In case you haven’t heard this week a new search engine named Cuil (pronounced “cool”) launched to much fanfare. In fact the amount of free publicity that they received as a suspected “Google killer” was unbelievable. In the first day it seemed like everyone was talking about them, but as the dust settled and people began trying the engine out the results weren’t so good.

Cuil’s search results are just nowhere near those of Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask. In fact, I bet some of the old school meta search engines may have better results. To top it off, Cuil has a bad habit of associating a random picture with a search result. In fact just today, Mark, one of our managing partners searched our brand name “Stone Interactive Group” on Cuil and noticed a seemingly random “Hell Cab” image listed next to our company’s search result.

Here’s a close up of the logo:

In case you were wondering, no we don’t moonlight under the moniker Hell Cab nor have we done any work for a company named Hell Cab. Cuil just thought it would be…cool?…to put it next to us.

So for now Cuil has a looong way to go, but it is kind of fun to search with and see what kind of bizarre stuff you can come up with.

Find anything weird on Cuil? Share it in the comments…

Content.  The bane of my existence as a Project Manger in the web industry. Every schedule I have ever created includes “Content for the site”, the Functional Templates I put together, although tedious, shows every page of the site that will need content. Yet when the time comes for the content to be sent the first words I hear are, “I have most of it”. (No you don’t )Now I admit, perhaps we (Project Teams) don’t explain ourselves very well. We should be very clear. Yes, content does include the words that will be on a page. What you may not realize is that content is also every picture on the page, taglines, PDF’s you may want to include, charts, white pages, email address, links to other sites,  headers, EVERYTHING you want on your site.



How many  content items do you see in this picture? If you guessed 7 content items you are correct. Anything less and you have to take a step back and look at the content you will be creating for your website. 

While it is easy to look at your current website and think, “I’ll reuse this copy”, once you really look at it you realize that you really dont want to put out the same old message. If you have waited to have this realization the night before you are to deliver the content then you are now in a jam that could cost time and money. The more realistic you are about what you will need to accomplish, the less inclined you will be to put off the task until the night before the vendor is putting it on the site. 

Just yesterday Google opened up a new services called Knol. The premise is quite simple, each knol on the site is a single, authoritative article on a specific topic. For Google, the idea is to build an information resource of a similar scale to that of Wikipedia. Whether or not Knol will be successful is yet to be seen, but if it is you can’t afford to miss out.

The beauty of Knol is that anyone can write their own knol on the subject of their choice and publish it. All you need is a Google account and enough time to slap together a half-decent few paragraphs on whatever you’re an expert on and go from there. In fact I just whipped together a quick Knol discussing how small businesses can use social media. I know, i know…not the prettiest thing ever, but projects that Google puts their weight behind tend to at least be moderately successful.

Basically, Knol is an easy way to show off your knowledge and getting in early definitely can’t hurt. I’m sure at some point they’re not going to want multiple articles on the same topics, so I suggest you knol (if that’s even a verb) now on a few broad topic in your industry, then toss in a little About the Author at the bottom and see what happens.

Going through a website redesign and build is a huge and exciting undertaking. It involves re-writing content, restructuring architecture, researching innovative technologies and implementing new business strategies. A timeline and budget are formed, and hopefully followed, and many countless hours of discussion and brainstorming are involved. When all is said and done, a beautifully designed, full of rich content, easy to navigate site is created and launched, and then we all live happily ever after.

Wouldn’t it be great if everything were just that simple? Unfortunately, we know that building and launching a new site is just the beginning. A website is only effective if a.) People go to it, and b.) People update it. Think of this new website as an arm in your organization that needs constant attention if it is to grow and prosper.

Your first post-launch task is to drive traffic to the site. This can be done in a number of different ways: word of mouth, send out traditional mailers/flyers, put your web address on EVERYTHING, create press releases, and/or hire a SEO (search engine optimization) firm to manage pay per click accounts and help with organic and other search ranking efforts.

The second task is assigning people in your organization to take care of keeping the site up to date and current. If a content management system is put in place, someone needs to be trained on usage and set aside the time to make continual updates. Other possible tasks might include fulfilling ecommerce orders, managing customer support, monitoring forums, and my favorite – creating blog posts.

