Archive for the ‘Site Reviews’ Category

Listening To Help – inboxQ

March 11th, 2011 - Jeff Turner

I’ve been using various tools as part of my  listening strategy on Twitter for a long time now. Few tools have impressed me as much as inboxQ.

Gahlord Dewald clued me in on this one. He knows how much I desire to listen and we have shared a common listening strategy for years. We try to listen to help. Gahlord likes to look for “the special hashtag people use when looking to be helped.” It’s called a question mark. And it’s a powerful hashtag indeed.

The folks at inboxQ understand this: “We started InboxQ because we realized that there were lots of questions being asked by people on Twitter but most weren’t receiving very useful answers. In fact, most questions go completely unanswered on Twitter.” And that’s a fact.

What inboxQ does is find that special hashtag for you. Pop in a few keywords and inboxQ begins scouring twitter, looking for people you can assist. Your first step is to create what they call “campaigns.”

A campaign is simply a category of keywords or hashtags used to delineate possible questions to be answered. You can create as many campaigns as you wish. The campaign opened for view above is called “wordpress.” And I’ve been using the inboxQ Chrome extension to answer questions using the Zeek Interactive account on Twitter for a few days now.

It  has been uncovering 20-30 questions each day.

You can answer the questions right in the extension’s window, without having to fire up Twitter or any of their third party apps, as you can see above. Of course, you can also see that I could be a bit more diligent about opening up the extension. Questions, after all, are best answered when someone is around to listen. Though, my results have been pretty good so far, even without constant attention.

Blog Post Fodder

Another thing the questions are good for is blog post ideas. I’m using the “TODO” tab to save questions I feel require more than 140 characters. Like these:

After a few days, the results have been very positive. I’ve been able to answer a few questions and create some good dialogue around WordPress, conversations we want to take part in. I’m not answering the question with any other desire than to help. But sometimes the questions open up an opportunity to talk about what we do as well. Witness this exchange:

I didn’t know James Hicks before I saw his question. And I know I would never have seen his question before inboxQ. I have no idea where it will lead, but I already consider the minute (total) I spent on it valuable. I hope James does as well.

What’s missing from inboxQ?

It does what it says it does really well, so there are only two things I’d really like to see added. First, the ability to add multiple accounts. I’d like to use the tool for other Twitter accounts I monitor, but it only allows for one account to be connected at a time right now. I can’t imagine this isn’t part of their future development strategy. Second, I’d like them to charge for it. I’m tired of seeing services like this drop off the map because they don’t have a way of making money. I’d pay for this one.

What kind of “listening to help” campaigns would you create?

 

 

Blown Away By Grooveshark

October 27th, 2010 - Steve Zehngut

We are currently working on the new website for Flashback Heart Attack, a fantastic local 80s cover band. As a part of the site, I wanted to build an 80s music playlist and embed it as a sidebar widget into their new site.

I’ve used Blip.fm in the past as a “Be Your Own DJ” type of service. Lately, however, Blip.fm just isn’t cutting it. Most of the songs I search for either aren’t available or I get some obscure version of the song. When I do find songs that I want to blip, they’re usually the YouTube video and the sound quality is typically terrible.

I asked my Facebook friends for a recommendation and they turned me on to GrooveShark. I’m totally blown away by this site! It is everything Blip.fm should have been and more. I highly recommend that you give it a spin.

Most of the songs I searched for were available and they were all high quality versions. For the few I didn’t find, I uploaded my own mp3 files to the library quickly. I created a playlist called “80s” and then added each of the songs I wanted into that list. Once I had the list the way I liked it, I clicked on the share link (under “options”) and created this widget.

The interface is simple and the whole site is very easy to use. I am not sure if any of this is legal or not, but it sure is fun! Enjoy!

More Control Equals More Sharing

September 29th, 2010 - Jeff Turner

I love SoundHound. So please don’t think I’m picking on them or hating on their app. I’m not.

In fact, I think the folks who built it are evil geniuses who probably sold their collective souls to the devil to be able to magically identify just about any song from a few seconds of sound sent streaming over the wireless internet while traveling at 70 miles per hour down the freeway, or even standing still.

