A new book detailing the way Apple worked under Steve Jobs’ supervision, and not only, hit stores earlier this week, Adam Lashinsky’s “Inside Apple,” which offers a different angle on the iconic company following Walter Isaacson’s official probe into Apple from the “
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Now I will admit up front that Drudge Report is really ugly, and has a design so basic that it will still even work in Netscape 4 and IE6 easily. If you have that software available, try it for yourself; it really works.
However there is something endearing about ugly web sites. It’s generally true they load a whole lot quicker, work in just about any browser and in most instances are easier to read.
Aside from Drudge Report, I don’t think there’s really any major ugly web sites out there anymore, but you can find a whole bunch of personal ones.
Here are three examples:
Some of you upon seeing those personal sites may think, "Wow. I wish more web sites were like these, because they load so quick and are so easy to get around in."
The attractiveness of an ugly site isn’t from its look but rather its readability and ease-of-use. When you load a simple ugly site, it will work no matter what browser you’re using. IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera,
In the Firefox browser, there is the ability to turn styles off on a per-website basis. Bring up the menu by pressing ALT, then click View then Page Style and select No Style.
When I bought up a PCMech article with the styles turned off, this is how it looks:
Very simple, very basic, very ugly – but sometimes that’s exactly what some people want.
Fortunately in Firefox, you can enable/disable styles at whim for whenever you feel like seeing something simpler that’s easier to read (and print!)
Would you be in favor of this? Or is it better off just dealing with what we’re given?
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When it comes to videogame based films, don’t hold your breath for the major film studios to make one. Look towards the fans and independent film makers to bring some of your favorite characters to life in a fashion that rivals the aforementioned film studios. In this case, we have Valve’s Left 4 Dead getting [...]
DeviceMAG
A week ago, I reported that YouTube tests a new interface based on Cosmic Panda. The most important feature is the redesigned homepage that helps you find new channels and explore the videos from your subscriptions. YouTube started to post additional information about the new interface and it’s now obvious that it will replace existing UI in the near future (the link only works after you’ve enabled the new interface).
“We’ve given YouTube a refresh. When you login, you’ll be greeted with recent activity from your subscriptions. You can also browse and add new Channels to your homepage. Connect with Google+ and Facebook to share your favorites with friends. There’s plenty to discover, so login and give it a spin.”
There’s also an article about the new interface for channels.
This new look and feel makes it easier for viewers to to find and watch content. It also makes it easier for Channel creators to organize and showcase exactly what they want. We incorporated your Feedback from the “Cosmic Panda” Channels and Watch experiment, and are excited to present:
* A more streamlined and consistent design
* An easier way to find and view videos
* New, more flexible layouts for featured content, and
* A way to keep your audience engaged even when you don’t have new uploads
It’s interesting to notice that the new homepage and the new channels are built around feed views and activity streaming to make YouTube even more social.
The new channels are less customizable: you can only choose an avatar, a background image, a background color and a template (creator, blogger, network, everything).
Update: The new interface is available for everyone.
ARMONK, N.Y. – 04 Nov 2011: During this year’s November holiday season an unprecedented 15 percent of people in the U.S. logging onto a retailer’s Web site are expected to do so through a mobile device, according to cloud analytics-based findings by IBM (NYSE: IBM).
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111104/NY00549-a )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111104/NY00549-b )
Based on data from the IBM Coremetrics Benchmark, all online holiday shopping in November is also expected to grow as much as 15 percent versus November 2010, with the growing influence of mobile devices such as iPads and Android phones being among the key factors.
The IBM Coremetrics Benchmark analysis gathers data directly from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. Using sophisticated analytics technology, the benchmark measures real-time sales data and online marketing results to uncover shopping trends across a wide-variety of channels including social media, mobile devices and other online sources where consumers interact with their brands.
This latest installment serves as the commencement of IBM’s fourth-annual Benchmark Campaign and reveals the following 2011 online retail predictions for the November holiday season:
“This November holiday season will mark the true advent of the post-PC era with consumers demonstrating a heightened interest in adding mobile devices to their holiday shopping arsenal,” said John Squire, Director, Product Management, Enterprise Marketing Management Group, IBM Industry Solutions. “In response, savvy retailers must invest in delivering hyper-personalized, smarter commerce shopping experiences that are capable of building loyalty through multiple channels with exceptionally relevant promotions, free shipping and more.”
About IBM Smarter Commerce
The growth of mobile, social and online commerce are key trends within Smarter Commerce, an evolving market defined by rapid shifts in digital buying patterns and the adaptations businesses are making to capitalize on them.
More information on Smarter Commerce can be found at www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_commerce/overview/
Source
These early holiday season findings are based on data from IBM Coremetrics Benchmark, the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including real-time sales data. All of the data is aggregated and anonymous.
