Not that long ago the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) released a report about the evolution of e-commerce and the online shopping habits of Europeans in 2008. Around 80% of all Internet users bought a product or service online in 2008. This figure was 40% in 2004. There has hence been a 100% increase in just four years all over Europe. Each user has in average shopped for 747€, during the first six months, which means a total sum of 1.3 billion Euros.
The products that people buy are 1. Travel tickets (54%) 2. vacation trips (42%) 3. books (40%) 4. concert tickets (38%) 5. clothes (33%). Out of these online shoppers do 59% consider the brands own websites to be a good resource for information on products, and a majority of people think that search engines is a greater source for information rather than personal recommendations.
This means that we in average trust the Internet more than we trust word-of-mouth. And keep in mind that word-of-mouth is the marketing technique that as good as all experts have proclaimed as the best marketing method these latest years. Maybe the new direction is not that strange either. On the Internet you are able to read hundreds of reviews on a single product. Your friend might be wrong about something but can a hundred people be mistaking?
The next big thing to look out for seems to be Google Wave, a soon to be released real-time communication platform which has been under construction for about two years now. When the platform hits the public is difficult to say so I guess that we just have to settle with “sometime later this year”. With every new release from the major web companies follows a heap of info, tending to make it all a bit overwhelming. To clarify what Google Wave is all about I thought that it was about time that I wrote a little something about it.
As mentioned is Google Wave a real-time communication platform and it combines everything from email, social networking (for example FaceBook), instant messaging and wikis. In other words: you will get access to all of this and much more through a one in-browser client. Want to share files with your friends and colleagues at work? Yes, you guessed right – Google Wave is a tool that can help you with this. Some of the features that are included are: drag and drop file sharing, wiki functionality, real-time, embeddability on your blog or website, playback and natural language which means that the wave corrects your language.
As with most new hypes nowadays do Google Wave come with its own lingo. Yes, you will yet again have to learn a couple of terms if you want to be in the “it crowd”. A wave means a specific threaded conversation. A wavelet is part of the mentioned thread bit it is just a small part of the larger picture. A Blip is the smallest part of the conversation, being a single line of a conversation.
This was just a short walkthrough but other things that could be worth reading up on are wave gadgets, robots and wave embeds. If you have the time you can check out the video below. In my opinion is Google Wave one of the most exciting things happening on the web this year and I look forward to seeing it in all its glory when it gets released.
Just yesterday it was released – Bing, the new search engine from Microsoft. This is their attempt to become a serious contender and steal a piece of the pie from Google. The features are pretty much the same although they say that it delivers a much more functional experience, something that I to be perfectly honest have not noticed yet. But hey, it is only a couple of hours old, and it has quite a few good reviews, so maybe I should give it a proper try.
I for one am not all that impressed over the way it look. It is pretty much a wallpaper (and not a very interesting one I might add) with the same search function that we already know from Google and Yahoo. I am more into the minimalist design, but that has to do with personal taste. Who knows, you might love the way Bing looks. The search results that I get when I use Bing are pretty ok but not impressive enough to make me want to change search engine. Ok, Bing might have some growing pains (as all businesses do) in the beginning so I will most likely keep track of their progress to see how they evolve in the future. A little healthy competition is always a good element.
GoDaddy have always been known for making pretty controversial commercials that people either love or hate. I guess that they believe that all publicity is good publicity. However, being somewhat of innovators (if you can call them that) in the hosting industry they also sponsor the Andretti Green racing team in which Danica Patrick is a driver. Just the other day, Sunday the 24th of May to be exact, Danica managed to make history at the Indianapolis 500 with her third place finish, which is the best result for a woman ever in this race.
The commercials that Danica made for GoDaddy has, as it always is with their commercials, caused quite the stir beforehand and hence also boosted the traffic to their website. This event however proved to be even more successful for GoDaddy. During the broadcast of the race web traffic to GoDaddy.com spiked 163 percent and after the race traffic increased with an impressive 570 percent. GoDaddy themselves say that this traffic is due to a GoDaddy “tease” commercial before the race featuring Ms. Patrick encouraging people to log on to their website. Say whatever you want about their commercials but they sure know how to drive traffic… And oh, congratulations on being part of making history!
I probably do not need to tell you just how popular Twitter is right now. Everyone from your next door neighbor to us here at WebHostingSearch have our very own Twitter account… You are probably also twittering everyday about things that you find funny or interesting. The boom of various social media apps, such as MySpace, FaceBook and now Twitter, has lead to many feeling anonymous, even though it should be the other way around. We are now more open for interaction than ever before but when it gets too crowded it is always more difficult getting noticed.
