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marți, 4 iunie 2013

Taking on the Patent Trolls

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Our patent system is meant to encourage innovation and invention. But in recent years, companies called "patent trolls" have used abusive patent litigation designed to threaten innovators in order to extract settlements based on questionable claims.

It costs the economy billions of dollars and undermines American innovation, and today President Obama issued five executive actions and seven legislative recommendations designed to protect innovators from unnecessary litigation and improve the quality patents in our system.

Learn how the Administration is taking on patent trolls to protect American innovation.

#MozCon Speaker Interview: Karen McGrane

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 07:10 PM PDT

Posted by Erica McGillivray

I'm really excited that we're bringing Karen McGrane, CEO at Bond Art + Science, to this year's MozCon. A veteran of the content world, she's a champion of making great content accessible to your audience. Karen proclaims that mobile is the best thing that's ever happened for content. In fact, she wrote a book on it. She'll be talking "The Mobile Content Mandate" at MozCon, and you won't want to miss it.

When Karen's not rooting for seamless content across all devices, you might find her on Twitter @karenmcgrane and maybe chatting about artichokes. Which as I interviewed her, I wanted to know more about both.

What's inspired you lately?

I always get a huge burst of energy at this time of year. My birthday is April, and springtime always feels like a fresh start. I like to work outside on my terrace when the weather starts getting warm. Iâ€™m sitting outside right now! It feels like a good way to get things done and pretend that Iâ€™m on vacation at the same time.

Since you'll be talking about mobile content strategy at MozCon this year, what mobile devices are your favorite to use?

Iâ€™m a pretty devoted iOS userâ€"Iâ€™m on my third iPhone and second iPad (the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.) I think cross-platform use and testing is a huge challenge on mobile. My developer friends spend a lot of time (and often, money) putting together device labs for testing. Weâ€™ve been through this before on the desktop web, and hopefully weâ€™ll move quickly to ensure cross-platform and cross-browser consistency on the mobile web tooâ€"thatâ€™s what we need to ensure the web grows and evolves.

What sites are your favorite to access on mobile devices?

Sadly, many sites still arenâ€™t optimized for the mobile web. The New York Times mobile website is pretty weak -- theyâ€™ve invested more in apps -- so I still visit their desktop site from my mobile browser. (I led the redesign of that site in 2005, so Iâ€™m intimately familiar with it!)

In some cases, the mobile website is actually better than the desktop site. Travel is one category where theyâ€™ve invested in optimizing for local users, so in many cases the mobile site is faster and simpler. Booking.com provides a great mobile experience, and it shows. Their revenue from mobile bookings tripled from $1 billion to $3 billion last year.

Booking.com

Banking is another category where theyâ€™ve invested a lot in transactional applications. Iâ€™m consistently impressed by the mobile banking app from my bank, Chase. But banks have a long ways to go in delivering content to mobile usersâ€"most offer only a paltry subset of product and customer service content compared to the desktop.

You're an extremely proficient writer and speaker. Do you have a certain writing routine that you apply to your daily schedule? A time, a place, a device to start with, a process, music?

If Iâ€™m writing an article or a new talk, I must ensure that I have a clear schedule. I need an entire day to focus on the writing, and I canâ€™t concentrate if Iâ€™m trying to fit it in around client conference calls and meetings. Given any opportunity to distract myself, I will do it! So I also try to make sure my apartment is tidy, and Iâ€™m at inbox zero, otherwise Iâ€™ll find myself vacuuming under the bed instead of writing.

I like to write on the sofa or outside on my terraceâ€"I find it easier to focus when Iâ€™m away from my desk. I sit at my desk and use two monitors when Iâ€™m making slides for a talk, but when Iâ€™m writing I prefer to just use my laptop.

On your website, your tagline says "On a good day, I make the web more awesome." Who are the people out there making the web more awesome that you admire?

Iâ€™m so grateful to so many people. Iâ€™ve learned a lot and been genuinely blessed to work with some amazing people over the years.

The team at Arc90 does some really impressive work, and they are smart people. They put out the read-it-later app Readability, as well as a bunch of projects with banks and publishers.

I teach in the MFA program in Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I teach design management, which is essentially â€œbusiness skills for user experience designers.â€ Liz Danzico is the chair of the program, and sheâ€™s assembled a fantastic lineup of instructors and every year itâ€™s a great group of students. I learn a lot being a part of it.

And, of course, Iâ€™m indebted to Jeffrey Zeldman and the various teams at A List Apart, An Event Apart, and A Book Apart. I write a column for ALA; my book was published by ABA; and Iâ€™ve spoken at AEA many times. Zeldman has a real knack for connecting amazing people, and my work is so much better because of the high standards they set.

