This is one of the prophetic visions of Neil Postman. In his book, Entertaining Ourselves to Death, which I had to read in college, he provided a clear warning about the diminishing quality of broadcast news, as the line between entertainment and actual news was disappearing rapidly. I’ve read most of Postman’s books, and I highly recommend them to anyone who has anything to do with media and technology. Well, Professor Postman must be spinning in his grave, as a recent CNBC reporter talking about Pirates of the Caribbean compared the box office receipts to Aquaman, which beat out Spiderman. (WHAT?!?) You have to check out the video…
How you say it
In what has become one of my favorite blogs to read, Creating Passionate Users has to be one of the best blogs about taking care of your customers. Kathy Sierra recently posted an interesting picture about how important graphics are to communicating ideas. This graphic, a sign posted at a trailhead, was the example: Unfortunately, this picture may be worth a thousand words, but those words would be in confusion, not clarity. I suppose only purebreds are allowed? No Muts? Maybe only German Shepherds and Sheepdogs are allowed? The clarity of this sign leaves people confused. Not one of my friends or associates could identify the meaning of this sign.…
Avinash Interviews ClickTracks CTO
Reading Avinash Kaushik’s blog has become an anticipated event in my day. Today was no exception. Avinash interviews Dr. Steven Turner, CTO at ClickTracks. Anyone who has heard me speak at a conference or training seminar knows of my love (is that too strong of a feeling?) for ClickTracks, so this was a very special treat. It was very interesting to hear what one of the main creators of the ClickTracks product views as the most important component, or the most overlooked. It is a great interview, and this “10 Minutes With . . .” series by Avinash should be in your bookmarks. The best question/answer that struck me was this exchange:…
In what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to the land of silicon, Search Engine Strategies is gearing for next month’s visit to San Jose. I have to say of all of the SES events, San Jose seems to be a hands-down favorite of everyone. The New York SES is bigger every year, but it’s in early Spring. Yes, Times Square is in walking distance, but something about the summer in downtown San Jose makes it even more fun. Last year the San Jose Jazz Festival was the same week as the SES, but we won’t be so lucky this year. No, it’s something more, maybe that there are 3-4 parties…
Jacob Nielson’s Long Tail
Usability Guru, Jacob Neilson weighs into the Long Tail discussion with some incredible data from the log files of UseIt. Amazingly, it shows that the Ziph distribution (former name of The Long Tail) looks to be a constant on the Internet. Regardless of the name, the phenomenon is that the total amount of pages, referrals, terms, etc. after the top 10 will far exceed the numbers of the top 10 itself. Using data from 10 years ago, Nielson charts the referrers, pages view and search engine queries comparing the data from 1996 to 2006. He shows an amazing statistic that the shows is that the tail is indeed longer than the head when it comes…
Jacob Nielson's Long Tail
Usability Guru, Jacob Neilson weighs into the Long Tail discussion with some incredible data from the log files of UseIt. Amazingly, it shows that the Ziph distribution (former name of The Long Tail) looks to be a constant on the Internet. Regardless of the name, the phenomenon is that the total amount of pages, referrals, terms, etc. after the top 10 will far exceed the numbers of the top 10 itself. Using data from 10 years ago, Nielson charts the referrers, pages view and search engine queries comparing the data from 1996 to 2006. He shows an amazing statistic that the shows is that the tail is indeed longer than the head when it comes…
Book Review: Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail
With great anticipation, I pre-ordered Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail two months ago. I received it last week and have read it through fairly quickly. I enjoyed the book as it was much more of a social commentary than a business manual. I like this approach, as the long tail is not a “how-to”, but a “because why”. The difference is vast between those, as it is the difference between the understanding the market forces or being subject to them. In the opening chapters of the book I had many shared experiences, growing up in the 80’s and being a fan of the British New Wave and Punk music…
Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day
Written by Matt Bailey, President of SiteLogic. Matt presents the start-to-finish guide for marketing online, answering many questions that most businesses don't know to ask!
