Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Social Media Search.. Way to go !!

A great thing about the enormity of the web is that, it never ceases to amaze you. Every fortnight there is a website with a fresh and attractive new concept to churn the minds of the avid netizens. I am no exception. What these sites also do is that they reassure Tim O’Reillys concept of Web 2.0 which keeps the user want to come back to a website with more than one requirement.

Recently, I came across this social media search engine which is presently tracking millions of conversations, taking place across in more than tens of thousands blogs and social media sites. User-generated discussions are not indexed by major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo etc. The reason is because; user updated data does not reside on static pages. This site converts these discussions into web pages, or permalinks, and organizes them within a tag cloud. These Tag clouds become a point where all discussions on a specific topic are accumulated.

This is a great idea and more so because Web 2.0 emphasizes on user’s ownership of their data and most users of social media portals want their data to be popularized via any online medium. A major source of online information would be coming out of the knowledge sharing exercise that all the major social networking portals provide for their users. Now with this site, it will be easier for users to specify their searches based on these online conversations. I like the idea wholesomely and hope that this site has a strong and robust enough algorithm to build up on the wonderful idea that they want to propagate. Try... www.samepoint.com

Thursday, January 15, 2009

UI 2.0 : Guide to be a Site Owner

You might have been startled and amazed by the new sites that are releasing almost everyday and grabbing your attention big time. You just might think “Gosh!!! How did these guys visualize such a cool site…?” Here’s the little secret.

UI 2.0 as the design parameters are called these days, is based just and just on ease of usability. While visualizing and planning for the designs you need to ask ourselves these 3 simple questions:

Where the user is? – This is because the users should be happy with their present location in the site. The navigational pattern as well as the page content should be such that the users’ need can be presumed and portrayed accordingly on every of their landing pages. Also, some real good developers make their users do things as they want to. Like, giving a flashy interactive application or a tag cloud with admin specified large tags; you can pull in the attention of a user and then lead them to their designated flow of activities.

The next question would be; where the user is coming from?
– This is because by no means the users should be allowed to leave shores... read that as website. The user might not be satisfied with their current location due to lack of content or any other factors and in that scenario they should have an option to go back to the previous page(s). Not only this but to envisage the users’ imminent movement within the site, it’s always important to keep track of their path in the website. To hunt a Tiger you need to keep track of its pug marks…right.

Finally the most important question; where the user can go? – This is the million dollar question. Everybody wants to know this and trust me even the users wants to know the same, more badly than you do. This is where the real challenge and competition is. The business logic, stickiness factors, viral marketing attributes and all such other development aspects are directed to tap the users need from the website. As I mentioned earlier, smart people make their users follow the trail which they have prepared the best and thus increase their business prospects and that’s the best way to solve this question. Create an USP and sell it with maximum visualization. Wherever the user tries to go you should tend to make them arrive at the page(s) which are meant for more visits. There is a simple rule. Kill the users’ initial interest and help them grow the one which you intend to.

Battle won… You have your profit making website ready for the coders to integrate their flashy stuffs.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Blog Remoulded

Hello friends, here comes some serious stuff now. I have decided to give this blog a meaningful remould. So far all the issues that affected me personally and on which I had an opinion, was presented here. Here on, some professional stuff shall also be a part of this blog. Ill share with you all whatever issues relate to my professional experiences and I hope that your valuable comments help me and this blog to grow. Thanks, keep reading.