October 08, 2010

Oh what a view

We are pretty lucky here at Level8, we have a small office, but we've got a BIG view. And yes, we did touch this photo up a bit..."bit" being a relative term. Gotta love those new HDR tools in PhotoShop CS5!

October 08, 2010

Google Instant, changing search habits?

Sam Crocker is a Maine native, now working across the pond in London as an SEO. Today he posted an interesting review of how Google Instant has begun to change individual search habits. My interpretation of the review leads to the following conclusion:

- The percentage of Google users interacting with Google Instant is still relatively small.

- People using Google Instant are using more terms in their searches than users interacting with the classic Google search experience.

Seems logical. People getting instant feedback on their searches are narrowing them in real-time, as they type, to enhance their search results. While I wouldn't have predicted this change in behavior, it makes perfect sense.

Good work Sam, thanks for the post!

Check out his full post and read what Google has to say about their service.

October 06, 2010

Mashable Reviews Current Logo Trends

Mashable did an interesting review of current and past logo trends at the end of last month. While their analysis is brief and rather obvious, it is interesting to see logos of similar trends clumped together. It's worth a look, check it out: Mashable: 11 Trends in Web Logo Design: The Good, the Bad and the Overused

September 20, 2010

A new web analytics system takes the stage

SeeVolution launched it's Beta release on September 1st 2010 with the goal of creating, to quote their wiki, "a simple user interface that converts aggregated data into visual tool sets." While early adapters have had to wrestle with the inevitable quarks of a Beta release, the development team has seemingly been responsive and direct with it's public. In response to a client's request, we did our first install of the SeeVolution tool last week and had some questions regarding the SeeVolution's domain registration's sensitivity to the inclusion of preceding www's (ex. level8ds.com vs www.level8ds.com). After an inquiry was sent along to the SeeVolution support email, a response was returned within 30 minutes, a pleasant surprise after waiting up to several days in the past from other PAID service providers.

Furthermore, it seems SeeVolution plans to continue to offer some, though presumably not all, of their tools for free even after it leave the Beta phase. While it's hard to imagine SeeVolution creating a set of data as comprehensive as the free tools provided by Google, it will be great to offer clients it's visual representation of select sets of data in conjunction. While their wiki page doesn't directly identify future goals of the tool set, it will be interesting to see how SeeVolution evolves in the coming months.

September 17, 2010

LiveWork Portland

LiveWork Portland is a Portland Maine based non-profit which works to increase the creative community's visibility. If you haven't had a chance to check out their activity in our community take a look at their blog or Facebook page.

Portland's a great place to live/work/play and LiveWork Portland is eager to show you why.