19 julio 2010 – Gabriel Catalano®

Las visitas al diario The Times han caído dos tercios tras hacerse de pago

The Financial Times ha sacado a relucir los últimos datos en relación a las visitas de The Times. Después de que éste se hiciera de pago, las visitas al portal se han reducido dos tercios, aunque sin llegar al 90% que vaticinaban los más pesimistas.

Experian Hitwise, la empresa que analiza el tráfico de los sitios web, ha anunciado otros datos que muestran que la caída más significativa se produjo en las semanas anteriores a la aplicación del cobro, es decir, cuando se solicitó a los usuarios que se registraran. En la semana posterior al comienzo del cobro, la caída se moderó, aunque quizás influyó la coindicencia con el Mundial de Fútbol. Posteriormente, las visitas al portal se redujeron un 33% respecto al nivel anterior a la implantación del modelo de pago.

The Financial Times ha sacado a relucir los últimos datos en relación a las visitas de The Times. Después de que éste se hiciera de pago, las visitas al portal se han reducido dos tercios, aunque sin llegar al 90% que vaticinaban los más pesimistas.

New BlackBerry API Can Grab Location Info From Cell Towers in Lieu of GPS

The BlackBerry Developer’s Blog details how the geolocation service works and gives some examples of how it can best be utilized. The service can even be used in apps that require a higher degree of location accuracy by showing users approximate locations while querying for a more accurate spot via GPS. As the blog post notes, this could have a huge impact on speed and user experience.

RIM has just added a new geolocation feature to its Locate Service toolkit, which will permit BlackBerry developers to use cellular tower data when grabbing location data for their apps. This will ultimately enable apps to use cellular towers to approximate location if a user is in an area without GPS coverage.

This is similar to what Google () does to determine location via Wi-Fi. However, RIM’s Locate Service use cellular towers instead of wireless hotspots. As more and more applications become geo-aware, having backup methods for location querying is important, especially if the app is being used in a location or building that makes GPS usage difficult.
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Content Management System (CMS) Icon Set (12 Free Icons)

Today we are glad to release CMS Icon Set, a set with 12 high quality icons in 48×48px, available in the .png-format. The set was designed to be used in content management systems, but can also be useful for other user interface designs. This goodie was designed by the Russian design studio Pixel-Mixer and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Today we are glad to release CMS Icon Set, a set with 12 high quality icons in 48×48px, available in the .png-format. The set was designed to be used in content management systems, but can also be useful for other user interface designs. This goodie was designed by the Russian design studio Pixel-Mixer and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Download the icon set for free!

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed or rented. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word.

download the set (zip, 0.1 Mb) Continuar leyendo «Content Management System (CMS) Icon Set (12 Free Icons)»

35 Beautiful Web Designs Inspired by Nature

When creating a beautiful and memorable web design, many designers turn to nature to be inspired by the beauty of what surrounds us. Nature-inspired web design has become more common in recent years as large backgrounds and extensive use of images are being used. In this post we’ll take a look at some amazing examples of designs that can be created to incorporate various aspects of nature into a website.

Mountains:

Ecoki iPhone App

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Popscreen helps you discover cool videos, then predicts how popular they will become.

When you absolutely, positively have to be the first of your friends to see the coolest new videos, there’s a new site that is making sure it happens. Popscreen is making a run on the headline-forming videos that change by the minute.

The site is simple enough, showing videos that are relevant to your selected interests. Beyond that, though, you’re able to create your own video channel and then share those with your friends.

It’s fed through a network of Featured Influencers, including Shareables right here at TNW, to assure that you’re always getting fresh content. What’s really cool about Popscreen, though, is its ability to predict what’s up and coming.

As content is fed into the service, the algorithms go to work to decide if a video is going to boom or bust. Popscreen will then give you the chance to look at predicted traffic for the video, keeping you ahead of the information curve.

The video player for Popscreen is beautifully done, with a wealth of features. Of course you can share across a number of social networks, but you also have some player choices that are second-to-none.

* Lights Off – Wims the Popscreen site so that your video comes to focus.
* Widescreen – Watch your chosen video in 16:9 or standard 4:3
* Pop It – Somewhat like Digging a story, which keeps the video going higher.

By Brad McCarty Follow Brad McCarty

The site is simple enough, showing videos that are relevant to your selected interests. Beyond that, though, you’re able to create your own video channel and then share those with your friends.

Lights Off – Wims the Popscreen site so that your video comes to focus.
Widescreen – Watch your chosen video in 16:9 or standard 4:3
Pop It – Somewhat like Digging a story, which keeps the video going higher. Continuar leyendo «Popscreen helps you discover cool videos, then predicts how popular they will become.»

Behance Helps Creatives Showcase Portfolios on LinkedIn

Behance, a platform for creative professionals, has just launched a new collaboration between its service and LinkedIn. Utilizing a new app called Creative Portfolio Display, users can now connect their portfolios directly to their LinkedIn accounts.

