Quote from: Gurtie on July 09, 2012, 06:27:38 PM
would you apply the same rule to things as large as furniture?

If I was looking at a .co.uk site (or other obviously UK-based site) one of the first things I would do would be to check whether they ship internationally (and how much they would be likely to sting me for it) - especially for something like furniture.

It's getting a bit hypothetical, but I guess I would ask the local supplier if there was a possibility they could do a custom order if there was something that I particularly wanted? (Or is the preference for me not to know that different ranges exist? I don't think there is particularly a negative in that sense - it's a pretty normal scenario.)

Quote from: Gurtie on July 09, 2012, 03:43:28 PM
OK - so thorny issue then. I have a site in each language. My Danish retailer sells products a, b and f but not products c, d and e. Someone in Denmark (where only my Danish retailer delivers) searches in English.  What do I do on the English language site to ensure that the poor guy doesn't spend hours selecting his red widget only to find we don't sell the shade he wants there?

Make it clear that delivery from that site is only in the UK (or wherever it may be). International clients who speak a number of languages are quite used to finding their way around (and, in the case of finding something that is only for sale in one country, getting friends to bring it with them/ship it).*

That's part of the reason why an automatic redirect is so infuriating.

(* How do you think we get Dickinson & Morris pork pies and sausages?  )

I'm hundreds (thousands?) of km/miles from Rumbas, but what the man said.

Quote from: Gurtie on July 09, 2012, 01:54:36 PM
thats interesting - I tend to take the approach that you auto direct by location but make it VERY easy (flags or dropdown top right) to switch to any other version. You'd prefer to land on the default at all times?

Generally speaking, probably yes, given the propensity of geeks to assume they know best if you give them an inch/cm. Seriously, as Rumbas said, if I am searching and you have set it up correctly, I'm anyway coming in on the correct page and language. So no need to redirect.

Even these responses from two generally rational people should give you pause in assuming you know what the user wants and the level of disgust likely to be experienced when such redirects do take place...

Domain name
GWT (set location)
Hosting
Local (country/language) links
Language tag

Always best for user to totally translate site at a professional level, probably eventually thus for site owner. (All those who use auto-translate or cheap as chips translation services for non-MFA sites, please continue... we are loving yous, dear sirs.)

Btw, do not auto-redirect by IP address or I and others like me will haunt the waking dreams of your tormented descendants unto the 12th generation.

I looked at a while back as well - it seemed like a high learning curve for minimal advantages versus other platforms. (But I'm not a big CMS fan or user.) Might have changed now.

It is a popular (and usually unnecessary) 'solution' from some German-language web developers for their clients.

(The cynic in me says it likely keeps them tied to an expensive Typo3 developer post-development versus cheaper and more widespread platforms.)

Those Mike Williams examples, great though they are, are from the deprecated v2 of GMaps, which is up to v3 now.

(I know only too well because I've just been tinkering with upgrading the code on a similar example to rcjordan's.)

Anyone that is interested in Google Maps should bookmark the following site:
www.geocodezip.com/
which has heaps of links to v3 examples and tutorials (and older ones if you feel confident in your js skills).

If the example shown was of interest that is using an xml file - I tend to use arrays, xml files or 'database -> xml -> js' using php/js. I don't know anything about fusion tables but there are some relevant links lower down the page on the site above.

If you are interested in the multi-markers plus clickable links (in the examples it is normally shown as a sidebar but it can with css be links above, below or in a select dropdown box) then I would recommend taking a hard look at the js in the various Mike Williams examples, plus the following articles on the Google Maps site:
code.google.com/apis/maps/articles/phpsqlajax_v3.html
code.google.com/apis/maps/articles/phpsqlsearch_v3.html

I've got some bodged-together examples of most ways of doing it in v3, including with custom markers, if you want to give me a shout, Heather.

Quote from: rcjordan on February 04, 2012, 02:12:38 PM
I tend to believe just about anything Shirky says.  That guy understands the internet like no other, imo.

FWIW, any forum or social network with a membership system needs to read his early work "A group is its own worst enemy."

http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

Agree there. I think that piece is one of my oldest bookmarks and most frequently trotted out in web-based discussions.

Regarding the recent NPR thing, I think there are implications beyond the subject of paywalls in what he is talking about. When he is referring to people's loyalty to what they view or read and the way that what they demand from that content changes, I wonder about the relevance this concept has to Google and its move towards an effective walled garden. Are people becoming less in love with Google and more pissed off with its results and its privacy and its interactions and what effect might this have for sites that people are more 'in love with'?

Quote
This experiment raised several questions:

In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made...
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Alternative questions and conclusions might be:

What is art? What is talent? What is beautiful? How much of our appreciation of these concepts - however they might be defined or we might define them - depends on our environment, history and current surroundings?

Do we give too much emphasis to the subjective opinions of others in an attempt to fit into a pack or herd?

If I asked you to go and sit in the freezing cold, with wind blowing a gale and semi-hail scouring your face for a few hours, you might think I'd be mad.

I call it skiing and pay hundreds of dollars a year to do it.

And one of the only areas which the Greek and Italian budgets have not been forced to slash?

(Both being heavy consumers of the German, French, US and UK arms industry...)

Dogboy, it's also down to lack of personal debt. (And the fact that Germany post-WW2 essentially had the same happen to it as Argentina did when it defaulted.)

Mountain guide/ski instructor, probably eventually moving into local travel agency for active sports.

Got the qualifications and actually do a bit of summer guiding (walking) to get away from computer.

(As Rooftop said, a bum. I used to treasure an ancient sweatshirt from those days that read 'Real Skiers Don't Have Real Jobs'.)

Just had fun & games with 123 trying to update a credit card for auto-renewals (just a new expiry date and CV2). Customer support was spectacularly unconcerned and more interested in telling me on multiple occasions how I must have input my address incorrectly, despite me being able to renew domains manually with them with the card that they were apparently unable to accept.

(Finally solved by one of the support staff who intervened and 'fixed' the problem that was allegedly being caused by my error.)

Forties were good - I echo the 'do something demanding while you still can' message if you have any ambitions to trek the Darien Gap or ski Corbett's Couloir. Enjoy them.

(Fifties are actually not as bad as I had feared...)

But you can still get it to work in FF5 by fiddling around with the settings.

http://www.reecreate.com/blog/2011/06/22/howto-enable-incompatible-add-ons-in-firefox-5/

QuoteKey findings from the study:

    21.7 percent of deal buyers never redeem the vouchers they've already paid for.
    55.5 percent of businesses reported making money, 26.6 percent lost money and 17.9 percent broke even on their promotions.
    Although close to 80 percent of deal users were new customers, significantly fewer users spent beyond the deal's value or returned to purchase at full price.
    48.1 percent of businesses indicated they would run another daily deal promotion, 19.8 percent said they would not and 32.1 percent said they were uncertain.

http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=15875&SnID=367236582