No internet presence can be successful as an isolated island. Measuring traffic and understanding user behavior gives developers powerful tools in designing effective sites. Google Analytics introduced a new interface this year. Although it is often difficult to navigate, a few features are worth noting, if you can find them.

Visitor flow visualization

A powerful tool in understanding visitor behavior the flow visualization “tracks” user navigation through web pages within your site. For example, we see users coming to FTM from the Internet, and a smaller percentage browses further into the site reading other posts. For a site that is designed to retain user attention, or to encourage users to complete certain processes like entering data or completing a sale, visitor flow provides clues that site designers can use to improve outcomes.

In Site Analytics

Another great visualization tool puts analytics data directly on a site. This is an effective tool for web designers to see what works and what does not. It is like a map of user activities. It definitely helps designers to experiment with changing the layout and placement or look and feel of a sites based on actual user feedback.

Read more…

Since we are a Digital Media program, I thought that I’d find a fun infographic that had something to do with the digital media world. So, I hied myself out to the regular sources, and lo! there was Google.

Actually, what caught my eye first was “ooooooh–pretty bright colors.” It’s probably a good thing that I was already in the right category…

Click the image to see the large-format version

Read more…

Much has been written about Google’s attempts to tweak their vaunted search algorithm recently, but the results might take awhile to become apparent. Ostensibly, Google changed the page rank code that is buried within their super-secret search architecture in order to make results more meritorious.  More merit in a user’s search would be measured by the usefulness in the top-most (un-sponsored) links and supposedly less prone to the technological gerrymandering that we have collectively come to know as S.E.O.. While this is potentially good news for end-users, it is very bad news for firms that have invested time, money and intellectual capitol into manipulating search results. In the years since S.E.O. became the Holy Grail of online marketing, one class of content developer has emerged as the bête noire of search: the content farm.

Content farms are essentially clearing houses for cheaply created or “linked-out” content that are tagged and curated around popular search terms.  The growth of metadata tagging (which will only grow more sophisticated in HTML 5) within web pages and discrete assets (like video) embedded in pages has made the gaming of search results very successful for some marketing strategists and virtually transparent to the end-user.  The implications for small changes in search algorithms have potentially deep consequences, but the stakes are rarely discussed in technology and MBA programs that have invested in strategies aimed at the status quo.  These issues go to the heart of much of what we think about how the Web works and what value web searches actually have.

Within a decade, the ubiquity of content online has significantly eroded the publishing industry’s longstanding print-based revenue model. Newspaper, print book, and magazine sales have all experienced steady declines as people turn to the internet for its surfeit of free and instant information. Internet technology expert Clay Shirky frames the dilemma like this: “The core problem publishing solves —the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public— has stopped being a problem.”

Read more…

If you’re longing for a digital networking space that lets you easily share information with the different facets of your life, then put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list. (Assuming you can wrangle an invitation!)

If you’re longing for a digital networking space that lets you easily videoconference with 10 people while everyone watches (and chats about) the same YouTube clip, then put Google Plus (hangouts) at the top of your “to explore” list.

If you’re longing for a digital networking space that integrates functional email, real cloud-based documents, an attractive photo gallery … and lets you eavesdrop on conversations like Twitter does (no reciprocity required in setting up circles) … then put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list.

And if you long for a digital networking space that will allow you to easily and simultaneously communicate with people inside and outside of the space … then you must put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list.

In October 2009, Google launched Wave. The current launch, Google’s third foray into “social”, is nothing like Wave, except for the clamor to “let me in!”

With Google+, things work. The interface is clean, light, inviting. Engineers have anticipated how we might use existing shorthand (from Twitter and Facebook), such as replying in a comment thread by putting @ in front of someone’s name. They turn that @ into a + automagically and the name becomes a link to the person’s Google profile page. Read more…

Every manufacturer and OS developer out there seems to want a share of the next huge thing in consumer technology – and everyone seems to think that the next revolution is the tablet. Of course, the Apple iPad was the first to put the tablets in the hands of consumers. Accordingly, Apple pretty much defined the industry standard and currently “owns” the market.

Will every other tablet – Android or other – just become a “me too” product in a world defined by Apple? Read more…

It’s funny how pleased I am that I face yet another high-profile opportunity to have people watch the content that I create for free.  Snagfilms.com is currently featuring Independent America: Rising from Ruins on its homepage, and will distribute it through a number of other channels, including Hulu and hopefully Netflix at some point (my first film “The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop” is already on Hulu, and is heading for iTunes).  Sure, you can still push for more money via a broadcast TV license, but at least as an indie filmmaker, those are getting harder to find, and they’re paying less.  So we content ourselves with the “digital pennies” as the “analog dollars” slip away, with the sheer hope that online, multiple-channel exposure leads to benefits in other ways (i.e. keep your day job, build your own personal brand).

The world of content — especially professional content — continues to shift beneath our feet.  Three years ago, I used my first class as a digital media professor at the University of Washington to understand just what I had produced with that first “amateur” film of mine (I had been a professional journalist, but I had never filmed my own feature-length documentary before).  The title of the class?  “Selling the Message: The Business of User-Generated Content.”  The “business” then, was under threat from pseudo-amateurs like me, with the explosion of digital media capture tools (aka, cheap cameras) and distribution platforms (aka, YouTube).  The established, institutional studio system seemed to be under attack as this proliferation in new “voices” transformed media into yet another commodity.

But interestingly, despite this commoditization, apparent amateurization, and the uncertainty of the economy, somehow the increased availability of media online has also produced more demand for “professional” content.  Witness Steve Jobs’ remarks this week as as he introduced Apple TV: Read more…

I was a little exorcised last night when I read about Google and Verizon possibly two-timing the FCC on net neutrality. In the middle of industry/FCC discussion (at least nine meetings in seven weeks), Google and Verizon reportedly reached a deal to privilege YouTube bits.

My gut response was along the lines of “so this is what ‘do no evil’ means?”

I wrote about this at TheModerateVoice and syndicated the essay on Newsvine. The TMV post was featured in TheHill’s morning reads. (Blatant self-promotion.) Woot! Read more…

Microsoft recently announced that the consumer version of Office 2010  will soon be available for free: Office Web Apps. This might just make Google start sweating. If not, it should.

Let’s face it: given the choice between Google Docs and the polished, well-tested and universally approved Microsoft Office, which would you choose? Yep, Office. After all, then you know your recipient will be able to open, read and edit the document, know how it works and not have to sign up for any new account. Office is the industry standard. Now you can access the docs everywhere, without e-mailing them, carrying them on a flash drive or bringing your laptop to the site where you need your docs. You can log into any PC and get your stuff. You can get the docs on your mobile phone. It’s where you are when you need it. Read more…