howard | 
03 21st, 2007| 
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Nike ditches W+K with rumours of talks with Crispin Porter + Bogusky having gone on for months!
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ad age article on widgets
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McDonalds in Japan teams up with NTT DoCoMo for electronic payment
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Gaming legend Chris Crawford sets up an interactive story telling site.
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Apollo goes Alpha. Cue Alejandro drooling somewhere in Spain
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HD on Freeview is still a way off – which is just plain wrong!
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massive post by Vincent on long tail of social shopping. he’s got a book in the works I reckon!
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small flash librarty to handle uploading.
Mar
21
Mar
20
The team over at webreakstuff recently released goplan.
Goplan is a new entry into the online project management and collaboration sector, previously occupied by the likes of basecamp and eProject.
From their own site:
"Goplan is an online project management solution. It
allows teams and individuals to collaborate through tasks, file
management, real-time chat, online calendaring, and many other features."
Like basecamp, goplan features all the tools you’d expect in any new PM environment which appear to be as much about collaboration as charts and resource monitoring these days.
- Project management
- Task management
- Online tracking
- News letter publishing
- Calendar (with iCal support – because no one uses outlook any more!)
- IM
- Access control
- Safe file storage
- SSL connections
Just signed up for an account, and choose the free option. I don’t have an opinion on how it works just yet, but something has grabbed my attention. goplan has five different pricing structures ranging from free to $100 a month (ouch!). With the free one, you get a VERY limited feature set and ads served into the interface to support the lack of subscription fee.
Regardless of whether anyone will click on an ad or not (i know I wouldn’t) I think they’re missing a trick by not releasing the whole feature set to the free account – this is where people are going to test drive this app, in the free account, and it seems odd to restrict these users to the minimal, although admitedly most important, feature set. Why not release them all and put more ads into the interface? If people find the product useful they’ll soon be paying you $10 a month for a proper account and you’ll have made a few quid from the adwords in the short term?
Howard
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Mar
15
If this is true, and it is really him, then this is great!
Howard
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Mar
15
Macromedia, or rather Abobe, Flash has been with us for a long time and for all of that time there has been a divide between people on whether or not Flash should be used to build websites.
Proponents of Flash will argue that as a visual environment on the web it provides unrivaled creative freedom beyond the humdrum existence that HTML and CSS provide, freeing the designer from the restraints of a language that was never intended to be used in the way that it now is. Flash lets you show video, play sound, use animation, and a million other creative driven executions that you simply can’t do, or perhaps can’t do so easily or so well, in a more static HTML environment.
In this way, flash allows creatives to realise their own visions in "Technicolor" as opposed to black and white.
But whilst there have been flash creatives (and indeed flash programmers – although perhaps they are one in the same nowadays?) who will argue till the cows come home to the benefits of using the plug in, there have been people on the other side of the fence arguing against it’s use as a web development environment.
And I have to say that generally I fall into this second camp.
Whilst freeing up the creatives, flash has intrinsic drawbacks that browser native tools do not. For a start it requires a plug in, and often the latest version of a plug in at that because the flash coders will argue that they need to use Flash version 27 because there’s a new flibble filter in it that means they only have to write 4 lines of code rather than 5 and it’s more efficient! Whilst any flash advocate will at this point rattle off streams of flash plugin penetration statistics, stating 99.99999% of all people have the plug in, the fact remains that it is a 3rd party tool, and there are quite a few different versions around.
That plug in can run at different speeds on different computers and Operating Systems. We all know Flash on the Mac sucks in comparison to PC. How do we guarantee a consistent user experience?
Flash can also be a hefty old download. Yes, we’re all on broadband, and Wi-Fi, and all the rest of it – but even then the experience can, and often is (even on corporate networks) a slow one. Flash, by it’s very nature, means that pages that are created have file sizes way larger than any HTML counterpart – hence why we see so many loading bars in flash pages and applications. Once you start adding video and sound and all other host of goodies into sites, the file size goes up and this can affect the user experience – and with users now spending an average of 0.4 seconds waiting for a page to load (ok – so I made that up, but you know how impatient we all are!) speed is still of the essence.
And let’s not get into the discussion of flash and accessibility. Look at any government web site – which always tend to stick strictly to DDA guidelines – and you’ll see how much flash exactly? Flash and accessibility? Forget about it – it’s a joke.
