Genbook - Internet advertising for small business

Genbook Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of online advertising solutions, has raised $2.2 million in Series A funding led by Neo Technology Ventures of Australia. www.genbook.com

Error Handling

I recently had the misfortune of being bucked off my horse and sent hurtling to the ground. As my trainer explained, I did not behave as my horse expected and clearly, neither did my horse behave as expected. As I analyzed the incident, I drew some parallels to the online world. I, as the user, erred and my horse, the medium, intolerant of my error, chose to react in a way it shouldn't have - that is, to buck me off.

This experience translates to the online world as well. What if our users err and fail to behave as we expect them to on our sites and apps, and rather than guiding them via appropriate error handling and messaging, we simply throw them off the system. In this scenario, the system, too, would clearly fail to behave as the user expects it to. This is where customer experience management via intelligent design and usability come into play. Even the best designed sites and apps will have users whom will err and when that happens, we need to be prepared for that inevitability. On the flip side, however, the online system cannot afford to err. As a result, messaging that aids users to successfully complete their tasks such as an alert to the user of their error and guidance as to how they can course correct, makes for a more successful user experience. That way, both the site and user come out ahead!

Bigger is Better

Super-size please! The verdict is in—bigger is indeed better when it comes to the web. One of the defining characteristics of web 2.0 sites is the adoption of a web 0 practice, which was more the result of a lack of web evolution than usability...i.e. BIGGER text. The use of larger type has made a comeback, fueled mostly in part by, the desire to achieve greater usability. And, given the information overload and pollution on the web, the need to attain higher visibility in a sea of competing content, makes bigger text a desirable feature.

The resurgence of larger font sizes is supported by Fitts Law which is "...a model of human movement, predicting the time required to rapidly move from a starting position to a final target area, as a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target. Fitts' law is used to model the act of pointing, both in the real world, for example, with a hand or finger and on computers, for example, with a mouse" (Source: Wikipedia). Therefore, larger everything...i.e. text, buttons, graphics, banner ads, and the like are a reality. They are simply more legible and easier to spot making them a winner on most sites today, the majority being the user-generated content sites of the day.

50 Coolest Websites

Interesting listing of the 50 coolest sites as deemed by Time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/2006/50coolest/index.html.

Tumri - Internet advertising

At WebGuild we always have the inside track. Pradeep Javangula, CTO & Founder confirmed to me that it was Series A round not a Series B as widely reported.

Tumri Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of contextual online advertising solutions, has raised $5.42 million in Series A equity funding, according to a regulatory filing. Shasta Ventures led the deal, which also included around $1.09 million in convertible promissory notes. www.tumri.com

Come hear their exciting story at the WebGuild Conference http://www.webguild.org/meetings/wg2006/