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"I would love to say that the whole concept of Bumble Search came to me in a flash of inspiration. The Eureka moment. Sadly, it didn’t."

My friend Andy Mitchell has been writing about his experiences of developing Bumble Search, a Firefox extension which makes it easier to find related pages, and enhances sites such as Amazon, eBay, Slashdot, Google and Digg.It is an interesting look at the development of the extension, from initial concept, through to the first release. Covering topics such as XUL development, testing, marketing, fear and uncertainty.So, without further ado, head over to the Bumble Search homepage and read the article.

An interesting link sent to me from a friend, describing a low-fare airline's response to this weeks French air traffic control strikes. Jet2 condemns the strike action, calling for the "lazy frogs" to get back to work! I suppose it will do the brand some good with Daily Star readers, but is this really something which you want to say on your corporate Web site?

So, part of what I have been doing recently involves analysis of certain Web applications and really identifying areas of improvement in terms of user interaction and user experience. So, here are some of the things that I've learned along the way. Some of them may be obvious, but there are also things which are far too easy to overlook.Not everyone is the sameWorking with programmers there is a certain mindset that you encounter. I must confess that I often display this myself!

"I know what I'm doing, I have read the W3C standards, and I am making the app that everyone will want to use - and they will use it in the same way which I do"

Application development would be so much easier if this were true! Unfortunately, the ultimate truth is that people are not logical, even when you think they are. And, whilst everything you have read from Nielson suggest that users will want to use your app in a particular way, you will find a surprisingly large number of those who don't! As an example, during the development of GMail, the developers identified half a dozen different ways that people would use it to manage their e-mail.

I don't want to pretend I'm a user, I would have to pretend to be stupid.

Okay, perhaps thats a bit of an unfair statement, but it underlines the point - the user is likely to try and do things with your Web applications which are irrational and counter-intuitive. Its up to you to anticipate this and be prepared to accomodate this.A good example of this was seen at recent user labs we ran, looking at some of our Web applications. In this case we had a multi-page form, with a stepped progress indicator along the top of the page. It was quite surprising to see the number of users who would try to click on this progress indicator in order to navigate between the pages. In such a situation you have two options:

• Add that functionality to the proress indicator
• Look at the copy text and visual style of the indicator - why are people thinking that it is a link/button and how can this be reduced?

Either could be an acceptable solution. In our case we went with the second one, partly because it was a quicker fix, and partly due to issues with the underlying architecture which would make the first option unfeasable.

First of all, I do want to say I enjoyed this film. It had a few dodgy moments, but on the whole it was good. And of course Natalie Portman was lovely throughout, even after she was shaved! I'd also like to say that I have not read the graphic novels upon which the film is based, I'm not sure if thats a good thing or not.One of the main complaints about Matrix Reloaded is that it took the world established in the first film and attempted to add a load of religious and philisophical underpinnings to it. Truth be told, that was one of the more enjoyable additions in my opinion - in fact if I had to find a flaw I would say that the fight scenes, whilst visually impressive, went on for way too long. V for Vendetta takes a similar approach when it comes to relevant political issues, and does provolk thought.Set around 20 years into the future, the film depicts a 1984-esque society. America is in a state of civil war after its war on terror backfired. Following a series of biological attacks, including ones on a school and tube station, the Conservative party picked up momentum in Britain. Under the leadership of Adam Sutler, a Hitler-like figure played by John Hurt, Britain has managed to avoid civil unrest by adopting a everything-under-the-sun-phobic policy. Media is controlled by the government, books such as the Quo'ran have been banned and citizens who break the rules are quickly black bagged and taken away.

In this dark world, Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued from goverment policemen by V. He is the revolutionary or terrorist of the story, always masked, with a dark past and modelled upon Guy Fawkes.

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." 