In addition to being on the cutting-edge of mobile, you're also a computer history geek. Who's your favorite unknown scientist or major contributor in computers that made a huge impact on what we do today?

Well, sheâ€™s not exactly unknown, but Grace Murray Hopper is an amazing woman and a fantastic role model for our industry. She spent 40 years in the Navy as a computer scientist, retiring as a rear admiral. There are not many programmers who have a U.S. Navy Destroyer named after them, but the U.S.S. Hopper is named for her. I describe her as "the person who taught computers to speak our language." She came up with the first "compiler," which essentially allowed people to type commands in English, rather than in binary. It took her years to convince people that computers could do more than just arithmetic.

USS Hopper

Okay, now what I've been dying to know, what's your favorite way to cook an artichoke?

I eat a lot of artichokes. My everyday preparation is simply to steam the whole artichoke and serve it with a vinaigrette made of lime juice and good olive oil. For a fancier preparation, I like to braise the artichokes, searing them first and then simmering them in chicken stock and white wine. The only trick to braising is you need to pull off most of the tough outer leavesâ€"I usually yank off what I think is right, then take off another layer. If you can get baby artichokes, they are especially nice when braised and served with the braising sauce over pasta. (I like to serve them with scallops.) Yum.

Yum indeed. Thank you so much, Karen, for sharing a little bit of the future, a little bit of history, and a little bit about artichokes with us. You can follow Karen on Twitter @karenmcgrane or better yet, join us for her MozCon talk.

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11 of the Best SEO & PPC Posts from May

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 04:31 AM PDT

If you are anywhere near as busy as we were in the SEOptimise office during May, it can be difficult to keep up with all the great blog posts that were published. I thought I’d ask the office to see the ones which they thought were worth a read. So, in no particular order, here is our top 6 posts from around the web…

5 Excel Skills Every Marketer Should Know by Annie Cushing – Ever wondered what Excel skills are most important for marketers to learn? Annie shares her ultimate list.
Getting Started With Structured Data by Justin Boyan, Google Product Manager – Structured data is likely going to be one of the big things in the future of search, and Google has tried to make it easier by introducing some tools. Read about them on the Webmaster Central Blog.
Reduce Bounce Rate: 20 Things to Consider by Nick Eubanks – Bounce rates are always an interesting subject – it’s hard to actually know when they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’. If you want to reduce them, this is a handy list of 20 considerations for doing just that.
How to get Value and Great Prospects Fast from Blogger LinkUp by Daniel Callis – A nice how-to about how to make the most of Blogger Linkup.
You Can't Reverse Engineer The Google Algorithm by Ryan Jones – Ryan looks at why you can’t reverse engineer the Google algorithm.
Pinsent Masons wins trademark dispute for Interflora against M&S by Katy Dowell – This one has rumbled on for a while, but Interflora finally won their trademark dispute with M&S. Read about it here!

It has also been a busy month on our blog, with May achieving the highest traffic figures of the year so far. So in case you missed any of them, here are our 5 most popular posts of the month…

8 Great Tools to use with Google Analytics by Daniel Bianchini – Our most visited and shared post of the month! Dan shares some great tools to use with GA.
The ultimate content audit checklist by Rachel McCombie – Ever wondered how to do a content audit? Rachel shares some top tips.
Using Excel to Help Move to Enhanced Campaigns by Tamsin Mehew – This was our top PPC post of the month! With forced switchover to Enhanced Campaigns coming in the near future, Tamsin shares her method of using Excel to help move you campaigns over early.
217 Takeaways from the SEO, Search and Social Track – SMX London 2013 by Daniel Bianchini – If you didn’t make SMX London, read the top tips from the Search and Social track.
Plugging the link leaks, part 2 – site canonicalisation by Charlie Williams – This is the second post from Charlie in his series about plugging link leaks.

Did we miss any great posts? We’d love to hear your suggestions, so please add them to the comments below.

Seth's Blog : Self service requires information, which requires design

Self service requires information, which requires design

Consider travel as an example:

If you've arranged the flights on the monitor in order of flight time, not destination, requiring me to stop and take out my ticket, you have failed.

If you've hidden the room numbers (or given them fancy names) so that only an employee can find the right spot, you've failed as well.

The label on prescription drugs, the instructions post-doctor visit, the manual for using software or putting together furniture--if we're getting rid of service and turning it into self-service, we owe it to our newly deputized employees (our customers) to give them the tools they need to not need us.

