David Lidsky's Blog, page 4839

Study: Users Don't Really Care or Know About Google's Real Time Feed

Much fuss has been made about Google's real time search feed, and its flashy new Twitter statuses. But a new user eye-tracking study is calling Google out, and suggests users don't care much for it. The thing is, the study's only half right.

The research comes from online marketers OneUpWeb, who recently studied the way a sample set of 44 people interacted with search pages. The group was divided in two, a "consumer" group told to search for a product they wanted to buy, and a "forager" group...

Google Ahead of the Curve with Above the Fold AdSense Beta

Google announced yesterday that it's going to give advertisers more of a say in where they place their online ads. The new system, which debuted in Beta on Thursday, gives advertisers to place their ads "above the fold" on a web page and exclude them from areas that are below or outside the browser frame. The system is statistically driven and "takes into account various user experiences and situations" such as the browser model is in use, monitor size and screen resolutions.

Despite the...

Jon Stewart Discovers ChatRoulette with Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Keith Olbermann, mainstream America

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Jon Stewart's great, really he is, but this is awfully disappointing. ChatRoulette? What is this, January 27th?

That being said, the clip is really more about the ridiculous news coverage of ChatRoulette than the site itself, and after watching it, I've got to say that the criticism's warranted. "The hot new social networking site"? ChatRoulette is a social networking site in the same way Avatar is a contender for Best Picture--it's fine for what it is, don't get me wrong, and it provides...

Jon Stewart Discovers ChatRoulette (Three Weeks After We All Got Tired of It)

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Jon Stewart's great, really he is, but this is awfully disappointing. ChatRoulette? What is this, January 27th?

That being said, the clip is really more about the ridiculous news coverage of ChatRoulette than the site itself, and after watching it, I've got to say that the criticism's warranted. "The hot new social networking site"? ChatRoulette is a social networking site in the same way Avatar is a contender for Best Picture--it's fine for what it is, don't get me wrong, and it provides...

And the Oscar for Best Supporting Technology Product Placement Goes to...Apple!

The Awl put together a great piece examining the popularity of Apple products in film. Not editors, effects specialists, composers, or photographers using Apple products, or even celebrities owning iPhones--but the insane frequency with which Apple shows up in movies, without it being official product placement. It's nuts.

Some of the key facts: of the 44 movies that ranked number one at the box office for at least one weekend this year, 18 of them (over 40%) featured an Apple product. Apple...

Yelp CEO Responds to Class-Action Lawsuits Alleging Extortion

Yelp has been the subject of fairly continued grumblings, some louder than others, that its ethics are less than stellar--and last week, the user-generated reviews site got hit with an official class-action lawsuit making those grumblings legal accusations. Even worse, yet another (very similar) lawsuit just emerged, accusing Yelp of the same underhanded tactics. Today, Yelp's CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman, responded on the official Yelp blog.

Essentially, the rumors of ethical misconduct all come...

Mobile Browser Use by Country: Or, What Do India and Nigeria Have in Common?

This neat little infographic (to see it enlarged, the source is here) shows the marketshare of mobile browsers by country, around the world--and the results are definitely surprising. Who knew that Opera was such a raging success in both Nigeria and India?

Some of the odder findings:

Noticeably absent from any list (though they may be included in the "other" entry that appears in some rankings): Microsoft Windows Mobile, Palm WebOS, other Linux OSes like Maemo, and Nintendo DS.

Canada, home...

How David Rockwell's Oscar Set Makes Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin Funnier [Exclusive]

The famed architect reprises his role as set designer for the Academy Awards. Yesterday, he gave us a backstage tour.

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At a rehearsal for the opening number of Sunday night's Oscar show at the Kodak Theatre, tiny, plain-clothed
dancers pranced over glossy laser-cut laminate in what felt like a sparkly,
white-on-white dream sequence. "5-6-7-8!" Seated in the audience, architect David Rockwell was dressed in black jeans, Asics running
shoes and a black Academy zip-up, surveying his latest...

Sony Rumored to Launch Lineup Targeting iPhone and iPad, Bless Their Hearts

According to rumors posted by the Wall Street Journal, Sony is preparing a new lineup of devices aimed squarely at Apple--specifically, a smartphone and a tablet. But given Sony's recent history, they may not have the skill to pull off either.

The rumors here are that Sony is working on two products for a new line: one smartphone and one tablet/netbook-type device, with (as is Sony's wont) possibly multiple versions available of each. The smartphone is implied to focus on videogames, like...

An Exclusive Look at the Making of Joris Laarman's Bone Chair

Dutch designer Joris Laarman describes how he turned an algorithm created for the automotive industry loose on a chunk of material and spawned a chair that mimics how bones and trees grow.

Joris Laarman, whose first U.S. solo show just opened at New York's Friedman Benda gallery, is the young Dutch sensation whose Bone Chairs and Rococo Radiators are pushing the frontiers of where art and science meet and make merry. His work, which is remarkable both for its scientific grounding and its...