But for me, all of these "problems" are insignificant next to this one. This is the big one (sorry accessibility proponents).
OK – here it is – the truth all flash advocates don’t want to hear.
FLASH DOESN’T WORK WITH SEARCH ENGINES
There, I said it! The dirty little secret of the flash community!
As pretty as it is, as good as it is at showing video and connecting to databases, as entertaining as it can make a game of flinging hamsters across a desert landscape, as downright a-ma-zing as flash gurus will spend hours telling you, the simple truth remains that flash simply does not play well with search engines. Any of them.
And in this day and age where nearly all of us use a combination of four top search engines for finding what we want online, that fact and that fact alone should be enough to get us all loading up notepad and building all our sites in Times New Roman with HTML 1.0.
There are ways around this of course. But they’re cumbersome and expensive and downright hard to do well. But they do exist.
The main one, the one I’ve discussed with the most people, is that if you really want to create your whole web site in flash you have to do the old trick of making a flash AND HTML version in parallel.
That’s it – that’s the solution! We haven’t moved on at all. Whilst Adobe have been busy working on better and improved versions of the plug in to add all sorts of fancy effects, the fact still remains that if you want accessibility or search engine integration with a flash site you have to make a HTML only version as well.
I know of several large agencies who are going down just this route right now on major web site development projects for large global household names.
So it’s not like this is one-man-bands speaking – these are the cutting edge of digital marketing in Europe, if not the world. Yes, it can be done dynamically. You can strip the content from the execution with XML, and then use XSLT or whatever to create the pages on the fly, but all in all, it’s still separation of experience from flash to HTML.
So here comes Flex, and here comes Apollo.
Will these work with Search Engines?
Who knows. I certainly don’t.
But, in ten years, I know that we’re still in the same boat.
We’re still putting "click here for the HTML version" on the landing page.
As far as I am concerned, we’ve gone nowhere.
Howard
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Mar
14
What with Jonathan jetting off to Stockholm all the time (and not blogging much as a result!) I was feeling a bit out of it in terms of business travel.
So, off to Toronto I go in the first week of April.
Needless to say I’ll keep the blog going whilst I am over in Canada.
Howard
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Mar
14
Widgets are big news. They’re quite literally popping up everywhere and are even now being mentioned by people in the offline world, so they must have made it through to the masses (although apparently knowledge of what Skype is hasn’t judging from a conversation I had yesterday!)
So, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a list and brief explanation of the different Widget platforms out there. I doubt I’ll cover all of them, but i’ll cover the ones that I personally know of and use or have used.
For me, widgets break down into several different categories which are:
- Application widgets
- Operating System widgets
- Web Desktop widgets
- Embedded widgets
- Mobile widgets
All of these do a very similar if not identical job to their various relatives, but the way they’re distributed and in some ways engaged with can be different.
But what is a widget?
Before I go and start explaining the sub types, perhaps I should explain what a widget actually is? Basicaly a widget is a small piece of software that you either download to your machine or add to your web page in order to fulfil a single very specific task. Don’t think of these widgets as software like MS Office or Adobe Photoshop because they’re generally much more simplistic than those monsters. Instead, think of them as small tools like a Flickr picture viewer, a BBC news reader or a radio station player. The idea is that they are small, often visually appealing, single purpose tools designed to do one thing and one thing only. Normally written using a combination of standard web langauges like HTML, JavaScript and CSS, widgets often come with a visual look and feel, including the GUI, that works on web principles also, and generally at the moment in a web2.0 style with fades and muted colours. This means that they are very easy to use with zero learning curve. The portable nature of widgets, and they’re very small file size, also means they can be distributed with great ease. As widgets generally don’t require adminstrator access to install (certainly in the case of app or OS widgets) they’re pretty much accessible by anyone who has the desire to use them. Examples of widgets could be:
- an ebay search tool
- a flickr photo viewer
- a BBC RSS news reader
- a calculator
- a world clock
Application Widgets
App widgets were the first ones that I came across, and I could be wrong, but I think they were the first ones to exist full stop. The best known example of App widgets is called Konfabulator, and this is a widget "engine" for both mac and PC that you download, install and then run like you would any other application. You get a pre-defined set of widgets as standard and can download more from the gallery. This in turn enables the use of widgets on an operating system that would not normally have them. This was, I should add, pre MacOSX Tiger, which now has widgets built in, and as such was revolutionary when it was released. Konfabulator comes with a default set of widgets, as do most other variants, and can be added to from a vast library of 1st and 3rd party widgets.
