Emerge Inc. Blog

According to a recent report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP., internet ad sales reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008 - an 11 percent jump over the same period last year.

In addition to developing websites and building Internet based software, Emerge has been working with online advertising for many years and from all three angles:

Customer - While word of mouth from satisfied clients is still our number 1 form of marketing, we have done some online marketing to promote our services and keep our name in front of prospective clients.

Advisor - We have worked with a number of clients to strategize and use online marketing to promote their business. This includes online advertising, search engine optimization and social media.

Publisher - One of Emerge’s projects is LorainCounty.com a community website in Lorain County, Ohio that is primarily supported by online advertising.

One trend we have noticed over the past couple of years is the shifting of a percentage of marketing budgets from traditional marketing (newspaper, yellow pages, radio, etc.) to online marketing (websites, online advertising, etc.). When you consider that people are spending more time online, it makes sense to shift marketing in the same direction.

The Lake Metroparks 50th Anniversary website developed by Emerge recently won two awards. The website received an APEX Bronze Award in the Marketing New Media/Electronic Media category from the Lake Communicators. The website also received a Honorable Mention from the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association 2008 Awards of Excellence. Congratulations Lake Metroparks!

Our brother Dan Skimin lives in Mumbai, India. Fortunately, during Wednesday’s terrorist attacks he was safely sleeping in his apartment 15 miles away.

Normally, we talk about how the Internet helps businesses and organizations achieve their objectives, connect with customers and change business processes. On Wednesday, it was different.

- The CNN breaking news hit my email box saying, “At least 26 people have been killed in several ongoing, coordinated attacks in Mumbai”

- I sent an email and text message and Mike called on his cell phone to Dan asking him to confirm he was safe, we did not receive an immediate response.

- I sent a Twitter and Facebook update to let others know, “Waiting to hear from Dan who lives in Mumbai, India. He’s likely sleeping (it’s 4am his time), but with the news - time to wake up and call!”

- With Google Maps, we discovered that the attacks were 15 miles away from his apartment. I twittered this to let everyone know.

- A friend emailed to say Dan was logged on to Skype. A good sign, but he wasn’t answering

- Through Facebook chat and skype, I stayed in contact with a number of people from around the world. As soon as Dan contacted one person, just about everyone would know.

- After about an hour of watching news, reading the Internet and communicating online with others who were interested in the situation, Mike received the call from Dan letting us know he was safe.

- We quickly updated Twitter and Facebook to let everyone know that Dan was safe.

In addition to this technology being amazing, it is also very personal. It is one thing to watch television about an attack 8,000 miles away. It is completely different when you share the experience with people from around the world in real time. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Mumbai attacks.

The Lorain County Association of Realtors® (LoCAR) recently held electronic voting for their Board of Directors, using an online voting application developed by Emerge.

The voting starts with an email sent to each Realtor, providing instructions and a link to the online ballot. When voting online, members are asked for their Realtor License number, this ensures that each member only votes one time.

Two separate secure databases are used. One keeps track of who has voted and to ensure anonymity, a separate database tracks the actual votes. As an added safeguard, an excel spreadsheet is generated that shows each vote cast and a timestamp. This enables a comparison with print copies of the votes.

Congratulations to recently elected LoCAR board members Tania Kegyes and Louise Woehrle.

Lorain County Auditor Mark Stewart’s website is now offering early registration for 2009 dog tags. When an owner purchases their tag online, they are removed from this year’s postal mailing.

The email to dog owners explains the benefits:

In attempting to lower our printing and postage costs, we are urging all dog owners to take advantage of this opportunity to purchase their 2009 tag now. Early registrations will potentially save taxpayers thousands of dollars and ensure that funds are available where they are needed most - for the housing and care of animals at the Lorain County Dog Pound.

While the early registration is new, online registration has been available in Lorain County since 2001. Emerge started working with the Auditor’s office in 2000 to accept online payments and added the Dog Registration option in late 2001, in time to purchase 2002 tags.

