With the recent homepage redesign it is clear twitter is out to take a chunk of the search market. Searching the web using twitter is a different type of search though. Traditionally search results are presented to a user because the search engine tells them these are the results that are most relevant. The end user really has no connection to that result and really doesn't understand why such a result is ranked and presented to them. Nearly all of the data in these search engines is either crawled by bots or submitted by individual sites.
The twitter search approach is much different. When you search for a topic you are presented with a bit of commentary then a link to an article or blog that relates to the topic you are searching for. The relationship information that you get when searching on twitter is what makes it important. You now have the individual's twitter name, their commentary, as well as when it was "tweeted" so you can take this all into account before you decide if that bit of information is relevant. All of the content you are searching is user submitted so only information that users feel is relevant is added to the search pool.
As usual there are people out there to game these systems but a relationship based search is definitely a smart move and I look forward to the evolution of the real-time web integrating with traditional search.
Right now each type of search has its place but be on the look for a merger of the two types. From a PR perspective its potentially a reputation management nightmare but definitely something to think about.
What are your thoughts on the future of real time search?
I'm constantly intrigued by how other designers execute different effects and styles on the web. The other day I figured out a quick way to create a fantastic looking pie chart in Adobe Illustrator.
Video chats been around awhile now and its something I now take for granted. I'm constantly catching up with friends using my camera on my macbook when meeting up with them isn't easy anymore.
Today at the office I was shocked though. Looking over in the office at a team of our rockstar developers I saw them all huddled around a workstation talking with their team leader Kevin. Kevin was running his weekly morning meeting with his team from Scotland! The picture quality and sound had very little lag and it was almost like he was here.
Working remotely in an industry like ours is getting more and more common. Our office makes heavy use of instant messaging, VoIP, SiteCrafting internal management system, and email allowing us to constantly be in contact and available whenever and wherever.
The amazing thing about these technologies is how easy they are to get going with them. It was painless for our team to talk and within minutes everyone was back to their jobs at hand. Communication is key for a team when individuals are working remotely. I constantly hear people from other companies complain about when a coworker is working from home since it often delays their deliverables, here not so much.
It's no secret that nearly everyone in the web industry has some level of entrepreneurial spirit in them. Side projects are constantly being worked on and thought about. I, myself, run three community sites on the side. I have 4 Myspace profiles, 5 emails addresses, 2 Facebook accounts, 3 Twitter accounts, 1 Linkedin, 1 Friendster, 2 AIM accounts, 1 MSN account... now your probably thinking I'm nuts and wondering why...
Because so many of my projects are in different niches, having a way to manage the image and voice of that project is key. Many people are familiar with business incubators where when a client calls in on a number a shared receptionist answers the phone a certain way... same idea. By having a way to file people into different accounts it helps me manage all of the people trying to contact me and allows me to prioritize responses much easier.
This all works fine except with one type of contact. My phone number. When out and about, people have asked for my cell. If I have a personal connection with them I'll give it to them but if they are more of a business contact I tell them to just email me. Out of all of the ways to contact me my cell is definitely the "bat phone" so sharing the details are much more private since it is much harder to filter out the noise.
There is a solution just around the corner that I'm extremely excited about. In 2007, many of my friends turned me onto Grand Central, but they were quickly swallowed up by Google and I was unable to get an account. Well, news just came out about it, stating that it might becoming out of closed doors soon as Google Voice.
Google Voice allows you to get an alias phone number that is then routed to your phone. Also, all voicemail becomes digitized, allowing you to play via web interface!
Check out the video:
This solution will now make it extremely easy to give out a number that you can cancel at any point, all while keeping your personal number available and private. Another great advantage is if you are working on a site targeted at a certain state or city you can get a local number that gives you the image of being local.
As a company brand evolves, it's often easy to forget about little things such as the email signature. The email signature, which appears at the close of a message, is usually where contact information exists, consisting of info like your name, title, dept, website, address, and phone number. I say "usually" because many people feel this is a spot to showcase a little bit about themselves. They do this with such things as banners, animated gifs, inspirational quotes, and even their photo. Read more →
So, whenever I meet up with good friend of mine, Scott Schiller from Flickr, we often talk about geeky things such as Web Semantics and the "proper" way to mark up different things. I know there are a few of you out there who enjoy this topic so here is my question to you.
What do you think is the "proper" way to markup a blog comment in this image?
Depending on how well of a response I get I might be doing this more. Figured since the holidays are right around the corner and you all have been pretty good lately I could give you a free mini button set. :) Enjoy
We all know that design and development firms are really run on caffeine. Coffee, energy drinks, tea, and even energy beers now. I usually can be found with 2-3 coffee cups on my desk throughout the week but I will never forget about one developer who I worked with. Each day he would purchase 3-4 drip coffees from Starbucks and then would stack the cups creating a wall about 5 layers high creating his own cubical wall. It was all fine until one day when a few of them turned sour and his office buddy/management put an end to it.
What do you prefer to drink while working? I'm usually a fan of mochas or red bull. Have any ridiculous stories about coworkers caffeine habits?
Two weeks ago I had a chance to fly down to San Francisco and check out the Flickr HQ. What I found was a team and office culture that was extremely similar to what we have at SiteCrafting. If you have ever had a chance to visit our office I'm sure the first thing you noticed was how quiet it is. Just as in our office the flickr team rocks out with their headphones on too.
Here is a quick little Venn diagram comparing the two companies:
It was really cool seeing that all of the perks which make our company what it is comparable to the Yahoo funded Flickr group.
For the last 3 years I've worked on less and less "Brochure Sites" and more and more web applications. Clients have really taken it for granted as to what features a website should now have. Tag Clouds, CMS, Social Bookmarking, Send to Friend, Add as Friend, Digg It, Wiki and Blog are all things constantly being chanted by clients.
Don't get me wrong, there is a place for these features, but why do you need it all? How will a feature like this affect your company? What's the value add? Luckily, I've worked for ethical companies that have helped mentor clients through the process to help determine what a client really needs.
We could charge a client an arm and a leg for things they don't need, but what good is that? We are not in the business to have our clients fall. In no way is that beneficial to our Partnership. Read more →
