Archive for the ‘road’ tag
Weekend Favs August Eleven
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.
Good stuff I found this week:
Unroll.me – Email inbox service that automatically collects all those newsletters you’ve subscribed to and rolls them up into a daily digest. This take a lot of clutter out of your inbox and also has an unsubscribe feature.
Social Report – a tool for tracking all of your social media activity – a bit like Google Analytics, but for social.
blooie – Interesting looking plugin that allows you to host chat conversations on your web site. Might be a nice way to get people chatting about ideas your blog about.
Weekend Favs August Eleven is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
A Better Waze To Handle Traffic
Israeli drivers are insane.
This isn’t a scientific fact, but rather a commonly held belief with the rest of the world (and, by some Israelis). This small strip of land in the Middle East is notorious for edgy drivers who will honk you to get moving long before the light even turns green. On a recent trip, I found myself late at night heading from Caesarea to Tel Aviv. Giving my family member the address for the apartment where I was staying, I just figured he would pump the directions into his GPS. Instead, he pulled out his Android device, launched the app Waze (also available for iPhone), entered the address and off we went. Knowing that the price of GPS apps from companies like Garmin and TomTom run in the $40 to $70 dollar range, I was shocked to hear that Waze was completely free (much like Google Maps) and offers turn-by-turn GPS functionality with a fascinating twist.
GPS only works if we’re all actively updating it.
It would be enough if the GPS was simply free and worked. It would be enough if Waze just had the beautiful and simple interface that it has (which includes alternate routing, estimated time of arrival, touch scrolling to get a feel for the area, and much more). What makes Waze unique is the gamification and social aspect of it. The company tagline is "outsmarting traffic, together," and that is – exactly – what this Israeli startup has in mind. As soon as you enter your coordinates, you suddenly see other Waze users all over the map, and these people are actively updating everyone with information about traffic, where police are located (and you can identify them as visible or hidden), accident reports, road hazards, locations of cameras, map issues and even gas prices. Within each category is a limited selection to add a layer of detail. So, for example, if you’re interested in notifying everyone of traffic, you can choose moderate, heavy or standstill. If you’re a passenger, you can type in a message (typing is blocked for safety reasons) and you can even notify others if it’s just in your lane. You can also take a picture (only useful if your smartphone is secured through a holder that is attached to your window). Lastly, Waze – like many new and up coming apps – leverages some for the newer smartphone technology to add depth. In this instance, the smartphone and Waze is also able to let you know how fast you’re travelling, so when you select traffic, the app automatically attaches your average speed at that point to the social data.
Context adds major layers of depth to content.
Waze is also able to learn and add context – which makes the app a powerful utility. After driving to work and home a couple of times, I fired up the app after work the other day, and it asked me if I was heading home because it was tracking and learning my habits. It was also able to learn my own, special route home – which was impressive. On top of that, Waze has layers of gamification awarding points and status for how often (and correct) a driver is with their reporting, and for how much distance they travel using Waze. From a commercial standpoint, Waze offers "in the moment" deals in certain geographic regions that include drop-in specials and the like. While the app has yet to have major adoption in North America, watching it work with a near-critical mass in Israel made me stop and wonder why everyone, everywhere doesn’t help make the frustration of car travel that much easier by getting on the Waze bandwagon?
Creating greener roads.
As if Waze wasn’t interesting enough, Technology Review recently published an article titled, An App That Could Stop Traffic, that looked at Greenway app. Developed by Christian Bruggemaan and two of his friends at University, the 25-year-old is taking the concept of Waze and Google Maps that much further by testing an app that will prevent traffic from occurring in the first place. According to the article: "The app offers users two routes to their destination: a standard shortest one and a traffic-optimized Greenway one, along with the approximate amount of time and fuel it would take to get there using each. If you choose the Greenway path, the app will ping Greenway’s server every 30 seconds with your GPS location to determine if the current route is still the best–a decision made based on knowledge about your location and speed and information about other Greenway users on the road. Greenway assumes each street has a certain capacity based on its length, number of lanes, and speed limit, Brüggemann says, and reserves slots for participating drivers, directing cars so a road never reaches maximum capacity. If a jam does occur–which Greenway would detect by looking at your average speed–the app will react by rerouting drivers." Currently, the app is being used and tested in Munich, Germany.
