If I ask you if you have a guestbook, what do you think about? Do you think about a guestbook function on a Web site? Or do you think of a paper book in your home or business where people write an entry when they visit you in person? In asking this question, I am asking about the latter, but of course thinking about both.

In our home, my lovely wife and I have a guestbook. The cover actually reads “gaestebog” which is Danish for guestbook, as it was given to us by family in Denmark. When we visited them a few years ago, they asked us to sign their guestbook, and we commented that we should have one of our own. A few minutes later, they gave us the one we have, and pictured in this post, as they had an extra one. Now in active use for the last few years, it serves as a great souvenir of friends and family who come by to visit, for dinner or overnight.

It is interesting the reaction we get when we ask people to sign the guestbook. Most are surprised we have one, and usually in a good way. The most interesting reaction is when they turn to a blank page, with pen in hand, and ponder for a moment what they will write. In this day of tweeting and informal writing, it is nice to have something tangible and more formal.

In the early days of the Web, many Web sites had guestbooks. These were a Web page which functioned like the paper, offline guestbook, where people could fill out a form and see their post listed with everybody else who did the same. Over time, these pages went away for reasons that probably include everything from the sophistication of the Web, to people not filling out entries. Today it is not as much about people simply dropping by your Web site as much as the detailed analytics of their visit, and there are other ways to engage visitors by using site membership, eCommerce and blog comments.

Or are guestbooks online still relevant today? I welcome your thoughts on this. I have to admit I am not compelled to add one to The Hot Iron or Dunkirk Systems’ Web site. You are more than welcome to comment to this here, or simply say, “hi.”

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Diversions • Technology • (6) Comments • Permalink

Whenever we talk about usability, computers and their software mostly come to mind. But how about a restaurant menu? Where some may be unorganized or in a different language, to someone who is visually impaired, it may not even appear at all. Rather than having to have someone read it to you, new software for mobile devices can do it for you.

An article appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe featuring such reading software, as well as one of the owners of it, my good friend (and The Hot Iron frequent commenter) Peter Alan Smith. Over the years I have gotten to know Peter as well as his challenges with using technology which most people take its use for granted. I have had the opportunity to help Peter with installing JAWS, a popular screen reading software, onto his Windows notebook, as well as watching him surfing the Web.

Such a device and software break down many barriers. The software was developed by technology futurist Ray Kurzweil and runs on a Nokia N82 mobile device, and can be carried in his pocket as he would carry any phone. Within a minute of taking a picture of text, a computer screen or even currency, he can have the information read to him. Where I have never seen this in action personally, Peter described it in detail that gave me enough to envision it.

I have always said that technology advancements to help those who are given a moniker as “disabled” will have far-reaching uses beyond those people. As I write this post, I am wearing reading glasses that, after 30+ years of looking at computer screens, I now need to have. And at close reach is a wrist strap in the event the mild tingling in my hands that could be early signs of carpel tunnel occurs. Maybe I should pick up a copy of Dragon software to speak future posts, or just podcast them?

Cheers to Peter on this great article for an even greater person!

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Mobile Technology • Technology • (2) Comments • Permalink

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As many readers of The Hot Iron know, myself and Bruno are the coordinators of likemind in Chicago. This monthly meetup of creative people for coffee is in sync with similar gatherings around the world.

Many people ask me what it’s all about, and why so early? Last week likemind was featured in the New York Times’ Fashion & Style section in an excellent article, which featured the New York City gathering as well as input from other coordinators in other cities.

Congrats to Noah and Piers, the founders of likemind, for this great publicity. The next likemind Chicago will be on Friday, December 5, 2008 at Spa Cafe in the Loop. See you then!

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Did traffic increase to The Hot Iron following my participation in the Nokia OpenLab in Helsinki last month? In general I would hope so, as after meeting many interesting people I started following them online, and I would hope someone would be interested in what I have to say! But the numbers do not lie, and here’s a summary of activity on this little blog.

In this analysis, I used 2 sources. I use Who’s Lookin?, a service by Fiodan Corp., for tracking and reporting daily activity. Every morning I receive an email report of top pages accessed, top referring sites, as well as what networks have visited. This is an excellent indicator of traffic volume and where it is coming from. Watching this report on a daily basis, I saw increased international traffic, and traffic coming from Nokia itself, mostly after OpenLab. These reports gave me a good “gut” feel that I did receive some sort of bump in traffic. For the sake of full disclosure, Dunkirk Systems, LLC a value-added reseller of Who’s Lookin? and am more than glad to talk to you about how this service can help your business!

Google Analytics is the other source of data for this analysis. I did a comparison of 2 date ranges – the month of August, 2008 vs. September 2008. As I did my original post on OpenLab on September 1, this would give a good indication of what traffic was like beforehand and after the fact. Below is the chart of Analytics comparing visitors over those periods.

As you can see, there is a definite increase in visits to The Hot Iron, but it did not lead to people spending more time once they arrived. The next analysis I did was on new vs. returning visitors, and here is the Analytics comparison during the same periods.

As you can see, there are many new people, and for those who are new, welcome!

Two other areas I looked at showed no increases – searches and Feedburner subscriptions. OpenLab did not figure into the top search terms that drove traffic to The Hot Iron. Also, there was not a significant change in Feedburner subscriptions. Feedburner does not allow you to analyze traffic beyond 30 days, plus I have always found strange fluctuations in subscriptions on a daily basis that I haven’t considered that a serious traffic stat. I look forward to its further integration into Google, and perhaps into Analytics as well.

In summation, I did receive some bump during the period after OpenLab. If you are one of those who started reading after OpenLab – or not – please feel free to comment as to what brought you here.

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Business • Mobile Technology • (2) Comments • Permalink