adjustafresh - Uncommon Sense

Five Reasons Why You Should Be Lifecasting

2008-08-14T15:17:11Z

Lifecasting - it’s all the rage! Here are five reasons why you too should blog and tweet incessantly about the minutia of your life, take daily photographs of yourself and post them to Flickr and strap a video camera to your body that will stream your every move to anyone with an Internet connection.

… And Now, The Top 5 Reasons to Broadcast Every Second of Every Day of Your Life...

You’re a narcissistic attention whore.
Your mommy taught you that everything you do is exceptional and worthy of exuberant adulation.
You have an innate desire to annoy friends, family and perfect strangers.
You think people actually give a shit about the fact that someone put poppyseeds on your onion rolls.
~~High probability~~ slight chance of receiving a development deal with a TV production company.

If any of these apply to you, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start over-sharing with the world! What’s the worst that could happen?

In all seriousness though… please don’t.

How to Outrun The Crap Avalanche

2008-08-11T03:19:00Z

As a father, it is my parental duty to escort my children to countless birthday parties. Birthday party etiquette states that all party-goers must leave the party with a bag full of cheap plastic toys.

Against my better judgment, my children enjoy the occasional trip to McDonald’s, Burger King or Chuck E Cheese (usually while on a road trip, or when their mother is out of town). These dining establishments also guarantee that your children return home with at least one—usually summer-blockbuster-themed—cheap plastic toy. Apparently, it’s part of the draw.

Every holiday and birthday, my children accumulate even more (usually not quite as cheap) toys. While batteries are not likely to be included, many of these toys come with thousands of tiny pieces.

At the moment that a child first encounters any of the aforementioned toys, it is a priceless object, worthy of the child’s absolute attention and adoration. What may look like nothing more than a three cent choking hazard to a parent, is as precious as the Holy Grail to a child. At least for the next 15 minutes or so… The ongoing accumulation of all of these toys adds up. Even the most fastidious among us—those of us with our color coordinated wicker and plastic storage bins—cannot keep up. Eventually, we are overrun with the avalanche of crap.

Corporate websites and intranets suffer from a very similar problem. As time goes on, a myriad of stakeholders add more essential content and features to each page. Content and features that users certainly cannot live without. Yet, we humans have a way of filtering out the noise, and returning to only what we find value and familiarity in: our favorite toys.

I observe the toys that my children tend to gravitate to most regularly. Kids grow up, and some toys are all but forgotten. Toys that were once priceless sit idle and forgotten in the bottom of a crowded toy chest. These are the toys that, when my children aren’t looking, end up in the box to be donated to Good Will.

To ensure the optimal user experience on your website or corporate intranet, it is important to understand how to outrun the crap avalanche. The following steps will help make sure things stay neat and tidy:

Use analytics to monitor the content and features your users find most valuable.
Avoid confusing users with superfluous content; get rid of it. Only what’s essential and valuable should be present.
Offer helpful and friendly error pages and redirects for the few people who may have come looking for what was removed.
...and always remember. If everything is important - nothing is important. Prioritize and visually highlight the essential content that users must see.

We can’t avoid the need to temporarily deal with the occasional cheap plastic toy. We can take steps to make sure that they don’t end up getting in the way of the good stuff.

What Defines You?

2008-08-05T18:15:25Z

In our gadget-obsessed age of disposable consumption and materialism, I notice more and more people identifying their own self-worth through things. Perhaps defining ourselves through external objects and attributes rather than our own inner values and character is evolution?

Lately, I have noticed an increased level of conversation about material things and how those things seem to define a person’s self image. I have noticed myself yearning for material goods as a means of propping up my own self image—yes, I’m talking about you iPhone.

This has all lead me to consider what really matters. What external things really define me as a person?

My Family

In my family I see the best and the worst of myself. I see unlimited joy, potential and pride; the realization of my childhood dreams. There is also an underlying caution about the future and the unknown. My children and my wife are the most accurate mirror into who I am.

Music

I used to say that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their CD collection. Well, we don’t have CD collections anymore, but you can still judge a person based on their musical taste—even if it’s on a hard drive. I love music; all kinds of music. I tend to have music playing at all times—at home, work, in the car. The variety of music that I enjoy spans my many moods and truly defines me as a person.

