Where was the Bad Robot!

During the episode with Mother and Jacob, hearing ‘All answers just Lead to more questions’ I was going into the final episode I believe that many of the questions and mysteries of the Island and the characters would never be answered, but still hoped for some closure on some of the big ones.

Unanswered Questions:

1. What was the Man in Black’s name?
2. What was with the ‘special powers’ some characters such as Hurley had?
3. Why didn’t Ben go into the church at the end? Where was Walt, Michael, Anna Lucia, Mr. Echo, etc?
4. What was the Cave of Light?
5. Time Travel… still… really?
6. What was with the numbers and why did they find Hurley?
7. What was with the Dharma Polar Bear and Dolphin Enclosures
8. Where can I download Drive Shaft’s single ‘You All Everybody’, cause its been stuck in my head.

The worst part of the night had to be the very end, when the local news cut in before the ‘Bad Robot’ closing sequence to tell us about a weak aftershock that happened during the show. Lame….

There is a general consensus that optimizing for user experience or revenue requires a marketing or product manager to favor one or the other. Over the page 10 years I’ve played with this balancing act, analyzed results, discovered the issues involved with both marketing scenarios and found a solution to the paradox.

The User Experience Page
User Experience is key for a functional website. It encompasses all aspects of the page from the content, to the links, to the imagery. A positive user experience could be defined as providing value and ease of use for any an every user that enters your site. The majority of your users are probably coming in from search engines, where they have already searched for what they are looking for when they reach your page; you objective is to ensure they find it. A clean user interface, easy to ready content, and visuals which add to their experience are all good things. Advertising in the form of pop-up ads, banner ads, and obnoxious video ads all detract from a positive experience. In an ideal page, built for the end user, advertising would probably not be found on the page as it serve your financial interest over their personal experience.

The Revenue Page
I think we have all seen these pages across the internet. The provide sponsored links disguised as additional content or articles. They are filled with display advertising intended to distract the user from the main content and generate a click or conversion. These pages support the financial needs of the website and webmaster. Unfortunately these pages are usually so over run with advertising users rarely return to the site and if they do it was probably by accident.

The Optimal UX-Revenue Page
The first piece is knowing what drove the user to the page in the first place. This is where you match user experience with revenue generation. If you rank for widgets in Google, Yahoo, or Bing, your advertising better not be selling sprockets on that page. If you don’t own a widget company, partner with one through an affiliate program. Write the content on the page to give specialized information regarding your topic, speaking to the benefits of your company or partners. There is a reason why every book in Oprah’s book club is an instant New York Times Top Seller. Her viewers trust her opinion on the matter, just like your users will trust your opinion on the widgets your selling.

The actual advertising on this page should be well thoughout. Avoid the traditional banner or giant image link ads. These generally have low low click through rates, as most users can identify and ignore them. I recommend advertising that engages a user. Forms are a great way of doing this. If you sell a widget for a bicycle, have a few drop down boxes where a user can select the make and perhaps the specific widget they are looking for. Another way is to display images of the product, detailing the specifics. The links should then send the user to your partners’ page for that specific product, or better yet a shopping cart page with that product already added. In this scenario you are giving the user exactly what they are looking for. These types of ads from my experience have 4-5x the click through and conversion rate of the traditional banner media. I like to only have the one ad on the page as its the primary focus, but if your topic spans another related product, go ahead and add a advertisement for that. Better yet, create a separate page for that specific topic and capitalize and build SEO for both.

Its often tough balancing both User Experience and Revenue. Its easy to throw a bunch of bad ads on a page for a short revenue boost, but the quality and credibility of the page will crumble. A well throughout marketing and user experience plan will benefit both the users and you as the website owner.

Padres ARE good
The Padres have achieve the 20 win mark on the back of their pitching staff and speed on the bases They boast one of the lowest starter ERAs and lowest bullpen ERA thus far. If I remember correctly the bullpen has only lost 2 or 3 games this season. That’s pretty tough for another team to contend with if you can’t get to the starter early. The Padres also boast the highest number of stolen bases in the major with 40. When the batters get on base they are running and stealing bags on a nightly basis. This makes for an entertaining game especially if they aren’t hitting home runs.

The Div is Struggling
With the exception of the Giants, the rest of the division is having some major issues. The Dodgers starters are not what they were, the Diamond back Bullpen blows up nightly and the Rockies can’t seem to put a complete game together. It will be interesting to see how the Padres finish out the 10 game span where they play the Dodgers and Giants five times each.

