open ... or closed for business?

This morning I was going to visit an antiques/collectibles shop about an hour away from my home. Because most antiques stores do not keep 9-5, 7 days a week opening hours, before setting off I thought I would check on their website if it was open today. There was no website, only social media pages - none of which included the basic details of the business [just a lot of nice pictures]. I eventually found a phone number and gave it a ring. Landline number, no answer. Is it closed today? Will it be open later? Are they on holiday this week? One thing is certain: they won't be taking any money off me today. Or perhaps ever.

Moral? Well, it could be; read my book - but I'll go with: have a basic web page with 'about', 'address', 'contact details' and 'opening hours' [you can get these for next-to-nothing when you buy a domain name], or have these details on the home/pinned page of any social media presence. Or go old school and have an answerphone message saying 'sorry, we're closed at the moment, our opening hours are ...'. 

Customers can be hard to find, don't make it hard for them to find you.

Update: several hours after originally publishing this post - and because I wanted to follow up this post, not because I was desperate to visit them - I had another go at finding some opening hours ... and after a bit of digging, found them. Ho hum. 

a snapshot in time?

After attending a Premier League football match, I was invited to complete a questionnaire about my match-day experience. All fairly standard stuff, but there was one key question missing: what time I arrived at the stadium. I got there an hour before kick off - effectively, one of the first to experience the various elements of the event so, no queues. I'm pretty sure folks arriving after me would have had a very different experience.  

another 'war and peace' review

This notice popped up at the end of a purchase. Sound idea, provides a bit of marketing data [not sure how much], but I was logged-on to the site - so technology should have been designed to recognise this. To be fair, when I clicked on 'other', one of the options was 'shopped here before', but that should have been in the original list. As with most [all?] of these feedback forms, I was willing to offer a couple of quick clicks ... but I gave up after four clicks and was then asked to write something🤷. I left the site at that point.  Surely the site's data collection is set up to show how many folk start, but don't finish, the feedback.

unnecessary clicks

One of my website design bug-bears is the use of hamburger menus [three lines] which you have to click on to open the menu. These started use on apps and websites on smaller screens, where they do serve a purpose. But on a website like this one? No. In usability terms it's an unnecessary click for the visitor - more so if you have to return to the home page - where the opened menu will have closed. In this case, why not just put the menu/links across the top of the page? my opinion of why designers use the hamburger? It makes the top of the page look 'cleaner'. A case of style over substance.

So what is this ad for?

Short? What's a short?  I checked the website of the organization in the ad - and I couldn't find where it is based. Maybe it doesn't actually exist ... and a short is from the imagination of of artificial intelligence.

Close ...

 ... but no cigar - I'm an adidas man.

look behind the numbers

I think this research offers something for online retailers - but there is something missing. What is the total number of folk being represented here? It is not - for example, 33% of a population - it is a percentage of folk who have purchased from a social media platform. 

Oh, and what does the statement 'purchased on social media' mean? I would say it means that no other website was involved in placing an order and paying for it. If you click on a link on the social media platform which takes you to a website's purchase page, I don't think the purchase was made on the SM platform. I wonder what the respondents thought? 

And finally ... the survey's title. Shouldn't it be; 'Social media platforms that are most popular for shopping'. 

Ad spend well spent?

I've bunched these together because I have no idea what is being advertised in any of them. I would suggest that for at least some of them, the product - or service - is so specialised that actual customers could be identified ... and so contacted directly.

my review? your reviews are hard work

If you want more reviews, make them quick and easy ... don't ask them to write an essay.

Ad spend well spent?

I'll stick with my old MR2 thank you. As always check out the stats at the bottom. A quick glance at the comments show they are mainly folk doing the same as me and taking the p*ss.

i don't find it at all entertaining

Apparently the terms of service for Microsoft's Copilot say it's for entertainment purposes only, that it can make mistakes and may not work as intended ... and that users should not rely on it for important advice.

If you use X - there's a good analysis of the story  by @HedgieMarkets 

how to end problems with social media

March 2026: A court case in the US over a woman's childhood addiction to social media which Meta and YouTube lost brought the dangers of social media into the public realm. Again. Those issues are beyond the scope of this blog's subject area, but halting them is not. The social media platforms exist only by selling advertising on them. And marketers pay for those adverts. Ergo, if marketers stopped buying that advertising space the social media platforms would close. End of problem.  

soulless ...

 ... as if written by a computer 😒

already a member? well join anyway.

I've subscribed to a number of email newsletters - some of which provide me with posts for this blog, others on a range of subjects including sport. Many of these newsletters include links to web pages. 

Those websites must recognise that I've arrived from a subscribed email. So why - usually seconds after the page has downloaded - do I get messages asking/advising me to subscribe to the newsletter?

who wouldn't want something that ...

 ... plugs right into your pipeline via API and having instant access to M4 runners, automated code signing and zero hardware to manage? [and yes, I realise that the end of that sentence doesn't make sense, but I just copies it from the ad😏]