Archive for the ‘TechCrunch’ Category

Snap Preview redux

Wednesday, February 7th, 2007

So it seems the whole Snap Preview outcry is having some effect. TechCrunch has modified how Snap Preview works on their site. Before, any external link would pop-up a little window previewing the site on hover. Now they have moved that feature by inserting an icon to the right of any external links and showing the pop-up on hover of that icon.

Is it an improvement? Yes. Is peace and tranquility restored to the interwebs? No. You can’t take a well intended but bad idea, shift it ten pixels to the right and declare the problem fixed. The idea was bad in the first place; admit it, kill the idea and move on. Now when I read paragraphs on TechCrunch the flow of words is broken. Typography is important. Readability is important. Preview links are not. The icon is meant to be subtle in contrast (it is off-white) but it still takes up 16 pixels of width which throws off gaps between words which is a big no-no in typography and readability.

Ah well. You can still disable the damned thing, until you clear your cookies and have to go disable it again.

Job board aggregator

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

Solution Watch writes:

Job Boards are everywhere! Michael Arrington’s CrunchBoard, Om Malik’s GigaOM Jobs, Darren Rowse’s Problogger Job Board, and Jason Fried’s 37signals Job Board.

When the 37signals Job Board launched I thought it was a good idea. Then TechCrunch launched theirs and it was a reasonable idea as it would target a different market to the 37signals board. But add two more and these job boards start to look like a poor idea.

Ideally we need a job board aggregator. Most provide a detailed enough RSS feed to do this. Would there be any copyright issues in doing this? The Techcrunch Job Board feed in particular provides a ton of information (through the EdgeIO spec.) Anyone?

UPDATE: Turns out Michael Arrington has already been looking at a job board aggregator.

Clarkson and Arrington

Wednesday, July 19th, 2006

So he’s kind of like a Jeremy Clarkson of Web2.0 ?

This was said by Walter Higgin’s wife about Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. I laughed so hard.

So. Spot. On.

A pity our friends over the pond won’t get the reference. They’d do well to watch a few Top Gear episodes.

Crossing the chasm

Monday, July 3rd, 2006

Crossing The Chasm

Interesting graph from Dr. Dobbs on the challenge many Web 2.0 websites face; crossing the chasm. Early adopters and innovators may jump aboard your baby but that doesn’t mean you’ll manage to cross over to the mainstream.