Most people admit that they could use a little extra money for their lives. Whether they’re trying to pay off credit card debt, student loans, or even just have a little extra money for life’s pleasures, having an extra job on the side can make a big difference in your bank account. The key is finding something that’s flexible enough with your own schedule that it doesn’t overtake your current job and family life. [Read more…]
3 Tips For Creating A Website For An Older Target Market
When you’re creating a website, the most important thing to consider from a design standpoint is who your target market is. Without this in mind, you could be creating a website that might not be functional for those that you’re intending to have come to your website, especially if those people are of an older generation. [Read more…]
Gizmodo, Lifehacker Go Political
Nothing seems to be safe from politics or political correctness. Gizmodo posted an announcement yesterday which was followed up by pretty much the same announcement from Lifehacker giving rules on how they view Digging “properly” on their sites.
-No big yellow Digg badges for articles unless they have original content, new reporting, treatment, or photos. It’s not fair when we get the Digg for someone else’s work.
This has to be one of the more ridiculous rules, statements, whatever that I have seen in a while when it comes to the Web. First of all, good luck enforcing your so-called rules. Yes you can control the badges that appear on your site, however the community as a whole are not going to conform to your rules. As you saw with the “Digg Spam” article itself, putting in place barriers just fans the fire. If your not a believer about that statement take a look at how removing the unlock codes for Blu Ray sent the Digg community into an almost rebellious state posting the code over and over again.
Digg is a social bookmarking site that doesn’t take in regard for original work, it is simply a link to something that someone finds that is cool and wants to share with the community. Sharing shouldn’t be frowned upon when it is in fact the basis for the internet as a whole. Users of Digg are not going to track down the origin of specific content, that is not the goal of the site and it is nearly impossible in many instances anyway.
The Web has become a place where information is written, massaged, replicated, re-replicated, and fed to any number of locations, tools, and readers. Who knows where in the chain someone finds the information. At whatever point the user comes across the information there may be zero indications of who the original author was, or even that the site they are reading is in fact not the original author. It’s not right, but it’s the way of the world.
We Don’t Dig Digg
Why is it that Digg was singled out on this one? How many times are Gizmodo’s articles linked thousands of times on Del.icio.us, Reddit, or other similar services? Why are these services not mentioned and why is it ok for these sites to link to content that is not original, but for Digg it is not?
The Digg badges that are places on the site are helpful tools to get the story promoted by people who find it interesting. Why would you take the abilities of the user away? Yes they can still Digg the story but the convenience is gone. So really what are you proving other then making it more difficult for your own user base?
Heavy Weights
Many of the stories that get high marks on Digg are often prefixed with the sites name which gives the stories weight immediately. The Gizmodo story about Digg Spam is a prime example of this. The headline on Digg read: “Gizmodo: Digg Spam Sucks”. Many of Gizmodo’s stories get heavy numbers of Digg’s because it is in fact a very credible site when it comes to news.
Not putting the Digg badges on the stories really means a few less Digg’s because people are inherently lazy and probably won’t go find the story on Digg.com. Who is this dis-servicing though? I would have to say it’s the contents originator. Even though Gizmodo or another is getting the Digg’s the content author knows that it’s his content and can feel pride in the fact that it’s getting such heavy views.
If a site wants to help the person who created the content then they should give them credit more prominently so that users know it came from another source, even if they got to the site that replicated it through Digg. Without the giants like Gizmodo some of this content wouldn’t be seen by a large number of people.
