Conversion: Tweaking the Landing Page
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Split-testing results from the SonicMemo landing page show that testimonials with clickable links tend to lower the conversion rate since those links encourage people to leave the landing page. Making the links inactive raised the conversion rate from 2.9% to 4.1% Date: May 26, 2004, 11:03 PST"

Ads and Affiliates: So-called Contextual Ad Networks
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"While many ad networks boast of "contextual advertising," the truth is that most don't have enough advertisers to really achieve this. The current winners in real contextual ads on both search sites and content sites are Google and Overture. Date: May 26, 2004, 10:55 PST"

Conversion: Do Audio Clips on Landing Pages Increase Conversion Rates?
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Ken Evoy, author of Make Your Site Sell!, has found that audio clips can increase response rates as much as 15% to 30%. But loud, pushy audio can hurt sales. He recommends testing and using audio judiciously. Two vendors are AudioGenerator and Sonic Memo. Date: May 19, 2004, 13:48 PST"

E-Mail Marketing: Survey of Small Businesses Shows No Dominant E-Mail Marketing Software
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Web Marketing Today survey of small- to medium-sized business owners and marketers concerning what e-mail program they used to send e-mail newsletters or promotions to customers found no single dominant vendor. Most popular programs included Constant Contact, Group Mail, Lyris, Gammadyne Mailer, AWeber, VerticalResponse iBuilder, GotMarketing Campaigner, Yahoo! Groups, 1ShoppingCart, Topica, Dada Mail, Exact Target, GoldMine, AutoResponse Plus, Mailloop, ProAutoResponder, Site Build It!, Subscribe Me, WorldCast, G-Lock EasyMail, bCentral List Builder, and MailerMailer. Date: May 17, 2004, 11:50 PST"

E-Mail Marketing: Blacklisted Autoresponder Service
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"If you're not very careful, you could be stuck with an e-mail service that is blacklisted for allowing spammers to use their service. This article explains how to see if a vendor is being blacklisted as well as the advantages good ASP hosted e-mail distribution services bring with regard to deliverability. Date: May 12, 2004, 14:51 PST"


Senate Approves Bill Concerning Gmail Policies
From: www.webpronews.com

"A bill authored by Senator Liz Figueroa (D-Ca) that limits Gmail's ad placement procedures has been approved by the Senate by a vote of 24-8. The bill questioned Google's intention of placing contextual ads within incoming and outgoing emails."

NPR Optimizes Audio Files For Search Engine Purposes
From: www.webpronews.com

"National Public Radio, in an effort to make their audio content crawlable, has begun transcribing audio news streams into text files. These efforts appear to be paying off for NPR; these transcriptions have begun appearing on Google and Yahoo News, complete with links to source audio file."

Foundstone Introduces Google Powered SiteDigger
From: www.webpronews.com

"Foundstone, a company offering strategic security for business and IT professionals, today announced the availability of SiteDigger, a free tool designed to help identify potential sources of information leakage on public Web sites."

Microsoft Reveals Details On Upcoming Search Technology
From: www.webpronews.com

"At the Goldman Sachs Internet conference Wednesday, May 26, 2004, in Las Vegas, Yusuf Mehdi, head of Microsoft's MSN portal disclosed details of Microsoft's upcoming search technologies. Mehdi revealed that Microsoft is concentrating on "end-to-end" search capabilities, not just internet search."

Yahoo Introduces New Toolbar Featuring Free Spyware Protection
From: www.webpronews.com

"Yahoo has begun beta testing a new toolbar that will feature a spyware function called Anti-Spy. The new anti-spyware addition will allow users to protect their computers from these types of programs."


N-Gage Plays the Pricing Game
From: www.wired.com

"Nokia says the new N-Gage may sell for less than previously announced. Also: Comcast plans phone service in 2006.... PeopleSoft rejects Oracle's bid.... and more."

Kerry a Fan of Venture Capital
From: www.wired.com

"Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress and wife of John Kerry, has much of her wealth locked up in bonds and blue-chip stocks. But the couple's campaign financial filing also shows a keen interest in the risky world of tech venture capital investing. By Joanna Glasner."

Cisco's Route to Market Share
From: www.wired.com

"Cisco unveils a new heavy-duty router. Also: Vodaphone sells third-generation phones in Spain and Italy.... SBC strike ends and an agreement is reached.... and more."

Flash Clash Price Slash
From: www.wired.com

"Samsung and Toshiba drop prices on flash memory. Also: Motorola, Sharp, and other tech companies court the restaurant industry.... Lucent buys Telica.... and more."

Linux: Whose Kernel Is It?
From: www.wired.com

"Responding to a legal challenge over the origin of some of the Linux programming code, Linus Torvalds, the operating system's creator, proposes changes to the kernel-development process that he thinks will squelch any future legal problems. By Michelle Delio."


An Introduction to XUL
From: webword.com

" Web Reference -- "This article describes a few features of the cutting edge Web technology called XUL. XUL is a good choice for web pages that ask the user to perform complex data-entry tasks. XUL is available in Mozilla-based browsers, with various clones and alternatives now increasingly available. Here, we use the familiar task of going through a Website's e-commerce checkout, where our shopping cart of selected goodies is reviewed, paid for, and scheduled for delivery."

Read the article..."

Put The Friendly Back In User-Friendly
From: webword.com

" Asterik -- "I m not sure what the official definition is, but to me it means making something, could be pretty much anything, not only easy for others to use, but attractive or desirable to use as well. You know? Friendly. This desirability is something that doesn t seem to get talked about much when we talk about user-centered Web design. We talk quite a bit about ease-of-use but ease-of-use doesn t necessarily mean friendly. In fact there are some folks out there who treat these things as always in opposition to each other."

Read the posting...

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Latest thinking in usability & IA (Canberra, Australia)
From: webword.com

" Step Two Designs -- "We've just launched a new half-day seminar titled Latest thinking in usability & IA, to be held in Canberra on 29 July 2004."

Read the notice..."

The Confidence Game
From: webword.com

" Boxes and Arrows -- "How does a user interface designer know that a given design will work? How does anybody develop enough confidence in a design to move it toward the real world? The methods designers use to evaluate user interfaces require training and experience. But the people who need to hire designers are unlikely to have those skills. How do the people who are paying the bills know they are getting good answers?"

Read the article..."

On Being a User Researcher
From: webword.com

" roBlog -- "But there is one quality that I believe all user researchers need to have to be effective, and it's never taught nor even mentioned in any training programs I know of. A good user researcher has to like people. And I mean he has to like people, all people, not just his friends, peers, and colleagues. He has to be intrinsically interested in who they are, what work they do, how they feel about life, what they want to achieve, and so on."

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