Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Make a Mobile Friendly Version of your Blog with Google Reader

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/design/how-to-create-mobile-phone-optimized-blog/2132/

You blog design may be perfectly optimized for the desktop screen but there are lot of people out there who frequently check your website for new content using their mobile phones.

They are not interested in the sidebars, navigation areas and other design elements - all they want to see is a simple listing of your blog posts in reverse chronological order. If they like to read a post, they can click the title and a mobile friendly version of that page should open on the screen of their cell phone.

You may not be a geek or may have the time to create a mobile edition of your blog so here are two simple hacks to help you out - your blog content won’t just look extremely readable on a mobile phone screen, it will also load very fast.

1. Google Reader - The Ten Second Solution

Google Reader can generate an excellent mobile view of your RSS feed without any effort. Just append your feed address to the following URL and your mobile blog is ready.

http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[feed_address]

labnol-google-reader

And here’s a live example - use your mobile phone to see the awesome page rendering

http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://feeds.labnol.org/labnol

Call this link "Mobile Site" and place it somewhere at the top of your blog design so mobile phone users will notice it instantly and switch to the mobile view.

2. The next solution is to create a free account at mofuse.com and they’ll give a personal mobile website with a .mobi address - something like http://labnol.mofuse.mobi/.

If you have self-hosted blog like on WordPress or Blogger Custom domains, you can easily setup the mobile edition of your site on a subdomain (e.g. m.labnol.org) - it is short and your users can easily guess the URL since almost all popular sites now follow the m. convention.

WordPress users are lucky as there’s a plugin that will automatically detect if the client is a mobile phone browser and it then renders a mobile friendly version of the blog to the visitor.

Related: Create Printer Friendly Blog with PDF Support

Make a Mobile Friendly Version of your Blog with Google Reader - Digital Inspiration

Create MP3 Files From Text in Emails and Web Pages

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/convert-email-text-to-mp3-files/2140/

create mp3 text files Vozme is web based tool that turns any snippet of text into an MP3 audio file that you can either listen online or download to your local hard drive.

You just have to copy the text from a web page or an email and paste it inside the Vozme text box.

While there are tons of solutions that convert text to spoken words, what I liked about Vozme is the clutter free interface and the fact that it runs inside the browser without requiring any downloads.

Bloggers can easily integrate the Vozme feature in the site so visitors can either listen to your full blog posts or they can select a portion of text and have Vozme narrate it like a speech.

Vozme.com - Accepts Spanish, English and Italian languages. Thanks Jane.

Related: Listen to Email, Word Documents on iPod

Create MP3 Files From Text in Emails and Web Pages - Digital Inspiration

Africa: small-scale generator powered by sugar and yeast (video)

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/221909009/africa-smallscale-ge.html

Afrigadget recently blogged about an inexpensive power source for Africa created by Dr. Cedrick Ngalande in Malawi. Today, the blog points to videos of the invention in action:

The rotor moves slowly most of the times but does pick up at certain intervals. This process continues for many hours. Since the rotor is quite heavy (and hence more inertia) a small geared DC motor can be connected to the rotor to generate power for cell phones, $100 laptops, and other things in Africa. People can leave this thing to charge their phones/$100 laptops overnight.
Basically we have two chambers on either end of the rotating (pivoted) rod. The arrangement of the chambers is such that on either side of the rod, one chamber sits on top of the other (this is important). At the beginning of this operation, I fill the bottom chamber on each side with a yeast sugar solution. Each bottom chamber is always locked under pressure by special valves. Due to pressure the solution starts moving from a bottom chamber into its respective top chamber. Note that by moving upwards, the fluid's center of gravity shifts, resulting in a mass imbalance which causes the wobbling.

Link to post with video.

Sleeveface pool on Flickr

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/222441038/sleeveface-pool-on-f.html

2180 2203175307 0A81250B5A

149 407835260 A46D05F1Df-1

Sleeveface is my new favorite Flickr pool. There are more than 700 examples and they're a total laff riot. Seen here are contributions from John Rostron (left) and Godesinge (right). Link (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

