Monday Morning Mix

How about starting the week off with a mix to get caught up…

• Tivo jumps on the iPod bandwagon by announcing compatibility between their TivoToGo and the new video iPods. Now there’s not much reason to buy that episode of Desperate Housewives from the iTunes store anymore, is there?
• Signal vs Noise, one of our favorite blogs to read, has turned comments off, after the noise got to be too noisy. Hopefully they cool down and bring comments back sooner rather than later, because that spirited debate was one of the best parts.
• WordPress.com, a free blog service based on the open-source blog WordPress, exited it’s beta period and launched over the weekend. Go grab yourself a free blog. Yes, it’s free.

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Google Analytics One Week Later

After a rough start last week with it’s new analytics tool, Google begins this week by suspending any new accounts and blaming it on extremely strong demand. Those of you wishing to create a new account this week, must submit your email address and wait for them to invite you back.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who created an account last week, you can still access them. However, it looks like adding additional sites to your account is turned off for now.

I guess crazy stuff like this can happen, when you take a $199 product and give it away for free.

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Top 50 Retailing Web Sites Named

Internet Retailer Magazine just announced their Top 50 Retailing Web Sites for 2006. The picks are in seven different categories and they range from giants such as Amazon, eBay and Best Buy all the way to smaller ventures like Vermont Teddy Bear.

If you check out some of the sites, you’ll see a lot of similarities. These sites are built for fast, easy use, yet they each manage to capture a branded look. Most of the sites seem to follow the Web usability advice in Steve Krug’s popular book, Don’t Make Me Think.

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Online Shopping Continues To Increase

Back when the Yellow Pages were about the only form of “search” for shopping, they launched a Yellow Pages campaign that suggested you should “let your fingers do the walking.” It was a good campaign at the time because it pointed to a real benefit and, of course, it was just about the only game in town. The Yellow Pages Association still uses a form of the “fingers” logo from the decades-old campaign.

Times have changed...mostly because of the Web and more specifically, search engines. We are approaching one billion searches per day on major search engines. People are letting their fingers do the walking, but this time it is on the keyboard. And unlike the old yellow pages, the Internet allows people to buy when they find where they want to shop.

A new study by WSL Strategic Retail, highlighted yesterday in a story on ClickZ, indicates a continuing increase in the percentage of people who shop online. The average shopper now spends an average of 3.1 hours per week online shopping. Another interesting fact is that much of this shopping occurs during the business day.

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Friday’s Fun Time Waster

Sometimes I feel like we’re a little too serious. We’re usually telling you about things like the $100 laptop, the latest Google beta product (Analytics) and where today’s marketing dollars are going (online).

Well, today being Friday, I’m inspired to introduce you to the Friday time waster. To kick it off, we have Readymechs, which you print and build. So today, while the boss isn’t looking, take 15 minutes and add some fun to your desk. I’m going to put together “Papercut of Death,” here shortly.

Bonus time waster: Cassette Jam ‘05, for the less crafty folks out there.

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