Google Earth goes for a dive – Google Ocean has been released

Google Ocean has been released, first commercial layers on their way!Google Earth’s latest update – Google Ocean – adds a plethora of underwater maps for users to take a dive beneath the water surface and explore the 3D terrain (no more 2D relief maps!) of the world’s sea floors, completely with underwater elevations. Users will be able to explore underwater volcanoes and shipwrecks, and even video footage from the most famous diving spots across the world.

And to make sure you have plenty to look at Google added 20 content layers containing information from the world’s leading underwater researchers, ocean explorers and scientists.

The virtual earth is coming more and more alive…and new layers for travel websites are already in development! Keep Reading

Operation Anchorage is here – is it worth it?

Operation Anchorage is now available as DLC for both Xbox 360 and PC. For 800 MS points you get about 5h additional content.

The DLC went live today and is already attracting a high number of downloads.

Operation Anchorage is now available as DLC - Whatwasithinking.co.uk

But is it worth it? Find out in my quick review, spoiler-free of course!

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Selling SEO effectively

How to sell SEO - whatwasithinking.co.ukToday I closed my 11th SEO proposal. This may not sound very impressive (and it isn’t a high profile client either), but it does to me, not only because it adds a few more numbers for the account handlers, but because it means that my sales strategy works (11 out of 11 closed) and that the data I am showing and preparing is useful.

One of my followers on twitter asked me what my trick is, so I thought I’d write down what is helping me close a sale, in the hopes it might prove useful for some of you.

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WhatwasIthinking.co.uk – relaunched!

New Blog design for whatwasithinking.co.uk is live!Whatwasithinking.co.uk has been around for almost a year, and in time for its first birthday I thought I’d take the opportunity and rethink what I actually want to do with it. So I chose to make two drastic changes:

  • Add SEO as a category – because I am now working a lot more with SEO consultants and do a bit of SEO for clients myself (which is working out really well already) this just needed to happen sooner or later
  • Rethink the design – the previous theme I based on a theme by C.Frazier worked well, but it turned out to be very limiting, especially with WordPress 2.7 having added a lot more commenting functions and a very functional interface

So in the end I chose to go for a theme by Vladimir Prelovac. The theme is very modern, has a wonderful layout and after a bit of hacking it tracks pingbacks and tweetbacks successfully. If you want to know more about the theme or Vladimir then please click here (and if you want to follow him, click here).

Please let me know what you think about the theme 🙂

Firefox extensions for usability, accessibility and SEO experts

FireFox extensions for Usability, Accessibility and SEO expertsMy day to day work consists of a lot of time spending on the internet, looking at web presences of current clients, prospective clients and their (and our) competition. My tool of the trade being FireFox 3 (especially considering that IE seems to have a little problem). I am using a number of addons which really help my work-flow in the fields of usability, accessibility, SEO and occasionally information architecture.

I was asked by a couple of fellow twitter users to divulge my plugin list, and since I keep track of them myself at times I thought this post would come in handy for everyone.

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Upgraded to WordPress 2.7!

I upgraded to WordPress 2.7 via a remote connection successfully!
Good times!

To read more about WordPress 2.7, please check out the changelog, download 2.7 here and read more about upgrading your WordPress installation here.

Information Architecture for Game Publisher websites (part 1)

It has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote about Information Architecture, be it IA and user testing or designing for the mobile web in mind, and I want to talk about a topic today which relates somewhat to a somewhat new-ish step in Information Architecture, namely the integration of user retention and user interaction.

It is not news to anyone that I – like so many – enjoy video games, come on, it is a multi-million pounds industry. Game publishers have sought to expand their marketing influence in a number of new ways, some of them have started using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Digg, etc to promote their games either via their own channels, or via publicity stunts (Wii Fit girl anyone?). The message is clear – generate interest, generate sales. Since the company I work for has just signed a deal with a UK-based games publisher with Japanese roots and a European charm I have been looking more into the information architecture of this (still rapidly growing) market, which in turn has opened another door or two for additional potential clients.
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Melon Design & Marketing’s new website is live!

I am happy to announce that the new site of Melon Design & Marketing has gone live today!!

screenshot of Melon's new site

Melon Design & Marketing is a creative communication agency based near Milton Keynes, between Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, specialising in a number of sectors such as branding & corporate identity, graphic design, website design & development, advertising and e-marketing, print management, photography and copywriting.

You can read more about all their services here, and about their in-house CMS Engine on this page.