tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19561858187382799722024-02-19T16:38:33.580-08:00Spanish Gringo by Michael FreemanRandom musings about technology, politics, business, and surfingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-61999853953671415142014-03-30T22:46:00.000-07:002014-03-30T22:53:13.888-07:00How to Remove Outlook Items from Finder Smart Folders for Mac<h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
OSX Finder Search Criteria to Remove Outlook Items from Smart Folders</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-JV8kyQAteujLL-AipS-738u7s87TC0mt2-V92Fm-YlkYLZPCdqbKebfQ4ZEPcGIMQ8UAOkCtg5uj-dDfjFSEHZ4YDRh-TSAikhtApLjFeaCK3b9roB5qJmkNDoUUZEj4-1wZooZsyun0/s1600/filters-exclude-outlook-finder-mac.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-JV8kyQAteujLL-AipS-738u7s87TC0mt2-V92Fm-YlkYLZPCdqbKebfQ4ZEPcGIMQ8UAOkCtg5uj-dDfjFSEHZ4YDRh-TSAikhtApLjFeaCK3b9roB5qJmkNDoUUZEj4-1wZooZsyun0/s1600/filters-exclude-outlook-finder-mac.png" height="288" width="640" /></a></div>
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<ol>
<li>Open up a smart folder or add search criteria to a Finder Search</li>
<li>Press the option/alt key and press the "..." button</li>
<li>Change the option grouping to "NONE"</li>
<li>Add the necessary filter criteria to exclude the right file types</li>
<li>Save</li>
</ol>
<br />
Here are the parameters for the <b>NONE</b> section:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14MsgSource</b></li>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14MsgAttach</b></li>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14MsgFolder</b></li>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14ExSyncMap</b></li>
<li>Kind is Other: <b>olk14_message </b>(actual email messages)</li>
<li>Kind is Other: <b>olk14_event </b>(actual calendar events)</li>
</ul>
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Once you add these filters to your smart folder's search criteria, you can once again enjoy "normal" searches and escape all of the clutter. Enjoy.<br />
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<h3>
Why is This Even a Post I'd Write? What's Wrong with Outlook & Finder on Mac?</h3>
I am a recent convert from Windows to Mac. Overall, the transition has been fairly easy. I absolutely love the immediacy of powering on as well as waking up from sleep mode. It's pretty close to instantaneous, which is something that Windows, although getting better, has never been able to do for me. I also love the serious battery life I get from this powerful machine.<br />
<br />
That being said, there are a few annoyances that I still face. I missed window snapping from Windows but I found a great $1.99 app called <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=12" target="_blank">BetterSnapTool</a>, which is the best $1.99 I've spent in a long time.<br />
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Another problem I've had is with Finder and the smart folders. It is pretty amazing how bad Finder is when you consider how advanced Apple is in so much of its software design. Anyway, at work we are an Exchange/Outlook shop and haven't embraced Google Apps. That was a difficult adjustment to go back to Outlook from Gmail/GCal, but it's doable.<br />
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My main complaint though is that since Microsoft uses the Spotlight search engine in OSX to power its Outlook search, all (AND I MEAN ALL) files that are modified and created by Outlook appear in finder search results. I like using "recent" smart folders that will show either files or folders that I've recently opened or modified.<br />
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Unfortunately, there are hundreds, <i><b>if not thousands</b></i>, of small emails and files that are constantly being opened and modified by the system when Outlook is running. So, if you click on the recent files folder, you end up seeing a sea of email messages and temp attachment files instead of the actual documents, images, etc. that you were recently working with.<br />
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After multiple searches I couldn't really find an easy way to exclude those types of files from appearing in the finder search. I eventually stumbled onto <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/apple-in-the-enterprise/expanding-spotlight-advanced-tips-for-the-finder-window/" target="_blank">this post with advanced finder tips</a>. In there, I saw a tip that if you press the alt/option key you can create an option group to change the search criteria from AND, OR, & NONE. These groups can be combined and with that I knew what to do. (BTW, this is anything but intuitive... so much for Apple always being so easy to use).<br />
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By having that NONE option, I was able to add the right criteria to remove all Outlook items from my search folders.<br />
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Here it is again so you don't need to scroll up if you haven't already added this to your finder's search criteria.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-JV8kyQAteujLL-AipS-738u7s87TC0mt2-V92Fm-YlkYLZPCdqbKebfQ4ZEPcGIMQ8UAOkCtg5uj-dDfjFSEHZ4YDRh-TSAikhtApLjFeaCK3b9roB5qJmkNDoUUZEj4-1wZooZsyun0/s1600/filters-exclude-outlook-finder-mac.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-JV8kyQAteujLL-AipS-738u7s87TC0mt2-V92Fm-YlkYLZPCdqbKebfQ4ZEPcGIMQ8UAOkCtg5uj-dDfjFSEHZ4YDRh-TSAikhtApLjFeaCK3b9roB5qJmkNDoUUZEj4-1wZooZsyun0/s1600/filters-exclude-outlook-finder-mac.png" height="288" width="640" /></a></div>
Here are the parameters for the <b>NONE</b> section:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14MsgSource</b></li>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14MsgAttach</b></li>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14MsgFolder</b></li>
<li>File extension is <b>olk14ExSyncMap</b></li>
<li>Kind is Other: <b>olk14_message </b>(actual email messages)</li>
<li>Kind is Other: <b>olk14_event </b>(actual calendar events)</li>
</ul>
<br />
Once you add these filters to your smart folder's search criteria you can once again enjoy "normal" searches and escape all of the clutter. Enjoy.<br />
<br />
I hope that the new Office for Mac that is rumored to be developed will fix this problem so it won't be necessary. We'll have to see. However, the truth is that I'd be happier on Gmail anyway.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-24509017564004850412014-01-07T16:32:00.002-08:002014-01-08T17:08:53.509-08:00It's Hard to Predict the Future of MarketingFor the last few years I've always enjoyed reading <a href="https://twitter.com/randfish" target="_blank">Rand</a> <a href="http://moz.com/rand/" target="_blank">Fishkin's</a> online <a href="http://moz.com/blog/6-predictions-for-the-marketing-world-in-2014" target="_blank">marketing predictions for the upcoming year</a>. As Moz has evolved, so have the breadth of the predictions included in each year's forecast. It is fun as well as interesting to get these insights from someone who is so deeply involved in the online space and actually spends time thinking about these things.<br />
<br />
Unlike most bloggers or other folks who make predictions, Rand actually holds himself accountable by <b>grading the accuracy of his predictions</b> from the previous year. That fact alone makes these predictions a more interesting read - these are thoughtful and educated guesses on the future, not just some random person bloviating (like most talking heads on TV).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LWYUMhug4-eJXLsYIn1vDrbgr8wm0tACGsUb0EVpiNpeNfX1q4Q4MIqK_Wb_RhCV_xCjGdDlE5px2gnAHsxtlSXpSaSuPxaQSXbEklO_DHpTUhUB_urXgwmV-2T5pkqZocxDs5MpALeW/s1600/_marketing_trends_in_2014__-_Google_Search.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LWYUMhug4-eJXLsYIn1vDrbgr8wm0tACGsUb0EVpiNpeNfX1q4Q4MIqK_Wb_RhCV_xCjGdDlE5px2gnAHsxtlSXpSaSuPxaQSXbEklO_DHpTUhUB_urXgwmV-2T5pkqZocxDs5MpALeW/s1600/_marketing_trends_in_2014__-_Google_Search.png" height="161" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How many of these authors will do a post-mortem on how accurate they were?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Most predictions are hard to get right, especially the further out you look into the future (I'm still not seeing a lot of flying cars despite what I was told when I was a kid). Shorter term forecasts tend to be more accurate. However, Marketing, especially online, is an increasingly more complex and dynamic area that makes it much harder to understand and predict (accurately) what will happen. Even someone who is as immersed in online marketing as Rand finds it very hard to correctly predict the next 12 months.<br />
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Here's a quick plot of Rand's self-graded scores on his predictions. The bars represent the range of possible scores he could get (each year the # of questions vary).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPaEEvqipWvvQU9_bFeZ9R9H-3F9fbWbWOxdjV-_HmMVfE84S3dHLSjiK9kA15Ap0KygimHnn8nwDa1nUe6FfeXdJcdDnhRGcKSQyL1ltnmm6MAlsxWMiP5zsj19hC8YMTFpLsS-kbheKq/s1600/rand-predictions-marketing-seo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPaEEvqipWvvQU9_bFeZ9R9H-3F9fbWbWOxdjV-_HmMVfE84S3dHLSjiK9kA15Ap0KygimHnn8nwDa1nUe6FfeXdJcdDnhRGcKSQyL1ltnmm6MAlsxWMiP5zsj19hC8YMTFpLsS-kbheKq/s1600/rand-predictions-marketing-seo.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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He is only modestly above 55% despite being an early pioneer in SEO and being the CEO of an important <a href="http://moz.com/" target="_blank">online marketing software company</a>. To me, this says less about Rand's ability to predict the future and more about the complexity and dynamism of Marketing today. Part of that is because Marketing is <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaarthur/2012/02/08/five-years-from-now-cmos-will-spend-more-on-it-than-cios-do/" target="_blank">growing in its influence and scope</a>. Everyone wants to <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/modern-company/blog/the-great-marketing-software-consolidation-begins/" target="_blank">get in on the game</a>. Another reason is the explosion of data, touch points and opportunities for interaction with customers and building relationships. As technology enables quicker innovation, the future gets more and more blurry when it comes to predicting specific details even if <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/secret-ingredients-of-better-marketing" target="_blank">overall trends</a> and patterns do become more clear to us.<br />
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2014 is a very exciting time for marketers. It's up to us to not only watch to see what happens, but to make the future a reality.<br />
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@Rand, I'm looking forward to next year's post (and those that come in between of course).<br />
<br />
For those that are interested here are each of the predictions posts from other years:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://moz.com/blog/6-predictions-for-the-marketing-world-in-2014" target="_blank">Rand's predictions for 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://moz.com/blog/10-predictions-for-inbound-marketing-in-2013" target="_blank">Rand's predictions for 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://moz.com/blog/8-predictions-for-seo-in-2012" target="_blank">Rand's predictions for 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://moz.com/blog/7-predictions-for-seo-in-2011" target="_blank">Rand's predictions for 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://moz.com/blog/8-predictions-for-seo-in-2010" target="_blank">Rand's predictions for 2010</a></li>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-31190529484178707562013-08-27T10:59:00.001-07:002013-09-11T12:34:05.724-07:00Better Inbound Marketing Analytics - My Presentation at INBOUND 2013<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolMK5U0VMHnib3KNyTBumx2_6L-cidfpFveKNfCfJcMSWaPFT4DFiJ3diOsgyxSiaBqEQEsLjxndtnP8fVVt7Ee-AjIj1Cu1N-SXQQ1r0-KgZuZihV2BOqGaqscc_nrf_4fcI14wTJX0Q/s1600/inbound-bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolMK5U0VMHnib3KNyTBumx2_6L-cidfpFveKNfCfJcMSWaPFT4DFiJ3diOsgyxSiaBqEQEsLjxndtnP8fVVt7Ee-AjIj1Cu1N-SXQQ1r0-KgZuZihV2BOqGaqscc_nrf_4fcI14wTJX0Q/s320/inbound-bw.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was pretty remarkable</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I had a lot of fun presenting at <a href="http://www.inbound.com/">inbound 2013</a>. I think it went over well and the crowd enjoyed it. My hope is that my talk could resonate with people who currently don't spend enough time doing analysis. I suspect that the audience was already biased to probably like it because folks who care about Analytics already are more likely to attend the session.<br />
