We are a Nokia phone house, have been using these phones all my life but just noticed that on 2 contracts here we are been charged on a daily basis the exact same time every day (give or take a minute) .25c for text and calls to 00491773628803. Now I am going to do a bit of research on this number to see if its a premium rate number and if so the the carriers are liable for at least refunding part of the cost (up to 50% depending on which country and operator you are using). If this is the case then there is trouble ahead, mainly for Nokia. But it turns out that this is a service that is embedded in the MyNokia service and it automatically calls or texts the number, another one is 00491771787772 both are German numbers. I do not remember any notice about this in subscription services on MyNokia website, and I will be checking into this much more on Friday 2nd when they are back online for live support and will keep you posted but I wonder how many other Nokia Smart Phone users are having this problem and how much it is costing them.
In some of the posts some users noticed that this charge was every day and in some cases several times a day, but most were a few times a week. The conservative estimate is that there are over 800,000 Nokia Smart Phone users subscribed to MyNokia in Europe and if the average is around .20c and the average is 4 times per week you do the math (ok I did it, its €2,784,000 per month been taken from customers).
I will hopefully be getting a new phone in early January and I can tell you this it will not be a Nokia!
If I get any more updates then I will post it here on what you can do to solve the issue.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
I love the internet and where it can bring you.
When I first got connected over (gulp!) 11 years ago (yes it did exist back in the stone age) most people had no idea what it was, back then there were only a few million pages. God I could have surfed it in an afternoon >:¬}.
Now with billions of pages there is not enough in a lifetime. I know between my blog and the websites my company creates (have to do a new one for it) at FBI we are adding at least a hundred pages a day between all the clients and their CMS (content management systems).
But the old fashioned browsing still can't beat finding new and cool sites. I am trying to spend atleast a few hours a week just browsing to see what I can find, cool sites, interesting items, or whatever. What I like, I will now StumbleUpon Page, http://del.icio.us/alexgogan it or Digg it. But the great thing is sometimes in Blogs or sites you read you find an interesting post, comment or link an want to find out some more. A few days a go I was reading (love the blog) As she says herself she is... Just a Girl in short shorts talking about whatever Observations and commentary by a post-modern neo-feminist libertarian cyberpunk on society, culture, politics and whatever. But from there she brought me to AdSense Tracker - A blog about blogging, the blogosphere, Web 2.0 and anything else I decide to write about.. Both of these sites are now my daily reading (well when they post something at least). AdSense Tracker because she has some excellent hints, tips advice and links to other relevant sites on blogging, and promotions and you know that she is not writing these posts with a prior agenda to earn money from clicks, downloading ebooks or whatever (while I am on the subject click on of the links and earn me some money but subscribe to my feed first
>:¬}.
But in reading her blog and a few others I have increased visits here 100% in the last week, and I know if I had more time I would be able to do so much more (maybe Christmas 2018 I will get the time). But I noticed an interesting site from Adsense Tracker called Fechr where they promise decent free traffic over 24 hours. Now I will take a look at this and see what happens, an update this post if there is anything interesting in the traffic. Hope so though, for me and for them, cause it then proves their business model.. hell if it works for me it must work for many other more deserving sites >:¬}
Now with billions of pages there is not enough in a lifetime. I know between my blog and the websites my company creates (have to do a new one for it) at FBI we are adding at least a hundred pages a day between all the clients and their CMS (content management systems).
But the old fashioned browsing still can't beat finding new and cool sites. I am trying to spend atleast a few hours a week just browsing to see what I can find, cool sites, interesting items, or whatever. What I like, I will now StumbleUpon Page, http://del.icio.us/alexgogan it or Digg it. But the great thing is sometimes in Blogs or sites you read you find an interesting post, comment or link an want to find out some more. A few days a go I was reading (love the blog) As she says herself she is... Just a Girl in short shorts talking about whatever Observations and commentary by a post-modern neo-feminist libertarian cyberpunk on society, culture, politics and whatever. But from there she brought me to AdSense Tracker - A blog about blogging, the blogosphere, Web 2.0 and anything else I decide to write about.. Both of these sites are now my daily reading (well when they post something at least). AdSense Tracker because she has some excellent hints, tips advice and links to other relevant sites on blogging, and promotions and you know that she is not writing these posts with a prior agenda to earn money from clicks, downloading ebooks or whatever (while I am on the subject click on of the links and earn me some money but subscribe to my feed first
>:¬}.
But in reading her blog and a few others I have increased visits here 100% in the last week, and I know if I had more time I would be able to do so much more (maybe Christmas 2018 I will get the time). But I noticed an interesting site from Adsense Tracker called Fechr where they promise decent free traffic over 24 hours. Now I will take a look at this and see what happens, an update this post if there is anything interesting in the traffic. Hope so though, for me and for them, cause it then proves their business model.. hell if it works for me it must work for many other more deserving sites >:¬}
Where the Internet has been and where is it going, part one.
