More Seniors on the Web

Found an interesting article for all of us web people showing that more seniors age 65+ are using the web. They are still a small overall percentage of web traffic, but they are there and growing in number. What will this mean for us as web developers, and as businesses who have websites (beyond making the text larger, that is.) It will prove interesting as well to see how it pans out as more baby boomers become seniors, therefore making more seniors web proficient.

Google Goggles: Practical and Lazy

So, according to an article at Internetnews.com, http://tinyurl.com/ydtujv7 , Google is working on adding some new features for all of us. We all know and love (or hate, depending on who you are) some of Google's other functions, but they are adding some interesting ones this time around. While some of the other features intrigue me immensely, I think the Google Goggles feature may hold loads of potential for those of us who do commerce on and with the web.

Google Goggles is a feature where you can take a photo of something and Google will research it for you. How many times have I seen something, asked myself “What exactly IS that?" and had to reply "Heck if I know." How useful, as a consumer, to be able to Goggle something, and get a reply? Want to know what work of art you're looking at? Want to know how much amazon is selling the book on a friend's coffee table for? What subtle flavor profiles does this wine have? Google Goggles would be able to answer those questions for the buyer.

And as a goods producer, how useful would it be for you to be able to see if people were looking up your product via Goggles? I have no idea if Google has any plans on allowing us to see when/where/frequency/etc of a product's Google Goggling, but to me, it would make sense. And if has occurred to me, then one would hope that the officials there would have thought of it. The producer could then get an idea of whether or not your branding is doing its job, if the consumer is aware of your product (ie, what they're looking at.) Or, if your branding is working within a particular geographic region, or with a certain advertising campaign. With that knowledge, you can then tailor your website (from Addison Technologies, of course,) marketing and business plans.

What is interesting to me too, is how it this feature will be abused. We can already foresee that somehow your innocent look-up of a bag of exotic coffee beans will somehow garner a link to a porn site for kinky coffee addicts. Don't smirk, you know it'll happen. And additionally, how will advertisers be compensated for this feature? Will your coffee bean look up garner a Starbucks link first, even if it has no real relevance? Then there's the underlying question: how lazy are we, I mean really? (I'll give you a pass if you Goggle something with labeling in a foreign language.) You can't take the time to type out that book title, you just want to take a photo--unfortunately, yes, we're getting that lazy.

Government Stimulus Website to Cost Taxpayers $18M USD

You can say one thing for the federal government, they are willing to spend top dollar for the items that they want. The question will be, 'should they be spending that much money for what they are receiving?'

With the fed spending just a shade over $797 billion in U.S. taxpayer money on the last stimulus package in an effort to kick start the economy and reduce unemployment, there are more than a few taxpayers who are leery about exactly how all that money will be spent. President Obama launched the website Recovery.gov in an attempt to alleviate those fears. There were initial complaints about usability and accessibility regarding the website, so the federal government decided to spend some money to upgrade the site.

This was seemingly a good idea that all would welcome, until the General Services Administration quietly released an announcement that the site would cost a total of $18 million USD over a 5 year period. An estimated $9.5 million of that will go to site design alone!

While I am sure most tax payers would be upset at those figures alone, people in the tech sector who handle site building projects (both large and small) are scratching their collective heads at these figures and wondering exactly 'why?' it will cost this much.

According to the report over at DailyTech.com:

"Craig Jennings of OMB Watch, a watchdog group often critical of government spending, states, "I do think $9.5 million is a bit much. They already have a large data set to work with. What Recovery.gov will do -- and whether they need $9.5 million to do this, I don't know -- is display it."

The site currently offers information on the $60.4B USD of stimulus money award by July 3. Many complain that the information is hard to read and understand with it being unclear where exactly the money is going in the case of a specific stimulus award.

Edward Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the government group running the site insists the site is taxpayer money well spent. He states, "This thing has a lot more to do than designing a good-looking Web site. We're not here to waste the taxpayers' money."

He says that his organization will demand reports from every group receiving stimulus money, telling how they spent it. He states, "We have to have the capability to receive that information and post it. And we need the infrastructure to support all of that. They are going to be filing very detailed information -- who the key officers are on every project, what they're paid, and so forth. And you'll have to be able to see that, very quickly."

The site when first launched was relatively popular, receiving 150 million hits in its first month according to market research firm Alexa. Since then, traffic has lulled and the site currently sits at 36,572nd in Alexa's traffic rankings.

