Several years ago on a trip to San Francisco I discovered a very resourceful website called Yelp. Heard of it? If not, there’s no doubt Yelp will be popping up in your city sometime soon. Yelp, Inc. is a Web 2.0 company that operates a social networking, user review, and local search web site of the same name. According to Wikipedia, over 25 million people access Yelp's website each month, putting it in the top 100 of U.S. Internet web sites. Founded by Jeremy Stoppelman in 2004 the site is near to becoming an international household name. In the spring of 2009 Yelp crossed the pond venturing into new UK territory.
There are lots of fantastic tales to read on Yelp, most of which come from quip personal anecdotes regarding local haunts by the site’s regular community contributors, but there is also a controversial story regarding the enterprise. An extortion claim is a journalist’s wet dream, and the question as to whether Yelp hides negative reviews for a price is an interesting concept to explore. Yelp strongly denies the allegation, but it does seem suspicious that the site seems to thrive despite little advertising. What’s the business model?
Yelp runs quite similarly to Google’s search results. Businesses can pay for top results on internal searches. In other words, sponsored results. A fantastic concept in my opinion. Users see what the community is saying, but businesses are also provided with an opportunity to get attention. In many ways, Yelp is an interactive Yellow Pages with Web 2.0 capabilities. It is also an example of how to get around the SEO minefield by using a smaller website to gain traffic and potentially increase sales.
Other tools were implemented to breakdown potential walls including a free REST- and JSON-based application programming interface (API). The API provides access to business listing details, reviews, photos, and ratings and can be used to add business information to a website, widget, or mobile application. The API has been used to integrate business reviews into existing Google Maps applications such as on Zillow.com and HotelMapSearch.com. Additionally, Yelp implemented Facebook Beacon, a part of Facebook's advertisement system that sends data from external websites to Facebook, ostensibly for the purpose of allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends. Certain activities on partner sites are published to a user's News Feed. Yelp is also mobile and can be used on the go through Apps and a smart-phone friendly site.
Many similar sites exist, but Yelp’s success stems from it’s foundation in community framework. By using user generated content and not turning to professional writers for their reviews the end result is a cultivation of peer to peer networking that fuels habitual behavior.
Reading in the Brave New World
We exist in a consumer society - I hope I’m not stating anything new to you with that statement. Our current challenge is how to remain hardcore consumers while minimizing our carbon footprint. I’d say, reducing the amount of bleached, heavily treated paper is a good start.
After years working for a major book retailer I can assess that people want options, and the way we read has been changed forever by new media. As an example, it’s surprising to discover magazines and newspapers without any online presence except to list statistical information concerning their distribution and ways to advertise. Forget about seeing an App or podcast available. Instead of embracing new directions there seems to be a sadness over the dwindling sales of printed material and traditional media. There are also concerns that modern communication and information searching tools will injure our intelligence.
Luckily there are experts on the subject and we don’t need to continue scratching our heads over how to understand the reading brain. Maryanne Wolf, is a cognitive neuroscientist and child development expert from Tufts University and author of the exceptional book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
Contrary to what your 3rd grade english teacher led you to believe reading is an evolutionary exercise and doesn’t follow an intrinsically strict rule book. If language and reading were to remain the same we’d still be saying ‘thou’ and ‘shalt’ instead of ‘you’ and ‘should’. The main difference in these contemporary times is that technology is at the helm of consumption. New forms of communication are altering spelling and causing the older generations to squirm at the sight of lol, brb, and whatever other forms of new speak the kids are talking these days.
While I can’t say that I’d jump at the thought of reading a book or even short story written entirely through IM abbreviations it would be an interesting visual representation of the times. After all, isn’t that what most art tries to achieve? The classics that define our culture will never die because adaption ensures their survival.
Finally, tools such as Literature Map will take care of those pesky publicists who believe their opinion should dictate which books are worth reading. Peer to peer sharing and personalized recommendations are how I want to find new authors and books worth my time and money.