I have been involved as a user and as a creator of Internet (in its modern form) services since 1996. Over the last 11 years I have seen many advancements in the technologies used, services and applications. So I thought I would share some of them here.
Actually with Net2phone I was hired by Cablelink in Dublin(more about CableLink and this in Wikipedia in the late 90's to turn them into an ISP and we provided cable broadband services to almost 30% of the network in Dublin during a commerical trial. We dialed the New York speaking clock over the Internet much to the amazement of the assembled press, at the press launch.
I will go more into the history of IM's in a later post, when with PowWow you would be able to whiteboard, type and talk conference call to several people and then take over the browser of the person you were talking to and bring them surfing with you... loved it, bloody VC's and their dotcom created craze ended this and so many other amazing app's long before their time. With the feeding frenzy for money.
But for now Google is still king, but here is a few new ones that I have played with and to be honest I like a lot. The next killer app they think that is coming is Visual Search and here are the main entrants into that market.
Quintura
This one works by showing you the results on the right and related keywords on the left a bit like the way Tags work now, so for the NewBe's out there who only know Web 2.0 then they will feel at home with this. Now at the moment they are more of a display results rather than a search engine as they are using Yahoo's search but like all new entrants it is only a matter of time. But it is worth using mainly for the related "Tags" on the left you may just find what your looking for faster and easier then in Google.
Kartoo
This is another visual search, I first came across this in 2002 and I loved it but it was a bit clunky. But now its a slick piece of work and an excellent piece of searching and visual technology.
Zuula
This reminds me of MetaCrawler of old, this was the meta search engine's search engine. In that it would search a number of different search engines and directories at once. Now with so many conflicting search results coming up it is handy to be able to click a tab and see the results of another search engine.
Gigablast
This is a standard search site but I must admit I have found pages in here that dropped off from Google, which for been No.1 is not good. What made Google great years ago is now I think their major downfall (more later).
I also did a simple search for the key words (not in quotes) Alex Gogan Morgan Llywelyn in the above engines plus two more and the results were:
OK it was a vanity search but I am a vain and modest person, but did it to prove a point with Google, that over the next year or so, if Google don't get their act together in search again I think they will be in trouble. Maybe that is why they want to buy a wireless license in the states and also with Android mobile OS control the handsets. If they control free wireless, free mobile OS then they control the access so this could be their future money maker. But they still need search as they killed off the competition in less then a year when they were much more intrenched. Who's to say that Gigablast, or Kartoo or one of the others come along written by to shaggy haired guys/gals and take them out.
One more point of mention there is another interesting piece of software that you might like to try. I have played with it now for awhile and I LOVE IT, its called Space Time with 3D search. It really is something to download and play with as it is an amazing piece of kit.
Some screen shots
VOIP
I have used Voip services since 1996, yes believe it or not it has been around that long and a little bit longer. Back then in the dark ages I used to use Net2phone, Freetel (not to sure if this is still around, link is to an archive site) PowWow (brilliant, again link to archive site), Net Meeting and a few others. These I ran with windows 95 on a 28k modem to 36k modem and when duplex modems came out I was flying! The quality of these services back then were not too bad, (except two people talking at once was a problem). But then everyone loved to listen to me anyway >:¬}. The only paid for service then was Net2phone and it allowed me to call any number, whilst the others were P2P. Things have the appearance that they have come along by leaps and bounds. But remembering back to those halcyon days to be honest the technology was just as good, and the features on the software was so much better.Actually with Net2phone I was hired by Cablelink in Dublin(more about CableLink and this in Wikipedia in the late 90's to turn them into an ISP and we provided cable broadband services to almost 30% of the network in Dublin during a commerical trial. We dialed the New York speaking clock over the Internet much to the amazement of the assembled press, at the press launch.
I will go more into the history of IM's in a later post, when with PowWow you would be able to whiteboard, type and talk conference call to several people and then take over the browser of the person you were talking to and bring them surfing with you... loved it, bloody VC's and their dotcom created craze ended this and so many other amazing app's long before their time. With the feeding frenzy for money.
