i-d media london

Yet another browser and this time by Google, who not only have conquered search, but are now looking at competing against browser giants Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

So what does Google Chrome have to offer?

Google Chrome uses Webkit as their open source rendering engine, same as what Safari uses and it is very fast and uses less memory ans is simple and clean. It has an efficient user interface, which is it’s biggest advantage, as well as stability, speed and security. We all hate browsers which fall over and crash, use up memory and close all your browser’s tabs when one tab fails. Not Google Chrome! The browser not only loads faster but also display websites at lightning speed. Good news for designers too, the browsers renders the same as Safari and Firefox.

Google Chrome is asynchronous, so you don’t have to wait for the browser to load JavaScript or anything else before it continues to load the rest of the website. It’s a multi process browser where different processes can occur at the same time, therefore if one tab (website) fails for whatever reason the whole browser wont shut down, only the tab will. Although a multi-process design means using more memory, in the longer run there will be less memory bloat. This means, when you close a tab in Google Chrome that whole process is closed. With other browsers although the tab is closed the process is still running, hence not reducing the amount of memory that is being taken up.

Google Chrome also has its own task manager, which enables you to check which sites are using the most memory and abusing your CPU. You can even see which plug-ins are using the most memory in the same tab, which is helpful to recognise who is misbehaving and why.

The tabbing system is great too, because of the separation of the browser and tab processes, you can move a tab from one window into another, great if you have a few too many tabs open and you need to re-arrange your windows. You can even open a new tab in a private ‘igcognito’ mode, which lets you browse without saving the sites you visit in your browser history and without leaving any traces, such as cookies after you close the window. When you open a new tab, you wont see your homepage or a blank tab but a page of 9 mini windows of websites you have frequently visited and may want to go back to, along with a list of websites on the right hand side that you have searched the most.

Google Chrome is constantly being tested on thousands of web pages using the massive infrastructure they have for crawling and spidering websites. On the other hand they have a long way to go before they can really compete against Internet Explorer and Firefox for browser market share. However, being open source, we doubt it will be long before Google Chrome is used as widely as Google’s search engine is.

Advantages: Fast, simple, clean, multi process, open source
Disadvantages: Tool bars not available yet

Revels are currently running a Big Brother style eviction campaign of their very own to banish a flavour from their line up. And the thing is that we get to choose which one’s gone. Sounds good, but the cynic in me wonders if they’ll really banish the flavour we all vote out and thoughts wander to ask what if the loser’s the easiest or cheapest to make – will they really drop it?

I’m good to go with it though and like a good citizen make my way over to the site. Besides the infuriating auto tabbing on the age verification form the site’s a neat execution.

I get to vote out my most hated flavour (can’t tell you which one though) and I feel empowered. Then the dream collapses, the words ‘limited edition’ feature in the exit clip and I’m left feeling a little bit cheated. Revels – you made me feel like I was part of something quite interesting and that you’d embraced personalised products. But then you shatter my dreams and I feel like if just taken part in a market research exercise with a really poor reward.

Be bold, listen to your customers and let them drive the product. Don ‘t fool them into feeling special then spoil their afternoon.

http://www.revelseviction.com

The new delicious.com thinks it’s a… well luggage tag! Although the origin of the term tag hasn’t really taken too much of my thought time in the past, this association with something so ‘real’ and indeed dated seems odd. It may just be part of the graphic launguage delicious have engineered to bring the product more into the main stream.  

http://l.yimg.com/hr/10313/img/searchbartag.gif

Whilst on the subject of delicious.com, another example of the mainstream movement would be the depreciation of the old URL del.icio.us. This is a real shame in my view. The previous URL was more than simply a domain, it was a brand mark, a nice nod to the technology and the origins of the site. Now it’s simply another generic domain name, albeit one that more word of mouth friendly, that disappears into the noise.

So why aren’t estate agents putting QR codes on their sales boards directing potential buyers to further details on the web, or indeed mobile sites? It would seem a logical place to join an offline call to action with and onlne experience to the advtage of both the business and the customer.

I’ve noticed recently that several brands are offering us search terms rather than URL’s in their offline marketing, not very interesting I hear your whisper, but hear this one out.

The most recent incarnation of such is Orange’s latest campaign ‘I am’. On a recent trip through Heathrow T5 (Which has it’s own usability problems we’ll discuss another day) I noticed a poster for Orange ‘I am’ complete with an abstract search box and magnifying glass prompting us to search for the term ‘I am’ when we’re next online. Do we have a new call to action on our hands?

And there we go.. Tuesday morning and a search for ‘I am’ gets us a CPC ad in Google (not a surprising outcome, but I did wonder if the natural work had been done).

