The big problem I encounter is wasted space at the top of a page. An example of this is mapquest.com vs. maps.google.com.

At the top of Google maps is a small line of links and one search box, and about 3/4 of the page is a map. Simple enough, considering that’s why people use map sites.

But the top of Mapquest has some links, then their gigantic logo and some other buttons, then more links, then 3 tabs, then 5 search boxes… followed by the top inch of a map. There’s an ad on the right that takes up a full quarter of the screen. After entering a location, I have to scroll down to see the map. Then scroll back up to search. Then scroll back down for the map. When I’m using my laptop in a car or other annoying place (the only times I use a laptop), I don’t need the site itself making things even more annoying. I’m not sitting on a couch like some college kid. Just show me the map.

Another thing that bugs me is when you have a page to sign into, and the cursor is NOT in a text box. You have to click the cursor into the box before you can enter anything. Go to Twitter or Facebook and the cursor is already in the sign-in box. But go to Compete.com and there’s no cursor at all. The sole purpose of this site is to type in several different addresses and get a report comparing those sites. But there’s no cursor. Pressing the [tab] key does nothing, there’s simply no cursor anywhere until you click in a text box. This can be solved with one line of code.

The sad thing about all this is… I realized some sites I’ve built are kind of annoying to use on a laptop too.

So I took another look, using my laptop, and reconsidered some things. I changed some sites so the header was smaller, and more useful content was at the top. I made some text bigger, some smaller. Some navigation buttons were moved. Navigation buttons placed down the left side are all visible without scrolling. A few sites became easier to use on a laptop, but they really ended up cleaner and more useful on any size display.

If you’re a designer, I encourage you to use a laptop as part of your testing during development, it’s a interesting way to keep sites as simple and useful as possible for the end user.

There is a survey showing how the top Fortune 100 CEOs don’t use social media.

Users of Gmail will have noticed some new features. Check the official Gmail blog for a look. None of it impresses me. I don’t know why Google makes such a big deal out of every tiny update they do to anything.

YouTube is allowing customization of channel pages. So far all you can do is add headers and backgrounds. Watch the official YouTube blog for more info.

If you often carry around a laptop, iPhone, Blackberry, or similar device, what would happen if it was stolen? Does it contain personal data about yourself, co-workers, family, friends? Does it contain emails, photos, videos? What about business/client information? What about auto-updates and feeds from sites like Twitter or Facebook? Do you have usernames & passwords stored so you can instantly access your email, bank accounts, iTunes, or social sites?

With access, thieves can delete your accounts or keep them and change passwords. Could they email/text your friends or co-workers? Rack up a credit card or iTunes bill you couldn’t afford? Sure it takes an extra few seconds, but you’re much safer typing in passwords each time, rather than leaving everything exposed to anyone who picks up your device.

Thinking about the safety and security of your data is helpful in broader terms too. Any device can freeze, crash, get dropped, or be lost, in addition to being stolen.

Firefox 3.5 to be released soon – video overview on the Firefox YouTube channel

Opera 10 to be released soon, watch an overview of the beta on the CNET Blog

Google tips for online business in these bad economic times, at the Google AdSense Blog

It surprised me a little to learn that. Having to move a mouse around to trade forex, create graphics, play games, or just surf the net would drive me mad. Especially with dual monitors, which many of my friends also have (I have two 22″). I can’t imagine trying to move the pointer across such a huge distance by physically moving a mouse around on my desk. The newer optical/laser models are more sensitive, and put an end to the dust-collecting mouse pads and rubber balls, but you still have to move the whole mouse around to do anything.

Regardless, my trackball mouse rocks and I want to share some things with you.

A lot of trackball mice really do suck. Stay away from models where you’re supposed to use your fingers to move the trackball rather than your thumb. Fingers have joints that move back and forth nicely, and are perfect for clicking buttons, so why put them on the trackball? I’ve never been able to use one for more than a few minutes before my fingers cramped from the side-to-side movement. Your thumb is jointed differently and moves in all directions.

The worst design has the trackball right in the middle, under your palm. You have to move your whole hand around to move the ball, which means moving your whole arm, which means you may as well stick with your old mouse. Find me a more spastic design than that. And because your whole hand is moving around to spin the trackball, it’s impossible to keep your fingers on any buttons.

