WebSolvers has a long history of partnering with non-profits in the Orlando/Central Florida area. We recently launched a pro-bono site for UCP of Central Florida, a charitable organization that serves children with special needs.
I also wanted to make mention of another project with which we’re charitably involved. A group of Rollins College students has partnered with a group of artisans in Otavalo, Ecuador to help them deliver their goods to market. We’ve pledged financial support for the endeavor. Do some holiday shopping at http://www.mercadootavalo.com/!
Archive for 2006
Partnering in the community
Sunday, November 19th, 2006One HUNDRED MILLion Web Sites (ah-ha)
Monday, November 6th, 2006Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox email came in and the “100 Million Websites” title caught my attention (as well as started me quoting Austin Powers / Dr. Evil lines in my head). Those who use the web always talk about the internet in terms of “large” and “vast” and that weird cloud image but probably never really think about what those words really mean when it comes to numbers. The article quotes “even if only half the sites are maintained, there are still more than 100 M sites that people pay to keep running” — that’s a lot of information out there… 101,435,253 million and growing to be exact.
Nielsen, one of the founders and advocates of web page usability (read his bio), further goes into a little bit of the history of web sites, the growth stages, web usability changes, and future predictions. Ultimately it’s just a teaser for an upcoming seminar on web usability but I thought this information was interesting in showing how many people currently use the internet and not just for searching.
So… 200 million by 2010? I agree with Nielsen, I think we’ll surpass that as more and more companies recognize the benefits of having a presence online (not to mention the personal sites, blogs, etc.).
Yahoo’s Recent Re-design
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006BusinessWeek had a great article last week about the process Yahoo recently used to re-design its Web site. In my years consulting with corporations about re-design efforts, it is interesting to see the dynamics involved with design choices. Unfortunately, many of these efforts are about gut feelings, ego, or turf battles; every department or branch seems to want a link/icon/banner/button on the home page to gain exposure or generate traffic. Re-design efforts can often result in poor visual output and even poorer results.
The article chronicles Yahoo’s pragmatic, customer-centric process in which ego was checked at the door and actual cutomer data drove the endeavor.
Traffic, traffic, and more traffic…
Friday, September 22nd, 2006Copyblogger has a great list of resources regarding the ever-lingering and ever-changing concept of building Web site traffic…nice job on this post!
One strategy involves linking. Honeymoons, for example, are a good target.
A blog about refrigerators?
Tuesday, September 12th, 2006Businesses still scratch their heads when thinking about how to build a blog for their business. It’s often challenging to think about how to connect your product to the interests of consumers.
Let’s say you make or sell refrigerators. You might say, “who would ever want to read a blog about refrigerators?” You might stop there and then dismiss this whole blogging thing altogether. Not if you’re refrigerator-maker Sub-Zero.
This company, maker of ultra-cool refrigerators/freezers of all types (who can forget Owen Wilson bragging about his “twin Sub-Zs” in the movie Meet the Parents) decided not to make a blog about refrigerators (how many refrigerator enthusiasts do you know?). Instead, they recently created a blog about taking care of wine. I bet we all know several wine enthusiasts.
The blog is pretty cool–and sound from a marketing standpoint. It focuses on that which is of interest (wine) and then subtly touts that which protects that interest (their product). I think it’s a great example of corporate creativity and corporate blogging that truly connects.
Simple System Maintenance
Thursday, September 7th, 2006A lot of computer novices don’t realize that their computers require maintenance, just like your car, truck or SUV. Windows tends to store many files unnecessarily and over time, those unused files pile up causing things to slow down. You’ll notice it takes longer for Web sites to load or programs to open up. Rather than doing extreme solution of reformatting the computer, a few easy to use freeware utilities can be used to optimize your system again.
- Ad-aware – One of the best anti-spyware programs for the money. A few clicks and spyware is gone. It is important to make sure you keep the program up to date which it tells you if you are or not. Depending on how much time you spend online, you should run this program either weekly or monthly.
- HijackThis – Not the prettiest program out there but HijackThis is great at removing unwanted toolbars and buttons from Internet Explorer. If you see something you don’t know about, I recommend looking into what the program is through Google. Run this program as necessary.
- CCleaner – A very simple to use program that will eliminate many old files and clean up your systems registry. I recommend running this weekly or monthly depending on how much work you do on your computer.
After using these programs, defragmenting your hard drive is your next step. This is built into Windows, just go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools and choose Disk Defragmenter. This should be done about once a month. Restart your computer and things should be running a little snappier just like your vehicle after its 30,000 mile maintenance.
The Customer Speaks
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006Someone parked their mobile opinion today in our parking lot. This particular individual seems pretty upset at T-Mobile! Goes to show that consumers do have a limit…and a will to get even when they’re not happy!
On the flip side, I’m a T-Mobile customer–and a pretty happy one at that…
What’s In a Name?
Monday, August 21st, 2006I’ve been knee deep in domain names as of late. A handful of clients I am working with are all wrestling with picking the ‘right’ domain name(s) for their various projects. This has truly become both an art and a science. And each year, it seems, the situation becomes more complex. Implications extend to trademark law, cybersquatting regulations, and search engine aspirations.
And with .com names being in short supply, it has become increasingly difficult to find a name that really works. Most companies we work with find that their first, second, and third choices for names are already taken. So they’re forced to get a bit creative.
While this list could go for miles, here are a couple of things I think about when trying to advise on domain names:
Google is Sorry.
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006
Google is sorry. This message says so.
For the third time today, I’ve gotten an error message from Google telling me that my query is suspicious–perhaps eminating from spyware or a virus. It is forcing me to validate that the search is authentic through a simple random character display and dialog box.
What’s peculiar is that all three of my searches were fairly innocuous: one was for a Compaq server model number, another for movie listings, and a third for a piece of software.
If this is to be the trend, the positive attributes that made Google #1 (simplicity, speed, etc.) will quickly reverse.