Lately I see some articles on Google’s increased competition. Here are my thoughts:

Leaving Yahoo / Altavista / whatever for Google was easy. Google consistently provided much better search results on all queries. There was no question as to which engine was better.

Now, even if some other search engines (MSN, Yahoo) have surpassed Google in search quality, it’s difficult to verify it for a fact. Search quality among engines seems equal and it would take a complicated scientific experiment to sort them correctly by quality. And since I am already used to Google, I don’t have a reason to leave it based on quality.

The only thing that could make me switch is the various add on services (e.g. image, video, blog, local, map, news, Usenet and desktop searches), but even in these areas Google seems ahead of or at least as good as the competition.

Someone must come up with a new killer feature that will take search engines to the next level, in order for me (and probably lots more) to switch from Google.

I was reading an article about Palm’s fall (through Slashdot) and I remembered how fond I was of this company.

The first palm I ever owned was a B&W Palm III. It was light-years ahead of anything else, with lots of software and a battery that would last more than 2-3 weeks! I even wrote some software for it.

Anyway, the thing is I was thinking of buying a Treo, because it seemed a nice device, but the new Treo will be running Windows (!) so I guess I’ll check other Windows devices as well (and probably find something better).

Interesting article from Cringely, where he argues that Google punishes you for lowering your amount per day in AdWords. The experiment went like this:

$0.10 per day for about 15.000 clickthroughs / day
$1 per day for more than 15.000 clickthroughs / day
$0.40 per day for about 1.200 clickthroughs / day

In truth it was a bit more complicated as all tests were done to an identical test site, but it all leads to these numbers.

Undo in web applications is not very popular. Actually, I have used no web app that had extensive undo capabilities. I was reading about this recently somewhere and started thinking if I could make an undo feature for MagnaCRM and how I would go about implementing it. I certainly don’t intend to do it for v1.0 as I already have a full plate.

I think the most difficult operation to undo is a delete, because deleting a record may require deletion of dependant records (e.g. delete an account and you also delete all related contacts). Moreover, instead of deleting from the database you must only flag affected records as deleted. The good thing is that I can offer undo for delete operations easily, since I already have a Recycle Bin feature (deleted records go there and you can undelete them at any time).

Edits seem easier to undo although they could prove to be trickier. You need some kind of auditing mechanism that logs all changes done to records by each user. Then you use that to go back to previous states and you could even offer a redo.

The question that I needed to answer is: should I offer an undo feature that will only undo delete operations or leave it all for next version? I’ll probably do the later, as it will be rather confusing to have an undo button after deleting a record but not after editing it! For v1.0 the Recycle Bin will have to suffice: you can still undelete something even if no convenient undo button is offered.

Here is an interesting problem:

While using an application you edit a record with the intention to change the value in a drop-down list. Available options are A, B, C and B is currently selected. So you change that to C and save. Now, you change your mind and try to make it B again, but option B is now missing from the available options.

Here is why this happens: the admin has edited the available options for this drop-down list and removed option B. Records using this value still show it, but after selecting a different option there is no need to show it again.

Of course this is way too unfriendly and weird. I could only think of three solutions to this problem:

1. Do not allow the admin to remove options used by at least one record. The problem here is that if the admin makes a mistake while creating options, there is no way to fix it other than manually editing all records using the particular option.
2. Make the admin select an option that will take the removed option’s place. E.g. “Remove option B and put option C in all records using it”. This is not always easy: imagine a field “How did you hear about us” with starting options “Internet”, “Magazine”. Now the admin wants to remove “Internet” and add “Internet: ad”, “Internet: web site”, “Internet: search”. He can’t really replace the old option with one of the new three.
3. Add a small descriptive text to removed values. So the user would see these options: “A”, “B [removed]“, “C”. This way, no one has decided the new value for him and he is informed that option B is now deprecated. He can either select a new value or leave it as is. Moreover the admin has no problems in removing options.

I went with the 3rd solution which, while not super user-friendly, is at least flexible.

