Beauty has a right to exist, even if it can’t earn its keep, and Finetuna is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. In my correct opinion, no one does better looking work on the web in Ireland than Spoiltchild, the developers of Finetuna.com (It makes me puke).

I am sick of answering the “What is <<App_Name>>?” question with each Tuesday Push. If you want to know what Finetuna is and does, see here! Also I won’t do my usual critique of the app, because I am not qualified to comment for the market Finetuna is serving.

I want to use the example of Finetuna to address a real bastard of a question:

HOW DO WE MAKE AN $$$$$ OUT OF WEBAPPS?

But even that is too broad a question because there are millions of wannabe-bedroom-bound-Kevin-Rose characters all over the world attempting to solve that one. So lets narrow it down? Finetuna and Money - Where do they meet?

Would you pay to use Finetuna? No. It takes absolutely mission-critical functionality for people to bother paying for a web app.

Would google ad revenue support its running? Probably yes, but thats not making a living.

Are there options for a premium model? Absolutely. But I don’t know anyone who would use it. Maybe the creators, Spoiltchild, should have a word with Walter at Sxoop technologies about a link up.

Went through a design process lately to sort out a new logo for our company, ClubW. Check it out on Finetuna here.  We’re super cheap, and so we used Crowdspring to get our new logo - That was extremely painful and laborious. How we could have sued Finetuna then… Maybe they should talk to each other.

Photo owned by dno1967 (cc)

Other than that, I am all out of ideas. It’s a real baffler. Sorry.

- Ant.

This is a good one. An online management tool for emergency response teams. Its a webapp (Whatever that means) - but more importantly its a real application that solves real problems.

I do not have enough knowledge of this niche to comment on the functionality beyond saying it does a hell of a lot of useful things…

• Manage rescue team communications.

• Organise schedules.

• Track incidents, training etc….

• Great activity recording screens.

• And as is necessary with all management applications, whether we like it or not, excellent reporting.

See http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/tour/ for more on the features.

What would I do differently?

HIGHLIGHT RELIABILITY - as with all management tools, uptime and availability is cruuuuuucial. Bytesurgery want rescue teams all over the world to depend on Decisionforheros.com to influence how they work, to help them make the right decisions, and eventually, to save lives.

But what if it goes down?

“What if I can’t contact my team through the site and have to go looking for god damn phone numbers?” “Who in my team is the best person to handle a suspected back injury?” “Where the hell is everyone?”

If this tool is to become a key part of the decision making process within Rescue Organisations, it must be 24X7 - No excuses. Looking at the terms of service for the site…

“Technical support is only provided to paying account holders and may only available via email” [sic] - This doesn’t sound like a tool I want to trust with lives.

I know this is critical, but the current DecisionsForHeros.com could be the no-brainer decision for rescue teams all over the world. Putting myself in the shoes of the customer, at the moment, I would say that I need to look at alternatives first, who knows, I could be back…

I want DecisionsForHeros.com to be that one dominant force for Rescue Teams on the web because I think it can lead to better rescues. Look at the potential for skills transfer between these teams if they all happen to have this website in common. The site could be expanded to drive these partnerships (Social Networking for Heros) and as a result, market itself further.

And on that, why do Voluntary teams need to pay for the site. No voluntary organisation is going to hold that meeting that approves that signup and expenditure (albeit tiny) without Bytesurgery (who built D4H) having to make a significant sales effort. But there is a free trial option… Oh hold on, you need to request this via a form.

Why?

I cannot imagine any logic that makes sense - It actually angers me. Open it up! Allow everyone a free trial. Why not? Let it sell itself. Let it sneak into rescue organisations through the overambitious pup who wants to take credit for modernising the team. Don’t put barriers in the way.

And while you’re at it, allow every organisation free usage indefinitely up to a specific team size. Let the volunteers of the world sell the product when they meet their professional counterparts.

And Finally… what about an off shoot of the site’s function. What about a D4H for Disasters… Tsunami, Earthquakes. Who handles the distribution of tents, blankets, food, medical aid in the immediate aftermath of these disasters? Doesn’t a web app sound like the perfect answer?

(This is way late for the Tuesday Push and a bit unstructured.
But in the time I had, I really wanted to make an effort
for this App - Its a good one.)

