I read a post today about the new ability to add comments to the Facebook mini-feed items. This happened on the 25th apparently.

Who noticed? I certainly didn’t!

All very good adding new functions into Facebook but what use if they are so subtle they aren’t noticed and you don’t highlight it anywhere how are people supposed to use them?

Perhaps something in the notification area Facebook?

With a title like that I’m sure to be walking straight into another load of comments claiming I don’t know what I’m talking about. However after reading an article today on CNET about how Apple are charging significantly more for upgrades I had to post something.

Now you might be thinking it’s because I want to shout from the hilltops “Rip off!” however the thing that’s actually wound me up is the comments from various Apple fanboys after the post.

I agree that not all hardware comparisons are like for like however the ones that are clearly show Apple are charging more to upgrade components within a system than Dell. Do I have issue with this? No not really - businesses will make the most margin they see fit and Apple can charge extra as the type of people that buy Apple are generally able to afford it and won’t question it. If you can get away with it why not? Apple leaning on their brand to get some extra cash isn’t wrong in any way.

However the outrage from Apple fans that such a thing can be reported is unbelievable! Comparisons can now be made now that Macs are on effectively the same hardware platform so why try and deny it?

Apple is a top end manufacturer so why be so worried when someone says they are making a better margin than a competitor?

I can’t in this case say it’s just the Apple fans that have stooped to insults - the PC fans too have decided to bypass sense in some of the comments. Does it help the argument? What do you think?

In the end it seems Apple fans are looking for every single argument to stick back at the PC fans and the fact there is a pretty solid one on price stick in the gullet a bit (this is not to say it wouldn’t be the same if the other way around).

There are bound to be points where people will disagree however on some occasions there should be the ability for a party to accept a point? I thought so but clearly I’m wrong?

The BBC Trust has reported that the BBC has spent more than it should on its web portal. Not by a little either, apparently they’ve overspent by 48% of the baseline budget. As TV license payer I’m happy for them to do so!

The BBC (because of the unique way it is funded) has for many decades provided fantastic programming. It’s one of the World’s most trusted brands and I for one use the BBC News website many times daily.

I’ve never quite understood some people’s negative opinion of the BBC expanding online - some seem to think they should be concentrating just on TV. This is a little short sighted as currently all media seems to be migrating to the web and I myself can’t see why this is much different that the BBC expanding from radio to TV. The BBC are as usual pushing into this area with excellent results - just look at iPlayer.

People also seem to forget that the BBC can actually make money from other sources than the license fee and the Internet opens up a lot of revenue streams for them.

So personally I want the BBC to keep spending my TV license fee as they are doing - I’m looking forward to all the innovation they create!

I posted not long ago on Blogging Brum about a potential new business directory for Birmingham I heard about. It’s now gone live and I hate to say it but I was rather underwhelmed by the online launch.

I’ve had a few comment exchanges with Jamie Morden who is Digital Media Manager for MyBrumTV and he asked for my opinion on the site. Well as I’m always bleating on about the social media phenomenon and I believe the MyBrumTV launch is very closely linked to this I thought why not write a blog critique of the site and allow Jamie a right to reply.

There are two aspects to the critique as I see it. Firstly the actual site, what it achieves and how it achieves it and secondly with regard to the online launch and methods used here.

The website itself it a pleasant design and is pretty simple to navigate. However the filmstrip style menu is going to be outgrown very quickly if this directory takes off – I can’t see people scrolling along 100’s of companies or categories. I’d love to see some kind of AJAX style navigation here to allow you traverse the directories quickly and easily (obviously with some non-AJAX fallback to ensure accessibility isn’t compromised). I feel it just needs some more excitement about it that draws you into the site. The introduction movie on the homepage I really don’t feel is going to be watched by people – if they are coming to a business directory they are just going to search. It’s the same thing for most homepage text people are looking for something specific and therefore don’t read what they just see as promotional blurb.

This brings me onto a search feature which is currently not available. As there aren’t a huge amount of companies online now I can perhaps understand why they haven’t rolled this out as yet but it will be essential in the future.

The company listings rely nearly entirely on the videos produced and although this is MyBrumTV’s selling point I don’t agree that videos should replace other textual content rather it should complement it.

