(You know we mean it because we have a nice shiny "contact us" button)
We hope everyone has a fun Halloween on Saturday. We had our annual Advent Creative Halloween party last night and it was a blast. (Insert lame Halloween pun here, i.e. “it was a howling good time,” etc.). I’ve posted some video so we can all relive the magic. Enjoy.
Last night, while surfing Reddit, I found this nifty little trick for YouTube. By replacing the word “watch” in the URL with “warp.swf,” you get a graphical representation of the video you’re watching and its connection to related videos.
Here’s an example of the altered URL: http://www.youtube.com/warp.swf?v=Xtssc6MAxUU
Apparently this has been around for a while in Google’s Testube, but I hadn’t heard about it until now. I can see why it’s not released publicly yet. All the video is low quality and stretched, but the interface is a lot of fun. Within minutes of messing around with it, I went from Advent Creative’s videos to a patch of funny German TV commercials.
While this is just a fun trick right now, it may one day be the way we surf the Internet. I wrote a blog post a while back about a group of programmers that were working on some online collaborative software that would be more of a workspace than an actual page. This YouTube Warp is in the same vein. I personally prefer surfing without the restraint of pages and backward and forward buttons. Let’s hope this trend continues.
Sad news: Andrew, our very own rocket scientist and head of the fictional Advent Science division, is moving on to bigger and better things. It’s not just a platitude when I say “bigger and better things.” Andrew is headed to the Surrey Space Centre in London to get his Ph.D.
So, we are now looking for a new front-end web developer. Here’s the posting we’ve put up around the web:
dvent Creative, one of the leading web design agencies in Utah, is looking for a front-end developer who is interested in using the latest web tools to create stunning sites and innovative applications. Requirements:
1. Must love to program in JavaScript or at least be excited to learn.
2. Knowledge of Cold Fusion. We can train you if you have a strong knowledge of PHP, ASP, .NET, etc.
3. Must be interested in interface design and search engine optimization.
4. Must be excited about using the next generation of Internet technologies and willing to stay up to date.
Pay will be commensurate with skill and experience. Advent Creative has four distinct sections: web, design, video, branding. The front-end developer will work in the web department, but will interface on a regular basis with the other groups. Advent Creative is an innovative young agency and to succeed here you will need to be competent, knowledgeable, flexible and creative. Send a resume and cover letter detailing your skills and experience to Wade Olsen: wade@adventcreative.com
If you’re interested in working at Advent Creative in beautiful downtown Logan, Utah, send us your resume. And don’t worry, it’s not a requirement to be a rocket scientist like Andrew. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be a bonus, but it’s not necessary.
The open house was a huge success. Our office was packed, the food was great, and the conversation was scintillating. If you missed it, here are some videos of the event and the ribbon cutting. In about an hour we’ll have some video up of the drawing for $1,000 worth of free advertising. (I already know who won, but you’ll have to wait for the video.)
Thanks again to everyone who stopped by today. We had a blast.
Ribbon Cuttin’ and Speechifyin’
Prize Drawing
OK, the last few blog posts have been dedicated to open house stuff. We’ll get back to the exciting world of search engine optimization, social media, web design, video production and branding soon enough. But first, three more reasons to be at our open house on Friday, Oct. 23 at noon:
If you see this glorious vista unfolding before your eyes, then you're in the right spot.
Since we’ve merged with Digital Slant and since we’ve moved into an amazing new office space, we’ve decided to hold a massive party. If you’re reading this right now, consider it your official invitation. If somebody is reading this out loud to you right now, also consider this to be your official invitation. Basically, everyone’s invited.
Our new address is 55 N. Main, Logan, Utah. We’re in the Emporium building on the third floor next to the Coppermill Restaurant. Here is a helpful video if you get lost.
You can stop by the office anytime this week and we’ll have cookies and tours from friendly, helpful people. However, the big event is on Friday. Here’s what’s happening:
Visiting and whatnot
Ribbon cutting with the Cache Chamber of Commerce
(I’m pretty excited about this. They bring the big scissors and everything. I wonder if it can cut more than ribbons?)
Food! Free Food! Free Barbecue Food! One of our clients, Smoke ‘n Blues Barbecue, is going to be catering. It will be amazing.
Drawing for $1,000 worth of advertising in local movie theaters. All day long you can drop your business cards in for a chance to win. It’s a great way to give your business or organization a quick boost.
Also, I think it goes without saying, that Adam, our creative director, will be available for chit chat. For those of you who don’t know, Adam is a world class conversationalist with impeccable manners. Clay, Wade, Cami, Mike D., Mike B., Nate, Scott, Andrew, Other Adam, K.C., Marshall (that’s me), and Wendy will also be available for chit chat, but it’s just not the same.