After years working for a major book retailer I can assess that people want options, and the way we read has been changed forever by new media. As an example, it’s surprising to discover magazines and newspapers without any online presence except to list statistical information concerning their distribution and ways to advertise. Forget about seeing an App or podcast available. Instead of embracing new directions there seems to be a sadness over the dwindling sales of printed material and traditional media. There are also concerns that modern communication and information searching tools will injure our intelligence.
Luckily there are experts on the subject and we don’t need to continue scratching our heads over how to understand the reading brain. Maryanne Wolf, is a cognitive neuroscientist and child development expert from Tufts University and author of the exceptional book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
“Human beings were never born to read,” she writes, “Reading is a human invention that reflects how the brain rearranges itself to learn something new.”
Contrary to what your 3rd grade english teacher led you to believe reading is an evolutionary exercise and doesn’t follow an intrinsically strict rule book. If language and reading were to remain the same we’d still be saying ‘thou’ and ‘shalt’ instead of ‘you’ and ‘should’. The main difference in these contemporary times is that technology is at the helm of consumption. New forms of communication are altering spelling and causing the older generations to squirm at the sight of lol, brb, and whatever other forms of new speak the kids are talking these days.
While I can’t say that I’d jump at the thought of reading a book or even short story written entirely through IM abbreviations it would be an interesting visual representation of the times. After all, isn’t that what most art tries to achieve? The classics that define our culture will never die because adaption ensures their survival.
Finally, tools such as Literature Map will take care of those pesky publicists who believe their opinion should dictate which books are worth reading. Peer to peer sharing and personalized recommendations are how I want to find new authors and books worth my time and money.
What is this thing we call privacy?: Part 1
There isn’t a moment in our modern day that we aren’t confronted by someone wanting information from us. Whether it be Greenpeace good-doers soliciting donations on nearly every street corner, or a website requiring you to register as a member. There is so much information floating around us we are in a constant state of information overload. In many ways, information has become a commodity.
In fact, if you search information overload the results will illustrate nearly everyone is aware of a potential problem, but no one can be certain what to make of it. On the one hand, we adore the playfulness of social media and the ease of open communication within a network, but at the same time we are fearful that the price of these tools is too much personal information. No longer are we remote islands onto ourselves, but digital villages of white noise, colourful images, encapsulated in a blur of promotion. The ability to exist within this new world is to trade information about your true identity.
According to Roger Clarke, “cyberculture' is the concept of a group or groups of people achieving cohesion by means of the information infrastructure”. As a consultant specialising in strategic and policy aspects of eBusiness, information infrastructure, data surveillance, and privacy he is a good source on the subject. In a paper entitled Dissidentity, Clarke raises an important point regarding the psychological need for private space.
Wikipedia defines privacy as; ‘the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.’ To me, the reality is that no one should expect to be entirely private when online. Privacy is a relative term in the offline world and it’s no different online. There are a few colourful words to describe a person who would walk around wearing a mask and cloak. Usually, when someone has something to hide it’s because they participate in some sort of action that they believe would change other people’s perception of them. Fear of embarrassment, judgment, hate, as well as a multitude of other emotions can lead people into strange behaviours that they’d rather keep to themselves.
I can entirely appreciate the notion of privacy and why most people do not wish to have personal information disclosed without their explicit consent. When I provide my email address to a site in exchange for a newsletter, registration, or information there should be an understanding that my email addresses is not to be used for any other purposes then the agreement of which I consented. In other words, my email address should not be sold on a list for other product promotions and third parties should not contact me as a consequence of my participation in divulging my personal information. Spam is a cute name for a very big problem. Another issue is identity theft; which I'll try to tackle in another post soon.
Some believe that the World Wide Web is a virtual space, cyberculture, or cyberspace. The reality is that who we are online is not a different person from our offline selves, and the laws in which we conduct ourselves online should be in keeping with the laws that stop us from stealing and hurting people in the physical world. The ability to be intrinsically more of our darker selves or indulge our fantasies is a freedom and not a right. An abuse of freedom has the power to alter the structure of a society, or at the very least break down trust. Anarchy is a beautiful yet unrealistic dream that would sooner turn into a nightmare then a Utopic wonderland.
