Chausse.org

First off (primarily to my wife), I did not seek this site out. I am not in the market for its services. I found out about it via Seth Godin’s blog as an example of market creation. However, I was once single. I once had single friends. And I wish something like this had existed back then.

The concept is Team Dating, and it’s facilitated by a site called (what else?) TeamDating.com.

The concept is this: Instead of trying to match up individuals, the site matches up similar groups of friends who form “teams” and everyone meets up in one big get-together at the same time.

This is such a brilliant idea. Conversations will flow better, your friends are there to bail you out of any kind of trouble, and, even if no one finds love, you’ll probably still have a good time. What a cool idea.

Filed under Marketing 4 Comments »

Folks like Jakob Nielsen and Tim Berners-Lee like to complain that web-based documents today don’t use enough hyperlinks to provide the truly exploratory experience that the World Wide Web can offer. Today, I stumbled across a perfect example of how not to rectify this.

I was reading an article on InformationWeek.com talking about a Windows software update that nags users of suspected pirate versions of windows.

The article explains how a dialog box randomly pops up, and conveniently hyperlinks the words “dialog box”. One would assume this would link to a picture of the dialog box in question. Instead it links to… get this… an entire article defining “dialog box”. OK, thanks.

The article says that the user can choose not to download the update - and the word “download” is hyperlinked. Guess where? The definition of “download”.

This silliness is perpetrated on the words “web site”, “interface”, “FAQ”, and “browser” as well. One would think that someone viewing a technology web site in their web browser would not really need help figuring out what a “browser” or a “web site” is.

I’ve seen actual useful methods of providing definitions of unusual terms in web pages, usually via DHTML popups. I’ve also seen unfortunate hyperlinking of common terms to sponsored content - but these are usually differentiated by dotted or double-underlined links, maybe in an unusual color.

But InformationWeek is not linking to paid content, they’re not differentiating these “definition” links in any special way - they’re bona-fide regular old links to full-fledged web pages, with nary an “alt” tag warning you that you’re about to do something really, really, pointless when you click on them.

What in the world were they thinking?

Filed under The User Experience 1 Comment »

According to Fortune Magazine, the Boom is Back. The Net is on fire again! The difference this time around, as I see it, is this: The companies you’ll want to invest in this time around - you can’t. The smart geeks are building their web businesses on a shoestring and don’t want your stinkin’ money screwing everything up.

Prediction: People will pile money into any Net-related company that happens to be public (Akamai anyone?) when all the real innovation will continue to happen in the 1-10 person private startups. People will be confused as to why their investments aren’t skyrocking, and will eventually get bored and move back into a more diversified portfolio. Boom 2.0 will end with a fizzle, not a pop.

Filed under The Internet Biz No Comments »

Seriously, according to MONEY Magazine, Software Engineer is the best job in America right now. Huh. I guess this makes an easy segue to a fairly important announcement. I have left Groove/Microsoft to work for Zoom Information in Waltham, MA as a — Software Engineer! This transition is part of the reason I’ve been a bit out of touch lately in all sorts of ways.

Working at both Groove and Microsoft were amazing experiences for me which I will carry with me fondly until my dying day, but it was time to move on, for a number of reasons. At Zoom, I will be doing .NET development for the front end of their eponymous search engine, “ZoomInfo.com”. Zoom has some amazing technology and I’ll talk about it more later on. Right now I have some, well, Software Engineering to do. I must be the luckiest guy in the world!

Filed under Personal Notes, The Internet Biz No Comments »

Wow, whodathunkit? Apple has released (in beta) a tool called “Boot Camp“, which allows you to dual boot Windows and OSX on a Intel-based Mac. And, no, this isn’t a belated April Fool’s joke, it’s the real deal (although they do slam Windows’ security and BIOS usage on the info page). Now, Microsoft should have no gripe with this since selling a boxed copy of Windows to run on a Mac likely nets them more an OEM copy pre-installed on a Dell. But let’s see how Apple feels when someone does this in reverse…

Filed under Cool Stuff, General Computing No Comments »