There are however people coming up with solutions to make a site pop out and this is what developer Kevin Sherman has done with Bubble Tweet. Twitter is as we all know text-based but with Bubble Tweet you will be able to add your own videos. The service is free and it is very easy to use. Every Bubble Tweet gets its own URL and a count is kept on how many people that are visiting each Bubble Tweet. So, if you want to step out of the anonymity and put a face to your Twitter account I can highly recommend you checking out this fun little tool.
Traditional marketing has become a thing of the past as it simply does not get noticed by the intended market. Many of the majors companies are now putting much of their effort on releasing so called viral videos. These videos do not have to be especially related with the company and their products. Their main purpose is to create a buzz among a community of people and there are quite a few videos that have managed in doing so. Being a sucker for top lists myself I had to create a list with, what I believe to be, the eleven best viral videos of all time.
11. Sheep creating beautiful art
One of the most recent examples of a great viral video comes from Samsung. Instead of showing their products, in this case LED TVs, the traditional way they decided to make some sheep do the work for them. The result is mind-blowing and I do not care whether it is true or fake. I simply get amazed each and every time I see this ingenious video and I am not the only one since it already has millions of views.
10. Hypnotizing bouncing balls
This commercial for Sony Bravia has to be accounted as one of the most successful viral videos of all time. Releasing thousands of bouncing balls down the streets of San Francisco might sound like a terrible idea but it proved to be exactly the opposite. It was almost difficult to understand whether it was a commercial or a music video for Jose Gonzales, who is singing, and the song Crosses. Never before has color been portrayed in a more beautiful way and the video takes full advantage of the oh so important combination – visual and audio.
9. The egg hatching man
This is perhaps not a viral video in its true sense but it still needs to be mentioned in this top list since it was a way of thinking viral. The Swedish clothing store Playground did not want to things the usual way so they decided to see if it was possible to hatch an egg with the help of one of their down jackets. The result was a small chicken and coverage in magazines and TV news all over Sweden. Commercial at its best!
8. Mac doing it the drunken way
Mac has always been cutting-edge when it comes to their design but with Ellen Feis they also managed to create an ad that blogs all over the world was buzzing about. No computers are shown in the ad – there is just Ellen Feis talking drunkenly about how a PC messed up her paper. Simple and sweet in its own way…
7. Wassup
The Budweiser ad “Wassup” has to be counted as one of the first examples of a successful “modern” viral video. Never before had a commercial caused such a stir as this did. There are no facts about how good their beer is – instead we see a couple of friends screaming Wassup!!! to each other. This is somewhat of a milestone among commercials.
6. A very big ad
The beer company Carlton Draught always likes to go over the top with their commercials and this one good example of that. The fact that it is so very strange makes it stand out and become perfect material for a viral video. I have never drunk the beer but still I can not get it out of my head – that must be accounted as a good viral video.
5. Macintosh 1984
The Budweiser ad is one of the great modern viral commercials but Apple’s Macintosh 1984 ad is one of the very first examples ever. It is a rather creepy commercial but nevertheless was it the most talked about ad at its time and it is still one those videos that people can not resist to mention when discussing viral videos.
4. The T-Mobile dance
The T-Mobile commercial is one of the most impressive and astonishing viral videos I have ever seen. For two and half minutes the Liverpool train station is turned into one of the biggest dance floors the world has ever seen. With over 11 million views on Youtube T-Mobile has to be more than pleased with the outcome of this video.
3. The german coast guard
Germans are not the easiest people to joke about but Berlitz managed to come up with a seriously funny commercial known as the “German Coast Guard”. The mispronunciation, and interpretation, of “sinking” and “thinking” is hilarious and got millions of people searching and talking about this video making it as viral as it possibly can be.
2. Touch of gold
Over 50 million views globally make this one of the greatest viral videos ever made. Soccer star extraordinaire Ronaldinho gets a pair of Golden Legend Nike shoes and hits the crossbar four times, without the ball ever touching the ground. This is impressive in so many ways that I do not know where to begin – both his performance and the number of views make me go, huh?! How is this possible?!
1. Dove evolution
This commercial has already become an instant classic. In only 1:14 you will get to see how easy it is to fix up and do a complete makeover. The girl in this commercial goes from a pretty girl to being photoshopped into looking like a supermodel with the text “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” showing up. Publicity stunt or not – it proved to be the right way to go since millions of people have seen the ad on Youtube. There have also been parodies made which must be the ultimate proof of it being a successful viral video.
