Startups vs. the well established & the power of simple web solutions
Most companies create their website by putting together a list of demands and features they want, which they hand over to a developer who build this from scratch. Companies are usually very happy with this solution and sticks with it for a few years until it is outdated and then they send in a new list of demands.
Lately, however, I’ve realized that lots, I mean really many, companies have website which leave more frustration than anything else. I might visit a website of the bookstore I’m going to, only to realize that they don’t have their selection online. (This happened today) Something that is extremely frustrating, as nowadays I expect this from a website.
This got me thinking of how many times I check in on blogs which are better than newspapers and online stores which have more and better info than the IRL stores. Some purchases I might want to do IRL but, don’t do, because the website of an e-company is just so much better.
What will big companies do, when smaller, unlikely competition begins to beat them? And fast?
We all know that things happened extremely fast on the web. But bigger companies realized how fast they can become out dated because of this. What happened when the web beats bureaucracy?
To my point earlier, about hiring a developer to create a website from scratch. What will happened when free versions are better than the customized? This scenario is possible because we like what we know, and if many uses the free one’s that is what we now. They don’t even have to be free, they just have to be made so they can be adapted. Developers can even use them, but will probably not be able to charge for as many hours.
Are big companies, and bureaucracies ready, for the power of good, simple web solutions?
Where was the Buzz around Google Buzz?
Today Google’s latest service Google Buzz launched, and at least it took me by surprise, because I had not heard about it. I follow over 100 of the biggest social media, marketing, tech and web development blogs, yet the first article I could find about Google Buzz was published about four hours ago.
The function is coming to all Gmail users during the next couple of days, and I have to admit that I’m not one of the lucky ones who already got it. However, I was able to get a glimpse from it by looking at some other people’s account. Because you can see “buzzes” from those who have account and has “buzzed” publicly, here is Mashable’s.
So what is Google Buzz?
Google Buzz is Google’s first real attempt to a social network. It is build in to the Gmail interface and automatically connect you with your friends, and with 150 million Gmail users this is a social network with a high potential.
Here is the official video introduction:
So where was the Buzz around the launch?
Before the launch of Google Wave, there were videos, a site, invites and comments from those who had tried it. Yet, I still have not figured out how I could best implement the use of it in what I’m doing. However, I did know what Google Wave was.
With Buzz the opposite seem to be going on, no one had heard about it, or at least not said anything about it. The network seems to be easy to use and it does not require much set up as it is built into Gmail.
Now this might have been a smart move considering the amount of Buzz that is going on right now. On Twitter I looked at the hash tag Google Buzz and within seconds I had 290 unread tweets. Thus, they might not have needed too much pre buzz.
But why not? What will they win or lose on not having any buzz? Did they have any test group outside of Google before the launch?
I think that the face that they did not speak about it before make the implementation quicker. Because of the fact that Google is so established, they knew that the Buzz would come with the launch. Therefore by releasing it to all in a few days, they created an “eagerness” of people to try it out. Which could mean that people have time to create their own opinion before they have heard everyone else’s?
What do you think?
Try it out, or check the buzz, (without getting to influenced ;)
Here are is some of the latest Buzz about it:
- Read Write the Web – Live Blogging from Google: Launch of Google Buzz
- Marketing Pilgrim – Google Buzz Launches 150+ Million User Social Network
- Mashable – Google Buzz: Competitors and Experts React
- Read Write the Web – How Google Buzz is Disruptive: Open Data Standards
- Louis Gray – Google Buzz Brings Social Sharing, Aggregation into GMail
- All Facebook – Google Declares War On Facebook With Google Buzz
The 3 Best Chrome Extensions and The Most Popular Notifiers
About a week ago, Google Chrome released Extensions Beta with over 300 extensions. I have been using the extensions a while longer, with the developer channel, so I thought it was about time to share some of my favorites.
The notifiers that you cannot live without:
All the extension looks neat, although some of them still need some cleaning up. Especially the Facebook extensions layout could become better. The idea behind the extensions are simple, here is what piece Google said in their announcement:
“Extensions are as easy to create as webpages. Users can install and uninstall them quickly without restart, and extensions have a great polished look that fits in with Google Chrome’s minimalist aesthetic”
Three of my other favorites are extensions that change the “behavior” of the web browser.
Google Preview
The first on is GooglePreview, which gives you small previews of the pages in your google research. This sometimes speeds up searching even more as you can quickly see what the page looks like and if it is the one you are interested in. It is also great if you forgot the name of the site and want to find it, because hopefully it won’t have changed looks.
The only downside is that sometimes it cannot provide previews or it shows old previews, but hopefully this is something the developers are working on.
Docs PDF/Powerpoint Viewer
The second one is the Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer, which “automatically previews pdfs, powerpoint presentations, and other documents in Google Docs Viewer.” I like this, because it opens all the documents a lot faster than adobe reader would, which I enjoy. This is an extension that I really see potential in. It would be nice to be able to excel and doc files in it as well. Also I would enjoy being able to save the documents somewhere, so that they can easily be reached again, in Google docs for example. Either way if you want to speed up the time it takes to open a pdf, this is the extension you should use.
