Posted on October 29, 2006 @ 11:09 pm
Over the weekend I made some tweaks to Philtered and integrated a few new features.
I started by updating the UI, particularly the title of each post. I think the dark grey background and yellow images really distinguish one post from another.
Second, the left nav is all new. I got rid of the built in ’section’ navigation, replacing it with the Google Co-op CSE. Google’s CSE has spread like wildfire since the launch last week — and I wanted to try it out myself. However, I took it a step further and integrated the results into my site, which only took an extra 10-15 minutes of coding. Try a search on the left — it’s pretty seamless and well worth the time to integrate it.
Third, I signed up for a couple of blog gadgets: MyBlogLog, and Last.fm MyBlogLog was really easy to setup, but I haven’t bothered to customize the colors yet. Last.fm was a little more difficult to customize as I ran into problems on their site when trying to save my modifications.
To top off all these changes, I finally got around to setting up a Google Sitemapfor philtered.com — and I was really impressed with the immediate results. I submitted the sitemap at 5:50pm and the googlebot was systematically crawling each url in no time. Here is a quick snapshot from my logs to demonstrate:
10/29 5:54 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=15
10/29 5:54 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=16
10/29 5:54 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=17
10/29 5:54 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=18
10/29 5:52 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=19
10/29 5:52 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=20
10/29 5:51 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=22
10/29 5:51 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=24
10/29 5:51 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=23
10/29 5:51 pm crawl-66-249-66-40.googlebot.com index.php?id=21
It was a great exercise to setup Google Sitemaps and the Co-op CSE. When partners inquire about them, now I can share my first-hand experience as a user too.
Posted on October 28, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
Yesterday I installed Firefox 2.0 on my MacBook Pro. The updated UI is nice, but I didn’t get to try anything else, as it would freeze on me every 5 or 10 minutes. I’m not sure why it froze – I only had 1 extension installed in my old version (1.5.0.6) and my system is really clean (no junk installed).
Anyway, I rolled back to 1.5 this morning, and after doing a quick search, it looks like other people are having the same problem.
I look forward to upgrading to 2.0, but I’m going to hold off until it’s more stable. In the meantime, 1.5 w/ the Google Toolbar suits all my needs.
Posted on October 27, 2006 @ 11:04 pm
Today I listened to the HBR Ideacast about legacy thinking, where you create a plan to achieve your legacy and then execute. It was fairly dull and as I browsed Google Reader, I came across an interesting story — EMI Chairman Alain Levy said, “_The CD as it is right now is dead_”.
The shift towards purchasing digital music is growing as CD sales drop. Digital downloads accounted for 5.5% of all music sales in 2005 and 11% of all music sales in 2006, according to a recent report. If the adoption of music downloads continues to grow at this pace, download sales will equal CD sales in just 2-3 years.
As this shift occurs, the overall sales of music may continue to drop if there isn’t a push to innovate. For example:
* upselling other formats hasn’t really occurred. Like, when I buy a single mp3, why not offer me the ringtone for only 50 cents more?
* DRM has to be improved. If I buy a song, it should be DRM-free. However, if you rent a song, then I can understand using DRM.
* it seems like the record companies are trying to figure out how to allow kids to put a song in their You Tube video. In most cases I think using a song in a video helps to increase awareness and demand for the tune. But I obviously see the record company concerns. One aproach the record companies could consider is allowing creative uses and derivative works, like the CC licenses allow.
As for the future of compact discs, well, after my experience at Tower last weekend, I agree with Mr Levy from EMI.
Posted on October 21, 2006 @ 7:43 pm
It’s sad to see Tower Records go out of business Tower was always one of my favorite music stores when I lived in NY – I could always browse the aisles and find something interesting or new to listen to. Today however, people find out about new music on podcasts, myspace, itunes, sirius, npr – not at Tower Records.
I visited the store in SF down the block from me, and after taking a quick walk-through, it was all too clear why they went out of business. Tower was always known for a large, diverse selection. However, the ‘Tower Staff Recommendation’ rack had the most common albums – ” Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits Prince’s Greatest Hits The Eagles Greatest Hits and of course American Idol albums and country CDs.
!http://art.towerrecords.com/stores_new/sf_jones.jpg!
The worst part of this experience, however, wasn’t the lame selections, but rather the “marked down” prices. For example, the latest Gorillaz album had a normal price of $18.99, and was marked down to $15.50. I was shocked they were so high — I thought CDs costs around $13. When I got home, the same CD was on sale at iTunes or $12.99 (high for online prices, right?).
