Loosing Site

Sprout Builder is a web application for creating and managing Flash content. It gives users the power to assemble rich media without having to deal with the complexity of Flash, Flex or Silverlight.

Live rss and ical data feeds can be displayed along with images, videos and audio streams. More specialized components bring in Google Charts, Yahoo Maps and ChipIn payments.

The multi-page widgets can be embedded in any web site. They also have viral marketing features built in, with distribution to MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Wordpress, NetVibes and others handled automatically via Gigya, Clearspring and SpringWidgets.

The embedded website and social network widgets link back to your original content on the Sprout server and in your feeds, which means that when you make changes to your content, those changes are cascaded through the entire distribution channel. The combination of RSS and Calendar components in an easy to use widget framework provide an good solution for keeping members, fans and clients up do date with your latest news and offerings.

From May 2008 eBay sellers will no longer be able to give negative feedback about buyers. The change is intended to eliminate retaliatory feedback. Some sellers delay giving feedback until they have seen how the buyer has rated them. If the buyer is negative they respond in kind, then offer mutual feedback withdrawal to protect the reputations of both parties.

eBay – The Chatter via kwout

In the new system sellers will be unable to give negative feedback about buyers, though they may still optionally give positive feedback. As a balancing protection eBay will suspend buyers who use the threat of negative feedback to extort changes in agreed conditions.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback via kwout

The aim is to improve buyer trust and confidence. With the fear of retaliatory negative feedback removed, eBay believes that buyers will be more honest and open in their rating and commenting. Consequently the best performing sellers will be able to distinguish themselves.

eBay Feedback Profile for colourmartuk via kwout

At the top end of the performance range, it is difficult to see how a store like Colourmart could improve it’s near perfect, and wholly genuine, feedback score. Colourmart is a UK cashmere supplier that combines superb quality, low prices and excellent customer service. Their quality of service can be seen not just in their eBay statistics but also in their Yahoo Group discussions.

While Colourmart’s score could not become more perfect, others may fall further behind. Whether or not an individual supplier has been intentionally gaming the system, any delay in giving feedback after payment can look like a veiled threat to a buyer, resulting in false positive feedback or the absence of negative feedback. With that perception removed eBay’s change should result in a broader spread of feedback scores. Whether the desired results are achieved will become apparent after the introduction of the new system in May.

Meanwhile, with the opening up of the social graph it is now possible to manage and monitor reputations outside of mainstream auction and merchant sites. Rapleaf, for example, collects positive, neutral and negative ratings from buyers, sellers, swappers and friends; making the ratings available through their website, or through buttons that you can embed in your own sites and profiles – though not on eBay where RapLeaf is banned.

Rapleaf: Better World Books via kwout

Some eBay sellers may rebel and adopt an alternative rating services. Alexa statistics show that RapLeaf has experienced a noticeable increase in page views following eBay’s announcement.

While any system can be gamed, it’s the processes and networks within and around the system that limit the extent of the abuse. At the moment eBay’s feedback system looks more like a round of Prisoner’s Dilemma than a rating tool.

Google Base is not one of the most talked about web applications, but it is quietly becoming an important element in many e-commerce systems. Using the application you can store and share an unlimited volume of structured information of various types including personal ads., event listings, recipes and real estate listing. And, of course, there are products for sale; 1.5 billion products. Product information from Google Base is displayed to consumers through Google Product Search, but in true Web 2.0 style it can also be included in mashups, gadgets, widgets and aggregators using the Google Base API, rss feeds etc.

Loading and storing records is free and can be accomplished in a number of ways. Individual records can be entered by hand, batches can be uploaded from spreadsheets or using tools like Site All’s Base Feeder, while those with Amazon, Ebay or osCommerce stores can upload listings automatically using a store connector.

Matthias Zenger’s presentation at Google Developer’s day in Hamburg gives a comprehensive description of structure of Google Base, and also of its programming interfaces.

One of the most significant characteristics of Google Base is it’s flexibility. Simply through working with RSS feeds customers are able to monitor product prices from multiple stores conveniently in their favorite reader, on Netvibes, in iGoogle or on their cellphone. Meanwhile businesses can use similar feeds to display their latest offerings on websites, in widgets, on web pages or in social network applications.

The recent version 1.0 release of the SpaceTime^TM 3-D web browser offers a new search experience for consumers with high end graphics cards and broadband connections.This is not an attempt to emulate the fictional cyberspaces of William Gibson (Neuromancer) or Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash). It is a carefully structured, engaging and potentially quite practical way of browsing and searching.

SpaceTime™ via kwout

Separate web pages are displayed in different windows in a navigable 3D space, giving an effect similar to Java Desktop or Compiz Fusion.  The main search component is distinctive, pre-loading the top search result pages into a set of receding windows.  This gives a different feel to the information space.

SpaceTime™ via kwout

The search space begins to resemble a rank and file military formation, with separate searches organized abreast of each other with their results in single file behind them. The user gets an almost kinesthetic feeling for each items relation to their current activity with physical positions defining the recency of the search (more to the right) and relevance score (closer to the front).  The search spaces can be saved between browsing sessions, giving a new slant to the question “Now where did I put that?”

The interface design relates well to our greater facility for recognition over recall, and to greater retention of memories that involve a greater number of senses.  Time will tell which tasks are more suited to the richer interface and which are best performed with less elaborate representations.

Currently the search is limited to a pre-defined set of information providers.  Hopefully, this can be extended and configured in the future.  Many of the existing searches are brought in via RSS feeds, so it should be possible to extend the interface to allow users to query selected feeds and APIs.  This would allow the system to be tuned for business or scholastic use, rather then the currently dominant shopping activities.

It’s almost too good to be true. With free web hosting, no ads and an incredibly slick interface Webnode raises the standards for combined hosting/editing packages.

webnode.com – overview via kwout

It boasts an impressive set of features suitable for personal web sites, but aimed squarely at small business users, with drag and drop e-commerce components for Paypal, Google Checkout and Worldpay.

webnode.com – create your website easily via kwout

The built in templates are an adequate starting point; with the system giving easy access to style sheets. More importantly, the templates themselves can be downloaded as an archive, edited and brought back into the system as a completely customized theme. (Web designers can now breathe a sign of relief, they still have a role.)

webnode.com – samples via kwout

Webnode have taken a very pragmatic approach that has made their system extremely flexible. They have streamlined the embedding of third party widgets and gadgets. With direct links to Google Gadgets, YourMinis and SpringWidgets, users are given a very clear and straightforward way to place and manage embed codes. The real beauty is that once your code is pasted you able to drag the embedded objects about the page as you would any other content with a simplicity that rivals Pageflakes.

There are some rough edges, with missing links to some documentation, and occasional delays while the servers catch up with their expanded audience. I’m sure the outstanding technical issues will be cleared up promptly.

My only concerns about the success of the application are connected to marketing. The site doesn’t speak about it’s own origins or credentials. It’s only by looking at downloaded templates that I was able to identify the developers as Czeck integration specialists Westcom. While the product is excellent, more effort needs to go into documentation, marketing, reputation building and public relations if its full potential is to be realized.