Search
Ok, Search has stayed fairly static for the last 8 or nine years since the advent of Google, when they came along and kicked everyone's asses into Orbit. When they came out I used to use Meta Crawler as this searched the search engines. Before that it was AltaVista (link again is to the archive). Back then Alta Vista was the Google of its day because all Yahoo was a listings directory and it took MONTHS to get listed. You could never really find what you were looking for with these guys, but then in 1998 along came Google (take a look at how Google looked back in October 1998). I remember then I used to be able to email a human in there can get my sites listed quickly it was great, hell he even answered back! But now we have some new and exciting new entrants into the world of search, there is over 100 new search companies all viewing to be the next big thing, with Governments all over the world funding some of them (Japan, China, Russia, France, Germany etc.,).But for now Google is still king, but here is a few new ones that I have played with and to be honest I like a lot. The next killer app they think that is coming is Visual Search and here are the main entrants into that market.
Quintura
This one works by showing you the results on the right and related keywords on the left a bit like the way Tags work now, so for the NewBe's out there who only know Web 2.0 then they will feel at home with this. Now at the moment they are more of a display results rather than a search engine as they are using Yahoo's search but like all new entrants it is only a matter of time. But it is worth using mainly for the related "Tags" on the left you may just find what your looking for faster and easier then in Google.
Kartoo
This is another visual search, I first came across this in 2002 and I loved it but it was a bit clunky. But now its a slick piece of work and an excellent piece of searching and visual technology.
Zuula
This reminds me of MetaCrawler of old, this was the meta search engine's search engine. In that it would search a number of different search engines and directories at once. Now with so many conflicting search results coming up it is handy to be able to click a tab and see the results of another search engine.
Gigablast
This is a standard search site but I must admit I have found pages in here that dropped off from Google, which for been No.1 is not good. What made Google great years ago is now I think their major downfall (more later).
I also did a simple search for the key words (not in quotes) Alex Gogan Morgan Llywelyn in the above engines plus two more and the results were:
- Google - Not Found
- Yahoo - Found
- Gigablast - Not Found
- Quintura - Found (but uses Yahoo so
- Zuula - Found
- Kartoo - Found
OK it was a vanity search but I am a vain and modest person, but did it to prove a point with Google, that over the next year or so, if Google don't get their act together in search again I think they will be in trouble. Maybe that is why they want to buy a wireless license in the states and also with Android mobile OS control the handsets. If they control free wireless, free mobile OS then they control the access so this could be their future money maker. But they still need search as they killed off the competition in less then a year when they were much more intrenched. Who's to say that Gigablast, or Kartoo or one of the others come along written by to shaggy haired guys/gals and take them out.
One more point of mention there is another interesting piece of software that you might like to try. I have played with it now for awhile and I LOVE IT, its called Space Time with 3D search. It really is something to download and play with as it is an amazing piece of kit.
Some screen shots
The 'Now!' Factor - what high-speed broadband Internet access means for business.
Here is an article I wrote in 2001 and it now seems even more relevant than ever, thought I would share it here.
The 'Now!' Factor - what high-speed broadband Internet access means for business.
By Alex Gogan.
Managing Director of the Future Business – Irelands complete Internet Services Company (fbi.ie).
Credit goes to the English guru Ray Hammond for being the first to say “If you want to understand e-commerce, just drop the E-.” Business has acquired go-faster electronic stripes but it has not changed. Those of us in Internet-related services tend, I think, to become a little too involved in the buzz of tomorrow’s technology. Essentially, broadband is about speed, but not speed as an end in itself.
As mass broadband Internet access rolls inexorably out to the market, speeds up to a splendid 512k will soon be available to any home and consumer. The recent ntl hiccough is unfortunate, but between it and Chorus and ADSL from eircom we will still get to a high speed connected future sooner rather than later. Right now the business market, including SMEs, is getting 1.5mbps or even 2mbps for about the price of a simple leased line in the old days. Our entire society is being digitally transformed.
Business2Consumer
Assuming that you agree that consumer e-commerce is just mail order writ electronically, it's sometimes hard to see what all the fuss about. Amazon is one of the best known and most widely used B2C companies. They sell books and music for home delivery. Big deal. As for online ticket buying and reservations, is it all that much better than phoning with credit card in hand?
In many ways the key value of the Internet is quite simply that it enables a business to tackle the 'NOW!' factor (providing instant gratification for customers). Broadband access makes this more pertinent than ever. The 'NOW!' factor of broadband access will somewhat justify the traditionally hyped 'WOW!' factor of B2C commerce.
For example, at the moment, as a normal consumer, if I want the latest share price of CRH or Baltimore, or the new Beatles compilation, or an upgrade for my MS Office application, I can download it, but at a price: my time (download time for most people in Ireland is still unacceptably slow).
However, with broadband access, download time will reduce significantly. In addition, the delivery of information will diversify and further stimulate demand. In turn this will facilitate and indeed force the emergence of new, more efficient, business models to cater for increasingly impatient customer demands. Through my mobile phone, a stocks and shares shop will offer me live price feeds and one-click purchasing; listening to my DISCman music vendors will compete for my custom with free sample tracks or bundled albums in better than MP3 format in minutes, and so on. As for my PC's/laptop's/Palm Pilot's MS Office, my licence from Microsoft One (the ASP division) means all of my applications software is always state of the art and bug-free, naturally.
