This Week in Lumps
#52 [20/05 - 26/05]
· Everything is about ‘the look‘ these days- if it’s not modern, sleek and sexy, it’s probably not worth investing in; come to think of it, this is probably the reason why my toothbrush looks like it’s been designed by Norman Foster. Being fashionable is important, especially in technology: Apple knows it all too well, even companies like Samsung and Mercedes Benz will use ‘the look’ in advertisements to try and get you to buy the products they’re offering, and be honest, if money were no option, you would always pick the Mercedes over the next car. Some companies, especially those involved in those distinct fragrances that men find get stuck in the back of their throat, have no problem with going completely OTT, and in doing so completely forget the point, let alone who the target audience is. Yet when it comes to websites, many big name players (such as MySpace, Twitter and a handful of others) seem to have been left behind, happy as they are in their old clothes, reluctant to make a big change and keep us all on our technological toes. This, ultimately could be their downfall.
Over the last few weeks or so there’s been quite a lot of facelifts and tummy tucks planned; not in Hollywood (well, I’m sure there’s quite a few going on every hour, not that I’d suddenly start talking about them), but lots of cosmetic changes for some of our favourite and most viewed websites. Of course, these aesthetical improvements have probably been planned for months beforehand, only snippets of information has now been made public. Among the companies that are getting a touch up are those that I’m always mentioning on here as being some of my favourites, and as ever, I’m going to be constructive, frank, and possibly a little biased. Nothing new there, then.
First up is the ‘marmite’ of social networking. Love it or hate it, Facebook has been in dire need of a trim and tuck for a while, and I’m far from being the first to notice it, especially since the introduction of biting vampires, sheep throwing and all the other nonsense appeared last year. Despite being one of the most influential things for the youth of today, he layout hasn’t altered much from the days of being solely for skint, hungover students, and the recent application additions has magically turned it into some kind of technological Judy Finnegan – wonky, ill-fitting and not even remotely easy-on-the-eye.
If, like me, you’ve reached the stage where your eyes can’t take any more of the thousands of cluttered quotes and applications on your friends pages, you’ll be glad to find out that the site’s new look sweeps away every bit of information into categories marked by tabs at the top of each user’s customized home page. The ‘spring clean’, which has been in development since the beginning of the year, sorts everything under specific tabs- for example, the “about me” description and any job information you may have will be pushed away into “drawers” ready to be looked at if and when needed. Basic personal background and interests will be filed under an ‘info’ tab, while news about users’ buddies’ latest activities will land under a ‘feed’ tab. Photographs of your friends drunken binges will be corralled in a ‘photo’ section and all those nasty applications will be easily located under a ‘programs’ tab. For photos and further information, this Facebook page shows all.
An open question; if this fixes the problems of everything looking wonky and ill-fitting, why haven’t MySpace done something similar?
Whereas Facebook was starting to annoy and frustrate people with its clunky, clogged-up layout, another 2.0 site has decided to change into its summer dress a little early this year, just for the hell of it – Last.fm has quietly released its proposed new look to the subscription paying users on its beta site. The company blog describes this next-gen Last.fm as one that improves makes online music “easier, better and more discoverable”, starting off with a new version of Audio Scrobbler (instant recognition of tracks – as soon as you listen to it, it gets added to every chart on your page, no more waiting till Sunday), changing the entire layout (and yes, that means no more red) and also making the site quicker to load, and easier to explore. It seems the lack of ball pit hasn’t dented their imagination. For a glimpse of the beta site, follow this link (it helps if you’re a subscriber), and this group can also help you out.
Winston Churchill was a wise man, he once said:
“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction”
These two examples, along with the Amazon touch up from a few months back show that big name players can get away with a redesign. It can keep people interested, it can create debate; yes, some people will hate it, some will love it, either way, they’re talking about it, and that’s what really counts. They are definitely moving in the right direction.
~
· Whilst on the subject of changes, the upcoming summer will see the return of Top Gear, with Hammond, Clarkson and May all returning for the new series. Last week, a blog entry from TG producer Andy Willman popped up in my RSS reader, talking about the series, about possible changes, the future, and what could be done to freshen up TG. He admitted that it was becoming ‘harder and harder to come up with new stuff’, and that they were all surprised that the popularity of the show really had taken off, Andy especially thought it would only last a couple of series before they all headed to the job centre.
Instead, the eleventh series was planned, as is many international versions. Soon, Top Gear US will be created, instead of just repeats on BBC America. European versions will also surface, and with this success behind them, Andy and the presenters (and I’m sure a few other important names) gathered in a middle management style ‘brainstorm’ session.
So, what changes should we expect? Well, a new character will be joining the cast, like The Stig, only not like The Stig, more like a work experience lad who makes the tea, and does all the jobs that no-one else wants to do. Sabine, the crazy German driver who is obsessed with the Nürburgring will also be returning to wage war on behalf of Germany, and yes, there is another big race planned… set in Japan.
So, expect more of the same from the last few series, with a few tweeks here and there, and a light polish. Andy goes on to compare the 11th series with REM:
“We’ve looked back over the last two or three runs and noticed that a whole programme can get swallowed up by one monster film – a bit like one of those Yes albums from the 70s where side one is just one track – so we’re trying to calm down the prog rock side. Actually a band analogy is a good one here. I was reading the other day how REM had spent ages recording previous albums and tied themselves in knots in the process, but that their latest one was knocked out fast, with short sharp songs that don’t outstay their welcome.
We’ll inevitably still have big films, cos it’s the only way you can enjoy the three of them cocking about together, but they’ll be shorter overall, and alongside them we’ll be inserting some quick two or three minute punk songs.”
The new series of Top Gear will start towards the end of June, maybe even July (so that it doesn’t clash with Euro 2008). If you’ve never seen TG before, you’re missing out, but you can catch a newbies view by downloading Wednesdays episode of The Totally Rad Show, where (I think) the guys will be talking about the US Road Trip episode. Hope they don’t mind the casual xenophobia and off-the-cuff jibes at how shit the US are at making cars.
~
·Hats off to cracked.dom, who have done it again, and created a very funny look at 20 websites that may have existed if some famous historical people had access to the interweb. Hats off for Anne Franks Livejournal, the scary webcam chat page, and also the Digg front page from days of Yore.
~~~
That was the week in lumps, a week in which: dentists took the fun out of smoothies, Kristin Kreuk looks nothing like Chun-Li, part time decent guy, part time knobhead Jamie Oliver says women should refuse sex with their partners to get them in the kitchen, reality TV is apparently the ‘second worst idea of all time’ behind the atom bomb, some cows need flatscreen TVs, Microsoft say NO to a XBox360 spring update, here are 25 ways to tell you’ve grown up, and is this art, or just a pile of rubbish?
and although this blog post gives you 101 everyday uses for Twitter, I’m still not convinced. It seems irrelevant, it seems to provide about 4% of what other web 2.0 sites offer, and despite it being unique in what it provides, it hasn’t caught on in this country, and I’m not sure it ever will. One of the BBC dot.life guys thinks otherwise… I will plug on regardless, in the hope that I can find more interesting people to ‘follow’. You can add me here if you like.
ttfn
x
