BestTechie

Are Google Products Starting to Suck?

Jeff Weisbein — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:17:07 +0000

What’s going on over at Google? I’m serious. I remember several years ago I wandered over to Google’s about page and started reading about the company’s design principals and how it aspired to create the best user experience for every single product it built. When I read that page on the site, the word Google used to describe a product which meets the appropriate balance of usefulness, innovativeness, and speed (among a few other things) was “Googley.”

This was several years ago.

Flash forward to today. I just read that Google is now releasing a new user toolbar, after releasing one back in November, which seemingly disappeared a week or so later (at least for me). What happened to the whole concept of building “Googley” products? According to the design principals page, they still aspire to build “Googley” products.

“The Google User Experience team aims to create designs that are useful, fast, simple, engaging, innovative, universal, profitable, beautiful, trustworthy, and personable. Achieving a harmonious balance of these ten principles is a constant challenge. A product that gets the balance right is “Googley” – and will satisfy and delight people all over the world.”

Apparently, they are failing to delight people. The recent Gmail redesign was met with overall mixed reviews. And lets not forget that people were up in arms about the redesign of Google Reader.

Are Google’s products starting to suck? I wouldn’t go that far, but it seems something isn’t right. To be honest, I thought the (old) new toolbar was nice. I liked it. But it obviously wasn’t serving its purpose so it got the axe. Whether that’s because it was too clunky or people just weren’t using it — I don’t know. But what I do know is that if Google killed it, it was because it wasn’t “Googely” and that is exactly what I’m getting at here.

Google released that toolbar and made a big deal about it with a blog post, a video showing it off, and a bunch of tech sites covered it — they obviously thought it would be a success.

How could they have been so wrong?

It’s not like the new revision of the toolbar is a variation of the (old) new toolbar — it actually resembles the old (black) toolbar much more than anything else (screenshots below for clarification).

The “old” Google would have been much more cautious about testing it and letting people opt-in and try it out before making a huge announcement. Is Google becoming too trigger happy with its new releases? Perhaps. After all, we are talking about a company that kept the beta logo on Gmail for more than 5 years to ensure it was absolutely perfect. You don’t see that anymore with Google.

One thing is clear though, Google needs to bring back “Googley” because without it they are just another big company throwing products at a wall and hoping one sticks.

Old Google Toolbar:

Old-new Google Toolbar:

New-new Google Toolbar:

How To Optimize Your Website Sidebar

Jeff Weisbein — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:23:53 +0000

The sidebar of a website is an interesting place and one that should given some serious thought while designing or modifying your site. Unfortunately, many people just associate the sidebar as a place to stuff advertisements. While it is true, the sidebar is a common place for advertisements, people who are serious about building a great website should see the sidebar as more than just an “adbar.”

The way I view the sidebar is as an extension of the pages content. It needs to compliment what the visitor is looking at in order to be the most effective. An effective sidebar should have a purpose and the purpose shouldn’t be finding ways to display the most advertisements and make as much money as you can from onetime visitors. The best sidebars are ones that retain, engage, and monetize visitors. And then do it again the next time the visitor comes back.

Here are a few tips to optimize your sidebar and make the most out of it.

First, figure out the purpose of your sidebar. What do you want your sidebar to accomplish? Do you want to use it to drive email newsletter signups? Do you want the sidebar to promote your social media profiles? Whatever it is that you want the sidebar to do is the purpose. Again, a good purpose should revolve around the concept of retaining, engaging, and monetizing. The best sidebars do all three.

Once you have your purpose, run with it. On BestTechie, I use the sidebar to promote the sites social media presence, recent content from popular categories, the BestTechie app (which does need some work/updating), the sites archives, and of course, to monetize.

That sounds like a lot to put in a sidebar, but good placement is key to a sidebar’s success. While you do not want to have an overwhelming sidebar that people are scared to look at, it is important to pick key elements of the site for the sidebar to represent. Everything in the sidebar on BestTechie has been hand selected for a specific reason.

The social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook page, and Google+ page) are there to build up a our presence on each network. We have found that a number of our “Likes” on the Facebook page have come from the placement of the Like box on our site. We recently added the Google+ widget and Twitter follow button (large version) to replicate that effect. By building up our presence it means more people will see our new content and most likely return to the site.

Our implementation of recent articles in the sidebar allows visitors to find more content that may be of interest to them and keeps them further engaged and on the site for longer periods of time. Right now, we use the Business, Electronics, and Web categories because those are some of the most popular.

