News Summary for November 16, 2006 By Alireza Bigdeli 1. “Freeing Google From the Desktop” WSJ D12 Summary: ============= Google offers Web applications for downloading onto your mobile device including Maps, Gmail, SMS, Search and News. Gmail for mobile lets you open attachments containing photos, Microsoft Word documents and PDFs. Using Gmap you can see current traffic patterns on highways while you are driving. Implications: ============= By high increment of number of mobile devices in recent years, rendering services for mobile devices has become a great advantage for big companies like Yahoo and Google. Idea: ============= Work on methods that make Internet access for mobile devices faster and cheaper. 2. “Hook Your iPod to Plane Seats” WSJ D12 Summary: ============= Airline passengers will soon be able to connect their iPods to in-flight entertainment systems, and watch their favorite videos without fear of running out of battery power while traveling on any of six major carriers, iPod maker Apple Computer Inc. said. Implications: ============= Apple has sought to expand the possible uses for its market dominating iPod. The announcement came as rival Microsoft Corp. launched its Zune digital music player this week in a bid to challenge iPod. Zune has an 802.11 card and can connect to Internet directly. Idea: ============= Investigate services, specially Internet related ones, that make Microsoft able to get more share of this market. 3. “How to Make Your Website Sign for You” NYT E2 Summary: ============= Studies by the Nelson Norman Group, an Internet design firm in Fremont, Calif. show that only 50 percent of Web visitors scroll down the screen to see what lies below the visible part on their PC monitor. Users spend 30 seconds reviewing a homepage. Heterogeneity of systems and Internet access for different users must be considered when you design a website. These points should be considered in design time: let visitors rapidly find out everything necessary (who you are, what are doing, and how they can have access to you); eliminate unnecessary elements like large photos; try to get discovered as much as possible by search engines. Google Webmaster tools helps to check a website for being optimized from the view point of search engines. Implications: ============= Your Website is like a digital business card, specially for small business companies. Their website must have attractive contents, and encapsulate what they do in very few words. Idea: ============= How can we design websites to be more impressive and more compatible with heterogeneous user conditions? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- • • Let visitors rapidly find out everything necessary • Eliminate unnecessary elements like large photos • Discovered as much as possible by search engines • Google Webmaster tools to check for being optimized • Ideas: Design websites to be more impressive Design compatible with heterogeneous user conditions