Originally when I set out to buy a beach cruiser I started going through countless Craigslist classifieds of stolen beach cruisers for sale. So many different shapes, sizes and states of disrepair. I thought it would be fun and economical to buy a cheap used one, sand it down to the frame and do it up right.

After visiting BeachBike.com‘s shop in San Diego, those thought were quickly dismissed. Kinda… I found a SixThreeZero Urban Man 3 Speed. I really should say Brandie saw it because it was purple and she thought it was a girls bike. After speaking to the store guy, he told us how the purplish color was a mistake and because of that it was discounted close to $100. With the brown leather seat and grips I was sold. I would buy the discounted bike and paint it.

That weekend, I pulled the bike apart down to the frame. I couldn’t get the chain or main pedal / spoke assembly off so I taped it up. After a light sanding, I slowly painted layer after layer of Black Metallic paint. It took about a can and a half and the greater part of the day to finally get the bike fully covered. I probably should of continued, finishing off that can of paint, but it was looking sick and I wanted to get it back together.

I just realized this picture sucks, so I’ll add some new ones later.

Shane’s Predictions

Mike’s Predictions

Catching the bus at Sutter & Powell the MTA driver asked us where we were going. After hearing we were going to the Golden Gate he suggested we stay on at the toll plaza, cross the bridge with him and he’d show us something beautiful on the other side. A little creaped out and confused at first we saw him tell passenger after passenger the same thing. So we went with it. The Golden Gate Toll Plaza came and went.

After crossing the bridge we tool a left up a steep hill into the Marin Headlands, a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We immediately recognized the view point where most tourists captured views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Still climbing up we entered a passs and were exposed to some of the greenest hills I’ve encountered in California. With some random stops, that I don’t believe were bus stops along the way we then passed a Nike Missile Site at Fort Barry. Now decommissioned the Nike Missile sites across the country were antiaircraft sites built in the 50′s for the cold war. We eventually caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a hidden beach and lagoon. The bus worked its way down the mountain sides to Rodeo Beach, where about a hundred surfers and dog owner took advantage of the beach and the water. To the south there was a rock formation that looked a lot like the closing scene from Goonies. There appeared to be countless hiking trails branching off from this stop to take advantage of

The Marin Headlands were definitely a treat. The next time we are in the bay area, we plan on taking advantage of this park, the trails and the beach front. We’re hoping we can take Cooper next time.

Rice-A-Roni... the San Francisco Treat....

So I’d love to give Brandie a similar experience for her first trip to the Bay Area. We’ve pulled together a list of the attractions that we’d like to take in on the 3 day weekend trip. I’m not renting a car and we’ll probably take BART into the city. Doing a little searching I found an awesome Google City Tour for Union Square. Only in Google Labs they allow you to create and save walking tours of several cities. Thus far here’s our check list of places to see and things to do:

• Golden Gate Bridge
• Fisherman’s Warf
• Pier 39
• Ghirardelli Square
• Cable Car Ride
• Alcatraz
• Union Square
• Chinatown
• Golden Gate Park

Can I trade badges for girl scout cookies?

During the course of the month, my Four Square profile has seen four new badges. The Super User badge, for 30 check ins in a month, the Local Badge for checking in to Online Guru 3x in the week, the Bender Badge for checking in 4+ Nights in a row, and the Explorer Badge for checking into 25 Venues.

I also established a few new majorships, which I guess shows my dedication to these businesses or perhaps how routine my life may be. So not a big surprise I’m the major of Oggi’s Pizza, Pure Salon & Spa, Chipotle, Taco Bell, and Luna Grill all withing 5-10 minutes from home, and several right across the street.

A buddy of mine also pointed out the dangers for location based social networking. Spreading your Four Square updates through Twitter can give any potential robber the knowledge that your not home. Please Rob Me takes results from the Twitter feed looking for Four Square’s tags. The website was designed to enlighten Four Square users to what they are sending out on the web. Over the course of a minute over 100 Four Square updates were sent out.

I guess the next valuable question is, where is the value in all of this Four Square madness. For me, there wasn’t much except for the tips I found based on your location. In-N-Out and Chipotle list secret menu items, while others offer parking advice. Once again, perhaps if more friends were on Four Square I might opt to use it more frequently.

That being said I’m going to pick Four Square as the current front runner for location based social networking. They are doing a better job then BrightKite, Loopt, Yelp, or Gowalla. With the rumor Facebook is going to join the club, this might be the catalyst that gets local social networking to the masses.