Wordpress for iPhone

Just added the iWPhone Plugin for Wordpress, that creates a really nice looking version of this blog if you are using an iPhone, like I am prone to do.

Totally easy to install and looks painless so far, took all of 2 minutes and didn’t require me to touch my current theme… beautiful.

Tech Logo Evolution

A great post from Neatorama on the evolution of some tech companies logos, with an interesting history of them. As you can see by the image, Apple is included, as is Google, IBM, and others.

Rumor has it that the bite on the Apple logo was a nod to Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science who committed suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple. Janoff, however, said in an interview that though he was mindful of the “byte/bite” pun (Apple’s slogan back then: “Byte into an Apple”), he designed the logo as such to “prevent the apple from looking like a cherry tomato.” (Source)

In 1998, supposedly at the insistence of Jobs, who had just returned to the company, Apple replaced the rainbow logo (”the most expensive bloody logo ever designed” said Apple President Mike Scott) with a modern-looking, monochrome logo.

Thanks to TechCrunch.

Google Reader Search

Looks like Google Reader has finally added search, a long overdue feature. Always surprised me that a Google product didn’t have search. Now if I only knew when it will show for me…

Thanks to Matt.

[Update] 5 minutes after my post it is now included.

iPhone

I want.

• OS X
• 2-megapixel camera
• 4 ($499) or 8GB ($599) versions
• 3.5-inch, 160-pixel per inch patented touch screen
• 11.6mm thin
• Cingular in July

Lots of peeps covering this: Om, Engadget, TechCrunch, Jason.

7 Essential WordPress Hacks

As a WordPress user, Chris Pearson has an excellent video series on essential plugins and tweaks.

1. How to Get More Search Engine Traffic With One Simple Tweak
2. How to Make More Money With AdSense
3. Feedvertising: Make Money With Your RSS Feed
4. More Feedback, Less Spam: WordPress Contact Form Plugin
5. How to Increase Comments and Page Views With One Quick and Easy Plugin
6. How to Stop Comment Spam without Lifting a Finger
7. Back Up Your Blog or Risk Losing It All

Found this thru CopyBlogger.

Websnapr

Just added some new blog bling to the site. Links will now include bubble screenshots when you mouse over them, giving a preview of the page that is linked. Specifically I am using the Snapr Wordpress Plugin that easily integrates the Preview Bubble JavaScript.

Samples:

• CNN
• NYTimes
• Google News

Site Visualization by CrazyEgg

One thing about web design changes is that its difficult to really know what people are actually doing on your site. WebTrends does have a stats overlay feature, but like Google Analytics, really only works on the site level, and we all know what issues web analytics have.

CrazyEgg allows for site monitoring specifically around tests, so different versions and changes can be analized. Tests can be run by timeframe or by the number of visitors. All thats required is a little JavaScript on your site.

Test different versions of a page to see which works better

• Discover which ad placement gives the best results
• Find out which design encourages visitors to click deeper
• Learn which content leads to improved sales

Crazy Egg is designed to help you continually test and improve your site.

Got the word from the BivingsReport.

Web Stats Are Broken

Matt Marshall at Siliconbeat wrote that web analytics are broken and are back to square one, talking about third party web traffic measurement.

The only reason the system isn’t breaking down, and advertisers aren’t pulling out, is because they have no choice but to play. They are taking informed guesses, based on the shoddy statistics available. And Google et al. are using every strategy they can find to deal with this problem.

Webanalyticsbook added some graphs and a good summary of the main companies that guess traffic.

Alexa: Alexa data is collected via the Alexa browser toolbar, which is obviously more often installed on tech interested users, than on average Joe’s computer. This means that more tech relevant users on your site increase the chance that your Alexa rank increases. Also software programmes like Alexabooster can easily “boost” your rank . Alexa only gives you an idea or a trend, but will never be accurate.

Comscore: Comscore is based on 2 million participants, which allows them to capture a broad view of surfing and buying behavior. Problem here is pretty much the same. Accuracy won’t be 100% for tech related websites.

Hitwise: Hitwise collects logfile data directly from the ISP networks (network-centric) and does not have a user-centric or site centric approach. They also combine this rich ISP data with a worldwide opt-in panel to overlay demographic, lifestyle and transactional behavior across the thousands of websites that are reported on every day.

The 10/20/30 PowerPoint Rule

While catching up on my Guy Kawasaki posts, I wanted to reference some all important advice for presentations, The 10/20/30 PowerPoint Rule.

I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

This is specific to his work in venture capital, but it’s good advice for all of us that need to create and sit through presentations.

Consumer Web Behavior

A study using eye-tracking equipment by Nielsen Norman Group of 230 consumers, sheds some interesting light on how people tend to use the internet. (Yahoo News article)

• Individuals read Web pages in an “F” pattern. They’re more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down. That makes the first two words of a sentence very important.
• Surfers connect well with images of people looking directly at them. It helps if the person in the photo is attractive, but not too good looking.
• Images in the middle of a page can present an obstacle course.
• People respond to pictures that provide useful information, not just decoration.
• Consumers will peek at ads in search engines as a “secondary thing,” Nielsen says, since they usually have specific product targets in mind.

Jakob Nielsen (a principal at the firm), also has an article on growing a business website.