Based on the success of the program and Emerge’s experience with Lorain County, we have begun receiving calls from other County Auditors about implementing similar online purchasing around the State.

I enjoy fresh oranges, always have. But I don’t eat them as often as I should. Fresh oranges just aren’t that easy. They have to be peeled, you have to watch for squirting juices and unlike an apple, oranges take 2 hands (or you have a sticky keyboard or steering wheel when your done). Personally, I would eat a lot more oranges if they were easier.

The same axiom applies to websites. The easier a website is to use, the more people will use them (all else equal, of course).

This is something we have believed in at Emerge for a long time. But, we have been putting an even larger emphasis on this lately. As Emerge has grown, we have taken on larger projects, which often come with large lists of desired features.

One of my favorite aspects of my work is taking a complex list of features and distilling it into a website or web-based application that is simple, intuitive and easy to use.

By the way, a google search for ‘How to eat an orange’ provides 571,000 results including detailed instructions from wikiHow, eHow and 1,310 YouTube videos.

Three years ago, I signed up as a member of the New York City chapter of the Interaction Design Association. Each month when the email arrives promoting their next meeting and the renowned speaker that will present, I am jealous that I can’t jump in a cab or subway and join the conversation.

Well, I finally got lucky. IxDA’s regular meeting was scheduled for September 18th, the same time I was in New York City for the Web 2.0 Expo. Nyree and I signed up online and attended our first IxDA meeting.

The meeting was held in the offices of R/GA New York and focused on ways to interact with a computer or software other than with a keyboard and mouse. This included touch screens like on an iPhone and Microsoft Surface, and also included actions such as putting your hands under a infrared sink to turn the water on.

The main presenter was Dan Schafer, author of Designing for Interaction and the upcoming book Designing Gestural Interfaces. Clearly an expert on the subject and literally the person writing the book on the topic.

Talk about a contrast. Just 2 days after Lehman Brothers collapsed and on the day the stock market fell over 500 points, Nyree and I were in New York city for Web 2.0 Expo where optimism abounded.

For the past couple of years, Emerge team members have attended the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Due to the growth of the conference, organizers decided to create a New York version of the show.

The Web 2.0 Expo provides a glimpse into the future of the Internet. Large companies like Google, Microsoft, E-Bay and Salesforce.com launch new products and divisions. Fast rising start-ups launch their companies, announce venture funding and discuss the market niches they are attacking.

Personally, I enjoy the intense exposure to the many different facets of our industry. On the exhibit floor, hundreds of companies explain how their new software as a service is the next Google or Facebook. In the conference sessions, discussion leaders speak of the best way to display, process and store data, connect with people and build new business models.

Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco is March 31 - April 3, 2009. We are planning to go, so if anyone wants to join us, just let me know. If anyone is interested, but can’t make it to San Francisco, maybe I’ll twitter.

Emerge recently developed a new section for Elyria Schools that enables the community to watch live video of the construction of the new Elyria High School. Elyria School’s set-up 5 cameras to provide a full view of the construction site. Emerge developed an interactive map that enables the website visitor to select an angle and view the live feed from that camera. There is also a ‘View All’ page to view all 5 cameras simultaneously. To view the progress, click here.

While eating a delicious dinner on Thursday with good friends, I received a text message from one of the data centers used to host Emerge client websites. The data center continuously monitors the hosting computers and sends an automated text message as a warning that an issue might arise. The solution is almost always to issue a command to the computer and stop a recurring process and can be done without affecting website visitors.

Fortunately, this doesn’t happen too often because in the old days, say a month ago, this would require 1) calling someone who was sitting near a computer; or 2) calling the data center; or 3) cutting dinner short and running home or to the office.

Thanks to Steve Jobs and Apple, a fourth, even easier option is now available. I simply whipped out my new iPod touch, connected to the restaurant’s free wireless Internet, accessed the server, diagnosed the issue and executed the proper commands. Issue solved, no client’s sites were affected and I continued to enjoy my evening.