Social networks vs A Job?

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can help and hurt your chances of finding a job. On one hand you could use these sites to find a job through networking. A company my post about its employment availability and you could use your page to promote yourself. However, posting too much information about yourself could hurt your chances of ever being hired. Showing pictures of yourself at the club and using foul language hinders you. Many companies are now viewing it's potential employees social network pages to find out more about them. I took the initiative of deactivating my Facebook account after sending out applications for internships. Many should go through their pages and clean/filter it and check their privacy settings (just in case).

Schools Spy on Students through Laptops

The Lower Merion School District is accused of spying on their students through the webcam on their school-supplied MacBooks while they were at home. A green light would turn on (to indicate a live camera) at unexpected, random moments. The school district says it never used webcam images to monitor or discipline students and believes one of its administrators has been "unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked." A suit filed by a student, has acknowledged that webcams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing, lost or stolen laptops — which the district noted would include "a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus." "Despite some reports to the contrary, be assured that the security-tracking software has been completely disabled," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley said in a statement on the district's Web site late Friday. Officials vowed a comprehensive review that McGinley said should result in stronger privacy policies. Students worried that they were being watched while they were undressing.

"The Robbins family caught the school out in a big lie. On November 11th 2009, their 15-year-old son Blake was disciplined by his school's assistant principal Lindy Matsko as he had "engaged in improper behaviour in [his] home." The 'fun' part was that Matsko provided a photograph of the improper behaviour taken by the webcam in Blake's school-provided laptop."

-itWire

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/school-spies-students-9907184

Future Technology

New Technology - The best free videos are right here

Automatic Parallel Parking

New cars have even more innovative technology than ever before. It uses bluetooth so that you talk while driving, mp3, itunes, satellite radio, navigation, internet, electricity, laptop, rearview camera, camera security, etc. Now, Lexus has created a car that can parallel park itself! In theory, you would just pull up ahead of a space, make a few minor adjustments on a computer screen then slightly lift your foot off the brake. As you back up, the steering wheel turns this way and that way and there you are. What's next?

Read more: http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2006/09/ls_460_parking.html

New iPhone Revealed

The latest buzz in the Apple world is about the “outing” of a prototype of the iPhone.

Heres what happened:

An Apple engineer, Gray Powell lost his iPhone at a bar in Redwood City, CA. Brian Hogan says it was given to him by another person in the bar who asked if it was his. Brian "says" he asked around about it, and then left the bar. According to bar staff, he made no attempt to notify them. He took the iPhone home and removed the case, realizing it was an Apple prototype. Eventually, Hogan sold the phone for $5,000 to a gadgets Web site, Gizmodo. Gizmodo shared photos, videos, and information about the device. The investigation continues. The new model is due to be announced in June.

Facebook OWNS You

Facebook, the popular social networking site, has announced that it is taking control of any content anyone posts on its site...including your photos.

-Knoxville blogger Katie Allison Granju said:
“Apparently, Facebook has recently slightly revised its Terms of Service so that users have essentially forever signed away all rights — including commercial rights — to anything they upload to the site.

“I can see it now: Facebook harvests hundreds of randomly entertaining ‘25 Things’ lists written by users, and publishes a book … without paying the contributors a dime.”

Wal-Mart Takes Over the World

Wal-Mart has officially taken over the world. The company has officially launched its new mobile network, Straight Talk. The prices include $30 for 1000mins, 1000text, 30mb web access -OR- $45 for unlimited everything for 30 days, pre-paid. I recently asked an employee about the phone and they confirmed, its legit. The service runs off of the Verizon network. Think about it, there is a Wal-Mart in every town, on every corner. It even as an Iphone replica. The only downside is the actual cell phone itself. You have to use their phones, which aren't the latest, greatest technology, but it sure beats paying $60-$100 a month just to talk to your mom. Don't believe me check it out for yourself at your local Wal-Mart or online.

Ipad Saves the World

Apple's sleek new invent, the Ipad, has many people buzzing. However, it is just a kindle with music and the internet. A few things that could improve the Ipad are:

• web-cam
• USB plug-ins
• note-taking app
• textbook app (saves trees)
  
• MORE apps
• flash

Joseph Kim, MD even tells of how it could help doctors improve patient care: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/02/10-ways-apple-ipad-doctors-improve-patient-care.html. The Ipad could save the world!

