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From the blog
This guy will make you happier in 12 minutes
I first watched this a while ago – maybe 6 months – and I still chuckle when I think of it. Shawn Achor talks about happiness. This is particularly interesting to me at the moment, having had a conversation with my 9 year old son about why I don’t watch the news any more. (The...
Needed: a web browser which will tell me what tab is playing bloody music!
I tend to have a lot of tabs open when I’m browsing – often, upwards of 20. I also like to listen to music while I work. I have the sound turned up on my laptop, or I have iTunes (note from 2021: this has not aged well … of course, it’s Spotify now!) going...
Using Gmail with Organised Inboxes
It’s not often that Google introduces modifications that genuinely improve the way I work. Sure – plenty that are nice to haves (I just played with the latest version of Google Maps – and it looked and worked great – but a bit unnecessary since I had no problem with the old Google Maps, it...
Glow in the dark trees
This caught my eye (and reminded me of the pavements that generated electricity), glowing plants that could be used to create sustainable natural lighting. Clever. The people behind it were looking for $65,000 on Kickstarter to help fund their project. They raised $484,013. Those that backed them on Kickstarter are going to be getting seeds...
Does Google care about organic search?
Probably not. Not that much anyway. Since Google became the best place to get reliable search results on the web (what, 10 years ago?), they (and I) have been preaching that a well structured page with well written content containing a good balance of keyword information and useful information to the potential viewer, is the...
Setting up goals and funnels in Google Analytics
At the beginning of last month I wrote a post about custom dashboards in google analytics and I promised at the time I’d come back and write a companion post about setting up goals and funnels in google analytics. Well, I have – only it’s not here. It’s on another blog that I’ve just started up...
Why Facebook and TickTock struggle with mobile apps
I read this short piece the other day: Why the Facebook innovation machine doesn’t work on mobile devices. It’s an interesting read and I couldn’t help draw parallels with my brief (and aborted) foray into mobile app development. (And I refer here specifically to mobile apps – apps you download in an app store, and...
The creativity myth
Our understanding of creativity is a myth. I’ve heard dozens of people being described as ‘creative’, having their method characterised as creative, or their work as being somehow more ‘creative’ than someone else’s. Similarly, I’ve read articles on how to engage the creative process, to beat creative block, to become somehow ‘more’ creative. And it’s...
Passwords as tattoo’s / swallowable passwords
I’ve written before about the need for password strength, and also about my love of 1Password – an app for remembering and creating strong passwords - but this, well this is something new altogether … Regina Dugan is the former head of DARPA – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – and now works over at (Google...
Adding Custom Google Analytics Dashboards
I use Google Analytics for the majority of websites that I work on. It can though be a hugely daunting prospect – the amount of information available is huge, and getting to grips with what of it is useful, and what can safely be ignored, can be challenging. So, I tend to do 3 things...
Google Wallet – send money via email
Oh, this looks interesting. Google Wallet (formerly Google Checkout) is introducing email payments to some of it’s Gmail users (presumably in advance of a broader roll out). Integrating neatly with your gmail attachment options, a little $ sign will allow you to send money free (free from your Google Wallet balance or from your bank...
Claiming Google Authorship For Your Blog (or pretty pictures in search results)
If you’ve ever wondered why and how some search results have the author picture next to them, you’re not alone. Google introduced the concept of Authorship a little while ago as a means of establishing the reliability – or authority – of a content source. If an author writes multiple articles for multiple sources, then...