It seems like it was only yesterday that my friend called me and exclaimed, “Something’s wrong with my computer….my Internet isn’t optimized!”

I scratched my head for a bit, hopped in the car, and minutes later I was staring at an ad similar to this:

Gah! What kind of sleazy bastard would try and bait a helpless consumer with an ad like this? 10 years ago it was probably a guy wearing a button-down shirt with too many buttons down, however today’s advertisers have taken cue from their older, less hygienic counterparts.

We recently placed ads on Songza. At first, advertisements were contextually relevant, like ones promoting the Joy Division documentary. However, in the days since, we’ve gotten the likes of these beauties from AT&T (Note: I’ve done some Photoshop magickery to show you what the transition looks like. It ain’t good, but I don’t want to give these ads more attention than they deserve).

and this….

Oh no, my poor Internets! I must have done something wrong. A virus, corrupt registry…how bad did I break it? Oh, thank goodness, it’s AT&T….my hero!

What do all of these have in common? If you’d ask the ad designer, I’m sure they’d say they were trying to ‘grab the viewers attention’, but to me…it’s just scaring people.

I find that, in this way, advertising is trying to achieve the same goals as SEO: drive traffic to a site by any means necessary. “It doesn’t matter how you get ‘em, just get ‘em!”

But what does this do to the user experience? Is the customer appreciative that you’ve saved them from the fright that you created? Doubtful. How very Homeland Security-esque of you…

How then, do you attract users? How do you get heard through all the noise? Answer: If you make something good, people will like it.

To capture this idea, I’m reminded of a story that Harper once told:

He was at a conference and approached by some SEO fanatics. They asked him, “How do you optimize Threadless? Do you backlink, cloak….what?” Harper’s answer, “We make good products, and people like them.”

It’s simple, yet true. Viral marketing is not an art of trickery; it’s a thoughtful conversation that you have with your users. You listen. You create. You listen, again.

Make good products, build a good community, and you’ll succeed. It’s a practice that companies, both small and large, can learn from.

Biking home from the Cubs game, Judson, Becky and I happened across a group of people in the park trying on armor. After a brief chat, we found out that they’re medieval reenacters. Though, they’re not in full-gear here, I did get to capture a bit of the action.

Later in the evening, I chatted with Sam, and he speculated that it might be Darkon, as featured in the documentary.

Apparently, they’re going to be doing a full-on tournament in late June. I’ll try to post something when I get the details.

Every now and then an industry sees a period of tremendous innovation. I believe we may be at the tail end of a growth spurt in the realm of soda pops, but in the zany world of hand dryers the revolution is just beginning.

Until recently, I was a big fan of the Xlerator. That is, until Dyson entered the picture.

I used this crazy contraption last night at Kristen Nicole’s welcome home party. This thing was, quite possibly, the most incredible thing I’ve ever used to dry my hands (albeit a short list).

Not nearly as catchy as cookie, but that’s what you get when you Google for the letter “C”: the C programming language.

A list from A to Z on the top results when you Google the letters of the alphabet (as of Tuesday, April 8th, 2008):

A - Links in HTML documents (the A tag)
B - Physical Review B
C - C (programming language) - Wikipedia
D - Intro - D Programming Language
E - E! Online
F - Summary for FORD MOTOR CO - Yahoo! Finance
G - Gmail: Email from Google
H - Hydrogen - Wikipedia
I - I - Wikipedia
J - J - Wikipedia
K - K - Wikipedia
L - L - Wikipedia
M - M (1931) Fritz Lang Movie
N - N : Puzzle-Platformer with Physics and Style
O - Welcome to O, The Oprah Magazine
P - HTML P TAG
Q - Q - Wikipedia
R - The R Project for Statistical Computing
S - craigslist classifieds: jobs, housing, personals, for sale …
T - MBTA.com > Official Website for Greater Boston’s Public …
U - U - Wikipedia
V - V (TV Series) - Wikipedia
W - W Hotels
X - X The Band-Official Website
Y - Yahoo! Mail: The best web-based email!
Z - Z - Wikipedia

It seems pretty obvious that Wikipedia would top the rankings for most of these.

Most surprising: S for Craigslist?!?!