MTV Website Review

MTV.com the website for an American cable television network based in New York City. MTV still plays a limited selection of music videos, but the channel primarily broadcasts a variety of popular culture and reality television shows targeted at adolescents and young adults. The coolest thing about this website is the backgrounds that change every time you click a new page or even if you refresh your browser. The website uses a main top bar navigation that pull down when your mouse hovers over it, and a search option, however all of the category navigations are at the bottom of the page. This site is bright and colorful to appeal teens and young adults. The content in the middle is cluttered with information about upcoming shows, music, and celebrities.

Craiglist Sued By States for Sex Ads

Craigslist, the premier online classified ad provider, has gotten itself into some trouble with its personals section. Many people have used the site as a means to advertise for prostitution and other illegal sex activities. 39 states have rallied against the site to increase supervision of the personal section of the site and decrease the number of sex ads. This is not the first time that this has been an issue for the site.

Web Sites Entice Users With Reward System

Many different web sites are now giving users badges or points as they become frequent users. As soon as a member signs up they are given an original welcome badge and as they perform other tasks that get them acclimated with the site they are given more rewards. This is pretty intelligent because it addicts people to the site. They might only be four hundred points away from being able to upgrade to the next level. This tactic has been around for years with the airline companies trying to encourage user loyalty.

New iPhone Launched in June

Apple recently released the dates for the World Wide Developers Conference for June 2010. In the past Apple has debuted the iPhone upgrades at the keynote address that kicks of the conference. The fourth generation iPhone has been leaked and Apple has lost much of the surprise that comes along with most Apple product launches.

Principle Urges Parents to Remove Students from Facebook

Anthony Orsini, the principle of a New Jersey middle school claim, "there is absolutely, positively no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site!" He argues that the biggest problem with such young students engaging in social networking is the inability to resist harassment. He claims that the problems that arise from social networking such as Facebook and Formspring create far more problems than solutions.

First Lady Tweets

While at a fancy pants dinner the White House Corespondent for CNN convinced Michele Obama to send her first tweet. After getting approval from the powers that be her first tweet said, "from flotus: 'here at dinner this is officially my first Tweet. i am looking forward to some good laughs from the potus and jay'".

Topeka renames town Google in atempt to get faster internet

Google is releasing a new "Fiber for Communities" program that will increase internet speeds 100 times. In order to convince Google to bring this new faster internet to Topeka they renamed their town Google, Kansas for the month of March. Google did not say if this stunt convinced them to bless Topeka will crazy fast internet speeds.

PBS predicts iPad will change education

PBS points out five major assets to the iPad that enable it to change the way educators go about their work.
1. They are about productivity.
2.They are about convergence.
3. They are about mobility.
4. They are about price and availability.
5. They are about community.
They also point out that the iPad provides a much more eco-friendly option to textbooks.

Google Chrome is fastest web brower

The top four web browsers in descending order are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Google Chrome has consistently been the fastest browser beating out the closest competition by two-tenths of a second. Chrome is also nice because it is able to view pages that were designed for Internet Explorer, a feature that few other browsers are able to offer.

South Korea Internet Connection...Better?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/31/broadband.south.korea/index.html

Broadband internet speeds are about 1/4 as fast as those in South Korea. Connections are cheaper in South Korea also. South Korea has more varied choices to choose internet provider, unlike here in the U.S. They have higher population density that us. it is cheaper to set up internet in tightly populated areas than an open area. There are other reasons South Korea's internet connections are better. The article explains in more detail.

Twitter Ad Service

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/15/twitter.ads.wired/index.html

Twitter launched an advertising service. it will let advertisers' tweets appear at the top of the search results. Its the network's first attempt to make money from its users. Its similar to Google search ads. Google's ads appear on the top of search pages. They will be mostly be little texts and links.

Compete with iPad?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/ptech/05/04/tablet.competition.ipad/index.html

Analyists are saying that there is really no competition for the iPad. There are no real competitors. its questionable if anyone can replicate the iPad experience. Microsoft and HP are having to retool their tablets to compete with Apple.

