middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Having worked with Yahoo! at two agencies across pretty much all of its products (including Search with Ged as a client!), I was a bit sad to hear about the job cuts in the pipeline and read some of the more cutting articles that appeared after the financial results. A lot of people have pointed to the fact that Yahoo! lacks any sort of vision and has yet to deliver a solid product roadmap that gets people all excited about its future again.

Now, I know that really recently Yahoo! revealed it is testing Del.icio.us results being incorporated into Yahoo! Search, but I’m still left with that nagging feeling that I’ve had for months that they are failing to make the most out of what is one of the most essential things on the web for me today - Del.icio.us. Now I didn’t get on board with Del.icio.us until 2006, March 18th to be precise - when I saved my first bookmark, a guide to free open source software on Open Source Mac. But, since then I’ve fed it like a beast and have saved over 2000 links to valuable, interesting stuff. If I lost all of those links I would be really rather unhappy indeed. In fact, I regularly back them up. Not that it would be the same but at least I’d have some record of all those amazing things I’ve found on the net.

Anyway, I’ve digressed a bit. My point is that even though I’d consider myself a fairly heavy user, I never really use any of the other features like saving links for other people or using the delicious network to find links from other people. Instead, I either stumble into someone’s bookmarks after they pop up in search results or go on a bit of a bookmark Safari after checking out someone’s blog that includes a link to their del.icio.us profile. I also think that the only person whose delicious master feed I get over RSS is Lynette Webb at Google (more on Lynette here). Surely that’s a bit odd - am I alone in this?

So the big question. Why doesn’t Yahoo! work more closely with Del.icio.us and integrate it FULLY into the Yahoo! Search experience? Surely, it’s sitting on a goldmine of filtered information - hand selected and saved information from human beings across the planet. Even just a custom simplified big search box start page (crude mock-up above!) that defaulted to searching the del.icio.us network and a better UI for the results would be a start. Just like we’ve learnt with Twitter, the Google homepage and countless other examples (very recently Instapaper too) - simple is best when it comes to the tools used to manage information. Sometimes it’s better to strip back features than serve everything up in one go.

Now that’s just one thing that could be done. There’s heaps of other stuff that I’m sure is possible. I just don’t see whay it’s taking Yahoo! so long. Remember - it was December 2005 that Yahoo! bought Del.icio.us - over 2 years ago. That’s ages in web-time, especially at a time when Yahoo! needs to pull a rabbit out the hat more than ever before.

I’ve said it before and I know I’ll definitely say it again, but I really do love the Internet and everything (nearly) that it enables.

My dad (self-confessed technophobe) has just set up his brand spanking new internet radio (Roberts WM201) - using the easy to use Netgear browser interface and adding the radio manually by MAC address to the trusted access list. I was able to go to the Roberts website, download the manual and run through the whole set-up procedure with him.

He’s now happily surfing over 6,000 internet radio stations and checking out on demand content from BBC Radio 4 from his study in the Northumbrian hills (where he can’t get FM because of said hills and only just gets broadband because of the distance to the nearest exchange).

And for I think perhaps the first time ever, dad’s got a piece of kit I haven’t got! Bit jealous really . . .

Nice one dad and thank you Internet.

Problogger serves up a great list of tools you should check out if you haven’t already. Some on there I haven’t used and am going to check out. If I had to pick three completely indespensible ones mentioned it would be Imagewell, Cyberduck and Twitterific.

Iain has also just posted about MacHeist too. Loads of rather useful looking apps for just $49.

Full list here. Obviously nice to see Bite clients Facebook and Apple on the honours list.

Umm, haven’t we agreed all this already? (via Open/Anthony)

Without developing the detail right now, let me suggest that traditional models of advertising where vendors pay for messages to be delivered to prospective customers will be challenged longer-term by various forms of collaboration marketing and advisory services where customers pay trusted advisors to recommend relevant products and services….

Unfortunately, this short-term advertising revenue growth has had a narcotic effect and made a lot of online businesses lazy. Longer-term, I anticipate that most businesses online will have to make money the old fashioned way – by offering products, services and experiences so valuable that people will actually pay money for them. Those who begin to develop this discipline today will profit in the long-term.

This year, I’m really looking forward (me included) to more action and less words from everyone. It’s about time we put all our shared thinking into practice, stopped just agreeing with each other and do as we say/think. I know that Stephen is feeling the same and Will blatently agrees, so come on, let’s make that resolution, if you haven’t made it already.

As Hugh said (and so did Robert Stephens of GeekSquad) advertising is increasingly becoming a ‘tax you pay for unremarkable thinking’.

I really like this idea and will be trying my hardest from here on in to help brands I work with think remarkably and execute on amazing things. Or am I just adding more words and no action . . . !?

I love this. Incredibly simple idea, but one that someone else had and did first - Sixt. And guess what, the ads apparently never ran because of the Google terms and conditions . . . the idea itself is the thing that everyone’s talking about, fuelled by the mocked up ads created for people (like me) to share.

Via here via here.

Happy new year, have a good Christmas (?) etc to everyone.

Ged tagged me over Christmas to help fuel the “My Week In Media” meme that came off the back of this and this. Back then I was sat on a sofa in Northumbria with a patchy broadband connection so I decided to leave a comment directly over at Ged’s, which has since randomly gone AWOL. Now the meme is growing (full list here), I feel obliged to take part, even though as I haven’t been at home or work over the past week so this is a weird twisted version of what would normally be my week in media.

1) What I’ve read
Daily Mail, every single day. I’ve been staying at my parents house and yes I do try telling them.
News of the World, back to front a few times. Hmm.
Hello! magazine. Jesus Christ there are some messed up things to be seen in there. Jordan, Andre and the kids dressed as a Nativity scene in particular.
Guardian, bits of.
Scotts of Stow catalogue, a few times.
Maplin catalogue, as above. They have inverters for about £30 so you can plug 240v mains into your car. I’m getting one.
Microtrends, like loads of other people I bet I got this as a present. I’ve read the intro, the first few microtrends and skipped to Social Geek.
Stuff on my Cat, the book. Was working with Yahoo! a couple of years ago when the site this book is based on was nominated with a Finds of the Year award. The Blue Cross charity wrote to us to complain. The book is still funny mind.
Instruction manuals, lot of. I got loads of amazing presents for Christmas, including a Canon 400D and Guitar Hero for the Wii. As Hugh would say, rock on!
Online I haven’t been as active, with next to no 3G where I was and that patchy broadband connection to cope with. When I did get online I check my feeds in Google Reader and scan Twitter/Techmeme mainly. For an instant hit or just to find something nice and interesting, I check out popurls. Usually I’ll be all over stuff, but in the past week I haven’t.

2) What I’ve watched
As people have pointed out, Christmas TV was fairly cack, so I’ve mainly watched movies and the odd bit of TV.
Transformers, a few times.
Simpsons movie, just the once. Good but is just like one big episode though don’t know what else I was expecting.
Most Haunted, Series 8. I can’t help it. I like it and got the box set.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Can’t decide if Simon is a cock or not.
Local news in Northumbria. Genius, nice bit of Look North.

3) What I’ve listened to
Pandora, lots of.
Linus Loves, Stage Invader.
Justice, Cross.
Radio 1 in the car.
Radio 4 at my parents house.
Lots of dog barking.
Kids talking on their own language (Favourite is that “Rips” = Father Christmas)

Now, I’m going to try and get the digital peeps to take part so I tag Iain, Yacco, Flo, Faris and Amelia who I don’t think have taken part yet.