After blowing up the Old Bailey, V appears on television blaming the state of the nation public's inaction to stand up in the face of tyranny. He urges the people to make a stand, on November the 5th, outside of the Houses of Parliament.Flashbacks provide us with a view of V's past, a victim of goverment experimentation - with the aim to create a biological weapon, a virus, which can be used to control a population. In many ways like the Big Death in the short-lived series Jeremiah.Meanwhile, Evey becomes the subject of unwanted attention by the goverment, and eventually seeks refuge with Dietrich, a broadcaster brilliantly played by Stephen Fry. Dietrich himself has many similarities to V, and his own secrets - he is homosexual and possesses a collection of outlawed art and literature. When he is eventually discovered Evey is captured, shaved, tortured and locked in a cell. The twist? Her captor is not the government, it is V.His motive? To make Evey face death, to face her fear, so that she can let go of it and become something stronger. This brainwashing demonstrates just how extremist V has become, and how far he is willing to go. After falling victim to Stockholm syndrome, Evey mistakes her beliefs for love.So, what is V? A terrorist or a revolutionary? Is there any difference? Is his means justified given the ultimate end? In a post 9-11 world all of these themes become extremely relevant. On one hand he is a man, persecuted by a corrupt government seeking to change things for the better by bringing people round to his way of thinking and spreading the message, inciting revolt. On the other, he is akin to Osama Bin Laden, performing terrible acts to incite fear, brainwashing followers into carrying out similar acts. It is a fine line between the two, and V's mask prevents us identifying with him, further blurring his true nature.After asking some thought provolking questions, V for Vendetta leaves the audience feeling both satisfied and thinking about issues which affect us all. The characters are well written, and the style of the film compliments the story. It is slightly let down by some sloppy editing, but otherwise a solid thriller about how things could be if we are not careful!

...interestingly, this film had a bit of a similar feeling to Cabin Fever, in that you are not initally sure what kind of film Roth is making. The story starts off in Amsterdam, with a pair of American backpackers and a random Icelandic sex-addict enjoying the nightlife. At this point, it feels very much like American Pie, and I was left wondering why people had been saying how bloody this film was. But, the Amsterdam scenery brought back memories of my last visit there, so I sat back and lapped it up.The fateful trio manage to get locked out of their hostel and meet a local pimp who tells them of a hostel in Bratislava full of attractive women who are gagging for it, so this begins the trek across Europe. Along the way you are treated to some lovely, albeit bleak, scenery - I must remember to take a holiday to Bratislava some day. Once our 'heroes' are nicely checked into the hostel, you start to get hints that things are perhaps not all what they appear and that something sinister is lurking in the backdrop. For a start the girls at the hostel seem way to nice for Eastern Europe! The next morning, after a night in the disco, we discover that the Icelandic sex machine has "checked out". After a bit of searching, the Americans decide to forget about it and go drink some beer with the girls which leads to both of them being drugged. Luckily one manages to get locked in a cupboard whist searching for the toilets, and is spared a horrible fate... for a short while at least.Josh, wakes up in some kind of dungeon and is confronted by the eccentric German fellow whom they met on the train earlier in the movie. He says how he always wanted to be a doctor, however he had shakey hands so didn't quite make it. But no worries, he gets to fine tune his skills using the array of tools in the room, and this is where it starts to get quite gory. I do admire Roth for not going all out on the gore, in many ways only suggesting the horrific torture unfolding before the viewers, and also not dwelling on it for too long. As a director he has definately matured in that respect.The other American, Paxton, also ends up in the dungeon which turns out to be part of a derelict factory. Although his piano career is now ruined, he manages to escape his torturer and contemplate escap (Tip: Never run with a chainsaw!). All throughout this, the filmmakers do an excellent job of conveying the terror and "screwed up"-ness of the situation. This is definately something which keeps you on the edge of your seat certainly contrasts with the lighthearted beginning of the film.Instead of simply running, or fighting, you see Paxton beginning to take his fate into his own hands and showing morallity. Wether that be through choosing to rescue a fellow captive or ultimately his revenge on the delightful German fellow who chopped up Josh. The characters are totally believable, even the torturers, and that is what adds a lot of weight to this film. If you sweep back the gore and the sex, you end up with a film that examines the dark depths of the human psyche - would you pay for the opportunity to take a life? How would you do it? Would you show mercy? The torturers are not nameless, faceless machines. They are real people; with families, small children. They are doing it for different reasons - the feeling of power, control, fear; to live their dreams. Some are addicted to it and keep coming back for more. Some do it mercilessly, others cannot bear the screams or begging of their victims.From Josh and Paxton's perspective you feel their terror, which leads you to ask what would you do in a similar situation? How far would you go to survive? How far would you go to save another human being? How far would you go to have revenge?An excellent film, recommended for all the gore fans out there but also to those looking for something a bit deeper.Wow. My first review, I've not really wrote something like this for ages so apologies if it is rubbish. Stay tuned for V for Vendetta!

