Collateral damage from spam. InfoWorld: "A new study shows that 11.7 percent of messages that were requested by an e-mail subscriber never reached the recipient's inbox. Six percent were incorrectly routed to a junk mail folder, and 5.7 percent never arrived in any form. The problem is faulty spam filters put in place by major ISPs such as Earthlink, MSN, and AOL." [Werblog]
9:37:40 PM
The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced last week that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2002 was $11.061 billion, an increase of 34.3 percent from the third quarter of 2001. This amounted to 1.3 percent of total retail sales, up from 1.1 percent in the prior year. This is just one more of the many metrics that support my assertion that we are only 2% of the way into what the Internet has in store for our business and personal lives. [Patrick Web]
9:34:02 PM
"This article describes a new user interface model called inductive user interface (IUI). Also called inductive navigation, the IUI model suggests how to make software applications simpler by breaking features into screens or pages that are easy to explain and understand. This IUI model is emerging in various Microsoft projects, most notably Money 2000."
Leaks of alpha versions of Microsoft's next version of Windows, Longhorn suggest this is the direction the UI is evolving. In fact they've been working on this idea for quite a while.
We simply can't afford to pay for products that cost us a lot of overhead anymore," said Keith Butler, a technical fellow at Boeing's Phantom Works research and development arm. When thousands of end users are involved, design flaws can cost millions of dollars in lost time and productivity, he said.
What's helping Boeing change its purchasing approach is the recent development of a standard for comparing product usability that was spearheaded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Called the Common Industry Format for Usability Test Reports, the standard outlines a format for reporting test conditions and results and gives user companies enough information about a test to replicate it. It's a means for objectively evaluating software, say its backers.
....
"The real value of CIF, quite honestly, is that if vendors know we are expecting it, meaning large software purchasers, they will focus their attention on usability and hopefully make their products better before they ever come out the door," said Jack Means, superintendent of usability at State Farm Insurance Cos. in Bloomington, Ill.
Boeing played a lead role in the development of CIF after its experience and internal studies showed that usability played a significant role in total cost of ownership. In one pilot of the CIF standard on a widely deployed productivity application, the Chicago-based company said improved product usability had a cost benefit of about $45 million.
Microsoft vs. Nokia: the fight for digital dominance
The convergence of mobile phones and computers is bringing the giants of the two industries into direct conflict
Notice how only in the US are PC's ahead of mobile phones
4:01:09 PM
Net usage numbers. Some interesting Net usage numbers from ComScore, which bought Media Metrix. Total US online users is about 143 million. AOL Time Warner, MSN, and Yahoo each have more than 100 million unique monthly visitors, with the AOL network tops at 107 million. In other words, 70 percent of all Internet users in the US went to those three sites last month. It's like the broadcast TV networks in the 50s and 60s, except there is plenty of competition. [Werblog]
1:35:20 PM
