Trying out Windows Live Writer on my MovableType blog.
flow|state has a great pair of articles that summarize well the problems a web application will face with too many obstacles for new users. First, in Hurdles at the entrance to a site: It’s not unusual for a site to position a long sequence of hurdles just inside their entrance. Someone walking in the door might have to clear some or all of these hurdles before they can even try out the site… The list that follows isn’t much of an exaggeration. So many sites require signup and verification before you can figure out what they do, let alone start…
Tonight we had a completely different type of client launch: The all-new “Yahoo! Messenger for the Web” let’s people use Yahoo! Messenger without any client download. Instead, it’s implemented in Flash, so from any browser just visit the site and login. It’s not as full-featured as the regular client, but is really fast and has some UI elements that are different but very cool. By avoiding the big (12MB) client download, this should be a good alternative for logging into Messenger wherever you are. We even have a nice shortcut that’s easy to remember: http://web.im Check out the Messenger site…
Today marks the 150th anniversary of San José State University, here in the middle of Silicon Valley. Both the San Jose Mercury News and San José State have put up a bunch of historical documents, photographs, and interviews. The Mercury has an interactive timeline that is especially good. Also, check out the list of notable alumni from Stevie Nicks to Jessica McClintock to Gordon Moore to Bill Walsh.
Matthew Skyrm from the Yahoo! Messenger product team appeared on John Dvorak’s Cranky Geeks video show tonight. Check it out to see Matthew in action, including an obscure Monica Lewinsky reference.