Catalyst CEO Nick Gould (that’s me) recently moderated a panel at OMMA Publish: “Can Technology Save Publishing.” You should watch the video, because we actually did answer that question.

At Catalyst, we’ve spent a lot of hours designing and conducting usability studies on ad-supported media sites. And based on our experience, the general rule is that users understand why ads are there and are somewhat willing to tolerate them as a necessary evil — assuming they see them at all, which they often [...]

The hubub around the reviled Tropicana re-branding continues, and the new Facebook design and is inspiring similar levels of “design hatred.”
It’s really fascinating that regular consumers (in the Tropicana case) seem to care so much about these issues… But what we’re really seeing, I think, is how resistant to change people can be, perhaps even [...]

This amusing screen shot from our eagle-eyed Usability Analyst David Chang… Beyond the giggle value, this demonstrates the canny strategy of targeting pay-per-click promotions via keywords that, while unrelated to the product or service you are advertising, are very relevant to your target audience. Screenshot here.

According to Dee Margo’s MySpace profile, he’s married and interested in networking and making friends. He has 40 users signed up as “friends� including Jesus Christ, Admiral CrackMunky and Forever a Bad Ass. Dee is not a high school student, college student, a 20-something, 30-something or even a 40-something. He’s a 54 year old politician from El Paso running for a seat in the Texas State Senate and he’s using MySpace to reach out to a new, younger audience of voters.