Youtube User Fees

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/03/youtube.rental/index.html

Youtube is talking about charging users a rental fee for certain videos. There's not a lot of information on how this will exactly work though. Users can make money off of their videos instead of relying on advertising. Its unclear if it will be availiable to anybody or "industry professionals".

Webby Awards

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/04/roger-ebert-jim-carrey-webby-award-winners/

Roger Ebert won a Webby for Person of the Year. The rock band, OK Go, was honored with an award for their viral music videos. Amy Poehler won actress of the year for her online series, "Smart Girls at the Party." College Humor and NY Times website each won 5 awards. Jim Carrey's website won best celebrity or fan website.

Facebook Hacker

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/04/facebook-hit-hacker-fears/

A hacker hacked in facebook. Apparently, he logged into a lot of people's profiles and tried to sell them on the black market. He offered log-in data as low as $25 for people with 10 or fewer friends.

Google Books

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/04/google-sell-digital-books/

Google plans to release books online on their own. this will compete with amazon.com and apple who already sell digital books. Google said it will let users buy digital copies of books through its book-search service. This will be interesting to see how well it works i think. I think this shows that digital books are becoming more popular.

Cybercrime

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/05/michael-dell-calls-for-collaborative-effort-to-secure-the-internet/1

this article talks about cybercrime. The CEO of Dell want a collaborative effort to fight cyber crime. Its becoming a problem. He says that goverment and private companies should work together to develop the appropiate framework to secure cyber space.

USA Today

USA Today's website didn't really impress me. The header bothered me a little bit. It had different colors. I didn't know this was part of their newspaper sections. It still didn't look right for a newspaper website. that's my opinion. I don't usually go to this site. It has a lot of different articles and sections for readers to keep them in the website. It's not a bad website, though.

Yahoo.com

I liked the way Yahoo is set up. Its easy to use and easy to read. It has news on it which i liked. I was surprised that it had local news also. It has a basic design. Its not overcrowded with ads. It is a good, clean website.

Google getting in on the E-book action

Google recently announced that they will be releasing their own electronic books that can be read on any Internet connected device. This will include iPhones and the iPad, personal computers and even Kindles. With this move Google will join in on the competition between Apple and Amazon with the E-book craze.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100504/tc_afp/usitinternetbooksgoogle;_ylt=An2S2wV_OdDVSCixXmJoNwYjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ0dW03amFsBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMDUwNC91c2l0aW50ZXJuZXRib29rc2dvb2dsZQRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2dvb2dsZXRvc3Rhcg--

Which news do you choose?

In a recent poll done by "60 Minutes" and Vanity Fair people voted CNN has the most trustworthy news source with Fox News as a close second. 1,026 people nationwide were randomly selected to participate in the poll. 32 percent of the voters picked CNN while 29 percent voted for Fox. Which would you choose?

http://www.aolnews.com/the-grid/article/poll-ranks-cnn-fox-news-most-trustworthy/19463902

Life with the iPad

With the release of the new iPad, Apple's next big thing, many people are putting their laptops down and grabbing the iPad. With the iPad you can surf the Internet, send out e-mails, and download your own apps like with and iPhone or iPod. Even though there are some small issues the iPad has seemed to change the landscape for internet surfing and computer usage.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/09/apple-ipad-one-week-later/

Twitter Archived

For all those that Twitter, look out! All the Tweets that occur will now be saved and documented by the Library of Congress. Along with Tweets the Library of Congress has been saving other website material including presidential campaign websites. So watch out you never know what you might be remembered for saying!

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-tweet-it-is-library-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/

NBC and YouTube

A few months ago NBC ordered YouTube to remove clips from some of their shows from the site. After much debate, NBC realized that it would be more beneficial for them to team up with YouTube and broadcast some of their clips on the site. This agreement shows that YouTube is becoming a growing force within the media world and is sure to grow with more marketing adventures.

http://news.cnet.com/NBC-strikes-deal-with-YouTube/2100-1025_3-6088617.html

Lost and Found

The new generation iPhone that was lost on March 18th, was found and sold for $5,000 to Gizmodo. Gizmodo is now facing criminal charges, for purchasing the phone, that could be considered stolen property. Investigators have identified the man who found the phone and sold it to Gizmodo. He is also facing criminal charges under a California Law that states that any person who finds lost property and knows who the owner is likely to be guilty of theft.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20003597-37.html

