URLs are consistently the least usable aspect of our interaction with web-based information services – which is terribly unfortunate considering their prominence in how we access, share, and interact with these services. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how Twitter’s URLs could be more usable – by either being more logical, more …
Category Archives: Featured Articles
A Proposal for Shorter Google Maps URLs
I was adding a link to a Google map into my iCal and noticed Google is encouraging me to share the the map URLs in email and IM. But there’s a problem with the Google Maps URLs. They’re +/- 155 characters. Here’s the full URL: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=the+red+pepper,+plymouth,+mn&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=1854680882426337660&li=lmd&z=14&iwloc=A This URL is neither short, nor easily memorable, nor …
My Long Bet Against Mobile Carriers: Update 1
Late last year, I extended my T-Mobile contract 2 years. When I signed it, I had a hunch it will be the last time I’m locked into an agreement like that. Now, I’m confident – so confident that if I was holding any mobile carrier stock, I’d start shorting. A couple weeks back, we got …
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Short URLs Re-defining SEO
It’s conventional search engine optimization wisdom that URLs should contain words, separated by either dashes or underscores. This approach improves the readability of the URL – making it more usable for people while simultaneously giving internet robots something to work on. But with people sharing URLs within places – like Twitter and Facebook (and … …
Publishers Shorten Yourself
The Wege pointed me to an excellent article by Joshua Schachter on the issues w/ URL shortening services. It’s consistent my concerns and my Insecurity of Short URLs post. As I alluded to that post, I see 3 opportunities for URL shorteners, all of them revolve around increasing trust (branding, security, backup). Let’s take that …
The Long Promise of the Mobile Web
I distinctly remember back in 1999, working for one of the first User Experience firms, when I first saw an internet-based service on a mobile phone. Then, diversity meant some devices had 7 lines of text other had 3. A few months later, I moved onto a new gig where I was designing location-specific websites …
Device Agnostic Web Services
This morning I talked with John Vorwald‘s Multimedia Web Design class over at UW-Stout. One of the great questions asked by the students was: “Where do you see the internet in 2 years?” 2 years? Easy. Everything has a web server in it. The internet is accessible everwhere. On my desk, as I write this, …
Kindle 2: 9 First Impressions
Amazon’s Kindle 2 arrived today. It’s the 3rd mobile internet device I’ve picked up this year, and a few hours in, I’m more pleased with it than the other two. My initial impressions: The monochrome screen is gorgeous, and looks almost textured – as if there were a digital compliment to letterpress. The slim, flat, …
Twitter: Build a Revenue Stream on Dunbar’s Number
The problem with many of the suggestions on how Twitter should charge1,2,3 is they put the emphasis on the wrong problem. The problem isn’t on the publication side (number of ‘tweets’ written by any individual), it’s on the distribution side (delivering the ‘tweets’ to their ‘followers’). A simple equation to understand this ‘spew’ problem. Message …
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Failbox: The Broken State of Email Clients – Part 1
If you’re of a certain age, as I am, your first expose to email was probably in college or at work. Processing messages daily wasn’t difficult; the number of people that had access or reason to send you messages was low and messages arrived fairly infrequently. So quaint and last century. Today, I’m tracking 8 …
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