RevaHealth.com - A search engine for Health Clinics.

Its a straight forward concept. A niche business. But doesn’t Google take care of all search anyway? So Revahealth.com must be adding value over straight forward search. The tagline for the site is “Find & Compare Health Clinics anywhere”.

Lets put that to the test. Lets say I am interested in getting my teeth sorted in Belfast. How does RevaHealth.com compare against Google for the search “Dental Care, Belfast”.

Step 1 is Search Initially, RevaHealth.com does not compare well against Google on this count. In terms of Organic search results, the above the fold screen in Google provides 6 times the number of results.

While Google provides an extremely handy map with the results, RevaHealth.com does provide additional textual information; address, specialities and a brief blurb. Most significantly, RevaHealth.com provides Pricing information where available. (However, this seems to be present in only a tiny minority of results).

Further search options are available in the form of Filters on Location, Treatments, Specialisation and Facilities/Services. These are search options Google just can’t provide.

For further information, any result can be clicked on to reveal a fairly comprehensive “brochure” - akin to a private website for each clinic. (One drawback to this is the URL. These brochures could be viable websites for clinics, but I can’t imagine many of them printing http://www.revahealth.com/dentists/northern-ireland#cid=91&pid=0&problemid=0&qty=0&rid=1&dcid=285&fcid=144&city=&page=0&displaypage=&location=1&sf=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0&distance=100&sids=18579&clinicid=18369 on their flyers.)

So my overall opinion is that RevaHealth.com does make it easier to find a specific health service, although the presentation of search results is sub-optimal in my opinion.

What about Comparing the various search results?

It maybe that I am missing something here, but I cannot see any comparison technology. Fair enough, the additional filters on the Search allow a user to omit certain results should they not meet certain criteria, but that hardly enables comparison.

A few Niggles…

• Google Ads dominate the search results, to the detriment of RevaHealth’s own results. In the search result area, a good 20% of real estate above the fold is dedicated to paid-for advertising. I can’t imagine the financial gain is enough to offset the devaluation of the system’s own results.
• The font on the site appears to be a light grey. I am not a graphic designer, but I find this hard to read. is it just me?
• Consider me a dumb user (as all users should be…). I found the Auto-complete in the Search fields confusing. In the image below, if I choose the first option for Belfast, does this mean I am missing out on results under the other 2 Belfast options. (Please bear in mind that no question is stupid if it can be asked).

Suggestions:

1. Simplify the Brochure URLs - Make these pages an asset, a reason for clinics to sign up.
2. Increase the value of Revahealth’s results by removing all third party advertising.

2 More Points:

1. This is a product with a potentially global reach - I assume this is the plan, I hope it makes it.
2. The RevaHealth Blog is an excellent resource for small web businesses dealing with SEO, funding, and technology.

MyMunster.com was the subject of the Tuesday Push 4 weeks ago on the 10th of March. The key outcomes are below.

22 - The number of posts written about us.

tomdoyletalk.com
beara.ie
blog.irishblogs.ie
blog.puddleducks.ie
derryodonnell.com
joescanlon.net
kenmc.com
popularsiderugby.blogspot.com
primaryposition.blogspot.com
sarahphelan.ie
seoireland.blogspot.com
www.apeofsteel.com
www.davidbehan.com
www.davidkelly.ie
www.lecraic.com
soupireland.com
blog.revahealth.com
john.keyes.ie
laughingliondesign.net
derryodonnell.com
WillKnott.ie

There may well have been more. The above were identified through Google webmaster tools and referrals. Of course, this won’t catch those who didn’t link to us, such as C.Garvery’s Blog. If I have missed out on your post, my sincere apologies, please leave a comment and correct this omission.

130 odd - This is the number of direct referrals from Tuesday Push posts we received. That’s roughly the same amount as EWrite saw last October with their Tuesday Push. Not great, is it? An average of 5 per post. So was this worth it? Well, yes.

+1 - This is what happened our Google PageRank as per the google tool bar (from 4 to 5). Obviously I can’t say that this is due to the Tuesday Push alone. In fact I hope it isn’t, seeing as we put several hundred man-hours of time into a new version of the MyMunster.com site which went live just 10 days prior to the push. Our changes saw the google crawl rate of our site go up by a factor of 5, so this undoubtedly was a big reason behind the rating change. But the Tuesday Push surely helped. Links from over twenty reliable sources - Doesn’t google love this sort of thing?

