So, I finally got a Facebook account yesterday. Instantly I had 15 friends, yay. Of course, these are people I know and are from work circles, and from my personal life, and a little of both. My partner has had a Facebook account for a few months now and he's been a great usability subject for the site. He is a BIG fan of the site and I can see why, he showed me different things to add, how to get around, how attack, and how to grow things. It all clicked that the reason its popular is because it reflects life, and prospers on what 'people are doing right now'. They're not looking for a log of a persons life (although this does give it), but people just want to know what Neil is doing today, for lunch, right now. Its fun, it works, and I only have it right now because a critical mass of my network has it right now, and I've succumed to the 'I cant-not have one' feeling. Its good though, a right of passage thing I guess...getting some 'net-cred if you will.
More to come on my first impressions with Facebook... stay tuned!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Ctrl+Enter: A quicker way to browse
Tired of typing in w..w..w..dot.../...c..o..m? Or searching in your Google toolbar for a company, and then moving your mouse to click the site?
Just type in the domain name (e.g.: 'nytimes', 'aol', 'microsoft', etc...) directly into your URL bar and hit 'CTRL + Enter' on your keyboard at the same time. IE & Firefox will automatically fill in the syntax (http://www/. and the '.com')
Now, if your site isnt a typical '.com' it may end up redirecting anyway to the correct directory so dont worry about that, try it and see. It saves time from doing a Google search in your search bar, and then mousing to the site, or typing in the entire address in the oh-so-tedious URL bar. Enjoy =)
Just type in the domain name (e.g.: 'nytimes', 'aol', 'microsoft', etc...) directly into your URL bar and hit 'CTRL + Enter' on your keyboard at the same time. IE & Firefox will automatically fill in the syntax (http://www/. and the '.com')
Now, if your site isnt a typical '.com' it may end up redirecting anyway to the correct directory so dont worry about that, try it and see. It saves time from doing a Google search in your search bar, and then mousing to the site, or typing in the entire address in the oh-so-tedious URL bar. Enjoy =)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Technorati: infuse new ideas into your analysis
I've heard of it for a while now, but never went to the site and for some reason thought it was like Engadget, or Gizmodo. I didn't realize that its a site that scours millions of blogs and can give a great pulse on whats new in the blogosphere regarding technology. It indexes some 27 million blogs and gives you the most relevant and recent postings. Check more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorati
I thought it might be a great way for new (ok... and experienced) analysts to get ideas on what people are saying about the site they are performing analysis on, or the client they're working with. Chances are if folks are blogging about it, they've been to the site and are directing more people there as well, with the bloggers sentiments in mind. It may sound elementary but its a great way to correlate what is being said to what is actually happening on the site. Is the blogger really liking a new product, do they hate the new technology?
Think to yourself, by them blogging about something, are people going to take them seriously and if so how can we use this to our benefit and recommend actions taking what the the data, shows, and the qualitative audience is talking about it? Obviously there are a lot of tools that do this, and take much of the manual work out of it, but sites like Technorati are a quick gut-check to brainstorm new ideas.
Here are some other really great resources a peer forwarded to me that allows you to do the same thing:
Searching Blogs:
Google Blog Search
Ask.com is also a good source for searching blogs.
IceRocket (can track conversations over time and display trends in graphical format; good for monitoring buzz. Also indexes MySpace posts and images)
Feedster
BlogPulse (tracks conversations like IceRocket. Also profiles top bloggers with info on who they are and what they write about).
Opinmind.com (classifies results by bias, i.e., tone)
TalkDigger (blog search engine aggregator)
BlogBlusiness.com (directory of blogs about different business related topics)
Technorati also has watch lists, like google news does. Also has a top 100 blogs list to see most influential bloggers, based on hos many links they have from other bloggers. Let’s you narrow your search by authority of blogger too.
Sphere.com results based on influence also.
Another good source for finding good blog search engines and directories: http://masternewmedia.org/rss/top55
Searching Podcasts
Harder to do but not implossible.
Podscope.com and Podzinger.com
Enter search term and get taken to a list of podscasts that mention that term. You can click on a control button and listen to the exact segment in the program where the search for term is spoken. Pretty damn cool. However, they don’t cover every podcast out there, so that’s a limitation.
Podcast Alley (owned by PodShow Network; is a podcast directory)
Podcasting News (also a directory)
Podcast.net (directory)
iPodder.org (directory)
Another good source for finding podcasts: http://masternewmedia.org/news/2005/05/20/where_to_submit_your_podcasts.htm
I thought it might be a great way for new (ok... and experienced) analysts to get ideas on what people are saying about the site they are performing analysis on, or the client they're working with. Chances are if folks are blogging about it, they've been to the site and are directing more people there as well, with the bloggers sentiments in mind. It may sound elementary but its a great way to correlate what is being said to what is actually happening on the site. Is the blogger really liking a new product, do they hate the new technology?
Think to yourself, by them blogging about something, are people going to take them seriously and if so how can we use this to our benefit and recommend actions taking what the the data, shows, and the qualitative audience is talking about it? Obviously there are a lot of tools that do this, and take much of the manual work out of it, but sites like Technorati are a quick gut-check to brainstorm new ideas.
Here are some other really great resources a peer forwarded to me that allows you to do the same thing:
Searching Blogs:
Google Blog Search
Ask.com is also a good source for searching blogs.
IceRocket (can track conversations over time and display trends in graphical format; good for monitoring buzz. Also indexes MySpace posts and images)
Feedster
BlogPulse (tracks conversations like IceRocket. Also profiles top bloggers with info on who they are and what they write about).
Opinmind.com (classifies results by bias, i.e., tone)
TalkDigger (blog search engine aggregator)
BlogBlusiness.com (directory of blogs about different business related topics)
Technorati also has watch lists, like google news does. Also has a top 100 blogs list to see most influential bloggers, based on hos many links they have from other bloggers. Let’s you narrow your search by authority of blogger too.
Sphere.com results based on influence also.
Another good source for finding good blog search engines and directories: http://masternewmedia.org/rss/top55
Searching Podcasts
Harder to do but not implossible.
Podscope.com and Podzinger.com
Enter search term and get taken to a list of podscasts that mention that term. You can click on a control button and listen to the exact segment in the program where the search for term is spoken. Pretty damn cool. However, they don’t cover every podcast out there, so that’s a limitation.
Podcast Alley (owned by PodShow Network; is a podcast directory)
Podcasting News (also a directory)
Podcast.net (directory)
iPodder.org (directory)
Another good source for finding podcasts: http://masternewmedia.org/news/2005/05/20/where_to_submit_your_podcasts.htm
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