AT&T hands out free hotspot access to broadband customers, ups its bandwidth

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/222466758/

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

AT&T, continuing to be the open, giving, and free-wheeling loony that it is, has decided to bestow cost-free access to its 10,000+ WiFi hotspots (for its broadband subscribers, that is). Effective immediately, if you're tossing money the company's way for any high-speed access, you can hop onto wireless networks in retail shops, restaurants, and airports free of charge... provided they're AT&T networks. We know its a lot to handle, but get this -- the telco has also upped the speeds of its U-verse service to a whopping 10 Mbps downstream / 1.5 Mbps upstream configuration, undoubtedly warming the hearts of AT&T subscribers hankering for a little more bandwidth to sustain their ever-increasing 'net needs. It's like the holidays all over again. Read - AT&T To Deliver Free Access To Nation's Largest Wi-Fi Network Read - AT&T Boosts Bandwidth Choices and Speed with 10 Mbps Offer for U-verse Customers

AnyTV Streams Internet Video to Your Desktop [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/221360527/anytv-streams-internet-video-to-your-desktop

Windows only: The free AnyTV streaming video player gives you access to dozens of internet media streams (television, radio, and other video) from one interface for easy viewing at your computer. AnyTV isn't quite as slick as our favorite Joost, but for TV junkies, it does offer an eclectic collection of streams from around the world. I had trouble getting some channels to play in AnyTV, but did wind up watching a bit of Eyewitness News while testing. After the jump, see a full screenshot of AnyTV in action.

AnyTV is a free download for Windows only.

AnyTV [via Download Squad]

Turn Any Content into a Start Page Widget with Orchestr8 [Start Pages]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/221409930/turn-any-content-into-a-start-page-widget-with-orchestr8

Webapp Orchestr8 creates widgets for your iGoogle, Netvibes, and Pageflakes start page—or to embed on a web site—from any web page with a simple point-and-click. Similar to the new web clip feature in Leopard (which does the same thing but puts the widget in Dashboard), just point Orchestr8 to the page containing the content you want to clip, find the content you want, click it, and the select Grab it. It's not perfect, but it does offer a simple way to create widgets for your start page for content that doesn't offer an easy-to-snag RSS feed.

Share Your Keyboard and Mouse Across Computers with Input Director [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/221875110/share-your-keyboard-and-mouse-across-computers-with-input-director

Windows only: Share a single keyboard, mouse, and clipboard between multiple Windows computers with freeware application Input Director. Similar to the cross-platform keyboard sharing app, Synergy, Input Manager offers an easier setup and a handful of really useful features—including the ability to copy and paste files and folders between systems (a feature that never seems to work correctly in Synergy). While Synergy is the best available solution for a multi-platform setup, if you're only running multiple Windows machines, Input Director looks like the best solution. If you happen to have an all-Mac setup, check out previously mentioned Teleport. Input Director is freeware, Windows only.

Input Director [via FreewareGenius]

E-Paper Slap Bracelets: Like the 80's...Except Different [Concept]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/221971099/e+paper-slap-bracelets-like-the-80sexcept-different

If you had a slap bracelet back in the day (and I am ashamed to admit that I did), you will surely enjoy this concept device from the Chocolate Agency. Imagine a full-fledged multimedia device that can be slapped on and worn like a wristband. It would feature an e-paper surface and a battery that can be recharged using kinetic energy. Unfortunately, imagining it is all you can really do, because this sort of device is a massive pipe dream at the moment. But there is nothing wrong with thinking big. [Yanko Design]

Fujifilm's FinePix F100fd, Z20fd, and new J-series of compact shooters

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/222239667/

Bringing up the tail to Fujifilm's pre-PMA announcements are four new compact cameras. The 12 megapixel F100fd ($380) features a 5x wide-angle optical zoom, mechanical and digital image stabilization, IrSimple, and a handy "dual shot mode" which takes a picture with and without a flash in rapid succession. It also brings a 2.7-inch LCD and likely useless (even for Fujifilm) ISO 12,800 setting. The "ultra-glam" 10 megapixel Z20fd ($200, pictured) targets the "movie-crazed Generation Z" with a "Dual Blog Mode" which automatically resizes stills or MPEG-4 movies for sharing. It also features the dual-shot mode found on the F100fd, intelligent flash, 16 pre-set scene modes, face detection, and a "stamp it" mode which replaces your friend's faces with "fun designs." Lastly we have the new J-series of 8.2 megapixel J10 ($150) and J50 ($150) compact shooters with 3x and 5x optical zooms, respectively. All available in March, all pictured in the gallery below.

