Leverage Blog: How to Exploit the Web.

Nice is the New Black.

I came across this article recently, about how the general tone of the internet is changing - from "fire-breathing, semi-literate personal attacks" to an "all-out love fest."

The part that I thought was most interesting was about how sites like facebook and tumblr have "like" buttons, but no similar negative option. It's literally easier to click a link and be nice, than it is to type out something mean.

It's more than that, though - I think the increasing lack of anonymity has a lot to do with it, and there's also the quest for popularity.

It's an interesting read, check it out: My Town of Kind!

   

Bad ad placement for Netflix. Major oops. Note the headline of the story, and their ad at the bottom.. Can you say negative press?

Thinking for a Living

The design of this website/blog/journal/notebook is simply sublime. use your keyboard to navigate a website? love it. i wouldn't say the interface is designed handheld smart devices like the iphone 'first', but its all going in that direction.

www.thinkingforaliving.org

Try it.  Dig it.

thanks to the people at Core 77 for the find.  their overview is below

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Thinking for a Living (other than being a fantastic name) is a publisher and curator of new design content, organized into Features, Curated, Digest, and Shelf. The result is part-magazine, part-blog, part-feed, and part-experience.

The site—newly redesigned during a pow-wow in the Pecos Wilderness outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico last summer—reflects the hybrid nature of the project. It side-scrolls to better accommodate the long-form content, considers the multi-touch capabilities of smart devices like the iPhone and the iPad, and focuses on typography and legibility—implemented in a 12-column grid.

The best part, for me anyway, is the embedded keyboard navigation. All of the content can be browsed without ever touching the mouse. The arrow keys scroll through and between features, and letter keys will direct you to the different sections of the site. The whole experience feels a lot more like actual reading and encourages an intimate, smooth interaction with the content, rather than a jumpy one, without ever having to own an iPad at all. If only the rest of the web were so friendly.

I don't mean to underplay the content with all this talk of its design. The first issue was launched just a couple of days ago, with contributions from Duane King, Frank Chimero, Shane Bzdok, and Core-fave Rob Giampietro (of Lined and Unlined), writing on topics like paradoxes, the origins of the serial, and Emil Ruder. Once you're done reading those, be sure to visit the other sections for curated tidbits from around the web.

Finally, read more about the redesign and navigation tools here and the brains behind the project here.

Thanks, Alissia!

 

Have you been Yelped?

Check out this article on Inc.com:
You've Been Yelped

We’ve always been impressed with how Yelp elegantly serves-up not just user reviews but community, geo-targeting and local search. If you’ve not seen their iPhone app, it’s outstanding.

How has Yelp affected your small business? As the article mentions, some business owners can obsess about it... but the obsessed might feel better after reading our previous post, "Bad" reviews can be surprisingly good.