I saw this article on Yahoo - Microsoft Admits Internet Explorer Mistakes - and it has prompted me to write this post... plus it was getting kinda quiet around here!Aside from mentioning how Internet Explorer 7 will embrace standards and play nice(er), Bill Gates comes out with a lovely quote about how Microsoft is "immersed in the browser as a platform". This kind of annoyed me slightly because IE7 is still very much a component of Windows rather than a browser in its own right.Yes, it is a separate download, but there are still restrictions on who can run it. My pet peeve is that you need SP2 installed, mainly because it ties in with all the additional security features. For home users its not so big an issue, however for corporate users it is a major annoyance.SP2 introduced lots of features which made it unpopular as a corporate desktop, most notably restrictions on numbers of connections and the new security centre - which does not play nice with some of the computer management/audit packages out there. As a result, a lot of the larger companies have resisted the upgrade. We certainly are still on SP1, as initial upgrades to SP2 had to be rolled back due to its catastrophic effects. For employee's to install it on a standard build, it becomes a sackable offense.This of couse makes it extremely frustrating from a Web developers perspective as it restricts the testing we can do with this new iteration of the browser. We took the step of setting up a separate testbed, but I'm sure quite a few companies wouldn't bother. Wether they are caught pants down come release day or not, Microsoft isn't doing much to help the developer in this area, so far refusing to offer stand-alone versions for earlier versions of XP or Windows 2000.If anyone from Microsoft is reading, you would make a load of corporate Web developers really happy if you released a stand-alone version!

Bumble Search Press Release

 

New Firefox Extension Provides Easy Methods to Discover Great Webpages

"Simple, powerful and practical"

Bumble Search cross pollinates the web.It discovers and injects relevant pages into your favourite websites.You can find information more easily, and easily find more information!

Automatically Discover New Worthwhile Webpages

Bumble Search will automatically interpret all the keywords in any page to capture its 'essence', and pump them into relevant search engines, to discover new and related information.For example, a news item on 'Apple' may contain the phrase 'Intel Macbook'; Bumble Search can infer this, and utilise search engines like Google to discover other pages with these phrases.

Enhance Google, Amazon and Ebay

Specific web pages are merged with other highly relevant web pages, to create a single, exceptionally useful point of information.You have the power to put any search engine of your choice inside Google, for the times when you need to easily specialise a search.For example, if you are searching for a music review, you can try the band in Google, then instantly retry your search in Rolling Stone magazine.Alternatively, perhaps you are a fan of Mom's Mince Pies, you can easily create a link within Google to search over this site at any time.You can cross reference an auction item in Amazon and Froogle, to ensure you never pay more than the commercial price for it.From Amazon you can look up your chosen product in Ebay to see if it is available cheaper 2nd hand.An extensible underlying system ensures that in the future, other developers will be able to add specialised cross pollination to a wider range of websites.

Additional Information

More information is available at the website: http://www.bumblesearch.com

Technical Highlights

The page keyword analyser engine is an original method that is both fast, and approximates the algorithm Google is believed to use; giving priority to correctly marked up semantics (e.g. bold phrases), hyperlinks, and paying special attention to human readable text.Such is the effectiveness of this method, it could be used as a basis of an SEO utility to evaluate your own webpages for better placement in the search engines.Scriptaculous - the Web 2.0 Javascript library - is utilised for the first time in a Firefox extension to create a highly appealing interface for Bumble Search.Web pages are analysed and modified in real time, by manipulating their inbuilt DOM model. Typically, this involves finding a 'hook point' in the web page (e.g. in Google, the point just before the first result), and injecting new HTML elements (e.g. the IFrame for alternate search engines).Hot keys (the ability to manipulate web sites like Google using the keyboard) and the Sidebar use the native Firefox development languages: XUL and Javascript. XUL, like HTML, allows the interface to be specified in a simple terminology, and then be attractively rendered on any platform that Firefox runs. However, unlike HTML it can interact better with the host computer, and interpret a wider range of human interactions (such as key presses).

An Ethical Note

As a result of Bumble Search's power to manipulate websites, an ethical policy exists to protect the altered website's integrity and business model.Bumble Search will not strip adverts from websites. The duality principle is also upheld: if we help one site (e.g. Amazon) we also help its competitor (in this case, Ebay).

