Author Archive
iPhone bookmark icon
One of my favorite things to do when completing a site is to create an iPhone bookmark icon. It’s a very simple and helps add to the brand experience of the site. It’s one of those minor things that most people don’t know about or do not bother to do.
All you need to do is create a 57×57 png file, display whatever logo or image you wish and save the file as apple-touch-icon.png and upload it into the root directory of the site. That’s it! When a user views the site and bookmarks the site to their Home Screen your new icon will display. It will automatically have the rounded edges and the glassy effect added.
Here are a few iPhone icons that we created.
More Local Results
Posted by josh in Industry News, Local Search on April 22nd, 2009
I recently noticed that Google is now including their “One Box” local search results with a map listing in traditional searches. We all know Google likes to shake things up and try new techniques to provide even more accurate results.
I performed a search and noticed the one box was listing some local results even though I did not include a city name or local phrase in my search. At first I thought it was due to the fact that I was logged into my Gmail account. I logged out and tried the search again and it again displayed the one box. I refreshed the page several times and eventually it displayed a “normal” result without the one box. I then tried the same search term, this time listing a city name afterward and the traditional one box came up this time at the top of the page like we are used to seeing.
For those users who are familiar with searching without using city names they will now be introduced to local results. Because of events like these your local presence will be even more valuable. Now thousands of businesses will be showing up to potential customers for the first time ever. Those who have enhanced local listings will be the ones who capitalize from this. Our sister company Local Mojo is coming along at a perfect time to help that often under served market of small businesses trying to get online with a local profile.
AgencyWeb Artwork
Posted by josh in Agency Web News on April 17th, 2009
Last year when we were decorating our offices we purchased 6 unique pieces from a local graffiti artist and good friend Jay Bellicchi aka 53. Every person who comes into conference room notices two things our big tv with the full Guitar Hero setup (we love to play) and our huge painting by Jay titled CMYK Caddy. We feel that being a web agency we need to have creative and fun elements around us all the time which is why we decided to have our offices on the water in the first place. The art work adds to the ambiance of the office and is a good conversation starter.
We are going to be working with Jay on a regular basis now on a new project which we have been talking about for years and now finally getting under way. We are excited about that and will be providing more details later on. It’s going to be fun and cool so I think lots of people will enjoy it.
Much like iHoops09, this project is another example of how AgencyWeb grown into an incubator for creative business ideas and projects. We aren’t your average agency that will work on just any project. We want to to be fun, challenging, successful and creative.
Posted by josh in Agency Web News, Web Design on April 8th, 2009
Everyone go follow along – www.twitter.com/agencyweb
BlackBooks Stencils = Very Cool
Posted by josh in Agency Web News on April 1st, 2009
We recently started working with a very innovative company in Fort Lauderdale called BlackBooks. They specialize in high end detailed stencils, signs, cut outs and original promotional materials. We just ordered a few different raised signs from them for our office and will soon be ordering some elaborate business cards as well. They are really cool guys and a pleasure to work with. So if you want something to help your business stand out from the crowd check out those guys, and if you need someone to design it give us a shout.
View more AgencyWeb photos on our Flickr Account
Thank you to the iMadness team!
Posted by josh in Agency Web News, iPhone on March 23rd, 2009
I want to thank everyone who has helped out with iMadness 09. Like basketball this was a total team effort and I want to take some time to acknowledge everyone for their hard work. This was a fun project to manage and think everything came together nicely. I am already looking forward to next year as we have some big plans! But most of those have to be kept secret. So bookmark the imadness blog and check it out now and then through the off season as we will keep it up to date with basketball news and progress on iMadness 10.
Albert Pardo
What can I say about coach, he brought everything together like only a coach can do. He initially came up with the great idea for iMadness and through his connections and love of college basketball Albert was able to get this entire thing put together. Alberts enthusiasm and great ideas helped to keep the project fun and moving forward. Having someone with such a deep knowlege of college basketball and bracket pools was an important part of the project.
BURGER KING®
Our friends at BURGER KING® were able to make iMadness 09 free to the public. This allowed for a much larger audience being able to participate and play along during the 2009 college basketball tournament. Their branding and design tied in nicely with the app and still allowed a nice unobtrusive user experience. We thank them for giving us a shot and working extremely fast in order to meet this tight deadline.
Ralf & Bettina
They came on board to help with the initial funding to get the app started and things moving. With such a tight deadline this was critical things got started on time and because of them they did. They also handled most of the administrative side for iMadness. In addition to the administrative side they also helped serve as our street team handing out postcards at various sporting events in the South Florida area.
Luke Salsich and his team
There is no way this project would of gotten done without Luke and his team. They managed to squeeze this project which normally would take 8 months to complete and got it done in about 4 months. The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that they were always reachable and would respond to your requests and emails within in hours. When it came down to crunch time and launch the app they were there to fix the last minute bugs and problems we encountered as you would with any project of this size. Top notch service with a personal touch.
Jessica Mears
Jessica created the icon and brand behind iMadness. Her design helped shaped everything to come after the logo such as the postcards and website. iMadness has a strong identity that lets users know exactly what it is yet maintaining a fun and simple look. In addition to the icon logo Jessica created a Facebook group and was very active in the social media promotion of the app creating blogs, commenting, posting and doing anything to get the word out.
Tom Carroll
Tom played a key roll in securing the sponsorship for iMadness and working through all of the presentations and negations. Tom handled point on the talks with BURGER KING® and put that aspect of the project together in a very short time due to the tournament looming. Without his efforts we would not of been able to release iMadness for free to the public. In addition to those tasks Tom also handled the administrative side of things for AgencyWeb on this project.
