Industry News

I’m a long-time Pinboard fan, and from the moment I became a paid user I couldn’t shake the feeling that it is one of the most underrated services out there. It’s basically the center of my personal internet. I have years of articles tagged and cached, and available immediately whenever I need to remember something. For me, it represents the best of what technology has to offer as an “external brain”1.

But it’s even more powerful than that. I recently started wondering if Pinboard could...

A month ago, Google told us they would provide clarity over Panda updates since we were not sure if Google's contradictory statements around Panda running in real time versus not running since October...

Google has suggested that having to wait months between for Panda and Penguin updates would be a thing of the past, since these were supposed to be happening on an ongoing basis now. But the company flip-flopped about this last week. Both still work on a periodic basis, with months elapsing between updates. How Panda & Penguin Work

Before getting to the flip-flop, let’s do a reminder of how Panda and Penguin have traditionally worked.

Panda is a filter Google uses to identify...

In response to Jennifer Slegg's awesome coverage of Google's Gary Illyes statement that local pack won't be impacted by the mobile-friendly algorithm, Gary said on Twitter nothing really will be outside of Google's core web search results...

Below is a creative commons Image from Flickr. In the Caption to the photo is the kind of attribution that a Creative Commons Attribution License calls for when using an image like this from Flickr: When you choose to use a photo or data...

The reason growth hacking works has nothing to do with growth hacking and everything to do with blowing up organizational silos. What Is Growth Hacking?



Marketers love to market. We’re forever repackaging and rebranding, even when it comes to our own profession. Can you blame us really? We’re frequently the last ones to get the credit and the first ones to get the blame and corresponding pink slip.

Nevertheless these redefinitions often induce a sigh and eye-roll from yours truly....

Jason Kottke wrote what I guess can be described as a review of Apple Watch reviews. He makes a particularly interesting point about the common assertion that we’ll start using our phones less because of the watch. From Apple Watch and the induced demand of communication:

In the entire history of the world, if you make it easier for people to do something compelling, people don’t do that thing less: they’ll do it more. If you give people more food, they eat it. If you make it easier...

My daughters love the Toca Boca apps—especially Robot Lab. Ingrid Simone’s article on their approach to gender is great. From Gender in Play: How Toca Boca Creates Apps for All Kids:

Toys have a large impact on how kids play together and relate to other kids. But kids of today are fostered into watching different shows and playing with different toys according to their gender.

We know that when a toy reaches a child a choice has already been made for them, someone has picked a...

Alina Senderzon defends realignment strategies in Resist the Redesign:

Yet, designers are quick to jump on redesign opportunities—after all, it’s exciting to start anew. In reality, however, a redesign isn’t always the right solution to the problem. The roadblock for users may lie in the pricing of your product, which could be discovered through customer development. Or your messaging isn’t compelling and could be saved by some clever copywriting. Or maybe customers feel compelled to...