Honest Mistake

On March 18th, the new generation iPhone was lost by Gray Powell, software engineer for Apple. The iPhone was left at bar when Powell was celebrating his birthday. The new iPhone was disguised to be a 3GS phone while Powell was testing it in the field.

http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple-lost-the-next-iphone

The Power of the Rising Social (Media) Class

New statistics have shown that there is a rise in African Americans and Latinos using social media. They are out numbering non-hispanic whites in the social media world. New discussions have arisen and these stats are finally coming out of the shadows and gaining media attention.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-power-of-the-rising-social-media-class-2010-5

Naming Business/Site

This shows mistakes that are made while naming a business.

The same idea goes for the website for the site.

You want to avoid certain things when choosing a name to make your business/site more memorable and recognizable.

This website can be used in guiding one in thinking of the name of their business/site.

www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/startupbasics/namingyourbusiness/article76958.html

CSS Help

http://artypapers.com/csshelppile/

This is a collaboration of information to give facts about CSS.

It gives you places to look for tips.

Places to look for tricks.

And just simple explanation and baby step guidance in using CSS.

Changing Social Media

http://learningsocialmedia.com/

Since social media is always changing, this is a great site to look at to keep up to date with the daily post that will help one keep up with social media.

This site also allows you to ask questions that will be answered on the site because communication is such a huge part of social media.

It provides tips and guidance on how to know more about social media and make the most of it.

Search Engines

http://searchenginewatch.com/2156451

This site shows the most popular search engines.

Google has an overwhelming majority of popularity when it comes to search engines.

Yahoo comes in second but is very far behind google.

The site can also show the changing within months.

HTML Tutorial

http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

This is a reliable HTML tutorial to help the "HTML slow."

This site provides examples, teachings, and quizzes to make sure that you really are learning how to use HTML properly.

Social Media

http://www.labnol.org/internet/social-media-pdf-report/8212/

Social Media is a booming field. This provides some of the most popular way to connect with the world through social media.

People are using social media to create new business partnerships, increase traffic to sites, increase subscribers, etc.

Social media is something that is always changing therefore you can never truly be an expert at it.

It is something that you have to continue learning and continue researching to become successful in the field of social media.

Top Blogs

http://technorati.com/blogs/top100

This website provides the Top 100 Blogs.

This is a good place to look for ideas on how to make your blog look awesome.

With these 100 different popular blogs, you can most likely find one that will really help in guiding you in making your site pleasing to the eye.

Green Color Palettes

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/02/best-of-color-inspiration-130-green-color-palettes/

Green is the most popular new color for blogs.

With people on the new "go green" kick, green has become an extremely popular color for blogs.

This site provides more than 130 green color palettes.

HTML Made Easy

For people like me who are computer handicapped and have no clue what their doing when it comes to online design, I was forced to find all the help I could get. When it came to coding HTML, I thought I was hopeless, but I found a website www.accessv.com, and it really makes HTML easy. It starts out with a paragraph dedicated to encouragement. The first sentence is "You really can do it!" Then it goes into simple step by step instructions on what to do. The site is also very easy to navigate through all the different pages with all the different codes. So for those of you like me, who thought they couldn't do it...it is possible! And this site makes it easy!

Death to the Boring Blog Post

I found this somewhat humorous since we blog as a class and use word press. But, lets face it the classic blog is boring. They're white, black, and simple, nothing exciting about that. However this website www.smashingmagazine.com gives you step by step tutorial on how to take a word press page and turn in into a lively blog with some personality. This article even begins to discuss why blogging hasn't seemed to caught on to the times when every other social networking site can be personalized and fun.

"splinternet"

With inventions such as the iphone, ipad, android, kindle, and tv's connecting to the internet, have we seen the end of the golden age of the internet? Some would argue yes! The whole framework of the web and web marketing is based around the idea that everything is a compatible format. That every site or program works on every computer. However, now with the use of the inventions listed up above, this no longer holds true, especially if the site requires flash or mouse navigation. For example iphone apps wont work on an android and vice versa. Online marketers have coined this term as the "splinternet". This not only holds true with your source of internet connection, but what you can do on it. For example more and more things are being hidden behind logins. A perfect example of this is facebook. Facebook has applications that will on work on facebook.

Tweets Per Day

Over the past three years twitter has not only exploded in popularity, but had exploded in the amount of tweets per day. In the summer of 2007, their was hardly 5,000 tweets per day, and stayed that way until summer of 2009 where it jumped from 5,000 to 2.5 million. However the astounding jump came within the next few months. Twitter went from 2.5 million tweets per day to 50 million tweets per day, which is where it stands now. Tweets grew on average 1,400% - that's an average of 600 tps (tweets per second).

Social Sites Lure Users Around The Clock

So as I was scanning through CJRW's twitter I found the most interesting topic. The topic was that people who have both twitter and Facebook accounts are lured into checking their accounts in the middle of the night, at the same time. It's as if their internal alarm clock is set to wake them up in the middle of the night just so they can get online and see if anyone has tweeted them or posted something on their wall. According to a consumer electronics site Retrevo, 48% of users wake up to check their profiles or do it first thing when they wake up. The site also showed that users under the age of 25 were more likely to check or update their pages after bedtime, with nearly 1/5 saying they did so anytime they woke up.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007580

Internet Surpasses TV as main source or media

For years people have considered the television as their main source of media. In years past when asked, people said that they would rather live without the internet than their television. According to marketcharts.com in the year 2004 72% of people would rather give up the internet. However this year the same poll was taken and 49% of people said they'd rather have television, but 51% would rather have internet. One of the most interesting factors was that the younger you were, the more likely you were to say you wanted internet, and the older you were the more likely you were to want television. With the internet having the capability to watch television shows and do other things, the television is slowly losing its luster to the American public.

top ten family websites of 2010

Modern day families are finding ways to spend time together even through the internet. Here are the top ten sites by march of 2010 visited by families according to marketingcharts.com

Online Shopping Becomes Social

Social media is changing the way consumers browse and shop for their online purchases. Facebook recently rolled out a new initiative that allows users to "like" a certain product, item, or article. This integration with Facebook allows consumers to share coveted and must see internet items. This feature will certainly revolutionize the way Facebook users share online content with their friends. Levis.com was one of the first websites to use this feature; view the video below for more additional details.

Travelocity Review

With Spring Break and summer vacations looming, Travelocity seems to be targeting a younger, college to young adult audience. I say this because the website is fun and humerous, but it's a humor that only young adults would mostly be entertained by. This humor can be found in the little yard gnome who makes his way randomly through the different page and sections of the website dressed and ready for all the worlds hot vacation spots. During the winter months, he fully covered in scarves and ski googles, but now that its summer he's in swimming trunks, sun glasses, and sipping on a cool drink.

Travelocity has a very simple website to navigate. One of the first things you see is a "Book My Trip" box, allowing you to put your departure, destination, and desired times, instantly pulling up the best deals. It also gives you the options of searching different dream destinations and travel deals. At the top of the page there is a row of tabs making your search extremely easy.

Throughout the website the word deals, or no fees pops up everywhere, giving you the feeling that you really are getting the best deal. This also makes you want to continue using travelocity over its rival travel booking websites.

However, the coolest thing about this website is that the colors change with the time of year and day. In winter, the website was all dark blues, and now its more of a light blue with oranges and yellows, making the website itself feel more like summer time.

Amazon.com Review

Being a frequent visitor and user of Amazon, I was excited to review this site. At first glance the website seems a tad boring, being mostly white with just a few accents of blue and orange. But, with the page almost being cluttered with so many pictures of merchandise, if any more color was added the page would be to busy. The first thing the viewer notices when going to Amazon.com is a huge picture of their best seller, which at this moment is the kindle, and some form of deal they're giving on this product. Directly below the best seller, you see a row of items that other costumers are looking at. These are just a few ways they entice you to look at something you hadn't previously thought about.

Navigation of this website is fairly simple. On the left, there is a column that shows you all the different departments, making it easier to narrow your search. You also have the same option at the top of the page, but in drop down form.

My favorite part of this website is the ability to be a seller or a buyer, and having your own personal account and ratings. As a security feature, anytime you purchase an item, Amazon allows you to rate the process and outcome by asking you questions about if you were pleased with communication, transaction, shipping, etc. If you're rated poorly, this will sway other buyers from purchasing from you. However, as a buyer, you can also be rated on things such as did you pay in a timely manner. If your rating is poor as a buyer, sellers may choose not to let you purchase their items.

Top 15 most trafficked sites on the internet currently

These are the top 15 most trafficked sites according to Alexa.com, a web information site.
1-google.com
2-facebook.com
3-youtube.com
4-yahoo.com
5-live.com
6-wikipedia.org
7-blogger.com
8-baidu.com
Music search engine and free MP3 & video streaming for all kind of topic.
9-msn.com
10-qq.com (east asia)
11-twitter.com
12-yahoo.co.jp (japan)
13-google.co.in (india)
14-google.de (middle europe)
15-taobao.com (east asia)

Social Media

Almost every website now has an avenue for social media sign-ups on their page. Social media has become the new tool for effective marketing strategies in businesses big and small, national and global. Social media are different from industrial media (print, tv, and film) because they are usually very inexpensive while industrial media have lots of cost and resources. A few main differences between these two are usability - social media is much more user-generated and therefore user friendly, accessibility - forms of social media are available everywhere, even on phones, availability - social media has no sense of time lag, it is up to date at every moment, and reach - social media has the potential to reach across the globe quickly and in many languages. Overall to stay current and marketable in today's society almost always social media has to be involved.

Contextual Interviews

I think contextual interviews over the phone would be incredibly difficult to manage. Even with incentives, in the fast-paced and gimmicky world that we live in, I am not sure anyone would stay on the phone for 30 minutes to go through a series of questions for a website. The idea of contextual interviews in general is very helpful to the overall process, however, I can't imagine having much success over the phone. And the cost very much surprised me for formal usability tests: $10,000-$20,000 for one day with a consultant, a facility and ten participants.

MSN's header

I really like the header on msn.com. It has their logo and the navigation is color coded which seems to go with the butterfly in their logo. The search bar is large and right at the top, which makes it easy to find what you are looking for and it has a place to go right to your e-mail or sign-in page with hotmail or live. It's simplistic and colorful and easy to navigate.

Ouachita's website

I just wanted to note that I think it's inconvenient on Ouachita's website that there is no search engine within the site itself. Not all of the links are very clear and the logo is not always consistent with leading back to the home page from every other page you go to, especially within Tigernet. It is okay concerning usability but it has a lot of information that can't be seen directly from the homepage. It would be so much easier sometimes to just search in a search box.

Curly Girl Design website

The Curly Girl Design website is one of my frequented websites. It has eye-catching grpahics and is user friendly.
The site has navigation at the top with links to each of its major pages and once you get to those pages it has links to click for a new section. It has a sidebar that has the main blog roll and the pictures on the homepage cirulate according to their latest news. The footer mimics the top navigation where you can click on pictures to go to the pages and it also has a subscription bar and social media information below that. It's a very cute site and user-friendly because it is pretty simplistic.

Walmart.com

When first arriving at walmart.com, my reaction was that it wasn't very exciting. The outline of the page was organized, but there wasn't much color. Nothing really grabbed my attention. The graphics were mediocre. They really just included still pictures and no scrolling picture graphics except for a tiny one at the very top. Not very affective.
The navigation, however, I felt was accessible. When scrolling over the links on the left side, subcategories showed up for every main category in order to narrow down your search. There was also a clearly noticeable search bar at the top as well as a shopping cart link. The top links were very user friendly because they included store finder, registry, local ad, track order, and sign in.
I felt that it was great that they had the value of the day and the current rollback deals.
The website is targeted towards people who are able to order things online. Such as people with a credit/debit card. Usually young adults and adults. Walmart.com focuses a lot on their low prices on the website.
I was really only dissapointed in the graphics and the colors of the website. I feel like a lot of people are going to want/need to come to this site and lack of excitement and visual stimulation are not going to keep people there long.

Ticketmaster.com

The website that I reviewed was Ticketmaster.com. This website caters more to the 18 and up crowd; generally people who are old enough to purchase tickets online and go to events. The colors of the website are pleasing to the eye. It includes a dark blue with silver, white, and orange accents, all complimentary colors of each other. However, the colors aren’t too harsh to make it look busy.

I thought the graphics of the page really worked well for the user. The changing graphic at the top center of the page grabbed my attention right away. This is used to advertise upcoming and popular events. It changes by itself but you can also click to other pages manually. Right underneath this is “Top Recommended Events” section with pictures of the artists. There is also a big “On Sale” section, something that everyone will want to look at when searching for tickets.

The usability of this page is pretty amazing in my opinion. There are so many useful options that everyone will find helpful. There is a box where you can search for exactly the exact event you are looking for and the area. Also, at the top right of the page, it tells you what area you are searching from and the surrounding areas. It has a box that helps you with any traveling you might have to do, including insurance or hotels. On the left side bars there are several links to categories of many different events.

Since the website deals primarily with younger adults it has an option to follow them on twitter or become a fan on facebook. Also, catering to the adults in mid 30s-40s it has an option to search for family friendly shows.

All in all, this website is a success to its users. It provides functionality as well as a great design.

Southwest Airlines

When you first open up the southwest website you see a picture of the beach.  This was wise because travel is no fun at all, but the destination makes it worth while.  So they try to take the emphasis away from the awful and on the fun parts.  They have a white background with a blue and black color scheme.  The site contains many links that include checking-in, looking for specific flights, credit card offers, and highlights of specific areas that southwest flies to.  If you are looking for a specific flight or just somewhere you can fly cheap for the weekend they want to make sure that you can find it on their website.  There are also links to their facebook, twitter, youtube, and flickr.  Then at the very bottom of the page they have a list of everything that they have on the website just incase you didn't find what you were looking for on the home page.  I was surprised that they did not mention something about the fact that bags are free with southwest because that seems to be their main ad campaign and that might convince me to fly southwest.

Web Site Review

FedEx’s web site is very simple and task oriented. The most important tool on the home page is the user login.  FedEx is all about making money and ecommerce is the main objective of the website.  The other main tool on the page is the box that allows you to track a package.  I would imagine that a lot of people go to the site in order to find out when their packages are expected to arrive.  The color scheme is white and purple.  It is simple but a little bit boring.  But because it is so focused on getting the job done and not entertainment that is ok.

Analytics

I thought that learning about the analytics of a Web site was very interesting. Being able to tell the bounce rate of a Web site and how many views per page and for how long each viewer is on the site is very helpful for Web site creators. I know I am particularly bad about viewing a Web page for a few seconds and if I cannot find what I am looking for leaving and going to another site. I think Web page designers need this information to know exactly what users are looking for from the site.

BBC Online Review

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Whitney Crews

BBC Online review

The BBC online Web site is very clean and easy to maneuver. The navigation is simple and uncluttered. It has a search bar in the very center and a modern-looking analog clock with the date which is just user-friendly.

The color scheme is mostly grey with white widget boxes and the photos and different shades make the site less monotonous. However you can make BBC online your homepage and change any setting to your liking, such as moving around the widgets, selecting which news and information you want to see and change the color.

Because everything is in widgets it is easily changed to suite your personal preference for the homepage and it is also very easy to navigate the site. Editing each widget lets you choose personal settings that are very specific, like the Sports portion where you can select a certain sport to view or which country’s news you would prefer to see.

You can also delete any box you don’t wish to see and one widget has available the news in 42 languages you can choose from. There is online access to the television stations associated with the BBC and their radio stations.

Adjacent to the footer is another way to search the site, by topic, and if you still cannot find what you are looking for you can search A to Z in the site. The footer is typical of a Web site.

PBS Review

When I think of PBS, I automatically think of kids. Yet when I was on the website I realized it wasn't that oriented towards kids so I looked at the show listing and found out that that station has more shows then just Authur. Guess I don't watch enough TV. The site in general wasn't that hard to navigate, but it wasn't very exciting either. The background color was just white and it was actually pretty boring. The top navigation to lead you to specific parts of the whole PBS network was nice and once you got on those, they were much more appealing to the eye. I didn't feel like there was much organization to the site. Everything was labeled well with the links underneath, but you had to scroll down a lot to get to information when I wished there was just more at the top with a central focus to the site.

