Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter.

I’m on it; Shaquille O’Neal is on it; soon enough, your mom will be on Twitter and it won’t be cool. Mainly, because she’ll know everything you would say at a cocktail party and every cocktail party that you go too. Unlike facebook, privacy settings can limit the experience others have with your profile (I for one, do not tinker with my settings); however, the advantage Twitter provides, I think, is watered down once everyone is on it.

So my prediction, and go ahead and mark my word. I think Twitter will shine for the next year, after that, it’s on it’s way out. Why? I’ll start crafting my reasons soon, but in the interim note that Twitter will gain significant popularity in the next 12 months, then a bunch of people will detract, the loyalists will remain, and the blog will be cool again.

Recently, I’ve been thinking  a lot about accessibility on the web, and specifically within this topic, instances where convenience overrides competition. I read in Fast Company’s latest issue that Hulu, ranked third by FC for being a Top 50 innovative company (Facebook was 15th), indexes search results outside of their own content.  In Hulu’s formation, ABC decidedly did not join the video-on-demand service, so initial thinking might suggest it smart to exclude ABC from Hulu search results; however, if someone searches for Desperate Housewives, an ABC show, the results appear, with a caption beneath the thumbnail listing the video’s source location (watch at ABC, watch at TVGUIDE, etc.).  The ultimate goal of Hulu and arguably any site, is to serve the user the content they want, whether user-specified or inferred, so by displaying external search results, Hulu is allowing convenience to triumph over competition, in the name of the most critical component, Hulu user satisfaction.

I liked this pairing of convenience against competition and took the idea one step further during a recent pitch for a new business project. Without being able to elaborate until (hopefully) the contract is closed, I’ve proposed a tool we build for the client’s online customers not be restricted only to be used with client’s products, but work web-wide and be open for inclusion with all related products across any brand.

If the tool, which is a part to a whole site, is restricted to work only with the client’s products, then it loses some practicality; for example, think of a hammer that can only be used with a certain brand of nails. Alternatively if the client agrees to building this online tool, and agrees to opening the tool up to be compatible with competitor’s products, they’re not only maximizing the potential of the tool, but serving their potential customers as well as possible by creating the ultimate online customer experience. The risk is clear: providing your competitor’s product real estate on your own web territory.

As far as I know, this online tool we have proposed to build does not exist yet and therefore there is a specific need for a unique need for this client’s audience. The audience will benefit, but at expesne ($$$) of our potential client. In return, this tool serves the onlines customers by providing a valuable web experience. As users return to the site to use the valued tool, the opportunity emerges to form a long term customer relationship.

So while the competition offers a product online, our potential client would offer a product (and free service too).

Among all other thoughts running through my head these days, I’d be curious to learn of more examples of this imbalance between convenience and competition. So please, share. Until then, if/when the contract is signed, I’ll follow up with more details on the project.

I’m not sure if anyone reads this, and if you do, quite frankly, you shouldn’t because I haven’t written anything down here for a while…none the lessness, I’m making a come back.

I saw a cartoon a few months back where two people were talking. Person 1 says “I have nothing to say”; person 2 says “You should blog about it.” I read this of course, right around the time I had lofty ideas for this blog. Anyways, I’ve been reading a lot more as of recent, and I have a few thoughts to jot down for those who don’t visit my site.

Signed,
Ghost Writer

The challenge

I went to the Black Crowes concert this weekend and saw a bunch of people holding up their phone to snap a picture of the band. I was standing about 20 rows back from the stage, and as a result, I was able to gain a good view of the different types of phones up in the air. Some held flip phones, others cautiously held up their Iphones and a rare few still tried to snap a pic using their Treos.

Seeing this upfront progression in mobile devices led me to a bunch of mixed feelings about the current state of the mobile market.