<br />
We all win, when we start looking at the data and thinking creatively about it instead of just "reporting" how great our department is, etc...<br />
<br />
BTW, if you don't know any RegEx, please read my post on why <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/modern-company/blog/marketers-should-know-regular-expressions-regex/">every Marketer should know RegEx</a>. It may seem scary at first, but with just 15 minutes of practice you can start doing very cool stuff with it.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="410" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/25649181?rel=0" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="660"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/spanishgringo/michael-freemanletsgetcookingwithadvmarketinganalyticsinbound2013finalsplit-25649181" target="_blank" title="Let'ss Get Cookin' with Advanced Marketing Analytics - #INBOUND 2013">Let's Get Cookin' with Advanced Marketing Analytics - #INBOUND 2013</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/spanishgringo" target="_blank">Michael Freeman</a></strong> <br />
<br />
I'm keeping my fingers crossed to be asked back for Inbound 2014. If' you'd like that, <a href="http://www.inbound.com/feedback" target="_blank">let the HubSpotters know</a>. I had hoped that the session would have been recorded. Maybe next year it could be.<br />
<br />
The slides from the other presentations at Inbound 2013 can be found on <a href="http://www.inbound.com/slides" target="_blank">their site here</a>. So much knowledge to learn. Take your time and let it sink in. I know that I had to miss a lot of sessions because of schedule conflicts. I hope that I can get 80% of the value from reviewing the decks of the sessions I missed.<br />
<br />
If you want to use the GA Campaign Tracking code, we've made it available for public use from github:<br />
<a href="https://github.com/ShoreTelSky/ga-campaign-tracking">https://github.com/ShoreTelSky/ga-campaign-tracking</a><br />
<br />
Would love to hear your comments below or just reach out via <a href="https://twitter.com/spanishgringo">Twitter @spanishgringo</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-44411433258515039662013-08-26T12:37:00.000-07:002013-08-26T12:37:07.795-07:00Better CRM Compliance by Sales Through More Signals & Less Noise<h2>
HubSpot's New Lead Tracking App Looks Promising</h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">If No Sales Reps Use It, CRM Means <em>Crappy Record Mismanagement</em></span></h3>
The biggest problem in any CRM deployment is getting compliance from your salespeople to actually use the tool. I can't tell you how many companies I've seen, large and small, who have spent <em>a lot of time and energy</em> implementing CRM or CRM-like tools (both off the shelf apps like <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/" target="_blank">Salesforce</a> and <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/default.aspx" target="_blank">Microsoft Dynamics</a> and fully custom in-house apps), only to have none of their sales reps use the CRM or only do the bare minimum within it. Many still manage their leads in Outlook or Excel or just a plain old fashioned notebook. In my opinion. there tends to be much better usage and compliance actively using the CRM by services/support departments than sales. Not a big surprise given the inherent natures and incentives of those different types of departments. <br />
<br />
In fairness to all of the sales dept's that I may have slighted just now by speaking an inconvenient truth, I understand why so many still refuse/ resist using the CRM to track lead activities. All humans, and especially sales reps are people of habit. Few people like change, being told what to do or feeling micro managed, especially sales. However, the way that most CRMs are deployed these days that <strong>is exactly</strong> what IT or Management is asking of the sales department. You must change. You must do things <em>this way</em> from now on AND we are going to tell you that you can't even use the normal email program that you've used for years. Plus you need to log everything (wasting your precious time) you do in a separate tool so we can track you (to make sure you are selling and working hard enough). Right or wrong, that at least is how the reps usually perceive it. <br />
<br />
The saddest part about this non-compliance trend is that the reps actually would (and for those who use it already do) benefit from leveraging the CRM and putting their data and activities in there. The president of our cloud division, Keith Nealon, always says that a well maintained CRM database is one of the most strategic revenue generating assets that any company could have. He's right. You just need to figure out a way to convince salespeople to add value to the CRM. <br />
<br />
The trick to getting better CRM compliance breaks down into two separate but related strategies:<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Help reps close immediate opportunities </strong></li>
<li><strong>Let reps keep using the everyday tools they love</strong></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ping It On</span></h3>
CRM advocates have always made the argument to sales departments that it is in their interest to use the CRM extensively because if they have richer data, that database will help them eventually sell more. Cleaner lead and account histories help you better identify dead leads that might be worth contacting again as well as who to avoid. More detailed information lets reps learn from others on what works and what doesn't and also helps them better prepare how they want to approach a prospect, etc...<br />
<br />
That's all true. But sales is the most "now" focused dept. in any company. That tends to fit their personalities, but it also is reinforced with monthly and quarterly quotas. They have a ton of pressure to worry about the <em>immediate</em> and not the <em>future</em>. They are not alone either. We all know more or less that if we eat more vegetables, have less salt and exercise more we'd live longer and healthier lives, yet few can say no to that piece of cheesecake (or pizza or doughnut, etc.) sitting in front of them. Now usually trumps later.<br />
<br />
That's where <a href="http://getsignals.com/">Signals from HubSpot</a> comes in. I just learned about it at Inbound 2013. I sat through the product overview session and was able to meet with the two team leads on the project. I think that this <em>has a real chance</em> at getting sales reps to see the value of the CRM. I won't go into the full details on everything it, but one of the main values it has is that it gives your reps immediate feedback on active opportunities. Reps get a small ping like notification when people they send email to view their sent emails as well as when they check out links included in those emails, visit the sales rep's website and other interesting moments that occur in the sales funnel. <br />
<br />
The appeal for sales reps is that they have easy to use, actionable info on their leads right from the two most common tools they already use: the browser (Chrome on PC & Mac for now) and Microsoft Outlook (for Windows). One of the truest clichés is that time is money. For a rep, any time saved is more time to potentially improve their pipeline and you always want to take action at the right moment. Reaching the right person at the right time can make all of the difference. Without this immediate signal, reps are just guessing on when the right time will be to send that email or pick up the phone to talk to the right person who's ready to buy.<br />
<br />
The analogy I came up with when first learning about the tool is to imagine an EMT driving around the city randomly, looking for sick or injured people who need to be taken to the hospital. That's ridiculous, I know. We have 911 and that is a big honking signal that tells the driver when and where the ambulance needs to be. Properly timed sales calls may not be a question of life and death like it is for an ambulance driver but it can be the difference between making quota or not. For most companies, sales reps are like the randomly driving ambulance EMT. With Signals on the other hand, that could be 911 for the sales dept.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxbP7ibxmoEo1hLSVkbh7FuV8TDAsYrl6Ie46O272afNeGw-nc82d3-aeIrZKbpSRu8OnYIv4VigIa1FWMcseIzHVHbRup_5fIP0cgMUQyt3ciQIIhqMyGWPK41B6SXWQdFY2ECdTHbq5q/s1600/hubspot-signals-ambulance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxbP7ibxmoEo1hLSVkbh7FuV8TDAsYrl6Ie46O272afNeGw-nc82d3-aeIrZKbpSRu8OnYIv4VigIa1FWMcseIzHVHbRup_5fIP0cgMUQyt3ciQIIhqMyGWPK41B6SXWQdFY2ECdTHbq5q/s640/hubspot-signals-ambulance.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Think of it as 911 for your sales department</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Let Them Use What They Know</span></h3>
If you gave a shotgun to a caveman (no direct relation to salespeople although some may beg to differ with me -- I just like the analogy) and tell him to go hunting with it, he'll sneak up to his prey and will try to bash its head in by swinging the handle of the gun at its head instead of firing a shot. We are all creatures of habit and we do what we know. It takes time and effort to learn most new skills. That's why it's essential for successful CRM deployments that you need to tap into the tools that reps already use (or at least something that is <em>very close</em> to what they are already using). <br />
<br />
My <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/products/">company's phone system</a> has the deepest and most sophisticated <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/products/application-integration/shoretelsky-for-salesforce-com/">integration with Salesforce.com</a> in the market today (as well as plenty of other apps like <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/products/application-integration/shoretelsky-for-netsuite/">NetSuite</a>, most applicant tracking systems and <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/products/application-integration/">other apps</a> through our public API). It does all sorts of awesome things that improve customer service and notifies reps of activities in Salesforce.com etc. but the killer feature in my opinion is that it automatically logs to your Salesforce records all calls that you make <strong>and</strong> that you receive from your accounts. The rep doesn't even need to be signed into Salesforce for the call to be logged in the system. They could be on the street using their smartphone with our mobility app and the calls still get logged to the opportunity. They miss a call from a good prospect and get a voicemail instead? It's automatically transcribed and both the transcribed text and the audio are attached to the contact record in the CRM as well as sent via email to the sales rep. <br />
<br />
Richer data in the CRM and no additional effort. #flippingsweet<br />
<br />
