When it comes to managing websites, I like to apply a fairly cut-throat approach to site optimization. Content and links which fail to perform are ruthlessly swept away in favor of those parts of the website which have performed or show potential. I like to think of this process of culling and promoting links as online natural selection or a Darwinian survival of the fittest. With today’s web analytics tools it is possible track and analyze practically every aspect of site usage, so revising a website based on behavorial data is often only a matter of taking the time to look at the data. A website subjected to this continual fine-tuning should evolve into a website which is more in line with customer needs, especially since the customers have essentially voted for the content and links which appear most prominently. I also have to admit that there is an inner sense of glee when sending non-performing links into extinction.

Unfortunately, this theory of website evolution has some strident opponents. It may sound like common sense or straight-forward logic to you and me (at least, it does to me), but there is a large and vocal community of people who do not subscribe to this line of thought at all. I am speaking about the advocates of intelligent website design, or course. These people can be found at levels of an organization, including highly experienced professionals in positions of significant decision-making capacity, as well as (gasp) e-marketing specialists in major marketing and advertising agencies. In fact, I’ve never been on a job or project which hasn’t featured a prominent respresentation of this faction. You will know when these people are in your midst, when your web analytics data is summarily dismissed and replaced by piles of indisputable market research, white papers, focus group results, and branding guidelines explaining exactly what should go where on the website. In my experience, arguing with these people usually proves an exercise in futility. Unless you are an experienced evangelist, your best chance lies with finding like-minded managers and building a base of support for your analytical approach. Or, you could try the good old “act now and ask for forgiveness later” ploy.

The point is this battle is too important to lose. Website real estate, despite widely-held beliefs to the contrary, is as precious as offline real estate. Visitors to websites are not constrained by physical distance to the competition and can leave your virtual real estate with a single mouse click. A website must engage the visitor within the first seconds and then work to help the visitor find what they seek. I don’t mean to dismiss strategic thinking out of hand. A compelling vision and well-conceived strategy are essential pre-requisites for success and should be based on solid market research, however, site optimization should not be driven by white papers and marketing egos. At that point, its best to put aside any delusions of intelligent website design and start competing on analytics. A lot of companies are already running their business on web analytics, and some are probably even using some form of natural selection when developing websites. Google has built an advertising empire based on a similar process for its AdWords. Are we soon to see websites which are programmed to evolve by themselves?

Back in the 1800s, visiting cards were considered essential personal accessories for anyone with a social life. Today, visiting cards are an increasing rarity outside the business world and are considered antiquitated by the youngest generations which are more likely to exchange an SMS with buddies. Still, I find visiting cards incredibly convenient, especially for quickly exchanging addresses with new acquaintances who either lack the inclination or knowledge to use the messaging feature of their mobile phones (i.e pretty much anyone over 40).

In a recent search for a decent visiting card for the family, I came across Moo, a London-based online print service. Moo’s MiniCards, with their irregular format and individualized designs, are ill-suited around stodgy business circles, but perfect for sparking conversations at social events. I opened a Flickr account and spent a couple of hours uploading dozens of photos just to order a Moo card set. And that is what makes Moo so interesting from a business perspective: Moo sits squarely at the crossroads between the booming market in photosharing services and the growing consumer penchant for personalized merchandise (the “I made/designed/pimped/customized that” factor).

There’s no doubt that Moo offers a creative playground to its customers. I’ll leave it to others to expound on the design virtues and interesting applications of Moo cards. (I haven’t even received my cards yet, so I’ve got nothing to bring to the show-and-tell.) Instead, as an internet marketer, I find myself entranced by their fulfillment model. Moo offers worldwide shipping at a flat rate of just $4.99, regardless of whether you are in Cambridge, Calgary, or Kuala Lumpur. How incredibly customer-friendly and cosmopolitan. I’m surprised that more web2.0 businesses have not latched on to this simple, but brilliant tactic. From the get-go, Moo clearly intends to conquer the globe with their out-of-the-ordinary cards and certainly aren’t going to let the complexities of international postal rates get in the way of this mission. I suppose shipping is a loss-leader for them, but this probably is a calculated sacrifice in order to gain a global slice of the pie.

It was only a matter of time before laptops became something more than a portable computer. The ASUS Sideshow Notebook brings the standard lightweight laptop into realms once reserved for PDAs, Smartphones, and MP3 players. The laptop itself is nothing new, but the separately-powered secondary display on the outside lid of the laptop is a stroke of genius, as any harried business traveler will confirm. How many times have you wished for a way to retrieve that one important email or look up that certain street address, but not had the time/space/patience to open and boot up your laptop? Sideshow has a limited set of functionalities at this time, but the laptop paradigm has been altered and the gates to all sorts of future applications opened. Let’s take a moment to drool over this development and then watch what the market brings in the coming months. I’m no technology reviewer, just a casual market observer. Its far better that we let someone with a good eye for the technical specifications do the dirty work.

Its not a good time to be an internet radio broadcaster. Nor a paying subscriber. Nor a music lover. Nor an unsigned musician, for that matter. The music industry is engaged in a fullscale war, with copyright law as the weapon of choice. Given that consumers have been in the crosshairs for so long, it should hardly come as a surprise that broadcasters have been forced into the frey as well. Where this latest development will lead is anyone’s guess, but the broadcasters do have one asset which the individual consumer does not have — a large base of loyal listeners that stands to lose a valued service.

Cue the next generation of streaming music services. Pandora impresses with the music genome project, its extensive catalogue of songs and their musical attributes. As a listener, you create stations based on a single song or artist and Pandora proceeds to deliver music with similar musical characteristics, such as instrumentation, melody, or lyrics. You can rate individual songs positively or negatively, providing Pandora with further information to refine the station according to your preferences. The results are impressive — a well refined station plays like your own custom radio station without the commercial interruptions.

There is an on-going debate about which service is best as helping people discover new music. Another provider, Last.fm, relies on social recommendations and culls related songs according to popularity (a kind of Pagerank algorithm for music?) rather than musical character. Regardless of which selction methods works better, Pandora, and probably also Last.fm, are both great for those extended moments of passive listening. The right music can energize productivity: I turn to my Gotan Project station for projects involving right-brain thinking, while a retro Cars station seems to work exceedingly well for blogging.