Movies

That thing I wrote about someone’s CD collection… the same thing could be said about their DVD collection (or their Netflix queue). Tell me your favorite five movies of all time and I can pretty much tell if we’re going to get along. Yes, my taste in movies defines who I am. Ironically, if you asked me about my favorite films, it would be hard for me to quantify. My favorites tend to change, but a few that are always in contention include: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fargo, Raising Arizona, Seven, Fight Club, The Shining, The Usual Suspects… to name a few.

As I’ve gone through this exercise, I found it interesting that the types of things that I think many people would use to define themselves (religion, race, nationality, political affiliation, favorite sports team, etc.) really have very little bearing on how I see myself. Now that you’ve read my little list, what defines you?

Confession of an Adulterous Blogger

2008-07-01T02:23:01Z

I’m coming clean. I’ve been with someone else. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been neglecting you lately, and I apologize. I’m not trying to blame you, but we both know that you’re a little high maintenance. Don’t get me wrong—you’re great… really, you’re wonderful. It’s just that, with her it’s so quick and dirty. It’s so damn easy with Twitter.

We both know that over the past five years we’ve had our ups and downs. Back when we first started out, I couldn’t get enough. We used to do it every day, sometimes several times each day. And it felt great. Then, as time went on, I started to get busier. Work, kids, life… you know how it is. The excitement—the spontaneity had vanished. It started to take so much more effort and planning. I know, a lot of that… all right, most of that is my fault. I admit I’m a perfectionist. But you, of all blogs, know my philosophy: if you’re going to do something, do it right.

Then it happened. I heard people talking about her. How easy she was. No commitment; nothing serious. I ignored her siren call for a whie, but eventually, I started thinking of excuses to get closer to Twitter, to give her a spin. But I stayed loyal to my blog… for a few months anyway. I even used my blog to publicly mock Twitter. I’m so sorry.

Over time the urges continued to strengthen. I lingered on Twitter’s website more frequently. Rumors of how often Twitter goes down peaked my lusty interest. I finally made up an excuse: I needed to succumb to her seductive call for work… it was social media research. Again, I shamefully used this very blog to publicly document my initial tryst with the hussy.

And it was, no… it is so easy. Even as I sit with you, pouring my heart out to you, I think of how easy it would be to quickly send a 140 character or less missive off into the ether. It’s grown from a lurid fascination to an obsession. I used to see her once or twice each day, mostly at work. But I quickly longed for more time with Twitter. I wanted to tweet in all kinds of exotic and unusual places: on my way home in the car, at the grocery store, even on my family vacation to Puerto Rico. I have even recruited my friends to join in the fun. I disgust myself.

I thought maybe Twitter would bring us closer. I thought I’d learn a few things that I could use here. Ultimately, it’s just distracted me from the business of blogging. Why am I telling you this? Guilt I suppose. I can’t promise I’ll be around as often as I was when we first started out; and Twitter will still be part of my life. But I’ll do my best to spend more quality time with you if you’ll allow me to have an open relationship.

KOL RIP - Who Do You Trust?

2008-05-28T00:07:01Z

Treat each and every customer as if they are that coveted KOL.

I’m officially sick of the term KOL. For the uninitiated, KOL is a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) that stands for Key Opinion Leader. As a digital marketing strategist, I hear this term (as well as thought leader, KOL’s less hip counterpart) incessantly—from clients and colleagues alike. The conventional (old) school of thought has taught the top down marketers that the secret sauce to any successful marketing initiative lies in influencing the influencer, or KOL.

Social media and communities have further democratized information which has had a direct impact on exactly how much influence (depending on the audience) a KOL has. In an age of skepticism, where consumers are leery of anyone occupying once trusted positions of power, the sway of the influencers is seeing a downward trend. Steve Rubel recently highlighted some specific findings from the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer that indicates consumers prefer to hear from people like themselves rather than KOLs.

The question of targeting super nodes vs. smaller groups is all coming down to trust. While the marketplace - both marketers and publishers - continue to focus on reach, they are missing the big picture. Trust is by far a more important metric, one that clearly rules when it comes to influence.

Does this mean that the endorsement of influential personalities has lost its value? Absolutely not; the backing of influential thought leaders can certainly attract attention. Based on the aforementioned trust report, I would encourage marketers to place less emphasis on the so-called thought leaders. Treat each and every customer as if they are that coveted KOL.

