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“Of course we’re generalizing here, so not all of these types of sites are as bad as they may seem…oh wait, yes they are. Some of these sites produce little fluff ‘reviews’ of web hosts, and some don’t even bother to go that far, instead making lists to the ‘Top 10 Web Hosts’ and waiting for unsuspecting prey to come along and make their next yacht payment for them. We’re here to bust this thing wide open. We had always suspected these sites were crooked, so last month we decided to prove it when we were approached by hosting-review.com to appear on their ‘Editor’s Picks’ page.”

“It’s our human nature to emulate things that are good. It’s our nature to make things complete. But when forming a market strategy, these tendancies won’t help out much. Too often companies go after market leaders by trying to reach parity in feature sets, or worse, by trying to do a little bit of everything. Below is a diagram analyzing the competitors in online photo sites circa early 2005. I’ve been using this diagram to show that you can compete smartly by not doing what your competitors are doing…”

“Let’s say you have a digital camera that shoots in Raw format. However, you’ve been using JPG files ever since you got it, due to a sense of familiarity, simply not having the time to figure out Raw, or because you don’t like the larger file sizes. Sound familiar? That was me too, up until about a month ago.”

“Too many of today’s web companies simply copy Google’s sparse homepage because they think some of that success might rub off on them. But Google was successful in spite of their design, not because of it. Google rules the web today because their technology was so great, so unique back then, that users were willing to overlook their hostile user experience.”

“‘Design software weakens classic drawing skills’ says Jim Christie in the Washington Post. Abso-bloody-lutely says I. Agree with the article whole heartedly … frustration, forced concentration, introspection and revisions of an idea or vision are all conditions that should be sought out and embraced. Not eradicated with ctrl-z.

“Here’s a strategy I’ve found useful for learning dry and difficult material quickly. At various times, I’ve used it to build up my knowledge of subjects like economics, investing, writing and computer programming languages. Some people have been surprised at how fast I can learn these kinds of skills, but I think anyone can do it with the right plan. Of course, you can use this to teach yourself interesting things as well, but most people don’t have any problem learning stuff that’s fun.”

“My solution was very similar to something I had seen almost 30 years ago, a piece by one of my favorite designers, Willi Kunz… I didn’t realize this until a few weeks ago, when I was looking through the newly-published fourth edition of Phil Meggs’s History of Graphic Design. And there it was, on page 476, a reproduction of Willi Kunz’s abstract letterpress exploration from 1975. I recognized it immediately as something I had seen in my design school days… Did I think of it consciously when I designed my poster? No, my excuse was the same as Kaavya Viswanathan’s: I saw something, stored it in my memory, forgot where it came from, and pulled it out later — much later — when I needed it.”

So, after running xBlog for nearly seven years, I’ve stumbled across all kinds of online art, projects, books and collections. Some bizarre, some interesting, some just plain ridiculous. Here’s one for you that’s a little bit of all three, and this one’s mine: The Grocery List Collection. I’ve had this project online since about 2000 and now I have a book deal with F+W Publications (the publishers of How Magazine) to transform the site — containing more than 1,000 found grocery lists — into a real, live, hardcover book, tentatively titled “Milk, Eggs, Vodka: The Lost Grocery Lists of America.” Now I need your lists. I’m especially looking for odd/interestings ones but will gladly accept mundane/boring ones. Also, I’d like to try to get one from every state in the U.S. (and a good sample from around the world). So check out my strange little site and send me something! Thanks! –Bill Keaggy, editor of xBlog

“After a brief hiatus, Under The Loupe is back. This week we will be flexing that lump of worms between your ears. One of the biggest things that can separate a good design from a great design is a strong concept. Strong concepts don’t always just come to us; sometimes they take work. Perhaps not real physical labor, but a process of bypassing the obvious ideas to get to the hidden ones. Some people call this ‘Creative Thinking’, but when I was first introduced to this concept, it was presented to me as ‘Visual Thinking’. I tend to prefer ‘Visual’ as opposed to ‘Creative’ as it helps to shift the focus back to design specifically. Let’s define ‘Visual Thinking’ as: A process of idea-finding and formulation, typically with simple tools like a pencil and paper, where the cumulation of ideas influences the whole.”

“A long, long time ago, my friend Eric Bergman and I were working on the UI for Sun AnswerBook, which was a CD-based predecessor to docs.sun.com. AnswerBook Screen.Sun had invited Edward Tufte in to teach a session in our Boston office about the Grand Vistas of Information Architecture or something. After the class, we lured him into our usability lab to look at the user interface for Answerbook, of which were were very proud.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

“In these notes, I summarize my presentation of original research and testing of an Ajax application (Basecamp) with users of screen readers and other adaptive technologies. Here’s my working definition of Ajax: The use of scripting to cause portions of a page to refresh without reloading the entire page. That usually happens after the user does something, but it can also happen automatically.”

This is a great new illustration and comics weblog by FoX (Friend of XPLANE) Dan Zettwoch: “Illustrations, Comics, Diagrams, Paintings, Maps and Secret Codes, affixed to the hidden plywood wall of a backyard fort with masking tape.” See more drawing fun at the STL Drawing Club (motto: Our sketchbooks weigh a ton and we draw every Thursday night.”).

“When the Smithsonian Institution recently announced a deal with Showtime to create a joint venture called Smithsonian Networks, documentary filmmakers and free-speech advocates were outraged by the prospect of a single corporation having exclusive rights to a public trust (the Smithsonian is funded by 75% public money). But this is only the most recent development in the gradual erosion of fair use and the public domain in America.”

“Everyone has their own resources and tools they use in their daily life as a web designer + developer. I too as a web designer, have found many resources and useful tools that I find really essential when it comes to creating a website… So I’ve decided to create this small place where we can all share the resources and the most juicy tools out there that we can use to raise our productivity.”