First, the Treo and the Blackberry:

It was only about a year ago when the Treo really was, for a lack of better word choice, the cat’s meow. Everyone had one, and everyone who had one was addicted to their Treo. Some of my co-workers even checked their e-mail on their Treo, as they sat in front of their computer. In the eyes of Treo owners, their phone was the smarter choice and more capable alternative to the Blackberry.

And yes, over the past few years, the Blackberry tried some evolutionary tactics (think: Pearl) and the Treo (think: that one version without the antenna sitcking out), but the evolution was small and less impactful than what behavior changing and user empowerment the Iphone brought to communication.

…and the Iphone:

We all know how hot and heavy everyone’s been for the Iphone ever since its debut. While Mac fanboys rave on it, I’ll dare to contest the audio quality on is adequate, the edge near the receiver is awkwardly sharp against the ear and it would be impossible to dial while trying to do anything else at the same time. While I still hold these negative views, up until very recent, I was internalizing whether to forgo these Iphone shortcomings, nonsensically cancel my Verizon contract and go grasp my very own (white or black?) Iphone. Shortcomings as they were, the superior user interface, and pure appeal of the Iphone was strong enough of a magnetic force to gradually yank me into the store.

Now the G1:

So there I was at the Black Crowes concert and aside from realizing that the band has an amazing ability to put on an excellent live performance, I see the progression of mobile phones right in front me. Flip phone, Blackberry, Treo, Iphone, G1. In fact, I didn’t see any G1s, but my coworker received one the day of its release, and while the phone is not the prettiest one on the block, it has the best seal in town – Google’s. 

At first I wanted an Iphone, and the introduction of the Apps store made me want it more, but then T-Mobile introduced the G1, based on an open-source solution, that isn’t necessarily mobile phone only (think OS for your car’s navigation screen, your TV at home, your desktop, etc.), and all of a sudden the Iphone felt restricted, cold and closed.

Then I thought about the G1, and I thought open-source, that’s great. Once I saw one in-person,my heart said yes, while my eyes said fat chance.

I thought putting these thoughts on paper might help me synthesize my stance on the mobile market, but I remain unclear on which phone is best. The Iphone is filled to the brim with those finer Apple touches that make you feel like their product is working with your needs and desires and not against it; however, this experience is limited to those customers and developers who are willing to pay the cover (read: high monthly fees equivalent to price gauging) and follow the dress code (read: your app must be Apple proof, which isn’t necessarily a great thing, and is a separate post in itself). The G1 is open-source, unique enough to not be an Iphone rip off, and seems to be less about the phone and more about the potential of the OS. On the other hand, the G1 probably doesn’t fit in my pocket, kind of has a bit of a non-intuitive interface, is less restrictive on apps, but might be more vulnerable to a mass unleashing of junk/scam apps, and well, overall, just isn’t there quite yet.

The Iphone came out, and Sprint and Verizon hurried to make cheap, corny imitators. Seeing past the wannabes, what eventually came out of the Iphone realease was the G1. The G1 is now out, and I haven’t seen an imitation yet. What I hope, and think will happen, is the Android OS will be brushed up over the next few months (I wonder if its interface can be updated online), and put on more phones, that quite frankly, make more sense and look better than the G1.

Right now, the task at hand for the G1 is to get it in the hands of developers to get them to push the device into everyone’s life, just like the Google search engine. Once developers pay attention to the G1, there is a fair chance the device will accelerate past the Iphone.

Stay tuned for what I think will turn out to be an interesting 12 months for the mobile industry. My contract with Verizon expires in April; perhaps by then the landscape will defog and we’ll all have crazy looking phones like the Japanese.

Post Script – While I coudn’t get away without posting a site for you to look at, here’s a good one, that’s quite self-explanatory: 
Please Fix the Iphone

Yesterday, I put the near finishing touches on my post about my thoughts on web site maintenance. As I started to put the final finesses on my post, I felt a growing desire to replace my question about whethere I should buy an Iphone, with a poll on whether I should buy an Iphone; however, as of yesterday, WordPress.com didn’t offer a poll feature, only wordpress.org allowed for poll additions via php coding.