But I don’t like their social sharing interface. Truth be told, I don’t like the social sharing interface for most apps. They too often force their thinly veiled sales pitches into the messages, either by brute force, not giving users the option to edit, or by hoping we’ll be too lazy to delete their suggested messages.

“Just used #SoundHound to find…” is a waste of precious Twitter characters in my opinion. That fact will be obvious to anyone who clicks on the link, since it will take them to a SoundHound song sample. And their brand message is not the message I want to send. If I’m sharing a song I’ve just heard on the radio, for example, I’m doing it because I like it, and want to lead others to it.

Give me more control. What I’d really like is for app creators to give me some options in the application preferences. In the example to the right, let me set my own default prefix for the song, artist and link. Let me choose my own #hashtag if I want. And let that be my new default message format. It would be a simple enough change to make and I, for one, would use SoundHound more often if I didn’t have to take the extra time to select and delete their advertising copy on every use.

Pandora makes a similar mistake with their web service. I’m assuming they’d both like people to use the sharing features or they wouldn’t put them there. If I could set my own default message, or get rid of theirs, at a minimum, I would probably play a larger role in leading people to their services. But I can’t, so I don’t. I gotta believe I’m not alone here.

Give me control. Give me a choice. I’ll share more. How about you?

Gist Nails The Gist Of A Simple Training Game

March 17th, 2010 - Jeff Turner

We love games here at Zeek Interactive. We play them. We make them.

And we’ve felt for a long, long time that games and learning were meant for each other. Our first training games were launched back in 1998 as part of a collaboration with AdOut. They were called “Monster Commands” and “Key Commando” and they taught the important key commands that made the AdOut production artists some of the most productive in the industry. They were a huge success. The employees loved them and within an hour, they had mastered key commands for programs like Photoshop, Quark and Illustrator that would otherwise have taken weeks or months to learn.

In 2003, we attempted to turn our game creation experience into a training solution for corporations. We created Motus Learning Systems with a couple of other partners to give it a focus. Motus built several demo games for different companies, and we even created a kids game to teach mousing skills. The initial illustrations for that kids game are shown above. And although this proved to be a short-lived venture for many reasons, it didn’t alter our belief that games are simply the best way to learn things that require repetition to master.

This past week, Gist launched their own training game. And I really like it.

Stated very clearly on the front page of their site, “Gist helps you build stronger relationships by connecting the inbox to the web to provide business-critical information about the people and companies that matter most.” Others, like Dustin Luther, have written about how Gist is helping them manage the many online relationships they’ve fostered. I like it too, but I really like their newest feature, a game called,  “Learn That Name.” And it does exactly what the name implies… it helps you learn the names and companies of the people you follow on social networks.

It’s a simple game, as most good training games are. You’re presented with a person’s avatar and you get points for guessing their name correctly. The faster you guess, the more points you get. Get it wrong and you lose 50 points. Each round is five people. For my taste, it’s just the right number. In my first round I achieved the “Super Socialite” level, though I was lucky to get five people I know pretty well. The second round labeled me a “Casual Networker.” I think the game could do a better job of sensing the sex of a contact. If I didn’t know that was Geoff Livingston, it would be a lot harder to figure out if all four names were male oriented.

The game strips off choices as the time clicks by and the points drop. So, if you don’t know who someone is, it helps you. If you don’t get the name right, you don’t get the option of the bonus question, which is “Where does <first name> work?” I wasn’t sure who this next guy was, so the game gave me some help.

I haven’t used Gist much since I loaded it, but I’ll be using it more now. I think they did a great job with the game. I can see lots of potential for categorizing contacts based on upcoming events, recent additions, high school classmates, etc. In fact, I’d download this app JUST to play this game. After just a few rounds, I’ve already become more familiar with some folks I’ve been trying to get to know over the past year. And I was surprised by some of the faces I recognized and how hard it was to place their name.

Kudos to Gist. Well done.

Good Or Bad, Design Influences Behavior – A Look At Feedly

February 18th, 2010 - Jeff Turner

I realized this morning that my behavior has changed dramatically over the past two weeks.