Photo owned by MoBikeFed (cc)
2 Special Mentions:

Big thanks to Dave Kelly and Cathal Garvey who obviously put a huge amount of time into the writing of their posts. Dave even followed up with a supplementary email. These are the standards I aim for when I write a Tuesday Push.

Is it worth it? If like most small Irish businesses at the moment, you are cash poor and time-rich (relatively speaking), then this is a no-brainer. Do it for Publicity, Traffic, SEO points and for good Constructive Criticism. And remember to do it for others too.

Books and Food - Both really real world items, brought together on DineToRead.ie

The concept is a book club that meets at a different restaurant each month to discuss that month’s chosen book. The next meeting is at Vina Mara in Galway and the book on the menu is “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga.

The real-world interactions are backed up with a website that allows signed-up users to discuss books and whatever else. (Examples). Also signed up users have a profile, which is to the point as it should be. Check me out at http://dinetoread.ie/forums/profile/antgalvin

Do I like books? I really do. But not to the point where I’d want to mix with a overly booky crowd.
But do I like meeting people? Sure I do, mostly, and anything that facilitates that in a comfortable manner must be good.

I think this is what DineToRead.ie is aiming for. Any online interaction is secondary to the actual real-world encounters and the E45 per head these cost. (By the way, this covers the cost of the meal and all the DineToRead.ie facilitation).

This sounds fine, but as I see it, this is a limited market.

Book clubs already exist up and down the country and do fine with out DineToRead. They always have.
DineToRead’s differentiating factor is the provision of social aspect for people who may not have a ready made group. I can see DineToRead being a perfect way for someone new to a city to make some friends, without all the panic attacks, stalker vetting, crying in the shower etc…

But if this is the market, then we are looking at a lot more competition. Pubs, GAA Clubs, Rugby Clubs, The ICA, Macra, Toastmasters, Anglers Associations… The list goes on and on. That’s some tough competition.

How to stand out??? Perversely, I think the Online element is the key. Books, and the All-About-Books are information rich. Where do you go to discuss this stuff online? I don’t know. DineToRead has an inbuilt forum. But fora are intimidating for casual browsers. If you are lucky enough to get someone to sign up, to add a profile, that’s good going. But there is only a < 20% chance (in my experience) that these people will want to share their thoughts on a forum. What a pity.

I love what DineToRead has done with out-of-the-box software (Wordpress, please correct me if I am wrong). Obviously, they have worked there behinds off on getting it to fit their plan. And it looks gorgeous, works gorgeous.

But it feels static to me.

1 Other Quick Point:
Why not talk to a bookseller in each of the centres that DineToRead is aimed at and organise a discount for members. I assume that DineToRead makes affiliate pennies on their Amazon links, but Amazon with a 1 week turnaround doesn’t suit a monthly book club eh? That’s my wife’s two cents.

- Ant

MyMunster.com

MyMunster.com

Released by ClubW

We at MyMunster.com are very excited about being on this weeks Tuesday Push. We understand you are all really busy people, so we have jotted a few notes below explaining what MyMunster.com has to offer.

MyMunster.com is a social network aimed at Munster Rugby Supporters, both at home and abroad. It was started off by a Munster Rugby Supporter in Cork with the aim of connecting Munster Rugby Supporters together on-line. It was developed in association with Munster Rugby.

So if you were a Munster rugby supporter, what does MyMunster.com have to offer you?

• Chat on-line with other Munster rugby supporters and make new friends.
• Read what other people think as the match is being played or after the match.
• Get the latest news on Munster rugby and Irish rugby, match results, player injuries etc.
• Check out our blog written by one of Munster Rugby’s biggest supporters; Marion O’Sullivan.
• Upload Photos and Videos.

Any questions about MyMunster.com?

or if having any trouble navigating the site, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Tweet us on

twitter.com/antgalvin

twitter.com/cathwilson

twitter.com/MyMunster

Email us at anthony@clubw.tv

Or

Contact us on MyMunster.com

New look for MyMunster.com

This week The Tuesday Push is The Tuesday Push: “Getting word out in a co-ordinated way”. Promoting Irish Innovation Online via blogs.

