Free online eye tracking tool

End squabbles about logo size / illegible type in seconds with "Image processing algorithms that predict what people will notice in visual scenes" - aka an eye tracking heat map.

Free Beta version here -> http://vas.3m.com

You need to sign up, I've used it already on a Royal Mail ad, it's really cool! This would cost a fortune to do in a research lab.

Thanks to Christy for getting 3M in to demo this earlier...

Adrian

Next time you complain, make up a song!

United Airlines broke this guy's guitar. No compensation was forthcoming, so he wrote a song about it, posted it on YouTube, linked it to Twitter and told his friends to vists. 7.4M negative impressions later and United finally paid up. Not a bad tune either (although you won't find this on Sepas's ipod!).

A new science is born: Internet Archaeology

Remember America Online, Angelfire & Friendster? Internet hypes come & go, but the ancient ones really provide a base for great scientific work:

Internet Archaeologists Find Ruins Of 'Friendster' Civilization

If you are suddenly hit by Internet Nostalgia, check out the "Wayback Machine" which allows you to go back in digital time and it will help you to get started as a "Internet Archaelogist".

18,000% above target, and counting...

Forget George Clooney & his mates. This little 7 year old has so far raised £93,000 for Haiti...

http://www.justgiving.com/CharlieSimpson-HAITI

WI-DRIVE

A while ago I sent an email around asking people for ideas of something fun and interesting we can do with an Arduino board and some basic components. I received a bunch of replies but nothing practical enough for us to actually play with (sadly). It was then pretty much forgotten about until Gav arrived at the end of last year to help us out with a project...

Wi-Drive is Gavin Williams' final year major project at Bournemouth University on the Interactive Media Production course. This is what he says about it:

"So I’ve devised Wi-Drive, a module made from an Arduino board and various components to drive a toy Tamiya car over Wi-Fi from any application by sending post requests to the arduino board with directions, but that’s not all, I’ve decided to blow my student loan on a pair of virtual reality glasses and a pin hole camera to strap to the car, so it feels like you’re actually in the thing, if time allows and my brain is willing to take the extra learning curve I’ll plonk an extra servo in the car that will turn to correspond to the drivers head movements. The idea is complete immersion, putting you literally into the driver seat.
The final product must be unobtrusive so that you can apply the same methods to other vehicles such as remote control helicopters and aeroplanes."

You can read all about it here:

http://wi-drive.co.uk/

Web in Feb Events at the British Library

There are so many web events taking place in February including the V&A Digital Decode Events.

And here is another: British Library Business & IP Centre - 'Web in Feb' events! I think we're spoilt for choice! Some are free. Not to be missed people!

A use for Augmented Reality - Ray-ban

Another "useful" execution of AR. It's a big shame you have to download a piece of software for it to work :(

Ray-ban USA

Single Page Website

I'm seeing more and more of these single page websites that use simple JavaScript libraries for navigation. This is a good list of a few of the better ones. Notice the lack of use of Flash!!

http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/40-inspiring-single-page-websites

Cerveza Andes

Some may wish this was available where they frequent.

The Future of eMagazines Bonnier R&D

This is pretty cool.

Touch screen, gestures, rich media, internet enabled - goes on. And all intuitive. You can really start to think about how far this stuff can go and how many cool things that will be possible.

Foursquare API

As with Facebook connect, Foursquare will start to be very powerful soon with the API now available. Keep this in mind when coming up with ideas :)

API now available

Foursquare

Average click through rates for banners and emails

Last week, Nick Myers asked me if I was able to find some CTR benchmarks for online display advertising such as banners and email marketing.

Official industry statistics on average click-through rates industry averages on't really exist as CTR is highly subject to creative effectiveness which is very campaign specific. However, below are some benchmarks gathered from various sources.

AVERAGE RESPONSE RATES BANNERS: Between 0.10%-0.13%

• Average click through rates have almost halved since 2004, UK click through rates are averaging 0.13% [ADTECH via Association of Online Publishers, 2009 ]
  
• Click-through rates on banners have declined from 0.33% to 0.19% from 2004 through 2008.This decline has been particularly difficult for marketers struggling to drive ROI in a tough economy. One major contributor is the rise in clutter, i.e., the number of ads a consumer sees online in a given day. [Forrester, Go Big or Go Home Advertising, 2009]

• For 2008, average Click-through in the US was 0.10% for banners [DoubleClick, Benchmark Report, 2009]

AVERAGE RESPONSE RATES EMAIL: 2.8%-5.9%

• Click rates in Q2 2009 remained stable compared with Q2 2008 at 5.9%. [Epsilon, October 2009]
  
• Average Click Rate Trends are at 2.80% [Source: MailerMailer, June 2009]

So, what do you think? Are these indeed correct averages? If you have any other figures, don’t hesitate to post them in the comment section!