Organizations that fail to do the above will risk wasting the huge effort they undertook from the beginning, and most likely see their website fade over time. It’s key to the evolution of a website to always promote it and to keep the content dynamic and fresh so that users continue to visit for years to come.

You have settled on the scope of the project, the project has started and then you realize it, you forgot a feature, forgot a stakeholder, forgot to think about what happens after you start getting all the email. Heck, it could be that your hairdresser came up with a great idea and you want to incorporated it now. What happens next…

Client said - “Jennifer, we need to talk about XYZ. I know we haven’t discussed this before but it HAS to be here. It is one of our biggest requirements. The WHOLE reason we are doing the project.”

I don’t know what the big deal is, just fit it in. Yeah-Yeah, I’m sorry I forgot it right up front, but come on, how hard can it be to add? It’s just a tiny thing that leads to this form that needs to be sent to our 3rd party vendor and then sent back nightly so we know what the customer did and if they have been here before. (You would think that they have been doing this job long enough that they could do it in their sleep.)

Plus, isn’t it their job to expect things to change? How should I know what is hard and what is easy to do? If I had time to do their job I wouldn’t have had to hire them in the first place. Plus, I’ve got to get this project done and off my plate. Especially if I want to be recognized within the company. This is huge.

Vendor said - I don’t see why they don’t get it. This is why we discussed requirements in the beginning of the project. I don’t understand why they didn’t talk about it earlier if it was so important. I mean sure, it looks easy, but it isn’t that easy and now it’s going to put us back in the project timeline because we have to redo the architecture of the project. A=d to top it off the client is going to be mad because it’s going to cost more=and I’ll have to explain why and have them ask how to do it cheaper.

Seriously, I don’t know why in this day and age people just don’t get it.

Conclusion - The truth is, when you take the personal feelings out of this situation, what you have is a change. Don’t fool yourself, everyone knows where the other side is coming from. The client really does know that it is going to take more time and more money and although they really don’t know how much they do know it is a change and that they are the ones that are guiding it.

And on the flip side, the vendor really does know that you hired them for a reason. Yeah, it is going to change the timeline and the price, but the purpose of putting together the requirements and documenting the process as you go is so that it is a level playing field for everyone.

And seriously, the client doesn’t know that you hear this 3 times a week from anyone else, they only know that they need to accomplish something and it needs to look good for their bosses/organization/mother.. Any number of people. They are just trying to do it right.

The point of the story for both client and vendor is this. When you start a project and you need to add/edit/change something, step back and take a look at the big picture. Remove all personal feelings and write up the change request. Include why the change was asked for, what the change is, how it will work, how it won’t work, what it will effect and how much time/money it is going to take to change it. One of three things will happen; they will accept the change and you move on. They will reject it and you will move on, or they will decide it can wait until the next phase of the project… and you will move on. But change happens, it is the only thing we know to be an absolute truth.

Plan the work, work the plan…This statement makes project planning sound so easy, but in truth many projects fail before they even get started. How is that possible you ask? Failure to plan.

Sometimes the “need” to get something done outweighs the need to plan correctly for it. Or so some think. Have you ever heard, “We will make a decision when we get there”, or “Lets investigate some options and I’ll let you know”, or my personal favorite, “I have to see it working to know if it is right “. While working in this fashion feels good to start, it is not the most direct route to getting the work done and it is a heavy load on the finances as well. Both for the client and the company.

One way to help avoid these problems is to have a detailed discussion at the beginning of the project. A discussion where you gather the stakeholders and discuss the scope of the project. (The scope of the project is the sum total of all of its products or features.) Make decisions together on the direction to go. You should decide the way features should and will work. Write them down; include assumptions about how they work, and assumptions on how it won’t work. Being clear up front gets everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction. Do not count on the proposal to cover features in this much detail, it doesn’t and it isn’t supposed to. While having these talked up front may not curb the occasional “that’s not how I thought it was going to work”, it will, if documented, help to avoid rework of things that have been done.

