Cool Brand Tags

This is kinda cool. The idea is that you are shown a logo and enter a word that associate with that brand and then you can see all the "tags" that others have given that brand in a big tag cloud.

E.g. The tag cloud for Walmart shows that the word "evil" is pretty big - but "cheap" is even bigger!

Brand Tags

Does marketing on Facebook actually work?

I'm not so sure yet but Facebook have published a book to tell you how to do it - "Facebook Insider's Guide to Viral Marketing"

Here's a synopsis

"Many businesses, from leading global brands to favorite local bands, are enjoying tremendous impact using Facebook Pages for free viral marketing. Check out some key strategies from the most successful businesses on Pages:

1) Regularly adding engaging and useful content
2) Letting fans participate in the conversation
3) Expanding their distribution with Facebook Ads

We’ve collected some of these winning strategies—along with the nuts of bolts of how to create and manage a Page—into an Insider’s Guide to Viral Marketing"

Great Extensible CSS, JavaScript, AJAX Article and Examples

I never thought I'd be posting about code but I couldn't resist - the Highly Extensible CSS Interface is a series of 4 articles, tutorials, an awesome working sample website and fully downloadable source code which are too good to ignore. If you're a NZ user interface designer/coder and want to lift your game this is a great place to start.

Links to the full demo site, tutorials and downloadable files are collected nicely on this page .

Here’s what to expect:

• Part One: The Foundation - brief discussion of importance of producing visually rich interfaces with semantic, accessible, and portable markup underneath.
• Part Two: CSS Selectors & jQuery - Articles shift into discussion of code (and start losing me :-)
• Part Three: Adding Ajax Interactivity
• Part Four: Testing for Extensibility

YouTXT no more. Long live YouTXT

My time at YouTXT has come to an end. YouTXT the business continues and I'm sure will grow to be successful under Sam Allen's awesome leadership but I am no longer a Director or shareholder.

Some recent developments.

• YouTXT API
• Mobile vouchers via YouTXT!
  
• Network Status via YouTXT!

Awesome work by Sam and JD. I wish them all the best and will keep a keen eye on their progress.

Find out more about YouTXT on their blog or website.

My boy

My son is one of my favorite topics lately - and I suspect for a long time to come. Now 7 months old - here's some pics.

The Chemical Brothers

Hmm.. I think I'll go to the Chemical Brothers in February.

Get a baby sitter, and a small posse together, and make a night of it.

I am not their biggest fan today but their music is a part of my history growing up in the mid 90's and early 2000's and so many good memories. Their big beat, techy electronica along with the big warehouse and venue trance (shame) parties of the day got me hooked on electronica. My musical taste may have changed (for the better) but I still love hearing the cheesy big tracks like Elektrobank, Hey Boy, Hey Girl and Block Rocking Beats.

I've never seen them live but their live shows are meant to be sick (am I too old to use that word :-) Seeing these videos on YouTube from Glastonbury earlier in the year has twisted my rubber arm.

There's 3 others in the series

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMEoqfw71jE
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM-y9jd69a4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmBG2HoG5kI
  

Change of tack

I've decided to broaden the content of Web NZ to include some of my other interests. I'll still post on anything I find interesting in the online world, on YouTXT, Usability, what I'm up to professionally and New Zealanders doing cool things - like Dave ten Have and Ponoko making it to TechCrunch. And then, by all accounts making a big splash in a very big pond by getting named "..the most original idea.." by the review panel.

I admit, it took me a little while to get my head around what exactly Ponoko is or does but it is one of the most original ideas I have heard in a long time. In a world where most "new" web businesses are just different takes on existing ideas - done differently and occasionally better, Ponoko is a modern day example of "Kiwi Ingenuity" that sets the bar for NZ software companies. I have worked briefly with founder David ten Have (or Dave5) who was my boss at Trade NZ about 10+ years ago, and John Lewis from Intergen who is a kick-ass coder with serious business nous. They are both really smart guys and I wish Ponoko the best of luck.

Go TUANZ. Awesome promotion.

This is great example of a NZ organisation using YouTube to promote their cause.



Is it viral? Is it effective? I think so.

In the 10 minutes since I 1st saw it in the Google reader widget on my iGoogle home page, I have watched it, posted a comment on Rod Drury's blog, emailed it to one friend and am now adding it to my blog. I think so.

Career update

I've left Intergen and began contracting with Ferrit.

Intergen are a great company and I learned alot from my time there. I'm proud of the work I did while in the Auckland office and rate them as the best medium to large Microsoft development shop in NZ.

However, Life goes on...

By their own admission, the Ferrit website has plenty of room for improvement and I'm looking forward to the challenge over the coming months. They have a vision, a great team and resources which is a good start towards a successful project.

My SMS information service business YouTXT continues of course. Use of the free service continues to build slowly and we have had some success. Check out some case studies of how people are using it on the YouTXT blog. We have also had some serious interest in customised solutions. Hopefully I'll be able to announce something soon...

Finalist in FullCodePress competition

It seems I've been shortlisted as a finalist for the FullCodePress competition against Australia on the 18th August.

What is the FullCodePress? Officially, "...the brainchild of the people at Webstock and WIPA. In essence it’s a geek Olympics!" but to me it's more like the C4 48 hour film festival for websites.

I'm stoked to have made the final 3 - Fingers x'ed because the winner is drawn from the hat.