated versions have also been posted on YouTube (full monologue, no ads). In total, the clip has about 3.5 million views. That’s 250,000 for CBS and 3.2 million for the pirates.
According to AdAge, CBS execs are well aware of the numbers, and the existence of pirated versions;
Like all TV networks, CBS routinely demands that YouTube take down unauthorized clips of shows. So why haven’t they taken down this one? They won’t say it, but it seems likely that the network has decided that the publicity the “Late Show” is receiving from the clip is far more valuable than the few ad dollars that advertising might generate.
How long do you think it will take for print newspapers to have a similar ad model epiphany? Let’s hope it happens before the industry needs a bailout.
Campaign Commentary
Posted by goodmind on September 23rd, 2008
Covering a political campaign on a blog is sooo 2004. For the 2008 presidential election, running your own version of the campaign is all the rage;
Game developer Stardock has released Political Machine Express, letting you live out your political fantasies and take Obama, Biden, Palin or McCain all the way to the White House…you have a scant 21 weeks to scramble for endorsements, launch attack ads and drum up support while outmaneuvering your political foes and crisscrossing the United States.
It’s like Fantasy Football for fans of the democratic political process, only you can play whenever you want since it seems like the campaign season never ends.
(via Wired)
We Love Chrome
Posted by goodmind on September 3rd, 2008
Heading Back to Campus
Posted by goodmind on August 25th, 2008
Back-to-school season usual means big business and splashy marketing campaigns for office supply stored. The WSJ reports that;
Sony Pictures Television, which distributes “Seinfeld” in U.S. syndication, announced the “Seinfeld Campus Tour,” in which it’s sending a 60-foot “Seinfeld”-themed bus to U.S. colleges to drum up interest in “a new generation of viewers,”
It seems sort of cynical on Sony’s to try to manufacture nostalgia in this way, but we say it’s still a smart idea. Generations to come will associate the best years of their life with George Costanza. It’s going to make the inevitable romantic failures, unemployment, and male pattern baldness seem at least somewhat comical.
(via murketing)
What’s in a Name?
Posted by goodmind on July 29th, 2008
Within the past year, alternative operating systems (as in non-Microsoft) have been gaining market share. This trend coincided with the well documented release and consumer fall out over Windows Vista. According to recent research, it looks like Vista may have one more competitor;
Microsoft has a secret new operating system they’re showing to XP-using Vista haters, reports Cnet’s Ina Fried. Codenamed “Mojave,” over 90 percent of the focus groups in San Francisco loved it, with at least one moved to effuse, “Oh wow,” while using it. When can you get hold of this wondrous new operating system? Right now. Mojave is actually just plain ol’ Windows Vista. (via Gizmodo)
For what it’s worth, if we didn’t have to go through the process of installing Vista, we’d probably like it too.
(If you want to know more about the ‘behind the scenes’ reality of software development and release, we recommend the novel to your left)