10 Reasons Facebook has MySpace’s Number
MySpace has long been the dominant social networking tool with a huge numbers of users, endless news stories surrounding it’s use as well as mis-use, and almost becoming a buzz word itself. Those days are eroding as MySpace loses it’s news coverage, and begins to become more of an annoyance then a benefit. Users are beginning to see enough reasons to move their online persona’s to other sites and Facebook has been working extremely hard and is poised to cut the head off the MySpace monster, and here are 10 reasons why:
- Clean UI Design
MySpace opened their UI to be changed by users using CSS and other code snippets into their profile pages, and thus opened the door to some of the most horrendous looking “spaces” anywhere. Facebook has maintained all their designs, and not opened themselves up to horrible design and keeping their site simple, elegant, and easy to use. - Clean UI Design…and no ability to change it
- Usability
One of the great things about Facebook when compared to MySpace is you can expect things to just work intuitively. Things act and react just as you would think they would. I know it seems pretty rudimentary, by often times MySpace tools fail for on reason or another without and valid explanation. The UI is much more straight forward which helps the users find and interact with the site more efficiently. - Reliability
I don’t know how many times I get random login errors on MySpace. I have tried for ages as well to check to see if the contacts from my GMail account are MySpace users using their built in tools and always get errors and no explanation. I have never had issues with either of these with Facebook. - No friend request spam
What nasty 16 year old tramp added me today? Yet another annoyance you don’t have to endure on Facebook. - …ability to add applications without dealing with HTML
The fact that Facebook can add functionality by just clicking a button makes MySpace’s adding HTML or code to your profile boxes seem about as efficient as shared hosting holding up to the “Digg” effect. - Portability (Mobile experience)
As better phones such as Apple’s IPhone are released and provide better mobile experiences this is going to become more and more important. Facebook is ahead in this department as well. - Willingness to Change
Facebook has shown the willingness to change and innovate when necessary. MySpace is usually far behind the curve if they ever get around to implementing features at all, and it’s really beginning to show. - Ability to pull together most or all of your online activities into one place
As users are getting more and more profiles online on different types of sites/applications, Facebook is making the move to allow you to incorporate all or most of that data into your Facebook profile. Bringing in your Photos, Music, Movies, Stocks, etc from other sites is something that is a great resource, and something that will be very important in the coming months/years. - No bi-weekly messages stating that we will not be shutting down, or telling how to block spam friend requests
All that needs to be said here is that Facebook is professional enough not to do this. In addition Facebook doesn’t have to tell you how to stop spam friend requests because they really don’t happen.By the way, doesn’t everyone love Tom and his photo of himself in a mirror?
Apple Fans “Digg” at Surface
In case you didn’t already know, Microsoft today announced a table top computer that interacts with whatever is touching it. Zunes, Cameras, Credit Cards, Drinks, hands, feet, whatever. The new product titled Microsoft Surface was formally announced by Microsoft at midnight, however there was news leaked of the impending release several hours earlier. Within minutes of the story hitting Digg, Apple fans were swarming it and starting the age old fight of Apple vs. Microsoft.
First off, before I say anything more about the product or the main subject of this post, kudos to Microsoft for innovating something for themselves. Yes I implied that they knock off a lot of ideas, and usually from Apple. I don’t think anyone can say this would be one of those ideas. In any event go check out the video spots that show how it works. I will be like a kid in a candy store the first time I get to interact with this product! I am a little interested in how it picks up and works with the devices laid on it, but that’s another post.
Now back to Apple for a second. This is where where the release of this product gets somewhat aggravating. As I found the news story on Digg, I totally ignored the 800+ comments and went straight for the Microsoft site to check out the technology and was totally and utterly in awe. I immediately wondered what this would cost and when it might become available. For this I headed to the Digg comments section only to find the typical Microsoft vs. Apple war that happens at the launch of every product of each company. It’s not even the constant bickering that aggravated me but more a few Apple voices that poked fun at Microsoft saying the name is lame, and that Apple already has this in development, or Apple would be releasing this next month and beat Microsoft to the punch, and so on.
Apple fan, get over it! If there is one thing that drives me nuts about rabid fans of either side, it is their inability to recognize something that is cool technology that “their” company didn’t create. It almost sounds like a couple of 8 year old kids saying they won’t touch one another because the other has cooties. It’s technology, we use how many brands of how many different products on a day to day basis, so why is Apple vs. Microsoft the big issue that it is today?
Surface is a cool technology weather you want to admit it or not, Microsoft happened to create it and market it first. One comment I read stated that if Apple would have created the “ISurface”, it would have been Apple fans going into rabid MacWorld Expo type of frezies, much like when the IPhone was announced. If Apple created it, it would still be a cool technology and maybe even more so with the things that they have put out lately, but that’s just not the way it happened.
Now since I will undoubtedly get slammed as a Microsoft fan let me say that admittedly I am. Although I am indifferent I like to take shots at the couple of guys I work with just because I know that most Apple fans are in fact very loyal to the brand. At the end of the day though I don’t own any Apple products, but I would never say I won’t. In fact the IPhone is a very cool concept. I was on the bandwagon to buy the AppleTV until I found it had no DVR capabilities. My wife is wanting an IPod which we will probably purchase in a month or two, so I am by no means a snob about my technology companies and I guess I don’t see why others are either. Cool technology is cool technology no matter who makes it, just like a cool car is a cool car regardless of if it’s made by Honda, Ford, or Buick.
The basic fact is it doesn’t matter who makes it. What matters if it accomplishes what it is supposed to do. Forget all the technical issues of this or that, because the fact of the matter is that everything has it’s issues. When you look at the raw technology that is exposed, that is where you should be making your judgment. Not your bias towards one company or the other.