Konfabulator was eventually purchased by Yahoo! and is now called the Yahoo! Widget Engine (Y!WE), with the company now supplying a default set of widgets which utilise predomiantly Yahoo! based web services out of the box. An update version of the engine, called Yahoo! Widgets 4, is due for release in the near future.
I personally don’t see much of a future of Konfabulator/Y!WE now that Apple Mac OS X has Dhasboard built in, and WIndows VIsta has finally been released offering it’s own built in tools. This is a shame, as this really was a revolutionary product. I could be wrong, but it seems a tall order for me when the two main OS’s come with their own stuff included. No doubt they’re existing fan base, particularly on the PC, is loyal to the cause, but it must only be a matter of time.
Google called their widgets Gadgets, and also have their own Widget engine, which comes as part of the Google Desktop, which is primarily an desktop search tool (and a VERY good one at that!). Widgets are not turned on by default and you have to hunt around to turn them on. Google widgets have a distinct look and feel (or certainly the default ones do) and IMHO aren’t quite as attractive as some of the others. I actually haven’t used Google Widgets that much so can’t comment on them a great deal. Google widgets interestingly work on both your Google Desktop app and the Google personal desktop web implementation, available at google.com/ig. As with nearly all of these, there is a Gadget download area on the site.
Operating System Widgets
OS widgets are undoubtedly a progression on from App widgets and, in-particular, Konfabulator. When Apple released Dashboard a few years ago, there were a lot of comments on how strikingly similar in look and feel it was to the (now) Yahoo! engine. I think this is by the by and, in many ways, it’s simply the nature of the beast for them to all look similar – they are all, after all, doing the same job to a degree and all word processors look the same.
On Apple Mac OS X Tiger and above, widgets are implemented through the Dashboard system, which is turned on by default for all users. Users can download and install widgets from the Apple web site, and there are many of them available, provided by both Apple and 3rd parties. Installing them is, as with most of these systems, simply the case of dropping them into a folder. Widgets are not visible all the time (unless you hack them into dev mode) and are invoked by pressing the F12 key, turning the screen dark and bringing in the widgets over the top of all other applications. As such, on a Mac, widgets are more of a "use it when you need it" implementation and they tend to lend themselves more to tools like a calculator, currency convertor and so forth, rather than toys or picture viewers. These are available, this is just my own opinion.
Widgets (or as they call them, like Google, Gadgets) were introduced to the Windows world with the launch of Vista earlier this year (you can’t have missed the WOW!) although, as mentioned with Y!WE, they were available before for XP if you knew where to look. By default, widgets are turned off in Vista and are, when eventually turned on, implemented from first run in a sidebar area of the screen, imaginatively called Windows Side Bar. Widgets can be dragged off the side bar and placed on the desktop itself, but this isn’t the default setting. Unlike Mac, Vista widgets are always on display and, for me at least, this means that more ambient widgets like a picture viewer or auction tracker are more useful. Widgets are downloaded for VIsta from the MS LIve Gallery web site where there is a small but growing gallery of them, certainly not as large as the OS X one though.
Web "Desktop" Widgets
This name is a little clumsy but I can’t think of a different one, so it’ll do. Web widgets are those which are implemented onto a customsable web page, which you would generally set as your home page in browser of choice. All of the major search engines have their own implementation of these, and there is one notable start up player who has built up a massive following. All of these implementations employ AJAX to provide the high levels of interaction and flexibility expected from widgets in a rigid browser based environment.
Google, Yahoo! and MS Live web based widgets
All of these monsters have their own widget enabled customisable start pages, and they’re available free of charge if you have an account with them. All of them feature widgets that are interchangeable with their OS or App version of the engine, MSN via Live! for Vista, Google and Yahoo! for Desktop and Y!WE accordingly. Generally however, web based widget engines lead with a series of information driven widgets, predominantly RSS feeds and email readers. They all employ a grid based page layout where you can drag and drop widgets into the space and order you find most appealing and useful. There are rumours that for MS Live!/VIsta you can drag-and-drop widgets off the web page and onto the desktop, although I have seen no evidence or got this to work personally (although it’s a really nice idea).
