You know you are the design leader when...

I have a MacBook Pro. Since I got it I have realized how often the machine's image is used in ads promoting web sites, software, etc. Even if it's software that runs only on Windows! [Keep your eyes open when you're reading a magazine, and you'll see the MacBook Pro's distinctive features--silver case, elongated oval button, CD slot.]

Similarly, if you have a mobile web application, you include an iPhone in the advertisement, like this one here:

So this is the definition of design leadership. When your product is used as background to feature another product, you're it. And right now in consumer electronics and PCs, that's Apple.

Tags:
advertising, images, design, Apple

Google works in mysterious ways

The traffic on this site spiked yesterday--up about four-fold from the average of the rest of the week. Why? Blame Google Images.

Last November I posted on why the characters on "Lost" were like the management of a dysfunctional company. To illustrate the post, I found (on Google Images, of course) a promotional picture that had been used by a South Korean television network. I pasted it into the post, and that was that.

After the first of the year, when new episodes of "Lost" began again, I started seeing traffic spikes from time to time based on people searching for "Lost" images on Google.

And yesterday, it happened again. I went to Google Images, typed "Lost." And saw my blog post as the #1 result. (Why my picture instead of the original from South Korea? Or any other picture, for that matter?) People from Turkey, the UK, the US, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Austria and many others, all checking out that picture.

Some even spent time reading the content.

The internet can be a really random place sometimes.

(Of course, I couldn't resist posting the picture again.)

UPDATE: April 15. Traffic is back to normal. Ran the Google Images search again. My post is nowhere to be found...

Google, internet, images, algorithms