everwas

a blog by Ian Kennedy

Month: May 2006

  • flickr goes gamma

    I have a confession to make. Although I’ve been using flickr for a good long time (I’ve posted over 500 photos since July 2004), it was only several months ago that I clued into the Recent Activity feature. I had mainly been using the site as a way to stream photos to friends and family and only viewed photos from others via my RSS reader so I really didn’t explore the website that much.

    One day I did happen to login to the site and found this feature which let me see who had commented on my photos, which ones were "favorited" and which were the most viewed. There were a few comments from family that I noticed (I felt horrible that I never acknowledged these!) and then someone had commented that one of my photos of a lego-encrusted car should be submitted to something called the "Pixel Art" group.

    I had discovered the wonderful world of flickr groups which leads me to the topic of this post. Flickr took the wraps off a major redesign today that cleans up some of the rough edges a bit but also makes it easier for newbies to get introduced to the great communities living on the site. I’m really happy to see the Groups we’ve noticed feature because it highlights all the great groups that are out there. People that photograph interesting signs, classic cars, or strange uses of English. There are also gaming groups like the GuessWhere groups (I play the SF chapter) and the now famous squared circle group. There is really something for everyone here.

    There are a ton of other features rolled out like a revamped Organizr but I’ll point to my all time favorite flickr photographer, Thomas Hawk, who gives the best run down.

    Oh, and why Gamma? It comes after Beta of course. 

  • The New Yahoo!

    The New Yahoo!

    (large posters appeared overnight to promote the brand new yahoo.com home page)

    Lots of buzz around the new Yahoo homepage which was made available as a preview today. Most appreciated the interactive elements that let you check your email and local traffic conditions without leaving the page. The team packed in a lot of information on the page (no scrollbar on my 1280 x 1024 screen) without making it overwhelming. Just right I think.

    Havi Hoffman has a great writeup on the launch over on Search Blog and Richard MacManus has the podcast exclusive. For those that want to get in under the hood, check out Bill Scott posting on design considerations and Nate Koechley with the nitty on the technical details covering things such as the use of CSS sprites.

    There’s a lot here to discover, subtle things such as changing of the font from Arial to Verdana for better legibility as you get smaller and the countless bits of stuff to see in the Pulse module. More details on personalization features from Scott Gatz.

    Finally, don’t miss the quirky welcome message from Jerry and David.

    Excellent work all around, makes me proud to work here.

  • Spore

    OMG! I’ve been hearing all about this game as the next greatest thing but until you see it, you can’t really appreciate just how cool it is. Joystiq has links to videos from E3 that show the game in action and it looks amazing.

    Joystiq Video, Wired Spore Event 

  • The New Yahoo Games

    yahoogames.JPG

    While the big gaming show E3 is going on in Los Angeles, Yahoo Games has released an update to Yahoo Games including a shiny new version of Yahoo Chess.

  • Are you engaged?

    Certainly people want good deals, but a good deal is sweeter when it’s available someplace where people can engage. That’s why even small efforts to facilitate shared moments of self-expression make sense for PopSecret at Whatsyourpopsecret.com, or for Saab at Maintainyouridentity.net, or for msn.com at Whatsyourstory.msn.com (sponsored by Volvo), or for Tazo Tea at Tazo.com, where Tazo encourages visitors to "enlighten us." These campaigns aren’t about engaging consumers with the brand. They’re about brands enabling people to engage with one another in new, often quirky, but always meaningful ways.

    – J. Walker Smith in Feb. 2006 issue of Media 

    Amen to that! The more marketers understand that the new web is about two-way conversations, the less we’ll hear from the klaxon horns of the likes of x-10

    For a sampling of some of the more engaging advertising efforts, check out Random Culture. 

  • Julia on the big screen

    Julia on the big screen

    On a lark I uploaded a recent photo of Julia I had posted to Flickr to Nationwide’s Life Comes at you Fast site. In return, I got an email with a link to their site telling me when the photo would run on the big screen outside the Reuters building.

    If you’re curious, check out the site between 4:40 – 5:00 pm (NYC time) each day this week.

  • Cool Things at Yahoo

    There’s so much activity at Yahoo that many projects or cool little features get lost in the shuffle or overlooked. A couple of engineers were lamenting the fact on an internal mailing list and wondering what could be done to get the word out about their favorite features. It didn’t take long for a couple of them to take matters into their own hands and start their own little fan site.

    One of the things I really like about this site is that it’s so down to earth. People writing lovingly about products that they just want to share with the world. It’s pretty funny at times too like the most recent post about the benefits of being able to go back and edit a review.

    Another great feature is the blogroll which is the most comprehensive list of Yahoo product blogs on the web today. Slurp this blogroll into your reader and you’ll know everything you need to know about Yahoo, straight from a Yodeler.

  • Subscribe to PDF files via iTunes

    Steve Rubel points to an interesting development of Apple’s iTunes client.

    The addition of PDFs to iTunes is more than just a mildly interesting occurrence. iTunes, as a ubiquitous cross-platform app, has its own embedded browser that powers the music store. It’s conceivable that Apple could turn iTunes into a dedicated RSS reader that operates like Safari and become a clearing house for all subscription-based content. In addition, wireless is on the way according to this patent filing.

    Taking this a step further, it’s also highly possible that if iTunes enhances its DRM to include other enclosures it will move into e-books and or e-magazines. Oh, and where might those eBooks be consumed?

    – via Micropersuation

    I’d take this one step further. One of the more lucrative lines of business for the news business is the timely delivery of profiled news. Could iTunes become a platform for newspapers to delivery their premium content to subscribers? With a built-in browser and DRM, the iTunes client becomes much more attractive than email or even some of the current branded RSS readers such as the one available from USA Today. 

     

  • Hidden Images – FedEx

    Did you know that the FedEx logo has an arrow built into it? The Sneeze has an interview with Lindon Leader, the man behind the logo.