What we are dong with the phone system, Signals is doing with email and your website (and LinkedIn BTW). Integrated with HubSpot and Salesforce.com, your reps can continue to send and receive emails from Gmail/ Google Apps and Outlook (both the Outlook client and outlook.com) while now logging that information into their contact records. Virtually no change is needed in the rep's current behavior and the installation and setup process seems drop dead easy. Want to get notified immediately when the VP of IT is looking at a page on your website? Done. Want to know when you just got a qualified lead handed to you from Marketing? Done. Need to know when your lead opens your email with the latest sales proposal? Done. Really.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Where to Go From Here - Dialing in a Better Signal</span></h3>
We are going to start testing Signals in our organization. I'm optimistic that it will take on quite quickly for the reasons mentioned above. Anything that seems this easy that can push the needle would be a big win for any organization.<br />
<br />
That being said, this is still a very early stage product and there are areas where I already am looking for improvements:<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Smartphone and tablet support for sending tracked emails</strong>. This will be a tough nut to crack given the lack of extension and plugin support for the Mail, Gmail and Browser apps on iOS and Android. More and more reps are mobile and depend on their post-PC devices to communicate. The good news is that those are more often "consumption" devices rather than "composing" devices. Perhaps a workaround would be to use a bcc email address to at least log the outbound email. Also, this could be built into the HubSpot mobile app but that would only be used most likely by the die hard, true believer sales reps, not the majority</li>
<li><strong>Mail and Outlook support for Mac</strong> This is a first version of a new product, so HubSpotters need to be cut some slack. They built this for the two most commonly used email platforms on notebooks. With the growth of Mac, though, they'll want to quickly develop support for the Mail app and likely the Outlook app for Mac</li>
<li><strong>Prioritize the stream</strong>. As of now, all notifications are treated equally in Signals. However, most social networks now use rich data to prioritize the notifications you receive in your streams to let you focus on high value updates. Signals should do the same. I'm not sure of all of the criteria that should be used in that but some things that come to mind are<ul>
<li>Consolidate multiple notifications from the same person or account if they occur in a short period of time</li>
<li>Notifications from leads with higher lead scores are prioritized</li>
<li>Have default notification rules that can be changed by either reps or from within HubSpot depending on the organization's rules</li>
<li>NOT MY IDEA - Others have mentioned an ability to mute notifications for certain contacts. I think that is a must</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Deeper integration with HubSpot</strong>. Let me setup rules so that interactions via Signals could trigger workflows and change lead scores in HubSpot. That would be hot stuff. They could also perhaps add this data (they would have to put these activities in buckets like "viewed emails" and "links clicked", etc...) to the reports section of HubSpot and show the Influence of these activities on prospects becoming contacts and contacts becoming customers</li>
<li><strong>Use the data from Signals to prove the value</strong>. While the reps that do use the tool will anecdotally see the value of it, it will be more successful if HubSpot takes all of that data on notifications, better responsiveness and improved sales rep efficiency and ties that back to actual business performance. They could possibly even add some sort of gameification to encourage the desired behavior from its users</li>
</ul>
Do you see the potential? I sure do, and can't wait to get started. It's a Signal I've heard loud and clear (I don't know why that is the common expression when it should be "loudly and clearly").Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-91242238162216014292013-08-12T17:12:00.000-07:002013-08-12T17:12:15.205-07:00Google - Fix GCal's Multi-Email Calendar Bug Please!Overall, I really enjoy using Google Calendar. It is fast, flexible, free, and accessible from pretty much anywhere. However, there is a very annoying bug that drives me nuts and I hope they can fix it soon.<br />
<br />
Google Calendar does not understand associated email addresses from Google Accounts when it comes to invitations.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Background on Associated Email Addresses</h3>
<div>
Long ago, Google enabled "<a href="https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1045580?hl=en" target="_blank">associated email addresses</a>". These allow you to map other email addresses to your primary Google account. This has multiple benefits such as allowing you to login to most Google applications, even Google Calendar, with any of the email addresses you have associated with your account. When you setup a new alternate email address, you need to go through the steps of validating the email address and clicking through on a verification link sent to that account.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When you check your account and have setup alternate email addresses it will look like this (my actual accounts are blacked out here but you get the idea):</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YxCk7y-2bDU/Ugl0xG6WHmI/AAAAAAAALko/TyGcva7Dav8/s1600/google-account.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YxCk7y-2bDU/Ugl0xG6WHmI/AAAAAAAALko/TyGcva7Dav8/s1600/google-account.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As I said, you can login to your apps by using the primary or any of the alternate email addresses and it works fine. That is, until you receive a gCal invitation sent to one of those alternate email addresses.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Google Calendar Invitations Don't Recognize Alternate Email Addresses</h3>
<div>
At work we happen to use MS Exchange instead of Google Apps. I'd prefer Google Apps, but that is not my call. So, we make the best of it we can. However, I work with outside vendors who do happen to use Google Apps for their businesses. When we schedule meetings, such as for a screen sharing conference call, I'll often receive a calendar invitation from the partner/vendor, etc...and it will have been sent via Google Calendar. Of course, being work, they will send it to my work email address. For this example, let's say it's email-2@domain.com and my primary, personal gmail account is primary-email@gmail.com. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The problem happens when I want to see details inside the calendar appointment. In Outlook, I receive a the invitation and I'll see in the detail something like this:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UIDZVZ5y5ok/Ugl2xqwnTOI/AAAAAAAALk4/iOt_Iv-omRI/s1600/gcal-details.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UIDZVZ5y5ok/Ugl2xqwnTOI/AAAAAAAALk4/iOt_Iv-omRI/s640/gcal-details.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Often the dial-in and screenshare link information are included in the details of the appointment. However, when I click "more details >>" I am given this wonderful screen:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nMSJnObrYfE/Ugl3SeQdjUI/AAAAAAAALlA/AtDZI2ndLoM/s1600/gcal-multi-email-bug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nMSJnObrYfE/Ugl3SeQdjUI/AAAAAAAALlA/AtDZI2ndLoM/s640/gcal-multi-email-bug.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
Remember, email-2@domain.com uses the exact same Google Account as primary-email@gmail.com. As far as access to Google Apps is concerned, these should be considered aliases and I should have equal access. Unfortunately, it does not recognize that email-2@domain.com is a valid and verified email address for primary-email@gmail.com (and vice-versa). It it were smart enough, it would let me see the event because they both belong to the same Google Account.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Perhaps this is just an edge case and that is why the bug persists. Nevertheless, it is a crap user experience and Google should fix it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, Team Google Calendar, please fix this. We'll give you a +1 for it.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-51096993829891548002013-07-10T23:14:00.001-07:002013-07-18T10:56:28.397-07:00My MozCon Summary: Aim High & Don't Let a Lack of Resources Stop You From TryingI just wrapped up a great few days in Seattle attending my first <a href="http://moz.com/mozcon" target="_blank">MozCon</a>. I've been to numerous search marketing conferences in the past but this was my favorite so far (although I do miss the annual pints in London with my friends from <a href="http://www.mecalux.es/" target="_blank">Mecalux </a>/ <a href="http://www.logismarket.es/" target="_blank">Logismarket</a>).<br />
<br />
This is not a laundry list post of notes from the conference. Other people have done a great job already capturing <a href="http://www.blastam.com/blog/index.php/2013/07/101-seo-tips-from-mozcon-2013-day-1/" target="_blank">many of the MozCon details</a> and <a href="http://www.kernmedia.com/mozcon-2013-takeaways-insights/" target="_blank">highlights</a>. This post will focus on the most important takeaways for me.<br />
<br />
Of all the different things that people talked about, I'd say that there were three main themes of the conference that consistently emerged and are most relevant as takeaways. The good thing is that these themes are universal and can really be applied to anything whether you want to be a better marketer, get in shape, or even run for office.<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Always Aim High To Do Your Best</b></li>
<li><b>A Lack of Resources is Not an Excuse</b></li>
<li><b>Get Doin' Something Already</b></li>
</ol>
<div>
Walking out of the conference, after having met good people, listened to great talks and feeling inspired from the last three days, I happened upon someone that summed up the conference perfectly to me. <br />
<br />
All of these core themes were embodied right there in the street.</div>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pWpDHaQOkEQ?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This guy was having fun, playing the shit out of some makeshift drumset and making real music (#RMS?). He was good. Damn good and he didn't need anything fancy to make a great beat and put on a fun show. <b>He just took what he could and started playing.</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Some people, like me, stayed and watched while others passed by, but you could tell that pretty much everyone who heard him, liked what he was doing. When he finished his song, I among others all contributed to his thank you bucket. He had made my day better and he did it with a joy that gave me the feeling that he'd do it even if he didn't get paid.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After I stopped to talk to him for a second to see how he was making that snare drum rattle like a snare should. Peeping into the open faced bucket I saw some coins, bent soda cans, little bells and a metal plate. He said all you need is anything that will clank or rattle.<br />
<br />
He didn´t just one day play the drums and sound like that. But, he took what he could find, decided he was going to start playing and worked really hard so he could reach a level where strangers get stopped cold to admire the beauty of the sound.<br />
<br />
We face roadblocks, get stuck, and settle for less way too often. We can learn a lot from his approach.<br />
<br />
