June 2005
The Archives
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Management
Software Development Process
I’ve developed a keen interest in managing software development (again) recently. Scobble pointed me to David J. Anderson, a program manager at Microsoft and I came across this awesome webcast. Very cool, I hope this doesn’t spark another obsession to learn for me, I can only handle so many at a time. Can’t wait for Scoble’s video.
There’s good stuff in his blog as well. Last Monday’s entry is called “Not so formal“.
Where there is low trust, there must be documentation, verification, audit and potentially punishment. Where there is a lack of trust, there is fear. Where there is fear, there is a lot of people taking cover and protecting themselves. Such protection is waste – muda. It takes the form of overly long schedules, overly detailed specifications, precise plans and elaborate change procedures to track all of the changes, audit trails and assigned accountability and responsibility – there must be a scapegoat.Amen.
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Internet
Internet and Control don’t mix
From on of my heros at Adaptive Path; Create Value By Relinquishing Control. Make sure you also read Peters follow-up on his blog.
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Internet
Google Map of my old place
To offset my little stab at Google in my previous post, here’s something cool from Google maps. I lived in this house in Lisse (the Netherlands) for almost 4 years before I moved to Canada. You can see all the tulip fields around it. The picture wasn’t taking during the spring when all tulips are in bloom though.
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Internet
Google Map Error
Not to long ago, the place I was born didn’t exist according to Google maps. But now it turns out I’m born in Belgium instead of the Netherlands when I look at a specific level in Google maps. Sloppy.
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Uncategorized
Innovation Overload
A flood wave of innovation has come over me the last few days. It’s a great time to be a web professional:
- Google launched Google Earth today, an upgrade of the Keyhole software they purchased recently. If you’re impressed with the satellite view of Google maps, Google World will blow you away. It not hard to imagine the potential for the Tourism industry
- Google also launched personalized search (beta) today. This will personalize search results for individual users. It also launches a new era of Search Engine Optimization
- Microsoft announced RSS support in Longhorn and demonstrated this in the new version of Internet Explorer. RSS support isn’t limited to IE7, it is a platform, allowing RSS support for all applications running on Windows. The demo on Channel 9 is mandatory viewing. It’s been a while since I’ve been excited by a Microsoft announcement
- Apple introduces Podcast support in iTunes.
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Travel & Tourism
Survey: Travelers shop online to save time
A result of better usability of travel websites or a sign of the times? Travelers don’t only use the Internet because of (perceived) better dprices but also to save time. Makes sense. Some other highlights of The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Seventh Edition:
- There was a higher incidence of online hotel purchasing in 2004 versus 2003 (71% versus 60%), approaching that of air purchases (92% in both years).
- Half of all online combination purchases consist of air and hotel, 24% are air, hotel and car, 23% are air and car, and just 4% are hotel and car.
- More hotel chains are pushing their way onto the list of the top three Web sites used for hotel reservations, as Hilton and Marriott outpaced Hotels.com and Priceline, and contributed to declines for Expedia and Travelocity.
- Business travel rebounded, with 44% of respondents saying they had taken a flight on business, up from 33% in 2003 (and favorably comparing to the flat 90-91% who flew for leisure trips).
Via HotelMarketing.com
Full report available at PhoCusWright. -
Uncategorized
Agencies with bad homepages
If I were an interactive agency, I would make sure I demonstrate my expertise on my own website. So why do most agencies still have really bad websites?
I’m researching some potential suppliers for work on one of our websites. If you still think this intro is a good idea and you expect me to believe your company understands User Centered Design, you’re wrong.
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Uncategorized
Google creating 3D cities
Not to be outdone by A9’s Blockview, Google is reported to be working on something even better. They’re indexing cities in 3D for the purpose of intergrading it with their local search feature. I thought the satellite images in Google maps were pretty cool but this is getting out of hand. Speaking of Google maps. My friend Nigel moved his trampoline from one end of his backyard to another and is waiting for Google to call him to ask if he can move it back.
Update:Turns out an Israeli company has been doing this already for Philidelphia. The NY Times has an article about it. (via Boing Boing) -
Uncategorized
Tabbed browsing in IE
Microsoft have added tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer via their toolbar. I haven’t tried it yet but Asa Dotzler is not impressed.
“it really_sucks”[…] I’ve stopped counting the show-stopper level bugs and I’m gonna just uninstall and move on now. What an embarrassment.Update: Gizmodo isn’t impressed either.
Update 2: Lifehacker can’t get the tabs to work.
William Bakker's Destination Marketing blog
William Bakker is Chief Strategist at Destination Think!. These are my personal thoughts.