Keep in mind that planning the project SHOULD take a big amount of time. The more planning and discussion done up front the less that needs to be done later. This means less rework to correct issues or misunderstanding and less money and heartache to the client, the team and the bottom line. Changes may come along, but your whole project is one big moving target if it isn’t planned correctly to begin with.
( That is putting it nicely)

So instead of groaning when the Project Manager wants to talk about the nuts and bolts of a project, next time rejoice that someone cares enough to want your project to be a success.

Over the past few years video has experienced rapid growth and adoption rates online.

Broadcasting networks continue to push more and more video content out on the web, large corporations use video to build their brand and, of course, videos on YouTube are viewed daily by millions.

But even with the growth of the past few years, for most industries online video is still in its infancy, which means big opportunity for businesses looking to differentiate themselves online.

Easy Ways for Your Business to Use Video on the Web

• Customer testimonials
• Online product demonstrations
• Video bios of employees
• Intro to the company or a product
• As a blog entry
• Facility overviews
• Viral/Buzz marketing
• and anything else you can dream up

If you’re interested in exploring how video can differentiate your business online, get in touch with us. We can help formulate a web video strategy and then execute the strategy to ensure its success.

I was asked the other day to walk a potential client through The Stone Content Management System which is based on a very popular open source CMS (Content Management System). If you are not sure what a CMS is, it is a tool that allows non-technical people to update the content, add/delete pages, add/delete images and many more things on their website through a user-friendly administrator tool.

As I was answering questions, the potential client told me that they had heard from another company that an Open Source CMS does not allow for a very flexible design and that if you wanted to have a nice design, the way to go is with a custom CMS. If you have ever taken a look at Stone’s Web Design Portfolio, you will know the answer to this. However, here are my two cents regarding that comment.

It doesn’t matter whether the CMS is custom or Open Source. If you know the system well enough (which Stone Interactive Group does) the design can look however you would like it to look. The second thing to consider is the designer themselves. Stone has a fantastic design team that produces wonderful results and the developers have been able to put every design thrown at them into this CMS.

The nice thing about Open Source is that you have an extremely large amount of team members that put time to keep the CMS up-to-date. If you ever need more help in the future with your website, you can go to many developers out there that may know the system and be able to pick it up quickly. The custom CMS projects that Stone has adopted from clients are typically very time consuming to understand and are typically out-of-date quickly and are not as easy to apply a redesign to.

So when you have the option to decide Custom VS Open Source, in my opinion, Open Source is the way to go and Stone is there to assist you along the way.

Have news: When you sit down to write a press release, ask yourself, “Is this really news? If you answer no, put the pen down or step away from the keyboard.

Get to the point: Remember those 5 W’s in school. Put them to use. Who, what, when, where and why. That’s it. You will be sending this to reporters who have deadlines and thus skim the release looking for answers to those questions and your contact info only…you’ll have about 5 seconds. Your boring, robotic quote will not be used; if they want a quote from you, they’ll call.

Ditch the buzz words: This is why people hate press releases, “green” “eco-friendly” “foreclosure” “toxic tomatoes”, don’t use these words if they have nothing to do with your company or if you are a politician.

Grammatical and Spelling Errors: Proofread. Proofread. Proofread. Do not use all upper case…yes, not even for the title. Do not rely on spellchecker. Do not go in the complete opposite direction and sound like an English Lit. major…no one likes a pompous press release.

Spam I Am: You’ve sent 10+ press releases of similar “news” to a media contact and nothing has come of it. You are blocked. Make one, I repeat one, attempt to contact said media representative and inquire as to what releases would be of interest and abide by their suggestions.

Yep that’s right, we’re on the hunt for a new Search Engine Marketing Specialist.

So, if you or someone you know are looking for an exciting new job and have some experience in search engine marketing (search engine optimization and/or pay-per-click) then we’d love to hear from you.

The more detailed job description can be found on our careers page as well as how best to get in touch with us.

As a side note, we’re also always on the lookout for interactive and web talent, so don’t be shy…if you’re looking then drop us a note, you never know what might come out of it.