New York Times

Because it is a news Web site, the New York Times homepage struggles with overwhelming you with text. It is mainly black and white, with headlines in blue. The navigation is on the side of the page instead of the top, so it tends to blend in with the text of the articles.

They do a good job of incorporating charts, pictures, videos, with interactive features and audio clips and in the center of the page is a section labeled “Inside NYTimes.com” which is my favorite aspect of the page. Also in any of their photo collections it goes to a sleek black page with all white and grey highlights.

Below that is a detailed, bulleted listing of the latest articles in each section of their online paper making it easy to find the latest news stories. The Week In Review portion of the page, search box and “most popular” sections of the page make it extremely easy to find past articles and subject matter.

The footer is well organized and reiterates the columns that would be in their paper. With the normal privacy, etc. that would be in a paper.

The target audience is anyone who would normally read their newspaper; businessmen, yuppies, high-end metropolitans, etc.

ESPN.com

ESPN.com is the leading sports Web site, averaging 21 million users per month, more than any other sports Web site, according to Neilsen Net-ratings. The website uses a main top bar navigation with a search option and a several category navigations where viewers may navigate the site effortlessly, better able to find what they are searching for. This site appeals to sports fans of all ages. It provides 500-1000 new videos each week, up-to-the-minute sports news, statistics, analysis and scores; games, webcast, and access to the companies other media such as television, magazine, and radio. The main colors shown are a variety of deep red hues accented by gray, gold, and white. Within the background are various symbols that are used within various sports, highlighting the web’s design. This site was very well composed.

Building HTML and CSS

When first discussing html and css, I was overwhelmed. However, after going over it step-by-step and seeing how everything has its own code it was not as bad as it originally seemed. The most interesting concept to me was the color coding and link posting just by entering the correct codes and tags. Each time I saved and previewed, the work updated itself and it was very interesting to see that just by entering the correct code or tag, you could change the entire appearance of the page.

Boeing Review

www.boeing.com is a website designed for Boeing Business Jets. When you first enter on the page, you will notice a very simple design and not much to it, and it is hard to figure out what is the main point of the website.

The one thing that very compliments the page is the use of blue and white colors. Being that is a website that deals in aeronautics the colors really add a feel of being in the sky. The very simple, classic look of the page fits well with the fact that they are selling business jets, commercial planes and materials for NASA.

The website has a top navigation, but if you don’t know exactly what you are looking for it seems hard to navigate. The one thing that helps with navigation is the quick links bar on the left. So obviously I don’t think many people other than business people looking for a private jet really use the site.

Disney Review

I reviewed the Disney website. When you first get to the website, it is very pleasing to the eye with lots of blue/purple which is the exact color I think of when I think of Disney. The background reminds me of the “magical” feel that Disney tries to convey. Overall, the website is really cool and extremely interactive. It has top bar navigation, that has not only words but pictures along with those words to make it child friendly. There is animation that goes along with each part of the navigation bar, which once again is pleasing to the eye and child friendly. The site’s homepage isn’t too cluttered and I feel is very organized and easy to maneuver to cater to its target audience of kids. I think the website is put together very well, and so easy to find your way around with the way it is set up, with it's great usability. There didn’t seem to be any confusing places, and since it is mostly targeted for children, there were pictures to go along with all the words. And overall, the website had a very fun feel to it.

Barnes and Noble

www.bn.com is the official website for Barnes and Nobles Booksellers.

The website uses a top bar navigation with a search option and a category navigation which makes the site easy to navigate and use. Although the page seems a bit cluttered when it is first opened, it is still well put together and everything is organized neatly.

There are many photos and graphics, but my favorite is the scrolling “Our Pics This Week”. It adds life and motion to the page.

The main colors on the page are a light green background and white. The colors are very complimentary to each other and give the page very simple and sleek look.

I think the website is targeted to all ages, but mainly adults. Most of the things on the first page advertise for adults but there are links for kids and teens.

The website is organized neatly and has a good order and a pleasing look. Although I do believe it is slightly cluttered I do think it is put together well and easy for viewers to use.