Photo owned by NNECAPA (cc)

Quiet rightly, it has been decided that this weeks Tuesday Push should be about the Tuesday Push. As I have said before, I think “the Tuesday Push should provide (1) link love, (2)encouragement and also (3)constructive criticism.”

Link Love:

The original post on the Tuesday Push, including conditions etc, is here.

And here you will find some more.

If you want to sign up to have your company included in the Tuesday Push, fill in this form.

Encouragement:

To date, 14 companies have been the subject of the TP. Some have written about the feedback they have received:

• PutPlace: 13 posts.
• Toddle: 15 Posts.
• E-Write Lite: 10 posts.
• Twitter Mosaic: 17 posts.
• IGOPeople: 15 Posts.

(All figures are minimums).

That’s amazing! What a wonderful way to let the world know about you: A dozen-plus different press releases all unleashed onto the web from reliable and trusted resources.

Constructive Criticism #1 - How valuable is the Tuesday Push:

Going by the original TP post, only 3 of the 14 companies pushed so far have blogged about their experience. Doesn’t this seem odd? Why are we pushing the Tuesday Push itself when the majority of those who have benefited from it can’t be bothered writing about its usefulness.

Based on the three who have followed up the TP with an analysis of the results, the Tuesday Push is excellent at driving traffic. The secondary effects of increased search engine ranking and the resultant traffic must be even greater.

If you have been or will be the subject of a Tuesday Push, please write about the results. Don’t be an ungrateful bastard.

Constructive Criticism #2 - The quality of Tuesday Push posts:

This is rich of me considering I have only been involved in two pushes so far. However, it is very clear that to some people it is enough to write the briefest of posts in order to satisfy the first rule of the Tuesday Push.

“If you want to be pushed, you must push others”.

What sort of person expects a dozen others to write constructive posts on their product and then writes three lines with a link and an image on the products of others? Three lines that mostly consists of a product description.

If you are writing a Tuesday Push post, set yourself a goal. Find the best (or worst) thing about the product. Compare it with the competition. Evaluate the business model. Suggest partnerships. Be constructive for crying out loud.

- Anthony

In its first incarnation, I loved this simple app and wrote about it here. For anyone who is familiar with Twitter, they will know that it is impossible to navigate through one’s followers is extremely tiresome. (The twitter web interface displays 20 followers per page, most recent follows first - What were they thinking?)

What I initially liked about the Twitter Mosaic tool from Sxoop was that it was an instant step-up as an Interface. Presenting all follower’s graphically in a compact format lets my brain do the walking without unnecessary clicks and scrolling through pages and pages of lists. I was so impressed with this aspect, that it has been taken on-board for a project of my own. (Good luck suing me @Walter).

Since the first version that I saw 3 or 4 weeks ago, Twitter Mosaic has grown arms and legs. Money shaped ones in the form of personalised mugs, T-Shirts, Business cards and shopping bags. An excellent progression.

As I see it, Walter could be the first man on the planet to actually make a profit from Microblogging. (Even Google couldn’t manage that with Jaiku!). He has (possibly) done this through extremely low costs (he is but one man) and an extremely saleable product.

Are personalised T-Shirts, Business Cards, mugs etc… based on Twitter really that desirable? lets look at it:

• Twitter is all ego. (”Whats my Follower/Followee ratio?” pre-occupies 90% of twitter users).

• Twitter is the ultimate in personal micro-branding. Everybody has a little soap-box on which to sell themselves, and the market can buy it (follow) or move on.

• Now we attach personal merchandise - Oh yes, I’ll have some of that please.

This isn’t “Twitter Merchandise”, This is “Me merchandise”.

The problems:

• The site looks awful. It may be simple and restrained - but on any gauge of aesthetics, it would have to be considered pig-ugly.

• It doesn’t work that well. Errors are common-place. Twitter’s API limits are also an issue.

• The purchasing-process is confusing, cumbersome and ugly. (You must register with the merchandise provider in order to purchase - 11 fields and one click and that’s before payment information is requested).