Author

Bumble Search is an original product of Andy Mitchell, a freelance business/IT consultant in the UK. Other than an unhealthy attitude towards hard work, Andy is known to enjoy travelling, winter sports and other outdoor activities. The occasional beer has also, on occasion, passed his lips.Chris Korhonen, a web developer based in Brighton, UK, has been involved in both the testing and marketing aspects of Bumble Search.

Its Murphy's law - if you are looking for a tool, you will find it as soon as the chance to use that tool has passed! This is exctly what has happened.As I mentioned, this week I presented on Web 2.0 at work - which seemed to go down so well that I have already been asked to repeat it for our business partners! On top of that, I'm also moving to a new role which will be much more focused on AJAX/Flex/RIA's, but I digress... What I wanted to be able to do was to create a presentation which would run in my Web browser, making it easier for me to demo things (my demo's would be part of the slides) and also show off some Web 2.0 stuff at the same time.Now if I owned a Mac I'm sure I would have just used Keynote, but unfortunately that is not an option (yet!).At a recent workshop, the presenter was using S5, a slideshow built using XHTML/CSS/JavaScript, enhanced by script.aculo.us to provide some nice visual effects. I liked how that approach came across so investigated. Not bad, but one thing really struck me - to build the presentation I was editing the HTML directly. It worked, but it added an overhead onto the process, and made it difficult when it came to more complex slides with a few images/diagrams. So, I put S5 to one side and made it in Powerpoint, not my idea format as I wanted to integrate a few demo's, but very quick to create. The time came, and I just Alt-tabbed to Firefox.Yesterday, I find what would have been the ideal solution, a Web application called ThumbStacks, which lets you create and host Web based presentations. The difference between this and S5 (aside from the fact that Thumbstacks offers hosting/meeting/collaboration features) is the fact that it also has a brilliant presentation builder. It works just like Powerpoint, its simple and lets you create powerful layouts. It also lets you do nifty stuff such as importing graphics from your Flickr account etc.Its lacking a few things like slide transitions/animations which I think some people would find helpful. But, I'm hopeful that they will be inculded in an upcoming update. (Hint for developers: take a look at script.aculo.us, moo.fx and/or Lightbox). And I will definately be using ThumbStacks for future presentations!

Before we begin, it’s probably a good idea to set the objectives of this session. The audience was mainly project managers and analysts working within technologies, there were also a few developers and project architects in the audience. As an organization, we have neglected the Web for some time, or at least failed to keep up with some of the latest trends. This seems to be changing, but there is still a lack of awareness, and technical knowledge, within the company.That said, the objectives of the session were to:

• Raise awareness of what is going on, on the Web;
• Describe how the Web has changed, and how those changes impact us;
• Demonstrate AJAX/Flex, to stimulate thought about how they could be used to improve our own sites and tools.

There was also lunch, which annoyingly seems to disappear quite quickly whilst you are speaking!So, before I talk about Web 2.0, it’s probably a good thing to understand a bit about the internet itself. It all began in 1969 with ARPANET, a communications network setup in the United States by the USAF and DARPA. It was based upon packet switching, and is the granddaddy of what we know today.TCP/IP didn't come along until 1983, where it was created by the National Science Foundation to link academic institutions. 1991 saw HTTP/HTML rear its head, used by CERN in Switzerland to allow the sharing of scientific data. WordWideWeb, the first Web browser, appeared around this time however this was surpassed by other browsers such as Mosaic.Prior to 1994, the internet as we know it was mainly used in academic/technical circles. For some reason, which I'm not going to attempt to explain, all this began to change. By 1996, the 'internet' had become a household name.The next 5-6 years saw a vast explosion of companies offering online services and commerce. It was the Dot-Com boom. There were lots of success stories, but also lots of failures - in many cases due to lack of technical maturity and poor execution. Others fell victim to the bandwagon effect.Today, there are estimated 1 billion people online. That is one sixth of the worlds population, and that number is set to continue rising.Devices + Connectivity = More UsersThe internet is finding its way into household electronics, whether it be your stereo or your fridge! I have even seen reports of internet-enabled beer coasters, which send a message to the bar when you need a refill! On a slightly more mundane level, Web enabled mobile phones and PDA's are commonplace. Obviously some of these devices are useful (the beer coaster), others are simply a bit of a novelty.If we examine connectivity, we see a two dimensional increase - speed and availability. Broadband is becoming more and more common, giving the user much faster download speed. This opens up much more possibilities - in particular audio and video downloading (without the dreaded buffering message). You see services such as iTunes going from strength to strength as it has become much more realistic to download multimedia content from the Web.Wi-Fi has made it possible for me to connect to the Web in airports, on trains and on beaches. When I go travelling, I don't need to worry about my emails because I can find a wireless network in most urban locations.So the user base is growing. Schemes such as One Laptop Per Child, which is producing a $100 laptop, intended for use by children in the third world support this growth even further - whilst improving educational standards and achieving a social goal.It is, to put it lightly, the second dot-com boom.So, we have talked about where the Web came from, but we haven't really made any attempt to describe what it is. It can really be broken down into four components:

