MarkThisDate

Relaunch

As you might have noticed we changed our look and feel completely. Red and beige are now blue. In the last year we have been working on our back-end (’the engine’) and now it was time to overhaul our front-end. With thanks to the guys over at Metalab we are very happy with the result. Besides the changed color:

• we took out our homepage which was a useful but unsuccessful experiment and went back to the list view
• we added icons to calendars
• we made it easier to share calendars either via our widget or your favorite social network
• we added business functionality to facilitate professional calendar distribution
• we expanded our network through which we distribute calendars
• we added suggestions to the sidebar for easy navigation

Please let us know which features you like or dislike.

Calendar widgets

We pimped our calendar widget. Not only is it extremely easy to implement (copy/past a hyperlink), the screen that opens is completely customizable to everybody’s needs and look and feel.

Just visit the share tab on a calendar page, select your code and copy and paste it into your website. We have prefab buttons but you can put the code under a hyperlink or your own banner or button.

Below is one of my favorite implementations (click the image). Every time a visitor of your website adds this schedule to his calendar he will be happy because you made his life so much easier and you have generated 35 contact moments (one for every match) with that visitor. In these contact moments you can give the visitor extra information about the event, your website or your product. Therefore you know he will revisit your site.

You can find more info and examples at our products page.

Immovator Cross Media Cafe: the new TV Guide

Yesterday I attended the Immovator Cross Media Cafe. The topic was: The New TV Guide or EPG (electronic program guide). Key word of the day: collaborative filtering.

Interesting to see what:

• Vincent Everts, PCZapper
• Marcel Houtman, Dag, Zie.nl
• Albert Treur, TSS
• Annelies Kaptein, Stoneroos
• Berend Jan Verheijen, Hoofd Nieuwe Media, BNN
• Carl Lunenborg, Programmabladen AKN, TVgids

had to say. From a technical standpoint everything is possible: combinations with Youtube, video/tv on demand, mobile devices, etc. Please visit all those sites above and see how different the solutions to the same problem are. What I found also interesting is that TV programs in my view are not only competing amongst themselves for viewers, they are competing for precious time of the viewer. The viewer could also do some sports, read a book or visit grandma. My point is: in the examples I saw yesterday there was not one EPG that interacted with the calendar of the viewer. When am I going the watch all those collaboratively filtered programs? The solutions could be so simple as an ics feed for you favorite program, channel, actor or any collaboratively filtered (3 times is too much, I agree) content to your calendar app. Not only a good service to the visitor/viewer but also a perfect way to tell the viewer more about the show he is about to see with links back to the EPG.
Good idea ?

Friday relaunch MarkThisDate

We are very excited about our new and more intuitive look and feel coming out this Friday. We have also added lots of new features for our partners and clients. Please visit MarkThisDate.com on Friday and let us know what you think. Here is a preview: