Diogo Peixoto

I am not sure if the usability gurus will agree with me or give this advice 3 skulls on their next bestseller  book. The problem is that stupid search

results are a waste of time for your users. It is obvious that if someone searches for “dogs” and your site presents results related to “cats” is completely useless for your visitors and make things really difficult to pic a second parameter to narrow your query.

Inaccurate search results is a very know topic and have been extensively discussed in the past. This advice focus on search result interpretation, or how you site´s internal search engine will deal with the content that should be presented to your visitor.

The mistake that will be illustrated in this advice that I consider the most boring one and represents a waste of time is the “1 result found page”. The Weather Channels demonstrates this problem very well on their website. Every time that I want to view the weather forecast for Curitiba, the city where I live, they came up with the 1 result found page. So, if I used a very accurate query argument that produced only one result, why they have to show that useless page? It would be much easier and time saver if they display the forecast for Curitiba instead of that.

Now, suppose you are in Brazil and using your brand new unlocked iPhone or any other mobile device connected to the Internet via EDGE or GPRS and your GSM Carrier (Claro, Oi, TIM, BrT or VIVO)  is charging you for every KB transferred over the network? That useless “1 result found page” just cost you a few cents.

The curious part is that if this problem was properly handled, they could have saved some development time and avoided coding a function called “Local weather in 1-click”  that is placed on a not very visible position,

I as always say, KEEP IT SIMPLE ! Watch this presentation given by David Pogue, New York Times technology columnist. The message is that when it comes to tech, simplicity sells.

First things first. Adobe Flash is a nice tool, but not to create websites. You should not trust a Designer or a Design Company that build their own page using only, 100% width x 100% height, flash animations. You may ask, “why not?”. Simple, it only proves that they don’t know how to write good quality HTML code following the standards. That is not the only reason, I can list a few more:

• It does not render well on mobile devices or small screens.
• If you have special needs and use a screen reader, you will have problems.
• Should I mention that stupid music that plays loud and make your co-workers look at you with a not-so-happy-face?
• Wait 20-30 seconds while the content loads, no thanks.
• If the intro animations is good enough and worth be seen, why the pseudo-designer adds a ’skip intro’ button?
• A few flash functions does not work well on Linux browsers. Even Opera for Windows has some difficulties to handle it properly.
• Zero, nada, niente Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for you. Your site content will not be searchable on Google and other engines. Your competitors will.

If you love flash, at this time you are probably cursing on me. But, as I previously stated, flash is a nice tool if used under the right conditions. “The right tool for the right job” concept.

There are lots of good examples out there.

• Youtube embedded movie player
• Sydney Opera House Map
• SlideShare.com, the Youtube for PowerPoint
• Flickr slideshow viewer

So, if you are thinking on creating a flash site, or a web designer is trying to sell you one. Think twice!

I just watched the film License to Wed. Despite it’s 5.1 of 10 rating, the plot is OK and deserves a 7. But what I didn’t like about it was the cast chosen. Most of then also work at the “The Office” TV Show. I counted 4: Jim, Angela, Kelly and Kevin. I am not saying that they don’t perform well, it is just wired to mix the stories and see them interacting in a different way. The movie totally lost it’s identity, you never know if you are watching another episode of the The Office TV Show or The Office Movie or what.

I was wondering when Michael Scott would show up and say something inappropriate like always.

Nice catchy music. No doubt the Bubble 2.0 will explode soon.

After Leopard arriving almost on month later than it’s “worldwide release”, the new Mac OS can’t be found on any store in Brazil. It is sad that Apple USA just sent 180 units. Ok, the market-share is not that big, but 180 units? That’s ridiculous! The next shipment is scheduled to reach the stores by 22^nd December. HA HA HA.. Shame on you Apple.

Yes, thats right. i just took the Geek quiz and it pointed out that I am 44% human.

56% Geek

What’s your score? Give it a try and post the result.

I’ve just watched the new Apple’s Get-A-Mac TV Ad called “PR Lady” and I believe there is something a little wrong with that. The show is OK, but at the end, when the iMac appears, the logo on it’s front side is white and not black as it should be.

So, this is a “bug” , a new iMac model or an easter egg?

AppleInsider is reporting that according to their internal sources at Apple, the long time rumored apple-ultra-slim-sub-notebook will make its debut at the Macworld Expo (Jan/2008). I believe the rumors are true, so I am not buying a new laptop this year. Tickets for San Francisco, please.

Last week I’ve checked Amazon for the new Nokia N95 8GB black (a.k.a the iPhone killer) and the price was U$ 699.05 with a delivery wait of 2-4 weeks. Yesterday the price hiked to U$ 745.00 and there were only 3 units remaining. 24 hours later the 3 units were sold and the price has reached U$ 849.99!

The Nokia’s phone may be a better investment than Google’s stocks or a barrel of petrol.