Mark Hughes
Mark was in charge of making sure our analytic tracking platform was in place so we could measure everything on the site to help our marketing efforts and come up with a strategy for 2010. He also worked on generating traffic to the site through paid avenues and social media forums. These figures will be important to us next season as we want to grow and improve on this project. In addition to that he also created the support videos showing users how to register and use the iMadness site.
Bauer
Bauer is the unsung hero on this project. He did lots of the behind the scenes technical aspects of the project that are often taken for granted. He worked with Rackspace to set up our hosting, got our domain name situated, he configured all of the email addresses, installed the blog, seeded the teams and scores for the simulations. He put together all of the technical aspects needed for this to work.
Betsy Cox
Betsy helped to make sure our press releases and content were perfect and also helped with the initial kick off our grass roots marketing effort with different basketball groups and leagues.
My Friends
Finally I would like to thank all of my friends who helped us get the word out about iMadness 09. Many of them updated their Facebook status, handed out postcards, emailed friends and did anything they could. Three people in particular Derek Watson, Mark Owens, and Maurice Corbett were extremely helpful. Thanks for everything!
Tournament Time!
Posted by josh in Agency Web News, iPhone on March 18th, 2009
Gone are the days of filling out a piece of paper to make your tournament picks every March. Now you can track all of it on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
AgencyWeb is proud to announce the release of their first iPhone application – iMadness 09. Being avid Apple supporters and users, they jumped at the chance to take part in this exciting project. AgencyWeb was confident they could produce a successful product in time for March Madness.
Albert Pardo came to AgencyWeb with the hopes of making his dream a reality. He loves his iPhone almost as much as he loves sports. To combine the two was a natural progression for him. Albert had a clear vision of what he wanted his product to be and AgencyWeb executed it exactly.
“I run the NCAA bracket pool with my friends at work. The problem with this is I am a teacher and the tournament always coincides with Spring Break, so I lose touch with many of my friends for that week. I thought if I could have a bracket app on my iPhone that could keep things updated that it would be awesome. I put together a presentation for the guys at AgencyWeb, they loved the idea and decided to run with it. This is my first venture into technology and I must say it is very exhilarating. I can’t wait to have the App on my phone and to see all my friends and all the other College Basketball fans around the country playing with iMadness 09.” — Albert Pardo
AgencyWeb brought their years of online marketing and design expertise to the table while teaming up with Group Zero out of Boston to handle the programming aspect. The two companies have worked together on other successful web projects before.
User experience is always important on the web. However it is even more crucial on mobile devices where smaller screen size and reduced user interaction comes in to play. The challenge with iMadness was to create a simple interface in which the user could make their selections with ease, while at the same time allowing for custom scoring, the ability join leagues with friends, and find out details about the game. This balance of the simple with complex is the secret to all successful applications.
It’s that time of the year when America stops to fill out a bracket for their school or office pool. Follow along as the NCAA Basketball tournament goes from 64 teams to 1 National Champion. Gone are the days of filling out a piece of paper to make your tournament picks every March. Now you can track all of it on your iPhone or iPod Touch. iMadness tracks the performance of your bracket with up to date scores and results. You can set custom scoring, create multiple brackets and leagues, and email a PDF of your picks all from your iPhone. No iPhone, no problem, everyone can participate in a bracket online at iHoopMadnesss.com
So if you are tired of wasting paper on your school or office pool and want to step into the 21st century check out iMadness 09′ available on the iPhone App Store for only $.99, or visit www.ihoopmadness.com
BURGER KING® powers iMadness 09
Posted by josh in Agency Web News, iPhone on March 6th, 2009
AgencyWeb is proud to announce the release of our first iPhone application iMadness 09. We have been working extremely hard on this project for the past 5 months. iMadness 09 is the best NCAA College Basketball Bracket App out for the iPhone. iMadness has the ability to create leagues online that syncs both iPhone and non iPhone users together in the same league.
We also got a chance to work with BURGER KING® and their agencies which was a nice experience. We hope to work with them in the future on other projects. Thanks to them we are able to provide iMadness 09 for free for the first 100,000 downloads. After that the app will only be $.99 which is still a great deal for all the options it has.
Also give our post a Digg to help get things started!
AgencyGreen
Posted by josh in Agency Web News on February 19th, 2009
Now that we are settled into our office here at AgencyWeb our next goal is to help educate our clients on simple things that they can do in their own office to be more environmentally friendly.
Being on the water has more advantages than just a pretty view. Most days we have the front and back doors open for a nice breeze. This helps cut down on air conditioning costs and it’s much nicer to have fresh air all day! We try to keep our lights off during the day, luckily we have great natural light here. We also keep the computers that aren’t in use turned off and turn all of them off at the end of the day which can save up to $70 a year per computer in electricity.
I was also surprised to find out that our office building did not do any type of recycling on their own. AgencyWeb took the initiative and set up a recycling program for the entire building. Now once a week a company comes by and picks up two large bins – one for paper and cardboard and one for plastics, glass and aluminum. So now everyone in our building can take part, reduce the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill and hopefully it gets them thinking more on this issue. We make sure all of our clients and associates recycle while at our office.
In 2007 Time Magazine had a special on 51 Things you can do to help save the environment. Several of them were office or business related. If you have any other great ideas that can be done in an office to help out please let us know!