Well my 2005 Karma-Skew Zeitgeist is still knocking me.
Can anyone tell me why all of a sudden my printer isn’t printing what it sees on a web page, but instead printing what’s behind it?
It is making me crazy. crazier, which, as I’m sure you know, is not a good thing.
I can pinpoint no action I have taken that would cause this change. I have already deleted my cookies and cleared my cache. I’m ready to reload my brower. Yes, it’s IE–no lectures, please.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
The word Zeitgeist refers to the intellectual, cultural and moral climate of an era. It’s the taste, the outlook, the spirit of the times, so to speak. I think you can have a personal Zeitgeist as well. My own has been suffering from karma-skew all through 2005. I hope to master it in 2006, and I’m looking for every tool to do so. I think Google Zeitgeist might do the trick.
Every month Google interprets the latest search data it has collected for trends, bits of information, and patterns in user searches to make a statistical snapshot in the form of a report called Zeitgeist Watch. You can find it on the Google Blog. The information gathered by Google Zeitgeist isn’t particularly new, but where they take it is. The way they’ve thought-through Zeitgeist makes it a pleasure to behold and a joy to use. Despite my wariness of big conglomerates getting bigger, I just can’t turn up my nose at this one. It’s too much fun for a strategy fanatic like me.
Basically Google Zeitgeist lets you into the minds of Google searchers–our readers. Others attempt to do that, but Google performs it in a visually-friendly, intuitive fashion. They didn’t get to be Google, after all, by making things harder, now did they? Rather than just stopping with an alphabetical list of tags, they’ve analyzed the list into patterns of like-minded choices. This makes the bigger picture stand out.
As shown above, the Zeitgeist categories for October 2005 include
The popular search term categories for October 2005 include
The popular Image search categoriess for October 2005 include
Just by checking those three lists, we have a sense of what our readers might be thinking, and what topics might be hot. Look a little further, and find that Zeitgeist covers no less than 23 other countries beyond the US. As a person who is curious and fascinated by human behavior, this is like a major Christmas toy. It’s been out for a while now. So if you’ve not played with it yet, it’s time you give Zeitgeist a try. I can see posts in the lists for almost any blog.
But first I’m going to use Google Zeitgeist to invent a Television Game Show. It will have a 20-second song for the final round question like the one that Merv Griffin did for Jeopardy. That’s how I’m going to make millions.
Heck I bet after that the famousblog read by royalty, tycoons, and the rich and famous–Blogebrity–will move me from the C List up to the prestigious A List. Then it will be Veuvre Champagne for everyone in the Signature Room at the top of the John Hancock in Chicago. I’ll be buying and flying you all in. Which might be too nice and thereby force Blogebrity to push me back to the C List again. Oh well, I was only getting 15 minutes of fame to start with.
It’s the money I need desperately. I’ve got a kid in college you know. So the millions will come in handy. My son will use them to graduate from Georgetown. One day he will be a famous CEO of a mega corporation and maybe take of his mom in her doting old age and deterioration.
Thanks for these things will be due to Google and their Zeitgeist Watch lists–the little analysis program that made all of my dreams come true. 🙂
–ME “Liz” Strauss
to read a short, short story about Christmas lights and stars.
to play the game
people are saying is the next Tetris–most addictive game of the year.
And here are the mobile versions of Suduko.
It will take you to the official “Track Santa Google Earth.”
If you really wanted blogging presents:
From Improbulus at A Consuming Experience, How to postpone your posts, even at Blogger.
From Article Dashboard.com, Top 10 Innovative Web 2.0 Applications of 2005.
From Zopheus.com, Sightsee Famous Landmarks from Space.
From fasticon.com, more cool icons to download.
and then you’ll know. [research via digg.com]
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.
Should anyone question this badge’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.
If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Have you ever thought about starting a small topical directory of blogs in your niche?
Done with consideration, a small directory of resources that you’ve hand-picked with your readers in mind can be a real service. The service, often called “pre-selection,” saves readers time when they’re looking for something they need. Here’s how to do it well.
Keep in mind that quality needs to be top-notch as always, and you need to choose your links carefully. Your challenge is to prove that you’re not making a directory only for the links they bring.
Done right and well, however, a professional listing can offer readers a resource they come to depend on. Your own credibility will be enhanced by the value of the listing you’ve given them.
You’ve built a community center at the very same time. That can’t hurt, now can it?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I’m delighted to present this article on Blog Usability, written at my invitation, by James Shewmaker.
If you’re a regular reader at Successful-Blog, you’ve seen James’ insightful comments throughout our discussion threads. James is a visual branding consultant in Atlanta, GA. His business, which he began in 2001, is Qwerty – “Helping Businesses Become Unforgettable,” and his business blog is Qwerty.us/blog/.