It is also worth noting that since we implemented the sharing buttons on the left side of each article, social sharing has increased dramatically.

One last thing of note, similarly to how the core of a website should never be considered “done” the sidebar can always be improved and modified to increase its effectiveness. The use of website analytics can be very useful tool for determining what’s working and what’s not.

Do you have any tips for designing an effective sidebar? Leave a comment!

How Will the Facebook IPO Impact New Startups?

Jeff Weisbein — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:26:19 +0000

I expect 2012 to be an interesting year in tech for several reasons, but the one I want to discuss today is the Facebook IPO. The Facebook IPO is coming and it will have a huge impact in the tech industry but not for reasons you may think. According to a former in-house Facebook recruiter, the IPO will create thousands of millionaires, granted, they will need to wait out the vesting period before selling their stock, but make no mistake there will be plenty of new millionaires when it’s all said and done.

Why does it matter? It matters because a lot of the people who will be cashing in are engineers — the very people who built Facebook and implement all the features will now have a lot of money at their disposal. While some of them may be planning to buy a nice house or sports cars or fun trips, the more entrepreneurial spirits are most likely planning their next big project.

Think about it. You are an engineer with an idea, you know how to build it, you can probably bring along a few of your closest colleagues, and you are all flush with cash and experience. Pair all of that with living in Silicon Valley and access to great investors looking for the next big thing, it won’t be difficult to leave Facebook and start your own company.

That alone is reason to be excited about the IPO. However, If I’m Mark Zuckerberg this is the type of thing that I worry about at night. Sure, you will be able to reel a few of your engineers back in, but not all of them. In many cases, the ones that leave are the most ambitious and/or talented. Two things (ambition and talent) that Facebook or any company is deathly afraid of losing. Soon enough, Facebook will be sharing the fear of Google, the fear of losing its top talent to new and interesting startups with the hope that they will hit it big again.

It is an exciting time in tech. I expect to see a lot of big things come along in 2012.

Spotify Listening Limitations to Start Soon

Jeff Weisbein — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:31:22 +0000

In just one week from now, music streaming service, Spotify will have been in the US for six months. Spotify launched in the US back on July 14th and opened its doors to music lovers with unlimited free access to streaming music (with the occasional ad). However, the music is about to stop or well be extremely limited for users unwilling to shell out the $4.99 per month for desktop access or $9.99 per month for mobile access via its app.

The new free limitations are as follows: 10 hours of streaming per month and you are only allowed to play individual tracks at most five times per month. What does this equate to song wise? Well, say the average song is 3 minutes that’s 20 songs per hour or roughly 200 songs per month that you will be able to listen to for free. As someone who loves to work with music in the background that can go pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, the six month deal is no longer in effect for users who sign-up today or in the future. It was a promotional vehicle to get people to sign-up during the US launch with the hopes that people would get hooked and start to pay up.

It’s definitely clear why Spotify hopes that people will opt to sign-up for the one or both of the paid plans because as we know the future of music streaming services is kind of bleak right now. What will users end up doing? Will they jump ship starting next week, pay up, or live with the limitations? I guess we will find out.

If you are a Spotify user, I would love to hear your thoughts and what you plan to do once the changes take place?

Does Your Klout Score Matter? Maybe.

Jeff Weisbein — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:19:08 +0000

Klout recently announced that it raised a new round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins as the company prepares to make a big splash in 2012. According to the post by Klout CEO, Joe Fernandez, the company has already made significant investments in both engineering and infrastructure and plans to use this new funding to “continue to provide the most accurate and transparent measurement of influence.” He then goes on to say, that another goal is to make it clear why it pays to have Klout.

While it’s great that Klout wants to provide an “accurate and transparent” measurement of influence, let’s be real — it will never be completely transparent. It can’t be. If it was, competitors would jump at the opportunity to copy it. Klout will not be disclosing how its algorithms work the same way Google doesn’t. And really, that’s fine but the whole “we are for transparency” bit, at least with regard to how scores are calculated, is simply not true. So save that act and start working on ways to convince me (and everyone else) that Klout really matters.

Last night, I sent out a tweet, which stated that I would give Klout six months to show me why my Klout score matters. The clock starts now.

To be fair, to date, I have been intrigued by Klout — I think measuring social influence is an interesting idea. My personal Klout score is currently around 50 which is a great ego boost. However, aside from it being an ego boost, I have no real reason to care about my Klout score at all. Sure, they offer perks, but they aren’t that great, at least great enough that I have ever had the urge to take advantage of one.