On-line businesses, from ISPs to portals to news services, should be examining their laurels very carefully in light of imminent broadband access. What currently seems to the user a worthwhile experience in 56k slow-mo is going to seem superficial and old fashioned in a broadband world. TV listings and magazine type portals - yawn! Instant gratification is becoming an expected feature, rather than special bonus, of the B2C equation. In the real world, customers mostly do not know or care how goods are made or distributed, or how a service is provided. Consequently, the task is to give customers what they want, when they want, as cheerfully as possible, because if they don't, someone else will. In the world of broadband access, speed is the new whipping master. End of story.
Business2Business
Although public hype is mostly about consumer markets, the implications of a broadband Internet world for otherwise ‘ordinary’ business are nothing short of profound. Apart from instant communication and transactions with each other along the supply chain, almost every business, especially SMEs, will outsource a range of specialist functions because fast broadband makes it workable for the first time. Network management and systems administration should be the first to go, because smaller companies cannot afford in-house expertise even today. Security will be a major factor, because ‘always on’ Internet connection with fixed IP addresses means every business and Web user is as targetable as a physical location.
But there are umpteen opportunities also for non-technical outsourcing. Why bother doing your own credit card payment processing, for example? By leaving the administrative quicksands of logistics and fulfillment to companies whose core business they are, you can pass on the orders in real time, leaving you less stressed and your customers' requirements better met. Even accounts and credit control, at the heart of any business, could be outsourced. One small bureau could probably serve a dozen SMEs, live and in real time, paying dedicated staff well enough to keep them! Another stress factor off your shoulders.
With broadband internet access, any given company can have a range of specialist partners to provide the full complement of skills for its core business offering. Instant online communications (let’s stop talking about ‘virtual’ - profits made online are as real as those made offline) means the appropriate skills and function set is available for each transaction, without having to go to the expense of having it all in-house. In this new outsourcing-driven way of doing business, it seems inevitable that our ISPs will play a major role in putting the strategic partnerships and alliances together. The term ‘Business Service Providers’ has already emerged on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Future
So what should we be doing about broadband Internet access? For starters, ruling absolutely nothing out. Look at www.hamsterdance.com - dancing cartoon hamsters generating more Web hits than Amazon.com and spawning a hit music single that made $ millions.
One example of a whole new field opening up is Open Platform Game Servers. OPGSs allow subscribers the ability to connect with one another over the Net and play many of the most popular multi-player games on the market such as Quake, BattleZone, and Total Annihilation. You get the flavour. The Gameserver concept is one that will doubtless generate fierce customer loyalty. These are definitely going to figure largely in our entertainment future and there’s lots of scope for regional variations.
What's more, there’s no reason why more adult (in the dignified sense) and cerebral variations of OPGSs will not emerge. For example, there are plenty of role-playing and educational games currently available. Many of these are focused at the business market, e.g. Wall Street, and the SIMM’s family of games. These allow people to control, build, nurture etc a whole variety of different themes from family’s to cities. With more and more broadband connections becoming available it will allow people to interact and enhance their skills in planning through these virtual environments. With computing and programming getting more and more powerful almost month by month again this will only lead to much more advanced software and interaction which can be as close to reality as possible.
Broadband access will change the way consumers and businesses use and think about the Internet. At Future Business we're investing considerable amounts of time and money (increasingly the same thing in this Internet era) in the development of new products, services and business models, which will be in demand by broadband users. Already we have set up a dedicated online marketing company, which will look at reaching target audiences at a number of levels employing all access channels available e.g. PCs, mobile phones (be it WAP, SMS or the future UMTS and G3), MP3s, Palm Pilots, TV set-top, Digital TV, essentially all manner of connected to the Internet.
In conclusion, broadband Internet access is due to hit home in Ireland within the next 12 months. As a business, it's up to you whether or not you want to hitch a ride or get left behind. The choice is that straightforward. As in all walks of life, the choice is yours.
Is there any such thing as an Internet business?
Is there really any such thing as “an Internet business”? Personally, I doubt it. Wonderful WAP and stock exchange prices on your mobile phone as you DART to your desk in the IFSC? Hardly. Ticker tape did the same job two generations ago and for some years now you could have the same service rather more legibly on a pager. Ah, you say – what about online gaming? Multiple players having at each other in real time in the latest version of Quake or BattleZone or whatever? Closer, definitely, but they could do the same thing in an arcade, meet new people, contribute to Coca Cola’s profits – and all without investing in go-faster PCs and fast Internet connection.
