WebWord

Even if you think you have the best mobile web site on the planet, many people still think the overall mobile experience is terrible. That means that your wonderful mobile web site isn’t all that special to those people.

Let’s take a look: Five Reasons Why The Mobile Web Sucks

1. Wireless carrier networks are SLOW
2. Public WiFi access is a SCAM
3. Sites aren’t formated for small screens
4. Mobile device screens are too small
5. Advertising gets in the way

Yes, it’s true that the mobile phone user experience is getting better all the time, but it still isn’t good enough for a huge fraction of potential users. Putting that another way, I think that people *want* to enjoy web sites from mobile phone and mobile devices, but they can’t for one reason or another. (See the above article if you can’t understand why browsing the web from a cell phone or mobile device stinks.)

By the way, you have to remember that it isn’t just the devices. Few people can claim they have “The Best Mobile web Site” — Indeed, most web sites aren’t even viewable from a mobile phone.

The iPhone and Blackberry, for example, have made the experience better. However, again, it isn’t just about the device. Coverage is spotty and expensive and complicated. That makes the experience miserable in many cases.  And, the business models aren’t friendly to users. Take a look at issue number 5 from Five Reasons Why The Mobile Web Sucks — Advertising gets in the way.

The bottom line is that the mobile experience is better than it was but it still has a long way to go. Creating the best mobile web site will help you but you need to try to make the entire user experience is excellent. That’s hard to do since so many factors and variables are out of your control.

Eventually things must get better. However, right now, it’s a train wreck…

I’ll get to marketing with RSS in just a moment. I’m going to give you a little background first. The context is useful. 

Many readers have been asking why WebWord hasn’t been updated regularly. The biggest reason is that I’ve been working like a dog with my brother on our marketing web site. Let me explain…

More than two years ago, I said that marketing and usability go hand-in-hand. Nothing happened. So, instead of complaining, I took action. I’ve been doing enormous amounts of research and writing, just not in usability (except for Apogee).

Enough background. Time to talk about marketing with RSS!

After spending hours and hours of research on the topic of RSS, I wrote up a report especially for internet marketers. The result was RSS Super Glue which explains how to combine, filter, and exploit RSS for marketing puposes.

Most internet marketers don’t care about technology itself. Instead, they care how they can use it for financial gain. What I’ve done in my RSS marketing report is clearly show how to publish articles (e.g., on a blog or EzineArticles) and have them “magically” transported to a Squidoo lens. I also demonstrate how to set up a blog to automatically feed an autoresponder, with virtually no effort. I even show how to multi-purpose and re-distribute your eBay listings in just a few minutes.

The RSS Super Glue has sold really well because of one thing. I’ve focused on the wants and needs of my customers. I didn’t waste any time explaining RSS or any other technology, except where absolutely needed. Instead, I explained how to get the job in simple terms. I provide recipes and steps that anyone can follow.

Without my usability background I would have buried my customers with jargon and useless technical trivia. That would have been a major mistake. For internet marketers, the serious firepower of RSS isn’t what it is, but what it can do.

I think you’ll be very pleased with an eye tracking video that Andy Edmonds pointed me to just recently. He spends nearly 7 minutes clearly explaining the benefits of eye tracking research to internet marketers.

This is pure gold for people designing web sites. Usability professionals should be paying attention to this application of eye tracking research. If you’re a user experience aficionado, don’t miss it. Andy does a fantastic job.

By the way, there’s more to the video than just Andy Edmonds and eye tracking. There are some excellent sections on page rank, Adwords, duplicate content issues, and a lot more. So, set aside about 30 minutes. Invest the time and learn about eye tracking and a whole lot more.

Wired — “But when human avatars approach photoreality? Something weird happens. Our brains rebel, and we begin focusing on the tiny details that aren’t quite perfect. The realism of our avatars suddenly plunges downward into a valley — and they begin to look like zombies.”

I’ve seen this in a few games and computer generated movies. It is indeed kind of creepy. So here’s the question: What if all this new energy was plowed into better game play, quality, and (gasp!) usability?

