But should we be surprised?
FoundLocally interface improvements: JUMP Feature
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 04/18/2013 12:16:44
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
This week, we updated our look & feel, adding some colour. Everybody's doing a "simple" (but bland) white interface now... we wanted to keep ahead of the curve. See www.FoundLocally.com as well as each of the community websites.
As well, we made our JUMP feature more prominent. We've had it for the past year, but it seem ed largely lost and ignored. By replacing a word-description with the "Bunny" icon, we figured people will discover it, and be amused by the self-explanatory pop-up window, and is "boing" sound effect.
The JUMP feature works for any page on the site, whether content or a search results page. Check out movie listings in nearby FoundLocally communities or search for a store or restaurant located nearby.
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FoundLocally says Bilingualism is dead in Canada!
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 06/19/2012 06:32:55
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
June 19, 2012 Calgary, AB. FoundLocally.com Media Inc, which has long been asked about making its site bi-lingual, is excited to announce that it has added omni-lingual translation to all its websites. Statistics Canada says there are almost as many non-official language speakers as there are French speakers Now, FoundLocally’s websites are available in not only French, but a total of 57 languages, adding innovative programming to integrate with Google’s Translation capabilities.
These languages are now supported on all FoundLocally websites: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Yiddish. It not only translates, but displays the content in the correct foreign keyboard/fonts.
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New Navigation improvements added to FoundLocally
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 12/06/2011 10:34:10
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
FoundLocally has made the LOGIN more accessible by making it a pop-up (rather than directing users to a LOGIN page), and made it easier for most users, especially those with a single business listing or a single resume by taking them directly to their info.
We also added a number of small navigation features to enable users to go to the Canada home page, back one page, or send us feedback (by adding a new icon to the Social Media icons grouping).
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New Look for FoundLocally.com
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 11/27/2011 18:55:56
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
See http://www.FoundLocally.com
The new site design makes the site search more prominent, and moves all menus and actions in to the black, grey and white stripe at the top of the page, replacing the old "tabbed" interface for site navigation and for viewing & updating business listings. We also made the Add Free Listings option and the Login (to update listings) more accessible. We also improved Social Media integration, making it easier to "like" individual pages in over 300 Social Media sites, as well providing as easier access to our Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, and Blog.
We've also added site-wide capabilities including the Popular Links (in each city),. This Page > Nearby (to jump to same feature, feature or search results in nearby FoundLocally communities) and the pop-down Table of Contents which had used the right site panel pretty well since the website's inception. On the FoundLocally.com home page, the white stripe provides a number of pop-downs for the most popular pages around the website.
US National Debt Ceiling is a Real Crisis
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 07/24/2011 15:50:23
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
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This is a worst-case scenario for what can happen this week, if the United States does not resolve its debt ceiling crisis quickly.We may think it doesn't impact us, but IT DOES!
The Tea Party/Republicans are trying to do, what they did not permit Al Khaeda to do: put America back into the Stone Age. The Southern-dominated group is trying to torpedo the institution of the federal currency and debt.
Imagine the impact on your business and your community if your number one customer is thrown in disarray, if they have increased unemployment, increased costs, reduced ability to travel and visit you, Also imagine the impact on your community if your number one supplier's costs change because their interest rates change, their exchange rate has dropped, increasing their costs (and ironically--but temporarily--decreasing yours). At the very least, it's disruptive. In Canada, where our commodities are priced on the world stage, and change in the value of the US dollar won't affect us quite as much, but it can have a strong (and possibly adverse) impact on export-based manufacturers and on import-based retailers.
Remember the impact on Canada when our dollar dropped from about par-value in the 1970s to around 70 cents US in the 1980s? The Americans might have to go through a similar “ride” in coming weeks.
An Election Pre-mortem: Why The NDP came out of nowhere
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 05/01/2011 12:37:04
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
The news media is very surprised by the so-called “Orange Crush” of the NDP, not only coming on strong in Quebec, but exceeding the popularity of the Liberals in many parts of Canada. Some early predictions are that they might form the majority, or at least take over as the Official Opposition.
How did this happen, and how does this change our political landscape?
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Deloitte's 2011 Technology Predictions insightful as always
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 02/05/2011 08:13:13
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
This past week I attended Deloitte's Technology, Media and Telecommunications Predictions, which does a cross-Canada tour, presented by Duncan Stewart their head of research each year about this time. I've attended for the past few years (as a Deloitte alumni "by adoption", courtesy of having articled to become a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Andersen many -many- moons ago, and was since merged into Deloitte), and their predictions are reliably accurate indicators of the year ahead.
Last year's most interesting prediction was that tablets would sell 12 million units, which was made a week before Apple announced (or even acknowledged) their iPad. At Apple's announcment in 2010 Steve Jobs modestly predicted they would sell a million units. On the other hand, Deloitte's fearless 2010 prediction was out by only 100,000 units.
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Nenshi Wins Calgary Crown Using Social Media But Pollsters Lose Using Archaic Polling Techniques
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 10/20/2010 15:12:22
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
To many media watchers it came as a total shock when Naheed Nenshi was elected mayor of Calgary on Monday, October 18, 2010. For example, in today’s Calgary Herald, Kelly Cryderman calls the win a “surprise victory”.FoundLocally websites move to Casale Media
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 05/31/2010 21:50:52
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
“Casale Media is doing an excellent job in representing Canadian websites to Canadian advertisers,” says FoundLocally.com Media’s General Manager. While several formerly Canadian ad networks (including FoundLocally’s former ad network 24/7 RealMedia) and most foreign-owned networks have focused on selling high-volume ads on US websites, Casale has shown strong success in connecting Canadian publishers, Canadian audiences and Canadian advertisers. “Foundlocally.com greatly complements our current Canadian media offerings by providing a regionally targeted audience base through its collection of premium local online communities,” says Casale Media’s Director of Publisher Relationships,
FoundLocaly now offers Independent Web Site Audits
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 03/22/2010 11:10:26
- In: FoundLocally General
- Comments: 0
FoundLocally has added a very reasonably-priced new Web Site Audit service, to help small businesses and their web designers maximize their online impact in an ever-more-competitive marketplace.
A website audit can improve the success of web marketing campaign, and impact decisions to upgrade or replace a web site by providing experienced and independent advice from someone without an economic interest in the decision to change (or not to change).
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