Author Archives: Andrew Moore
Collaborative photo albums
Recently I’ve noticed a huge flaw in Facebook photos. Collaboration. For a social network you’d think that after 500 million + users and a blockbuster film, they’d have figured out that groups of friends attend the same event, but there’s no way to have everyone’s photos of the same event in 1 album. So I’ve been on the hunt for a site/app that let’s multiple users contribute to the same photo album. I was surprised to find there aren’t many, and those that do exist don’t fulfil the true need for this. The site that comes closest is Zangzing.
Part of Uncategorized
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Will Groupon last?
Groupon has already had a number of highs and lows in its short life so far. The recipe was brilliantly simple. Massive savings on local products and services for the customer, dramatic increase in sales for the businesses, healthy cut of the revenue for Groupon. Everybody’s happy! But things haven’t been super smooth for Groupon and I’m beginning to wonder if they’ll fall like many of the original dot com boom organisations did at the turn of the millenium. Here’s why… (oh and please add your vote to the poll).
Part of THOUGHTS & IDEAS
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Be more productive with Gmail
Gmail is probably one of the most effective productivity tools available. It’s quick, basic, free, unlimited and can work on pretty much every internet enabled device you own. Here are my tips on using Gmail as a super productivity suite.
Part of PRODUCTIVITY
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Conditional content on your WordPress blog
On the old version of WEBBAGE, I showed a different image depending on what type of page you’re on. For example when reading a blog article or the blog homepage, you’d see a circle image to the left saying “the BLOG”. That’s because this page is in the blog. If you go to the LAB or the MAN sections of the site, you’d see the image change.
How do you show different content depending on what page you’re on?
Using some really basic php that you can get from the WordPress site and then amending it slightly for your needs. This is the code I used on the site
<?php if (is_category('the LAB')) { ?>
<a href="/the-lab"><img src="/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/the-lab.png" height="210" width="210" alt="the LAB logo"></a>
<?php } elseif (is_page('the MAN')) { ?>
<a href="/the-man"><img src="/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/the-man.png" height="210" width="210" alt="the MAN logo"></a>
<?php } else { ?>
<a href="/the-blog"><img src="/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/the-blog.png" height="210" width="210" alt="the BLOG logo"></a>
<?php } ?>
What this is saying is, “if this page is in the LAB category, show the LAB image link. If not, check if this page is the MAN page and if it is, show the MAN image link. If it’s not either of these, show the BLOG image link”.
I do a similar thing now with the top navigation by highlighting the section you’re reading in pink.
Simples!
Part of CODE
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The problem with Facebook Connect and social sign-ins
If given the choice by a new web-app or website, I will quite often use my Facebook, Twitter or Google account to sign-in instead of having to go through another sign-up process with probably another username to remember. Social sign-ins make life so easy. You’re already logged in to Facebook/Twitter/Google on your computer so all it takes is one click and you’re in and able to utilise the member benefits of the site/app.
However, it also puts you at risk by having all these apps and sites being able to access your personal information and by having to make connections to your social network. Ok, you can probably trust Facebook/Twitter/Google with your sensitive data, but as soon as you use these big guns to talk to a third party, who knows what could happen
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PPC: Funding awareness traffic with high ROI terms
If you’re getting negative ROI on your PPC campaign it’s not working. Search PPC (pay per click) or CPC (Cost per click) advertising should be generating more revenue than you’re investing in it because it’s targeting users with intent. This means that the user is intent on looking for the thing that they searched for and your ad should be related to what they searched for. However, that’s not to say all your PPC activity should be generating positive ROI. Use your higher converting terms to fuel the brand awareness activity but keep your ROI above a profitable level.
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Shadows with CSS
There are a number of ways of adding shadow or glow to the elements of your website without the need for images making it easy to update and reducing page load times.
Text shadow
Adding text shadow using CSS couldn’t be easier. It doesn’t require webkit or moz versions and it’s compatible with pretty much every browser (even IE!) I use it a lot because it gives depth to your design by making the text on the page look embossed on the background.
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Using non-standard web fonts
It’s June 2011 and I’m starting to see more use of “non-standard” web fonts around the internet. What does that mean? Generally you’re restricted to a group of about 6 fonts that are standard across all browsers and platforms. This group includes arial, verdana, times new roman etc. Now you have the option to use many more different fonts by using services like Typekit and Google Fonts, or css commands like @font-face.
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