VIA Interaction

Monday, September 26, 2005

Google's site maps

Google is experimenting with "site maps" -- XML files that live on your Web server to help Google's search crawler effectively index your site.

Google Sitemaps (BETA) Help:

"The Sitemap Protocol allows you to inform search engines about URLs on your websites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap that uses the Google Sitemap Protocol is an XML file that lists URLs for a site. The protocol was written to be highly scalable so it can accommodate sites of any size. It also enables webmasters to include additional information about each URL (when it was last updated; how often it changes; how important it is in relation to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.

"Sitemaps are particularly beneficial when users can not reach all areas of a website through a browseable interface i.e. users are unable to reach certain pages or regions of a site by following links. For example, any site where certain pages are only accessible via a search form would benefit from creating a Sitemap and submitting it to search engines. ..."

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/26/2005 09:30:00 AM

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Monday, September 19, 2005

Coming soon: Wireless digital TV in the home

Coming real soon, 240 megabits/second wireless networking:

• A Company Looks to Wean Computers Off the Wires - New York Times.

Most wired ethernet networks are 100 mb/sec.

"Airgo said that, in a demonstration of its second-generation technology in a home near its headquarters last spring, a MIMO system wirelessly transmitted a DVD film to a laptop several rooms away, even through a wall abutting a stone fireplace, without signal loss or degradation."

Airgo's landing page about the announcement... (I can't resist this UI nitpick - note the instructional text to get you to notice the timeline captions!)

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/19/2005 02:16:00 PM

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Internet Buzz as a predictor of ratings success

A few years ago, Roper published a book called The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy.

The title says it all. For marketers, it is important to identify which of your customers are "influentials" - the ones behind the word-of-mouth impact (negative and positive) about your products or services.

One of the book's findings is that influentials are about twice as likely to participate in Internet forums as the average American.

Advertising agencies trying to predict the season's hot television shows are finding that the buzz generated on the Internet is a reliable predictor. From The Ad Industry Turns to the Web to Predict Hits - New York Times:

"That record of anticipating great early reaction to a couple of emerging hits has put new emphasis on the tracking surveys that networks and advertising agencies conduct to measure advance interest in the new crop of network series.

"These surveys, which use personal and phone interviews, focus groups and Internet chat-room analyses, ask people to list new shows in terms of how aware they are of them and how strongly they intend to watch them (at least once). Initiative Media began looking at Internet chatter for the first time last year, adding a new element to the mix of methods of predicting early awareness of shows. Last year, when 'Lost' defied all expectations by demonstrating a clatter of attention on the Web, Initiative began questioning whether the passive examination they were doing of the chat sites was simply not a proper way to measure advance audience interest in television shows, said Stacey Lynn Koerner, the executive vice president of global research for the agency, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

" 'I looked at the data for the show and it was No. 1 in terms of positive buzz,' Ms. Koerner said. 'I said, 'Ah, shoot, this thing doesn't work.' '

" But the consistency of the information forced Initiative to re-evaluate, to the point where just before the television season began, Ms. Koerner said, she began gingerly suggesting to advertising clients that they might want to take an extra look at "Lost. ..."

Of course it was working, as "Lost" became one of the surprise hits of last season.

This year's predictions: "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Supernatural."

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/19/2005 09:19:00 AM

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

Where are people looking? What are they noticing?

I wish we could eye-track every Web design we do. A Wichita State study, Hotspots and Hyperlinks: Using Eye-tracking to Supplement Usability Testing, shows the way 36 people looked at three sites.

They used the Tobii 1750 eye tracker, which would be on my Amazon wish list if they carried it...

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/18/2005 11:25:00 AM

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Sun on Web architecting

Sun's Martin Hardee writes a usability blog for his company. He's got an interesting case study around the company's Opteron pages that discusses Sun's process and the costs associated.

Sun's process is very similar to VIA's. I especially like his emphasis on a content audit early in the project ("including information that's implied in graphics and even ads") and the way they approached the visual design.

Finally, the site underwent a major redesign soon after launch, so they had to "repaint" the existing page with the new brand standards.

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/18/2005 10:44:00 AM

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Google Launches Search Engine For Blogs

News item: InformationWeek > Google > Google Launches Search Engine For Blogs > September 14, 2005:

"Chris Sherman, associate editor of Search Engine Watch, said Google is the first of the major search engine to offer 'full-blown blog and feed search capabilities.'"

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/15/2005 08:45:00 AM

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Thursday, September 08, 2005

Where is all this RSS/XML/Blogging stuff headed?

When we see the way the Web is headed, XML syndication and blogging are the tip of the iceberg. User Interface Engineering's Jared Spool has an excellent overview with real-world examples of the unexpected ways people are using and sharing data through Web in Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype.

Among the things he's found:

• An interactive housing viewer that combines Craigslist.com real esate listings with Google Maps.
  
• An bookmarklet that shows whether books from Amazon are available at a local library.

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/08/2005 09:23:00 AM

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