In fact, if you search information overload the results will illustrate nearly everyone is aware of a potential problem, but no one can be certain what to make of it. On the one hand, we adore the playfulness of social media and the ease of open communication within a network, but at the same time we are fearful that the price of these tools is too much personal information. No longer are we remote islands onto ourselves, but digital villages of white noise, colourful images, encapsulated in a blur of promotion. The ability to exist within this new world is to trade information about your true identity.
According to Roger Clarke, “cyberculture' is the concept of a group or groups of people achieving cohesion by means of the information infrastructure”. As a consultant specialising in strategic and policy aspects of eBusiness, information infrastructure, data surveillance, and privacy he is a good source on the subject. In a paper entitled Dissidentity, Clarke raises an important point regarding the psychological need for private space.
“There are many different contexts in which human behaviour depends on the freedom and constraints associated with the identities that they use.”
Wikipedia defines privacy as; ‘the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.’ To me, the reality is that no one should expect to be entirely private when online. Privacy is a relative term in the offline world and it’s no different online. There are a few colourful words to describe a person who would walk around wearing a mask and cloak. Usually, when someone has something to hide it’s because they participate in some sort of action that they believe would change other people’s perception of them. Fear of embarrassment, judgment, hate, as well as a multitude of other emotions can lead people into strange behaviours that they’d rather keep to themselves.
I can entirely appreciate the notion of privacy and why most people do not wish to have personal information disclosed without their explicit consent. When I provide my email address to a site in exchange for a newsletter, registration, or information there should be an understanding that my email addresses is not to be used for any other purposes then the agreement of which I consented. In other words, my email address should not be sold on a list for other product promotions and third parties should not contact me as a consequence of my participation in divulging my personal information. Spam is a cute name for a very big problem. Another issue is identity theft; which I'll try to tackle in another post soon.
Some believe that the World Wide Web is a virtual space, cyberculture, or cyberspace. The reality is that who we are online is not a different person from our offline selves, and the laws in which we conduct ourselves online should be in keeping with the laws that stop us from stealing and hurting people in the physical world. The ability to be intrinsically more of our darker selves or indulge our fantasies is a freedom and not a right. An abuse of freedom has the power to alter the structure of a society, or at the very least break down trust. Anarchy is a beautiful yet unrealistic dream that would sooner turn into a nightmare then a Utopic wonderland.
More Services Less Advertising
The 'meat' of a website can often become overshadowed by trendy fluff counteracting the integrity of a site. The current formula is a simple one: get the "exclusive" stuff that users want to look at and then blast them with advertising- pop ups and banner ads, flash video is a must, and don’t skimp out on the explosively loud audio that will get a user to leave your site faster then the librarian can get across the room.
What we need is more services like RSS feeds, iGoogle, and all those great apps that help us reach the content we want to find. Having content fed to us and restricting the amount of searching may make you wonder: What about the advertising that pays for websites? If there is less traffic to sites how do we make money? Don’t fret there are lots of ways to get attention and promote products then flash banners and pop-ups.
Regarding SEO, let's say you have mastered your keywords and SEO’d the crap outta every page on your site. Do you really think that all you have to do is sit back and watch the dollars flood in? You could have the most perfectly constructed website when it comes to being found easily through search engines, but your site is meant for humans - opps.
I’d recommend most sites focus on the following: Quality Internal Search, Precise Auto-Recommendations (ex. if you like ‘this’ you may also like ‘this’), RSS Subscriptions, and Applications that have a purpose in the real world. A few ideas that quickly come to mind are: a wishlist to save time shopping - with a recommendation tool of course, a digital loyalty card (it worked for Starbucks - why not make a digital version to suit you?). Be bold and creative instead of following every other site - the point is to get noticed not be the same, correct?
