Netvibes Integrates Multiple Personalised Pages

I’m a massive fan of Netvibes (and have been for what seems donkeys ages), I think they were the original platform to create a personalised landing page for users to integrate all their news, information and feeds (please correct me if I’m wrong!).

Their latest upgrade is to add Multiple Personalised Pages (MPPs).  This basically means that you can have an unlimited amount of tabs categorised into an unlimited amount of pages, ensuring that all your content can be managed and structured into any logical format that you want!

This, I believe, is a great step forward for the progression of Netvibes as the limitations in one page with many tabs has always been a frustration for me and many others.  You can set up your personal page, your “social” page, your business page – anything you want – and manage a range of content, widgets, feeds etc. in a fast and super efficient manner.

It is also a massive boost for Enterprise clients (and branded microsites such as The Daily Influence by Ogilvy) who can now structure masses of data into a page for each area of the business e.g. IT, Marketing, Digital, HR, Finance…the possibilities go on.

The only issue now is that, at this point in time – 20:56 on 27th May 09, the Netvibes server is running amazingly slow!  I guess this is down to all the Netvibes users trying out the new feature and creating millions of extra pages!

I’ll have to wait a few days to set up all my tabs into their new pages.

Thanks,
Tony

YouTube users uploading 20 hours of video every minute

YouTube have recently pushed this crazy statistic out of the door: 20 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds.

In fact, just in the time it took me to write up this article, 40 hours of rubbish video was added to the site…

Interestingly, this news comes only a few months after it was discovered that in the United States, more searches are made on YouTube than on the whole of Yahoo.

Don’t get me wrong – there is a lot of funny and good video on YouTube, but I think the majority of it is complete garbage and should be removed as quickly as it can be uploaded!

Anti-Social Networking?

Social Networking

I was just thinking about a recent conversation I had while I was in New Zealand, and I came across this related article on the ClickZ Experts website: In Social Networks, All Friends Are Not Created Equal.

This is very similar to the conversation I was having – basically that social networks are actually becoming quite ANTI-social and in some cases are causing more problems.

Take the example of the worker recently sacked for checking her Facebook account when she told her employers she had a migrane and couldn’t use a computer.

Or how about the US Police Officer who had his “internet persona” investigated after he posted comments online saying he was in a “devious” mood and “watching ‘Training Day’ to brush up on proper police procedure.”

There are plenty of stories that cover how and why being so social on the web can potentially affect your “real life”, but the main point we discussed was how, in the attempt to be as social as possible, you actually open up doors to areas that maybe were closed for a reason.

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Ministry of Sound relaunches D2C website

The new Ministry of Sound website

A good friend of mine worked on this project and I think it deserves some serious merit.

Following the collapse of their previous service provider; Trinity Street, MOS set up an internal team to build and manage their own platform.  The amazing point to all this is that they have everything up and running in 6 weeks – a great achievement considering it’s an eCommerce engine with blogs, editorial content and a much improved design!

Well done to all those who were involved.

Read the full article.

Staggering Facebook Facts

In researching the Social Network arena for some new projects we’re looking at getting into, I came across two interesting articles about how staggeringly enormous Facebook (and other social sites) have become.

The first article was published on ClickZ and goes into detail on how many and who is using Facebook:

Mind-Blowing Facebook Stats and What To Do With Them

The second article was published on TechCrunch and covers the top runners and riders in the photo-sharing service – again some jaw-dropping figures when you think about it:

Who Has The Most Photos Of Them All? Hint: It Is Not Facebook

10 Ways to Improve Virtual Meetings

Overview

I’ve recently had a few virtual meetings with teams in New Zealand and India, and I’ve found there are some fundamental areas that are usually overlooked that can really help drive the meetings, keeping them on track, in scope and able to get the most out of your time with the project teams.

Below are some practical pointers and solutions to make the most essential element of collaboration work more smoothly.

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First Impressions of Windows 7 Beta

A beta is bound to have glitches, but Windows 7 has left a good overall first impression.

It strikes users as faster and lighter than Windows Vista, and has improved on important consumer areas like home networking and media sharing.

The interface has some interesting new features but it may take a while – and perhaps some tweaking – to get used to them.

Read the full article.

Microsoft’s Mouseless Revolt

Windows 7 touch screen technology

Microsoft has developed a touchscreen operating system that could signal the end of the computer mouse.

Windows 7, a test version of which will be available from today, is part of Microsoft’s attempts to restore its reputation for innovation and to catch up with Apple, whose touch-screen iPhone has been a huge success.

Microsoft says the new version of its software could revolutionise the way we use computers, The Australian reports, paving the way for touch-screen monitors in every home. About a billion people around the world use Windows software.

Read the full article.

Personally, I think this is a great idea for some scenarios and circumstances, but there is a reason why the humble mouse and keyboard have been around for so long – THEY WORK!

I’ve seen prototypes for touch screen technology used in a wide variety of situations – some work and some don’t, and I think this is the crux of the matter.  As long as Microsoft and the companies who are going to employ this new technology use it for specific actions based on it’s strengths then I think it will be adopted and used actively in the future.

On the other hand, if companies use it just because it is new and they want to be seen as on the “bleeding-edge” of technology then they are missing the point.

First and foremost is the Human/Computer Interaction and User Experience.  If any new technology does not meet the requirements from these two areas then the technology should not be used.

IT Trends for 2009

It’s always in the first few weeks of the New Year that everyone starts to predict the coming 12 months and what they see as the emerging markets or trends. Well I don’t like to disappoint so here is my list of what I believe to be the big areas for expansion in 2009…

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