VIA Interaction

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

New Orleans goes wireless

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/30/2005 11:51:00 AM

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Monday, November 28, 2005

When the going gets tough at work, the tough ...

I noticed this pattern when I ran an e-commerce site, and it was one reason I was reluctant to incorporate sound in Web sites: I did not want to discourage all those people trying to get away with something in their cubies.

From the Washington Post, The Mall Had Its Day; Now It's the Web's Turn:

Mary Moran, an executive assistant at a government commission, does it. Michael Sims, a commercial real estate broker, does it. So do U.S. Senate employee Beckie Whitehead, Catholic University student Daniela Manville and lawyer David Godschalk.

They all go shopping online while at work.

"Everybody does it," said Lara Swett, an administrative assistant at the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.

The Friday after Thanksgiving may be the kickoff of the holiday shopping season in malls and stores, but online, the big day is the Monday after Thanksgiving -- today -- when people go back to work.

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/28/2005 07:54:00 AM

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Monday, November 14, 2005

More on Google Analytics

This analysis explains Google Analytics: InformationWeek > Google > Google Offers Web Analytics for Free > November 13, 2005.

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/14/2005 10:17:00 AM

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Google Analytics

Google has announced a free analytics tool this morning. Unfortunately, the site is having problems and I have not been able to assess it, but it looks like a "HitBox/HBX" type product that is free.

Google Analytics: "Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors."

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/14/2005 10:14:00 AM

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Friday, November 11, 2005

Small screen goes big time

Video podcasting has to be next marketing frontier. News item:

The New York Times: And the Emmy for Best Actor on iPods Goes to ...

"The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, best known for handing out the Daytime Emmy Awards, is expected to announce on Tuesday that it has created an award category to recognize original video content for computers, cellphones and other hand-held devices, like the video iPod and PlayStation Portable.

"The category is to have its debut at the academy's next Sports Emmys presentation, and ultimately be added as a category for other Emmy presentations as well, including those for news and documentary, business and financial reporting and daytime television. The category will not be included in the prime-time Emmy Awards, which are overseen by a sister organization. ..."

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/11/2005 03:53:00 PM

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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

The Internet is becoming what the visionaries said it could be

At conferences I attend and in publications I read, the shorthand for what's happening today is "Internet 2." They aren't referring to the technical architecture of the Web, but the way the Internet is turning into a distributed environment where people push, pull and share content in dynamic ways.

Some examples of this are del.icio.us, a "social bookmarks manager," and Technorati, a search engine for blogs and syndicated news that enables content providers to create a metadata structure that classifies results.

Of course, Google is a leader in all of this. The New York Times wrote Sunday about how businesses across the spectrum are both impressed by and afraid of the path that Google is forging:

Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies - New York Times:

"In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer, who is also a partner in a venture capital firm. The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby.

Wal-Mart is scarcely alone in its concern. As Google increasingly becomes the starting point for finding information and buying products and services, companies that even a year ago did not see themselves as competing with Google are beginning to view the company with some angst - mixed with admiration.

Google's recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications. Businesses already feeling the Google effect include advertising, software and the news media. Apart from retailing, Google's disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales.

Google, the reigning giant of Web search, could extend its economic reach in the next few years as more people get high-speed Internet service and cellphones become full-fledged search tools, according to analysts. And ever-smarter software, they say, will cull and organize larger and larger digital storehouses of news, images, real estate listings and traffic reports, delivering results that are more like the advice of a trusted human expert.

Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring "a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere." That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers. But it would also reward consumers with lower prices and open up opportunities for new companies.

Google, then, may turn out to have a more far-reaching impact than earlier Web winners like Amazon and eBay. "Google is the realization of everything that we thought the Internet was going to be about but really wasn't until Google," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School."

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/08/2005 01:50:00 PM

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Friday, November 04, 2005

Web Blogs meet Spam

Washington Post news item: A New Place for Spam's Same Old Pitches:

Now that Web logs -- blogs, for short -- are a popular online pastime for millions of people, scammers are finding new ways to exploit them as vehicles for junk advertisements.

The Internet has even coined a term -- splog, a combination of spam and blog -- for a phenomenon that follows in the footsteps of rogue advertising such as spam e-mail, junk mail, junk faxes and adware. The new forms of spam can show up on blogs as fake comments posted by readers that actually have nothing to do with the subject at hand. Instead they are advertising pitches or attempts to get you to click on an unrelated Web site.

They also can be set up as bogus blogs; go looking for a blogger talking about, say, bathroom renovations, and you could wind up on a Web site that has a few random renovation-related words but that mainly tries to get you to click on links to advertisements.

posted by Tim Beidel at 11/04/2005 02:09:00 PM

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