Archive for February, 2007
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Want to switch to us?
The speed and ease of changing broadband providers is set to become much easier after new legislation is introduced from the end of February. The new rules will soon stop adsl providers charging customers for wanting to switch suppliers and will remove delays from the process.
Any broadband firms that make it difficult for customers wanting to leave and move their broadband account could risk heavy fines from watchdog Ofcom.
Most problems involve so-called ‘MAC’ codes, or Migration Authorisation Codes. These codes are issued to departing customers by the broadband provider they wish to leave. The MAC is passed to the new provider by the customer. The process identifies their connection, so the new provider can locate it and swap it over.
All broadband companies must supply MAC codes to customers within five working days. It will also become illegal to charge for issuing the codes. Previously, the process of obtaining your MAC code could take weeks and numerous email or phone conversations with the broadband provider.
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An open universe
As the number of websites we ‘belong’ to grows and grows, we’re fast hitting the point where signing up for a new site becomes a significant impediment to joining.
When I start up my computer of a morning, I’m signing in to an increasingly diverse range of services - the local network, the wireless connection, instant messenger (x 3), my RSS reader, my photo sharing service. It’s a list that goes on. And on.
Consequently, we find ourselves pausing over the ‘Sign up’ button wondering do I really want this, how do I do know it will make a difference for me - it inhibits our desire to explore and try out what’s new.
This is something we have been thinking about at Precedent more and more as we work with clients to try and create ideal registration processes that are at the same time, unobtrusive and simple yet gather enough information to be made really useful to the application and to the user.
That’s why we are excited by the possibilities being opened up by Open ID. The idea is simple - that we can create a single address for ourselves (just like a website in fact) that identifies us and avoids creating yet more forgettable user name and password combinations.
It is a great idea that is generating a lot of momentum at present - AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and Digg have all recently announced their intention to adopt it. It will be coming your way very soon.
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RSS & Yahoo
If your in to your RSS feeds have a look at http://pipes.yahoo.com/. Yahoo have launched ‘pipes’ where you can ‘mash up’ your rss feeds.
RSS was developed originally by Netscape.
RSS is short for “Rich Site Summary“, an XML format for sharing content among different web content. A website that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates
an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A
user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a
different site. Syndicated content includes such data as news feeds,
events listings, news stories, headlines, project updates, excerpts
from discussion forums or even corporate information.I think this is interesting site and quite easy to use, but I also think this has reminded everyone that Yahoo is still a force of innovation.
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Something for the Office
Microsoft have just launched their 2007 office product, but if you don’t want the cost, try Open Office, A free office suite. It may take a short while to get used to but well worth having a look at.
Novell have just anounced it’s version, which comes with
Suse Linux 10, co-operates with MS Office documents. This means that you can view, edit, work on word, excel documents without any issues. -
Beta minus the brand
Courtesy of UX Magazine, comes a link to the very of-the-moment Museum of Modern Betas. The site lists the ‘50 most anticipated applications in the webosphere, as measured by the number of bookmarks at del.icio.us’.
It’s a nice, very simple idea. But what is most striking about it, looking down the list, is just how awful the naming of many soi-dissant web2.0 projects are.
Remind me, when exactly did we decide that branding wasn’t that important?
It is said that imitation is flattery, but I’m not sure quite how flattered Flickr would be by its many vowel-shy imitators out there.
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This week’s signposting
A selection of our recent reading taken from the internet over the last week:
1) What is me.deium
Medium is essentially a Firefox extension that allows the user to visualize a little more of the world outside or around their individual browser. Users can see friends browsing, watch the browsing activities of others and chat with people anywhere.2) Top Ten Truths About the Digital Ecosystem
Services displace products. In the digital world, as bits substitute for atoms, products are reconceived as services. This is the threat that Google poses against Microsoft.3 )If you’re ever stuck on words as I often am, here’s a great online thesaurus with a difference
4) Social networking sites used by more than half US teenagers online
More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.5) CMS Do’s and Don’ts
for understanding your customers needs and building a site to meet those needs. Usability testing can help improve the odds that your users’ needs are met when your new site launches.
