The folks over at MakeUseOf.com wrote a great post on how to create a great 404 page … you know, those pages you get when you type the wrong URL. These pages usually say something really boring like “Server Error 404 - Page Not Found” or something equally dry and mundane. But NO, it doesn’t need to be that way. Read their post to get ideas on how to jazz up your site’s 404s.
We especially like their Example #7 because it’s … well, simply hilarious. HEY, THAT’S OUR 404 PAGE!!!! TOOO FUNNY!
How do you get inspired if you need to create a brown web site? Well, the folks at Re-Encoded have put together a list of their top 30 picks for “inspirational brown web sites.” HEY, LOOK! … Acorn Creative’s site just happens to be on the list!! WOOO HOOO!
ClickZ Network’s Kate Kaye reports some pretty dismal data about the woes of traditional newspaper media. Interestingly, a quote from the article:
“Additionally, nearly one-third of their Web clients are local real estate companies and automobile dealerships, two categories of retailers that are cutting back their overall advertising outlays.”
… showing a reliance of the media on two OTHER industries that are being hit heavily by Internet technologies and the slow economy.
Really, the gist of the report is that pure online advertising plays (e.g. Google, AOL, Yahoo) will consistantly have a leg up, unless newspapers can effectively detach their online operations from their traditional brick and mortar operations … a complete paradigm shift.
Maybe this is admitting to being painfully out of style or behind the times but I’ve just found out about Pandora.com and feel the unmistakable need to pass it on in to everyone I’ve ever met! Here’s what Pandora is in a nutshell - you create “radio stations” based on one specific song or band you love, and Pandora takes that choice and plays similar songs and bands it thinks you may like. You then rate the songs (thumbs up or down) and it gradually refines the station to play only songs you love. If you want to read it for yourself, here ya go: http://pandora.com/corporate . You’ll never go back to the regular radio.
P.S. there’s an application for iphones so you can listen wherever you have an Internet connection. Rock on!
1. Mornings with NPR: A daily illustration for an NPR news story
2. Found Magazine: A daily dose of weirdness. A different “found” note, photograph, or letter usually quite bizarre but equally as funny.
3. Cassette from my Ex: Postings from regular people describing old mixtapes and the stories behind them. A nice step out of reality and back to 7th grade.
4. Hostess with the Mostess Blog: Frequent updates and always some interesting, cute, or just kitschy idea for your home or for entertaining.
5. Design Sponge: Most of you have probably seen this frequently updated blog, but it continues to provide quirky, smart design ideas.
6. Sketch Swap: A nice creative break during the day, submit your drawing to receive another artist’s while they receive yours.
7. Shop Modi: Funky pieces for the home that just make you smile.
8. Jonathan Adler: Another great online shop, seeing pieces others have created, makes you want to jump right in and make something just as cool.
9. Graphic Design Blog: Shares information about all things graphic design.
10. Twitter: Goes without saying, I always find someone tweeting about an interesting link or thought I can steal, plus I post my own, so they can steal http://www.Twitter.com/karina723.
A little over an hour ago, Matt Cutts posted on his blog that Google has officially announced the soon-to-be released “Google Chrome” … an Open Source Browser. I read one of Matt’s comments (”… I can’t wait to talk more about Google Chrome”), and I actually felt the upcoming buzz about this one.
If you’re thinking this might just be another browser (same ol’, same ol’), consider the perspective Google gives us about the product on their official blog;
… We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends — all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there….
Exciting stuff! Browsers do indeed touch our online lives in soooo many ways. Look for a change with this new open source app tomorrow.
I know I’ll be getting the beta just to take it for a test drive. If I find myself with wind screaming through my hair out on the Information Superhighway, I’ll be sure to pull over once to blog about it.
[UPDATE] Right after posting this, I read Robert Scoble’s most recent post on the same subject. He poses an important question … “What will happen to Mozilla Firefox?” John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, says the company isn’t worried. Hmmmm.
