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Archive for the 'coding' Category

It’s about time! Gmail image inserting

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I’m a Gmail user since summer 2004. At the time, you still had only 6 invites for your friends, so it was quite hard to get in. But when you did, in 2004, it was a COMPLETE revolution. Nothing was AJAX at the time, and such a seamless execution of online email was a technology breakthrough.

And, as I wrote yersterday, Gmail has been continuously improving since then. But two things has been lacking all the way. Two very Very VERY basic things: in-line imagine inserting and html signature. What this means in basic proper English is that you couldn’t insert images in the text, or add formatting / nice links / logos in your signature.

It was like traveling in a broken Ferrari with manual windows…

And finally, here comes image inserting! Woot woot hooray! It was about time…

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What if …? Gmail vs Facebook vs Twitter

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Gmail LogoSome random free-thinking this morning…

Gmail Labs introduced the “Sender time zone” into Gmail. It displays in which timezone the person who sent you an email is, and if you should/could call or not.

Nothing fancy, just useful.

Useful - that’s what Gmail is about, and has always been for its now 110M+ user base. And since the introduction of Labs and Gadgets, if became even more powerful. For instance, you can now share emails with embedded YouTube videos or Flickr images. You now have a full twitter client inside Gmail with TwitterGadget. You can also have Google docs right inside your sidebar. In the side bar too, Google Calendar, with private or public events. And so on.

Add to all of this the voice+video chat, that allows seamlessly to share files, videos, images, and chat one-to-one or one-to-many, and you have many ingredients for a successful social network.

Finally, Gmail status. Poorly implemented today, but it could be very powerful, and when you think about it, it’s not far from the Facebook status updates (commenting, and easier posting). Add search, which is not where Google lacks knowhow, and Boom! you have a twitter.

Would people use Gmail as they would use Twitter or Facebook? Probably not. Gmail is for emailing. Facebook to exchange pictures, videos, updates and messages with friends. Twitter for crowd-messaging.

But could they? Definitely.

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Earned media ?

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Earned media is media you don’t buy but earn the hard way.

I was reading the insightful post of Fred Wilson about Earned Media and wanted to share the slides he prepared with a friend.

They asked me what “Earned Media” was, and I realized it’s not easy to explain to a non-tech savvy. I just came up with two simple (known) examples: a superbowl commercial versus the JetBlue twitter team.

The SuperBowl commercial costs $3M for 30 seconds of time. 30 seconds in which everyone jumps out of the sofa to get new fresh bears, the bar stool to use the restrooms and order new chicken wings, …. And of course, the $3M doesn’t include the commercial production costs! Yes, you reach potentially an audience of 90 million viewers. Potentially.

jetbluetwitter.PNGOn the other side, you have the JetBlue twitter team. JetBlue decided to to have a bunch of people “listen to the twittersphere” and answer some requests, claims, concerns. See below an exchange - isn’t this cool? Can you imagine screaming out (i.e. twittering) that Google suck today because Gmail is down, and then receiving a response saying “Sorry, we know, servers down… Hang on tight!”.

Earned Media would require some more interaction and integration with existing services. Think picture uploads on Flickr, videos on YouTube, a fan page on Facebook, a blog of course, live feeds on JustinTV and UStream, and all that regularly updated.

jetbluetwitterpricing.PNG

This is basically called online presence, needs to be lively and requires interaction to the user and users. And the best thing of all: it doesn’t cost a lot.

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Long time no write…

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It’s been radio-silence on this blog for the past two weeks, because a few things have kept me very busy, and not in a writing mood.

- I’m try to rent my apartment (a nice brick wall 2 bedroom on St Marks Place), and had tons of visits over the last three weeks. It’s almost a full-time job … ;)

- I developed  StartupsNews.com, a user-generated news site for startups, where entrepreneurs (or stakeholders) can post news about what they are working on, ne features, beta testing requests, hires, layoffs maybe, ….

-  I developed a Twitter Bot to post news on StartupsNews.com using the hash tag #startupsnews. It is my first TwitterBot and I’m amazed how powerful it could be…

I’ll write more soon about each thing, but ping me if you already wanna know more!

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Crash testing done on CabEasy.com, getting ready to launch !

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Ok, it seems that I more or less passed the crash tests !

Last week, I wrote a post saying that CabEasy.com  was up and running for crash tests, and I got some of my friends to do them. Got some good feedbacks out of it, and that’s great !

Continue reading ‘Crash testing done on CabEasy.com, getting ready to launch !’

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CabEasy.com - Up and running ?

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CabEasy.comIt’s the last day of a 3 weeks run. I’ve been working on evenings and week ends on finalizing the development of CabEasy.com and integrating some very early feedback. I had a small to do list that I detail below, and have been able to work my way through it (besides some friends visiting and my girlfriends being in New York for a while !).

And tonight, I am done !

Here was my to-do-list:

  • Change name (see my posts here):
  • Design a logo (see my post here):
  • Change hosting provider (analysis on connection times, check here):
  • Update DNS info on Dreamhost:
  • Redesign web site with new format (this has been the most difficult I guess, but I am now pretty good with CSS formatting, see my post here):
  • Clean the site header file:
  • Verify contact form:
  • Send email alerts in html format:
  • Redo the form validation in Ajax with the jQuery library:
  • Add Delete a trip function:
  • Add “twitter your trip” function (see my post here):
  • Improve search on home page:
  • Add contact / bug / new feature form:
  • Add UserVoice or GetSatisfaction feedback widget (finally opted for UserVoice):
  • Add a test on TripDetails to see if trip exists and is still active:
  • Test twitter + delete functions online:
  • Set an automatic backup of the database:
  • On the “Save new trip” page, add fading tool-tips (based on QuirksMode):
  • Create a Screencast of the service:
  • Rewrite the “FAQ” page:

I’m now ready for some heavy crash testing, and you’re all welcome to help !

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Choosing a web hosting provider - Traceroute servers connection speeds comparison

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Still on the final track for CabEasy.com v1 launch, I’ve been wondering if Dreamhost was the best option to support the first batch of users. I - of course and sorry in advance … - intend to spam my friends to ask them the favor of beta-testing the site, and spreading the word. Being french and living in New York, this will mean a stream of visitors from Europe and the US as early as the beta launch.

Continue reading ‘Choosing a web hosting provider - Traceroute servers connection speeds comparison’

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Geek Jeopardy game ….

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I’ll give you an answer, you’ll have to find the question:

“We don’t really have servers in New York … This is to advertise the fact that you can access our servers from anywhere, including New York …”.

So ?

A guess ?

My question was: “Can I have an IP of one of your servers in New York ?”.

Not funny yet, but here is the whole story: I am looking for a web hosting company with servers in New York. I found this one: Hostik. Their site says: “We provide Web Hosting for New York City and around the world: Albertson, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, Syracuse, Binghamton, Irondequoit, Manhattan, Yonkers, White Plains, New York City, Colonie, Reno, and Brighton.” (see here).

“Misleading advertising” they say ? ;))

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Redesigning CabEasy.com: CSS DIV Positioning madness … !

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With the release of the final beta version of CabEasy.com (new name of ShareMyCab.net) planned early November, I started revamping the design of the website.

Continue reading ‘Redesigning CabEasy.com: CSS DIV Positioning madness … !’

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