Anyway, things that can be learned from Tower:
* the long tail is longer online and physical stores can’t beat variety available online
* i might not fit the profile of someone who views the ’staff recommendation’ rack; however, Amazon never show’s me a product page that isn’t personalized just for me and my interests
* you can’t charge 40% more than your competitor (unless you offer another unique benefit to the consumer)
* convenience was a factor at Tower, but iTunes is accessible whenever my computer is within reach – plus the inside of Tower is so outdated and grimy, it’s not very inviting
Posted on @ 5:48 pm
I made a 1 minute video of a container ship going by and wanted to try YouTube’s upload process. I just uploaded my video and it was pretty easy. I was also surprised that the 77 meg movie processed so quickly after uploading. I could watch it just a few minutes later. The only problem I had was with the account sign-up process, as it consistently cleared my password and the captcha code when I checked if my username was available. I had to refill the pw and captcha field 4 times – and I almost gave up after the third attempt to try Revver
Anyway, here is my video:
BTW – video quality is poor because it was taken with my digital camera, not a video camera
Posted on October 16, 2006 @ 9:07 pm
Last weekend I signed up the new service called YouMail I have to admit that I was suspect of the domain name, however, it really is a cool free tool that does SUCH a better job managing voicemail than Verizon or Cingular In fact, this is a service that I always secretly wanted – but never found.
!http://youmail.com/media/img/hdr-logo.png!
After signing up for YouMail, you can manage your voicemail messages online (listen, delete, forward via email), you can set personalized messages for your different contacts (mom gets a nice one, my buddy gets a funny one), can you can even block certain people from leaving a message.
This service is totally brilliant and easy to use once you get past the setup process. You have to change a couple of settings in your cell phone (specifically your voicemail #), but they have decent instructions that walked me through the process. Their java control panel is really intuitive – you can record messages from it, manage contact settings, view incoming call history, and manage your voicemail.
I always thought voicemail was annoying to check on my phone – way more cumbersome to check than email. YouMail would be incredible if it was integrated with my webmail (and I could check them together).
Other features that would be nice:
- forward certain callers to another number
- better email features (like auto-forward to my email)
- transcribe my messages and send them to me in email
- work on a blackberry or treo
Overall though, I’m impressed and will continue to use it.
-CD
Posted on October 15, 2006 @ 6:15 pm
It’s great watching the container ships roll through the bay. Here is a good shot of one heading out towards the gate:
BTW – nice integration of iPhoto and Picasa. Creating and uploading this took 2 clicks in iPhoto.
Posted on October 10, 2006 @ 9:45 pm
How to increase personalization on Digg (of course, only when I’m logged in):
* If I digg a story from a particular user, give more weight to the ranking of their next story
* If I bury a story from a particular user, give less weight to the ranking of their next story
* Let me assign ratings to users, to influence the weight of their votes
* Allow custom created categories (ie. Yankees News — I don’t care about the Mets)
Also, there has to be a better way to get more current stories onto the first page or two of a topic. The top stories under Sports are several days old and irrelevant… Netscape has addressed this with their paid navigators. How about developing content partnerships to add new stories to the Upcoming Stories page? (ie. the top stories from nytimes, bbc, espn, etc.)
Posted on October 9, 2006 @ 11:25 pm
Today Sony announced their first 50 GB Blu-ray movies which is hyped as better audio and picture quality and is supposed to spur the purchases of new Blu-ray hardware. However, I would be surprised if I would actually notice a difference watching a Bu-ray disc on my 720P/1080i LDC Samsung.
The press release says: “As consumers make the leap to Blu-ray’s incredible high-definition picture and cinema quality audio, they want access to a diverse selection of content packed with added-value features and reference titles,” said David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
I am a huge Sony fan, but disagree with this sentiment.
* As the price of storage comes down and high bandwidth pipelines enter our homes, why would I want to purchase a movie on a Blu-ray disc that I will soon be able to rent/watch on PPV, or maybe even purchase online with a digitial download?
* I think it would be a huge waste to purchase new hardware to support a format that won’t be around long. Too bad Sony didn’t invest this money on leapfrogging the competition on doing hi-quality movie downloads/puchases/renting/etc.
* Who really wants add-value features that comes with this content, and what does that even mean? I rarely ever watch a trailers or out-takes. What else will these discs include?
* Lastly, the first 50 GB Blue-ray disc is the monster blockbuster called Click Adam Sandler Is that targeting families who want to watch a cheezy comedy together? I don’t know anyone who saw Click, do you?