One investor wrote that Klout will be the “global standard” for identifying and measuring social influence. Another compared Klout to the likes of Nielsen and comScore but for social media. That sounds great and all but you will notice one thing about both Nielsen and comScore — they aren’t consumer oriented businesses. In fact, they are much more business to business oriented. They sell metrics and data. In fact, most measurement and metric companies are geared more towards businesses than consumers. So where does that leave Klout?

I do not know what Klout has planned, but I am anxiously waiting. I do, however, currently have the feeling that Klout will not matter to me that much six months from now. I hope I’m wrong.

Gumroad Allows You to Easily Sell Digital Content

Jeff Weisbein — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:24:17 +0000

Want a quick and easy way to sell digital content online? Look no further then Gumroad. Gumroad is a web service that allows its users to sell digital content such as music, blog posts, graphics, website designs, source code, and even t-shirts with the click of the mouse. Simply signup with your Twitter or Facebook account (or using Gumroad’s own system) and you will be on your way to selling and making some money.

So how does Gumroad work? Users are required to have their own distribution system for the items they are selling on the service, while Gumroad functions as the payment platform. The fact that people must have their own distribution system in place helps prevent people from selling things that they do not own the rights to. Granted, it is not a perfect solution, however, it seems to be working thus far and will be interesting to how this potential issue plays out longterm.

When it comes to item pricing, Gumroad has imposed a minimum and maximum price requirement. All items can be sold for as little as $1 to a maximum price of $1,000. Gumroad takes 5% + $0.30 of each transaction that takes place on the site. For example: If you sell a digital video for $10, Gumroad will get $0.80 and the remaining $9.20 is what you will keep. At the end of every month, your earnings will be transferred to your Paypal account.

I reached out to the founder of Gumroad, Sahil Lavingia, to ask how many transactions the site was handling per month and while he did not provide a specific number he did say that he was happy with the number and that the site is growing. Which is good news. I really like the core idea behind the site and plan to use it in the future.

One thing I would like to see on Gumroad is some kind of marketplace with a list of current items for sale on the site. I think this would help users generate more revenue and also make finding great digital content easier. Nonetheless, Gumroad is a great way to sell your creations that you may not have otherwise thought or had the opportunity to make money from.

Google Chrome’s Impressive Market Share Growth Explained

Jeff Weisbein — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:27:41 +0000

According to StatCounter, Google Chrome has continued to pick up market share in the browser wars through December. Chrome went from 15 percent market share a year ago to 27 percent share in December 2011. A trend that I believe will continue as it catches up to (and eventually surpasses) Internet Explorer in market share which is currently at 39% according to StatCounter.

But why has Google been so successful with Chrome? How come Mozilla couldn’t penetrate the market as quickly? Both very good questions. There are a few factors that I think have played into Google Chrome’s success.

First, we live on the web more today than ever before. Today, the browser is a very important part of computing, some could make the argument it’s the most important aspect of computing for the average user. Bottom line: people live in the browser. And what company is in a better position than Google to take advantage of that? None.

So what has Google done?

Well, for starters, they built a solid reputation for Chrome on Windows. Next, instead of just porting over the Windows version for Mac and Linux they built a completely new version of Chrome from the ground up for each platform. Why? To ensure the experience was exactly the same despite the platform. It took another two years before Google officially released Chrome for Mac and Linux, but they made sure it was worth the wait. And as a Google Chrome user, I can say for certain it was definitely worth waiting for — it’s the best browser I have ever used.

Then Google made use of its home page, the most trafficked home page on the web, and started marketing Google Chrome to everyone. However, Google then moved its Chrome marketing campaign offline to the television; a brilliant decision. Why? How often do you see a television ad for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? Right. Never. Microsoft is too busy using its advertising dollars on Windows 7 and figuring out ways to tie all of its Windows 7 products together.

Two other things that I think have helped Google Chrome are the poor reputation that Internet Explorer has developed even amongst average users. Most people are now aware there are alternative browsers out there. Even though Microsoft has done a lot to secure Internet Explorer, many people still believe (and perhaps rightfully so) it is not as secure as Chrome or Firefox. The last factor is the fact that Microsoft is required to give users in Europe a choice now via the Browser Ballot that allows them to choose which browser they want installed on their computer.

When you look at all of these factors together, it is easy to see how Chrome has gone from zero to hero very quickly.