Today, I was reading Techcrunch and saw that WordPress.com has acquired PollDaddy. I know nothing about PollDaddy, other than it has come into my life at the perfect moment.

So now, just as I finish a blog posting on web site maintenance and site content management, I’ll go ahead and do my own web site maintenance and site content management by enhancing my question with a poll.

A few weeks back, I had an interesting conversation with a client about publishing content online. He made an informative point that back in the day content was published and for the most part, what was published was the end of the story. This obviously was the case with printed content, as once content went to the printers, the ink was pressed and the story was written. This viewpoint transitioned to the early, formative years of web content as well. Content published online, for a long time, was at least expected to be te final word. Now, what we see is iterations being published and content evolving – blog posts being revised nad edited, newspaper articles being revised, edited, corrected, all before our eyes and in between page reloads.

This had me thinking about my most recent position at my company as a Web Maintenance Project Manager and a few thoughts I gathered as a result of one year in web site maintenance and light web development.

Once you’ve completed the tough yet rewarding process of reviewing and revising sitemaps, wireframes, user cases, brand briefing, design and web development, you’re then ready to approve your website to be launched to the public. At this moment moving forward, you find yourself exposed to the web with your new spiffy site to show off; hopefully your site is filled with all sorts of bells and whistles: flash animation, real-time data, efficient use of contact information collected online, etc. When your new website launches, expect to feel excitement and relief that your old, hideous site is no longer an eye-sore to your potential customers or a hindrance to employee morale (ie: “The company’s great, but our website is terrible.”) .

No longer distracted by the inherent enjoyment that comes with a new website, the following question will soon float to the top of your head and tip of your tongue: Now what?

What sort of obligation to manage site content has been created? Ideally, this question is considered and answered in the early planning stages of your site, certainly before any design or web development starts.

If your website is for a high end apartment complex, then what content changes regularly: unit availability, special offers, staff (moderate turn-over), unit pricing, building features. In all hope, the actual floor plans won’t need to be changed, as they should remain constant; although I must admit, the accuracy of floor plans online remains questionable. At best, never rely strictly on an online floor plan in making a decision on where to live, as there is a fair chance the floor plan is not actual or fully representative of the unit’s layout and size. Often it is the case, that marketing receives one version of the floor plans to use for the website, and the version provided might not be final since often times the building and website are both “going up” at the same time.

On the other hand, if your website is an online version of a print publication, then your content is likely of various types, all of which are updated at some regular pace. How can you handle updating this content?

One option, arguably the best option, would have required foresight and early decision to implement a full-scale content management solution (CMS) that allows you, in short, to update your website with having little to no web programming knowledge. Many in the industry call this a WYSIWIG editor (What You See Is What You Get), a tool that requires a little more proficiency than using Microsoft Word.

If you didn’t plan for, or if budget didn’t allow for a CMS or if your website’s content didn’t call for a content management solution, then you’ll need to keep in touch with at least a web developer and ideally a designer/flash developer. Relationships with these two types of vendors/resources will prove instrumental in updating your website’s content, while still maintaining or improving the quality of design of your website.

It is critical to maintain a team of people who understand your website and are willing to preserve and improve its aesthetic and content value.

You’ll also always want to know the answers to the following questions about your website:
1. Where is it hosted?

2. Who has access to the web site’s files?

3. Who has access to any sensitive information on the website?

4.What are ALL the logins to my website?

5. Who owns my domain(s)?

6. Who controls my DNS?

7. What is the account information for any vendor who is an active agent in my website’s existence?

8. How quickly can revisions be made?

9. What is the cost with associated revisions?

10. How often can revisions be made?

11. Who knows the most about the website? Find out, and never let go of that person.

More often than not, I have seen many clients ill-informed on the details to any of the eleven questions listed above.