As a consumer, whom are you more likely to trust—someone you’ve never met who is likely getting compensated for his or her product endorsement, or a peer who shares your tastes and interests, is genuinely excited about the product and isn’t getting paid to have an opinion.

Information Architecture Graveyards

2008-05-17T00:51:00Z

Avoid sending content to the dead zone at all costs!

I have dug up some examples (which weren’t hard to find) of instances where a website’s information architect a.) never existed b.) went on strike or c.) just plain sucked at their job.

An IA Graveyard is a collection of content that, for some reason, would not fit into the existing architecture of a website, often resulting in confusion and a lack of findability for the end user. A lack of proper planning, dramatic changes to an organization’s infrastructure, flat out laziness or a combination of all three often lead to these data dumping grounds.

“Quick Links”

So someone wrote an “important” article that doesn’t fit into any of the content areas defined by the site’s architecture… Why not just add the title or topic of the new article to a list of Quick Links? Typically consisting of a laundry list of topics and titles that a user must sift through, these lists quickly get out of hand and offer no help to a user trying desperately to find information on your website. The ironically labeled “Find it Now” feature of the Little League website is a prime example of a list of links that grew out of control.

If you’ve resorted to building a handy list of “Quick Links” on your website, it’s time to consider a few things (especially number one):

Is this content really necessary?
Does the content fit into or duplicate any existing content buckets; can it be modified to work into the existing architecture?
Is it time to modify or redesign the site architecture?

IfAQ - Infrequently Asked Questions

At some point people forgot what the “F” in FAQ stood for. FAQs have transitioned from a useful Q&A repository into a wasteland of unorganized and often irrelevant content. My advice: avoid setting aside an FAQ section in the site’s architecture entirely. Design the architecture and craft the content in such a way that it will address the topics that are of primary concern to your users. Kevin Kelly agrees:

And of course, your FAQ does not need to be in the form of a Q&A at all. You can cover the same ground by writing it in prose, or essay form, or even a story.

Doing this requires that you do your homework; understand the topics your users are primarily interested in and glean a solid understanding of how they would like to search for and find that information. If, after doing your homework and researching your audience, the content on your website still hasn’t answered your users’ questions, make it easy for them to contact you directly to get a personal answer.

Don’t be a Lazy IA!

Speak with users and site stakeholder to ensure that the site is well-planned to accommodate necessary content. Push back when stakeholders start creating content that doesn’t have a home within the site’s structure. Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions, especially: is this content really adding value for the user? If the content isn’t valuable for the user or meeting the overall business goals, it doesn’t belong on the website. Stop that IA graveyard before it gets out of control and makes you look bad.

Your Customers are Talking; Are You Listening?

2008-05-05T00:41:00Z

Google’s search results don’t discriminate between approved brand messaging and an irate customer.

Admit it—you’ve Googled yourself; we all have. It can be surprising (or alarming depending on your perspective) to see how many search results turn up when performing the ego search. What kind of content is returned when you enter your name into a search engine? Is the information personal? Is it favorable? What about your business or products; what are people saying across the web about your brand?

Every day, millions of people are going online and creating content. Remember when we were Time Magazine’s Person of the Year? The combination of search engines indexing billions of pages of content and the social web have given millions of people a megaphone to broadcast their messages to a global audience. Sometimes that message can be unflattering, embarrassing or downright false, and Google’s search results don’t discriminate between approved brand messaging and an irate customer.

Fortunately, there are tools available to help businesses detect valuable user feedback by monitoring online conversations.

As noted earlier, Search Engines are a reliable way to locate online content that is being published about your brand. Unfortunately, depending on the search term, sifting through several pages of results can be time consuming. Moving beyond the standard search engines, the following are useful applications which can enable marketers to monitor social media:

Blogpulse – search and other tools targeted around content found on blogs
Technorati – another search tool specializing in blog content
Twing – this tool locates content specifically on message boards and forums
Summize – what are people saying about you on the micro-blogging site: Twitter?

Rather than spending hours manually sorting through search results, Google Alerts will deliver the results straight to your email account. Users can set up alerts in no time, just enter the search term(s) that you want Google to monitor, define the type of search (Video, Blog, News, All, etc.) to be performed and how often you’d like to view results. This method is the most effective for searches that contain unique keywords: like “Kiekbusch” or “adjustafresh”.