Design is more than decorating. Design has to do with functionality. The form of whatever is designed needs to serve the purpose or function for which it was made.
Many bloggers are more concerned with article writing than they are with the functionality of their blog. There are a number of design factors which these bloggers overlook. However, readers are affected by how they experience your blog, and the reader’s experience is a result of how well the blog functions. If a car looks great on the outside but its engine has no power and its steering feels like driving a motor home, buyers are going to avoid this car. The same is true of the functionality of your blog.
Here are five suggestions for improving the usability of your blog.
1. For the visitor who does not have your web assets in her browser’s cache, how long does it take for your blog’s main page to load? The visual aesthetic of your blog must be balanced against load design. This balance is determined by the purpose of your blog. If your blog is devoted to visual design such as MocoLoco or CoolHunting, then you will sacrifice speed for visuals, but if your blog is devoted to the discussion of philosophy, you should sacrifice the aesthetic for the reader’s speed of access.
To test the load time of your blog, first erase your browser’s cache. In most browsers this can be done in the preference settings, or you can use a utility such as iClean by Allume to erase your browser’s cache. Next use a LOW speed internet connection. Just because you have broadband does not mean that your readers do. Now using a stopwatch (or a watch which tracks seconds) see how long it takes for your blog to load into the browser.
2. Are your graphics fully optimized and have you chosen filenames and alt tags which will aid your visitors and improve your search relevance?
Optimizing your graphics refers to using a graphics program to reduce the file size (kilobytes) of your graphics to the lowest size possible for the reader to see that which is being shown. Again the size of the file is determined by the purpose of your blog. If the purpose of your blog is not graphical, then a good target size to aim for is approximately 10 kilobytes.
Unless you are a professional photographer, a jpeg in a blog should never have an optimization setting in the 80s or 90s. This refers to the quality of your jpeg. The best quality and largest size jpeg has an optimization setting of 100, while the lowest optimization setting is 0. In most general purpose blogs, an optimization setting somewhere between 50 and 75 should suffice. If you are producing your own images using a digital camera, it is usually advisable to take the best quality picture and then use a graphics program to optimize the quality.
Image file names should use words from your posting separated by underlines where spaces would be.
Alt tags not only provide text for broken links. Alt tags also provide rollover feedback in some browsers. In some browsers. placing your mouse over an image causes a small rectangle to appear which displays the content of the alt tag. This is what is meant by rollover feedback.
Alt tags also are used by some search spiders. Search engines use programs known as spiders to index the content of websites. Different spiders use different criteria for determining web page relevancy. Alt tags are used by some spiders in evaluating the relevancy of a web page.
3. Are you using redundant code instead of using CSS? Redundant code refers to code which contains unneccessary duplication of the code declarations. The longer you blog, the more the updating and archiving of your blog is going to be affected by bloat code. Try to eliminate table coding and font declarations as much as possible. CSS reduces the source code necessary to display your blog to a minimum.
Using HTML to define your blog’s fonts or using tables to create your blog’s layout is the main cause of redundant code. Bloated code is often created by WYSIWIG editors, such as Frontpage, Freeway, and MSWord. If you are importing code from one of these editors into your blog’s editor you are creating bloated code.
Another reason for avoiding redundant code and bloated code is that it can overtax the servers on your webhost. If a webhost’s servers become overtaxed it can either slow down the access to all the blogs on that server or even cause the blog service to crash.
4. Minimalistic design in blog templates is more effective than attempting to dazzle with the exception of visual creatives, such as photographers and graphic designers. That which distracts irritates readers.
Allow me to illustrate this by contrasting the main article page of the Wall Street Journal’s Startup Journal Online with the print article page of the same article. The print article page removes everything which might distract the eye. I am not advocating that you strip your blog’s design to this degreeâ€â€?even the navigation system is eliminated from the print page. Instead I am illustrating the difference between a complex page layout and a minimalistic page layout. The complex layout distracts the eye from the article content. While the minimalistic page layout, makes the text of the article more accessible and important.
5. Always keep in mind that a large percentage of your audience will be reading your content off RSS or Atom readers and syndicatorsâ€â€?design your blog so that the textual content can stand on its own whenever necessary. For example, do not reference something in your blog’s sidebar without providing a link in the article text.
If you would like more suggestions on improving your blog’s functionality, Jakob Nielsen writes excellent articles about Web Usability.
And for a construction connection of another kind. If you are nostalgic about ABC’s Schoolhouse Rock, here are the words and the site connection to “Construction Junction.�
Thanks, James.
I know I couldn’t have said that better.
James will be back again soon with more.
–ME “Liz” Strauss.