Coremetrics Benchmark uses IBM’s cloud-based digital analytics platform to rapidly collect and analyze intelligence on how consumers are responding to the products and services being offered to them, enabling clients to make accurate decisions on marketing expenditures. As a result, marketing teams can gain deeper insight about their consumers and present personalized recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across the wide variety of channels—including social networks and mobile devices—where consumers interact with their brands.
Doug Fraim
IBM Media Relations
617-501-6376
dfraim@us.ibm.com
Today, Google announced that marketers will no longer be able to analyze Google clicked natural search terms for any user who is logged into one of their many solutions; mail, photos, blogs, documents, etc. The search term of these authenticated user clicks will be encrypted. To enable the encryption, Google will redirect users to a secure (HTTPS) version of their site.
We applaud Google for wanting to make the user experience safer.
The IBM Enterprise Marketing Management team, comprised of the Coremetrics and Unica teams, is taking a proactive approach and is working with Google to clarify the implications of such a change. In the meantime, the current web analytics solutions from IBM will continue to work without any modification or update required. That said, you will likely see a substantial increase in no search results or “None.” Unfortunately, no work around has been provided by Google; therefore, this is a matter that will impact all vendors that leverage this traditionally vital information. Any Google paid search or display ad clicks tagged with Coremetrics or Unica target URL parameters will not be impacted.
Lee Isensee
Product Marketing Manager
IBM Enterprise Marketing Management
Google Dictionary is no longer available as a standalone service at google.com/dictionary. You can still find it in Google Web Search and Google Translate. For example, you can search for [define keyword] and click “more” or search for [keyword] and click “Dictionary” in the search options sidebar.
{ Thanks, Arpit. }
Dave
Monk is the CEO of the IT consulting firm
ArcSource. His
company's CRM system has evolved over time. First being completely in his head,
to a homegrown system for tracking clients' technical needs, to a full-blown
CRM solution for current and prospective clients.
Business:
ArcSource is a 12-year-old IT support and consulting business. They act as the IT
department for a couple of hundred companies that are too small to have their
own IT department.
The
challenge:
For five years Monk's firm failed at managing new
project opportunities or tracking customers throughout their life cycle. All
they had done was build some homegrown stuff to track certain client
information, such as technical specs, that were necessary for doing their job.
After that, they had nothing.
“When we started everything was being tracked in my
head. Which soon proved to be a non-scalable system,” Monk admitted.
How
discovered Zoho:
Prior to 2007, Monk didn't even know there
were tools to track sales prospects or there was a term CRM – Customer
Relationship Management.
He initially implemented Salesforce in 2008, but
switched to Zoho at the beginning of 2011. Monk did an exhaustive comparison of
the features between Salesforce and Zoho, and came to the conclusion that the
two were matched in terms of features. What they didn't match on was cost. It
was the reason Monk left Salesforce. The super high costs were far too
prohibitive for him to get his whole staff to use it. Zoho CRM was about 1/5th
to 1/6th the cost of Salesforce.
Monk wishes he had gone to Zoho sooner because now he's
getting more people using the CRM system in an intimate way. Because of the
high price of Salesforce, he simply couldn't afford to get everyone in his
company using the product.
It wasn't too hard to exit Salesforce and bring data
over thanks to some templates provided by Zoho. Ultimately, Monk thought Zoho's
performance was much faster than Salesforce especially in the ability to edit
records. With Zoho you don't actually go into the edit mode for the whole
record if you just want to make a simple change.
Unique
use case of Zoho CRM:
Monk takes full advantage of Zoho's Marketing
Campaigns feature which gives him the ability to track results from a specific
marketing effort, such as direct mail pieces and email campaigns. For example,
in one case he saw that he brought in more than 0,000 from a specific ,000
direct mail campaign. Prior to using the Marketing Campaigns feature, he had no
way to determine ROI.
Advice
for others:
An analysis of your current sales and
marketing process or lack thereof will make it very clear as to what’s missing,
said Monk. Putting into place a CRM solution like Zoho has made our business
more productive in terms of tracking information, opportunities, and learning,
in every possible way.
It's a learning process though. Take it a day at a
time, or a chunk at a time. It’s very easy to use from the get go and to
continually use it, Monk explained.
“Don’t let the end goal of a mature product be the
barrier to get in the door. Cause you’ll reap benefits from day one,” Monk
advises, “Every small business can benefit from a CRM solution no matter
what. We’re seeing new opportunities to use the software every week.”
Listen to David Monk talk about his experience with Zoho CRM by zoho
Zoho Blogs
The time comes in the life of a gadget where it gets old and in turn, it will be given EOL (end-of-life) status with its respective carrier and/or manufacturer. And well, while we have yet to receive confirmation from Verizon Wireless, it looks like they have recently added several devices to the EOL list.
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