IE Tab
Last but not least I have the IE tab which opens a new tab, where you can view a page in Internet Explorer while still using Chrome. Might sound a bit confusing, but for all of those who have not changed to chrome as all web pages do not support it this extension is the solution. The plug-in has been very popular by Firefox users and seems to be for chrome users to as it is ranked 4th in amount of users already.
How to uninstall
However, though all these extensions are great, I hope that you think about what plug-ins you choose to install. Because they are unfortunately not as easy to uninstall as they are to install. But here is a guide to how you do it: “How To Uninstall Google Chrome Extensions.”
Enjoy!
Are you using Google chrome extensions? Which are your favorites?
Betagroup: Introducing the potential of Belgian Web Entrepreneurship
Tonight I went to my first meeting the Betagroup in Brussels. Betagroup is a community for people they have some kind of relation with web entrepreneurship or are “innovators of a new industry.” They connect and help people who want to create businesses, invest in business and people who have web related professions. Also, they provide a great marketing opportunity for their members. All this is done trough a blog, a LinkedIn group and IRL meetings. I haven’t figured out their visions yet, but the concept is great and has a lot of potential, as the group as 2000 members, and tonight at their 14 Betagroup meeting there were over 300 attendees.
The meeting is self was somewhat generic with some opportunities for networking before and after the presentations. Jean Derely, who is the founder of Betagroup, introduced the presentations. Tonight five companies presented their businesses or ideas Yaxo, iDiscover, Twoodler, Bebuzy, ErgoTools. However, I think the audience (atleast those I talked to) mostly saw potential in Yaxo and Bebuzy. You should take a look at them right away (or wait I few days until I have done some more research and will blog about it and then look). But, summarized Yaxo offers a service that you connect to your online store to have instant communication with salespeople. It might sound like something that is already on the market, but they have found some new spins to the idea. Bebuzy is still in Beta but is a very intelligent and interactive “yellow pages” of services. I especially liked all this because how well build it is and how much time it will save for both customers and service providers. This is definitely a site to be aware of if you live in Belgium.
IDiscover also had some potential, it a pda-game that they want museums to buy for student groups. It is based on the idea that you can combine; social activities and learning, museums and games. Which you accomplish by giving a group of students and individual pda during their museum visit, which gives them tasks and problems related to what the museum is showing. Thus, the student collaborative to solve the problems: it is a social and fun game where you learn about museums. Great idea, but they need a lot of money to scale it, because the Belgian market is not so big.
I think that the meeting presented a lot of potential business. But, I am still a bit confused about what goal is for Betagroup. Is the meetings only for networking? In that case, they need a bigger venue as the network was very non-flowing because of the small space (you might literally step on someone’s toes if you turn around). Or the mission is also for the entrepreneurs to help each other with for example, legal, technical, business regarded matters? In that case, maybe at least one presentations should be about “tips for future web entrepreneurs.”
All in all, great meeting point for web entrepreneurs, where I managed to meet some interesting people and to which I will definitely come back. But perhaps they should have an even clearer goal or make room for their purpose?
Update:
Mashable saw more potential in Twoodler than I did and posted this article: Twoodler: The baby toy that twitters
Scroll or no scroll?
When I first began programming websites, around the same time as a started heavily using internet, I was told that a front page should never have a scroll. At that time, I bought everything I was told about developing websites. Because my lack of knowledge did not really give me any reason, so distrust this comment. A few weeks ago the statement came up again, I had not though about it for years, and this time a found it a bit absurd.
Let us say that this comment was made about 10 years ago, when people did not have mindset templates on how a website works to the same extent as now. I could see why the comment was valid at that point. No one was forced to try to find something on a website, and of course, by no one I mean people who were still new to the internet. Today with the amount of blogs that are available out there, it is almost weird to open a webpage that does not require a scroll. The though “is that all?” almost comes to my mind thinking about it.
However, I have been online for over a decade. How do people who are just beginning to use the internet think about this? Because, yes, there still are many people out there, who are not using internet and might not even have a computer. If they finally takes the courage to buy a computer, logs on to their internet, find my webpage is so confused that they don’t know what to do. Perhaps it’s a long shot that it would happen. However, my way of using the internet has totally removed all perspective that I might have for how people who might not be frequent internet users interpret a website.
What do they think of a flash page? How do they find what they are searching for online when there is so much information in just one individual website? How do I find these people and ask them?
Today I applied for a Visa for an upcoming trip to Russia. The trip was decided on pretty short notice and I was already pretty late with my application when I found out that I needed a special paper from my insurance company. So I called them in a hurry and asked them for help and the woman I talked to was very nice and she managed to get me the papers I needed on time.
So today, just a few minutes ago, I decided to send the insurance company a thank you email, endorsing the service from this woman. Only I could not find anywhere to send it.
On the website I found emails for both insurance claims and for technical issues, but not one general email. So now there is no way that I will be able to say thank you to this woman and complement her for her job skills, and I find that very sad.
Everyone deserves to get credit when they do something good, and as an employer how are you supposed to know who to promote if you don’t know who is doing a good job?
Thus, to all of you who read this, make sure that there is some way that your costumers can contact you, because they may want to do that!
Mashable recently post that can help you HOW TO: Gather Feedback with Social Media