the new timesofmalta.com (part 2)

A new service on the new timesofmalta.com, currently being discussed by many during coffee breaks, is the new ePaper. In appearance, the ePaper looks like a PDF version of the print issue, but technically, the ePaper offers much more than that.


The highlight of the ePaper is its ability to translate news articles to audio allowing busy readers to listen to a news broadcast whilst posting a blab such as this one! The ePaper is being provided by NewspaperDirect, 'the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine content distribution and monetization. The company has agreements with over 500 newspaper and magazine publishers from 73 countries around the globe to market, sell and/or print their publications worldwide.'

I am no expert but I believe Allied Newspapers’ approach of making news content available as much as possible enables it to fully monetize the content proposition.
On the other hand, I am not sure the ePaper will catch up. I believe additional functionality provided by the ePaper could have been included in the website directly.

The website contains most of the printed content (and more), it’s easier to handle, bookmark, link to blogs and simply browse through. The ePaper is slower, less interactive and priced in a complex manner. If Allied Newspapers want to offer additional functionality at a price, may i suggest a more sophisticated version of the website, offered to users who sign up against a monthly subscription.

It would be interesting to test the ePaper against the normal website on devices other than the normal computer screen, PDAs, for example. Would the above arguments still hold?

Finally, the new Times’ website includes audio visual ads. whilst the ePaper fails to translate the Vodafone advert to normal audio.

go back: the new timesofmalta.com (part1)

BLABinteractive features on the Viral Video Chart

Was off to sleep when I noticed that we were featured on the viral video chart. In fact, BLABinteractive was one of the 741 blog posts related to the Cadbury Gorilla Viral. I will definately be blogging about this site later on this week. In the meantime you may get to know How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion



Goodnight!

YahooMail is (still) under construction

The 'new' layout for YahooMail, which has been around for the past year, is still under construction. My attempt to edit my account details redirected me to the old mail layout. I am amazed...is Yahoo too busy to re-design a simple online form, just for the sake of consistency!?

I work for Youtube!

3,632,722(and still counting); That's the number of times the latest Cadbury viral advert was viewed in the past 2 months.

It is funny how we're still amazed by the power of viral advertising. If you think about it, it just makes sense: I am engaged in a fun video (where the product is secondary) and so I tell my friends about it.

When media struggles for consumer attention, the consumer decides what works and what doesn't in the advertising market. YouTube has given us a more powerful medium where we can choose our 'lovemarks' and BLAB about them.

It is only because of this sharing that YouTube is so popular. Once we stop working for YouTube, YouTube has to close down! Until then, check out one of my 'lovemarks' at this link

HotCouture does it again!

For the second consecutive year, HotCouture has teamed up with a local radio station to choose its campaign model. Last year HotCouture had chosen Eleanor, winner of Bay Radio's Dream Job competition. This year, it was XFM's Virtual Rockstar winner Ann de Gaetano (a.k.a. Slur) who featured in the campaign.

The concept of using 'success stories' such as Elinor and Ann de Gaetano goes in line with "You too can be a star", HotCouture's slogan. The whole thing provides a nice story which the girls may talk about and connect with!

Photographer Alexandra Pace and her team were behind this year's photoshoot, the making of which may be seen on her latest blog post. Final product also featured in Pink Magazine today.

the new timesofmalta.com: (part 1)

Online readers should have realized that timesofmalta.com has been given a new layout and feel. The layout uses more grey and more coloumns, which for some may be too much to handle visually.

From an advertising perspective it's interesting that the website now includes audio-visual video-adverts, apart from the usual display banners. I believe that these kind of online adverts are a first locally (excluding the flash animations or youtube embedded videos used on some other websites).

From an interactive perspective, i feel that the new layout could have been introduced in a more subtle manner. Some of the website sections have been removed and new ones were added.

Amongst the new sections there is the blogs section. The section currently links to 3 blogs. I hope that more blogs will be added at a later stage...we would be interested to BLAB on the timesofmalta webspace!

Another new section is the Media section which features Video Stories and Video downloads. Finally, for all Sudoku freaks, an online Sudoku provided by WebSudoku.com

Google doesn't do magic (yet)

You may have realized that Gmail has some modified features. Some of the features which I managed to identify include:
(1) Reply box at the end of each email conversation
(2) Simpler profile window when you scroll pointer on (chat) contacts

My friend Matthew also suggested the following:
(3) Updated contacts manager, including a search as you type.
(4) Pre-fetched messages to load them faster
(5) Filter messages under “more actions” (auto mark them, add labels, etc)

Matt says, "the changes are extremely subtle. Most people won’t immediately notice them, but that might be a good thing as new stuff doesn’t have to be intrusive…" . Matthew has just finished his thesis on Usability of online websites, and I am so eager to have a look at it.

So what about the magic? Well, many think that the Google guys get it right at the first try. The truth: Google continuously analyses user behaviour and improves accordingly.

A popular example is the DELETE button which initially did not exist on Gmail. Google wanted to put forward the concept of infinite storage and so who needs to delete any emails anyway? It turned out that users were just looking for the DELETE button...and so Google introduced this.

So...is Google interested in creating the best interactive experience to get the best audience?:YES

...Is Google into magic?:NO

Conclusion: Interactivity demands analysis of customer behaviour