Company Sues Former Blogger Over His Twitter Account

Jeff Weisbein — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:52:43 +0000

We may soon find out how much a tweet or Twitter follower costs in dollar terms. An interesting lawsuit filed by PhoneDog Media L.L.C. against Noah Kravitz, a former blogger for PhoneDog.com, is expected to go to court next month. The dispute? Twitter followers.

While working at PhoneDog, Noah tweeted under the Twitter handle PhoneDog_Noah and over that period of time amassed a following of over 17,000 people. Now, despite coming to an agreement with PhoneDog that allowed him to keep the account provided he changed the handle (it’s now @NoahKravitz) and tweeted things occasionally that PhoneDog content, the company is suing him for $340,000 or $2.50 per month for each individual follower (for eight months).

Even though both parties parted amicably and Noah agreed to promote PhoneDog content on occasion, PhoneDog suddenly believes the followers should be considered a customer list and as such should be its property. The real issue now, in my opinion, is whether or not Noah signed up on Twitter because PhoneDog told him to with the intentions of building a customer list.

If Noah signed up on Twitter on behalf of PhoneDog then I think that account should be turned over to PhoneDog. However, if Noah signed up for Twitter himself and had been tweeting before working for PhoneDog I’m inclined to think he should be entitled to keep the account and the followers.

I’m a bit surprised this issue hasn’t come up before considering the amount of people on Twitter who use the company they work for in their Twitter handle, something by the way, which I never understood and now you can see why I’m against it. Nonetheless, this case will definitely set some kind of precedent regarding not only the rights of former employees and what is considered company property but also how do you quantify the value of an individual (Twitter) follower/(potential) customer.

(Via The New York Times.)

Bidding On Trademarks in Search Advertising Continues to Heat Up

Jeff Weisbein — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:31:50 +0000

Here’s a hot topic: competitors or scammers bidding on your company’s trademark in search results to be at the top of the results in the sponsored links section. Is this illegal? The answer may surprise you: it’s not. And as long as traditional search engines are making billions in search ad revenue you can guarantee they will continue to fight (or settle in many cases) with any company that sues them for allowing other third-party advertisers to use that company’s trademarked term(s) for the competitors benefit.

This isn’t a new issue — it has been going on for years. Most recently, a close friend of mine and the CEO of Malwarebytes wrote about his company facing this very problem. Unfortunately, the competitors are doing more than just using his company’s trademarks, but are also using deceptive practices to lure users into downloading the competitors product by thinking they are downloading Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

So what is a company supposed to do to protect itself from competitors bidding up its trademark and sitting at the top of the results in the sponsored links section?

When it comes to search, if your company is truly concerned about competitors using your trademarks one option is to bid up the keywords so you stay at the top of the sponsored links in addition to keeping your position in the natural results. This of course can be become very costly very fast. Leading us to the question, at what point would it be best to spend some of that money on improving your SEO (search engine optimization)? Which in my opinion is definitely a good alternative method for a company to consider investing its resources because it has better long-term effectiveness especially when compared directly against an advertisement.

According to intellectual property attorney Britton Payne of Foley & Lardner LLP the answer to this question is multifaceted. I discussed the topic further with Mr. Payne, who focuses on issues like these in the class he teaches at Fordham Law School, ”Copyright, Trademark and Emerging Technologies.” He acknowledged that while it is ultimately up to the company on what it spends on Internet advertising, when it comes to search, he said that, “people have become familiar with how search results work, between natural and sponsored results, and that model has become standardized across the different search engines. As a result, it is better understood what practices cause confusion, and what practices are just healthy competition.”

An interesting point, especially with the recent studies that have been surfacing showing how people are now more aware of where advertisements typically are placed on web pages and have been consciously ignoring them while surfing the web.

When it comes to social sites, Mr. Payne said that of the people he has spoken with who deal with ad buying, most aren’t as concerned with competitors using their trademarks when purchasing keywords on social sites due to the number of different factors affecting who gets shown a particular advertisement. Of course, this is all provided the ads are not deceptive or misleading to the consumer.

We all know that newer technologies have search functions, and these “new search” environments create new circumstances for trademark owners to address. For example, in September, TheMarySue.com brought attention to the issue of purchasing trademarks on Twitter when DC Comics bought the keyword “Marvel” on Twitter. So when you searched Twitter for “Marvel” the DC Comics twitter account would show up at the top of the search results. This now appears to be resolved (read: Marvel out-bid or came to an agreement with DC Comics for the keyword on Twitter), as a quick search on Twitter for Marvel currently returns tweets from the official Marvel twitter account at the top of the results. While many would argue this could be considered the equivalent of Coca Cola buying the keyword Pepsi on Twitter and would most likely not cause any confusion with the customer given how well established both brands are and how most people are aware how advertising works on the Internet, it definitely makes clear the possibility that a competitor or scammer could use similar tactics to steal or worse, defraud customers.