Promotion is more effective when it seems to happen serendipitously. Make sure your business or product is associated with review sites or other recommendation tools and apps. Become a sponsor of online events and games. Focus on partnerships to combine products and services. Where you exist elsewhere is almost more important then existing at all. Being an online player is no longer a passive relationship between site and user. Ex. trade-shows, conferences, live events and performances, contests, etc. Find out what else is relevant to you and become apart of the experience. Wired Magazine's latest issue discusses Facebook's most recent advertising strategies which willfully block out Google. Integrating into social networks is important, and might overshadow the effectiveness of SEO in the years to come.
Being locatable is not enough. If a user finds your site and isn’t impressed they’ll leave and all that time (and money) becoming a SEO savant is wasted. Think of a website as a service instead of a presentation, and hopefully you’ll manage to find a way to connect more meaningfully with your users instead of relying on bots.
What we need is more services like RSS feeds, iGoogle, and all those great apps that help us reach the content we want to find. Having content fed to us and restricting the amount of searching may make you wonder: What about the advertising that pays for websites? If there is less traffic to sites how do we make money? Don’t fret there are lots of ways to get attention and promote products then flash banners and pop-ups.
Regarding SEO, let's say you have mastered your keywords and SEO’d the crap outta every page on your site. Do you really think that all you have to do is sit back and watch the dollars flood in? You could have the most perfectly constructed website when it comes to being found easily through search engines, but your site is meant for humans - opps.
I’d recommend most sites focus on the following: Quality Internal Search, Precise Auto-Recommendations (ex. if you like ‘this’ you may also like ‘this’), RSS Subscriptions, and Applications that have a purpose in the real world. A few ideas that quickly come to mind are: a wishlist to save time shopping - with a recommendation tool of course, a digital loyalty card (it worked for Starbucks - why not make a digital version to suit you?). Be bold and creative instead of following every other site - the point is to get noticed not be the same, correct?
Promotion is more effective when it seems to happen serendipitously. Make sure your business or product is associated with review sites or other recommendation tools and apps. Become a sponsor of online events and games. Focus on partnerships to combine products and services. Where you exist elsewhere is almost more important then existing at all. Being an online player is no longer a passive relationship between site and user. Ex. trade-shows, conferences, live events and performances, contests, etc. Find out what else is relevant to you and become apart of the experience. Wired Magazine's latest issue discusses Facebook's most recent advertising strategies which willfully block out Google. Integrating into social networks is important, and might overshadow the effectiveness of SEO in the years to come.
Being locatable is not enough. If a user finds your site and isn’t impressed they’ll leave and all that time (and money) becoming a SEO savant is wasted. Think of a website as a service instead of a presentation, and hopefully you’ll manage to find a way to connect more meaningfully with your users instead of relying on bots.
Ignore the man behind the curtain: The Rise of the Algorithm
Once upon a time MySpace was my singular online destination. This was back in the day when I maintained a profile and spent hours tweaking the html much in the same vain as the rockin’ homemade acid wash jeans I once loved. These days my taste has mellowed and the empty moments of my day are now filled with twittering and the occasional dip in the Facebook pool.
So what is at the heart of the MySpace vs. Facebook controversy? I believe that it is primarily due to the oversight of installing a robust algorithm to ensure users remained engaged in their online community. Knowing that users are there to listen, create, and share should have been enough to inspire a cool tool to keep users engaged. Instead the focus remains on selling ad space and monetizing promotions. By the time Facebook became a household name the opportunity for MySpace to engage their users through internal services and apps had passed. I would have expected MySpace to work on interactive shopping and peer-peer recommendations. Instead they remain banner crazed and the level of noise on the site is what I imagine crazy to feel like, or at least a brutal migraine headache.
Facebook recently enhanced their internal algorithm to mixed reviews. Nothing is perfect, ever; however, community upset is perhaps the most problematic issue to manage. Civil upset can evoke a mass exodus. A reality that Friendster and other online communities know all too well. I’m not overly concerned whether Facebook retains its hold on the online community monopoly because I have no doubt that something bigger and better is inevitable (Twitter?). What is interesting to me is the gentle tweaking of internal algorithms that make the experience seem magical. OK, ‘magical’ is pushing it in terms of the Facebook experience, but my point is most users have no idea how or why the news feed produces its results, etc.