Two weeks ago I made Feedly the home page for Firefox on my desktop computer. I did it after going through a few sites I hadn’t visited in a while. It was an experiment of sorts. I’d given up on my Google Reader long ago in favor of human aggregation via my social networks. I wanted to see if it would bring some value back to the RSS feeds I had subscribed to in the past. It did.

Feedly’s design changed my behavior. Good or bad, design influences our behavior. The noise of the Google Reader format influenced my decision to give it up almost as much as the value of the social recommendations I migrated toward. The clean, magazine-style design of Feedly has cut out the noise and allowed me to get to more information faster, moving me back toward my targeted material. That’s a good thing.

If you’ve never given Feedly a try, I think it’s worth setting up an account and seeing how it impacts your own behavior. Here’s a quick video to illustrate my thoughts. If you’ve given Feedly a try, what are your thoughts?

Related reading: 5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock

Testing Google Chrome for Mac

December 8th, 2009 - Steve Zehngut

Quick Review

google_chrome_logo_250I am writing this post using Google Chrome (beta 4.0.249.30) for the Mac. I have only spent 10 minutes with Google’s new browser, but so far I am impressed. The UI is clean and simple. As a recent Android convert, I appreciate the minimalistic design approach across all the entire Google product line.

It’s faster.

The backend of WordPress renders much faster than it does in Forefox due to Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine (Cnet’s JS Speed Test). I never realized how much time I was spending waiting for Javascript pages to load until right now.

Speed is a major benefit, but there are several other things I like about Chrome.

  • First, tabs open next to the current tab you are working on. This is subtle, but important. If you have a number of tabs open in Firefox, a new tab open at the far right side. It’s easy to get lost switching back and forth between open tabs. I noticed this refreshing change immediately.
  • Second, when you view source code, it displays in a tab rather than opening a new window. I prefer tabbed interfaces as it minimizes clutter on my desktop.
  • And finally, favicons are displayed in the bookmarks bar – nice touch.

The only thing missing is the Google Search Bar. How could they leave that one out?

I’ll add more comments to this post as I continue to work with Chrome. What are your initial reactions?

Screenr Will Be A Great Customer Service Tool

August 19th, 2009 - Jeff Turner

I have delayed launching a real Twitter account for Real Estate Shows for a long time.

We want to have the Twitter account be relevant and beneficial to our customers. Brad Coy sent me a DM this morning that included a link to a new Screencasting site that is built around sharing via Twitter and I think it will become an important part of how we eventually use our company Twitter account.

Screenr is the name of the service and it does one thing very well and very simply. It records what you’re doing on your computer screen and saves it to be shared via Twitter. Here is an example below:

As you can see, the quality is excellent. It works on both a PC and a Mac and can be viewed on iPhones. Additionally, you can download the resulting MP4 file and with the click of a button, share on YouTube as well. With very little training, our customer service staff will be able to publicly address customer service questions with simple demonstrations and share them with all of our clients via Twitter.

I like it.

My Favorite Lorem Ipsum Generator

August 9th, 2009 - Jeff Turner

Everyone Loves Lorem Ipsum!

I don’t know what I’d do without it, personally. This is my favorite lorem ipsum generator.

It’s great for getting just the right amount of lorem ipsum for the moment. Like this: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam pellentesque, velit a luctus porta, nisi diam interdum nulla, eu aliquet erat justo eget orci. Vivamus sed tellus nec nunc hendrerit gravida. Donec neque pede, porttitor et, congue at, gravida a, turpis. Maecenas commodo turpis non nisl. Suspendisse potenti. Nam a arcu.

Vivamus scelerisque. Mauris sodales neque sed elit. Vivamus ornare enim et enim. Quisque sed ante. Nulla facilisi. Curabitur purus. Ut rutrum molestie dolor. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Aenean mattis nulla.

Praesent venenatis ipsum in diam cursus faucibus. Donec lectus. Mauris elit tortor, imperdiet a, pretium eu, vulputate vel, diam. Praesent massa augue, pretium sed, facilisis eu, semper viverra, mi. Etiam sem. Aenean aliquam justo in nulla. Curabitur at leo. Vivamus feugiat molestie dui. Donec iaculis pretium metus. Pellentesque sit amet pede non odio placerat ultrices. Maecenas consectetuer. Cras euismod. Fusce egestas. Phasellus quis diam at mi tempus ultricies. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Praesent eleifend est eget nisl.