In conclusion, it’s important to pay equal attention to the creation of your website up to site-launch with the maintenance of your website post site-launch. If budget allows, odds are your new website is a product of heavy investment in cost and time; as with any such commitment, it is imperative to set the appropriate guardrails and plan to maintain and improve the initial investment put forth in order to realize a true, continued return on investment on your website.

The goal of any client’s web solution should always be to align strategy and tactics with specific business goals and needs.

For example, while blogs are cool and great for all the reasons I’m sure you either know or can assume, I don’t know how smart it would be for, say, an auto shop to put money and energy into a blog, when they could put that cash into an online customer database and simple contact form solution that streamlines their lead generation process and improves their customer relationship management. Not to mention that with a blog, comes the responsibility to produce content on a regular basis, as I have come to learn, so you’d have to ask, how much worthwhile content could an auto shop put out to people visiting the site.

There are many marketing services available to any client – print materials, tv and radio broadcast, public relations, etc. etc. All of these services are great at creating awareness, changing opinion (if need be) and not letting people forget that you exist as an option for them. I don’t think any of these services can work as hard for you as a smart web solution. If set correctly, a logical web-based approach is the equivalent to having your top employees working for you 24/7.

With this in mind, Barack Obama recently put forth a new Iphone application that must be the smartest web-based solutions I am aware of.

First and foremost, it’s free to download. It seems clear Obama has plenty of cash to run his campaign, and I don’t think campaign laws would prevent sticking a price on the app. as presidential campaigns traditionally offer all sorts of candidate branded items for sale. The average price of Iphone apps appear to be somewhere around $5 dollars, and there could have been an opportunity to assign a small price for the application and let Obama-mania push people over the edge to purchase and use. With the opportunity to price the app. available, they cleverly elected to make the app. free. With no charge associated, I am especailly curious to know how much time was put toward development of this application. Ok, enough of the slow talk.

So first we have a free app., that is supported by Obama-maniacs who download a campaign tool to keep in their pocket at all times.

This tool is like the Swiss Army knife of campaign tools. Its capabilities are far-reaching and absurdly powerful.

Through the app.:

Your phonebook is arranged via area code, and then prioritized by key battleground states. So if Florida emerges as THE state Obama needs to win the presidency, then all of your Florida phone numbersfloat to the top of your phone book. With the thinking already done for you, you can now call friends and family in your phonebook and start a conversation about the campaign. So now, instead of being called by some strange campaign person, citizens are reached out to by those they kno, trust and will listen to.

As you make progress through your phonebook, you can keep track of who you’ve called and where they stand – decided/undecided. These stats are also totalled for you to see the overall impact the application is having on the campaign.

Using Iphone’s GPS capabilities, the phone is able to plop on Google maps your location and point you to your nearest Obama for America campaign headquarters AND (an intended big AND) show you where, whien and which local Obama events are occuring in your area.

Other features, which more or less speak for themselves include: receive updates (you can sign up your e-mail address as well – a very smart campaign move to continue their dialogue with you via e-mail), view recent news, view campaign video and photo, and see a complete breakdown of every campaign issue imaginable and read about where Obama and Biden stand.

The icing on the cake – you are offered the opportunity to donate money to the campaign in the bottom left corner of the app’s main page. The donate button’s location on the app. is almost the nicest touch, almost to say, yes, you can donate money to the campaign, but if you want to make a real impact, get involved in these other ways first. Funny note: the donate button is green and set atop a thin blue strip, making the design look like a WIndows “Start” bar from far away.

In sum, this application is important because it seamlessly coalesces design, information architecture and mobile media with social empowerment. The strategy and tactics behind this application align perfectly with the goals and needs of the Obama Biden campaign.

The future for the app. is even more exciting. What will happen to the app. if Obama wins? How will it evolve? Will it become a more powerful tool to keep in touch with the new administration? WIll it rewrite (perhaps create and maintain) a dialog between the American public and the President? What new featured could arise? How about – Call the President. Ha.