What about software downloads, automatic upgrading and so on? Still only close. A CD in the post may be a bit slower to arrive but it’s certainly a more reliable way to install software. But wait: now we have Application Service Providers (ASPs) and surely that’s a true Internet business if ever there was one? Well, I dunno. If you think about it, it’s really just oldfashioned remote LAN access except that it’s somebody else’s LAN.
I am, of course, assuming that you agree that consumer e-commerce is just mail order writ electronically. Amazon sell books and music for home delivery. Big deal. As for online ticket buying and reservations – is it any better than phone with credit card in hand? (OK, I’ll be a little swayed by reminders of “Your call is in a queue… please continue to hold and listen to our low-fi music until the next available agent who hasn’t left us for a really exciting job in a bank picks up your call”)
The point I make so laboriously is, of course, that almost all of the time we are talking about the Internet as a delivery and communications channel. It is revolutionary, the Web has unified the world in a way we could hardly have conceived a decade ago and there are thousands if not millions of new business opportunities. But the pace and excitement of it all has perhaps blinded us to what it’s all about. What’s it for?
There are new business models but not really new businesses. I want the latest price of CRH or Baltimore, I want the new Beatles compilation or an upgrade (patch?) for my Office application or a ticket to the Corrs. Being a spoiled brat of a customer, I’m impressed by the technology for only a short while before I get bored and take my fickle custom elsewhere because your damned Web site kept me waiting for nearly two minutes. Tomorrow, 30 seconds.
As mass broadband Internet access rolls inexorably out to the market, with NTL and Chorus offering up to a splendid 512k to any home user and the business market getting 1.5mbps or even 2mbps for about the price of a simple leased line in the old days (a couple of years ago), our entire society is being digitally transformed. The CRM gurus will have a field day, measuring and monitoring response times in milliseconds and attempting to enrich our understanding of customer behaviour.
For my part, I think it’s ridiculously simple. Consumers and business customers will get used to and demand an ever-escalating standard of service. There will be plenty of room for businesses old and new to elbow the competition aside with new differentiating service features. The clichés about individualization and ‘a market of one’ already apply. There will be masses of opportunities for e-technology companies to enable their business clients to design and implement better systems to survive and compete (sorry, but sometimes the old clichés are just needed) in this new e-world.
Almost every business, especially SMEs, will outsource a range of specialist functions because fast broadband makes it feasible for the first time. Why bother doing your own credit card payment processing, for example? Logistics and fulfillment – leave those administrative quicksands and traffic gridlock to someone else.
Now you’re talking about any given company having a range of specialist partners to provide the full complement of skills for its business offering. Instant online communications (let’s top talking about ‘virtual’) means the appropriate skills and function set is available for each transaction. In this new outsourcing-driven way of doing business, it seems inevitable that our ISPs will play a major role in putting the strategic partnerships and alliances together. The term ‘Business Service Providers’ has already emerged on the other side of the Atlantic.
I credit the English guru Ray Hammond with being the first to say “If you want to understand e-commerce, just drop the E-.” I agree. Business has acquired go-faster electronic stripes but it has not changed. Those of us in Internet-related services tend, I think, to become a little too involved in the buzz of tomorrow’s technology.
But that’s looking from the inside out. In the real world, the customer mostly does not know or care exactly how goods are made or distributed or a service provided. How good and how much are the questions, often judged by brand image. And like any spoiled brat, I want it NOW! In many ways the key value of the Internet is quite simply that it enables a business to tackle the NOW factor. We should kept that in mind.
(First Published January 2001)
What about software downloads, automatic upgrading and so on? Still only close. A CD in the post may be a bit slower to arrive but it’s certainly a more reliable way to install software. But wait: now we have Application Service Providers (ASPs) and surely that’s a true Internet business if ever there was one? Well, I dunno. If you think about it, it’s really just oldfashioned remote LAN access except that it’s somebody else’s LAN.
I am, of course, assuming that you agree that consumer e-commerce is just mail order writ electronically. Amazon sell books and music for home delivery. Big deal. As for online ticket buying and reservations – is it any better than phone with credit card in hand? (OK, I’ll be a little swayed by reminders of “Your call is in a queue… please continue to hold and listen to our low-fi music until the next available agent who hasn’t left us for a really exciting job in a bank picks up your call”)
The point I make so laboriously is, of course, that almost all of the time we are talking about the Internet as a delivery and communications channel. It is revolutionary, the Web has unified the world in a way we could hardly have conceived a decade ago and there are thousands if not millions of new business opportunities. But the pace and excitement of it all has perhaps blinded us to what it’s all about. What’s it for?