Sure, you need someone in charge of customer service. But you also need someone in charge of service design. Someone responsible for fixing what's broken, not merely apologizing for it again and again.

It's not cheap, but it's way cheaper than answering the phone or annoying the people who pay our bills.

• Email to a friend •

luni, 3 iunie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

IMF Halves Germany 2013 GDP Estimate; Still Too Optimistic

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 03:08 PM PDT

With most of Europe in a nasty recession, and significant parts of it (Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy) in an outright economic depression, I wonder why it took so long for the IMF to Reduce Germany GDP Forecast.

Germany's 2013 growth prospects have been cut in half by the International Monetary Fund, as it warned that the outlook for Europe's strongest economy could worsen if a eurozone recovery fails to materialise.

The IMF said falling business investment and the eurozone's ongoing recession, which have hampered German growth, meant the economy would grow by just 0.3pc this year, compared with an April estimate of 0.6pc.

"The uncertainty, mainly surrounding prospects for the euro area and the ongoing recession in the region, have led to declining German exports to the region as well as a sharp pull back in business investment," the IMF said in a report on Monday.

Ridiculous Talk of Uncertainty

Note the ridiculous talk about "uncertainty". What is certain is the IMF is in la-la land, attempting to paint a picture that does not exist.

It is all but 100% certain that a eurozone recovery is not coming, so warning that the outlook for growth "could worsen if a eurozone recovery fails to materialise" is like warning that it might hurt if you are punched in the nose by a professional boxer with full force.

Note too that Germany Q1 GDP Grew At 0.1%, missing expectations. That report came out on May 15, and the IMF just now figured out that German growth is slowing.

Given that Germany is headed for contraction, the IMF is still too optimistic.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Huge Miss in May ISM; Manufacturing Now in Contraction; What the Numbers Mean

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 09:09 AM PDT

US Manufacturing as measured by the May 2013 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® is treading water barely above contraction.

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in May for the first time since November 2012, and the overall economy grew for the 48th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.

ISM at a Glance

Series Data	Apr Index	Mar Index	Percentage Point Change	Direction	Rate of Change	Trend (Months)
PMI™	49.0	50.1	-1.7	Contracting	From Growing	1
New Orders	48.8	52.3	-3.5	Contracting	From Growing	1
Production	53.5	52.2	+1.3	Contracting	From Growing	1
Employment	50.1	50.2	-0.1	Growing	Slower	44
Supplier Deliveries	48.7	50.9	-2.2	Faster	From Slowing	1
Inventories	49.0	46.5	+2.5	Contracting	Slower	3
Customers' Inventories	46.0	44.5	+1.5	Too Low	Slower	18
Prices	49.5	50.0	-0.5	Decreasing	From Unchanged	1
Backlog of Orders	48.0	53.0	-5.0	Contracting	From Growing	1
Exports	51.0	54.0	-3.0	Growing	Slower	6
Imports	54.5	55.0	-0.5	Growing	Slower	4

Synopsis

Last month I stated "Manufacturing employment has grown for 43 months. I expect that trend to break next month. Production was up but inventories were way lower. The drop in inventories, in conjunction with a big slowdown in employment, is likely a leading indicator of future production. The positive surprise that does not fit into the above assessment is that new orders grew at a faster rate. Next month may be telling. I expect the new order divergence to resolve to the downside as the global economy and the US economy are both slowing."

The consensus estimate was for slower growth, but here we are. Manufacturing is in contraction and the economy continues to weaken. Given the plunge in new orders and backlog of orders, jobs and the overall economy will likely weaken as well. Expect that trend of 48 months of economic growth to break next month.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

The National Conference on Mental Health

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The National Conference on Mental Health

Nationally, an estimated 45 million Americans suffer from illnesses like depression, schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress syndrome. Today, the White House hosted a day-long conference to kick off a national conversation about mental health in the United States. President Obama stressed the importance of a more open dialogue on mental health issues:

"There should be no shame in discussing or seeking help for treatable illnesses that affect too many people that we love. We've got to get rid of that embarrassment; we've got to get rid of that stigma."

Visit MentalHealth.gov to learn more about the Obama administration's effort to raise awareness and improve care for Americans experiencing mental health issues.

marți, 4 iunie 2013

Taking on the Patent Trolls

#MozCon Speaker Interview: Karen McGrane

#MozCon Speaker Interview: Karen McGrane

11 of the Best SEO & PPC Posts from May

11 of the Best SEO & PPC Posts from May

Seth's Blog : Self service requires information, which requires design

Self service requires information, which requires design

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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

The National Conference on Mental Health

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