Simplicity Rules

Adam DuVander on keeping it simple

Random acts of unlikelihood

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Over at that famous biography site I help with, there is a random profile of the day. We look at the bundle of over 2,500 famous people and pick one at random to be plastered on the front page that day.

Yesterday it was John Cusack.

Because I’m paranoid about the code I wrote to provide a snippet of the profile, I receive an email every day with the “profile du jour.” I did a double-take and had to check my archives when I saw that…

Today’s profile is John Cusack.

The likelihood, if I may get technical, of the same random profile being chosen two days in a row is one in 6.25 million. That computer has good taste, picking one of my favorite actors two days in a row.

For those who believe in miracles, check in tomorrow and see whether Cusack makes it a hat trick (tech details: 1 in 15.6 billion).

Increasing responses with repeated requests

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Along with my postcard mailing last month, I also participated in an email campaign to direct a specific group of people to a survey for BestPlaces. As with WifiPDX, replying to the request was actually to the benefit of the recipient.

It shouldn’t be surprising that we received a lot more replies right after each message. It seems to be human nature to either respond immediately or decide it’s not worth responding “late.”

Seth Godin noticed it in June with his eBook experiment and any salesman knows how important it is to cause action and not let a potential sale “think about it.”

WifiPDX postcard mailing

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A few weeks ago I sent out postcards to all of WifiPDX’s Portland WiFi hotspots. My request was simple: recipients follow a unique link to add a description of their businesses. We received a reply from about one in three shops.

With a quick internet search, I couldn’t determine the average reply rates most direct mail campaigns receive. I’m sure response varies widely, depending on how much of a commitment the item requests. My postcard made a point to say the process was quick and free.

I would have liked to have seen over 50%, but I’m pretty happy with those numbers considering that many might have seen this simply as junk mail. All in all, it was a pretty cheap (~$30) way to reach the group that I think are more important than readers in building up WifiPDX.

If the owners, managers, and employees of the coffee shops, cafes, and bars with WiFi believe we’re enhancing the community, they’ll speak positively about our publication. Otherwise, they likely won’t speak at all.

This is why I’m determined to avoid/delay hitting up the businesses themselves for sponsorship. Maintaining this trust is probably the biggest thing I can do to improve the results next time.

The moment you’ve all been waiting for…

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Google has released a Google Maps API. There are lots of strings attached, which could keep people using the unofficial hack.

Like most APIs, Google requires a key. The key is specific to a web site, which Google seems to define as a directory. For example, if you sign up with the domain mygooglemapssite.biz, you cannot use Google Maps under mygooglemapssite.biz/maps/. The good news is that one Google account (required to get a key) can have multiple keys.

Google Maps services need to be freely available. Also, at this time, Google is limiting sites to those with less than 50,000 page views per day.

And, of course, from the Terms of Use:

1.5 Advertising. Google reserves the right to include advertising in the maps images provided to You through the Service at any time and without notice, and by agreeing to the Terms of Use, You agree to display those advertisements as provided to You through the Service without modification.

And wouldn’t it be neat if Google automatically considered the ads it will one day put on API-generated maps to be AdSense ads?

All-in-all, a much-anticipated and great release… says me. Yahoo! also released their Maps API today and Jeffrey McManus has a list of reasons you should care.

The best one on the list: apparently Google’s API requires input by latitude and longitude. This might just be an intentional hurdle to stop everyone and their web developer mother from adding a map to their site. If you’re a Perl hacker, you could use this free geocoder program (also has a low-cost web service). I used this for my closest WiFi hotspot feature and I’ll also use it for the naturally forthcoming WiFi map.

Yahoo! lets you use all the input (address, intersection, airport, etc.) you normally can use. And Yahoo has given no limit (“within reason”) on the number of pageviews. Yet, I’ll be using Google’s. Yahoo! still can’t quite put it together like Google. Their clean, smooth interface seems to be loved by all.

Update: Google also distinguishes between www.domain.ext and domain.ext. My fix has been to look at the URL and then forward to the same URL with “www.” removed, but that’s pretty ugly.

Should I say or should I Joel?

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Joel Spolsky’s 2003 article, Mouth Wide Shut, makes an excellent argument for keeping the Secrecy Cap on all the way through until the release of a product. This means no discussion of feature-sets and, if the project is brand new, no discussion of what it does at all.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately and the supreme secrecy rubs me strangely. As much as Joel’s points make sense, I feel like I’m missing out on something if I keep everything to myself.

Is it the buzz? I don’t think so. It’s worth a lot more when possible customers can move on that buzz.

Is it the feedback? Possibly. When I’ve discussed my ideas with close friends, I am encouraged by their praise and intrigued by their take on something that has only been tossed about in my head.

Is it an aversion to paranoia? Yes. I believe that there are no new ideas. This becomes abundantly clear every time I look up domain names. Can you believe that MonkeyDonkey.com is unavailable*?

In the end, I think Joel’s argument makes a lot more sense for his shrinkwrap software company than it would for a web application. With a release cycle that works in months and years, it would be important to keep secrets. I like the idea of making many small innovations, released often. Web applications can do this.

What’s the difference between talking about something new now, or in two weeks when it’s available to the masses? And if there really is no difference, then maybe I should default to keeping my mouth shut?

Update: The guy who started Yahoo Groups and Bloglines argues against keeping secrets in Stealth Start-Ups Suck.

* DonkeyMonkey.com is also taken. TigerGoat.com awaits your money…