While you’re at Advent, nuestra casa es su casa. So, if you want to play Guitar Hero, go ahead. If you want steal my Diet Mountain Dew, go ahead. If you want to kick Nate off of his computer and insert emoticons into his code, go ahead. It’s our open house party and you’re invited. See you on Friday.
We’ve got more signs than Gideons have Bibles, but people still get lost trying to find their way to our new location. So, here’s a helpful video to get you here safely. Enjoy.
Google Sidewiki is a fun new tool that could make the entire web more social. It’s a toolbar that you download for your browser. Then, at any point in your Internet meanderings, you can stop and post a comment. You can also see what others have written before you.
Funny thing, though. You can only get the sidewiki toolbar if you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer. Even Google’s own web browser, Chrome, got left out of the party. I’m a Safari 4 man myself, but I set up sidewiki on a Firefox browser to give it a spin. Turns out, it’s a fun as it sounds. Here are some of the cool things that you can do with it.
If you have a verified domain with Google Webmasters, you can leave a special sidewiki comment that will always appear at the top of your web pages. I’ve been reading Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol about Freemasons and secret codes this week and the idea of leaving a message only for the sidewiki initiates was probably way more fun for me than it should have been. (Psst, go to Advent’s home page once you get the sidewiki toolbar. It will be awesome.)
If I’m feeling like it, I can go to the front page of the New York Times and leave a link back to my blog in the sidewiki. (Actually, I’m going to do that right now.) Too easy right? Well, it is. There are some caveats. First, the link is not a follow link, meaning you don’t get any credit for it with the search engines. Still, you could get some traffic, but it all depends on how popular the sidewiki will become. The other thing keeping you from blog spamming popular sites is that people can vote your comment as helpful or not. If it’s not helpful, it drops into the abyss of the sidewiki. Apparently, it also has some ultra-sophisticated spam detection thing that will actually shock you through your keyboard if you try to link irrelevant crap. OK, I made the shock part up, but it’s not a bad idea. Linking with sidewiki could be a good thing as long as everybody uses it responsibly. I would go so far as to say that it’s only moral to link related, relevant, and helpful content on the sidewiki. Otherwise it will turn into the sidespammy, and we’re back to square one.
This is fun. I made a sidewiki comment about Reddit and then I posted the link to it on Reddit. It was hilarious … to me. I only got six karma points from it.
Some people I’ve talked to have worried that sidewiki will replace the comments on blogs. It might, but so what? I’ll admit that you might lose a slight amount of SEO value if all the comments on your blog are very keyword-focused and on topic. But we all know the reason blog comments were invented was to give Internet trolls something to do when they’re not surfing porn. So why not just have that on the sidewiki? Many times we don’t even let search engines index the comments on our blogs so that we can better control the keywords. If sidewiki revolutionizes blog comments, I’m fine with that.
For a long time now, you’ve been able to have a profile on Google. I’ve never felt like it, but I know some people who were into it. With the sidewiki, however, it finally seemed relevant. So, I threw my “angry” picture up and filled out a quick form. Now when I make a comment on the sidewiki you can seem me staring intensely back at you. (Everyone asks me why such an easy going guy like me uses the meanest looking photo I can find for my avatar. It’s simple: it’s the only photo I have of myself that’s safe for work.) With the profiles and the nearly unlimited commenting abilities, sidewiki is more than a toolbar, it’s a new social medium.
So, a few years ago, a certain airline (Delta) ruined my life (for about one day). I won’t go into the details, but needless to say, I was angry. Angrier, actually, than I appear in my “angry” picture. Unfortunately, I had no recourse but to keep my fingers crossed as they filed for Chapter 11 … twice. With sidewiki, however, I can go and lodge a complaint in a way that I know they will pay attention. If the sidewiki becomes more popular, I can see this becoming a big online reputation management liability. On the other hand, it could also be used for testimonials. Imagine how impressive that would be.
WARNING: Don’t try to fake testimonials on a sidewiki. It’s very easy, especially right now while the technology is new, to see everyone an individual has commented. In a click or two, your ruse would be exposed and you would have no control over the fallout.
It will be interesting to see if Google’s sidewiki catches on. If it doesn’t, then I think we’ll see a second round of it and maybe a third round until it sticks. It overcomes one of the biggest barriers to the social web: waiting for people to make their websites interactive. With sidewiki you can go wild tagging the stuffier parts of the Internet up with your own clever word-graffiti. Have fun.
Wanna be friends?