Tobias Ratschiller

Thanks, Apple, for throwing us back to a beautiful 1999.
Today, web usability is largely a solved problem. We know what works, have experimented and conducted field tests, and routinely optimize websites to increase conversion metrics.
Then comes the iPad. Some apps remind me of the web in 1999, just more beautiful. Remember the web a little over 10 years ago? Some websites that wanted to be especially avant-garde toyed with Flash or large image maps. On those sites, your mouse became more of a discovery device than a point and click device.
Today it is the same with iPad apps: anything can be a user interface element. There are no standards, and it seems Apple is not doing a good job (yet) defining and enforcing guidelines.

1. LastPass. Rule number one for any Internet user is not to use an easy to guess password. Rule number two is not to use the same password for more than one service. So you need something to manage your passwords and store them securely. I used to use KeePass, but LastPass is so much better with its tight Firefox integration and an iPhone application.
   
2. Remember the Milk. If I am to use todo lists and shared task management, it has to be extremely easy and efficient. Remember the Milk is. You can add tasks with a Google-Calendar-like command prompt, saying for example "remember to buy milk ^today #shopping" to give the task a deadline of today and tag it with shopping. Adobe AIR-based clients and Google-Calendar integration make interaction a breeze.
3. Synergy and DisplayFusion. At work I have a four screen setup using two computers (one desktop, one laptop). Synergy lets you share one mouse and keyboard for multiple computers - I can use my desktop keyboard and mouse to control my laptop. Unfortunately, sometimes the mouse or keyboard gets stuck, and the software was last updated in 2006 or so - still it's an indispensable tool until I find something better. DisplayFusion is an utility to expand the Windows taskbar and wallapers to multiple monitors.
4. SugarSync. I regularly use three computers (desktop at home, desktop at work and a laptop). Pretty soon I will add an iPad to that. I barely remember life before SugarSync, but what a hassle it must have been! I actually used to email myself important documents so that I could access them from home. SugarSync keeps my "My Life" folder that stores all documents and pictures synchronized between all computers that I use. Plus, it has an iPhone version, version control ("access the document version from two days ago") and file sharing.
5. LogMeIn.com. In my company, we deal with large data sets, such as directories with millions of companies. Sometimes it's handy to leave the work PC on to do some number crunching or complex SQL queries - and with LogMeOn I can access it from my browser at home to see the results.

1. iPad Mini:
   
   
   
2. Hitler doesn't like it.
   
   
3. No women in the iPad team?
   
   
4. Big iPhone:
   
   
5. The real iPad:
   
   
   
   

1. Big lesson: When you switch to development, focus on building up revenue, not on selling your site.
   Compared to selling domains with no revenue, selling developed sites with revenue is very difficult. Revenues and statistics need to be proven, there is limited capital on the market buying large developed sites, and end-user sales happen only if there is significant revenue on the site. We have largely given up trying to sell sites and concentrate on making money with them.
2. It's easy to build sites with a couple of thousand daily visitors. It's harder to achieve more organic traffic with repeatable processes.
   
3. The easiest way to monetize is still AdSense. Direct sales lead to much higher income, but require lots of effort and hand holding for customers.
4. I need to learn about more monetization options. For example our hotel bookings revenue sucks.
   
5. Becoming father is great for productivity.
6. Vienna is more fun than Bratislava (the girls are hotter in Bratislava, though. Since I'm married, I have to discount that factor).
7. SEO = getting back links (but I can sell you The Ultimate Guide To Get Your Site Ranked Number One for a special price, today only, of $99 $49).
8. I read the Four Hour Work Week only to realize that I already spend less than four hours per week on admin/boring stuff.
9. I learned how to change diapers, that babies don't really speak until they are a year old, and that I can live with 5 hours of sleep.
10. Finally... I want to get tanned in December too!
    

1. The Apple tablet will be the most interesting tech product of 2010 and be the same to netbooks as the iPhone was to mobiles. Apple shares will go to $300.
2. The economy will linger. Even tough in fact 2010's numbers will be worse than 2009's, people will speak of a slow recovery.
3. New TLDs will continue to be a hot topic (even though the first round will only be introduced in 2012) and the expressions of interest will show that there is serious demand from businesses. Nonetheless, .com will hold steady and we will see similar .com sales as in 2009 and 2008.
4. The already very small domaining industry will continue to fade out as domainers move to development, startups, SEO, affiliate marketing, etc.
5. The days of search engines presenting a page with 10 links are over and gone for good. Search engines will aggregate more data in more verticals, which will rock some industries (hotel and flight bookings, comparison shopping, and a wide variety of content sites come to mind). I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities in this, but sure as hell I'm buying a lot more Google and Microsoft stock this year to hedge.
   

1. Because this is an industry where a few geeks can create something that affects millions of people.
2. An industry that brings out services with 300 million users in five years and three year old companies with a 1 billion Dollar valuation.
3. An industry with a creativity that is unlimited.
4. Where nobody knows you're a dog.
5. That inspires "an urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch" (TBL).
6. And forces you to learn and adapt, with an obsession for the new big thing.
   
7. Because the barriers of entry for new participants get lower continually.
8. Because the world's smartest people work in it.
9. And still is most suited to generalists - versus rewarding specialists and narrowness.
10. Because one of its first books ended with "A future so bright you'll need to wear sunglasses" and the most important magazine declared a Long Boom.
11. And bonus reason: Because it brings people together, globally.
    

• I stopped looking at my Google Reader until the evening. I may even switch to read the feeds on the iPhone. I read quite a few feeds and I used to do it around lunch - but it's so unimportant really that I moved it to the late evening.
• Same for news. I don't need news during the day.
  
• I noticed I get pissed off when people show me the usual bullshit videos, funny pictures, and other nonsense. I started to just ignore these.
• Facebook is a waste of time. I stopped going to it a while ago and switched to Seesmic Desktop, with notifications disabled. The business we get from Facebook is miniscule, so I'll just keep it at it.
  
• Same for Twitter, but we use that for business.
• I stopped using all IM except Skype.
• Most "social" business meetings (networking, status updates, etc) can be moved to a lunch meeting.
• I know I'm old, but my primary method of communication is email. I need to unsubscribe from all the BS mailinglists and newsletter that accumulated over the years and that I routinely delete today after a quick glance.

• Our conversion rate is around 2%, which I believe is industry average. This needs improvement.
• Landing pages/mini sites work very well.
• Marketing to restaurateurs is difficult.
• Doing promotions that make sense in the restaurant world is difficult.
• There needs to be a better way to connect with the restaurant. They get bookings from witU, but they know only our booking provider.
• Twitter gets page views and no bookings.
• The Ivy is hugely popular.
• We get most bookings on Tuesdays.
  

• "Witu tututututuuuuuuuuu"
• "Theme - MY BEST IE6 HACK EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET'S CELEBRATE!!!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOO BEEEEEEER AND GIRLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ YAHOOOOOOOOO"
• "It's not my house"
• "Kendarm - Throbber, throb!
• "done"
  

• "Fix for the P1 on live."
  

• track your domain's occurence in Google SERPs for definable keywords
• track backlinks
• track indexed pags