Archive for Uncategorized
OSU Facebook Hits Milestone
While sheer numbers are not the end game for our participation on social media, Ohio State’s Facebook Fan Page crossed a substantial threshold this weekend. 200,000+ fans is a tremendously powerful number – one that will help increase engagement with our alumni, friends, fans, students, faculty, and staff. http://www.facebook.com/osu
Keyword Placement
We had a few questions about keyword placement recently. Identifying keywords for SEO purposes is one of the most important search engine marketing tasks to accomplish, but once you get those keywords, what do you do with them? I took some screen shots and highlighted key areas on a site below as a quick guide. In the example below the word “keyword” is the primary keyword and the word “website” is secondary.
Keyword Location Overview
In addition to adding keywords to your content, it is also important to place them within the HTML body of your website. Below are areas within the header of your page that should include keywords:
Notice the TITLE tag and also the META tags
Finally within the body of your actual page, there are some “behind the scenes” keyword placement techniques highlighted below:
Keywords within the H1 tags are very important
Keywords in ALT tags and Titles of images and links are also great.
Great UI Quote
UI that looked sexy in Photoshop almost always looks overdesigned when we try it for real in the browser. Here’s a hypothesis. Simple and useful designs just don’t seem good enough when they are dead pixels. They need to be brought to life before they can be appreciated. Until that happens we overcompensate with garnish.
- Ryan From 37Signals
Microsoft Surface Project Update
Take a look at our progress on our Microsoft Surface project. I am working with Ohio State on a pilot project for the Microsoft Surface, which will be located in the new student union. The surface is a new table top computing technology that incorporates some pretty cool concepts such as multi-touch and multi-user interaction. The unit is durable enough that we currently have it in a food court where students have been eating off it.
I am on a team of developers writing the application. In the video you can see a trivia game that we worked with some students to write. My role is Project Manager/Creative Director/Technical Architect. The game was my concept although the idea is heavily inspired by the BW3’s styled trivia game. I also helped with some of the technical architecture but the students did most of the programming work. We showed them how we want the system to be built, what technologies we wanted them to use, some other technical guidance and they did a great job taking it from there. Our next step is to clean up some of the user interface and bring in a graphic designer to make it look really good.
The other cool thing about this video is it was taken with our new SLR camera. We bought a Canon 7D. The goal is to be able to take some more of the images displayed on the sites we develop and even shoot some footage if necessary. The camera shoots in 30fps at 1080p. This should help cut costs instead of outsourcing to photographers and production companies.
Green Leaf EAS website complete
Green Leaf Energy Audit Services
The Green Leaf Energy Auditing Services website launched this week highlighting another complete solution provided by Home Base Web. Using a Word Press Template, we customized the logo, designed the website, and set up both web hosting and email services… all in about a week.
It was a pleasure working with Gary and Cindy Ungerer and we wish them the best in their new business venture. We look forward to offering our continued support for all of our customers for all of their online needs.
MySpace Graveyard offers place for MySpace defectors
MySpace, once the undisputed king of social networking, has been losing viewers at an alarming rate. With the plethora of social media options the dinosaur of the movement has been struggling to stand its ground.
According to hitwise, MySpace’s ranking in the Entertainment – Mutlimedia visitors experienced a nearly 10% drop in popularity:
MySpace loses popularity
MySpace’s initial growth focused on community and music. The chart below shows MySpace’s drop in contribution of traffic to the Music – Bands & Artists category.
MySpace Music Contribution
MySpace also recently ousted the CEO, (you know, Tom) according to their press release. They also recently slashed their workforce.
Is the end near? If so, collegehumor.com has a suggestion of what you can do with your old MySpace account.
Google Voice Thoroughly Banned From the iPhone; So Much for an Open Platform
I found this article on mashable.com and found it interesting. The funny thing is I work with one iPhone nut but also another guy who has been gushing over his recent Google Voice account. It’s always fun when two worlds collide. Apple is starting to resemble it’s arch enemy, Microsoft. 
Microsoft Surface
I just had my first meeting as a member of OSU’s Student Life IT Microsoft Surface Development team. We have not really discussed my role on the team yet. I will either be some sort of developer or project manager in some capacity. Either way, the technology is cool and I will be a pseudo expert on a new, cutting edge technology. The Surface is a multi-touch, multi user table top PC that uses what is known as gesture computing. In other words, it’s a pretty cool toy. We are exploring the practical applications of it, but to get some ideas, take a look at the video below.
… or take a look at the parody:
Plinko, uh, yeah we do that too?
Our company is young. We like to have fun. And we like to share. Take a look at the Plinko game I built with my wife and brother in law. About 75% of the materials were leftover scrap from some home renovation projects. Stay Classy.