There are new business models but not really new businesses. I want the latest price of CRH or Baltimore, I want the new Beatles compilation or an upgrade (patch?) for my Office application or a ticket to the Corrs. Being a spoiled brat of a customer, I’m impressed by the technology for only a short while before I get bored and take my fickle custom elsewhere because your damned Web site kept me waiting for nearly two minutes. Tomorrow, 30 seconds.
As mass broadband Internet access rolls inexorably out to the market, with NTL and Chorus offering up to a splendid 512k to any home user and the business market getting 1.5mbps or even 2mbps for about the price of a simple leased line in the old days (a couple of years ago), our entire society is being digitally transformed. The CRM gurus will have a field day, measuring and monitoring response times in milliseconds and attempting to enrich our understanding of customer behaviour.
For my part, I think it’s ridiculously simple. Consumers and business customers will get used to and demand an ever-escalating standard of service. There will be plenty of room for businesses old and new to elbow the competition aside with new differentiating service features. The clichés about individualization and ‘a market of one’ already apply. There will be masses of opportunities for e-technology companies to enable their business clients to design and implement better systems to survive and compete (sorry, but sometimes the old clichés are just needed) in this new e-world.
Almost every business, especially SMEs, will outsource a range of specialist functions because fast broadband makes it feasible for the first time. Why bother doing your own credit card payment processing, for example? Logistics and fulfillment – leave those administrative quicksands and traffic gridlock to someone else.
Now you’re talking about any given company having a range of specialist partners to provide the full complement of skills for its business offering. Instant online communications (let’s top talking about ‘virtual’) means the appropriate skills and function set is available for each transaction. In this new outsourcing-driven way of doing business, it seems inevitable that our ISPs will play a major role in putting the strategic partnerships and alliances together. The term ‘Business Service Providers’ has already emerged on the other side of the Atlantic.
I credit the English guru Ray Hammond with being the first to say “If you want to understand e-commerce, just drop the E-.” I agree. Business has acquired go-faster electronic stripes but it has not changed. Those of us in Internet-related services tend, I think, to become a little too involved in the buzz of tomorrow’s technology.
But that’s looking from the inside out. In the real world, the customer mostly does not know or care exactly how goods are made or distributed or a service provided. How good and how much are the questions, often judged by brand image. And like any spoiled brat, I want it NOW! In many ways the key value of the Internet is quite simply that it enables a business to tackle the NOW factor. We should kept that in mind.
(First Published January 2001)
Websites and what are they for?
Over the years that I have been both a user and as someone making their living from the Internet, I have in seen many great, fabulous and innovative changes but in many ways the basic principle have remained the same.
It has never ceased to amaze me that there are so many websites out there that have spent a huge amount of time an money making themselves look cutting edge, beautiful, got the latest go faster stripe, but they have forgotten the fundamentals, the whole reason for their site in the first place. For people to come, purchase, read, inform, communicate or entertain themselves.
Content is king! Without good content people will not stay, without good content they will not buy, or interact positively with your site.
Ok, you have got some great content, so what is next, then its the structure of the site that is and has and should always be of equal importance. There is zero point investing time and money writing, gathering content, if your visitors can't find or read your site. The simplest and most effective sites on the internet are the ones that are not over designed, do not have the go faster flash stripes. The site owners believe that getting around the site, getting to the information and the call to action is the most important part of the whole site. Once the solid structure is in place then it is an easy thing to give the site a new "lick of paint" at a later stage.
But there has been so many site owners that have been bowled over on how they site looks by the designers, they have forgotten that once it gets into the big bad internet world that what they site looks like at presentation will NOT look like this in the real world. There are so many variables to consider in developing a site from a design point of view but there is still one simple basic principle (actually two): Form & Function!
Form & Function
This is where Form is How the site looks and Function, how the visitor gets around the site. With too much design in the Form, to many gadgets, flash, applets, Web 2.0 etc this limits the ability at present for the search engines and the visitors to find and view/interact with your site. The very FIRST thing any site owner or potential site owner should consider when they are developing their site is who are the target market for their site. It is amazing the amount of times that this has been forgotten. They hand this over to their technical or marketing department or to the kid in the back office who is "good with computers". No offense to any of these, I am considered by some to be a Techie (but probably not by my own techies in Future Business) I also studied Marketing, and most of my friends call me when they have computer problems (Hi Jim). But I also have 11 years of web 1.0 years (some of web 2.0) experience. I know that every one comes to the table with an agenda. The techie (depending on which flavour, Unix, Microsoft, Mac etc) will have their own point of view (left up to most unix heads we would still be surfing the net by command line only... plain txt for non techies hmm (actually not a bad idea sometimes get away from mouse strain thats for sure)), the marketing guys, well its Design design design in most cases. There is a huge .com graveyard full of Marketing led sites that died because no one could use the site, either getting around or did not have the right plugins or heaven forbid "I spend a fortune on these pictures so I want them BIG". Looking at your target market will tell you how to design your site. I have seen sites aimed at the blind riddled with flash. I am sorry but the blind can't read your site, but the can listen to it. Flash though is impossible for the text to speech plug ins to inturpet, so are image site maps without txt guidelines.