This is a great bridge between the creative and the more professional social networking worlds. At the Mashable Media Summit earlier this summer, Co-founder and CEO of Behance Scott Belsky spoke about the growth of the network and its focus on bringing creative meritocracy to the design world.

Behance has always been focused on helping organize the creative world. To that end, the free Behance Network (Behance Network) lets artists, designers and other creative professionals showcase their projects and portfolios. With the new LinkedIn partnership, the potential audience for Behance members increases exponentially.

Behance has always been focused on helping organize the creative world. To that end, the free Behance Network () lets artists, designers and other creative professionals showcase their projects and portfolios. With the new LinkedIn partnership, the potential audience for Behance members increases exponentially. Continuar leyendo «Behance Helps Creatives Showcase Portfolios on LinkedIn»

11 Ways to Speed Up WordPress

Cyrus Patten is the editor of Pingable.org, a blog about everything WordPress. He specializes in the role of technology in community organizing.

WordPress (WordPress) is inherently fast, and that’s why so many professional bloggers call it their choice platform.

Like many new bloggers, I used to think that until I had enough traffic to make a difference, I’d worry about the bandwidth and site speed later. But that’s not thinking ahead considering that today social media can drive an overwhelming amount of traffic in a very short period of time; you don’t want to get caught with a crashed site.

When you’re not prepared for lots of traffic, it’s common for a web host to suspend your account temporarily, and that’s something you don’t want. If your writing is decent and you’ve been doing some minimal promotion, then it could happen to you. Think positively and prepare your blog as though it’s going to be a huge success. To do that, here is a tutorial on how to speed up your WordPress site.

Note: As always, with everything, you should backup your WordPress installation before making any code changes.

Cyrus Patten is the editor of Pingable.org, a blog about everything WordPress. He specializes in the role of technology in community organizing.

WordPress () is inherently fast, and that’s why so many professional bloggers call it their choice platform.

Note: As always, with everything, you should backup your WordPress installation before making any code changes. Continuar leyendo «11 Ways to Speed Up WordPress»

40 Excellent Examples of Single Page Websites

Several months ago, we published a list showcasing 40 Inspiring Single Page Websites, and as we had a lot of comments and everybody really loved the post, we decided to gather a new list, showing some new and fresh examples to inspire you. Single page websites are still a big hit this year, and we see new examples of this trend popping up everyday. To put this list together I was able to find many great examples on One Page Love, which is a great source for those who like to stay tuned in on the single page world. So enjoy the list…

Gisele Muller

Jeroen Homan

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What is your online engagement strategy?

A while ago I read a great blog about LinkedIn connection strategies called Are You a LION, Turtle, Hound Dog, or Alley Cat? What’s Your LinkedIn Strategy? The author presented four basic connection strategies. 1) The LION (LinkedIn Open Networker), who connects with everyone and everything without much thought behind the connections; 2) The Turtle, which is the opposite of the LION and only connects with those he/she already knows and trusts; 3) The Hound Dog, who connects to those he/she already knows and those he/she would like to know, and accepts connections only from those thought to be beneficial; and 4) The Alley Cat, who connects to those already known and those he/she would like to know (like the Hound Dog) but accepts connections from anyone. Of course the conclusion was to use what is best for you personally. This got me to thinking about the next step, how do people engage their network after they connect with others.

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na película con tintes dramáticos, su película “the Social Network“

En la era de los no mitos, el inventor de los “soy fan” se puede convertir en el mito de nuestra época, al menos ese parece el camino que ha emprendido el monstruo Facebook. Una película con tintes dramáticos, su película “the Social Network“, un país de 500 millones (el salto al tercer puesto mundial), un ecosistema propio y de lo más completo y las “facebook stories” así lo ejemplifican. Porque Facebook se ha propuesto re-escribir su historia a partir de nuestros propios relatos, el meta-relato de facebook.

Por una lado han seleccionado un total de 200 historias reales de entre las que más les “impactaron” a lo largo de su/nuestra historia, como el grupo creado para salvar un viejo teatro en Kentucky, y por otra parte, dándonos la oportunidad de aportar la nuestra propia, 420 caracteres para relatar, “like” para que ganen las más populares y disponible para otros dispositivos, como el de Apple (AAPL) IPAD y Amazon (AMZN) Kindle.

En la era de los no mitos, el inventor de los “soy fan” se puede convertir en el mito de nuestra época, al menos ese parece el camino que ha emprendido el monstruo Facebook. Una película con tintes dramáticos, su película “the Social Network“, un país de 500 millones (el salto al tercer puesto mundial), un ecosistema propio y de lo más completo y las “facebook stories” así lo ejemplifican. Porque Facebook se ha propuesto re-escribir su historia a partir de nuestros propios relatos, el meta-relato de facebook.

Google Launches Buzz Firehose

Today, Google has announced the launch of the Google Buzz firehose, which will give developers access to all public activity published on Buzz via a single feed with real-time PubSubHubBub syndication.

Google (Google) said the firehose was their most-requested features from developers. We’re also guessing that Google’s been eating its own dogfood, since they just launched Buzz results in Google Social Search a couple weeks ago.