See you at <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23mozcon&src=typd" target="_blank">#mozcon </a>2014</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-18762303585136670272013-05-01T19:04:00.000-07:002013-05-01T20:41:14.499-07:00Don't Confuse Inbound Marketing Tools with the MethodologyWe've recently moved over to HubSpot at work to handle our marketing automation and assist in our Inbound Marketing efforts.<br />
<br />
At ShoreTel, we are big fans of Inbound Marketing and believe that being customer-centric is necessary for success in the modern economy.<br />
<br />
I was reading a post about the latest report on the <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/discoveries-from-2013-state-of-inbound-marketing" target="_blank">State of Inbound Marketing</a> and one of the comments really stuck with me. It was from someone called "HT" who did not like what he was reading...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: #333333; line-height: 27.1875px;"><b>HT: </b></span><span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: #333333; line-height: 27.1875px;">Blah, blah, blah. Of course Hubspot is going to create a report singing the praises of "Inbound Marketing" and making claims that "traditional marketing" is dying. Do you think they would make a report claiming the opposite? It's self-serving. Branding, messaging, targeting, promotion, service and the product itself are the drivers. Let's not fool ourselves. Without those, inbound is irrelevant. "Inbound" is but a portion of the overall marketing strategy. It does not succeed on it's own. However, as a part of an overall plan, it has its place in the big-picture. I'll be honest, I am not a fan of landing pages that require me to give you my information before you even tell me what you are offering or why it would matter to me. I'm seeing way too much of that approach lately. And that approach seems to be emphasized by inbound marketers. What you will end up by following such a tactic is a list full of unqualified leads who simply filled out a form, but only because they wanted the info to review first. I would much rather have a list of people who had the information and THEN submitted their information to me, as they would be more likely a lead that would have a better chance of actually converting. In the time that we have transitioned our marketing efforts to a more "inbound" approach it has resulted mainly in unqualified leads who only wanted more info. The rate of sales success has been very low. I could go on and on. Marketing is all encompassing: print, digital, tv, radio, outdoor, sponsorship, events, public relations, social media, etc. You have to both drive customers to you (outbound) and draw them in through inbound means. If they don't know you exist, how will they know what they are looking for? It takes both inbound and outbound strategies to be truly successful in your marketing efforts.</span></span></blockquote>
I think more than anything what bothered me about the comment was that HT seemed upset that Inbound is growing in influence and that HubSpot is happy to promote itself and the positive trends towards Inbound.<br />
<br />
By the time that I saw the HubSpot post, comments were closed. So, here what I would have liked to have written to HT:<br />
<br />
My question is, why wouldn't they? <b>They are a leader in a rapidly growing market.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Just because a positive report on the state of Inbound Marketing benefits HubSpot, that does not make the report untrue. The reality is that customers have changed and Inbound Marketing is the best way to reach them and build profitable relationships.<br />
<br />
I'm open to whatever comes after Inbound, but right now it's the best methodology available and until something better comes along, it's where marketers should be focusing and investing their time, resources and energy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Inbound Marketing is a movement, not a fad. </span><br />
<br />
Inbound Marketing is not a panacea nor will everyone who tries it be good at it. The same is true of traditional marketers. For every masterpiece such as "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjgtLSHhTPg" target="_blank">here's to the crazy ones</a>" there are thousands of examples of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/10-worst-ads-of-2012-2012-12?op=1" target="_blank">schlock</a>.<br />
<br />
I agree with you that too many websites ask for visitor info before telling you about their company or what they do. But then again, that is not really Inbound Marketing because it is not a customer-centric approach. Just because they use some of the tools or techniques of Inbound Marketing does not mean that they are practicing good Inbound Marketing.<br />
<br />
Do not confuse the use of Inbound Marketing tools with actually practicing Inbound Marketing as a discipline. It's very easy to buy and throw in a tool. The true value of Inbound Marketing comes from following the process and methodology. The tools are there to facilitate, enable, and make those processes more efficient. You, as the marketer, still need to decide:<br />
<ul>
<li>Who are your customers and what they are looking for?</li>
<li>How to communicate the value that your company and products offer to your customers?</li>
<li>What steps and characteristics you and your customer go through in the funnel?</li>
<li>Which calls to action, offers and content are most effective?</li>
<li>What are the hypotheses that need to be tested?</li>
<li>What is the right amount of content to provide, when, where, and how to push the prospect deeper in the funnel?</li>
<li>etc...</li>
</ul>
For your company HT, consider lead scoring or some other process for segmenting your leads so you are only spending time on those most likely to convert. Perhaps you are gating too much content on your website. Perhaps you do not nurture your leads to identify and separate the good ones from the bad.<br />
<br />
I hope you find a way to Inbound success.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-75345298965476839162013-01-24T09:48:00.000-08:002013-01-24T09:49:28.880-08:00Was Morgan Freeman recommended to me because of my name?So, yesterday I get a Google+ email with suggestions for people I should add to my circles. I was a bit surprised to see Morgan Freeman listed first in the list. I enjoy pretty much all of his movies and think he is a great actor, but I have the feeling that Google recommended him because we have the same last name. Who knows what goes on in the secret sauce of the recomendation algorithm, but this one seems a bit off. I have no idea who Brendan or Adriana are.<br />
<br />
Perhaps Google could do something like Apple's Genius recommendations and at least give a hint as to why or how they think we are connected.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8gsiLkT-nzTbQvcEocgAsB-1-1DwQA1jIeTfgeuf8b1GOe_nycLdgKy6AOhJpEWzDS1oO4vj2dt2QbeEGYBLJAWUjwb5cUIvZy4GQwQ-HyKa_H3_1haQIBOi1QBZH4inZZlcT1a0d41s/s1600/morgan-freeman-google-plus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8gsiLkT-nzTbQvcEocgAsB-1-1DwQA1jIeTfgeuf8b1GOe_nycLdgKy6AOhJpEWzDS1oO4vj2dt2QbeEGYBLJAWUjwb5cUIvZy4GQwQ-HyKa_H3_1haQIBOi1QBZH4inZZlcT1a0d41s/s640/morgan-freeman-google-plus.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wish Morgan Freeman were my uncle!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When living in Spain and telling people my last name, I always had to say (in Spanish) "you know, Freymann like Morgan Freymann." Sometimes I even was able to convince a few people that we were related and he was an uncle of mine (by marriage). I wish.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>"I hope the pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope." -</i> Red</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-25608133435333069952013-01-14T12:03:00.001-08:002013-01-24T09:36:49.813-08:00@Google: How is this a good search result for business phone system?<br />
<b>UPDATE 01/24/13 - </b>Cisco finally fixed their CMS. The formatting is still broken on the content but at least it is back on the page. For Google, it does not seem to matter either way because they rank #2 as if nothing ever happened.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<hr />
<br /></div>
<br />
<b>UPDATE 01/22/13 - </b>The Google cache has been updated to show the blank page and it <i>still</i> ranks #2. Amazing. Talk about giving Cisco the benefit of the doubt.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3okUxk12suL8wKE0mffDyU7QCYn6WEQ6Rj706OJVVlf-jhLYvRuld_aVVVkhD8dt2zHHOQ1BffJRCFuDJZSEtsgZe4Z8vhwafSZiu2jDhVlzwEVPMkC0VyEsXaqrH5_aaWv5Jw9JftT_R/s1600/thin-content-ranking-in-google.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3okUxk12suL8wKE0mffDyU7QCYn6WEQ6Rj706OJVVlf-jhLYvRuld_aVVVkhD8dt2zHHOQ1BffJRCFuDJZSEtsgZe4Z8vhwafSZiu2jDhVlzwEVPMkC0VyEsXaqrH5_aaWv5Jw9JftT_R/s400/thin-content-ranking-in-google.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where's the beef?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 01/21/13 - </b>Cisco still in position #2 and they still have an empty page! <b>At least a week with absolutely no real content</b> in the page, which is clearly broken. You'd think that even if Google doesn't notice the problem, Cisco would at least notice by now. Does anyone actually manage this part of their website?<br />
<hr />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 01/17/13 - </b>Cisco has moved up to position #2 and they still have an empty page! Both Google and Cisco are asleep at the switch on this one. It's been more than 3 days since their content has been MIA (I doubt I happened to find the page right when their CMS broke).<br />
I wonder which will happen first:<br />
<ul>
<li>Google will recrawl the page and update its rankings correctly</li>
<li>Cisco will realize that their CMS is serving up a bunch of donut pages and they'll fix it</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<br />
I am getting familiar with the telecom industry in search as part of my job. Each industry has its own nuances, players, and idiosyncrasies. One thing that is common is that from time to time you will find head-scratching results in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Often it is because someone is having a bad day (site is down, CMS error, hosting provider makes a DNS mistake, etc....). Other times, it is because Google just has not yet gotten around to updating their index for a particular term. They may get to it eventually, but sometimes they are a bit slow to update the results even though the underlying content and/or competition has changed for a given topic. It is impossible for Google to stay on top of each result and each page for every term at every second of every day. But then again, when you listen to Eric Schmidt, he thinks that the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/04/an-old-eric-schmidt-interview-reveals-googles-end-game-for-search-and-competition/" target="_blank">whole concept of showing a list of search results is a failure</a>.<br />
<br />
Today, I found a good example of someone having a bad day leading to a poor search result. If you search for "<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=business+phone+system&aq=f&oq=business+phone+system&aqs=chrome.0.57j61l3j62l2.2740&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">business phone system</a>" you will see Cisco listed with the #3 position in the organic results:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEBXE5JrgH54F9yRMuuBanvRcH_ujklgc8FwTq9c9YMqh4KM3KZvli41MZRHI4tAzXPAl2NEJUhZkbTfxfOjvvE8zPRzciNjv3rFLVXnSwtBpD6ma7FTfyH0ttc_1DD4v0L_tQg96v-bbb/s1600/business-phone-system-results.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEBXE5JrgH54F9yRMuuBanvRcH_ujklgc8FwTq9c9YMqh4KM3KZvli41MZRHI4tAzXPAl2NEJUhZkbTfxfOjvvE8zPRzciNjv3rFLVXnSwtBpD6ma7FTfyH0ttc_1DD4v0L_tQg96v-bbb/s1600/business-phone-system-results.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice position, there should be good content behind that link, right?</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
