[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

According to wikipedia (currently the only original source):

This will be kicked off by a launch celebration in both San Francisco and New York featuring “14 foot tall laptops” streaming the images from their webcams from one city to the other, live music in both locations, as well as television coverage of the event.

Fun, but do they need a hip rebranding? I suppose they don’t sell many radios these days but I wonder who they’re trying to appeal to–since when did anybody need to be excited about going to Radioshack? Maybe they’re planning on enlisting @THE_REAL_SHAQ to help?

Making a common name, like my name–Jon Norris, stand out in the crowd is a tough proposition, but creating a Google Profile has made it easier to find information about me specifically. For Seattle area searches, my profile now appears on at the bottom of the first result page when my name is entered.

Creating a profile also gives you a place to control what information you’d like associated with your name. Create one here.

Our profiles: Jon and Katie

Note: A word of caution – as with any public profile, be careful with the information you put up, such as your home town or birth date, as it’s possible that your Social Security Number could be reverse engineered using that information.

A very cool concept though, and definitely worth keeping an eye on. Sign up for Wave updates, or watch this (abridged) announcement video to see what all the hoopla is about:

According to this current tally 43.3% of all desktop web users use some version of Internet Explorer to browse the web. Another 46.6% use the Firefox web browser.

Governance for these browsers is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets the international standard. Browsers that follow these standards do 2 things:

1. They help provide a consistent and more pleasant experience for internet users.
2. Particularly pertinent for this blog, browsers that use W3C standards mean I spend less time testing the websites I develop. This means less billable hours to my clients.

The introduction of Internet Explorer 8 in addition to current versions of Firefox mean I will spend less time programming to fit versions of web browsers that are not W3C standard. Currently at least 30% of my web development time is spent making websites work for browsers that do not follow these standards.

The bottom line: adopting web standards now means a future of reduced website development costs.

With the introduction of Internet Explorer 8, the situation has improved, but keep in mind that Industry changes like these only came about as more and more websites followed web standards.

Demand that your site be standards compliant to ensure that web standards will continue to be adopted and help lower development costs.

The redesigned Tropicana carton (left) and the original (right)

The total image redesign was orchestrated by Pepsi-Co, who owns Tropicana, with hopes of revitalizing sales for the venerable orange juice brand. However, the new design strategy failed and sales dropped 20%. The situation was bad enough to cause Tropicana to switch back to it’s old design.

Should Tropicana’s debacle be used as a reason not to consider an image rebrand?

Not at all. Rebranding can be an effective way to bring new attention to an established company or product. A successful rebrand communicates a new approach, revitalized values or shift in focus. It must also capitalize on what worked before–elements that existing customers or clients have responded to favorably and learned to recognize and trust.

The new design was sterile and generic. The rebranded Tropicana cartons looked like they came from an entirely different universe compared to the original. There was absolutely no continuity with the previous experience and the new look didn’t offer anything interesting or exciting to grab positive attention.

A missed opportunity, Tropicana failed because it didn’t acknowledge existing expectations nor did it communicate anything original. In fact, the biggest complaint against the new cartons is that they too closely resemble a generic store brand appearance. Ouch.

When it comes to using Flash on a website, I almost always advocate against it if there are other ways to obtain the same result. Why? Flash hasn’t kept up with the constant pace of innovation on the internet. It is frequently slow to load and most “smart phones” have little or no flash support (see the iPhone). Plus, there is no guarantee that a Flash element will be properly indexed by a search engine like Google, if at all–which means less exposure for your business.

Frankly, there are better ways to achieve the same effect. Check out the “Featured Work” gallery on our home page or our graphic design gallery. These elements were done entirely without using Flash. They also degrade nicely, which means someone with a less capable device, like a mobile phone, will be able to view all of the content.

Flash, however, provides too convenient a solution for many website needs to be ignored. There is currently no better way to add video to a website. Plus, sometimes it’s the simplest way to create dynamic elements like a slideshow or gallery.

A little bit of Flash, used properly, can be impressive. The best way to proceed when Flash becomes necessary is to make sure the site is perfectly functional without it.  A sleek-looking Flash navigation menu will make your site worthless if its not visible to your site users.

Consider also the total web experience of Flash. Adding something like a spinning logo or an animated splash page might be neat the first time, but distracting on subsequent visits.

A good rule of thumb: avoid Flash unless it can add something meaningful to your site’s content.