Nullam sit amet elit. Mauris vel enim. Duis sit amet libero eu dui adipiscing rhoncus. Sed consequat magna. Vivamus nulla augue, vehicula vel, iaculis in, gravida eu, lacus. Donec ligula nulla, imperdiet vitae, vestibulum non, lobortis non, urna. Praesent mattis, sem at rhoncus consectetuer, arcu nulla bibendum leo, ac molestie tortor augue at erat. Praesent mauris. Phasellus suscipit mauris eu nisi. Donec vitae velit. Vestibulum ac nunc. Nam malesuada libero sit amet tortor.

Google Voice – A Few Hiccups, But Great Promise

March 12th, 2009 - Jeff Turner

Ever since I received my invite to GrandCentral.com, I have held steadfastly to the belief that it was going to be a winner. I think my excitement was evident in March of 2007 when I wrote, “GrandCentral Called And I Answered.

When Google purchased GrandCentral in July, 2007, I replaced my regular phone number with my GrandCentral number. Today, that decision was validated by Google’s launch of Google Voice. The new feature list is impressive. You can read them there for yourself.

A Few Hiccups.

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I couldn’t wait to try one of the new features, conference calling. So, I sent out a twitter message to see how many people I could get on one call – using the same number I’ve had for the last two years. The first test was solid, except for my own error in hitting a couple of wrong keys. At one point I had five others on the line with me. The only failure, attempts to record the conference call all failed.

Undaunted I attempted another call later in the day, this time in a more controlled test. I reached out to three friends using Facebook chat, Stacy Lang, Ines Hegedus-Garcia and Nicole Nicolay. Stacy, on a Verizon cell phone, had no issue getting through, but both Ines and Nicole could not get through on their AT&T cell phones. When they both switched to land lines we were able to have our four way conference call without issue, but still unable to record. I was also unable to record any one-on-one conversations today.

The Great Promise

I sent a text message a few moments ago to someone who called me during dinner. I didn’t listen to their message. I just read the transcription and sent a text message to let them know I’d call them in the morning – without ever leaving Google Voice. I copied and pasted a portion of the transcription in to my Google Calendar to remind me in the AM to make the phone call. Life is good.

The transcription is not perfect, but it’s good enough to get a sense of what is being said. Here is a sample that came as a result of my pushing the wrong buttons on the first conference call. This is the exact transcription: “hey jeff ken montvale saw your we don’t we’re about testing this out thought i’d give it a shot and got this recording talk to you later bye.” And here is the actual message:

The new interface is a vast improvement over the old GrandCentral interface. It’s easier to navigate, cleaner, more feature packed. Google Voice lets me create multiple widget configurations too. GrandCentral didn’t. If you click on this one, for example, you will only get my voicemail. :)


I think I’m in love again.

TweetGrid – A Quick Tutorial

November 27th, 2008 - Jeff Turner

If anything qualifies as sane technology, TweetGrid does. And since I finished this quick video, upon my request, @JazzyChad has added a “ReTweet” feature that will come in very, very handy. :)


TweetGrid – A Quick “How To” from respres on Vimeo.

A Quick Look At PicLens

May 28th, 2008 - Jeff Turner

Thanks to Teresa Boardman for turning me on to this browser plugin.

PicLens “transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing photos and videos across the web. With one click, PicLens makes online media come to life via an immersive presentation that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser.”

I’ll never look at Flickr the same way again!

LinkBun.ch Does One Thing Very Well

May 14th, 2008 - Jeff Turner

It puts a whole bunch of links into one link.

Here’s an example: http://linkbun.ch/cf3 If you’ve ever tried to get more than one link into a text message or over on Twitter, you’ll understand why this will be a useful little tool. And because it does one thing, it’s painfully simple.

Go to LinkBun.ch. Type the links you want to link to into the field provided, one link per line.

LinkBun.ch Home Page

Click on “Bunch” and get your link.

LinkBun.ch Result

Enjoy. :)