Smarter cities.
These apps are not about outsmarting a speeding ticket or getting somewhere faster. Technology is a tool best suited to help us become better global citizens. The implications of this technology stretches far beyond our ability to get to work on time, and into the realm of sustainability and livability. With more and more people moving to cities (or being born there), we are quickly in need of more resources in much smaller and more compact areas. Waze and Greenway demonstrate that by helping one another through information sharing and leveraging that information through technology, it can make all of us smarter, more effective and better global citizens. That being said, please keep both hands on the wheel at all times and your eyes on the road. None of this works effectively if we’re all suddenly not paying attention to the road in front of us and causing more accidents and problems.
What’s your take: do you think apps like this are smart or a dangerous distraction?
The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post called, Media Hacker. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:
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Weekend Favs August Four
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.
photo credit: VinothChandar via photo pin cc
Good stuff I found this week:
Photo Pin – free service locates royalty free, creative commons images to use in things like blog posts. The best part is that it automatically produces the attribution HTML to use like I did in today’s photo.
OptinSkin – Paid WordPress plugin that makes it very easy to add stylish opt in forms to your blog posts – great way to capture new subscribers after the read your blog post.
Bottlenose – Great way to create a stream of trending content on any subject and pull the most recent posts, images and news from around the web.
Weekend Favs August Four is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
How To Get Smart(er) With Conversion Tracking
Taking consumer lifetime value into account allows performance marketers to manage more volume at a higher cost per acquisition (CPA) or lower return on investment (ROI). If $1 of revenue at the time of conversion leads to an additional $1 of revenue ($2 total) down the road then breakeven for…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Snap Photos When You’re Driving with a Simple Camera Hack and Never Miss a Roadside Photo-Op [Video]
If you’ve ever been on a long road trip, you know that you see some crazy things when driving through the country. When you’re driving, you can’t just grab a camera and take a picture. Thankfully, Hack a Day has put together a guide for mounting cameras to your car so you can take pictures with a single click without fumbling over the camera itself. More »
Weekend Favs July Twenty Eight
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.
Image nichameleon via Flickr CC
Good stuff I found this week:
Writethat.name – this service automatically keeps your address book updated based on emails your receive. Adds phone and address to contacts automatically.
Splash - Create custom event web pages with lots of interaction – RSVPs, video, photos, invitations and more.
WhatRunsWhere – Media service that helps you buy online advertising and keeps tabs on what your competitors are buying.
Weekend Favs July Twenty Eight is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Could you be a medallist?
Do you feel the Olympic fever? Have you ever dreamed to be on Olympic athlete? The Guardian has just launched a funny retro advergame that allows you to see how your personal best in the 100m, 10km, 100m freestyle swim and bicycle road race compares against the all-time greats – and whether your time would have ever earned you a place on the podium.
In case you are too slow in real life, you can still try to win a medal with the old-style but fun keyboard power challenge. Nice job by Guardian Interactive designers Jamie Lenman and Sean Ingle, who help you discovering the fastest men and women who ever competed in the Olympics while having some healthy retro fun especially if you loved Summer Games back in the days of Commodore 64.
Add LEDs to Your Bicycle Handlebars for Safe Night Riding [Video]
Riding your bike at night requires some special equipment to stay safe: reflectors, lights, and ideally bright clothing, but if you really want to make sure you can see what’s around you and be seen by others on the road, these LED bicycle handlebars are a worthwhile project for you. It’s a good, solid DIY project, and once it’s finished, you’re rewarded with some seriously bright handlebars that are cool to the touch and will light up the night. More »
Weekend Favs July Twenty One
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.
The rural church of my youth
Good stuff I found this week:
Socialyzer – One click social media optimization – algorithm schedules best time to post.
vCita – nice web site engagement suite that includes ability to offer visitors ability to schedule appointments in real time.
tiggzr – cloud based mobile and web app builder.
Weekend Favs July Twenty One is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Make Your Own Pocketable Arduino Kit [DIY]
Arduino’s are already pretty small, but they’re still not conducive to travelling. Instructables user sath02 wanted to take his electronics tinkering on the road with him, so he built a pocket sized Arduino kit. More »