Google and Yahoo! allow users to create custom RSS news feeds (similar to the Google Alert, but delivered via RSS) that will automatically aggregate content and push it through users’ RSS feed reader of choice.

In addition to the aforementioned tools, there are, of course, businesses like Andiamo Systems and PopularMedia that are developing algorithms specifically to monitor and track corporate reputations and buzz.

You’re Listening, Now What? Engagement

Now that it is clear how to monitor content on the web, the next step is developing a Social Media Engagement Strategy (SMES). Each corporate culture is unique and each should approach social media engagement differently with an understanding of possible privacy, public relations, marketing, legal and regulatory concerns. Does your business want to be proactive or reactive; have a distinct voice or let your customers do most of the talking; create content or collect content? Whatever engagement strategy is best for your business, there are some general best practices to consider when becoming involved with social media:

Build trust
Develop relationships with consumers
Be transparent & respectful
Facilitate a dialogue

Above all, it is imperative to remember that your customers control the message in social media—this is a bottom-up philosophy that many senior marketing and brand managers find uncomfortable. Rather than attempting to control the conversation, let your brand be the catalyst for conversation– the campfire around which people gather to connect and converse with one another. This mentality goes a long way to promote a positive corporate image online and off.

Embracing Innovation

2008-04-16T01:57:00Z

The WWW of 2133 will bear little resemblance to today’s experience.

My eyes are sore and I’m tired as I enter this blog post from a hotel room in New Jersey. Today, I was part of a presentation on innovation, and the topic has inspired some pre-sleep (hopefully coherent) thoughts that had to get out before I head into dream land.

The World Wide Web, as we currently know it, is a relatively young technology—approximately twenty-five years by my count. Sure, the computer network known as the Internet has existed for several decades, but the World Wide Web and the web browser as a content delivery mechanism are relatively young technologies.

As websites evolved over time, a set of accepted user interface, content and programming standards (some documented, others anecdotal) were established by the architects of Web 1.0. It is fairly common knowledge that browsing technology and programming languages have pushed the online channel into a new generation of interactivity and expectations; you’ve undoubtedly heard of Web 2.0 or even Web 3.0. So far, I’m likely not telling you anything you didn’t already understand.

The photograph above depicts a car approximately 20 years into the innovation cycle of the automobile powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine; at it’s core, it is the same type of vehicle driven my millions of people today. By today’s standards, this vehicle (circa 1906) is antiquated, unsafe and inefficient. As technology and the needs of drivers evolved, features of the vehicle were modified, added and removed to improve the driving experience until the automobile in the photograph became something foreign and antiquated to modern drivers.

In 125 years, people will still use the Internet as a tool to communicate and share information, but the World Wide Web of 2133 will bear little resemblance to today’s experience. Technology and the needs of the user will evolve. Is your organization prepared to examine the status quo, identify what is no longer working, innovate and update? Or does your online marketing and communication strategy resemble the automobile in the photograph?

Muppets Make (Almost) Everything Better

2008-04-11T19:53:00Z

If you haven’t been Rick Roll’d yet, or if you don’t know what Rick Rolling is, you probably don’t frequent The Internets. Stop reading now, because the rest of this post will seem odd—you will likely ask yourself questions like: Why is he talking about an old Rick Astley song, or Who the hell is Rick Astley?

I’ve been on both ends of a Rick Roll; I was even Rick Roll’d live in front of a few dozen people by my thoughtful and charming user experience team. The video below takes the art form to a new level by including Muppets. And, as we all know… Muppets make everything better, except Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Enjoy!

A Very Muppet Rick Roll

Outlook + Google = Calendar Harmony

2008-04-07T21:00:07Z

I’ve been using Google Calendar Sync for about a month now, and after releasing a patch recently, it appears to be working like a charm.

I am chained to my Outlook calendar at work—many of you can relate; I have also been using Google Calendar since it was released to keep track of personal appointments, tasks and deadlines. The problem, of course, was that these two calendars had communication issues. I downloaded and used SyncMyCal to manually get the two systems communicating, but there were bugs (the toolbar would mysteriously vanish forcing me to reinstall), and worst of all, I had to remember to manually initiate the calendar sync anytime I booked a new meeting.