You can' always get what you want....</h4>
You would think that after clicking on that <a href="http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/resource_center/articles/be_more_productive/small_business_telephone_systems/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">highlighted result </a>you would be presented with some sort of wizard/set of questions to help me find the perfect phone system for my small business. You would think that wouldn't you? Well, let's see what we get instead:<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh20NozZuOPqh3q_BeBnQxXMkpVPEAKv9GBGby1zkcfRD6OEQyH9JsVSCSFC9CtIuqxeMqthk-o-PhCHHEdyOPMMO6rBL8AYL7S_jtxFHFObGnc3-eZRRX4MmHhJnsA3S1F_m32o9eGNIKB/s1600/wheres-the-beef.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh20NozZuOPqh3q_BeBnQxXMkpVPEAKv9GBGby1zkcfRD6OEQyH9JsVSCSFC9CtIuqxeMqthk-o-PhCHHEdyOPMMO6rBL8AYL7S_jtxFHFObGnc3-eZRRX4MmHhJnsA3S1F_m32o9eGNIKB/s640/wheres-the-beef.png" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is thin content</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Now, that is what I call a generous use of white space on a page layout.<br />
<br />
My guess is that the CMS is broken or someone at Cisco has inserted some code (perhaps to trigger the chat window) which prevents the main content from displaying.<br />
<br />
After navigating a few different pages, it looks like the problem may be pretty serious because I found multiple "empty" pages today on their site. I'm curious though at what point does Google take this into consideration into changing rankings/indexed status of such a page.<br />
<br />
The last cached copy from Google is January 3rd, which at least did have real content in the page (not great, but at least something). So we know that it worked correctly 11 days ago, but not sure when the page stopped working correctly.<br />
<br />
Even when working correctly, the page content did not satisfy the promise made by the headline. It listed off some features/functionality that users should consider but it did nothing to actually educate visitors on what those features mean, not the tradeoffs or factors are to consider with regard to the list of features. It also makes sure to mention that you should talk to a trusted adviser (translation - Cisco reseller). Why can't Cisco just clearly educate the visitor right on this page? Furthermore, it lists the next step as a link to learn more about Cisco's solutions, but when you get to that page it is just a list of their products without any guidance to what you should be looking to learn or how it fits together. Obviously, I am biased, but I think <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/products/" target="_blank">the content we provide is better.</a> You be the judge.<br />
<br />
<h4>
We all have bad days</h4>
Sometimes our sites don't behave as they are supposed to. Let's just hope that if these problems persist, Google will get around to taking that into consideration in the rankings, even if the site is famous. Otherwise, that is an unfair advantage for "big" sites. Google should not protect the 1% sites any better than the 99% when mistakes are made.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-2408328494467103622013-01-11T16:29:00.000-08:002013-01-14T13:23:00.364-08:00You can get the Gringo out of Spain, but...I have been totally radio silent on this blog for a long time. A lot has happened since I last wrote about the Barça game:<br />
<ul>
<li>We've left Spain and moved to the <a href="http://visitslo.com/cm/Home.html" target="_blank">happiest place in America</a>. Even Oprah <a href="http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Happiest-City-in-America-San-Luis-Obispo-Video" target="_blank">agrees</a>.</li>
<li>I've started working for ShoreTel Sky, a cloud based <a href="http://www.shoretelsky.com/why-shoretelsky/business-voip/" target="_blank">business VoIP service</a> in their Marketing department. First time working from home. Required some adjustment, but so far going well.</li>
<li>Getting the boys settled and adapted to new schools, new house, and new language (well, at least new for them to speak outside of the house)</li>
<li>Surfing much more....the Pacific as a <a href="http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/morro-bay-central-california_4193/" target="_blank"><i>few</i> more waves</a> than the Mediterranean sea.</li>
<li>No more weekly basketball games. Switched over to <a href="http://www.ccsoccer.com/?siteCode=mens35" target="_blank">futbol (soccer)</a> instead.</li>
<li>Trying to pickup my tennis game when I can.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Overall, it has been a very good transition. We miss our family and friends back in España but we´re now with other family here and starting to make some new friends (as well as see some great old ones too).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now that I have rediscovered the blog, I hope to get back to writing some more. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Need to find some time to keep improving <a href="http://gaevolution.appspot.com/" target="_blank">GA Evolution</a>. I have received some great feedback on good features. In progress, but no ETA on the next rev. Hope in the next few weeks to get the top items completed.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
2013 is looking great so far and excited to see where it leads.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0San Luis Obispo, CA 93405, USA35.2994482 -120.6890055000000135.0920207 -121.011729 35.5068757 -120.36628200000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-27829335103085510742012-05-07T06:10:00.000-07:002012-05-07T06:10:39.720-07:00A Barça Game Full of Firsts & LastsI had always said to Dante that he'd go to see a football match once he was 4 years old. We were lucky enough to get a free ticket to last week's Barça match. As luck would have it, the game would be a series of "firsts" and "lasts" for us and the team:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Last time Guardiola would coach in el Campo Nou</li>
<li>Last home game of the season</li>
<li>Last time I can probably take Diego to see a game and have him get in for free</li>
<li>First game ever for Dante</li>
<li>First game ever for all three of us together</li>
<li>First time for someone to break the single season scoring record in all competitions (Messi) since the 1920s</li>
<li>First time for someone (Messi) get to 50 league goals in a single season</li>
</ul>
<div>
90 minutes can be long for young kids, even if it is watching great football. Nevertheless, being there was special and something that I'll never forget. Thank you Eva and Xavi for getting the ticket for us.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv63Jmr_JFPl-iAdtkt1W5yooxis_nSQEkAp1Pq8ym4dA6pZatZEAGV6ZPba7bwVpFTPXD35ht8RBKkVt_AMM9w7xHGmRVJGAu2cWFh-EmYACXI2311Pnofnztq0S6ZTV8nrU_z_pxrSW/s1600/Barca-Game-Closeup.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv63Jmr_JFPl-iAdtkt1W5yooxis_nSQEkAp1Pq8ym4dA6pZatZEAGV6ZPba7bwVpFTPXD35ht8RBKkVt_AMM9w7xHGmRVJGAu2cWFh-EmYACXI2311Pnofnztq0S6ZTV8nrU_z_pxrSW/s640/Barca-Game-Closeup.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just me and the boys with great seats...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-1560098154970727042012-04-20T01:04:00.000-07:002012-04-20T01:04:00.140-07:00Distilled bookmarklet modified to support GA Custom URLs<a href="http://www.distilled.net/blog/author/tom-critchlow/" target="_blank">Tom Critchlow</a> from Distilled released a <a href="http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/js-bookmarklet-page-traffic/" target="_blank">bookmarklet </a>this week that lets you instantly access the traffic stats in GA for whatever page on which you are navigating (assuming you have permission in GA of course). It works perfectly on any site with GA so long as it does not use custom URL in the _trackPageview command (well over 90% of sites).<br />
<br />
However, for sites like ours, we were out of luck because we always use custom URLs to give us finer tuned reporting and allows us to leave URLs optimized (or at least semi-optimized with what our CMS will allow) while having detailed and optimized data for reporting and analysis.<br />
<br />
I have modified the script to work with sites that use custom URLs for tracking in GA as well as for standard implementations. <br />
<br />
<code style="font-size: 1.3em;color:blue;">javascript:location.href="https://www.google.com/analytics/web/#report/content-pages/INSERT-CODE-HERE/%3F_r.drilldown%3Danalytics.pagePath"+encodeURIComponent(":"+ <b>(typeof _gat.N[0].F == "undefined" ? location.pathname : _gat.N[0].F)</b>)+"%26explorer-table.secSegmentId%3Danalytics.source/";</code><br />
<br />
The key change is to substitute <i>location.pathname</i> from the original script and replace it with a block that checks for any custom URLs stored in GA for that page <br />
<br />
<i>(typeof _gat.N[0].F == "undefined" ? location.pathname : _gat.N[0].F)</i><br />
<br />
The only caveat is that you are still out of luck if your use inbound filters to transform your URLs inside GA. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution other then creating a regex yourself to apply the same transformation to the URL.<br />
<br />
Instructions for making this work on your site:<br />
1) Go to Tom's post<br />
2) Enter your code from GA as he mentions it in his post<br />
3) Drag the bookmarklet to your toolbar<br />
4) Right click the bookmarklet and edit the script by changing:<br />
<b>location.pathname</b> <br />
to<br />
<b>(typeof _gat.N[0].F == "undefined" ? location.pathname : _gat.N[0].F)</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCLPjeDOM_GMGgioSF-ThDnqqJu0qrur4HaLRWrhyFErCdp7MIGIdtzhog4I0_N4wozBEZcvazMeS2O1QwbIuMnwUvSLFV4D5CuzrlE92hW_74JjRNSEd0cYToa2OhyphenhyphenZAO4Kw4cTYjvHd/s1600/change-to-bookmarklet-google-analytics.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCLPjeDOM_GMGgioSF-ThDnqqJu0qrur4HaLRWrhyFErCdp7MIGIdtzhog4I0_N4wozBEZcvazMeS2O1QwbIuMnwUvSLFV4D5CuzrlE92hW_74JjRNSEd0cYToa2OhyphenhyphenZAO4Kw4cTYjvHd/s640/change-to-bookmarklet-google-analytics.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Change the part that says <b><strike>location.pathname</strike></b> to <b>(typeof _gat.N[0].F == "undefined" ? location.pathname : _gat.N[0].F)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>5) Click OK and you are good to goAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-45227982366129089932012-04-16T02:57:00.002-07:002012-04-16T02:57:24.857-07:00GA is a bit confused this morning...<h3>
GA this morning forgot its cup of coffee</h3>
I am really enjoying the new GA v5, especially as they start porting some of the remaining functionality that has been missing these last months such as PDF and email support. They even have improved the contrast in the latest iteration so I don't feel compelled to try to make GA higher contrast<br />
<br />
One area, however, that I prefer from before was the main graph area. It used to show the comparison information from previous periods as well as percentage differences. I suppose to save CPU they decided to remove that info and only post the standard aggregate data. The scaling also really needs some improvement because they play with the labels and scale with every change of a report.<br />
<br />
Some things though you can just chalk up to being "beta". This morning GA seems a bit confused on how to display its labels for time. Look at the screenshot below. Hours are days and days are hours....feels a bit philosophical.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2QbdsQxPaLUX5-qTEl4QBDpmyZTr1SSPDnxGTpEnjg_Qooq4SbRoquxwH-pZgEU5tHzm9gcafesjhjh7kArdE6iAVruiyHcqgpnv67sHOz6zFSvQHByWecLZDevWKLrOOgAQRINyokSWD/s1600/confused-google-analytics-dates.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="568" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2QbdsQxPaLUX5-qTEl4QBDpmyZTr1SSPDnxGTpEnjg_Qooq4SbRoquxwH-pZgEU5tHzm9gcafesjhjh7kArdE6iAVruiyHcqgpnv67sHOz6zFSvQHByWecLZDevWKLrOOgAQRINyokSWD/s640/confused-google-analytics-dates.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not quite up to swiss watchmaker standards...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Hope they fix this later today.<br />