Lastfm.com is a great example of what I would have expected to see from MySpace. The sites algorithm is among the best I’ve seen and the experience is simply sweet. Recently the site changed from free streaming for all to a subscription model. Except for the US, UK, and Germany all users of the site must pay $3/month (USD) to enjoy the delightful radio station algorithm that seems to be able to read your mind and present music you currently know and love, music loved but forgotten, and music you never heard before and love immediately. Despite being able to provide a great service the change in payment model didn't go unnoticed, to say the least.
The mark of a good algorithm is that the more you engage with the site the smarter it becomes. Amazon.com has put this technology to good use for years, and it’s among a handful of reasons that it remains my favourite online shopping destination. If eBay and etsy could do the same thing for me I’d likely spend more time and consequently more money too. Providing a service that does the work of searching around for me is a place I want to spend my time. The only way a good algorithm can be bad is when users aren’t savvy enough to know the difference between intelligent technology and a breach of privacy - but that is a whole other topic that I’m not in the mood to address at the moment.
For now I’ll leave you with a final thought: What would happen if an online community with a sophisticated algorithm for predicting recommendations was mashed-up with products and services? The answer is the end of crappy online banners and wasted efforts on online promotions.
So what is at the heart of the MySpace vs. Facebook controversy? I believe that it is primarily due to the oversight of installing a robust algorithm to ensure users remained engaged in their online community. Knowing that users are there to listen, create, and share should have been enough to inspire a cool tool to keep users engaged. Instead the focus remains on selling ad space and monetizing promotions. By the time Facebook became a household name the opportunity for MySpace to engage their users through internal services and apps had passed. I would have expected MySpace to work on interactive shopping and peer-peer recommendations. Instead they remain banner crazed and the level of noise on the site is what I imagine crazy to feel like, or at least a brutal migraine headache.
Facebook recently enhanced their internal algorithm to mixed reviews. Nothing is perfect, ever; however, community upset is perhaps the most problematic issue to manage. Civil upset can evoke a mass exodus. A reality that Friendster and other online communities know all too well. I’m not overly concerned whether Facebook retains its hold on the online community monopoly because I have no doubt that something bigger and better is inevitable (Twitter?). What is interesting to me is the gentle tweaking of internal algorithms that make the experience seem magical. OK, ‘magical’ is pushing it in terms of the Facebook experience, but my point is most users have no idea how or why the news feed produces its results, etc.
Lastfm.com is a great example of what I would have expected to see from MySpace. The sites algorithm is among the best I’ve seen and the experience is simply sweet. Recently the site changed from free streaming for all to a subscription model. Except for the US, UK, and Germany all users of the site must pay $3/month (USD) to enjoy the delightful radio station algorithm that seems to be able to read your mind and present music you currently know and love, music loved but forgotten, and music you never heard before and love immediately. Despite being able to provide a great service the change in payment model didn't go unnoticed, to say the least.
The mark of a good algorithm is that the more you engage with the site the smarter it becomes. Amazon.com has put this technology to good use for years, and it’s among a handful of reasons that it remains my favourite online shopping destination. If eBay and etsy could do the same thing for me I’d likely spend more time and consequently more money too. Providing a service that does the work of searching around for me is a place I want to spend my time. The only way a good algorithm can be bad is when users aren’t savvy enough to know the difference between intelligent technology and a breach of privacy - but that is a whole other topic that I’m not in the mood to address at the moment.
For now I’ll leave you with a final thought: What would happen if an online community with a sophisticated algorithm for predicting recommendations was mashed-up with products and services? The answer is the end of crappy online banners and wasted efforts on online promotions.
A Few UX Pet Peeves
Job hunting is perhaps the best way to find lots of badly designed websites. As someone focused on web usability it's hard to overlook poor content strategy.
Here are a few of the biggest mistakes I’ve noticed regarding content hierarchy, poor categorization, and confusing layouts.