Sometimes you just need some inspiration to move forward. One of the things that inspire me is artists – may it be a musical artist or a painter. However, I recently stumbled upon this great artist that creates portraits of fallen stars out of recycled cassettes tape. If you like this one, please make sure to check out “Ghost in the Machine” on Flickr.
If you do not already have an online portfolio it is about time for you to create one. The traditional portfolio is increasingly becoming a thing of the past as geographical situation do not mean that much anymore. Potential clients will be able to find you online at all times so make sure that you do not miss any important part of your online portfolio.
The Basics – What do the clients need to know?
Begin with asking yourself the question: What do my potential clients need to know? Try to put yourself in their situation. What you will display obviously depends much on what kind of assignments you wish to get in the future.
Keep it simple!
It should be easy to find and use your online portfolio. Be open with what it is that you want. Are you looking for assignments? Put a sign with the text: “For Hire” and a link to how to actually hire you. Make sure that your best material is the first thing that visitors get see. Describe yourself and your work in just a couple of words.
Let people know about you
Your work should always be in focus but do not forget to include a good “About Me” page. Let people know who you are and what your background is. Have you been mentioned in the media? Link! Can you get your clients to write a few lines about how it was to work with you? Excellent!
Contact
Information on how to get in contact with you is of the essence. The link to your contact information must be easy to find. It is not a bad idea to have the most basic information on several places, such as at the bottom of each page.
Let people know what you are doing
Your clients might not see the value of your previous work through a screenshot of a website or a free-standing illustration. Let people know what the assignment was. Where is it published? What problems did you solve for your client? What was the result of your work?
Build traffic
Share your experiences. You can for example record a video when doing a photo shoot. Start a blog, the more text on the site, the easier to get snatched up by search engines. Link to others that are creating amazing things – it will pay off in the end.
Be search friendly
Google and other search engines are responsible for most traffic to websites. Through optimizing your site you will have a much greater chance of getting found by new clients.
It is happy times for web designers at the moment; the technique is easy and things are constantly evolving making it very interesting. With the help of CSS you will get quick results as well as being able to create beautiful websites that have every possibility of getting positive remarks by its visitors. The basic idea with CSS is very simple; separate the appearance from the content. This way you will get a very flexible website that is easy to adapt to new platforms.
When you are designing websites is it important that you constantly check that they look good on various platforms. Setting up an easy and good environment when creating your design, is truly of the essence. The basics can be:
Local web server – Mamp (Apache, MySql and PHP5) is easy and good for Mac if you never have staged a server before. The name for Windows is Wampserver. IIS is a good alternative if you wish to run a Dotnet environment. Most web servers today are very easy to stage – Mamp is for example installed and up and running in just a few clicks.
Both Mac and PC environment –It is extremely important to check your design in both a Mac and PC web-browser. If you do not have two separate computers you can, via Parallels Desktop, install Windows XP or Vista on your Mac.
A set of web-browsers; Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Opera – all of these will get you far. A tip is to check out Browsershots.org that renders your design in a diverse set of browsers and platforms. If you want to run Google Chrome on your Mac you will have to wait or install Crossover Chromium, which is a translated version of Chrome for Mac OSX. Remember though that it is only in a test version and you should not entirely rely on its stability.
The trial is over and the world is now awaiting the judgement. The outcome will not only have impact on the legislation in Sweden. No, this is a global issue and it will pretty much set the tone for file-sharing all over the world. It has been quite the battlefield in the court room and being the good Samaritan that I am I will clarify the arguments of both parties.
The Prosecutor & Plaintiff
It’s not the technique that is the issue; it is the fact that there are Torrent files available on The Pirate Bay. Consequently, the site is guilty of distributing copyright protected material. Also sites linking to illegal material can be found guilty in the Supreme Court.
The accused have knowledge that copyright protected material is distributed through their site and they have done nothing to prevent it. The accused can be sentenced even if their site is a form of search engine. This according to previous sentences.
An agreement among the accused to form the company Random Media shows that all four should be held responsible. Three of the four have signed a contract and the fourth is mentioned in it – all according to the prosecutor.
The Accused
The Pirate Bay is nothing but a search engine. It is not possible to convict the supplier of the infrastructure for what the users are doing.
The prosecutor has not been able to show where and when the violation was committed, hence they can’t be convicted for being accomplices. It is not even clear that the violation was committed on The Pirate Bay.
Three of the accused maintain that they can’t be held personally responsible for the site. Only one of the four accused admits that he is operating the site, also adding that the purpose never has been to spread any copyright protected material. Nowhere on the site are visitors encouraged to file-share copyrighted works.