Photo Frenzy

I must confess I have a bad habit of taking too many photographs when I'm on holiday. I carry a big and cumbersome piece of equipment, but its a joy to use and I just love taking pictures! ;) So this article in the Guardian kept me entertained on my long journey into work this morning:

The Rise of the Camera-Phone

Covering 'how many of use record, document and upload minutae of our lives'.

See pictures.

Fact: on Christmas Day 2008, 4.4m picture messages were sent – 3,000 every minute.

Alchemy - a new open drawing project

Alchemy is an open drawing project aimed at exploring how we can sketch, draw, and create on computers in new ways. Alchemy isn’t software for creating finished artwork, but rather a sketching environment that focuses on the absolute initial stage of the creation process. Experimental in nature, Alchemy lets you brainstorm visually to explore an expanded range of ideas and possibilities in a serendipitous way.

See it in action on YouTube.

I'm eager to try it out!

Proximity London at #8 in WON Report

For the third consecutive year, The Won Report has named Proximity Worldwide the most awarded direct marketing network in the world.

The Won Report ranks the best direct agencies and networks by the quality and quantity of awards won.  Award shows span global (Cannes, Caples, Echo), regional (Epica) and local competitions.

Three Proximity agencies finished in the Top 20 most awarded individual direct agencies in the world. Among the top ranked Proximity companies:  AIM Proximity, NZ (#2), Proximity London (#8), PKP Proximity, Austria (#13).

Digital Art

If anyone fancies a bit of culcha this 2010 I recommend popping by the V&A and checking out their Decode exhibition. A collaboration between the V&A and onedotzero, it's a collection of digitally inspired pieces, from beautiful coded designs to big interactive installations around three themes, "code", "interactivity" and "network".

My faves included a time-delay camera which creates a ghostly image of the viewer in the frame in front of them and a big visual representation of 24 hours of flight paths across the USA, quite astonishing to see how many planes are up there at any one time, and cool to see the nation wake up and start commuting, coast to coast.

And there's a chance for the public to get involved too, the museum commissioned the artist Karsten Schmidt to create an open source, malleable digital identity for the show and the public is invited to remix & recode it, with the winning versions to be shown on screens on the London Underground. More info at decode.googlecode.com

V&A Decode generative identity from postspectacular

On until the 11th April but if you go now you can also squeeze in a quick bit of ice skating down the road.

To Kindle

A few months ago I posted the question 'to Kindle or not to Kindle' -- and based on the very unscientific 'best thing I got for Christmas' responses on Twitter and Facebook, apparently the answer is affirmative.

Some of the reasons:

'I can hold it in one hand whilst I breastfeed' - from a new mum

'Perfect for vacation' - from someone going skiing with lots of kit

'I get my daily fix of the New York Times minus the advertising' - from someone who obviously doesn't work in advertising :)

I still don't have mine -- holding out for what I think will be the biggest gadget news of 2010 -- the Apple tablet -- but doubt 2010 will end without my caving in and buying one.

Any Proxipeople get one?

What to watch in the 2010 social media landscape

Trendsspotting has composed an interesting report on how social media will evolve in 2010 according to some of the leading industry voices.

In my opinion, 2010 will be the year that social media will break free from the traditional social networking platforms by becoming portable and scalable.

Foursquare and Gowalla are first steps in the direction of location-based social networks and thanks to a social gaming element added to these apps, they are allready quite popular by the digital early adopters.

As Facebook is the new standard, I'm curious to see on how Facebook Connect will evolve as your digital ID card online and how it will make your online identity blend into the real world thanks to the rising popularity of smartphones.

And what about social commerce? What if Amazon, eBay or iTunes would implement Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect or Twitter? Buying and selling socially would drastically change e-commerce. Imagine group buys together with your Facebook Friends or recieving a discount if you share your purchase on Twitter?

I'm also waiting to see how TV will become more social. Realtime chatting from your couch on your TV screen when X-factor is on with your friends. This could look a bit like what SplashCast was doing!

Anyways, just have a look at this slideshare presentation and save some money hiring a "social media expert" to tell you the same thing.