1) Everything is in the middle of the page. Upon arriving to a website we have a tendency to look at the centre and then we normally scan the content from left to right (this makes sense considering in using the English language we also read left to right). When a home page is scrunched up into the centre of the page with everything competing for attention the brain has to think too much. And when we have to think too much our experience is usually poor.
An easy way to avoid this is to determine what is the best available service for the user. In the case of a job search it is the tool which allows the user to get quick results. Yahoo! Jobs illustrates this perfectly by placing the search tool in the top left corner and electing a clean palate to demonstrate quickly and easily the hierarchy of content. Another great attribute of of the Yahoo experience is the grouping of similar content. This simple cohesive organizing of content creates value for the user, and ideally elicits registration and regular visits.
2) What am I supposed to be looking at? This is a question you never want a user to ask. When everything is all over the place, and no formal navigation is in sight we have a tendency to loose interest. Solid navigation isn’t reserved for websites only. Blogs also need to think about the audience and their ability to locate specific content. Too often with a popular and well established blog the content takes on a life of it’s own leading to a confusing experience for new users.
When there are links to social media tools and real-time conversations there should be a clear distinction between this and blog posts. The ‘About’ content does not need to be above the fold or even on the main page. I have a tendency to prefer blogs from the likes of Blogger for this very reason. The tools provided allow you to manage content in a clear and concise fashion. We can easily asses who writes the blog, who reads the blog, what tags are associated with the posts, what types of categories exist, badges clearly assert how one can contact the blogger(s) associated with the blog, and a community results from links and a blogroll.
The sense that everything is related is the calling card of a well organized website or blog. I don't think a Home page needs to explain everything at once. To me, the Home page is similar to a thesis statement. A first impression is hard to change and it's really important to be able to illustrate the core attributes of the site in a clear and concise fashion. This also includes pages that take longer then a few seconds to load - I realize that Flash and other cool media stuff makes a site pretty and adds lots of razzle-dazzle, but I don't think any type of media should block or slow-down entry into a website. Let the user control their own experience by providing clearly laid out content and navigation.
Here are a few of the biggest mistakes I’ve noticed regarding content hierarchy, poor categorization, and confusing layouts.
1) Everything is in the middle of the page. Upon arriving to a website we have a tendency to look at the centre and then we normally scan the content from left to right (this makes sense considering in using the English language we also read left to right). When a home page is scrunched up into the centre of the page with everything competing for attention the brain has to think too much. And when we have to think too much our experience is usually poor.
An easy way to avoid this is to determine what is the best available service for the user. In the case of a job search it is the tool which allows the user to get quick results. Yahoo! Jobs illustrates this perfectly by placing the search tool in the top left corner and electing a clean palate to demonstrate quickly and easily the hierarchy of content. Another great attribute of of the Yahoo experience is the grouping of similar content. This simple cohesive organizing of content creates value for the user, and ideally elicits registration and regular visits.
2) What am I supposed to be looking at? This is a question you never want a user to ask. When everything is all over the place, and no formal navigation is in sight we have a tendency to loose interest. Solid navigation isn’t reserved for websites only. Blogs also need to think about the audience and their ability to locate specific content. Too often with a popular and well established blog the content takes on a life of it’s own leading to a confusing experience for new users.
When there are links to social media tools and real-time conversations there should be a clear distinction between this and blog posts. The ‘About’ content does not need to be above the fold or even on the main page. I have a tendency to prefer blogs from the likes of Blogger for this very reason. The tools provided allow you to manage content in a clear and concise fashion. We can easily asses who writes the blog, who reads the blog, what tags are associated with the posts, what types of categories exist, badges clearly assert how one can contact the blogger(s) associated with the blog, and a community results from links and a blogroll.
The sense that everything is related is the calling card of a well organized website or blog. I don't think a Home page needs to explain everything at once. To me, the Home page is similar to a thesis statement. A first impression is hard to change and it's really important to be able to illustrate the core attributes of the site in a clear and concise fashion. This also includes pages that take longer then a few seconds to load - I realize that Flash and other cool media stuff makes a site pretty and adds lots of razzle-dazzle, but I don't think any type of media should block or slow-down entry into a website. Let the user control their own experience by providing clearly laid out content and navigation.
