And Rundle writes one of the most thorough critiques I have seen in a while. It happens a lot when a redesign takes a couple of steps backwards, but this one seems to go so far back you have to wonder what happened during the design process. Obviously the advertisers and money played a huge role and this is what usually happens.
I always joke and say if I can create the design then...well you get the point.
Can't stop laughing. What are the odds?
Remember those times when us crazy Web Standards zealots were preaching death to Flash and all that is evil on the web? Okay, maybe we weren't going that crazy, but you know where I am coming from. Does anybody else out there think it's time for us to start exploring new mediums of communication with our clients, user, readers, etc? It's great that we have stuck with simple sites and putting what is important as the focus of our sites, but do we rely to much on text to get our message across?
Don't some messages deserve a more effective medium of communication? What has stopped you from exploring those different channels such as Flash, Sound and Video?
When I go out I always get the question what I do for work. I can't explain it well enough because I do so many things that focusing on one is a bit tough so I figured the best thing I could do was at least show people how I work and hopefully this gives you a better idea of the inner-workings of the Network.
Lot of heavy-duty stuff happening there so be careful.
Mike D has finally put the guide I have been waiting for and which essentially helped me create an even uglier Myspace profile. So many ideas now and if you dare to get caught up in the phenomenon at least do so tastefully.
Cameron Moll has released his updated portfolio and it sure is looking sweet. I like how it simply gets to the point. Clients want to see what you have done immediately and providing some screencaps is always a good thing.
Rich Ziade discusses a topic that has been on my mind for some time now with Reality Check 2.0 where he looks at our Web 2.0 success stories to see which ones have really made a dent in the real world and not just within our own little geek bubble. Amazing how caught up we can get when we all read the same blogs and see the same websites being used by the same people only to realize that "the outside world" has no idea what any of these sites are.
But hey, if you are getting bought out for $30M does it really matter? Of course it does because of all the ones that are starting up, how many have a happy ending?
An interesting and in-depth look at the the logos of "web 2.0" detailing what fonts they use and putting them into categories. The glorious and happy-spasm-inducing 9rules logo is up there as well.
Guess it's too late to change the beast now...
There are times when as a company you must get down to business and then there are times as a company that you must really get down to business. Ask yourself why you don't do stuff like this in your company because honestly there is never a reason not to have some fun. Well okay, maybe you actually need to get stuff done, but still...
And if you ever questioned the multiple skills of Mike Rundle, I say never do so again after watching the video. The man is untouchable.
Two weeks ago I announced the creation of 9charities (which should be coming out shortly) and in doing so purchased 9charities.org without even thinking about buying 9charities.com. I bought the .org because obviously this project isn't about us making money as we won't be making a dime off of this, it's about helping organizations that need the help. I guess that doesn't hide the fact that I should've bought the .com as well since they are so cheap, but honestly it really never crossed my mind.
Well today I got an offer from someone who bought it on March 25, 2006.
I have the domain name 9charities.com and was wondering if you would like to buy it.
I'm not looking for some ridiculous amount of like 800$ or anything, just a reasonable amount.
Let me know if you are interested.
Cute.
When I was down in Austin for SXSW, Will Pate congratulated me on the success of 9rules and I of course thanked him and asked him what his future had in store. He mentioned that he was in talks with 20 companies for a job (he now claims around 30) and from what I understand some of them were pretty high-profile ones, so it definitely perplexes me as to why he joined Flock.
Joe Clark, bless his soul, mirrors my sentiments in this comment:
With the greatest love and respect, fellow countryman, out of 30 offers you went for a job with a widely ridiculed company pushing an incomprehensible and unwanted product to an audience with such resistance it borders on active hostility?
In any case, I still wish the man best of luck.
I think Rundle would appreciate this list more than me, but I can definitely go along with it.
Brian Benzinger has allowed his brother Tim to redesign Solution Watch and unfortunately for me they have launched it the same day as my Whitespace redesign.
Nothing too fancy because there isn't a need for fanciness when it comes to high-quality content sites. Just let the content do it's thing and the tell the design to get the hell out of the way. I do wonder what will happen when a new month comes and how that effects the archives box on the side.
9rules Member, Jonathan Snook, has posted a CSS hack that allows you to target your code for IE7. Can't say that I am preparing for IE7 at all and hopefully it doesn't mess everything up too bad because there are just too many sites that I would have to go back and fix.
The hack isn't valid due to the use of *border and hacks just suck overall in my opinion, but sometimes you need to go to great lengths to achieve success.
Anyone out there have some suggestions for great looking fonts I could try out for the headers on this site? I plan on making the move to sIFR and am searching for the hotness. If you know of anything please let me know. Of course I prefer free fonts, but if it's high-quality I would be willing to shell out some cash for it. And don't forget to link up the font so I don't have to go searching.
Jeremy "Two First Names Make One Cool Name" Keith shares his thoughts on communities and I can understand his point about groups being their own worse enemies, but I don't think individual comments represent group wisdom. The Group Wisdom in Newsvine, Digg and other such sites is the fact that they can show which stories should be the most popular. The ensuing discussions that occur in the comments are simply individual thoughts and therefore should not be representative of group think.
This doesn't hide the fact that comments shouldn't be opened up for everything and this is clearly reflected on Jason Kottke's site where he is very selective with which entry has comments open.
Newsweek has an interesting article on the new wisdom of the web where they showcase the Web 2.0 darlings and what makes them successful. Obviously it centers around community and that seems to be the only way to make something when you are going for the general consumer facing website.
The alternative of course is the 37signals old school methodology of creating a product that people are willing to pay for.
Make sure to read the article if you are at least interested in seeing how the mainstream media views the web that we have been entrenched in from the beginning.
It seems that every successful web company has a quirk about their website and surprisingly many of those quirks trace back to ugly design. Adrian Shaughnessy explores the issue of good design and Google's logo and provides many choice quotes to go along with his analysis.
...Google’s financial gigantism places it alongside some of the biggest corporations in the world. Odd then, that it should have a folksy logo that looks more like a school project than the mark of a global corporation.
Hopefully I can will myself to explore this issue more indepth because I had a million thoughts while reading the entry. Now I just need to put them into words on the screen.
When I first read Caterina's bad time to start a company I knew that I couldn't have been the only one who disagreed with her. I was going to write a drawn out entry, but it seems the people in the comments have voiced many of my own opinions along with David over at 37signals.
There is never a bad time to start a good company in my opinion, but there is always a bad time to start a bad company.
Thankfully Caterina updated the entry:
I was talking here about consumer-facing Web 2.0 companies based in San Francisco and the Valley, which bears repeating. Given that 9 out of 10 companies fail, I just think the odds are getting worse.