My latest obsession as far as games go is Urban Dead, a massive multi-player web-based game with a zombie theme.

The city is dying. Some months on from the first reported outbreak, military quarantine units have closed Malton’s borders, and are moving in to eliminate the looters, to forcibly evacuate those civilians who still refuse to leave their homes.

The city is dying, and the urban dead are filling its streets.

The nice thing is that you can only do 50 clicks per day (roughly 5 minutes of gameplay) so it’s not a time sink. But I would really love to have the time to play World of Warcraft.

In all projects I’ve done, I always hated doing the administrator’s forms. And it’s all I’m doing these days for MagnaCRM.

I really would have left it as one of my last tasks, but I got fed-up having to manually edit the DB each time I wanted to make a change. So I pushed the relevant to-do items at the top of my list. Basically it’s user management (add / edit / disable / enable users), look-up tables (again add /edit / disable / enable records) and application wide settings.

Well they’ll be finished at some point and I’ll move again to more interesting things!

Ian Landsman just released the beta of his help desk software - HelpSpot.

Jakob Nielsen analyzes the results of a study about the conversion ratio of 1 mil. Google ad clicks (with a high 4% conversion rate). The interesting thing is that 5% of sales happened after a month from the initial visit. Another 5% was in the 12 - 30 days window. I always thought people forget quickly, so either they buy at once or never come back.

Just saw a very clever business card design over on smallbusinessbranding.com.

Original designer is here.

When I started MagnaCRM I decided to use a table-less design. I read too many articles about how using tables for positioning is evil (after all, tables should be used for tabular data only) and decided to go along.

I am now coming to regret it. Yes it feels nice to know that every aspect of your layout can be changed through a single CSS file. And yes, I understand it’s the “right” thing to do.

But it started getting on my nerves with the small differences between browsers. As if javascript incompatibilities aren’t enough of an issue. I am considering going back to good old tables. The only thing keeping me, is the flexibility to offer completely different layouts. Then again, with the right dose of tables and CSS I could probably achieve the same level of flexibility.

I am setting up osCommerce for a client’s online shop. I’ve never used it before, so it’s an interesting experience. So far my feelings are mixed.

The good:

• Easy to install
• Feature rich
• Thousand packages to extend it

The bad:

• New releases are rare (last release was in July 2003). Forked projects have emerged.
• Packages are hard to install (requires manual merge of multiple files)
• It’s hard to change the layout

In any case it’s an admirable project. Thousand online shops use it and that must count for something!

I get asked why I’m not going to offer a hosted solution for MagnaCRM. So here are all the reasons that made me decide against offering a hosted solution:

• Technical background. I am a developer, not an administrator. I know how to set up a server but I also understand I would not be up to the task of handling multiple servers, load balancing them, keeping them updated and running.
• Information shortage. While there is a wealth of information (articles / blogs) regarding the process of creating a stand alone app (desktop or web), I can’t say the same for hosted applications.
• Human resources. Although I intend to offer solid support, I have to face the reality: it’s just me. If a client sends an email on Saturday, he may receive an answer on Monday. No big deal. If the DB server would go down on Saturday it would be expected to have it fixed ASAP. By Monday everyone would be rightfully angry and probably looking at the competition.
• Up front costs. You can’t start offering a hosted solution using a shared or even a low end dedicated server. A high end dedicated server is quite expensive and I’m not even sure if one would suffice.
• Pricing. Not sure if this is indeed a problem but I think it as such. A monthly fee is more expensive than a one time fee. Even a low $15 / user / month is $180 / year. As I target small businesses, I believe a $180 one time fee would seem more fair.
• Host it yourself. Just because I won’t host it, it doesn’t mean no-one else will :-) There are hundreds of hosts offering PHP & MySQL, with prices from $5 / month (and maybe even less). I certainly intend to research and suggest some of them, even offering to do the initial setup.

I just finished reading High Performance MySQL for the 2nd time. This book is full of insightful advice plus it’s relatively small (because information is packed). I rarely read IT books more than once, but this one had a lot of things I missed on the first pass.