Andrew MacRae, a website developer comments, "It's not a bad website. But it's not a tool to tell me where the money is being used."

Mr. Jennings says his organization has already made a better site at a fraction of the cost. He states, "OMB Watch built a site called FedSpending.org, which does basically the same thing. We said we'll license it for $600,000."


Addison Technologies, Inc offers web solutions to your business problems. For answers to your solution in hosting, website design, search engine optimization, social media and web marketing, feel free to contact their expert staff anytime.

Vizio's announcement makes internet TV one stop closer to reality

Vizio announced their latest lineup of 31 new HDTVs for the upcoming year. They were oddly quiet on the subject of VIA connected HDTV sets. That changed last week when Vizio announced that they will have three sets available near the end of the year.

Vizio smartly included both an Ethernet jack as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter in the VIA sets, making it easier for more consumers to connect their TV to the Internet. VIA’s online capabilities are powered by Yahoo’s Widget Engine, and Vizio has an impressive lineup of services ready at launch. Some, like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr widgets, are pretty basic, but the audio and video apps are the real news: for music, there’s Pandora, Radiotime, and Rhapsody, and for video you have your choice of Amazon Video On Demand, Blockbuster On Demand, Netflix, and Vudu. Showtime is also preparing a widget, though it’s limited to samples episodes of its original programming, trailers, and extras.

Netbooks effect broadband market and Twitter not selling out, yet.

A recent report by the Pyramid Research Firm has found that the continued rise in sales of Netbooks will result in a continued and prolonged demand for mobile broadband services. This has to be great news for wireless carriers and certainly explains why several have begun to offer discount, or subsidized, netbooks as part of their service packages.

Quickly vanishing are the days in which customers were required to purchase bulky computer systems with powerful operating systems. Netbooks typically operate on less resource-intensive operating systems since they are designed to provide easy internet and email access to the user. These systems allow the user to concentrate their online time and efforts on web browsing, email, and social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Such developments in online communities also display the need for targeted online marketing strategies by businesses. Some components of these strategies, such as search engine enhancement, became vital as users are spending more time online but less time willing to wade through pages of search results to find what they are looking for on the web.

Speaking of Twitter, web strategy and marketing... For some time now, people have begun to wonder exactly how Twitter will begin to generate revenue. Despite the immense popularity of the online social networking tool, it has yet to show a means of producing revenue. According to Twitter co-Founder Biz Stone, Twitter will not be turning to online advertising. In the meantime, it appears that Twitter will continue to operate largely off of the $55 million in venture capital the company has received.

Google to allow Google profiles in search results

According to Google's official blog, they will now be allowing Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages.

Google claims that they are doing this "To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name." Like most things related to Google, there are those that will embrace this as an opportunity to have greater control over their personal and professional brand, meanwhile others will see this as yet another move by 'big brother' to gather and reveal more of their personal information.

Regardless of your position on the subject, it is wise to keep in mind that so long as your name is attached to it then you may well be held accountable for your content. Social networking online is no different than how you would present yourself personally and professionally 'offline.' Recently, we have started to move past simple online marketing and search engine enhancement with our clients and work on web strategies and business consulting to help clients maintain a positive image for themselves as well as their company. Feel free to contact us to learn more about our web strategies that will help keep hits coming to your site, while building your professional credibility in your respective industry.

Addison Technologies, Inc. provides web development and business solutions for clients nationwide. We are located in Pottstown, PA with a satellite office in Florence, AL.

Google moving to purchase Twitter?

It wasn't too long ago that Google CEO Erich Schmidt referred to Twitter as "a poor man's email system." Now it appears that Google was either slow playing the market, or they have finally discovered the growing value of the micro blogging tool. Rumors and reports this week have Google talking with Twitter about a possible acquisition.

The merger would seem to make a lot of sense on the surface. Twitter catalogs information in real-time, which is sure to take a bite out of the Google market share. While Google and other search engines are clearly the better choice for information in most scenarios, Twitter has a major advantage by allowing events to be documented as they are happening. This effectively removes the filter of the media and gives people the feeling that they are somehow experiencing and learning of events through the eyes and words of those living it. We saw this play out here in the United States during the crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 , as well as abroad during the terrorist attacks in Mumbia, India.

In the past, Google has shown the ability to both improve markets while dominating them. At this time, it appears that they cannot compete with this newer technology of Twitter and may well look to purchase it.