Fortunately, for those of you as lazy as me, Google released their own tool that automatically syncs an Outlook calendar with a Google calendar. Users may sync both ways, or one way (I only sync Outlook up to Google) at timed intervals. This is a wonderful way for me to be able to access my Outlook appointments from anywhere (in the event that I am sans Blackberry), and more importantly share my schedule with people outside of work.

Now that this synchronization has become effortless, I anticipate moving even more data into my Google calendar in order to use it as a hub of all family, personal and professional activity and deadlines. I am already automatically pulling in concert recommendations from Last.fm as well as weather forecasts. And all Google asks in return is to present me with relevant text advertisements… and my eternal soul.

New Google Feature: A Tale of Two Searches

2008-03-25T14:29:01Z

A couple weeks ago, I noticed Google experimenting with a new user interface pattern in their search results: another search input field. The search within a search raises some questions from both usability and marketing points of view. Is this unexpected UI pattern beneficial for end-users; does it help users more easily discover what they’re looking for; and what will be the effect on content owners whose sites Google is searching?

Search Within a Search User Experience Issues

When it comes to using an online search engine, Google has conditioned nearly every Internet user on what to expect. Empty input field, submit, page with results ordered by relevance and some unobtrusive advertisements. Not very complicated, and it gets the job done. Over the past few years, Google has experimented with adding new features to the search results page including suggested search refinement terms, image and video results (viewable within the results page), maps, stock quotes and more. For the most part, these features have enhanced the results page and user experience, unobtrusively providing users of the search engine with valuable disambiguation and helping them discover relevant data.

The latest enhancement, another search entry form, (which is nothing more than the “site:” advanced operator that Google has employed for years), may cause some confusion among less experienced users. The presence of multiple search entry fields on the same page (who’s to say they will stop at two?) is bound to challenge those of us who don’t sit in front of a computer most of the day. I’ll be very interested to learn more about usability test results of this feature among novice users.

Implications for Businesses

The potential UX issues are minor compared to what the search within search results means for businesses. Google is wisely attempting to get users to spend more time on Google search results pages, looking at ads that earn Google money. The down side for businesses is users are spending less time on their sites, looking at their products and clicking on their advertisements.

For example, consider this use case:

User searches Google for Best Buy (likely a novice user since they did not just type bestbuy.com into their address bar)
User, shopping for a Nintendo Wii, inputs “wii” into the search form on the results page.
After the search, the user is presented with results from the Best Buy website as well as pay-per-click advertisements for the Wii from other retailers.

Clearly, this is good for Google and bad for Best Buy, and other businesses that make money selling products or online advertising. Fortunately, Google honors requests to remove businesses from the search within search feature. I am a little surprised that they’ve taken an opt out rather than an opt in approach.

What do you think? Will the new feature stick? Does the user benefit outweigh the downside for online retailers?

It’s Official, I’m Twittering

2008-03-22T14:02:00Z

I found myself asking myself: Twitter… Why not?

Yesterday, it happened… I succumbed to Twitter’s siren song. As you may know, I have toyed with Twitter membership. I know several people who use it, but I couldn’t bring myself to take the plunge—I found it to be a lot more noise than signal, and another distraction.

What pushed me over the edge was a post by John Mack on his Pharma Marketing Blog. While his post didn’t tell me anything new about Twitter, nor was it terribly persuasive, I found myself asking myself: Twitter… Why not?

In less than 24 hours of Twitter usage I’m following 18 people—mostly friends, colleagues and industry people that I respect—and 12 are following me—mostly reciprocal followers. I’ve posted a few tweets including links to interesting services and what I had for dinner last night. I’ve also discovered a couple interesting blog posts. I have to admit, it is somewhat addictive; I’ll hold off on using the service on my phone for now.

I’ll post updates about my experience with Twitter here—whether I’m finding it useful, or a waste of time. If you use Twitter, or are considering it, add me and I’ll do the same.

Forrester - Online Community Best Practices

2008-03-14T16:29:00Z

Today, Jeremiah Owyang, web strategist and Senior Analyst at Forrester Research posted his presentation on online community best practices on his blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah (one of my daily reads). While looking at this without narration is not nearly as beneficial, the presentation does include some excellent data and advice for any business interested in participating in social media/networking websites.

