[Note from the Proprietor: In case you're wondering what it's all about, well, we're smack in the middle of BLOGAPALOOZA! Hey, you're welcome to join in the fun if you like! All ya gotta do is click that cute little link and read all about it!]

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Guest post by John Koetsier who writes over at SparkPlug

December: Start-ups: the Perils of Launching Early

Launching too soon can blow your buzz as users eat your dogfood and throw up … never to arrive at your dinner table again.

November: Usability & Knowledge: UI Strings

The overall goal of UI strings is giving the user the right amount of information at the right time. And the only way to know if you’ve got it right is to do usability testing during and after launch.

October: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

What a wild ride it’s been, from a company that did about $40 million in annual business to a company that does over $130 million yearly.

September: Googling Predators in Airplanes

I’ve had the most amazing neighbors on flights lately …

August: It’s Perfectly Illegal

I just let the kids watch Gever Tulley’s video 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kid Do. One of them is driving your car.

July: High Gas Prices Driving Distance Education Growth?

Distance education has already been growing rapidly over the last few years. But some are now seeing an even quicker uptake … and connecting that fact to higher gas prices.

June: Mariners Are Champs, 3 Years Without a Loss

My son Ethan’s baseball team won a city-wide championship today, ending their current season and extending a unbeaten win streak to three complete years.

May: On Alan Dean Foster

It’s hard to see a writer that could be so good settle for so much less.

April: Turns Out The Mobile Web is Just – The Web

But then iPhone showed us that the future of the mobile web was … err … the web. Not some “baby internet,” in His Steveness’ words, but the real internet. In your pocket. On your phone. On your iPod. And those of us who had tried to scrunch the web down onto our 2″ screens jumped up and said Amen.

March: Differentiation: a Key Marketing Strategy

It’s simple – you only truly succeed as a brand, and as a business, by being top-of-mind in your targeted clients’ minds. And you can only be top-of-mind in your clients’ minds by having a clear, identifiable, distinguishable identity …

February: Hate Facebook Hate Facebook Hate Facebook

Everytime anyone does anything, Facebook feels like it needs to notify me. So-and-so is playing Scrabulous, someone else took a picture of a cup of coffee, someone else is super-poking me, and his dog is joining some stupid corporate fan club because they happen to like Tim Hortons coffee.

January: Outrageous cost of Text Messages

There’s a reason why SMS is a hundred billion dollar industry … and it’s simply that phones companies are unbelievably greedy.

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I’m an English major who got interested in technology a long time ago, spent four years leading a web development team, led product development for a major educational services company, and am starting up a Canadian office for EasyBits. I’m also finishing a master’s degree in educational technology.

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[Further note from the Proprietor: Hey, if you're interested in having your own "best of 2008" posts highlighted right here at the Middle Zone, then by all means, click on this link: (BLOGAPALOOZA: What I Learned From 2008) and read all about it! BLOGAPALOOZA will be open for entries from now until Sunday, January 25.]

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