Netvibes
Netvibes is a French company who were one of the first to develop a customisable widget based web desktop, and I was introduced to them via Vincent, who I think has some strange sense of French loyalty with them. Offering a default page which is amazingly busy, almost in an attempt to prove to new visitors just how many widgets you can have open with them at once, the site looks and feels very similar to the offerings from the search giants. This is probably because of two things. (1) They all do the same job so why reinvent the wheel in terms of GUI and, (2), NetVibes was the first to do this. NetVibes made a big announcment recently at the FOWA conference that they were moving into the development tools field, and recently released the NetVibes Universal Widget API, a set of tools to help widget developers create a build-once, deploy everywhere widget. The system claims to cover off not only NetVibes itself, but also Dashboard, VIsta and others. As widgets are all pretty much built using HTML and JavaScript, this is a great idea, but I don’t know why someone didn’t think of it before.
For me, web based widgets simply do not work. My main reason for using them would be as an information aggregation, and i have Sage/Firefox as my RSS reader to do this for me. In terms of widgets for weather, ebay and so forth, I use Dashboard, so again, I have no need to a web based version. I am sure one of the benefits of them is that you can use the same layout on any computer, but this isn’t something that’s important for me.
Embedded Widgets
Embedded widgets, known as many other things such as buttons, are small pieces of code, generally Flash based, that a user can embed into a pre-existing web page, such as a blog or myspace. They aren’t as flexible as something like the web based services, where positions can be moved and so forth, becuase they are limited to the abilities of the surrounding web site and not driven in a specifically widget-ready ajax site.
Popular examples of these widgets are MyBlogLog (a blog visitor tracking site), MeeboMe (a fantastic IM client and aggregator), Skype Buttons (a small, graphical display of your current Skype status and a direct link to contact you) and, of course, YouTube videos.
All of the above are examples of widgetised tools that a user can stick on their own site as they see fit. By turning something that was previously a OS level application (such as a video player) into a simple, single purpose flash based item, the audience and potential use for something grows nearly exponentially.
I have a particular fondness for embedded widgets myself, but Jonathan always tells me off for putting too many of them on the Adventures blog! 
I personally think that from a digital marketing point of view embedded widgets are a great untapped (currently) place for us to discover and use and it’s something I am actively looking to get going asap.
Mobile Widgets
The only mobile widgets I am currently aware of are Widsets which is a Java application you download and install on your phone, and then effectively becomes a widget desktop. All the usual widget suspects are here, RSS readers, weather reports, a clock, games and so forth – so it’s nothing radical in terms of content.
What is good about widsets though is that, for me, it’s the perfect realisation of the widget ideal in a space that dictates a dedicated approach and a concise delivery of information.
In a close relationship with Nokia, Widsets is available for all phones with Java enabled, although there are some quirks in the interface (or at least there is on the blackberry 7103v) – but once you overcome these and work out it’s little ways it is really a good execution.
As recent studies have stated that nearly 70% of mobile users shun advertising on their phones, the mobile widget space could be a way for us to get in front of mobile users by giving them a branded service they find real value in.
Howard
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Mar
14
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William Gibson’s new novel, due to be released in the UK in August 2007
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Internet and technology blogging company based in the UK
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Pre order it on Amazon!
Mar
13
The other day I twittered something long these lines:
"I love Parallels for the Mac, but god it takes a long time to load"
It’s amazing what sticking another gig of RAM in your machine will do for performance!
Running 2gb in the mac, with a gig on Windows XP and a gig on MacOSX both run like a charm.
It’s got to be the perfect computer environment for people in our business.
Howard
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Mar
13
I must caveate this by saying that I really know nothing of the conference industry at all, so please bear that in mind here, but…
…If we have ad-funded Web2.0 projects, and online PPC advertising is making such huge changes to the whole industry, how come conferences like the recent FOWA to name just a few, still ask us to pay for the priviledge of going to an event to be talked at by predominantly companies looking to sell us something indirectly?
Couldn’t this be 100% ad funded as well?
Just a thought…
Howard
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