Month: January 2012

Don’t frustrate people with your website – Give them the information they need.

Posted by Jennifer – January 26, 2012

Today I am trying to complete a job which requires me to look at the websites of several specific firms, find out who is in charge of a particular area of practice and then call and/or email that person to ask a question.  The reason why I am doing this doesn’t matter, what does matter is that all four of the websites I just looked at did not provide me the information I needed. I could not identify who was in charge of the department I needed, and in most cases, I could not even identify the attorneys who practiced in the area I was researching.

Imagine I am a potential client, that I find your website, and then cannot figure out who to call. Potential clients aren’t going to comb through your website to figure out who to call or email. And while some people will be happy to fill out a general contact form, others will want to know exactly to whom they will be speaking or emailing.

Whether you already have a website or are looking to create a new one, please make certain that it is easy for potential clients to find the information and people they need so they can hire you.

Is Google Testing Integration of Google+ Posts in Your Market?

Posted by Jennifer – January 18, 2012

It seems that Google is testing how it will integrate Google+ search results.  While having a conversation about how Google would use nonpersonalized Google+ results I conducted a search on SOPA and found that Google put the Google+ search results on the right side of the page, where it normally puts ads. You will note I am not signed in to Google, so these results have nothing to do with my Google account.

I imagine Google is testing different ways of showing the Google+ results that will address concerns that having the social media results will negatively impact “true” web search. I also imagine Twitter is kicking itself for having terminated its relationship with Google.

I know search engine optimization folks are waiting to see what will happen. Personally, I find watching this very exciting. I am not sure when I became a social media/search engine optimization geek, but apparently I have.

For more information, see Google’s informational page. It really just provides information on how to set up a Google+ account or page.

 

 

Setting your Google+ profile image when it keeps resizing

Posted by Jennifer – January 17, 2012

Google+ offered the ability to create business pages somewhat recently and I finally got around to creating Freedman Consulting’s page a little while ago. Unfortunately, I experienced a substantial amount of frustration trying to set the profile picture. The process should have been easy enough, I didn’t have any trouble when I set up my personal Google+ account, but for whatever reason, no matter what I tried, the Freedman Consulting logo would resize every time so all I could get Google+ to show would be a big F.

I looked around and found that the Google+ profile picture should be 202×202 pixels. I resized the logo to that, no go. I even resized the logo to 10×10 pixels just to see what would happen, no go. Google still resized the logo so that all I could use was the F. As in Frustration! Or…well you know.

A little more searching showed me that I was not the only person to experience this problem. For some reason Google+ insists on resizing certain images. My guess is that it has something to do with the large amount of white in our Logo. I sent feedback to Google about the problem, but that didn’t solve my profile picture issue.  What to do?

The Solution

After some thought, I decided on something I thought would work. Fortunately it did.

1. I resized the logo to 202×202 pixels.
2. I created an empty image, and in that image I put a white background that was 400×400. (You should use whatever color blends in for your image.)
3. Then I dragged the resized logo into the middle of the white image and saved it.
4. I uploaded the combined image to Google+ and sure enough, I was able to resize my image properly and use the Freedman Consulting logo. Since the white blended in perfectly, no one could see what I had done.

Don’t forget to delete your old profile pictures, otherwise Google+ rotates the pictures.

 

 

Is Siri all that? Well, maybe, but it doesn’t include the bag of chips and Android does voice control better

Posted by Jennifer – January 17, 2012

Generally I don’t take sides in the Android/iPhone battle.  Having had both Android phones and iPhones, I think both have great qualities. I also think that iPhones are easier to use for those who don’t have the nature or inclination to tweak an Android phone to get it working just right.  However, I will say, that I think Android voice control is superior to iPhone’s Siri. Apparently I am not the only person who feels this way; Wozniak himself agrees. (Wozniak is the co-founder of Apple for people not in the know and a brilliant engineer.)

In the commercials Siri works perfectly. It does all of these amazing things that I would love to have my phone do. But in the real world I have watched people struggle to get Siri to respond properly. In a seminar I attended recently the instructor had trouble getting Siri to cooperate. He tried over and over again to get Siri to conduct searches and it just wouldn’t work properly. The answers were nonsensical, very limited, or the phone simply couldn’t understand him.

I know Siri is supposed to learn, but from what I have seen perhaps it doesn’t learn quickly enough. It also requires a connection to the Siri server to work, meaning if the server is down or the phone is unable to connect, the voice control is useless. The old iPhone voice control didn’t have this issue and the current Android doesn’t have it either. To me the server connection problem is a pretty major step backwards.

Would I like to have something that works as well as Siri seems to in its commercials? Yes. And I have absolutely no doubt that both the iPhone and Android phones will develop amazing voice control abilities in the future. But here is a simple reality; while it has improved substantially, voice control is limited because it has trouble understanding our various ways of speaking.  So though I ask my phone to call Ellen Freedman constantly, it always wants to call Allen Friedman. This is a problem on every phone.

Is Android voice control perfect? Far from it. Can it do everything Siri claims to be able to do? Nope. But for what it claims to do, make calls, start navigation, turn on music, conduct searches, and so on, generally the Android does it better and more accurately than Siri is currently capable of doing.  As a result of the issues I have seen, Siri seems to me more of a gimmick than a reality. I have said it before I am sure I will say it again; I don’t really have much use for gimmicks.

What’s a Honey Badger?

Posted by Jennifer – January 15, 2012

I used to be on top of new Internet memes.  What, you don’t know what a meme is?  It is just a way of referring to whatever crazy video, picture, catch phrase, etc. has spread across the Internet of late.

Honey badger (not safe for work) was the first time I realized I had lost my ability to keep up, hence the name of the post. Fortunately for me there is a site that generally does a good job of keeping up with the most recent meme so I can have half a clue what people are talking about.

So next time someone quotes something at you that makes no darn sense, just hop online and visit the Internet Meme Database so you can “Know Your Meme.” Similarly, the site Mashable offers a daily look at trending meme’s to help keep you up to date.