Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

This was what I saw when I awoke this morning:

I recently watched the movie Who Killed the Electric Car and loved it so much, I am going to trade in my gasoline nightmare and buy an electric car to the first auto company that contacts me and gives me the opportunity to purchase one. The only caveat is that I do not want to drive all the way across the country in order to buy it. I am willing to drive within a 250 mile radius of Chicago.

I have made efforts on my own, but thought this might be more effective. I mean, how much effort can a consumer make. I want to buy an electric car. Sell me one. I have the necessary funds and good credit.

I recently contacted Zap cars to find out how I can get one. I haven’t received a response yet. I also contacted a Chrysler dealership in Chicago and this is what I discovered:

“The Smart Car will not be avaliable for retail purchase anytime soon. Chrysler still considers this a concept and will only offer it to select companies for testing, but if anything changes and it goes retail we will let you know…”

So the bottom line is, I will have to wait for someone other than the big 3 to figure out what I am blatantly asking for.

Anyone have any suggestions? Let me know in the comments below.

Hooray! Hooray! Windows Vista is about to launch. insert cricket sounds

Why does it seem like nobody really cares about the launch of Windows Vista? I mean, when Windows 95 launched you had “Start me up” and when XP launched you had hoopla and grandeur associated with a societal revolution. So why don’t I feel like people are going to be running out and buying a new computer based solely on the operating system. Two words: Broadband Internet.

Prior to XP, the internet was young. Amazon and Yahoo were considered “advanced”. Now we have Flickr, NetFlix, YouTube, MySpace, DropSend, BackPack, Gmail, Google Calendar and million other web services that offload the functions of the desktop to online. One example: Gmail. Even if Microsoft gave me all the functionality of Outlook for free in a desktop application, it still won’t provide portability. I can check my email everywhere with Gmail, I cannot with a desktop application, until Google launches a desktop application The only caveat I would give for using a desktop application for this is, the lack of integration between Gmail and Google Calendar for setting up meetings and reminders, but that is getting better each day.

File sharing has often been a nightmare with 95 and XP and can be accomplished with a few short clicks using DropSend. Flickr allows me to store all my digital files online with a few clicks. This is available via XP, but I have to set up all kind of security and firewalls to prevent anyone else from getting in besides me.

What are the two saving graces for having everything on your desktop?

1. If the internet goes down, I still have all my stuff immediately available.
2. It’s probably faster to access and view your files, but in a few years, as broadband speeds increase, this will be less of an advantage.

So Microsoft, if you’re reading this. I’ll see you in a year or two. In the meantime, I’m glad you got a few things right in Vista.

Because every other website in Chicago only has Super Bowl links on them:

• Every NES Game ever made - awesome!
• Make a paper robot
• Glass bottle oil lamp
• Zap Electric Cars - Take THAT big 3!
• Avoid broken links in email

With the recent uproar over the CTA and their sign mistakes, I have been paying more attention to the overall CTA and their signage and announcements. I’m not sure how many people have noticed the discrepancies between what the CTA prints on their maps within ‘L’ trains, the signs at the stations, and the announcements made on the train itself. Here are a few of the examples I have seen:

‘L’ Map (Brown Line): Mart
Verbal: Merchandise Mart
Signage: Merchandise Mart
Reason for discrepancy: I think this is just because of the graphic space the designer had to work with. However, this does not excuse this. All three should match as it is the best in terms of recognition for both English and non-English speakers. If I am visiting the city and someone tells me, “Get off at Merchandise Mart” I can probably assume they mean, “Mart”, but how do I know?

‘L’ Map (Brown Line): Chicago
Verbal: Chicago and Franklin
Signage: Chicago
Reason for discrepancy: The signage came first, so everything else should follow what the signage says. The ‘L’ map matches, but why did they change the announcements to be “Chicago and Franklin”?

‘L’ Map (Red Line): Chicago
Verbal: Chicago and State
Signage: Chicago
Reason for discrepancy: The same problem as above. Why do they have so many different signs and announcements?

Bottom Line: Somebody at the CTA needs to get the sign guy, the map guy, and the announcer all in the same room and have them come up with a single plan. This is the most basic of usability tenets. As a designer or usability professional, you should always try and be consistent, even if it’s consistently bad or consistently good, at least your users will quickly figure out how to react to your interface and it will hopefully become a seamless and thoughtless process.

Pictures from Gapers Block and DancingDavidE

Managing multiple websites, I see a lot of spam each and every day. I have been combating it lately by using a number of different methods: math, captchas, and other simple human tests. Recently, our largest message board has been getting pegged with dozens of spam postings every hour and it’s to the point where we can no longer keep up with it. The message board is meant to primarily serve the US and Canada and many of the spam posts are coming from countries outside the US and Canada i.e. South America, Thailand, and the Netherlands. So what I was thinking is, well, what if we just block all IP addresses outside of the US and Canada.

That is the easiest solution, but is it the best? We would have to purchase a database or find a web service that provides a direct IP to Country conversion and then apply that to the message board registration process. The way the message board functions is that you must register to post comments. So if the person is outside the US or Canada, they can read all the comments they want, but can’t contribute to the conversation.

Pros:

1. Cuts down on spam posts immediately, at least until a spammer spoofs a US IP address, or we start getting a bunch of spam posts from the US.
2. Eliminates the time needed to sift through the spam posts from outside the US.

Cons:

1. Does not allow participation by anyone outside the US, even though they may have legitimate, pertinent information to share.
2. Creates an isolationist feel to the message board, which may or may not stifle traffic and participation.
3. Have to maintain IP to Country database, as IP addresses change hands all the time. Probably also have to provide a mechanism for people to contact you to have their account added manually or via some other process, in the case they actually do have good ideas.

What does everyone think out there? Good idea? Bad idea? Let me know in the comments.

Photo courtesy of Marxchivist

Wow! If there isn’t a more pointed question that I, a techno-junkie, can ask. According to a recent article in the economist:

The distinctions between technology and globalisation count, if only because people tend to welcome computers but condemn foreigners (whether as competitors or immigrants). That makes technology easier to defend.

The article goes on to say how automation and technology are increasingly dividing the upper and lower classes, as you have more and more blue and white collar jobs being gobbled up into technology until you are left with the guy who develops the system, the guy who runs the system, and the guy who profits from the system. Powerful reading for anyone in the tech industry.

Read more here.

This is for you Chicago on those cold, cold nights - remember that summer is right around the corner!

Happy 25th Birthday Eric!

Keep those kids in line and make me proud. All the best - you’re big bro,
Jeff

Since I was sick on Monday, here is my cool link roundup:

Sweet picture of Tokyo

No more LOUD COMMERCIALS!

Optimus Prime iPod Dock

Forget your second life, get a first life

Opt out of everything!