Gallery: Fujifilm's FinePix F100fd, Z20fd, and new J-series of compact shooters

Read -- F100fd
Read -- Z20fd
Read -- J-series

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Philips READIUS Materializes With Fold-Away Screen [E-reader Phone]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/220878861/philips-readius-materializes-with-fold+away-screen

The Philips READIUS prototype that we showed you over a year ago, is finally materializing as an actual consumer product, not just as an e-reader but as a mobile phone. The READIUS has a slightly different design than the prototype, with a 5-inch flexible display that actually rolls up around the phone, allowing it to be stored when not in use. The phone is manufactured under Polymer Vision, which is partly owned by Philips. The Dutch company has yet to release complete specs for the phone, but the READIUS is advertised as having a large display and great battery life. With a mid-2008 release, we won't have to wait too long to test this e-reader, mobile phone mash-up. [Reuters]

Monday, January 21, 2008

Should You Cancel All Your Advertising?

Source: http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/01/06/should-you-cancel-all-your-advertising/

In February 2003, Amazon.com canceled all their advertising and put that money towards free shipping as a word of mouth strategy. Many thought Jeff Bezos was crazy and that Amazon.com would never turn a profit. In 2007 they were solidly profitable with over $15 billion in revenues. Bezos knew that marketers used to get paid to make promises the business had no intention of keeping.

He understood that, in an increasingly transparent environment, being truly customer focused would matter more than telling customers about how great your service was.

Recently, Joe Nocera of The New York Times told millions of people that Amazon puts customers first in his part article, part testimonial, part morality tale, "Put Buyers First? What A Concept." You should read it in full but here are a few excerpts:

"They care about having the lowest prices, having vast selection, so they have choice, and getting the products to customers fast," [Mr. Bezos] said. "And the reason I'm so obsessed with these drivers of the customer experience is that I believe that the success we have had over the past 12 years has been driven exclusively by that customer experience. We are not great advertisers. So we start with customers, figure out what they want, and figure out how to get it to them."

Anybody who has spent any time around Mr. Bezos knows that this is not just some line he throws out for public consumption. It has been the guiding principle behind Amazon since it began.

[…] Amazon says it has somewhere on the order of 72 million active customers, who, in the last quarter, were spending an average of $184 a year on the site. That's up from $150 or so the year before. Amazon's return customer business is off the charts. According to Forrester Research, 52 percent of people who shop online say they do their product research on Amazon. That is an astounding number.

[…] Indeed, in a presentation to analysts in late November, the company's chief financial officer, Thomas J. Szkutak, showed one slide that read, "Over $600 Million in Forgone Shipping Revenue." And that was just for one year.

Wall Street, however, has never placed much value in Mr. Bezos' emphasis on customers. What he has viewed as money well spent — building customer loyalty — many investors saw as giving away money that should have gone to the bottom line.

[…] There is simply no question that Mr. Bezos's obsession with his customers — and the long term — has paid off, even if he had to take some hits to the stock price along the way. Surely, it was worth it. As for me, the $500 favor the company did for me this Christmas will surely rebound in additional business down the line. Why would I ever shop anywhere else online?

Clearly, it was worthwhile for Amazon to cancel its advertising.

Am I advocating that you cancel your ad budget? Perhaps. How are your products, service and customer experience doing?

Your customers' delight matters even more tomorrow than it did yesterday, especially online.

When a visitor comes to your website, will they brag to their friends about what they bought and who they bought it from, or will it be somebody else they rave about?

Can you tell me why they shouldn't brag about you, your products, and your service? After all, it's the customer experience that matters. So why aren't they buying?

Do you need help figuring out why they don't buy from you? We can't fix your products or services but we can help you improve your online customer experience, increase your conversion rates and help you understand your customers better.

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Running out of ideas on what to test?, Let us provide you with some ideas. Download our 10 Tips to Start Optmizing Your Website whitepaper for free.

Google Reveals What People Are Buying Online

Source: http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/01/11/google-checkout-trends/

Wouldn't it be great if we could get insights as to which products people preferred. We could get research into which products we should merchandise more prominently. Google just released a new trending tool for those of us curious what people are buying and selling online. From the official Google Checkout Blog:

Many of you are aware of Google Trends, the handy tool that enables you to track and compare what Google users are searching for. Now imagine a similar tool that can give you some insight into what people are buying and selling online. That's exactly what we've built: Google Checkout Trends aggregates the sales data of Google Checkout merchants and charts it in a matter of seconds. (Of course, all the data is anonymized first.) So if you're interested in how sales of Batman or Spider Man paraphernalia compare, or are wondering just how popular Ugg boots are these days, visit Checkout Trends for a glimpse into online shopping. Go ahead and try it out — and get creative with the searches. You may be surprised at what you find.