In the announcement post, Google highlighted the pretty and mostly useless We Feel Fine-esque Buzz Mood, an app that parses Buzz updates for emotion-related verbs then relays them to the viewer with snappy, slide-y animations.

Google () said the firehose was their most-requested features from developers. We’re also guessing that Google’s been eating its own dogfood, since they just launched Buzz results in Google Social Search a couple weeks ago.

Amazon: Kindle Books Now Outselling Hardcovers

E-books have hit a significant milestone. In each of the last three months, Amazon reports that sales of books for Kindle have outpaced the sale of hardcover books, and that growth is only accelerating.

In a statement, Amazon says that, “over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”

That’s impressive, especially considering it was only back in December that Amazon was celebrating Kindle books outselling the real thing on Christmas Day. Six months later, the shift has apparently become the norm.

Adam Ostrow

Polish Porn Teaches Men Breast Cancer Awareness NSFW

Sometimes to make a great promotional campaign you have to get creative and take a route that seems a little risqué and “out there” to reach your target audience. Polish marketing agency Change Integrated has done just that with a new interactive campaign designed to spread breast cancer awareness on none other than one of the most popular Polish adult websites. Through the campaign, nearly 175,000 men were trained in the art of breast examination and informed of the importance of breast cancer awareness within a single week.

Change Integrated released a video about the campaign. You can click to watch the video on Vimeo, as it is NSFW and the thumbnail image is a little inappropriate, in my humble opinion. But the voiceover in the video explains the idea behind the campaign and why Change Integrated decided to look to porn as a means of spreading breast cancer awareness:

“Most breast cancer campaigns are targeted at female audiences, but the problem also relates to men, as it does concern their partners and wives. Why are we women left alone? Men are not matching to all those conventional leaflets and medical persuasion aimed at women, so how can we educate men on what they can easily do to help? We decided to base our campaign on a cliché, yet true insight—Men are big kids, and they learn best when playing.”

Posted by Megan O’Neill

Magic Boob Girl Sometimes to make a great promotional campaign you have to get creative and take a route that seems a little risqué and “out there” to reach your target audience. Polish marketing agency Change Integrated has done just that with a new interactive campaign designed to spread breast cancer awareness on none other than one of the most popular Polish adult websites. Through the campaign, nearly 175,000 men were trained in the art of breast examination and informed of the importance of breast cancer awareness within a single week.

“Most breast cancer campaigns are targeted at female audiences, but the problem also relates to men, as it does concern their partners and wives. Why are we women left alone? Men are not matching to all those conventional leaflets and medical persuasion aimed at women, so how can we educate men on what they can easily do to help? We decided to base our campaign on a cliché, yet true insight—Men are big kids, and they learn best when playing.” Continuar leyendo «Polish Porn Teaches Men Breast Cancer Awareness NSFW»

Where Do You Play Casual Games? On iPod, Facebook, Nintendo DS or PSP?

Tomorrow is Casual Connect, the annual celebration of casual gaming, and one of the biggest questions on people’s lips is “What’s the definition of a casual game anymore?” While contemplating the question I found myself wondering about the blurred line between web games and lighter games on the Nintendo DS and PSP. It’s difficult to distinguish casual games based on their platform these days, and I thought I’d talk about my experiences and reach out to our readers to ask where you play your casual games.

Posted by Neil Vidyarthi

Fashion Titles See Promising Fall

-By Lucia Moses

Fashion magazines’ benchmark September issues may never see the banner levels of 2007 again. But many have regained much of the ground lost in 2009, when many fall fashion issues shed 20 percent or more of their ad pages.

Closely watched Vogue, which lately has faced stiff competition from Time Inc.’s InStyle—is reporting 532 ad pages in its September issue. That’s up 24 percent from last year’s 429 but off its 2007 high of 700.

Nevertheless, Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann said, “We feel really good about the business and the brand’s performance in the market.”

-By Lucia Moses

Fashion magazines’ benchmark September issues may never see the banner levels of 2007 again. But many have regained much of the ground lost in 2009, when many fall fashion issues shed 20 percent or more of their ad pages.

Closely watched Vogue, which lately has faced stiff competition from Time Inc.’s InStyle—is reporting 532 ad pages in its September issue. That’s up 24 percent from last year’s 429 but off its 2007 high of 700.

Nevertheless, Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann said, “We feel really good about the business and the brand’s performance in the market.”

Plagemann saw increased spending by the Condé Nast magazine’s core fashion, beauty and retail advertisers.

“If you look at last year, across the board, there were a lot of people spending a lot less,” she said. “There are a host of new advertisers and a host of people who are spending more.”

Other core fashion books had similarly hefty percent increases over last year’s September.

InStyle clocked in at 403 ad pages, an increase of 16 percent and breaking its 400 ad page mark for the first time since 2000.

Glamour was up 57 percent to 241; and W, up 31 percent to 247. Both are published by Condé Nast.

Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar was up 12 percent, to 302.

September and March issues, with their high reader visibility, are key months for marketers and serve as a barometer of the health of one of the biggest magazine categories.
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