<br />
<h3>
PLUS: GA Evolution is Evolving</h3>
Also, I just wanted to give a quick heads up that I am completely rewriting <a href="http://gaevolution.appspot.com/" target="_blank">Google Analytics Evolution</a>. The new version will be a responsive design in HTML5, based on <a href="http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/" target="_blank">Bootstrap</a>, jQuery (of course), and the alpha (please don't break) version of the<a href="https://code.google.com/p/google-api-javascript-client/" target="_blank"> Google API Javascript Client Library</a>. I have all of the data pieces working and now I am just finishing the presentation of the returned data.<br />
<br />
After that I will put Flot back into the mix and I'll relaunch. This new verison will also include an option to <b>sum/aggregate data from separate queries on the page</b>. Nothing very sophisticated and you'll need to be careful about aggregating averages, but for people who manage multiple sites but do not have "global" profiles setup in GA this can be a time saver.<br />
<br />
Hope to have this released in the next week or two.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-9192754677502281542012-02-22T07:16:00.001-08:002012-02-22T07:16:18.339-08:00Pimp My gReader Script Updated for new Google BarGoogle does not seem to stop changing their <strike>lame</strike> new Google Bar. At least this time it was for the better by bringing back the top black bar for quick links.<br />
<br />
Anyway, this update broke the PimpMygReader script. Well, it is now updated and all I think are fixed. The difficulty this time is that Google has decided to implement multiple css schemes depending on screen size AND browser type, so I had to make adjustments for small and larger screens for both Firefox and Google.... So much for <a href="http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/gears-and-standards.html">working towards standards</a>.<br />
<br />
For more info, download the script and background, see the original post to <a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2011/11/fixing-bad-google-reader-redesign-with.html">improve Google Reader</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-81084119254754569492012-02-06T06:41:00.001-08:002012-02-06T06:50:24.399-08:00Fines for surfing in the Med - what's next...You can ski, but only when it is hot in the summer?<br />
From the absurd desk comes this news....<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1299470/0/multas/hacer-surf/playa/">The city of Barcelona will fine surfers for being out in the waves</a>. This is because the surfers are considered "bathers" and <b>all</b> bathers must follow the posted instructions and respect the flags. Well, for the average tourist who has no idea about surfing, perhaps they should not go in the water when a red flag is posted. What City Hall (Ajuntament in catalan) does not seem to understand is that <b>surfers need "surfable waves" in order to surf.</b><br />
<br />
It is like giving fines to dancers for dancing at a dance hall because it is not safe for the people who are walking to the bar for a drink. Or fining skiers for being on the ski slopes because it is cold outside... you know less than 60ºF (15.5ºC). <br />
<br />
The fines range from 700-1500€ per instance. This is so pathetic.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
What's worse is that we are talking about the Mediterranean! This is not Hawaii, Mavericks or even Portugal.... this is the home of the "<a href="http://mediometrismo.blogspot.com/">mediometrismo</a>" (1.5 ft. sets). Although I have to say that living here has been pleasantly surprising with the amount of "surfable" days there are per year, we are still only talking 2 to 4 days a year of true overhead surf. Even then you will be hard pressed to find many DOH+ sessions near Barcelona.<br />
<br />
I understand if they want to fine/charge people who need to be rescued,
but in no way does it make sense to fine someone for being in the water
exactly at the moment when they need to be in the water. Going back to
the mountain example. If search and rescue need to go save you because
you ignored all the signs and you get lost, OK... let them make you pay
for the public services. But if you are going down the bunny hill, no
one should be racing to make you pay the government.<br />
<br />
OK, pop quiz... 1 of these surfers could be fined... guess which one:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMMtOSCdTXk_5TsOciMtLHVKWhCYTbqhm4gfg3xGFq1Os7OjfWnOgA3hE_zgpyF6sf78oghNwPzJjh81UOMrmJbwM5BQ1-A7PmnNTK4aYdDAk5W7wBL3EOB31XrOZhLMCYLVGbmqzfl0_/s1600/surf-quiz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMMtOSCdTXk_5TsOciMtLHVKWhCYTbqhm4gfg3xGFq1Os7OjfWnOgA3hE_zgpyF6sf78oghNwPzJjh81UOMrmJbwM5BQ1-A7PmnNTK4aYdDAk5W7wBL3EOB31XrOZhLMCYLVGbmqzfl0_/s640/surf-quiz.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You guessed it, the poor fella in the lower right better be reaching for his wallet...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
May the wave gods help us all.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-50279314484531411662012-01-24T03:51:00.001-08:002012-01-24T04:40:45.578-08:00High Contrast Google Analytics is Easier to ReadI am not a big fan of the design direction Google has been taking lately.... great products (mostly) but supposedly for the sake of consistency they are ugilifing, and more importantly, <i>making less usable</i> various applications of theirs.<br />
<br />
The primary manifestations of their misguided UI direction can be seen in:<br />
<ul><li><b>Terrible contrast </b>(especially the use of small or thin gray fonts on off-white or light gray backgrounds) </li>
<li><b>Lots of empty / wasted space</b> (vertical space is at a premium on laptops and tablets, yet they are opting for more scrolling and pushing everything down the screen for no better reason than to make the search bar stand out more)</li>
</ul> Google Analytics v5 will soon be the standard interface for all GA users. A lot of the functionality is very welcomed (new user flows, better custom reporting), some is a waste of time / fad (real time reporting is the antithesis of web analytics for most purposes), and some is a step backwards (readability, more use of <strike>sampling</strike>, "fast access mode").<br />
<br />
I have made a new userscript that addresses the problems with contrast I have found in GAv5. Please give it a try.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/BetterContrastGA');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/123925.user.js">Download the Better Contrast Google Analytics Script directly from userscripts.org</a></span><br />
<br />
<a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/view/BetterContrastGA');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/123925">Better Contrast GA Script Homepage</a><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td>Here is an example comparison showing GA without the script and after applying the script</td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5bWE7Pwp7RTJAknKokXuIp-6yEpzKqr7prIVuOZarhuJBeucYj2tR3sInSUKPLR0uz__HLJd4w0Tz4pwKK74yus9wPy4gh1H8cOg0j96u3cq2tWACGu7GIKGrZwaqXjL6i-Q6d6V5hz2/s1600/Better-Contrast-GAv5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5bWE7Pwp7RTJAknKokXuIp-6yEpzKqr7prIVuOZarhuJBeucYj2tR3sInSUKPLR0uz__HLJd4w0Tz4pwKK74yus9wPy4gh1H8cOg0j96u3cq2tWACGu7GIKGrZwaqXjL6i-Q6d6V5hz2/s640/Better-Contrast-GAv5.png" width="571" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was blind but now I can see...</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/BetterContrastGA');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/123925.user.js">Download the Better Contrast Google Analytics Script directly from userscripts.org</a></span><br />
<br />
<b>Important Note: </b>Google is updating its UI and CSS fairly regularly (seems about every 1 to 2 weeks they upload a change) and there is the chance that the class names or CSS may change. I will try to keep the replacement CSS loaded by the userscript fairly up to date, but there may be times when it is out of sync. If you find something that breaks the CSS at some point, please post a comment to let me know. Thanks!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-11123363924091877862012-01-04T04:28:00.000-08:002012-01-04T05:11:51.779-08:00Bringcast Podcatcher for Mango V3 feature requestsI just received my <a href="http://www.nokia.co.uk/gb-en/products/phone/lumia800/">Nokia Lumia 800</a> from Nokia yesterday thanks to their <a href="http://www.developer.nokia.com/Developer_Programs/Launchpad.xhtml">developer program launchpad</a>. I now have the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402523(v=vs.92).aspx">SDK installed</a> and hope to start tackling my first WP7.5 app soon.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I had to get the phone setup with the microSIM (cutting my old SIM down to size did not work I think because my previous SIM was way way too old and had a different chip pattern). Also, I started loading the phone with apps. WP7 may not have as many apps as iOS or Android, but the list so far is much more impressive then I have seen for Symbian, especially considering how short of a time they have been in the market with this platform. Mango is less then 6 months old and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Windows_Phone_devices">WP7 only launched publicly in Oct 2010</a>.<br />
<br />
One of the most glaring faults with the OS is the lack of a podcatcher and the need to sync with Zune on a PC. I download podcasts every day and I do not want to have to turn on my PC to get new podcasts. Nor do I ever listen to podcasts on the PC.<br />
<br />
The good news is that I found <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/e5abef38-d413-e011-9264-00237de2db9e">BringCast for WP7</a>. They apparently released a Mango optimized version in December (v2) and I decided to give it a try. Well, after 30 seconds I went ahead and bought it. From what I have seen and read so far it is the best podcatcher for WP7.<br />
<br />
I saw that the developers are considering v3 new features so I wanted to <b>give them a list it consider for v3 </b>(and if not v3.5 or v4):<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Automatic updates</b> to check for new podcasts in the subscribed feeds that is <b>configurable </b>(every 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, only manually, etc...)</li>
<li><b>Automatic download of new episodes</b> with configurable general defaults (none, N, all) and also <b>per feed settings</b> (for example, I want all Slate podcasts, but only the newest episode from WTF?, 2 newest from Fresh Air, and none automatically downloaded from the Economist)</li>
<li>Perhaps <b>automatic deletion of old podcasts</b> (x days after 100% completed). I do not like how from the playlist you can delete it but you cannot delete the actual media. You need to go 1 by 1 in BringCast to delete the media</li>
<li><b>Live Tile integration:</b></li>
<ul>
<li># of new episodes</li>
<li>Now playing</li>
<li>Status (updating, downloading, etc...)</li>
</ul>
<li>If possible, <b>full podcast integration with Zune player on the device</b>, not just via playlists. For example, from Zune, I cannot delete the downloaded podcast episode, I can only remove it from the playlist. To delete it I need to go back into BringCast to delete media.</li>
</ul>
<div>
While not feature requests, I also found two things that seem like possible bugs:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>While trying to do background downloading of podcasts, I received an error saying that the OS policy does not allow non-WiFi downloading of podcasts. However, in my settings I have the checkbox set to allow 3g downloads.</li>
