Google challenges Yahoo as the #1 search site in the world
WebSideStory reported that Google is rapidly gaining market share among search sites and could surpass long-time leader Yahoo! if the trend continues. As of April 24, 2002, Google accounted for 31.87 percent of all search referrals worldwide - an all-time high - compared to Yahoo, with 36.35 percent as of the same date.
On my site, Google and Google-powered Yahoo results account for almost 100% of search referrals. Of course that's largely because I (so far) have refused to pay for a listing in Overture-related or MSN's engines. My theory is that the majority of my audience (usability and web professionals) primarily use Google anyway -- they know a good thing when they see it. I also feel that search engines like Overture and MSN have no content without listings -- they need new listings or they get outdated and irrelevant and lose their market share. Google has the largest, freshest index of the web that's available -- why would I pay for a listing with an inferior product? It would be different if I were selling products or services, but I'm not. Overture and MSN effectively ignore a huge percentage of the web and treat non-paying sites as insignificant -- I think that's an ignorant assumption to make.
May 03, 2002
Dem bones are useless
Popular Science voted for this Flash site as the "useless site of the month", but you'll have fun playing with it anyway. You can make a skeleton walk, dance, fly and perform all kinds of unnatural movements. Lots of options (just about everything is clickable/movable).
Looking for something on Flash usability? Try this report from User Interface Engineering. I saw some of their material recently, and it was rather interesting.
Popular Science voted for this Flash site as the "useless site of the month", but you'll have fun playing with it anyway. You can make a skeleton walk, dance, fly and perform all kinds of unnatural movements. Lots of options (just about everything is clickable/movable).
Looking for something on Flash usability? Try this report from User Interface Engineering. I saw some of their material recently, and it was rather interesting.
K-logs? We're talking about weblogs in business use...not corn flakes!
I posted a bit about blogs as knowledge management a while back. I came across a couple of recent articles that try to label the concept and give examples of its benefits.
from What is a k-log?
"Some people are taking the concept of weblogs and applying it to the wider concept of knowledge management. The result is k-logging ("knowledge-logging")."
The article above misses the point about how blogs can help employees find internal expertise. A big part of leveraging "knowledge" within an organization is about finding the right people. There's some discussion of the k-logging concept here and more here.
from Business pros flock to Weblogs
"The experiment has been so successful that Javaid says he plans to expand it until virtually everyone at his 60-person company, Mobilocity, has a Weblog. Javaid’s brief experience has convinced him that far from an exercise in self-indulgence, Weblogs actually can be used to increase worker efficiency."
In the same article, Dan Gillmor has an interesting quote:
“My readers know more than I do, and that’s a liberating notion, not a scary one,” he says. “Every journalist ought to realize it’s true. No matter what you cover, your readers know more collectively than you do. If we can capture that, we all come out ahead.”
Now think about that from a corporate KM perspective: subject matter experts will learn from their readers/customers/co-workers -- and then pipe it right back out into their community via their weblog. As the Fabulous Thunderbirds say, that's powerful stuff.
I posted a bit about blogs as knowledge management a while back. I came across a couple of recent articles that try to label the concept and give examples of its benefits.
from What is a k-log?
"Some people are taking the concept of weblogs and applying it to the wider concept of knowledge management. The result is k-logging ("knowledge-logging")."
The article above misses the point about how blogs can help employees find internal expertise. A big part of leveraging "knowledge" within an organization is about finding the right people. There's some discussion of the k-logging concept here and more here.
from Business pros flock to Weblogs
"The experiment has been so successful that Javaid says he plans to expand it until virtually everyone at his 60-person company, Mobilocity, has a Weblog. Javaid’s brief experience has convinced him that far from an exercise in self-indulgence, Weblogs actually can be used to increase worker efficiency."
In the same article, Dan Gillmor has an interesting quote:
“My readers know more than I do, and that’s a liberating notion, not a scary one,” he says. “Every journalist ought to realize it’s true. No matter what you cover, your readers know more collectively than you do. If we can capture that, we all come out ahead.”
Now think about that from a corporate KM perspective: subject matter experts will learn from their readers/customers/co-workers -- and then pipe it right back out into their community via their weblog. As the Fabulous Thunderbirds say, that's powerful stuff.
April 28, 2002
Meeting facilitation tips from 3M
The people who brought us the Post-It Note have a nice collection of meeting facilitation articles on the 3M Meeting Network site. Here are some examples:
My favorite 3M product: Post-It flip chart pads (easel pads)
The people who brought us the Post-It Note have a nice collection of meeting facilitation articles on the 3M Meeting Network site. Here are some examples:
- Facilitation Concepts: Group Decision-Making Processes explores different ways to bring a group to a decision.
- A Magical Tool for Group Decisions also explains the ORID process for team decision making.
- Using Where's Waldo and chocolate to keep people's attention during a presentation.
My favorite 3M product: Post-It flip chart pads (easel pads)
Lap dancers on post-it notes
Malevole is a weblog with a rather interesting DHTML-heavy design. The interface might be suited to first-time readers, but repeat readers would likely have a hard time distinguishing "new" content from things previously viewed. Clearly an experiment pushing the envelope with less-than-serious content -- fun to play with a bit. (Looking for the lap dancers? Scroll to the bottom of the Malevole page -- they're wearing blue outfits and are rather, shall we say, "active".)
Malevole is a weblog with a rather interesting DHTML-heavy design. The interface might be suited to first-time readers, but repeat readers would likely have a hard time distinguishing "new" content from things previously viewed. Clearly an experiment pushing the envelope with less-than-serious content -- fun to play with a bit. (Looking for the lap dancers? Scroll to the bottom of the Malevole page -- they're wearing blue outfits and are rather, shall we say, "active".)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)