I was having problems this morning getting any results from my searches, even from their six suggested searches. Every time I searched, I received a message that said:

Your terms - ipod, zune do not have enough search volume to show graphs.

If you want to see what the graph of results looks like you can find people discussing it here, here, and here.

Regardless, I think once these issues are resolved, like Google Trends this will provide some interesting data. One thing to keep in mind though is that in our analysis for our 2007 Customer Experience Retail study we found only 10% of the 300+ top retailers offered Google Checkout as an option.

How meaningful will the results really be?

Have you had better luck with Google Checkout Trends? Your impressions?

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Running out of ideas on what to test?, Let us provide you with some ideas. Download our 10 Tips to Start Optmizing Your Website whitepaper for free.

Old Navy's New (E-commerce) Tricks

from GrokDotCom by Daniel McGuigan

Recently, Old Navy redesigned their site, adding a lot of value with a few changes. The new site provides several good examples on how to improve e-commerce usability by focusing on ways to reduce friction in the customer experience.

So, let's take a look at some of the changes to their product pages and shopping cart to get a better sense of what they've done a good job of so far, and share a few ideas for other changes worth testing…

Better Image Views on Product Pages

Old Navy product page zoom

As you can see, the site allows you to easily zoom into the product you're looking at by using your mouse as a virtual magnifying glass. This saves the visitor time by not requiring them to open a pop-up window to view the product in detail — although they provide that option as well, it's not as helpful as this excellent zoom view. By not forcing the customer into an extra step, the zoom feature will likely reduce Bounce Rate. But more importantly, better product views make people more likely to buy.

Easy Size Adjustments + Cart View

Old Navy add to cart

When you add items to the cart, you're not taken directly to the cart and away from the shopping process. Instead, they acknowledge that your items are in the cart with this mini-cart drop-down on the upper-right side of the screen. After you've added the item, the mini-cart retreats to a simple checkout summary (# of items in cart and total price). Of course, you still have the option to go to checkout if you're done shopping, but they're not in a rush — in fact, they'd like it if you bought more stuff — which should help increase Average Order Value.

Adjust Your Order Without Leaving the Cart

Old Navy shopping cart

Once again, OldNavy.com is looking out for the customer — right in the shopping cart, this time. They make editing item details as easy as I've seen it on any e-commerce site. One click of the "edit" button brings up this slick tool (pictured above), which allows you to change the size and color of your items in case you have a last-minute change of heart. Now that's a smart way to lower cart abandonment. (Here are a few more.)

Ideas Worth Testing…

• I'm not sure why they're advertising "free returns on all womens plus styles" when all the items in my cart are menswear; nor does it make sense that they let me know they have the product "Up to XXXL" when I've already chosen "Large" as my size; but those are minor details that shouldn't have much effect on the shopping process. Still, this is prime real estate they're wasting by delivering me a message that's meant for someone else. The OldNavy.com team should consider tailoring these messages based on what customers have already added to cart, and testing whether it improves conversion and/or average order value.

• When planning an e-commerce site, ask yourself at least this one question: "What do I hate about shopping online?" I'd be interested to hear your response in the comments section, but in the meantime, I'm sure that if I were to poll everyone at Future Now, most of us would answer, "When sites make me 'register' before checking out." They should test getting rid of that immediately. If you want to a customer's permission to be contacted when they're not currently trying to give you money, the least you could do is ask them instead of forcing the issue. If you do ask — and you most definitely should — please do everyone (your customers and your CFO) a favor and only ask people to 'register' after you've got both their money. You'll have their email address by then, anyway, so it's not as big of a deal at that point.

[Editor's Note: Want more tips on how to optimize your e-commerce site? Read our free white paper on website optimization. Need specific ideas for your checkout process? We can help.]

Seven Years of Change, Seven Years of Staying the Same

from GrokDotCom by Bryan Eisenberg

Time flies in the Internet world. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I wrote my first ClickZ column.

Over the past seven years as a columnist and marketing practitioner, I've continued to be impressed by how dramatically the Internet has changed our lives and our world. Blogs have become a major voice in society. Social media and online video have become giants. Google's revenue is growing like a major leaguer's biceps on steroids. New technologies continue to barrel at us like a hailstorm, and the industry is bright-eyed and bushytailed about the promise of Web 2.0.

But the more things change, the more they remain the same. Companies still struggle to monetize their traffic. Organizations still look to technology to bring them dollars on silver platters. Overall site conversion rates haven't increased as hoped.