I am not railing against all the fancy flashy gadgets, there is a place for these, sites aimed at showing off high tech, design, gaming etc. These sites will be visited by many who will have the computers spec'd up to utilise these elements (but just remember that the search engines will not be able to spider them effectively.
With over 35 million Smartphone sales each quarter and growning world wide and expected to increase by over 33% each quarter through to 2011. These devices will soon over take laptops as the primary mobile access to the Internet. With this inmind they still can't access Flash sites because of the present processors are too poor for this. And as Steve Jobs said in March 2008 "that Flash won't be coming to the iPhone anytime soon." "that the full-blown version of Flash would perform poorly on the iPhone, and Flash Lite isn't the spirit of the iPhone's full internet experience". So beware if you want a nice Flashy site, not only will you aliente potential visitors from finding your site in the first place you will also stop them from seeing it properly they way you intended if they came via a smart phone.
Now that you have discovered the Form of your site, next is the Function. How are your visitors going to get around your site, for that matter and in some ways of equal importance is how are the search engines going to get around your site. If you remember to make your site Function as simple and as structured as possible then your site visitor will never get lost, and will be able to get to the information that they are looking for in as little as three to four clicks. The harder you make it for them to get to the information, then the faster is the likelihood that they will go elsewhere. Forget about trying to bombard them with all the other products and services that you sell. If the visitor wants to know they will look. They just want to get to the one they are looking for. Make it simple for them. Once they have found it then you can show them related products/services but do it only then. The major advantage of making the Function (navigation structure) of your site simple is it also lets the Search engine spiders or bots trawl through your site and its content with ease. They will then follow all your lovely links to your wonderful target structured content back to their respective warrens and make this information easily available to future prospective clients through the search engine results.
There are plenty of other elements to Search Engine Marketing and optimisation (Optimization for the US readers) but getting the fundamentals right makes the job of and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert that much bit easier. If you are lucky you may not even have to worry too much about this element of promoting your site.
Back to Content now. You have decided that you want the latest news on your site, and everyone is talking about Blogs as brilliant for visitors, hell through in a forum, chat room and a bulletin board as well on the site, might as well go the whole way right? WRONG!
If you go to the site and see the latest news was written in 2005 this doesn't paint a good picture to the visitor, the very same thing goes for the blog. I have seen so many sites with Blogs in them and the boss thought it was a brilliant idea and posted up loads of comments for the first week or so, then it drifted to every other week, then once a month and so on. Chat rooms, well they have been empty, forums with one or two posts, or even worse customers coming in asking questions and going unanswered, then the come back frustrated and post something nasty (seen this many times). If you are going to get involved with some of these elements of a site to build your online community then make sure some one within your organisation is responsible for its upkeep. Otherwise do not start them. If you really want a forum on your site ask first your clients and visitors would they use it, and remember that atleast 80% of the positive responses will come down to less then 20% of them actually doing so.
Once the Function of your site is decided, you may discover that you will have to tweak your form, but if you follow the check list below in that order then you should not have to worry to much as a lot of the information will become obvious.
Final site check list:
1. CONTENT
2. TARGET MARKET
3. FORM
4. FUNCTION
5. Then check back to your FORM
It has never ceased to amaze me that there are so many websites out there that have spent a huge amount of time an money making themselves look cutting edge, beautiful, got the latest go faster stripe, but they have forgotten the fundamentals, the whole reason for their site in the first place. For people to come, purchase, read, inform, communicate or entertain themselves.
Content is king! Without good content people will not stay, without good content they will not buy, or interact positively with your site.
Ok, you have got some great content, so what is next, then its the structure of the site that is and has and should always be of equal importance. There is zero point investing time and money writing, gathering content, if your visitors can't find or read your site. The simplest and most effective sites on the internet are the ones that are not over designed, do not have the go faster flash stripes. The site owners believe that getting around the site, getting to the information and the call to action is the most important part of the whole site. Once the solid structure is in place then it is an easy thing to give the site a new "lick of paint" at a later stage.
But there has been so many site owners that have been bowled over on how they site looks by the designers, they have forgotten that once it gets into the big bad internet world that what they site looks like at presentation will NOT look like this in the real world. There are so many variables to consider in developing a site from a design point of view but there is still one simple basic principle (actually two): Form & Function!
