Yesterday, Brad blogged about how hard (and painful) it is to get products out of their “plastic jails.”  Today, Seth wondered if “smaller and lighter” will become “sexier” when it comes to product containers.  In addition to being a healthcare issue (Brad’s hands are apparently a bloody mess) and marketing issue (heavier Gatorade bottles apparently sell better) it’s a huge environmental issue. 

I think it’s up to us.  If, as consumers, we decide that heavy, excessive, wasteful packaging is bad, and we show our position by buying products that embrace less waste (and by telling companies why we aren’t buying their over-packaged products) we can change this.  I think it’s a worthwhile issue.

I like “personality” in a web app.  It helps users form an emotional connection — a relationship — and that’s good for the user and the app.  The trick is to treat interactions between app and user the way you’d treat interactions between people.  Then, build your app with the “people” personality of someone everyone likes — charming, polite, a little bit funny even.

There are a few things to consider:

• Your audience.  The personality of BOOMj (social network for baby boomers) should be different than Nymbler (naming wizard for expecting parents).
• Your purpose.  Sites like Mixx and Twitter can afford to have amusing error pages because the state-of-mind of the user is rarely too serious.
• Your experience.  What is the user experience as they interact with your app?  Just as you would in the “real” world, communicate with your users in a way that takes into account the experience they’re having at that moment.

The advent of widgets, which allows a part of an app to be “plugged” into a larger site, creates a new challenge.  The personality of the widget needs to conform to the site it’s wrapped in. 

This morning, I was reading a very serious article on cnn.com about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.  I was intrigued by the option to continue reading about the topic with the “From The Blogs” feature, provided by Sphere.  My state-of-mind was somber — this wasn’t an amusing topic.  When I clicked on the widget, I got this loading message:

“Sit tight, we’re getting to the good stuff” sounds good if I’m reading about the foul-mouthed posthumous tipper (how is this news, by the way?) but given what I had been reading, it stopped me cold, like someone telling a joke at a funeral.  I wasn’t in the mood for “cute.”

The technical solution to this issue is simple — it just takes planning.  The best web apps will increasingly offer highly-personalized user experiences where every interaction is more and more human (and charming).  If you’re building one, build this in.

The coolest thing about what’s going on with the Web right now is that game-changing innovation is sparked by small teams of smart, motivated people who just do stuff.  They try things.  They hack on their ideas and put it out there.  Some take off, some don’t.  The difference between now and 8-10 years ago is that the audience is really there, so the really cool ideas can really take off.  And thanks to open source software and open platforms, part of that “take off” is others contributing to the ideas to make them better.

This model has been limited to software, but BugLabs is taking it to hardware.  The BUG is a collection of open-source hardware modules that you can snap together to make your own custom device.  If they can successfully connect these gadgets so that the collaboration and community building can happen as seamlessly as it does online, there’s no telling what people will come up with.  Check out the video with founder/CEO Peter Semmelhack and marketing guy Jeremy Toeman:

It’s cool to see this “rough” product display, brought to us via a cell phone video interview, generating buzz and getting the word out.  No need for fancy marketing speak and flashy demos.  I’ll take an unedited chat with a founder/CEO showing off his/her product any day.  In this case, my favorite quote from Peter is:

“I’m building it because I really want it.”

That’s how the best stuff comes to be.  Kudos to Scoble for the interview.  My second favorite quote is Peter calling his company “Bell Labs” — a mistake I’ve never made at Viget Labs.

My dad, who was hacking on hardware and software as far back as I can remember, would have loved this thing.

Derek Scruggs, founder and CEO of The Enthusiast Group, gives a candid interview to David at Colorado Startups.  His company just decided to shut down after working for a couple of years to create a series of niche social networks targeting outdoor enthusiasts with sites like Your Cycling and Your Running. 

With web businesses hot again and huge acquisitions grabbing headlines, it’s good to get a dose of reality.  Most startups (web or otherwise) fail.  Not surprisingly, when they do, most of the founders don’t feel like talking about it publicly.  Derek’s willingness to share his experience is valuable for any would-be entrepreneur, but it’s particularly relevant for anyone considering launching a web-based business.

I live in Virginia.  Falls Church, to be exact.  TomTom, the navigation system I have in my car to help me find things, knows this.  In fact, it knows exactly where I am at all times.  

When I enter an address that I’d like to find, the first step is to pick the city.  It’s smart enough to auto-complete (good UX).  As I type, it guesses where I mean, first by completing the city name, then adding the state.  For some reason, though, it completely ignores where I am right now and sorts alphabetically.

When I try to enter “Alexandria, VA” (which is about 15 minutes away) I first have to get through that long name, then scroll down as it displays “Alexandria, AL” and “Alexandria, TN” and every other Alexandria in every other state that’s 100’s of miles from where I am right now. 

