David Herrold

Where am I, Google?

Posted by Dave | Filed under Communication, Mobile, Software, Technology

Google has released a fascinating new feature for its mobile maps application called “my location.” I downloaded the new version of Google Maps for mobile tonight and tried it out. It wasn’t quite as accurate as a GPS, but was only off by about 200 yards. Not bad.

Google adds terrain to maps

Posted by Dave | Filed under Software, Technology

Google has added a “terrain” button to Google Maps recently.  This will make printing maps for hiking and backpacking cheap and easy.

Link (via Lifehacker)

Interface design survey

Posted by Dave | Filed under Usability, Web design

The Art Institute of Atlanta is conducting an interesting survey about interface preferences on the web.  The survey consists of 10 questions that simply require you to click on your preference.

I found the results pretty similiar with my own guesses of the survey, but I was wrong on one of them - the color question.

Link (via CSS Beauty)

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted by Dave | Filed under Personal

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  We’re in Des Moines, Iowa and it’s snowing just enough to make everything wonderfully picturesque.

It’s somewhere around 30F outside and the neighborhood kids are sledding down the little hills in their front yards.

The most important decision I will make today will probably involve gravy.

Take care, everyone.

Jive Talk

Posted by Dave | Filed under Communication, Software

I’ve been using Jive Talk for a few weeks on my Blackberry when I’m not in front of my computer and I want to ask a colleague a question (this usually means I’m in a meeting, training or otherwise occupied).

Jive Talk connects to several chat clients at the same time much like Trillian (for PCs) or Adium (for Macs).  I use it to connect to my Google Talk and AIM accounts and it is seemless.

They released a version of the software for the iPhone that has a much sexier interface, but until Steve Jobs figures out how to connect the iPhone to an Exchange Server, I think I’ll stick to the Crackberry.

My only complaint about Jive Talk is the initial connection speed.  Sometimes it takes 20-30 seconds to make the initial connection to my chat clients.  Other than that, it operates lightning fast during actual chats and has never crashed on me in the few weeks I’ve been using it.

If you own a 8000 series Blackberry, Pearl or Curve give it a try.  It’s a bargain at $20.

Jive Talk by BeeJive Software | Download 30 day fully functional demo for free

Getting Flocked

Posted by Dave | Filed under Blogging, Browsers, Software

I downloaded Flock over the weekend and plan on kicking the tires for a few weeks to see if I like it. Flock is a browser based on the Mozilla FireFox browser (that you all should be using by now because it contains vitamins and minerals and buttery goodness and it works on lots of operating systems out there).

Flock does something FireFox doesn’t. It connects people to their social networks out of the box. When you open Flock for the first time, you need to configure it to connect to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, Delicious, etc. It then logs you into all of your accounts at once and opens up a sidebar that allows you to see all of your social networks in one nice package.

I’ve just started playing with the blogging functionality of the browser as well. It lets you post entries to any number of popular blog sites without ever leaving the webpage you are currently reading.

I hope Flock gets some more market share in the browser wars. At the very least, FireFox can get some great ideas from them for a more socially connected browser experience.

The one thing I wish Flock had…extensions. FireFox is a development dynamo with loads of extensions to help web developers. So far, Flock is very limited in that arena. My hope is that Flock will eventually allow a smooth integration with all FireFox extension.

If that happened, it wold probably make the switch much easier for the development community.

Flock covers all their bases and is currently offering versions in Windows, Mac and Linux.

I’ll let you know what I think in the coming weeks. My goal is to use it several times a week until the end of the year.

Tags: Browsers, FireFox, Flock, social networks, Software

Top 10 Quicksilver plugins

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Productivity, Software

I’ve been using Quicksilver for a few months now.  It was one of the first applications I loaded onto my laptop when I first bought it.  I use Quicksilver as an application launcher mostly because I can’t remember all the key commands to execute the other amazing things it can do.

Lifehacker put together a list of the Top 10 plugins for Quicksilver.

I’ve started using QS to launch specific bookmarks with FireFox. This basically opens up FireFox and launches a bookmark at the same time.  Not staggeringly productive, but it probably shaves a few keystrokes from the whole mess.

I tried opening music with iTunes this way, but I think I like the process of browsing my playlists for whatever suits my mood.

Tags: Apple, mac, OSX, quicksilver, Software

Google Reader goodies

Posted by Dave | Filed under Blogging, Software

Google added a nifty new feature to their reader recently that allows people to share the feeds they read via a little badge on their blog or website. Here’s how you can do it too…

• Open Google Reader
• Go to your shared items
• Click on the “Put a clip on your site or blog” link at the top of the page.
• Configure the color and number of items you’d like
• Copy and paste the code into your blog
• Now go share those cool posts about LOLcats with all your freinds.

P.S. - I opted for a simple link at the bottom of the site for my Google Reader shared items.

Tags: Blogging, Google, RSS

Pagination tips

Posted by Dave | Filed under Usability, Web design

How do you handle multiple pages of search results on your site? Smashing Magazine has seven tips for presenting your users with easy-to-use page numbering (as well as a few bad examples).

1. Provide large clickable areas
2. Don’t use underlines
3. Identify the current page
4. Space out page links
5. Provide Previous and Next links
6. Use First and Last links (where applicable)
7. Put First and Last links on the outside

It seems like Google is a good example of how to do it correctly.

Tags: Design, paging, search results, Usability