If you don’t have an Iphone and you’d like to seen the application, here is a video of the app in action.

Random extra thoughts formed while writing this and watching the Suns vs. Nuggets game, which is being played outdoors – very cool:

• TNT’s graphic treatment during NBA games is looking a little more Web 2.0-ish
• NBA’s marketing department must not have lifted a finger during the off-season; that piano “Where…happens” commercial is running again this season. How innovative…
• When will the movie theater become extinct? The amount of time between the date a movie is released in theaters and the date a movie is released on DVD is shrinking at an absurd rate.
• I’m finding the older I get, the more I have to say, so my frequency of posts should start to increase.
• I think I saw Stacey Augmon in the background during the game.
• All this talk of Iphone’s and I don’t have one. If you’ve made it this far in my post, I should probably value your opinion and loyalty. What do you think? Should I get one?

I’ve been itching to write more here, but have been stalling for long enough. Here I am on my third posting, very tempted to steer off topic, deviate from the site’s mission, but I promise I will stay the course.

A co-worker pointed out bbc.co.uk to me yesterday. In the header there is a call-out to customize your homepage. The copy is perfect; they’re calling it my home page, when it’s not (yet), and they’re giving me the opportunity to customize it. So, I figure, well, I guess I should customize my home page. I can even set my location (why not? I am on a .co.uk site and would therefore would like them to know what’s up and that I’m clearly representing the states). The level of customization is similar to that of iGoogle (the customized Google homepage – where you can have the Google search field sit atop all sorts of useful daily tips, advice, horoscopes, art, words, news, you name it); and of course since it’s Google, it’s great. While similar to iGoogle, bbc.co.uk’s customization is a little bit more clever.

So I checked off Blogs, Business and Money, (checked and then unchecked Entertainment), History, News, Sport, World Service (no idea what this is). I also chose a page “colour” – a nice purple hue. I clicked save and all my different modules populated with content. Then, within each module, I was afforded the opportunity to further customize what kind of content I would like to see. For Sports – Football, golf, Olympics and Boxing. I clicked save and then, within my sports module, I get subcategories, per sport.

At this point, there is one additional feature, level of customization that pushes this site to a level of functionality I’ve always looked for: within each sport’s sub-category – I can control the number of headline links that appear. If I want to see the top 10 most recent headlines on golf, I just keep clicking the + button. If 10 is too many, or it’s pushing other content that is important to me too far down the page, I can click the – button and reduce the total number of golf news headlines.

I’ve always wanted to see this type of customization for news headline modules, often wondering what additional stories made the headline for this section that I might have previously missed.

This level of customization is the web equivalent to the parmesan girl (it’s always a girl) coming around your shoulder with a great hot bowl of pasta in front of you and ever so pleasantly adding cheese to your glowing dish of pasta. The only difference is, too much cheese and you’re doomed, too many headlines on Tiger and you’re a click away from resolving the problem. The other difference of course is that computers are not edible.

Hasta pasta-

Arashional

From the start, I’ll derail real quick and let you know I don’t like a lot of travel sites. I think the Orbitz site design is wacky (I’ve also read horror stories about their customer service), Hotwire’s home page is a little too much for me and Expedia is just kind of goofy to me as well. I’m most loyal to Kayak.com. The logic behind the user experience is sound, the design is simple and it does a great job convincing me that it is doing everything it can to find me the cheapest airfare, simply by keeping the whole experience as straightforward as possible. I realize I might not be the target user for the broader travel service sites I initially disregarded, but I think my opinion will stand until I need to book a family vacation.

Myidealbeach.com is a microsite created by the Orbitz team with the purpose of providing users a quick, yet thoughtful way to be presented with beach destination suggestions.