Would it really be that hard to factor in where I am and sort the list by those cities closest to me, which one could assume with 99% accuracy that it’s the one I plan to drive to?  In the off chance I’m looking for that 1%, let me scroll then.

The same concept applies to web products.  Use the data you know about your web users to make some assumptions and create a great user experience.  It’s not that hard.

After catching up on my tweet reading, I caught up on my blog reading, and enjoyed Scott’s post about a camera + GPS + purchase history + face recognition auto scrapbook generator product idea.  First, I thought how much I like the trend of people blogging product requests like this.  Second, I thought “does anyone care about privacy anymore?”

The idea of Microsoft / LinkedIn knowing everything about every email I send had privacy on my brain, but the thought of everyone knowing exactly where I am, what I’m doing (or at least buying), who I’m with, and when it’s all happening is just spooky — largely because it’s not far off from reality today.  Sure, you could argue that I could control who has access and it’s all historical data anyway, but access can be abused and if it’s being tracked at all it’s only a matter of time before it’s broadcast real-time.

Twitter is bad enough.  Want to know what I’ve been up to?  I’m a light user, but just look at my tweets from the past week:

• goodbye tiny hybrid, hello giant minivan. i guess we’re all grown up now. about 5 hours ago  
• heading out to a brunch that will feature a high % of small children … trying to remember my ear plugs and extra strong coffee about 15 hours ago   
• mulling over a minivan purchase decision for tomorrow 09:38 PM August 25, 2007   
• just learned a lot about django from djackson … couldn’t resist 01:33 PM August 24, 2007   
• using email to coordinate calls from india to a crappy mobile phone is a bad idea 08:58 AM August 24, 2007   
• meeting in the city near the capitol … brings back memories from my days consulting at FEMA 08:57 AM August 24, 2007   
• coffee good. suits on friday not as much. 05:10 AM August 24, 2007   
• taking a breath between meetings 01:46 PM August 23, 2007   
• looking forward to reuniting with my family in t-minus 30 minutes 01:39 PM August 21, 2007   
• shocked by how smelly trains (both amtrak and metro) can be 01:36 PM August 21, 2007   
• choo choo! chuga-chuga chuga-chuga choo choooooo! 11:07 AM August 21, 2007   
• check that - train is 1 hr late departing. lucky me. thank you amtrak. 05:37 AM August 21, 2007   
• off to bed — train departs in about 5 hours 12:11 AM August 21, 2007   
• wrapping up a day of meeting new folks in durham — lots going on here, and lots more potential too 07:45 PM August 20, 2007

All of the sudden you know a lot about me.  You know I used to drive a hybrid, so I’m probably somewhat eco-friendly (or maybe I just like to drive on 66 by myself during HOV hours).  You know I now drive a minivan, so I probably have several kids.  You know I don’t own an iPhone, and that I have either friends or business in India.  You know that I had a meeting near the Capitol last Friday which required I wear a suit, and that I used to consult for FEMA.  You know that I traveled by train from Durham to DC on Amtrak, departing an hour late around 6:30 am last Monday.

But I wanted you to know all that stuff.  Should I?  I’m not sure yet.  I still might get bored with Twitter.

People have always worried about other people knowing too much about what they’re up to.  It’s a healthy concern to harbor.  It’s clear now, though, that tracking everyone’s every move isn’t technically all that difficult (or at least it won’t be much longer).  I’m not sure anyone predicted that we’d bring the moment-by-moment monitoring so overtly upon ourselves.

It’s all in good fun amongst the techies for now, but I would expect a backlash at some point.  The question is, will anyone announce when they decide to detach from the monitoring machine, or will you just have to figure it out?

Brad’s latest tweet is right.

outlook is my social network. i’m so perplexed that microsoft hasn’t taken advantage of that yet. linkedin / outlook integration is an A.

So why not?  This isn’t a simple “upload my Outlook contacts now and then” idea.  It’s a much tighter integration.  I’m not too keen on Microsoft knowing everything about every communication I have with everyone, but the upside of a tool that tracks (without me doing anything extra) my contacts, correspondence, discussion topics, meetings (through calendar), and more, and then leverages that data to intelligently compare it with similar data from my first, second, third (and so on) degree relationships could be significant.

One hurdle is privacy. Right or wrong, people assume their email is relatively private and secure, where correspondence through LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., is considered more public.  If Microsoft drops a social network onto Outlook, do they hurt that perception of privacy — even if there are clear ways to opt-out — to the long-term detriment of that product? Is it worth the risk?

I think the perception problem is manageable if the technology solution is sound, and the potential value of the right product to end users would be a significant incentive to give it a shot.  I would.

