Remember edgeio? Some lucky people are now starting to test out the system, and we’ll be rolling out accounts to some of the bloggers that signed up for the beta pass (you can still do it, so don’t be shy). We’re finetuning the website based on this early feedback, so we can launch in the best possible shape to serve the blogosphere properly.

I’ve been getting some emails asking me what edgeio is and how it works, and there’s some people out there that seem to have great hints (or that have been talking to the right people - you know, those that have the great hints) - but I’m keeping the suspense level up by saying you’ll know what it really is very soon. The good thing we’re seeing now is that we’re getting in good shape.

Keep an eye out, we’ll be out there sooner than later.

I admit it, this is a day I thought would long to arrive - the day when Microsoft would surprise me positively again (sans-Xbox 360, which is impressive on its own). They have just announced SSE (Simple Sharing Extensions), which is basically an implementation of two way item-sharing (think bidirectional RSS). The goals of SSE, according to the specification page, are:

• To use RSS as the basis for item sharing – that is, the bi-directional, asynchronous replication of new and changed items amongst two or more cross-subscribed feeds.
• To use OPML as the basis for outline sharing – that is, the bi-directional, asynchronous replication of outlines, such as RSS aggregators subscription lists

Dave Winer is excited about the announcement, and Mike points out (quite spot-on too) that this can give birth to a series of new applications and companies based on this kind of syndication / subscription behaviors.

If you’re a hands-on RSS / XML developer, you should have a look at the SSE specification that Microsoft has made available - hold on to your seats - under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. Two good moves, hands down.

It’s the web 2.0, people are living and breathing the web all over again. You, the entrepreneur, investor, website manager, designer, need to be in control. You need to know what people are seeing, when they’re seeing it and why. You have profit margins, conversion rates, ROIs to attend to. You need to tame your statistics (and, indirectly, your users).

Web offerings

Developers are increasingly aware of your problem (they’re smart guys, you’ll admit). They’ve been hard at work giving you the tools to look at your numbers easily, so you can react as you see fit. They’re also a big bunch - you see analytics tools pop up on every corner of the web. Let’s look at them and get the critical eye on the offers.

• Measure Map - The super talented folks at Adaptive Path are rolling out their statistics package specifically for bloggers, and I must say that as an early user (and someone that works in the same area they do), they’ve done a terrific job. It’s blog-specific so they’ve invested in 4 or 5 kinds of things you may want to see and made them stellar.
• Mint - Shaun Inman, who I admire for his design and development skills has developed Mint with your everyday website manager in mind. Mint allows you to keep track of everything happening on your website - in a very neat package. Information Design-wise, it could be better, but if you know what you’re looking at, you’ll find Mint to be a good product.
• Google Analytics - Previously a paid service (and not really cheap), Google’s take on Analytics is powerful. It is specifically for the professional-grade manager, who thinks conversion rates when he sees webpage hits. It has the google look and feel, and if power’s your cup of tea, you’ll love it.
• Visitorville - A little crazy in the head? Got the taste for 3D visualizations of visitors literally viewing your page as if it was a building? You may be up for Visitorville, that I personally never tried but seems to be a good replacement for a quasi-real Simcity-like analytics tool for… funny people.

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I’ve given a couple of interviews lately and one of the things I get asked quite often is what lead me to “become a designer”. The answer is usually “I’ve never really felt like one”. In fact, during the last couple of months (in California and now back here in Portugal) I realized what I really consider myself, and it’s not a designer at all. Let me explain:

Background

I don’t have a fine arts or design background. I have a computer science background, and (most people don’t know this) a music school background too. As such, I’ve been programming since I was 7, but my aesthetic eye only started developing when I was 14. Now, some people say you have to be born with some sort of taste for it - which I admit is partially true (I was always pushed around by teachers to study architecture - never did).

Now, the kind of work I do (apart from some minor exceptions) always ends up falling under the same area: either it’s creating a user-centric website or webapp, or helping established brands polish their web-approach by guiding them in best practices. Or I do the whole product bottom to top (development and design), but that doesn’t happen frequently because of time constraints. Anyway, all of this falls into one thing: the boundary between information and design. (more…)