So what if a competitor is using your company’s trademark deceptively? If it is deceptive, then it is a problem. As you are probably aware there are many steps that the owner of the trademark can take to address deceptive use of it on the Internet, starting with writing a letter to the company infringing your mark yourself or hiring a lawyer to write a scary one for you (which will hopefully scare them enough to stop). However, Mr. Payne notes that in a traditional search environment (at least in the United States), the search engine provider is not likely to have any liability; meaning you will have to go directly after the competitor infringing your mark.

He went on to tell me that “the traditional search engine case law has provided a vocabulary and a logical framework for addressing keyword purchases in new technologies, but we can’t really anticipate how that will all play out until someone is making a lot of money off of new search, and someone else sues about it.” Which basically means that as new technology becomes available and more data is continually gathered on (potential) customers, companies will constantly be looking for new ways to “one-up” each other using the latest sites, apps, and gadgets.

But is that a bad thing? Not necessarily.

As someone who advocates the adoption and use of new technology, I think it’s great that companies are getting excited about it too. Obviously not every new product/service will be a major hit but no company wants to take that chance and be left behind while its competitors are gaining customers. Nonetheless, as the competition for customer dollars continues to increase I think this all boils down to a win for the consumer.

What to Consider When Cleaning Up Your Facebook Timeline

Guest Author — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:23:07 +0000

The introduction of new programs or software often has the effect of fundamentally changing the way we interact with long-established ones. The Street View program turned Google Maps from a resource for directions into a photo gallery of the world. YouTube MP4 converters turned a video website into a legitimate music source. And, now, the Timeline redesign has turned Facebook from a traditional social media site into a more encompassing life scrapbook or autobiography.

The Facebook Timeline is an overall of the website’s regular user profile. In the old profile, the most recent status updates, pictures, and wall posts appeared at the top of the screen. To see a post from several months or years ago, a viewer would need to do a good deal of scrolling and searching. The Timeline changes this by adding a sidebar on the left side of every profile. The sidebar lists off all the years during which that profile registered activity. A viewer needs only to click on a year if they want to see pictures or wall posts from that time.This change has garnered mixed reviews from users and from experts. While people are generally complimentary of the design, and although many have expressed an appreciation for being able to reminisce and easily see old posts, a majority of reviewers have expressed privacy-related concerns. With Timeline, any Facebook friend can easily explore one’s online past.

Fortunately, Facebook provides the option of “hiding” anything unwanted that appears in a user’s Timeline. Even though scrolling through years of Facebook activity may seem daunting, this is a worthy pursuit for anyone who is even slightly concerned about their old data, buried under years of new updates. Moreover, this is a task that Facebook users should probably tackle sooner rather than later.

If you’re examining your Facebook past for posts, statuses, and pictures to hide, here are a few considerations to keep in mind:

Friends Change, Privacy Settings Stay The Same

If you posted a picture in, say 2007, you might at the time have made it public to all your friends except for your sister and your college professor. When this picture appears now in your Timeline, it will still be hidden from your sister and from that professor – but it will be public for any friends you have added since then, potentially including employers and colleagues. Keep this in mind when you look at old photos.

What Image Do You Want to Convey?

Like it or not, one’s Facebook profile is increasingly a window through which they convey themselves to the world. If you’re applying to jobs or schools, or if you are in a particular line of work, it may be important to cultivate the image you convey. And although you may have been an upstanding citizen for the past two years, it is now extremely easy for people to delve into your past. It may be in your best interest to insure that it’s whitewashed and clean.

What Do You Want To See?

As aforementioned, the new Timeline feature turns the user profile into more of a scrapbook or a personal biography. This certainly means that your friends may enjoy browsing through your younger years, but the main target audience of such a feature is one very specific person: you. Consequently, if your virtual autobiography contains images or posts you’d rather not see (say, from a previous relationship), by all means go ahead and delete them. The Timeline doesn’t have to be a full and accurate account of your life. Rather, it should simply be geared to easily help you reminisce when you chose to do so.

Hopefully these tips can help provide some direction when you set out to “hide” elements from your Timeline’s past. Ultimately, however, the decision of whether to hide or not to hide is based largely on your instincts, reactions, and discretions. Redesign notwithstanding it’s still your Facebook page, after all.