Show me the free WIFI!
Deplaning at the Sydney Airport a few weeks ago I was informed by the Virgin Australia staff (the best airline I’ve ever had the pleasure of flying on btw) that the airport provided WIFI. Ever since acquiring my MacBook I’ve been on a constant quest for free WIFI. Especially when I’m traveling the pursuit justifies alternative routes and accommodations. No free WIFI means I’ll go elsewhere, and unfortunately it also means that I’ll usually pay more for the ability to check my email whenever I want. I was thrilled and eager to share the happy news that I’d landed safely with my friends and family. Sadly I had misunderstood ‘available WIFI’ for ‘free WIFI’. The WIFI is currently not free at the Sydney Airport. As with most international airports there are several service providers selling temporary connections at exorbitant rates. I declined and miserly waited nearly a week to inform my family that I hadn’t been tackled by a kangaroo or chased down by any emus.
Many inner-city areas have started providing free WIFI; however, it remains elusive most of the time. I can understand that service providers are in the business of making money, but can’t there be some sort of way to provide free WIFI and still make a profit? Why is it in the era of information overload and efficient communication technology that more often then not is there a lack of affordable or available WIFI? I'd love to be able to leave the house with just my phone and be able to buy stuff.
I’m not the type to try and hack into a secure wireless network. Simply because I know how much I’m currently paying per download and there’s no way I’d allow a stranger to use my account - so why would I mess around with someone else’s? What I think instead is that we need a global WIFI revolution.
Every country and region seems to have their own system for charging customers - most of which are out of date and lack validity. The system that makes the most sense to me is providing free WIFI and enhancing service packages for customers using WIFI enabled devices. Considering that most service providers are in the telecoms business it isn’t a huge leap to consider a new alternative. Why not provide free WIFI and make money through different types of services?
Interestingly, Estonia is one of the first countries to provide free nationwide WIFI. Other European countries are enjoying the benefits of free WIFI by creating new services; such as, Nokia’s beta trial at the Kamppi Shopping Centre in Helsinki, an indoor positioning system allowing users to send an SMS with precise location information to their friends. I can’t say that I’m enough of a shopping addict to require such a service, but I can see similar GPS tracking systems playing a vital role in locating lost children or pets.
I’m not sure what the answer is exactly, but I have a feeling there is some savvy entrepreneur out there who will see an opportunity in all of this madness and push the traditional game players out of our way.
Many inner-city areas have started providing free WIFI; however, it remains elusive most of the time. I can understand that service providers are in the business of making money, but can’t there be some sort of way to provide free WIFI and still make a profit? Why is it in the era of information overload and efficient communication technology that more often then not is there a lack of affordable or available WIFI? I'd love to be able to leave the house with just my phone and be able to buy stuff.
I’m not the type to try and hack into a secure wireless network. Simply because I know how much I’m currently paying per download and there’s no way I’d allow a stranger to use my account - so why would I mess around with someone else’s? What I think instead is that we need a global WIFI revolution.
Every country and region seems to have their own system for charging customers - most of which are out of date and lack validity. The system that makes the most sense to me is providing free WIFI and enhancing service packages for customers using WIFI enabled devices. Considering that most service providers are in the telecoms business it isn’t a huge leap to consider a new alternative. Why not provide free WIFI and make money through different types of services?
Interestingly, Estonia is one of the first countries to provide free nationwide WIFI. Other European countries are enjoying the benefits of free WIFI by creating new services; such as, Nokia’s beta trial at the Kamppi Shopping Centre in Helsinki, an indoor positioning system allowing users to send an SMS with precise location information to their friends. I can’t say that I’m enough of a shopping addict to require such a service, but I can see similar GPS tracking systems playing a vital role in locating lost children or pets.
I’m not sure what the answer is exactly, but I have a feeling there is some savvy entrepreneur out there who will see an opportunity in all of this madness and push the traditional game players out of our way.
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