Doug Bowman, Google’s first real in-house designer, has left Google, allegedly to join Twitter, but this is not yet confirmed.
Bowman writes:
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such miniscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.
I’ve been in that sort of environment – typically driven by either finance or engineering “experts” within a company – this sort of behavior reflects a less than holistic approach to the business. I wouldn’t enjoy working in that environment either.
In fact, this is the sort of client that I typically “fire” rather than do additional work for in the future.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised – we’ve seen this from Dave Winer before.
In this post, he flames Asa Dotzler, then after getting called on it by Dotzler in this post, he edits the post and removes the flame.
In the flame, mind you, he called Dotzler a “creep”.
In a comment on Dotzler’s blog, he admits to the action:
At the same time I took down the note and the pointer. He objected to being called a creep, and I decided to let him have his way.
I’ll give Dave this – he’s his own man – though I don’t always understand the post-editing of a post after it’s already been posted.
Shaq, who has been an avid Twitter user, has now been this article on MSNBC:
Suns center Shaquille O’Neal posted a note on his Twitter feed before a home game against Washington on Saturday night, suggesting he planned to post to the popular social networking Web site during halftime.
His coach, didn’t seem to mind so much:
“As long as he gets 25 (points) and 11 (rebounds), he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, MySpace,” said Gentry, who also has a Twitter account set up by his daughter.
As Twitter, Facebook, and other tools continue to become more prevalent amongst mainstream users – I believe we’ll see more of this sort of use by athletes and others.
After all – we’re all doing this as a part of our work as well – aren’t we?
Scoble blogs on the topic of the week: Facebook’s redesign and has an opinion quite different from most:
Anyway, all those who are saying the new design sucks should NOT be listened to. Yeah, I know a lot of people are going to get mad at me for saying that. After all, how can a blogger say to not listen to the masses? Easy: I’ve seen the advice the masses are giving and most of it isn’t very good for Facebook’s business interests.
While I’m certainly not one to always agree with what Scoble has to say – I think he’s on to something here…
Innovators – the ones who really shake things up – are better off not necessarily listening to their users — or they’ll never advance beyond what a user can see off the end of their nose.
Over at Cnet’s ‘The Social’, Caroline McCarthy profiles a Nielsen study showing that Twitter’s annual growth rate from 2008 to 2009 was a whopping 1,382%.
But a blog post from Nielsen said that Twitter (which counts the 35-to-49 age demographic as its biggest, the statistics said) may be growing even faster than its numbers say. “PC Web usage of Twitter.com doesn’t tell the whole story,” the post by Nielsen Online’s Michelle McGiboney read. “The ability to (use) Twitter via a mobile phone–whether through the mobile Web or via text messages–is a driving factor in the social network’s success. In January, 735,000 unique visitors accessed the Twitter Web site through their mobile phones. The average unique visitor went to Twitter.com 14 times during the month and spent an average of seven minutes on the site.”
This echoes my own observations about Twitter utilization amongst folks that we are engaged with as consultants – we’ve seen a huge spike in the utilization of Twitter beyond the typical “early-adoptors” that began using Twitter over the last two years. We’ve even constructed a secure internal Twitter for two clients now so that they can use microblogging services inside their corporations.
I believe Twitter will see continued growth along the same lines when we compare 2009 to 2010 data a year from now.
Facebook has been rolling out their new design over the last few weeks – and there’s a very mixed bag of feedback floating around out there about the usability of this new layout.
At TechCrunch, Michael Arrington linked to a poll from Facebook suggesting that 95% of users gave the new redesign a “Thumbs Down” – with more than 800,000 facebook users contributing to that poll, the number appears to be fairly significant.
At VentureBeat, Eric Eldon takes a different beat in his post from yesterday:
In looking at users comments on the app, it seems they’re confused about where to find things on the new interface — presumably Facebook’s own applications, like photos and notes, as well as third-party applications like games. Perhaps a few tweaks to make old interface pieces more obvious would quiet people down? Maybe a more obvious way to select apps from within the news feed is an order. Right now, there’s an automated list of apps that are popular with your friends on the left-hand column of the site, and an automated list of content from around the site on the right-hand side. (Such a move would probably make developers happy.)
I’m torn on this issue. As a Facebook users, I don’t particularly like several aspects of the redesign.. but I’m also aware that new designs take some time to get over the “I don’t like change” curve that users must work through. Even as I was writing this post, I asked my better half, an avid facebook user, what she thought of the redesign – she said, “I think it’s ok.”
When I pointed out the poll of 800,000 Facebook users where 95% hated the new design – her sage wisdom was “No one likes change, Matt…”
I believe that over time – perhaps in less than 30-45 days – most users will have adjusted to the new look and feel and this controversy will be behind Facebook.
New Jersey is apparently planning on banning bikini waxing, according to this article in today’s Boston Globe:
New Jersey is drawing the line when it comes to bikini waxing.
The state Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling is moving toward a ban on genital waxing altogether after two women reported being injured in their quest for a smooth bikini line.
Huh? Really? Aren’t there more important things to do than this for government?