What stays the same is why people do what they do. How they buy. Principles of marketing, business, and sales.

During my time here, I've done my best to shout, beg, and plead that we not lose our focus on these basis principles. So as I looked back at some of my 273 columns, I wanted to again share some of the columns that have caused the most stir, been popular or helpful to readers, as well as a personal fave or two.

Bloodletting and Why Testing Can Be Unscientific

This column explained how testing marketing and persuasion is not a linear, scientific process:

Persuading is influencing opinions or affecting attitudes by means of communication. It means not only informing but also providing new information to the readers so they can make decisions. It also requires motivating people. It means affecting the hearts as well as the minds of people (a message has to have emotional appeal while possessing rational elements).

It continues:

There is a human need for rules, especially in the Web's technology-worshiping culture. Just look at the demand for successful books and articles out there with titles incorporating things like seven habits, nine rules, and 12 mistakes (we do it, too, because people want it). The left brain demands control while the right brain insists on freedom. Left- and right-brain concepts collide in your cranium every day. We constantly struggle with choices between cold logic and heartfelt intuition, control or liberty, exactness or beauty.The process for persuading human beings to take action is indeed a system, but it's not a hard science based on predictable rules that could produce perfectly replicable results in a laboratory.

Do You Want to Inform or Persuade?

The process we use to plan persuasive elements of a Web site is called persuasive architecture. It is the organization of the buying and selling processes married to the information flow. The focus is persuading visitors to take action. It's similar to information architecture, which involves the design of organization and navigation systems to help people find and manage information more successfully. Whereas the goal of information architecture is to inform and educate, a commercial Web site should inform and persuade your customer. [Read the entire column.]

There is No Egg in Eggplant

I've found that the fascinating similarity between all the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sites I've been analyzing is the weakness of the copywriting. Each site fails to precisely and fully describe what the writer wants from the visitor. After all, the word "egg" may superficially resemble the word "eggplant," but, if you mean "eggplant," you should say it. [Read more.]

The Difference Between ROI and Marketing Accountability

A bit of wisdom from my brother Jeffrey:

Measuring the ROI of lead generation isn't the same thing as full accountability. If marketing is a profitable activity, it still doesn't mean that what it is communicating to the universe of buyers is building the business. I've seen lots of marketers sacrifice early and middle stage buyers because they had to show an immediate ROI on each campaign they ran. Who is accountable for all the potential business they lose by saying the wrong the thing to the right people at the wrong time?

How to Decrease Sales by 90 Percent

How can it be that two case studies contradict each other so blatantly? The answer is no business is linear. There are many facets, or topological elements, to consider in designing an effective online strategy to maximize your conversion rate. Your conversion rate is only a reflection of the marketing and sales effectiveness and your customers' satisfaction. It depends! It always depends! If you're looking for one canned, simple solution, you're bound to be either bankrupt or very disappointed. [Read the entire column and the follow-up.]

The Land Beyond Usability

Make your Web site easy for your visitors to use, and they'll become more proficient users. But if you want them to become customers, you have to think beyond usability. Think of it like taking a road trip. Usability gets rid of the obstacles to driving: the potholes, bad signage, dead ends. It makes it easy for your customers to go places comfortably and smoothly, with minimal interruption.But it can't intrinsically tell them where they ought to be going, much less how to get there the quickest, easiest way.
Usability testing usually measures the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve specified goals in a particular environment. Wouldn't you want your goal in e-commerce to be a sale and, eventually, a delighted customer? Just because users can complete a purchase does not mean you delighted them or that they will ever buy from you again. [Read more.]

The Power of the About Us Page

Your "About Us" page should:

Let customers see a more human side of your company. E-Trade's advertising makes it seem like a fun company, but the "About Us" page displays none of that human personality.

Tell your company's story. McDonalds's does a nice job with this, as does Dave and Busters. A company history timeline is a great way to highlight achievements without braggadocio.

Reflect your company's passion. Check out Nike.com's "About Us" page.

Reflect your company's personality. If you're a fun company, your "About Us" page should be fun.

Let the customer inside your company. Bungie, makers of Halo, go so far as to have Webcams online.

Reiterate your company's competence to serve the customers by using all the above tools.

The Next Seven Years

Here's to the next seven years. Thank you for paying attention, commenting, and inspiring me in so many ways. May you have great success. May your conversion rate soar.

Any topic suggestions for one of my next 273 columns? Let me know.

[Editor's Note: Originally seen on ClickZ.]

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