“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.”
Ed Catmull
Category Archives: This is how I see it
The “I-already-have-this” button
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The other day I was listening to episode 590 of the podcast Six Pixels of Separation, in which the host, marketer Mitch Joel (who is always outstanding in selecting guests for this excellent podcast – and even better in coming up with intelligent and insightful questions), was interviewing PR guru David Meerman Scott. And in their conversation they mentioned having experienced multiple times something that is causing a lot of frustration with both the podcast interviewer, the interviewee and myself, and which is linked to the online marketing technique called retargeting (whereby you seem to be followed around when surfing the internet by online ads from a company whose website you recently visited).
As such this marketing technique is quite successfull, but the aspect of it that Mitch Joel mentioned was referring to exactly the scenario that is causing most of the frustration for me: Continue reading
Quote of the day #92
“I always follow the law, unless it is a bad law.”
Frank Van Massenhove
(high-ranking civil servant in Belgium)
Quote of the day #91
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
Miles Kington
Quote of the day #90
“Stop thinking outside the box – instead, find a better box”
Stephen Shapiro
Why you need to claim your company on Google Maps
Earlier this year, Google introduced a new feature for the Android version of Google Maps. This is how Google describes it: “In Google Maps, you can ask and answer questions about the places and business you see. Business owners and others can respond to these Q&As directly.” Very nice feature for the users of Google Maps, right? In my view, it indeed is – but there are some important and potentially problematic aspects of it that both the users of Google Maps and the owners of businesses shown on Google Maps are completely unaware of. Continue reading
Just asking… #3 – Scrollbars
On most websites and in lots of widely used applications (Gmail and Microsoft Excel to name just a few) the navigation elements that you use most frequently are on the left hand side of the screen: the complete menu (or the most common menu items in case of top navigation menus), the checkboxes to select emails, the info in the most important columns of a spreadsheet (to stick to my examples)… all on the left had side of the screen.
So, why is it that whenever the webpage or the file contains more content than will fit on a single screen, a scrollbar appears… on the right side of the screen? Especially when you are working with a mouse (or trackpad) on a laptop with a relatively small screen, this can be very inconvenient. You simply keep moving the mouse from the left end side of the screen to the right end side over and over again (yes, dear keyboard-shortcut fan, I do know about keybaord shortcuts, but you will have to admit: they can’t be used in all scenarios).
Is someone benefiting from all those extra cursor-miles? Just asking…
OK, this time I am impressed
In a previous story, I half mockingly claimed not be impressed by the applications of AI and machine learning in everyday life. And then I even full mockingly made fun of the idea by claiming (in a post where I was attributing AI capabilities to a thermos) it might be time to change my view. But this time, it might really be time to revise my opinion.
About everyone will Continue reading
Quote of the day #89
“If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.”
Rita Mae Brown
Machine learning in everday life
As you might have read in an earlier post: until now I am not very impressed by the application of AI and machine learning in everyday life. We always hear about the wonderful and amazing things that will soon be possible thanks to machine learning, but time and again – when faced with the way this is applied today – the predominant feeling that arises is disappointment.
Until today. Continue reading
THE SECOND HALF 