Archive for October, 2009



Google Fading Home Page

October 29th, 2009 by Gregory Silvano Posted in Stature Projects | No Comments »

Google has a new home page today.  When the page loads you see nothing but the Google logo and the search box.  No buttons, no links – nothing.

When you move your mouse, the rest of the page fades into view.

I kind of like it.  It’s an interesting way to emphasize the important parts of your site.  When a visitor first sees your home page, only show the important things.  When the mouse moves anywhere on the page, the rest of the design/fluff fades in.  You can probably only get away with this if you’re Google, but it’s kind of cool.

 

The Answer To Irresponsible Texting

October 21st, 2009 by Erin Posted in Software Development | No Comments »

Business professionals are guilty of it.

Parents are have done it.

And, teenagers, well…  enough said.

Texting and driving is rampant – and downright deadly.

It seems people can’t be bothered to take their eyes off their BlackBerry or iPhone – even when they’re speeding down the highway at 65 miles-per-hour.

Well, now they can – thanks to an ingenious app called iZup.

Call it a digital cure for lack of common sense.

Created by Illume Software, iZup uses GPS to calculate your speed – and whether you’re driving. If you are moving faster than your feet can carry you, iZup automatically locks out calls and text messages. That means incoming calls go to voice mail and text messages are held in a queue until you come to a stop.

Will iZup work in stop-and-go traffic?

Probably not – and your mobile device will still remain a deadly distraction.

Still, though, I give the makers of iZup an eager round of applause.

The open Web has birthed many brilliant products and services – but THIS, this is what we’ve needed for a very long time.

A full version of iZup will be out in December, but for now let’s hope that dozens of other software companies are scrambling to put out their own similar nanny-ware third-party app.

There are thousands of obscure, obscene, useless apps out there.

Why has it taken this long to produce an app that can curb such a chronic addiction?

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Is Email Dead?

October 15th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business, Small Business, Twitter | No Comments »

There have been a lot of rumblings lately about email.

People say that with the invention of Google Wave and rise in social media – email has died a slow death.

The philosophy is this:

According to Jessica Vascellaro at the Wall Street Journal, we still use email – but not the way we used to.  It wasn’t that long ago when we would log on and off the Internet – in turn checking our email periodically throughout the day.

But that isn’t the case anymore.

Now, we’re always connected either through Facebook, Twitter or some form of instant messaging.

Put it this way. Let’s say you want to catch a movie with a friend. You send him an email – and wait. Two hours later, still no response. As you get ready to shoot off a second email to your friend – or in fact pick up the phone to call him – you see on your Facebook mobile app that your friend is indeed sick with the flu (H1N1?) – and is at the doctor’s office.  Your friend has, in a sense, answered your email via a Facebook status update.

Ok. I get it.

Social media has taken the place of email to a certain extent.

But let’s not forget how many folks out there – hardworking lawyers, investors, software developers, accountants, small business owners – who find themselves composing and responding to emails several hours a day. I, myself, am one of those people.

Email is not dead in the working business world. In fact, it’s alive and well.

WSJ’s Vascellaro points it out herself, writing that email continues to grow. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008.

Business professionals simply don’t communicate with each other via social media or IM.  In fact, many employers – roughly 54% - ban social media sites at work.

Will Google Wave change the way we communicate with colleagues and friends?

Probably so.

But in the meantime, let’s not get carried away and cast off email before it’s past its prime.

I like my Yahoo and Gmail accounts – and I’m not ready to give them up just yet.

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Visualize It – The S&P 500 as a Planetary System

October 13th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business | No Comments »

Bored?

Head over to  Stock Ticker Orbital Comparison where media student James Grant uses a planetary system metaphor to display activity with the S&P 500. Each circle represents a stock and they orbit a planet-like (or sun?) thing in the middle.

Color, size, and transparency represent percent change, market capitalization, and moving average, respectively. Percent change relative to the rest of the market determines the speed at which a stock orbits – fast movers so to speak.

Leave it to the geeks to come up with all the ingenious ideas.

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The Twitter Effect

October 8th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Software Development, Twitter | No Comments »

There used to be a time when I thought Google was poised to take over the world.

I was wrong.

It’s Twitter.

The social networking/ internet messaging service/ micro blogging site (whatever you want to call it) has grown in gargantuan porportion.

An estimated $1 billion to be exact.

And, now, like the Apple iPhone app frenzy – Twitter is having its own profound effect on the app world.

Enter the state of Massachusetts.

The Bay State is home to many things: the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots, prestigious universities and hospitals – to name a few.

But, it’s also a hub for innovative tech startups –  companies, that have developed some interesting applications and services connected to Twitter.

And, unlike Twitter itself, these apps and services are actually bringing in money.

According to Boston Globe’s Scott Kirsner, here’s a look at how some companies are feeding off the Twitter effect – and what they’re bringing to the table.

- Oneforty - Offers a directory of software applications and services that work with Twitter. It helps direct new users and paying customers to them in exchange for a referral fee.

- Thoughtbot – Their Thunder Thimble helps companies track what Twitter users are saying about their brands. Subscription fees start at $9 per month.

- Tweetworks - Aims to help users who are interested in a topic create groups on Twitter and track strings of messages on a particular topic. No revenue model yet.

- Crimson Hexagon - Helps companies track conversations about their products on Twitter (as well as blogs and online forums).

- GraphEdge - Helps Twitter users understand trends among their followers. May soon start charging a monthly fee for Twitter users with a large number of followers.

- HubSpot – Twitter Grader analyzes how well a Twitter account is performing in terms of attracting followers and supplying them with content that they’re likely to pass along ( or “re-tweet”) to other users.

- Traackr – Generates lists of influential users of Twitter so that marketers at a company will know who to reach out to when testing a new product or website.

Anyone can see that by the amount of users (roughly 8 million new users a month) – and the endeavors of these tech companies – the Twitter effect is spreading.

The world is literally Twitter’s oyster.

Let’s hope the site doesn’t blow it by getting swallowed up by Google – or worse, Microsoft.

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