• Hypertext, the ability to navigate between documents through internal connections or links.
• Mark-up Language, a way of presenting data/content, HTML.
• Resource Identifiers, unique identifiers for Hypertext documents, URLs.
• Client/Server, a client makes a request, the server sends a response. A Web browser/server.

What we have is a Web of hypertext documents, each addressable, linked together and viewable through a Web browser.These hypertext documents may be static, or they may be a front-end to a data source of some kind.That is Web 1.0, so what is Web 2.0? A Web of buzzwords?Tom Coates describes it as a Web of data, and I think that is the best description which describes the architecture of this new Web. There is much more emphasis on data and services. Rather than a Web of links, you have a Web of data.Web sites have evolved from being isolated silos of information to a computing platform in their own sense, offering tools/applications to users.Web 2.0 is also a social web, built upon openness, freedom and decentralization. You see communities built up around Web 2.0 applications, creating and distributing content.It is an organized Web. There is greater emphasis on the organization and categorization of content. Search engines help people find what they are looking for, and information architecture is built around the need for a high ranking.Of course, this Web is economically valuable. There is nothing saying that your data or application should be available for free, especially if it has a value to others.Innovation is a big thing in Web 2.0, there is a new found excitement around the possibilities of new technologies such as AJAX, and this is continually building in momentum.But lets not forget, Web 2.0 is also a buzzword; a marketing term. In many ways this is a good thing - it helps separate this new wave of start-up's from those which failed during the first dot-com boom. Nobody wants to invest in a 'Web company', but investors are a lot more receptive to a 'Web 2.0 company'!We have talked about having open data and services, but we haven't really explained why. One reason is that it allows people to produce mash-ups - A Web application which combines data from two or more sources.As Vint Cert from Google said:

"We know we don't have a corner on creativity. There are creative people all around the world and they are going to think of things to do with our platform that we didn't think of. This will be a major source of ideas for applying Google-based technology to a variety of applications."

The Web becomes a platform in its own right, with users interacting with services which interact with and enrich other services. But hang on a minute, all of this sounds very familiar... it sounds like the end result of a Service Orientated Architecture. You have your backend databases and legacy systems which you make available as Web services. Client applications can interact with them; other services can interact with them. The only difference is that we have a global SOA. That’s one of the concepts at the core of Web 2.0 - the Global SOA.Note: there was more to the actual presentation, some bits on RSS and API's, demo's, and a brief mention of user experience. I will probably tack on the user experience section, going into more detail on RIA's, at some point during the week. The other parts either are company specific or don't lend themselves to me simply writing them down!

Well, the weekend is almost over, but here are some interesting links from across the Web which I quite like!

• AJAX/DHTML Library Scorecard, an excellent article on Musings from Mars which looks at the various libraries out there and rates them on cross-browser compatibility. Also nice history of client-side scripting.
• Photo(shops?) of the iPod AV find their way on to the Web. They look quite nice, I'll add it to my shopping list after I get a MacBook Pro!
• Comet, a new Web 2.0 buzzword! (and also an electronics store!)
• Noah, a friend from Uni, covers the Future of Web Apps Summit.
• And finally, the author of this article hit the nail on the head with the differences between start-ups and big corporates.

Next week, I'm doing a presentation on Web 2.0 so expect some content related to that - its a work thing otherwise I would invite you! Also have an interview for a new role on Wednesday, so wish me luck. Plus, if things get a bit less hectic, hopefully I'll have time to do some work on Green Sheets!