What's at Stake for Mozilla with Firefox 5's Rapid Release

What’s this? A preview of Firefox 5 available already? Technically labeled 4.2a1pre, ConceivablyTech reports this embryonic browser is none other than Firefox 5 at its earliest point. And since Mozilla is moving forward with its [new] 16-week development process, now dubbed Rapid Release, we’re 3-4 months away from an official Firefox 5.0 successor to the browser that just launched last week.

Full article: http://www.tested.com/news/whats-at-stake-for-mozilla-with-firefox-5s-rapid-release/2089/.

Storytelling

Great commercial that tells the story without one word being spoken. Creates a lot of emotions without speaking one word. very cool.

Zippo: Heirloom, 60 second version from M. Keegan Uhl on Vimeo.

Foursquare 3.0 – So What?

Foursquare is stepping up its game with new features that make it an even bigger player in the social media arena. The two year old platform now boasts over 15 million venues and more than 1/2 a billion check-ins amongst it’s 6 million users. And it is definitely something we should be talking with our clients about.

Here's a breakdown on two of the new features – the Explore tab and new Specials – and what they mean for the marketing professional.

Explore

The new Explore tab allows users to, wait for it, explore the area around them based on some different criteria. By selecting what you’re looking for, either by choosing a category and searching or by search alone, Foursquare will return a list of suggestions. According to the Foursquare blog, the list is compiled from a number of things:

• Places you’ve been
• Places your friends have been
• Places that you are loyal to
• The types of places you go
• How popular each place is with all users
• What day/time you are exploring
• What tips each venue has

Foursquare then takes it one step further by showing you the reason why that particular place would be of interest (you've been to related places, your friends have been here, etc.).

So what? 
The most common question people asked me about the "old" Foursquare was "what's the point?" And beyond showing off where you've been and maybe some friendly mayorship competition, there really wasn't one. But people value good recommendations – especially  recommendations that are tailored to their preferences, so this added functionality has the potential to draw a lot of new users. And an increase in new users will also increase the activity amongst existing users, meaning more users will see (and hopefully interact with) your company's Foursquare program.

New Specials

As I alluded to above, the key to Foursquare’s initial “mainstream” success was the Mayorship special that rewarded users for being the most frequent visitor to a particular venue. Now Foursquare has rolled out five new types of specials and a new interface to make the platform more valuable to businesses.

These new specials include:

• Flash specials – The first 3 people to check in get X. A typical door buster deal.
• Friends Special – check in with a certain number of friends and get X
• Swarm Special – check in with a large enough “swarm” and everyone gets X. Different from a Friends Special in that the other users don't have to be your Foursquare friends.
• Newbie Special – check in for the first time and get X. Great way for businesses to attract new customers.
• Check-In/Frequency/Loyalty check-ins – Get X every time you check in/Check in Y amount of times in a week and get X/Check in X amount of times and get Y on your return visit, respectively.

So what?
There are now several more ways to get people in the door. These new specials allow for more creativity, and a really creative special can increase word of mouth buzz around your business. Plus, on the Places screen in the app, users now see a list of all the Specials nearby, so new customers are more likely to see your business's special and visit your venue.

The business end is also becoming more streamlined. Businesses will now have access to an analytics dashboard, which displays all of your information, gives you the ability to manage and run multiple specials at once, and allows you to track performance both during and after a special is run. Running and managing specials at a business remains free. With all the new options available and the ease with which a business can implement them, it’s likely that even more brands will come on board.

Once you go SVG you never go back.

Check this out, SVG graphics have been around a long time, but I've rarely seen them implemented because of Flash—but this is the first site I've seen that uses them heavily, and with great effect. They're using web fonts heavily as well. Disgusting(ly awesome).

http://www.voltagefashionamplified.com/

Ads Worth Spreading

TED recently released it's Top 10 list of ads worth spreading - evidence that the success of an ad is no longer defined so much by its likelihood to make you purchase a product or consider a service, but by its talkability.

Which begs the question: what are the rules for making a viral video or ad?

First of all I would argue that the goal should never be to make a viral video, because something can't be viral until it is, in fact, viral.

Second, if you're following the rules, you're doing what has been done before and ultimately being boring. If you create an ad or video that follows some pre-set formula, I can almost guarantee no one will pay attention to it, much less share it.

There is no one theme among these 10 videos that proves there are rules around viral ad success, other than they're all based off a cool/compelling idea. 

Bottom line? Focus not on getting shared, but on creating something worth sharing.

Here is one of the videos that made TED's Top 10 list.

See the full article for the other nine.

Can you be a web designer - Flowchart

HTML5/CSS Animation Examples

Here's a site I've been using as a resource to build simple CSS animations:

http://css3.bradshawenterprises.com/

Now you know all my secrets. ;)