It’s critical that you understand the dynamics of “The Long Tail” as introduced to us by Chris Anderson. Seth points out if you have a choice between making a hit (a point in the head of the curve) or an alternate choice well out on the long tail, go for the hit. BUT, he also points out the reality that you usually don’t have a choice. Extreme competition up in the head is indeed harsh.
What to do? Although the competition in the head makes it very difficult to ever have a “hit” … or, more specifically, to plan a hit … the competition down in the long tail is quite light. I may not be able to get a top 10 ranking for the phrase “buy life insurance” (using Seth’s example), but it should be pretty easy to get a decent rank on the long tail phrase “Bolivian Sushi“.
Sooooo, here’s the question; “Which is better? A million visits coming from a single “hit” phrase in the head? … OR, a million visits coming from 950,000 less popular phrases out along the long tail?” I think the obvious answer is, “they’re both the same.” Although the former requires a lot of fortuitousness, the latter requires a lot of content, planning and time commitment.
Bottom line; Tapping into the long tail can be hard work, but you get to control your own destiny. Crossing your fingers and hoping for a hit is much more risky.
Anyone up for sushi tonight?
This past week, Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC, stated that the cable goliath Comcast had essentially violated the agency’s principles on open access to the Internet.
What does this mean for you? The topic is called “Net Neutrality” and these landmark cases, going on right now, will determine the future of how the Internet works for you (and your kids). The question is simply whether a service provider has the right to impose restrictions (equipment, filtering of content, use of applications, etc.) on a network in any way. Imagine if one network creates a really cool new gizmo or application. Should another network service be allowed to block its use or charge extra for it simply because it sees it as competitive? The obvious answer is no.
Before the flame wars start here, however, let me state that this is nothing short of complex. Both sides of the argument have valid points and the resolution of this topic will not be an easy one. The direction these cases take us will forever impact all of our lives. Important: Take note of this topic, if you haven’t already, and voice your opinion.
I looks like little David (i.e. online, social, consumer-driven, music management) may have taken down Goliath (i.e. the big recording labels … all except EMI, and they’re still in negotiation).
A new MySpace venture, funded by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., will launch later this year. The service will provide MySpace members with DRM-free, streaming, on-demand music (ad-based, of course) and will allow users to create playlists and all sorts of other cool non-centralized, bureaucratic RIAA-like features. Oops, did I let my opinion of the RIAA show there a little?
This TechCrunch article has most of the details. Please, dear reader, make note of this event! It’s a biggie business milestone. This is on the order of light bulbs beating out candles and gas lamps … the auto beating out the horse and buggy … VHS beating out Beta … Jordan Sparks beating out Sanjaya Malakar.
This signals the end for many industries. Music stores, radio stations (as we know them today), major record labels control over artists, etc. Maybe it’s not an immediate end to these staples of our society, but, it will be a quickly changing aspect of our business landscape.
Yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch discussion with Terry Lieberman (VP & General Manager) and Dennis Hennessey (Director of New Media Development) for The River — 92.5 FM, a triple-A station in Portsmouth, NH. The discussion revolved around their view of the changing nature of the radio industry. Let me say emphatically, these guys guys ‘get it!’ We all agreed, if the big boys in the radio biz don’t wake up and smell the coffee sometime in the next 12-18 months (24-36 months will be too late), they’ll likely find themselves being referenced with the likes of button hooks, collar tabs, and bed warmers … or Sanjaya Malakar.
A long-standing rule of search engine friendliness is web site owners need to create inbound links … links from other sites pointing to your site…. Ten-ish years ago, when Google started the shift away from code to content (including inbound links) as the preferred way of determining ‘relevance’, the world changed…. Immediately, businesses owners started scrambling, and begging, for every link they could get…. Thank goodness things have changed!… This doesn’t, however, mean that inbound links are no longer important…. In many ways they’re more important than ever before.
How then, does one go about getting those precious nuggets of hypertext anchor tagging?… Here are a few strategies;
Any good car salesman will recite the old adage, “plan your work and work your plan.” This especially holds true for your inbound link strategy.
