~ making twitter a useful communications channel ~

I started a little experiment last week and it seems to be getting traction. The idea was to see if there was some way to extract more value from Twitter. Like a lot of my friends, I found Twitter to be less than useful -- jammed up with announcements about mundane habits and trivia which really was just a waste of time. Micro-blogging wasn't living up to its potential. The question became: How to get some quality content out of this medium?

~ a review of BBC web design over time ~

One of my favorite news sources, the BBC's online news site (http://news.bbc.co.uk), just underwent a minor facelift. The changes, while aesthetically small, show improvements in usability and reflect the ongoing logical evolution of the site.

Here's a quick snapshot of how the interface of this influential site has changed over the years. For comparison purposes, all the screenshots below show the use of screen space relative to a 1024 x 768 display setting.

~ a comparative review of the political campaign websites of clinton, obama and mccain ~

Those of you who know me appreciate that I am so non-political that I verge on anti-political. Given that, you would probably never suspect me to post on the American political scene, but yet here it is.

This post comes on the heels of a request from the Web Marketing Association to review the websites of the two Democratic presidential contenders, that is, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The exercise proved more interesting than ever I expected, primary due to the insight it gives into the way the political machines are embracing the Internet and social media.

So, for all you armchair political observers, and also for those of you sincerely interested in these presidential puppet shows, I've assembled a quick snapshot of the Virtual Campaign Trail -- a overview of what the three leading candidates are doing online today.

Just back from Singapore. Was there to speak at the EyeForTravel Travel Distribution Summit -- this is basically a show to discuss channel management for the travel industry. The trade show and the sessions are largely focused these days on what is happening with the Internet, as it presently shapes travel in very significant ways.

I did a panel discussion on Web 2.0 with people from Lonely Planet and the Millenium Group. I also did a one hour workshop on Search Marketing. The workshop was a "How-To" and was very well attended (I think largely due to the fact that the conference features very few practicums.)

The presentation for the Search Marketing workshop is online and can be viewed in your browser. Of course, since this went with a discussion, some of it is a bit lacking in detail, but nonetheless, I think you may find it interesting. You can view the search marketing presentation at http://www.waterandstone.com/seo

For those of you interested in travel in general, some Singapore pics are up on my Flickr account.

Enjoy!

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