And they clearly read my blog.  I just tried to check out the Panel Picker, and got this:

Now that’s an error message.  It takes the blame, is amusing without being cute, and even gives you something to do (email Lindsey).  The only thing I’d add is to say that an alert had already been generated (email, log, whatever) and so emailing Lindsey directly is optional.

There’s a blogonerd fight going on between Nick, Jason, and Mike that Andy ranted about today. Smart, arrogant, opinionated guys with a pulpit, a point, and a cult following tend to be pretty entertaining.

If you can sift through the endless comments (please install Intense Debate already!) there’s actually an interesting discussion going on there about the state of the software industry and what revenue models are most viable (subscriptions vs. ad-supported). 

It’s all changing because ad models are working more and more as web usage soars and the ad industry is waking up to (1) where their customers are, (2) how they can connect with them, and (3) how they can measure (and quickly tune) that connection.  So ad dollars are available that weren’t there even a year ago are shifting online, and it will keep going in that direction.

What’s also changing is that web apps are getting better and more useful.  Underlying technologies and the products being built on them are maturing.  Expectations (from consumers) are increasing, creating a positive pressure.  Product developers are responding by creating better products.

What isn’t stressed enough in the debate is this: people will will pay for good software that fills a need.  People will pay more for great software.  Most of the web apps out there are crap and their failure has little to do with their pricing model.  Yes, you should think about how you’ll make money when you start any business, but that should be a distant second to figuring out how you’ll make a remarkable product.

Think about your users, create a great product for them, and then obsess about how to generate revenue.

I often talk about adding personality to your app, including turning negatives (like downtime) into semi-positives, as with the Flickr example.  Here’s what Twitter looks like right now:

Maybe it’s because Twitter’s been down a bunch lately, or maybe it’s because I really don’t like cats, but when I saw this I thought “I’m really tired of this little trend.”  I long for the good old days of not trying to be cute when you screw up.  Just say “We’re down.  We’re sorry. We’re working on it.”

Last week Fred asked for something, Dave built something, Fred thanked Dave, and that’s great.  This week Mike bashed Yappd, techcrunchies suggested Tweetr and Radar, and that’s all fine.  But I still have to take the picture.  Here’s what I really want:

1. A really … uh … “cool” holster for my Treo 700 that holds it about in the center of my chest with the camera facing out.  Or maybe a way to strap it to my forehead.
2. A photo taken every [1|5|30|60] minute(s), which is then automatically uploaded to … the next version of Twitter which displays images instead of links to them (in web view, anyway) and sends MMS in addition to SMS (maybe the other services do this already, but come on … I already have 13 followers on Twitter).
3. A blog post auto-generated that shows all of the days photos in rows, or perhaps a rapid-fire animation of the entire sequence.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit much.

But there has to be a video thing happening here.  When I go to answer that ever probing question”what are you doing?” 9 times out of 10 my instinct is to say “why, let me show you!” and then point my camera phone and shoot a 10 second video clip.  Photos help, but let’s just skip to video already.

In the future, perhaps we’ll all be wizards.

Brad discovered the Ambient Umbrella, which glows when rain or snow is in the forecast, reminding you to take it along.  Version 2 will actually levitate as you walk towards the door and groan “doooon’t forget meeee … it’s quite likely to raaaaain …” in a low british accent.  Less than 100 years ago, showing someone a product like this would get your burned at the stake for witchcraft.  Humankind is progressing in so many ways.

Do products like this — which pay attention to things like the weather forecast so that we don’t have to — make us dumber because they do the thinking for us, or make us smarter because our brains aren’t occupied by mundane things like rain falling? 

They certainly make us less prone to planning.  When’s the last time someone with a navigation system looked up directions?  Just get in and go.  Even if the nav system fails, you’ve always got more technology — a mobile phone — to back you up.

Personally, I love technology.  I love tools and gadgets, and I rely on them to maintain a degree of sanity and happiness in life.  I also love to go camping now and then and get away from all of it — in part maybe to prove to myself that I can still survive without any of it.

I’m fearful of two things:

1. Future generations being overly dependent on technology to not just be happy, but be functional and thoughtful (in the basic sense of the word).  Let’s hope the folks at Ambient never have to add a rain detector feature that calls out “Hey, dummy, it’s raining.  Open me.”
2. The degree of that dependence will be underestimated until something happens to the underlying infrastructure and everything stops working.

I hate to drop in a doomsday scenario so early in the days of this blog.  This is far from a prediction, just a little reminder (to myself?) to enjoy the technology but still catch an episode of Survivorman now and then for pointers (or is Man vs. Wild better?  I haven’t decided).

Gotta go close my car windows — my big toe is throbbing, which means it’s going to rain.