We’ve never had it so slow.

 User Experience  3 Responses »
Apr 132011
 

Internet speeds are getting faster for most and web pages are becoming more interactive and social but there is a down side — page load speed.

All the paraphernalia being added to websites is really killing the experience.  Pick almost any blog these days and it will be littered with handy little tools to share the article, comment on it, Like it, etc.  In fact on this very site I have some  tools to do just that but I keep it simple.

Typically I visit a site and the first thing I do is scroll down a little to get past the massive banners which seems to be the latest must have on a site — you know the ones that take up at least one third of the top of the page.  So while the page completes its load I can scroll down a little to start reading the first article, NOT!  The page in effect freezes while it fires up all the fancy background stuff which is mostly of little use to me.

So what’s it loading?  Next time you hit a site watch the status bar (usually at the bottom of the browser) to see what it’s loading.  When you visit xyz.com you fully expect it to load images, etc from xyz.com but look carefully and what do you see…

api.facebook.com
platform.twitter.com
sharethis.com
ads.netshelter.com
ping.crowdscience.com
s.cdnds.net
google-analytics.com
……(the list goes on)

So what is all this stuff?  Some of it give us the bells and whistles to share the page on our favorite social networking site, others throw adverts at us and finally there is all the tracking code and analysis.  Of course they want to know who visited their site, what they read, how long they spent, etc but what about ME, THE USER — do I really want to be ‘stuck’ on the site waiting before I can click on anything, watching the status bar …. waiting for platform.twitter.com

What do you think?  have you noticed a slow down in your surfing experience?

Better late than never?

 News from the field  No Responses »
Apr 112011
 

Much has been written on Google Streetview — privacy issues topping the list of concerns from the moan-a-minute brigade, however I am a fan and it has helped me out many times.  The fact that Streetview covers 96% of the UK  (210,000 miles of roads) is an impressive achievement.

 

  • Thinking of buying a house — ‘Streetview’ the area and see what it looks like.
  • Visiting a new location — ‘Streetview’ it for a visual to help locate it when you arrive.
  • Holidaying  …. well, you get the idea !

So now I read that those lovely people at Microsoft are to do the same thing, but in a scaled down way.  Why?

Microsoft have started collecting data to use in their own Bing search tool (sorry, Decision Engine), calling in Streetside.  The aim is to cover only major cities and they have no plans to capture the whole country.  Again, Why?

What use is half a story to anyone?

Microsoft have published a list of the cities they plan to hit first if you are interested.

No doubt Germany is off the Microsoft list as our friends in  Deutschland made such a fuss over Google Street view that Google have canned any notion of completing/adding to the current German version.

I see a repeating pattern for Microsoft – Always late to the table with the next big thing.  Think of the Windows 7 mobile phone (the iPhone killer, NOT); What about Zune (the iPod killer, NOT);  Internet Explorer 5, 6, 7, or 8 (so lame it has no legs to stand on when it comes to Internet standards); finally IE9 gets something close to sensible!

Now, just to be clear I am not a hater of Microsoft but I do prefer leaders rather than followers!

LinkedIn anyone?

 Social Networking  No Responses »
Apr 022011
 

Social NotworkingI’ve  had  a few attempts at LinkedIn over the past few years, but I have never really found it sitting well in my digital head.  I’m a bit of a Facebook fan and I see FB as a great way to keep in touch with friends.  I keep my list of friends to a manageable size, whereas the teenage fraternity seem to think it is all in the numbers; how many friends are on your FB?!

I see LinkedIn as the professional Facebook — in fact we are encouraged at work to have a LinkedIn profile.

Having had various stabs at LinkedIn in the past, I was determined to give it more of a chance this time around.  I created my profile (previous ones having been removed); sought out some key contacts and gave it a few days ‘to see what happens’.  As has always happened in the past I get bombarded by people trying to Link-In with me.  Not one of them are my peers within my profession, but instead are that special group of people we refer to as ‘salesmen’.  ”Here we go again”, I thought to myself.

Currently I get at least ten calls a day from salesmen trying to sell me the next big thing.  Our switchboard are great at keeping most of them away from me and I am very selective about who gets my direct dial number.  LinkedIn has just opened up a whole new way to harass me.

Ignoring all the requested to link with me, I decide to join a few LinkedIn Groups related to my profession.  I also take it a step further and post a question on the group.  So what happens next….

Another array of salesmen comment on my post, trying to sell me something.  I was NOT looking for a sale, I was simply asking how others manage disk space in a large corporate environment.

Not one of my peers has replied in the last seven days.

I decide to read some of the posts on various groups — there is a clear pattern emerging —  selling something by posting a carefully crafted question…”Just wondering what your plans are for migrating to Windows 7 in the coming year”.  Yeah, right?  Like I can not see though that one?!  The other LinkedIn constant is people job hunting…”Anyone looking for a six year qualified……?”

So once again I conclude — LinkedIn is a salesman’s Facebook or a Jobseeking tool.  Does a social networking tool exist for me to network with my peers?  My quest continues and LinkedIn falls into the Social Notworking category!