<li>I tried importing an opml file from a public dropbox url and the app just did a refresh of the screen but did not import anything.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
So I hope <a href="http://clarkezonesoftware.com/">clarkezonesoftware.com</a> will take my requests into consideration. <br />
<br />
<i><b>For any WP7 owner who needs a podcatcher app, check out BringCast.</b></i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-17797569934178076962011-11-03T06:29:00.000-07:002012-01-24T04:06:28.500-08:00Fixing the bad Google Reader redesign with a userscript<b>Updated 16-01-2012: </b>list view preview improvements were added in early December and added fixes in mid January for sometimes improper loading of additional posts due to Google script bug<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Updated 08-11-2011: </b>Fixed a regression that was not properly calculating the iframe height for previews. FIXED. thank you to <a href="http://userscripts.org/users/65869">@addadi</a> for pointing this out<br />
<br />
New TODO:<br />
<ul><li><strike>Add preview to list view</strike></li>
<li><strike>Add style a couple of style improvements to list view</strike></li>
</ul><br />
PS: If you like the script please share it with others.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/PimpMyGReader');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/117116.user.js">Download the google reader script directly from userscripts.org</a></span><br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Updated 07-11-2011: </b>Now you can toggle open or closed the nav sidebar pressing Shift+W. Hope to add a little icon in the next version. thank you to <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/magorrias">@magorrias</a> for the suggestion<br />
<hr /><b>Updated 04-11-2011:</b> I have made the following improvements to the script since yesterday:<br />
<ul><li>Better layout for search area and fixed search problems (<i>it was a z-index problem</i>)</li>
<li>Reduced whitespace in the nav bar and slightly smaller fonts</li>
<li><b>Preview Function</b> - Now you can see the full post inside gReader (similar functionality to Google preview enhanced which broke with the gReader redesign). It works by clicking the preview link as well as using the keystroke SHIFT+V. It also manages the number of IFRAMES created to keep memory usage reasonable.</li>
</ul><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/PimpMyGReader');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/117116.user.js">Download the updated google reader script </a><br />
<hr />This will be a short post. I may write something later commenting on the bad design choices I see Google making. I have a hard time believing that they have solid data supporting these changes to the UI of various sites, especially Google Reader. As a daily user this change has been a step backwards in a big way in the name of "unity".<br />
<br />
OK, for those who are interested I have made a Greasemonkey, Scriptish, Chrome userscript that vastly improves a lot of the problems with the latest redesign of Google Reader<br />
<ul><li>Greatly shortened the height of the fixed header area....removing the logo, collapsing the search with the other feed/nav buttons</li>
<li>Made the subscribe button a normal color since it is something not used very often and should not scream read by default</li>
<li>Tightened up the nav area to make better use of the vertical space</li>
<li>Added a border separating the nav area from the post/feed area</li>
<li>Added a top and bottom border to better identify the currently active post</li>
</ul>Here are the links. Works with scriptish, greasemonkey on firefox as well as Google Chrome.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/PimpMyGReader');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/117116.user.js">Download the google reader script directly from userscripts.org</a></span><br />
<br />
<a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/view/PimpMyGReader');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/117116">Pimp My gReader Script Homepage</a><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuYPSKdn5Pjdpsv7uis7qVK5w4LBSpgj75ECDkxViZi5rJvHmZXndmqkvJ_F1rJ8ADsQGRJJXgh3arqATr5F9GnZlwxPuOSTsuuKktLY4CURLT-DR2kpJjgzUEiOugw2YCplQmXfH4iMiz/s1600/Google-Reader-Redeign-Fixed-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuYPSKdn5Pjdpsv7uis7qVK5w4LBSpgj75ECDkxViZi5rJvHmZXndmqkvJ_F1rJ8ADsQGRJJXgh3arqATr5F9GnZlwxPuOSTsuuKktLY4CURLT-DR2kpJjgzUEiOugw2YCplQmXfH4iMiz/s640/Google-Reader-Redeign-Fixed-2.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>This is Google Reader after using the script....making a bit of lemonade from a lemon of a redesign</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttsQfstD1nZfQS1omz_Wk2aACOy7posmGo4CCVWiDYde09hrq31N3_2TanLlFGT8GLbz2mlClyVbmQsL4mEG0r9HnBwmTLXlkh6p25HTLICQAUrUSr9uUDmEXEQQdAzq1jx1LEDNLSHzb/s1600/Google-Reader-Redeign-Fixed-Preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttsQfstD1nZfQS1omz_Wk2aACOy7posmGo4CCVWiDYde09hrq31N3_2TanLlFGT8GLbz2mlClyVbmQsL4mEG0r9HnBwmTLXlkh6p25HTLICQAUrUSr9uUDmEXEQQdAzq1jx1LEDNLSHzb/s640/Google-Reader-Redeign-Fixed-Preview.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>This is gReader using the Preview functionality</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
<br />
<br />
To Do for the Future:<br />
<ul><li><strike> The search is not working completely well with this script. I will need to make some adjustments</strike></li>
<li><strike>If no one else does it soon, to fix the script that allows for full post previews in Google Reader that broke with the redesign. It was part of BetterGReader and I hope someone will fix that soon. Otherwise, I'll add it to this script.</strike> </li>
<li><strike>Add a feature to collaspe / expand the side nav bar - Shift + W</strike></li>
</ul>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-43002757006615271242011-09-30T05:07:00.000-07:002011-09-30T05:08:52.344-07:00Google Analytics Premium - Finally what I have been looking forI am very excited about <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/premium/">GA Premium</a> announced yesterday. I am hopeful that the pricing is reasonable because it seems like a great leap forward for businesses who find GA today a bit too limited in speed, functionality, and especially "<a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2011/05/google-analytics-fast-access-mode-fail.html">fast-access</a>-<a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-analytics-bug-sum-of-its-parts.html">mode friendly</a>".<br />
<br />
Also I am very curious as to when it will be available outside of the US, Canada & UK. Perhaps we could just signup via the UK and then use it for all of our other sites...?<br />
<br />
Great intro commercial for the new service. The only thing is that it seems perhaps a bit <i>too </i>inspired from a 2009 video from <a href="http://grasshopper.com/">Grasshopper </a>communications. There sure seems a be a recent wave of videos/motion graphics pieces that all come from a common ancestor. Mannatecheurope soon after Grasshopper seemed to have done a complete ripoff of Grasshopper the same year it came out. I wonder who was the first to do this type of piece. I think the first video that I can remember with some of this same style-DNA or at least something that could be an ancestor were the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQt6SN0xjM" >end credits from An Inconvenient Truth</a>.<br />
<br />
Look at the similarities between these 3 videos and you'll see what I mean. You even get a nice audio effect if you start the first two videos at the same time (or start video 2, let it run 10 seconds and then start video 1). They complement each other quite well.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XNIQ7lxIXxg?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/T6MhAwQ64c0?rel=0" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F76jr0tJemE?rel=0" width="560"></iframe></div><br />
If you know of any other similar videos with the same DNA, include them in the comments.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com01177 Fernandez Rd, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405, USA35.272531756602362 -120.67382812534.44577525660236 -121.937255625 36.099288256602364 -119.410400625tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-63972674008076034242011-08-23T09:14:00.000-07:002011-08-23T09:14:50.713-07:00Updated Script: Yahoo! Mail Ad Removal plus Better LayoutAs with most user scripts they break from time to time when webmasters introduce changes to their sites. In this case, Yahoo! looks like it implemented some new standardized CSS strategy into its Mail app. In the process the userscript code broke because it was looking for old IDs that no longer exist.
The script has been updated to work with the new CSS for Yahoo Mail and works well both in Firefox and Chrome. Please download it again if it has stopped working for you.
<a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2010/10/better-y-mail-beta-less-ads-more-mail.html">Original post about the script</a>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Available for Firefox<b>*</b> & Google Chrome</span>
<b> </b><br />
<b><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/yahooMailFixer2010');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/89033.user.js">Download the user script directly</a></b> or from the <b><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/view/download/yahooMailFixer2010');" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/89033">Userscripts.org script page</a>></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-5205472593753955852011-08-11T09:57:00.001-07:002011-08-11T09:57:36.132-07:00Slate Culturefest Dry T-Shirt Entry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV7Y6_kPjIx0BMIsUAc9dJ3YB3vgtrVQjeLZEcp9SNHwLNHyeDjWegaewCdXl-NGqRz0nbp05C6w9MnHShACBlXQ9nUaVXxnNaVdpIAXevNUxp2wC8VxqkPq3176YPVj1dTD00Y1eK4iGP/s1600/culturefest-shirt-small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="614" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV7Y6_kPjIx0BMIsUAc9dJ3YB3vgtrVQjeLZEcp9SNHwLNHyeDjWegaewCdXl-NGqRz0nbp05C6w9MnHShACBlXQ9nUaVXxnNaVdpIAXevNUxp2wC8VxqkPq3176YPVj1dTD00Y1eK4iGP/s640/culturefest-shirt-small.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I had hoped they were going to include my entry in the<a href="http://www.slate.com/slideshow/arts/culture-gabfest-t-shirt-designs-120#all"> Slate Culture Gabfest T-Shirt contest</a>. I guess I'll just stick to business, SEO, analytics, and coding....leave the "art" to others...<br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If you like this one.... you can at least put me in as a write-in candidate.</span></i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-41985652338942962092011-08-10T02:28:00.000-07:002011-08-10T02:28:17.537-07:00Modern motivation philosophy: more companies need to understand thisToday, not enough companies (or more broadly organizations) understand yet the need to adapt the way that they approach talent and intellectual resources. Although so much of our work has moved from the factory to the office, so many firms still maintain an outlook on management and labor relations that reflects the characteristics and aspects of an industrial age, low to semi skilled economy.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it was the way I was brought up, the friends that I have been fortunate to have during my life as well as the mentors that have helped me, I have always known inside that the traditional mindset to managing organizations does not fit with the informational economy we live in today and have been moving towards since the explosion in IT and personal computing.<br />
<br />
