Technology
Game Changer Or Buzz-Kill?
The Web is aflutter with excitement about Google Buzz, the search giant’s most recent social media offering. Critics and fans alike are saying that Google’s latest product could dramatically shift the social landscape. So what’s all the buzz about?
Google Buzz integrates with Gmail to enable users to share updates, photos and videos while engaging in real-time conversations with others in their network. And perhaps most importantly for the industry as a whole, it's Google's best effort yet to compete directly with social media heavyweights Twitter and Facebook.
The social explosion has meant extraordinary growth for the big social players - Facebook usage is up over 100% over last year, while Google lags behind at 15%. Industry pundits agree that Google must secure a foothold in the social media climb in order to dampen their momentum.
Some of the top Google Buzz features:
• Automatic friends lists created by pulling Gmail contacts
• Auto-follow functionality
• "Rich fast sharing" combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed sharing from sources like Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader
• Public and private permission levels
• Dynamic email updates covering all Buzz thread content
Some early potential Buzz-killers:
• Inbox overload – the potential for an unending stream of social chatter in your inbox
• Privacy concerns – Google is working around the clock to reassure users that they are in full control of their data
• Uh-oh potential – without hyper-vigilance regarding privacy management, it can be too easy to share the wrong information with the wrong people at the wrong time
• Not Facebook friendly – since there’s currently no way to integrate with Facebook, you have to start your networks basically from scratch
So will Google Buzz truly redefine the social landscape or end up another mere blip on Facebook's quest for social world dominance? It’s still too soon for Google to break out the champagne, but early indications say that this social media tool is most definitely worth the buzz.
The iPad Cometh
Not since the time of Moses has a tablet been the object of such reverence and devotion. Hark, the Apple iPad is here!
What Happens In Vegas...
Cuker joined over 120,000 tech aficionados in the City of Sin for the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 7th - 10th. CES is the the largest consumer electronic trade show in America, showcasing the latest innovations in wireless communications, digital video, Web development, and other technologies. In a sea of digital eye-candy, 2500 companies exhibited over 20,000 products that competed to wow the crowd. Though what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, there was lots of great information to take home. The three biggest trends for 2010, according to the buzz? Mobile, mobile, and mobile...
Browser Size Still Matters
Google Labs has created a very nice, statistically driven visualization of what different percentiles of users see of your website. Where visual effect is key, it is critical to keep in mind what is actually visible!
Testing the Page Fold
Technology has enabled us to verify our assumptions and intuitions, and as the revolution of web analytics has shown us, marketing and advertising is not exempt. Even design is subject to experimental evidence. This is an interesting read on using eye tracking and experiments to determine what impact designing for the "page fold" has: The Myth of the Page Fold: Evidence from User Testing.
In the image below you can see the hotspots where user's eyeballs were tracked as they read the pages and followed the content down. Users are now accustomed to scrolling web pages, and if content is displayed in a way that entices them to read more, experimental evidence shows that in general they are perfectly ready to do so.
Globalization Online
The world is getting smaller. US based brands are admired globally and used to be more difficult access. Now with the Internet, large US brands are becoming increasingly more accessible by an international audience.
Over 60% of Facebook and Twitter users are outside of the US. We have launched many social media campaigns with our clients (predominantly US based brands) and we always get feedback from international users asking how they can buy the products.
Currently we are working with Callaway Golf, DC Shoes, Quiksilver, and Vix Swimwear on building international features and infrastructures on their website(s).
US Brands need to have an online strategy for international e-commerce, international currency, website hosting, language translation, and ongoing website management. We have been working with our clients on structuring their international online strategy to build it efficiently and grow sales.
The internet is bringing people together and making it easier to get brands and products that you love, whether you are in Sothern California, New York, Brazil, Australia, Europe, or Russia. In the next 5 years all major brands will be addressing global e-commerce solutions to grow direct sales and market to an international audience.
New Version of Flash CS5 will Allow for iPhone App Development
The new version of Flash Professional that will launch later this year will allow for developers to create iPhone and iPod Touch applications using ActionScript3.
Developers using the hugely popular Flash development platform will have the option to export their projects as code that natively supports iPhone and iPod Touch’s ARM processor. These features will be available as part of a beta of CS5, which will begin at a currently unspecified date later in the year.
This development opens a lot of doors for interactive developers. We will be able to create mobile apps more quickly and tie them into online marketing campaigns.
Apple recently announced that the App Store is home to 85,000 apps – with Flash development support it’s likely to grow even faster.
This development will not affect the fact that iPhone does not currently support Flash itself, and developers will still need to be signed up to Apple’s iPhone Developer Program to test their apps and submit to the App Store.
This new feature extends still further Flash's potential as a games platform, giving developer access to multiple platforms: for browsers through Flash Player, for iPhone and for Abobe AIR, which Abobe has also announced will be soon available for a variety of devices and platforms including Google’s Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Palm and Windows Mobile.
Django Con 2009 Day 2
Django Con has been a great experience so far. We have been able to bond with many developers in the community and been inspired by the conversations and talks.
Thanks to Brian Luft from Lincoln Loop for giving a shout out to our CEO, Aaron Cuker in his panel about how to sell Django. During this panel we gained insight from lead Django developers at NASA, PBS, and others.
We have found quit a bit of interest in our E-Commerce platform - Web Cube CMS. We feel that there is a big need for the product within the Django Community and we aim to provide the best E-Commerce Django platform.
We are giving a lightning talk today about Web Cube's E-Commerce Model.
Download our Lightning Talk Presentation - Click Here
Download more info on our Products -Click Here
Django Con 2009 Day 1
Just a quick check in from Djangocon 2009. There is a buzz about Test Driven Development, and we at Web Cube have been listening intently. Eric Holscher's talk on testing in Django provided a great overview and was in line with our own internal goals for continuous integration. James Bennett provided further insight on the necessity of well documented and clean code, and Brian Rosner's talk on deploying Django provided some alternate solutions to our own deployment mechanisms. We spent some time with Jared Kuolt of partner hosting company Slice Host. A special thanks to the PDX python user group for taking on the Djangocon masses for their monthly meeting, and to Web Trends for hosting. And finally, an emphatic plug for Portland beer!
Also, we stubbled into guy at one of the local pubs enjoying a Green Flash Beer. It is always cool to travel hundreds of miles and see someone drinking a beer out of a bottle that we designed.
An Inspiring Clip on Getting It Done
Time for a quick peek at the medieval internet age of ... 2007. YouTube developer Cuong Do Cuong did this interesting, amusing, and insightful Google Tech Talk mostly focusing on scaling a large application. The fun part that we like is the beginning where he talks a bit about why they used python, and how their scaling plan worked. These details are a bit out of date, as the python world has grown a tremendous amount, but suffice to say that the same kernel of truth holds. Python is fast enough, as most of the work in a web request is done in the database, and speed/accuracy of development is crucial to delivering applications on time and effectively.
Watch Cuong Do Cuong's tech talk on YouTube scalability for a primer on how it's done, or just skip to 2:50 to see his insight on development process in a startup, and 3:30 for his insights on using python.
