Web design agency focused on clean creative design » 2.0 Sites

Simple browser based notation tool

Josh Hughes — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:13:56 +0000

I was reading Smashing Magazine as I do every day and came across a cool site form their post “50 Powerful Time-Saves for Web Designers“. One of the sites that really interested me was Markup. It’s a very simple browser based tool that allows the users to make notations and markup a page right through the browser. The thing I love is that you don’t need an account, there is nothing to download or install. You simply bookmark the site in your toolbar, visit the site you wish to markup and click the link. Once you are done you can publish the page in which you are provided with a URL to email around showing your notations. The user can then make additional edits on top of that or start over.

From the drawing palate you can select from freehand, arrows, circles, rectangles, or lines. You can also select different colors and control the thickness of borders. There is also a text tool allowing you to the ability to type up explanations or directions for an edit.

I think as a web designer this application will be a good system for some clients to work with because there is no real learning curve or another login to remember. I know there are more elaborate apps and tools out there allowing for more detailed collaboration and version history but to me this is a great simple app. So make sure you check out Markup and let me know what you think.

Hunch

Josh Hughes — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:54:58 +0000

Today when checking my CNN News Widget on my Mac I saw – Hunch’ Web site will make decisions for you -. It seemed interesting enough and figured it was some type of personalized search engine. It seems to be a combination of a search engine mixed with Pandora where it “learns” what you like over time. Personalized search is not new as many companies are working on it. But with this interface it has more of a social media site feel then a traditional search engine.

The site just launched on Monday and was created by one of the co-founders of Flickr. I can see design elements from Flickr here, very clean, lots of negative space, 2.0 style looking javascript etc. The site is very user friendly and follows the trend of less is more and user generated content being the focus.

I think this will be a good place to do some initial research for products or decisions weighing on your mind. Or simply a fun place to surf around if you are bored. From a marketing perspective companies can use this form of crowd sourcing as the ultimate market research to zero in on exactly what their customer base is looking for. It will be interesting to see how this site / company progress in the future and who buys them out.

So go read the CNN Article and then head over to Hunch to check it out.

Local Mojo = Free Optimized Local Sites

Josh Hughes — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:31:57 +0000

Local Mojo is finally up! We’ve been working on this behind the scenes at AgencyWeb for the last several months. I designed the front end of the site and built the css framework. Again we worked worked with Luke and his guys who built all the amazing features that make this platform work. It’s currently in soft launch but ready for some businesses to sign up for. It’s the perfect blend for most businesses. We found that a lot of companies don’t need or can’t afford a full blown web marketing agency like AgencyWeb, or they need something more then a directory listing like National Online Directory. Along came Local Mojo.

Local Mojo provides businesses with free local sites that provide the standard directory style information such as location with maps, hours of operations, payment options, services etc. But they allow you some “mojo” by having the ability to embed your own YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Twitter updates and more. Local Mojo also gives the user to track everything with powerful state of the art analytics and the option to buy targeted localized traffic to get even more visitors to your site.

So if you want a free website to help your local business check out www.localmojo.com and if you want to really have some mojo sign up for some of the enhanced features.

DS on Twitter

Josh Hughes — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:34:05 +0000

So we finally broke down and created a Twitter account. www.twitter.com/digital_skratch

I have to admit I always thought it was rather silly but have been using it the past couple of months for iHoops and starting to use it for AgencyWeb and some other projects, so my views have changed haha. So I created one today and applied a custom background to it as well as iHoops.

Crazy Fast Logos

Josh Hughes — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:41:18 +0000

Here is a video that features over 5000 Web 2.0 logos in less then 6 minutes. It is quite impressive and crazy to see.

Mobile Tools

Josh Hughes — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:47:54 +0000

So it has been awhile since my last blog post. Lots has been going on with both work and personal things. With that said here is an update with some really cool Web 2.0 sites. I am going to start to post these cool sites on a regular basis so check back for those.

These three sites are perfect for iphone / ipod users or anyone who travels lots and would like to make better use of their time.

http://www.dixero.com

It is a service that is prefect for people on the go or like listening to podcasts. Now you can stay up to date on your favorite blog sites while you travel. It is a service that allows you to listen to rss feeds via a computer, ipod etc. It is currently in beta version right now.

http://spanishpod.com
This service allows you to learn spanish via your ipod or iphone. There is a free 7 day trial with access to the paid lessons and after that you must pay to continue.

http://www.wirenode.com
This service allows you to design and build mobile websites with relative ease. It also has it’s own version of analytics available.