Read more about the Uncanny Valley.

Definitely for über geeks…

Questions:

1. Who knows more about enterprise search than any other person? Thought leaders? Who would you recommend? Think small, think big. If you can’t recommend a person, what organization would you recommend?

2. How do usability, information archtitecture, and enterprise search intersect? Favorite articles? Favorite research?

3. What are the most interesting and important topics in enterprise search? What are the hardest questions to answer?

4. What is the best book on enterprise search? If that is too narrow, what is your favorite book on search in general? If that doesn’t work, what is your favorite IA / usability / UX book that covers the topic of enterprise search or just plain old search?

Floridasexualpredators.com
Chicagocrime.org
Cytadia.com
Housingmaps.com

“All these sites are operating without Google’s permission, clearly violating the company’s user agreement. But none charges any fees, and Mountain View-based Google, which declined to comment through a spokesman, has made no effort to shut them down.”

Read the article…

Seth is talking about podcasting again. He is basically making the argument that podcasting will fall into a power law distribution. I’d read Shirky’s comments on power laws and blogs and then move on.

People think that Apple is ditching PowerPC chips in favor of Intel x86 chips (or some other type of Intel chip). Daring Fireball has a nice summary of the situation.

But, perhaps people are following the wrong ball.

Here’s the clue. The next generation game consoles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Revolution) will use PowerPC chips. Maybe that is a more profitable proposition than working with Apple. Focusing on the game industry is probably a Good Idea. Money is flowing there.

My thought is that maybe IBM (PowerPC) told Apple to find another vendor. Take a hike! Some customers just aren’t worth the hassle. Perhaps Apple isn’t a good customer for IBM, and with IBM looking at the gaming industry, now is a good time for Apple’s PR machine to make it look pretty.

Bottom line: Look to IBM for answers, not Apple.

“Electronic News sat down to discuss the future of consumer electronics with David Milne CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics; Michael Maia, VP of Marketing at Portal Player; Jarreth Solomon, director of technology at Lexar Media; and Allen Leibovitch, semiconductors program manager at International Data Corp. What follows are excerpts of that conversation.”

Read the interview…

BBC — “Search engines are not yet clever enough to understand what the user is looking for”

Read the article…

(Thanks Dano!)

Search has really just started. We’re not even close to where we could be for two important reasons.

The first reason is obvious. Search sucks. No matter how good Google might be, for example, it isn’t eerily accurate yet. It is good, no doubt. But, it doesn’t always work. Search engines still have a hard time grappling with the fact that users are searching for a way to make mom happy versus mothers day present. If only pesky users would act more like machines!

A related problem with Search is that users are so different. There are regularities but users are finicky little animals. Rascals! Therefore, search engines will always have difficultly. Stated differently, users aren’t machines, machines aren’t users.

The second reason is far less obvious. This is where you should pay attention. No one — and I mean NO ONE — has a good handle on what “information” really is.

Here are a couple of mindbombs regarding Search. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to search through all of your cell phone conversations? Wouldn’t it be nice to search through your medical history, and the medical history of your relatives (if they allow it)? Wouldn’t it be nice if Search anticipated my questions and provided guidance before I asked them?

But it doesn’t stop there. Search is only about 10% of the real equation. If you are looking for a present for mom on Mother’s Day, you have motives, emotions, and desires. You’re looking to solve a problem, not just get an answer or purchase a product.

The key to this way of thinking is to examine humans in relation to information. Humans consume, alter, update, and delete information. They filter. They notice patterns. They make decisions.

Search is so wickedly far behind it isn’t even remotely funny. We’re cavemen writing on the wall. When future generations look back at us now, they will not understand how we could possibly function in our current environment.

I’m happy to say that Search is mostly useless. It is the wrong answer to the wrong problem. I’m happy in that I know that I am an ignorant monkey. This is unlike most folks who incorrectly think Search is really useful. It ain’t, folks, and you shouldn’t buy the hype.

Related: Visiting The Ghost