Certainly the video can be used to sell a service but it you can’t impart all the important information about a product or service through a 5 minute video – I believe it’s more of a glossy finish – the final hard sell.

A contact form for each company listing is provided which is good however I’d group contact us (address and telephone) and more information (the actual online contact form) under the same tab “Contact us” as really the form is another way of contacting the company. I was expecting a text description or FAQs under the “More information” tab. I’m not sure how the comments tab is going to work as currently there is no way of posting comments yourself – obviously a function to follow.

Video quality I’ve found to be very good (although this certainly isn’t my speciality) and I’ve had no problem with streaming issues etc. From a brochure perspective I believe they do their job.
Code quality on the MyBrumTV isn’t bad although there are still areas to tighten up with the site currently failing a XHTML validator.

My main issue with the website is the lack of content. I’m talking here about text content which is of the upmost importance to the visitor and essential for accessibility. I don’t think you can assume visitors are going to play every video for every company listing in a category. Therefore the copy should work alongside to give the visitor a taster and entice them to watch the video. As the website is a business directory and therefore going to rely heavily on the World’s most important blind user - Google - this really is a trick they are missing. To this end, in addition to accompanying text copy, I believe the alternative content for the video is essential – each movie has a script so why not provide this in the alternative description for the flash?

Search engine optimisation is virtually nonexistent on the website save some hidden keyword spamming at the bottom of the page – tut tut. I really think a review is needed here as this is only going to get you penalised by Google! The most important element on the page (the page title) is consistently “MyBrumTV” throughout the website not describing the page content at all. The lack of content on the site is going to cause the search engines to see virtually blank pages everywhere.

I understand completely that the work on this website is ongoing and it’s not the finished article. Jamie himself said the site is launching in phases with the main launch in September so please don’t take this as a hatchet job on the website just some suggestions how I feel it could improve.

I’d also like to just mention the launch of the site as I believe this can be vital to building an initial visitor base.

I certainly can’t comment with regard to offline promotion of the MyBrumTV website other than the free newspaper that dropped through my door that alerted me to its existence (I don’t read much traditional press at all). However as this is an online project I was surprised to find that there is virtually nothing happening online at all.

Perhaps this initial launch of MyBrumTV is a beta version to be tested and built on? In which case I could perhaps understand the muted buzz online. However it’s not promoted as such and in any case I really think even websites in beta should try to promote themselves in some way to attract visitors to beta test or start laying the groundwork.

A good example of this Odadeo which is currently in private beta (ask for an invitation) – an excellent idea of a social media site for Dads! Even though in private beta the wheels are already moving with regard to making people aware of the site.

The MyBrumTV website certainly has many sources open to promote itself and improve its offer. Being a local website means it can lean on local community to promote it – it’s the only reason I posted about it in the first place. Having this local community means it makes it easier to promote to this restricted location. Also it’s going to take time to get the site visible online in the meantime why not lean on existing applications available such as YouTube?

Directories are ten a penny online so they need to distinguish themselves online be it with functions not available elsewhere (not sure videos are enough alone) or by attracting a website community.

I’m sure there are other things in the pipeline – Jamie mentions social networking in a way that suggests the site will feature social features in some way. However if this is the case why launch with a site that doesn’t have any of the more flashy features? Web users are fickle so if they don’t find anything on a site that excites them getting them to come back is more difficult than getting them in the first place.

Maybe I’m wrong and the slow burn is the effect they are after but I would try to create as much of a bang for the launch for a site like this…it’s been more of a pop. It feels premature if I’m honest.

Don’t get me wrong I really think if done well a local community business directory could work well (I’m not aware of any that do this well) especially with Google’s move to more and more local results.

At the end of the day there has to be a big carrot to get people to navigate away from their Google homepage to an alternative way of searching for businesses.

Perhaps another sign of a disjointed online and offline approach here is that there is no mention of how to get a business into the directory on the website. Obviously all approaches to businesses has been offline so far.

It’s an online project so why not embrace the many varied online tools to make your life easier and you website more popular? In addition online promotion is so much cheaper than offline – it’s a no brainer really.