Two years ago, I read <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29"><i>Outliers</i> </a>by Malcolm Gladwell, and it struck a nerve because it was one of the first times that I came across something very digestible that focused on the importance of <a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1483-malcolm-gladwell-on-meaningful-work-and-curiosity">meaningful work</a>. I recommend the book (as well as his other writings) quite often because it is so relevant to everyone, from parents to leaders. We all want some sort of success, however you want to define it, for someone. Understanding the points he makes in that book can give people a clearer sense on how to achieve success (again, however it is defined).<br />
<br />
Now I had the fortunate chance to come across this talk about motivating teams. This encapsulates in a short and entertaining way, so much of what I believe is necessary for successful organizations today and tomorrow.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/u6XAPnuFjJc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-44883502746905288532011-06-03T01:52:00.000-07:002011-06-03T01:52:11.277-07:00Is this a Reader, Feedburner, or Blogger Error? Webmaster Central really wants to be a photo blogThe search engines just announced <a href="http://schema.org/">Schema.org</a> to standardize the way the webmasters can enrich their content with structured metadata. I was looking foward to read all about it on the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/">Google Webmaster Central Blog</a>. So, naturally, I logged into Google Reader to look for a post.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The first thing that seemed weird was that all of a sudden the blog had 20+ new items. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_arVxmKBGCUxZcacHJrVNbk6n-0WeIfue2CfGF8xx7yRlV32oYKT1CWeR8WPqzj-PxGeycuxCFCgFEqf7PjOQYHA33ji9tW85D_0EgKn3tc8bO9nEJ7mBJ7G37LSO59RrJH4pSqKXBBsc/s1600/WebmasterCentral-newitems.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_arVxmKBGCUxZcacHJrVNbk6n-0WeIfue2CfGF8xx7yRlV32oYKT1CWeR8WPqzj-PxGeycuxCFCgFEqf7PjOQYHA33ji9tW85D_0EgKn3tc8bO9nEJ7mBJ7G37LSO59RrJH4pSqKXBBsc/s1600/WebmasterCentral-newitems.png" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That never happens. GWC is a blog that normally posts a 1-2 times per week, not much more than that. After clicking on the feed, I was presented with a large photo of some woman. I thought is this a joke? Anyway, I kept navigating through the posts and they were all large, well taken photos. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here is an example: <b>(Notice that I am in the GWC Blog and the url is poinging to the atom feed for GWC.)</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnQfa9ddXJ7gtT7FUhj3MAmyQaf5gXxemSIZuUVQ5tIbg-SOWoVwSQgFV1PO9gRFSemt5fxSDQM2UlbxYfpvY4_Whc4Z9vYzYYj2jly6ZaWS6F3f_5g8R0zRy7wBLeAV8Ckg7NZzW47ct/s1600/Google-Webmaster-Feed-Flickr-Whioops.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnQfa9ddXJ7gtT7FUhj3MAmyQaf5gXxemSIZuUVQ5tIbg-SOWoVwSQgFV1PO9gRFSemt5fxSDQM2UlbxYfpvY4_Whc4Z9vYzYYj2jly6ZaWS6F3f_5g8R0zRy7wBLeAV8Ckg7NZzW47ct/s640/Google-Webmaster-Feed-Flickr-Whioops.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Clicking on the feed details, you can see that something is amiss:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwzEtq1bJelQXq6_c6DCpIH-m0b3bpy9DiW1i05Ln1UUwbujxvtmiCq8MQ06WI8NTfb7_VjUzlBG1H8m1QcAfRfwiQtR9725Hu3-fQ2UhrpfhsVIJ1hVqIp2Y1UlZBwTpURtH2CGetWF8/s1600/Google-Webmaster-big-posts.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwzEtq1bJelQXq6_c6DCpIH-m0b3bpy9DiW1i05Ln1UUwbujxvtmiCq8MQ06WI8NTfb7_VjUzlBG1H8m1QcAfRfwiQtR9725Hu3-fQ2UhrpfhsVIJ1hVqIp2Y1UlZBwTpURtH2CGetWF8/s1600/Google-Webmaster-big-posts.png" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As you can see, something went terribly wrong here. It turns out that the feed seems come from a photgrapher named <a href="http://www.joehewes.com/">Joe Hewes</a>. Looking at his blog, you can see that he uses Blogger as his platform.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEHV9gWXoAQY8uW4FzJyRnvQ-V9m7DJqGACpTNBYON1WM9MsAV09pVPdvFbWlrxQWGGC0VBfMhaIcUGD_c1gefF-yxxOiTKMLDdUOChKNP8XHziNXUxE8GQAQMdGm3qAktwETMGNIHyGwF/s1600/Joe-Hewes-Uses-Bloggger.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEHV9gWXoAQY8uW4FzJyRnvQ-V9m7DJqGACpTNBYON1WM9MsAV09pVPdvFbWlrxQWGGC0VBfMhaIcUGD_c1gefF-yxxOiTKMLDdUOChKNP8XHziNXUxE8GQAQMdGm3qAktwETMGNIHyGwF/s1600/Joe-Hewes-Uses-Bloggger.png" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My guess is that this was not a hack but a bug/error in Blogger. The actual GWC blog website has only its original (non photog) content. If it were a hack, GWC would likely have had its content changed as well.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Well, hopefully Joe likes getting a bit more exposure of his work to the tech community. As for Google, I hope this is not a <a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2011/05/google-analytics-fast-access-mode-fail.html">sign</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/status#rm=1&di=14&do=19&ddo=23&hl=en">of</a> <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2295588/">more</a> <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/05/gmail-new-deal/">problems</a> with quality to come.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-84396429696382620942011-05-30T01:37:00.000-07:002011-05-30T01:37:53.877-07:00Want iGoogle made for laptop / netbook screens? Use PimpMyiGoogle<br />
<b>Download updated PimpMyiGoogle (May 2011)</b>: <br />
<a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/29517.user.js" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/download/gm/pimpiGoogle'])">Install Pimp My iGoogle – Userscripts.org</a>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/29517" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/view/gm/pimpiGoogle'])">View Pimp My iGoogle – Userscripts.org</a><br />
<br />
Writing userscripts for most sites feels a bit like a game of cat and mouse. Everytime <a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2010/10/better-y-mail-beta-less-ads-more-mail.html">Yahoo!</a> or <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/">Google</a> or <a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-dropbox-gadget.html">anyone else</a> who has a site that I write scripts for changes their page the following occurs:<br />
<ol>
<li>My existing scripts partially or completely break</li>
<li>I go to work on writing an update</li>
<li>I get most of the way there and hit a roadblock</li>
<li>I need to relearn a bit of the differences between script behavior en Firefox and Chrome</li>
<li>Updated script is fixed and posted to userscripts</li>
<li>Make a new post on <a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/">spanishgringo.blogspot.com</a></li>
</ol>
I am pretty much at step 6 again. This time it was <a href="http://spanishgringo.blogspot.com/2008/10/pimpmyigoogle-userscriptsorg.html">PimpMyiGoogle</a>. <br />
<br />
Google looks to have completely rewritten its content layout and changed its backend JS functions. I noticed that on 1 computer in Chrome a few weeks back that the script no longer worked. However, it kept working fine in Firefox and on my computer at work. I figured that they might be running a new test. Well, fast forward to last week and all browsers on all of my computers stopped respecting most of the improvements made by the userscript.<br />
<br />
So, this weekend, I dove in and made the fixes. Basically, the script had to be rewritten from scratch. I decided to clean up a bit and change the old "show sidebar" button to a new CSS3 button.<br />
<br />
<b>ToDo for the script:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Get min/max buttons to work in Chome (odd Object does not have click method error although the JS inspector shows that <i>their is</i> a valid click event listener).</li>
<li>Check the module status (expanded/minimized ) to determine which button icon to show.</li>
</ul>
Any other suggestions for the script? Please let me know. One idea I want to play with is pulling gTalk out of the sidebar and make it a floating menu.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1956185818738279972.post-2144567559443138982011-05-26T07:02:00.000-07:002011-05-26T07:02:39.200-07:00Google Adwords Does not Like Firefox Aurora (5)It seems to me that every day Google is taking one further step towards going completely hostile towards <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</a> and <a href="http://www.firefox.com/">Firefox</a>. Either that or they are indifferent to them. <br />
<br />
Logging into AdWords today with the latest <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/channel/">Firefox Aurora browser</a> (Firefox equivilant to Google Chrome Canary - near-nightly updates, some risk of instability) this is what I saw.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7EjFfJeX6STaPVJRnxL_oLvyOXiyMs1LZ9qCKF3FRhPPeVjovpHPf9NvEr_8XDvlBcE7rriSu2fUnFvjwvrgdJY5_3stqIyCR5spYJDt9vzFhxNnfBGxPdsrjHZcRUcTK_cg-TNkf7oE/s1600/AdWords-No-Like-Firefox-Aurora-5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7EjFfJeX6STaPVJRnxL_oLvyOXiyMs1LZ9qCKF3FRhPPeVjovpHPf9NvEr_8XDvlBcE7rriSu2fUnFvjwvrgdJY5_3stqIyCR5spYJDt9vzFhxNnfBGxPdsrjHZcRUcTK_cg-TNkf7oE/s640/AdWords-No-Like-Firefox-Aurora-5.png" t8="true" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When did a release from 2 days ago become defined as "old"?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I got the alert message up top, which has become quite common when entering many sites with Internet Explorer 6, thanks to the <a href="http://www.bringdownie6.com/">campaign to kill IE6.</a> They must be doing some poor UA sniffing and they have not updated their code to reflect the fact that Mozilla copied <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20044574-264.html">Google's own release schedule</a> for their browsers. Being the fans of web standards that they are, Google <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/3/examples/yui/yui-ua.html">should</a> be using <a href="http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.support/">feature detection</a> anyway. <br />
<br />
I hope this is just an oversite. Hopefully it is not in conflict with "don't be evil". You would hope that the AdWords developers would be trying the apps in all types of browsers in advance and only once they have been released.<br />
<br />
As recently as 2008, <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/20/mozilla_2008_financials/">Google was the source of 91-94% of the Mozilla Foundation's (non-profit behind firefox) funding</a>.<br />
<br />
When Google decided to launch Chrome instead of further bolstering Firefox, that was the biggest sign that the partnership was going in the wrong direction. Then, when <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/schmidt_on_privacy/">Eric Schmidt had his privacy gaffe</a>, the Mozilla camp <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/11/dotzler_on_schmidtt/">used the dreaded M and B words in suggesting a move away from Google</a>. I don't know if a partnership with Google can heal, once that has happened.<br />
<br />
This is heading towards a sad end for what was a beautiful partnership responsible for forcing the advancement of web browser technology and web standards. We should leave all of our browsers at half-scroll when the deal finally dies likely later this year.<br />
<br />
<sarcasm>At least Google does <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">not</a> have a <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/20/apple-microsoft-v-google/">long</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/technology/companies/04apple.html">history</a> of <a href="http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2011/05/02/daily40-Skyhook-lands-early-win-in-Google-suit-as-motions-get-denied.html">partnerhips</a> turning <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/15/googles-ordeal-in-china/">sour</a></sarcasm>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06656712069255970828noreply@blogger.com0