I’ve embedded the presentation below for your viewing pleasure.

| View | Upload your own

You may wonder why a company like Forrester whose product is essentially their intellectual capital, would allow this to be posted publicly. As Jeremiah effectively states in the post, “Information can’t be hidden, it simply hasn’t been published online.”

Thanks for sharing; this is good stuff.

37 Signals vs. Don Norman

2008-03-11T20:36:00Z

Wired magazine’s feature about the founders of 37 Signals has caused a minor skirmish in the user experience community, and I’m choosing sides.

Donald Norman, usability guru, who was quoted in the Wired article, blasted 37 Signals’s Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson on his blog after the article was published.

Now, I have always admired 37signals… But I’ve tried their products and although they have admirable qualities, they have never quite met my needs: Close is not good enough. After reading the article, I understand why: the developers are arrogant and completely unsympathetic to the people who use their products.

He then goes on to re-assert his argument that simplicity is actually not something that users are looking for in a product, and that the idea of developers designing software purely for themselves is a recipe for fail. While Norman makes a valid argument, especially in his post script, I think that he has missed the point.

37 Signals posted a retort to Norman’s criticism, and did an excellent job of explaining their point of view and design process:

Designing for ourselves first yields better initial results because it lets us design what we know. It lets us assess quality quickly and directly, instead of by proxy. And it lets us fall in love with our products and feel passionate about what we make. There’s simply no substitute for that.

Jason Fried’s open letter to Don Norman is well-written, has some good quotes on user experience design by Steve Jobs and describes how the staff at 37 Signals reviews and edits countless feature requests in order to avoid feature bloat.

In my experience, designing for yourself first makes a lot of sense, as long as your needs are representative of the audience whom you are designing for.

LinkedIn Redesign Review

2008-02-28T17:46:00Z

I’ve been a LinkedIn member for several years, but it’s a social networking website that I rarely visit or use. Frankly, I didn’t get it. Tasks like updating a profile, which should be simple to do, always left me perplexed. My interactions with the site generally consisted of accepting requests (via email) to join people’s networks. To date, I’ve amassed a total of 84 LinkedIn connections, but overall the site provided me with little value. Many of my colleagues have expressed a similar lack of regard for the utility of the site.

Today, LinkedIn publicly revealed a new user interface that attempts to improve on the poor UX many of us have experienced with the website in the past. A lot of what LinkedIn has changed resembles other social networking/social media UI designs; do the enhancements work for the online community of business professionals?

LinkedIn Visitor User Experience

A new visitor to the LinkedIn website is presented with a fairly high-level description of the website’s services. The three services that are prominently featured include connecting with colleagues & classmates, job seeking and expert advice. There is a link for users who want more detailed information, but I have a feeling that the vast majority of people who come to the site have at least an idea of its purpose—many were likely solicited to come to the site via an email invitation from a LinkedIn member. The registration call to action is clear and well-placed on the page.

LinkedIn Member Dashboard

Enough about the visitor page; the real design changes took place for the registered users! A few improvements immediately stand out:

The navigation has been refined. Gone are the tabs; replaced by a Flickr-style drop-down navigation menu. It’s visually appealing and simple.
Many of the most commonly used features are now easily accessed via the left sidebar. There are expandable menus that reveal direct links to a user’s Profile, Contacts, Inbox and Groups.
Another feature of the left sidebar is the status update—anyone who uses Facebook will recognize that LinkedIn has appropriated the idea.
Facebook users will also see similarities to the main content area featuring Network Updates; Facebook calls this a News Feed, and it’s part of what makes Facebook so sticky.
LinkedIn has also borrowed from several sites that use small, customizable content modules which they currently feature in the lower-right area of the homepage.

Overall, this is a step in the right direction for LinkedIn. I love the Profile Views feature which informs users about who and how many visitors viewed their profile page. Additionally, the Network Updates will help change the paradigm of the website and encourage users to engage more with members of their network. Profile editing has lost its mystery—a big plus. There are also featured news items geared directly to a member’s interests and affiliations.

On the down side, there is an awful lot of content vying for my attention. I think that new users will still be a bit perplexed as to how to interact with the various features of the site. I’m also not seeing a lot of originality. LinkedIn is looking to other successful Web 2.0 style websites and taking bits and pieces. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but there is also something to be said about innovation in this space.