Stuff We’ve Seen

Watch out for that car in front of you!
Google’s “new hotness” (hurt them, not me) is real-time Google traffic maps for your cell phone. Now instead of being stuck in traffic, you can document the mess you’ve created when you slam into the car in front of you because you were staring at your cell phone instead of watching the road. After your separate yourself from your deployed airbag, glance at your phone and notice as the area around you goes from a happy, easy moving green to a violent shade of people-are-hating-you red. This particular driving hazard is fully available in thirty major cities and partially available elsewhere, so the rest of you are safe. For now.

Google also announced users can now customized their mobile personalized homepage (seemingly nicknamed iGoogle?) from their desktop by clicking the “mobile” link at the bottom of their personalized homepage. Personally, I have enough Google in my life. I choose not to infect my cell phone with it too.

Click Fraud: The Abridged Version
Danny Sullivan has worked up a shortened version of the independent report on Google’s click fraud detection practices. Danny picks out the important chunks and gets rid of the filler (like the history of the Internet) for the non-reading inclined. If the mere thought of reading a 47-page PDF gives you a headache, Danny’s abridged version may be the way to go.

What are your employees stoked on?
You might not care but, according to Marketing Sherpa, your customers do. Based on the case study, designing fun and original About Us pages make for some especially sticky content. Visitors who view your About Us page convert 30 percent more than visitors who don’t. If you’re wondering how many people are actually viewing your About Us page, Marketing Sherpa says it’s between five and seven percent. Unless you’re one of those sites that still doesn’t have one, then it’s zero. It makes sense that visitors would want to know who they’re buying from. Kind of like why blogs are popular.

Think you’re original?
Phil Lenssen created another click survey. This one focuses on how visitors respond to different shapes. Interesting, though I’m sure people click differently when they know it’s a test. You know how people are.

Oversimplified conclusion: people like to click in the middle of circles and at points of intersection. Some revolutionary concepts there.

Writely Invitations Coming!
Those of you who have been waiting on bated breathe for your Writely invitation, it won’t be too much longer. I know, I know, me too! The Writely blog announced invitations began making their way out last week and everyone should be in before the end of the summer. [getsexcited.]

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.