The experience starts with the landing page designed on a tan sand backdrop and simple copy explaining the mini-voyage you’re about to go on in order to find the ultimate beach vacation. The copy is simple, played to the site theme well and easy to read; the copy is just convincing and encouraging enough to build curiosity to explore deeper into the site. There’s no global navigation, and only one button to click in order to proceed.

A sloshing wave appears at the top of the screen, as ocean sounds play in the background, two effects that thread through the entire experience. Once you start planning, you’re asked three simple questions: who’s traveling, what vacation activities are you interested in, and what offerings would your ideal beach hotel include.

The cleverness in this site is when asked about what activities you want to participate in and the hotel amenities that interest you, you’re presented with the options by a group of objects that wash ashore. For my interests, I selected (up to four): dice (gambling), camera (culture), bait (fishing), disco ball (nightlife). For hotel options, I chose: cucumber slices (spa), VIP pass (all-inclusive), mini-umbrella (waiter service), aqua sock (water sports).

And that was it. Based on my inputs, four hotels were presented to me, each with a thumbnail view of the hotel, and an explanation of why the hotel fits my needs, what the hotel doesn’t have that I might want, and other things that might appeal to me.

The user flow is near seamless; you can e-mail a friend, modify, start over, and are guided along the way. As you progress, the current page washes away and the new page is loaded as new objects spill ashore. In 12 enjoyable clicks, I’m presented with results relevant to me.

Some brave travelers like to shape their own vacation, talking to trusted sources, searching all over the web to research and determine the perfect vacation; others can be either overwhelmed or unmotivated by the process that is more or less required in order to decide which coastline to wedge sand between their toes. I think Myidealbeach.com is at the minimum an attractive first step for the first group and attractive solution for the second group.

Myidealbeach.com

I’ll first start with a large warm and fuzzy welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy your time here. With all the time I find myself spending on the Internet, I have decided that it would be most appropriate for me to become a more active participant to the content, experiences and advantages that the web never ceases to provide its users. My motives for this effort are, at least initially, selfish; mainly, to test my own interest in the web and to see where this takes me. This a start of something I hope will turn into a great opportunity for me to not only think more closely about the web, but challenge myself and those who might read this to think about the information and design of the websites around the world. Maybe this will turn into something big, like my own company one day. Maybe I’ll be able to rub elbows with the stars or maybe get a guest writer on here (that is, if blogs even have guest writers).

While there are many media sources out there covering different aspects of the web (my home page for example, is the Technology section of the New York Times), I have noticed all coverage of the interactive industry fails to solely cover the one part of the web which is most exciting to me: the launch of a new website. With a new site, comes a new chance for the web to extend its impact. My plan for this website is to provide the readers strictly with coverage of new websites and start discussion on makes these new sites cool and clever.

I should say, I don’t really like the name of the blog. The name carries two definitions: one – a .png file is a typical file format created by web design production to prepare a file for web programming, often referred to as a “ping” file; two – a network is “pinged” when for the quality of connection with another network needs to be tested or verified. Form this, The Ping is born in hopes that I can establish a high-quality engaging interaction. The worthwhileness of this site, like many on the web today, is highly dependent on what you have to say and contribute. Maybe The Ping will turn into common language and you’ll start to hear it used as a verb in your office and on the street (probably not). I’d like to encourage all those interested in or involved in the industry: web designers, web programmers, web project managers, web account directors, anyone with web before their job title, that when your site launches, please let me know. I have no idea how many sites are launched every day but I do know and highly respect the blood and sweat that can go into making a website just right. The creation of website is filled with variables, some predictable, some not-so-much. What makes a successful website is a topic to be explored on this site, but nothing is more clear on the web than a well considered, clean approach to anew site content design.

Alright, I will stop my well-calculated blabbering and try not to be so cheesy in the future, but how can first blog posting not be cheesy?

(PS – I just realized there is a Comments / Pings section below, which I have no idea what the use of the word is here, and is purely coincidental. Looks like I have some work to do.)