Friday fun(s)

Here are a few recent finds for this week's Friday Fun:

Print this randomly-generated Buzzword Bingo card for your next meeting.

Here's a fun and informative site about the visual blind spots we all have and the interesting ways our brains and eyes work.

Castaway - this is what computer games used to be like.

Gadgets and Inventions - I like the wheelbarrow bench.

Interstitial ads: Too much of a bad thing?

Gerry McGovern wrote recently that finding is the new advertising. Not a new concept really - search moguls Google and Yahoo have been making money for years now displaying targeted ads - not the advertising to the masses that gets done in newspapers, radio, and TV.

But what's really new is the level of ad-receptiveness, or lack of it really. Today we are advertising averse. Ad-blind.

My wife thinks watching the previews is one of the best parts of going to the movies. Why? We expect it. We are receptive to it. We want it. It's entertaining and enticing. It's the Free Prize. Most people are not annoyed by the previews - most of the people that I know like them.

Interstitial ads are all the rage online. But they make you wait for what you want. In contrast, no one I know likes watching these ads and usually looks to see if there's a "skip this ad" button.

The web has brought new powers and capabilities to advertisers to reach people in new ways. The web allows marketers to target niche audiences that would have been cost prohibitive to reach in the past. The incredible success of the Google Adwords program is due to two main factors: (1) they can be incredibly granular and targeted allowing for great relevancy; and (2) they are at times very beneficial - providing useful links to the information, product or service the user was searching for.

In the short life of the web, online advertising has already seen several trends come and go. Pop-ups and banner ads, while still somewhat effective, are considered "old school." The interstitial ads, while very popular now, seem too much like television to me. They are the non-targeted, non-relevant, in most cases non-interesting commercial before the show. They are the painful, annoying opposite of a free prize.

One thing is for certain: online advertising is here to stay. New techniques and technologies will undoubtedly bring us new forms of advertising. But it's obvious we have a ways to go before we figure out exactly how content and advertising will live together in online harmony.

What is Web 2.0?

I feel it's not always helpful to use these terms since people have defined them differently. But the folks at Resourceful Idiot do a good job explaining the difference between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

ACME Catalog

Are you out of anvils? Need any iron birdseed? How about some rocket-powered roller skates? Although this parody could be improved with a "e-commerce-style" redesign, you have to give credit to the fantastic idea.

Check out the Original Illustrated Catalog of ACME Products.

There's a book on the subject too.

The Flip Side of Technology

I recently bought a new Flip video camera like the one pictured here. It's great for capturing videos of my kids. And while I like it a lot, when it comes to the quality of the videos it captures, it's certainly not the best camera on the market. But it fits in my pocket, is super easy to use and cost half of what a "real" video camera would cost. It's a perfect camera for a generation of Youtubers who want a simple way to capture and share videos - not make "movies."

What amazed me about the product was how simple it is to use. I never even opened the manual and yet in less than 5 minutes I figured out how to do everything I needed to do. It has a simple, minimalist interface, with just a few buttons. Point and shoot. Its iPod-ish looks and ease-of-use makes me think it's the video camera that Apple would build. (iCamera anyone?)

Okay, so why do I bring this up... It turns out the Flip has captured 13% of the market for video cameras. Just as everyone was moving high tech and high definition, and getting super-sophisticated, along comes simple. A product with good usability can win out over a superior product that is a negative experience to use.

Something magical happens when products make out lives simpler and easy. When you can make my music portable you get the Walkman. When you can make watching and recording taped shows easy, you get TiVo. Make it easy for me to load and unload the film from my camera, you get the Kodak Instamatic.

Many of the web's most successful sites are successful because they make our lives easier in some way. They help save us money or make it easy to order books. They help us find things or help us all stay in touch with our friends. Again, many of these sites are not the most beautifully-designed nor are they the most technologically advanced. (Think Craigslist and eBay.)

It just goes to show that when it comes to humans interacting with technology, you can often be more successful by focusing on the humans more than the technology.

Young Me, Now Me

Here's a fun collection of winning photos from a contest where the object was to mimic a photo from your childhood. I really like this one, that one, and the one over here.

Movie talk

Did you know...In the Arnold Swarzenegger "Terminator" films, director James Cameron's original vision for the Terminator was the "liquid metal" (T-1000) version we see in the Terminator 2 sequel. But in 1984 when Cameron made the first film, special effects and computer-generated imagery weren't advanced enough to render his vision the way he wanted.

Along the same movie-making lines, I saw a great documentary the other night on Pixar, the ingenious animation studio responsible for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and others. The documentary did a nice job of showing the history of the company, how they built an incredibly creative culture, and how, against heavy odds, they championed their vision for how good computer animation could be. I highly recommend it.