If you want a trackball mouse, get the Logitech Trackman Wheel. You control the ball with your thumb, and your 1st and 2nd fingers each rest on a button, with a scroll wheel/3rd button in between. You can snap the arrow over a huge distance, yet the optical tracking is very precise. The ball pops out if you want to clean it. Your computer mouse settings are good enough to tune it, you don’t really need the software. It’s a right-handed USB device (it also comes with a ps/2 adapter), and works on any PC or Mac.

This is supposed to be a full-functioning test version of the operating system, but remember it is a test version only. This isn’t something to use for anything important, or if you care about privacy. This software will be in constant contact with Microsoft, and send information to them about what you’re doing with your computer, when and how you’re using it, installed software, errors it finds, etc. It will also update routinely. This is why it’s being given away for free – to observe people using it and get feedback. Put it on an extra drive for curiosity only.

The software will work until July 2010, then start shutting down every few hours. Soon after this it will completely stop functioning, as it’s designed to, when the testing period is over.

You need to back up important files regularly. How often will depend on how you use your computer. For instance, I create tons of original code, graphics, and notes every few days. Because of this, I make a backup several times a week, or risk losing days and days worth of stuff that I’d have to create all over again. You may not need to back up this often. Think about what’s on your computer. Maybe there are things that could be downloaded again if something bad happened, but what do you have that is truly priceless? Pictures? Home movies? Graphic design? Email? School work? Business contacts? How often do you create or save new things on your computer? These questions can help you decide how often to back up.

Here’s how to make backups fast and easy:
  A) All you need is a thumb drive or a couple of rewritable CDs/DVDs.
  B) Keep all your files organized in one main folder. Use your name or something simple, then make separate sub-folders inside it for pictures, videos, music, school work, or whatever. A backup requires nothing more than saving this one single folder, because all your files are somewhere inside. It couldn’t be easier than that. Macs are generally set up like this by default, while Windows has a whole bunch of places it saves files. But there are programs on both operating systems that put files in strange places, so do what you can to override this and keep all your files somewhere within your top-level folder. Especially with Windows, pay attention every time you save anything, because your files may end up on the Desktop, Documents folder, Program Files, or a hundred other places, making backups a headache.
  C) One more suggestion – For really important data, store backups off-site. If a fire destroys your computer, the backups sitting on the shelf in the same room will also likely be destroyed. You could use an online storage system, or keep copies in another physical location.

Let’s think about this for a second. CNN is a news site, I’m sure we can agree on that. But wait… all of the content on the site, both articles and videos, can be searched. So doesn’t that make it a search engine, rather than a news site? Hardly. The only thing it means is their content is searchable, which is no different than any other site with lots of content. Hundreds of thousands of sites have a search feature. Likewise, the fact that I can search for “skateboarding” videos on YouTube, or “hockey” news on my local newspaper site doesn’t make them search engines. All it means is the webmaster was smart enough to put a search box on the site so people can find what they came for.

If I need to know what time a movie starts downtown tonight, I’ll want to find the movie theater website. Which means I’ll do a search on Yahoo or Google and find it in 15 seconds. Alternately, I could search Yahoo or Google for a mortgage calculator, or pictures of David Letterman, or information about turtles, or anything else I could possibly think of. What kind of idiot would search for those things on Twitter? The results, if any, would be nothing more than telling you who recently said the word “turtle” in a message. Wow, that’s some search engine.

Twitter lets people post comments and communications. And it happens to have an internal search tool, the same as any other site. It isn’t a search engine.

Google/Yahoo/Bing/Ask will search the entire landscape of the internet with the sole purpose of finding what you’ve asked for. Articles, pictures, videos, whatever. Which is why they are called search engines.

Another thing I’ve learned is that most social networking sites have a majority of fly-by visitors, and generally less than 40% regular users. So it would appear that many people are curious about the current social networking hype and go check out these sites, yet few of them find reasons to come back. Look at it this way, if a site claims a million visitors a month, you can bet that at least 60% of those are one-time visitors who will never return. Facebook and MySpace are solid, with 55-60% regular users, and 25-35% fly-by visitors. The remaining percentages are hard-core users who are on every single day.

I’m assuming in the next year or two there will be a purging of these sites, where a few of the successful ones will buy the decent smaller ones, and the others will simply disappear because they never worked. Just like tech companies in 2000, and banks in 2009.