Form & Function
This is where Form is How the site looks and Function, how the visitor gets around the site. With too much design in the Form, to many gadgets, flash, applets, Web 2.0 etc this limits the ability at present for the search engines and the visitors to find and view/interact with your site. The very FIRST thing any site owner or potential site owner should consider when they are developing their site is who are the target market for their site. It is amazing the amount of times that this has been forgotten. They hand this over to their technical or marketing department or to the kid in the back office who is "good with computers". No offense to any of these, I am considered by some to be a Techie (but probably not by my own techies in Future Business) I also studied Marketing, and most of my friends call me when they have computer problems (Hi Jim). But I also have 11 years of web 1.0 years (some of web 2.0) experience. I know that every one comes to the table with an agenda. The techie (depending on which flavour, Unix, Microsoft, Mac etc) will have their own point of view (left up to most unix heads we would still be surfing the net by command line only... plain txt for non techies hmm (actually not a bad idea sometimes get away from mouse strain thats for sure)), the marketing guys, well its Design design design in most cases. There is a huge .com graveyard full of Marketing led sites that died because no one could use the site, either getting around or did not have the right plugins or heaven forbid "I spend a fortune on these pictures so I want them BIG". Looking at your target market will tell you how to design your site. I have seen sites aimed at the blind riddled with flash. I am sorry but the blind can't read your site, but the can listen to it. Flash though is impossible for the text to speech plug ins to inturpet, so are image site maps without txt guidelines.
I am not railing against all the fancy flashy gadgets, there is a place for these, sites aimed at showing off high tech, design, gaming etc. These sites will be visited by many who will have the computers spec'd up to utilise these elements (but just remember that the search engines will not be able to spider them effectively.
With over 35 million Smartphone sales each quarter and growning world wide and expected to increase by over 33% each quarter through to 2011. These devices will soon over take laptops as the primary mobile access to the Internet. With this inmind they still can't access Flash sites because of the present processors are too poor for this. And as Steve Jobs said in March 2008 "that Flash won't be coming to the iPhone anytime soon." "that the full-blown version of Flash would perform poorly on the iPhone, and Flash Lite isn't the spirit of the iPhone's full internet experience". So beware if you want a nice Flashy site, not only will you aliente potential visitors from finding your site in the first place you will also stop them from seeing it properly they way you intended if they came via a smart phone.
Now that you have discovered the Form of your site, next is the Function. How are your visitors going to get around your site, for that matter and in some ways of equal importance is how are the search engines going to get around your site. If you remember to make your site Function as simple and as structured as possible then your site visitor will never get lost, and will be able to get to the information that they are looking for in as little as three to four clicks. The harder you make it for them to get to the information, then the faster is the likelihood that they will go elsewhere. Forget about trying to bombard them with all the other products and services that you sell. If the visitor wants to know they will look. They just want to get to the one they are looking for. Make it simple for them. Once they have found it then you can show them related products/services but do it only then. The major advantage of making the Function (navigation structure) of your site simple is it also lets the Search engine spiders or bots trawl through your site and its content with ease. They will then follow all your lovely links to your wonderful target structured content back to their respective warrens and make this information easily available to future prospective clients through the search engine results.
There are plenty of other elements to Search Engine Marketing and optimisation (Optimization for the US readers) but getting the fundamentals right makes the job of and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert that much bit easier. If you are lucky you may not even have to worry too much about this element of promoting your site.
Back to Content now. You have decided that you want the latest news on your site, and everyone is talking about Blogs as brilliant for visitors, hell through in a forum, chat room and a bulletin board as well on the site, might as well go the whole way right? WRONG!
If you go to the site and see the latest news was written in 2005 this doesn't paint a good picture to the visitor, the very same thing goes for the blog. I have seen so many sites with Blogs in them and the boss thought it was a brilliant idea and posted up loads of comments for the first week or so, then it drifted to every other week, then once a month and so on. Chat rooms, well they have been empty, forums with one or two posts, or even worse customers coming in asking questions and going unanswered, then the come back frustrated and post something nasty (seen this many times). If you are going to get involved with some of these elements of a site to build your online community then make sure some one within your organisation is responsible for its upkeep. Otherwise do not start them. If you really want a forum on your site ask first your clients and visitors would they use it, and remember that atleast 80% of the positive responses will come down to less then 20% of them actually doing so.
Once the Function of your site is decided, you may discover that you will have to tweak your form, but if you follow the check list below in that order then you should not have to worry to much as a lot of the information will become obvious.
Final site check list:
1. CONTENT
2. TARGET MARKET
3. FORM
4. FUNCTION
5. Then check back to your FORM
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