Sniff browser history for improved user experience

Talk about sufficiently advanced technology. Although you will surely see this post linked many times this week, I have to throw in my own kudos. Fantastic trick, Niall!

In a nutshell, Niall shows how you can use a combination of CSS and JavaScript to selectively display information based on previously visited URLs in your visitor’s browser history. Have you been to Digg? Then Niall’s site displays a “Digg This” badge (and, importantly for Niall’s purposes, not 100 other badges for sites you haven’t used).

Try Niall’s live example to see this stunner in action.

Dang. That sound you just heard? That’s a few million people scurrying to hit “Clear History.” Terrific work, Niall — totally clever.

Now, regrettably, I suspect the race begins for seeing how horribly something like this can be abused.

[via Brian and Ev]

Web2wave ( www.web2wave.com) propose a new way to surf the internet. It’s a completely web-based app so there’s no need to install a thing. With Web2Wave, you can store, find and organize all your favorite web content via 3D tabs. The tabs also display an image of each site you have open. It looks a lot like the iPod technology on the new Touch or iPhone., but instead of album covers, Web2Wave displays website coverflows called Surflets. It’s a completely intuitive and three dimensional interface. Simply double-click on any coverflow image to make that site active.  read more »

Last year, I stumbled upon a blog post about buying prescription eyeglasses online. It sounded too good to be true: you could get any frames you wanted quickly and cheaply, and the comments were filled with optometrists freaking out. Eventually, the author launched a dedicated blog for it called Glassy Eyes. When the site was recently mentioned on MetaFilter right around the time I was getting my 2-year exam, I decided to take the plunge myself and order some glasses online.  read more »

I have a friend who told me he was thinking about giving his project managers a weekly pile of chips that could be redeemed for person-hours in meetings. So, to schedule firewalled, group face-time, the PM would need to cough up the equivalent number of tokens from her pile. Thus, one, long, all-hands meeting might require the whole week’s stack. While, fewer, shorter meetings with smaller groups made the pile go further.

It was just an idea, and I’m pretty sure he never implemented it, but I think it’s a fascinating concept. Why? Because I love the idea of re-introducing scarcity into systems that lack boundaries.  read more »

Ok, it’s Friday, and the team and me are pooped from several weeks of site-making. No profound tips today. I’ll just leave you to your weekend with a wonderfully timely video.  read more »