Buzz-Potential

Twitter has taken the Online-Viral phenomenon and decreased its lifespan by a factor of 10*. If someone links to something they like on Twitter, and someone else likes it, then, you get Retweets etc rippling across Twitter in minutes or hours. (As opposed to days and weeks with old viral email).

The Twitter Mosaic already had a good chance of achieving this. I know that @adamostrow, Editor-in-chief of the Mashable technology blog referred to it in a tweet 11 days ago. He has nearly 5000 followers - Not bad exposure.

So why isn’t Twitter Mosaic the buzz of Twitter?

1. Aesthetics - Fail.

2. Usability - Fail.

Both of these are pre-requisites to Twitter Mosaic achieving its potential.

If Sxoop doesn’t resolve these soon, someone else will, somewhere else.

How to resolve them:

1. Spend 10K on the look of the site.
2. Get a better Order-fulfilment process. Outsource it but make it look seamless with Twitter Mosaic.
3. Get Twitter inc. to love it. DM @kevinthau, Twitter’s new business development manager and offer him an immediate royalty. There’s no loss of IP here - He would do this too if he had the time. Offer him an immediate solution and make him look good in front of his new bosses. Oh, and get them to put you on the Whiter-than-white API white list.
4. Become “Twitter Merchandise” - Expand the stock, mousemats, Baby-grows, Car stickers. Suck all the air out of this space before someone else attempts to set up.

This should be Cork’s Twitterfone of 2009.

- Anthony

*Source: My head.

IGOpeople.com

What is it?

IGOPeople aims to be a Social network that brings together all aspects of a person’s life. Individuals, Groups, Organisations.

As with all Social Networks, its about bringing people/entities together and facilitating communication. So for example, I can connect with my friends, my Tag Rugby team and perhaps avail of an offer from Adidas on rugby gear.

The Bad News First:

1. I am really confused as to what IGOpeople’s unique offering is. How is it any different from Facebook? And seeing as everyone/everything is already on Facebook, why bother with a miniscule competitor. I am sure that IGOPeople don’t see themselves as competing against Facebook, but they haven’t made this clear. Please tell me what its for? Instead of saying “Network for the real world” which means nothing, maybe “This is where all your shit is!” would be more meaningful.
   
2. The home screen. Clutter free, but it leaves me wondering what exactly I am supposed to be doing. It does provide a feed on what other’s have been up to, but as with all startup social-networks when membership is small and the number of connections made are smaller, this feed drifts somewhere between Boring and Non-existent. Seed the interface so that new user’s don’t feel alone or default noobies homescreen to the All Updates tab - Instantly the network looks vibrant.
3. The main avenue for interaction is provided via a text area with “Click here to start a conversation…” - Another symptom of startup Social-Networks is that such a request can be frightening. When the crowd is so small, everything said is easily heard. The average Social Network user does want a conversation, not a broadcast. The typical user doesn’t want to start anything, give the user a quick-post twitter-like text box in addition to the intimidating blog-like interface.

The Good News:

1. Its a really clean beautiful site. Works well, and works fast.
2. One specific part of the site really appeals to me as a person and a business person. The ability for organisations to interact with its consumers via Social Media. I like the way the site does this, but at the moment its buried amongst too much. Reorient the interface along these lines, add easy open interfaces to other established social networks where the consumers are already registered, this is a viable niche.
3. People. I added a report on a small bug and got a response within minutes. Every business in the Tuesday Push series is only as good as its people. With Campbell Scott and Dave Cotter involved - Thats a large positive for IGOpeople.

- Anthony

See Here.

And Here.

The premise is that everyone talks up a company (if they think it deserves to be) on a particular date. Every second Tuesday at it happens. Everyone tech and non tech alike are encouraged to talk about the company so that hopefully a tipping point is reached and a potential investor or journalist or partner hears/reads about the company.

ClubW is getting involved as of now. We want to be pushed too, but first we must do some pushing. So later on today, we will be posting on IGOpeople - “network for the real world”.

My own experience in the past is that the posts submitted under the Tuesday Push umbrella have been (by and large) too polite to point out flaws in the subject. As I see it, the Tuesday Push should provide (1) link love, (2)encouragement and also (3)constructive criticism.

- Anthony.