So, technically it works, but do users get it and does it work for the campaign?

I think there’s certainly argument for saying that users are more able to remember short interesting terms rather than URL’s, so it scores there. We know users don’t generally like clicking on paid links so a natural campaign might, if it made it to number 1, gather more click-throughs. Unfortunately, there’s potential for your competitors to out bid you and the results today do show another mobile provider getting in on the action, but through what seems to be a 3rd part re-seller. I thinks it’s one of those themes that benefits from it’s newness. Like domains, the more cluttered the space the more difficult it is for consumers to remember their call to action.

So it’s fair to say it’s a neat trick and in this case will probably work well for Orange and it ties in really nicely with their integrated campaign.

Worth thinking about: yes

Worth pinning your campaign idea on: maybe once

UPDATE:

Just remembered where I first saw this as a working concept and that’s over with Iain. Interesting how in Japan it’s being used.

Saatchi & Saatchi AtPlay introduced me to their Love Marks thinking on brands. I think it quite eloquently sum’s up how brands are feeling at the moment. What really interests me is how digital can relate to this as a concept adding or indeed removing love.

Here’s what Saatchi & Saatchi say about Love Marks

“The bottom left finds you in the Low Respect and Low Love quadrant. This is the positioning of classic commodities. Public Utilities, low value transactions. Essential to our lives but going nowhere. Zero brand heat.

Now, move across to the bottom right quadrant to Low Respect and High Love. This is the land of fads, trends and infatuations. Last month’s gotta-haves. Next month’s has-beens. Hairstyles and Pop Stars. You can have a lot of fun down here but you won’t get Loyalty Beyond Reason.

The High Respect and Low Love quadrant in the top left of the axis is where most major brands are stuck. Functional benefits, solid performance, and always fixed on those “e-r” words. Newer, brighter, stronger, bolder and worst of all ­ cheaper. Needed but not desired.

High Respect and High Love is the place to be. The top right of the top right hand quadrant. This is Lovemark territory.

Only here, stretching for high love and resting on high respect, is where deep emotional connections are made.

Remember only the customer can decide Lovemark status. And they’ll only do it for brands that are up there in the top right, where the sun always shines.”

Here’s some more great examples of interactvie design processes in the form of paper prototypes. This time it’s for some of our favourite apps, Flickr, Vimeo et al.

http://deeplinking.net/paper-web/

One of the truly great things about the web is the ability for it to introduce you to a million new things in just one day. Just out of interest I followed the ‘via’ links from my last post on Paper Prototyping to see where they’d take me.

My starting point was Andy Polaine’s blog. I read his blog regularly. I started reading primarily due his connection to my education and early interactive work with ex Antirom folks Andy, Andy and Joe.

1 – http://www.polaine.com/playpen/

Then we go on a nice journey across a couple of blogs to del.icio.us.

2 – http://daringfireball.net

3 – http://waxy.org/

And finally to a del.icio.us account

http://del.icio.us

Short and sweet but it highlights how viral and addictive the web really is, I’m sure many many more stories have many many more interconnecting points. If I had the time to follow the path of some of those 860 people who’d also saved the link to their del.icio.us account I’m sure I’d end up in some really interesting places.

This was a point made by Brent Hoberman (co founder of lastminute.com) at a conference last week.

Some of the cynics amongst us would say he could afford to have this opinion, but he may have a point when you consider would Google have ever been developed if the principle of ROI had been the primary consideration? Probably not !! Damn innovation !!

Sometimes you just need to find a topic/idea you are passionate about and develop a particular need amongst the masses and then surely the money will flow in !! Sounds simple………

The other school of thought would support the idea that ROI presents challenges which create innovation in such sectors as retail but whichever side of the fence you sit this will always be a heated point of discussion and blows may even be exchanged.

According to new research from Jupiter Research, half of all branded social networking pages in Europe have less than 1,000 friends.

I came across this on another blog under the title. “Brands Not Winning Friends On Social Nets: Report”

The report goes on to say “Many advertisers build branded social networking pages that broadcast content rather than inviting users to interact.”

And they wonder why they’re short of social buddies!

This points to a pretty fundamental misunderstanding by brands as to what’s motivating users online. As brands adapt to a new customer and communication landscape there are some lessons to be learnt along the way and this is one of the big ones.

It’s by no way a new idea in branding but still brands are getting it wrong.

Give your customers a reward, excite them, get them to enjoy spending time with you and they will. Customers don’t flock to the loudest shouter anymore, they move towards the one who’s giving the most. So don’t expect a heap of ‘friends’ if your just trailing your new TV ad on Facebook. That’s hardly even 1.1 let alone 2.0.