What’s with all the social bookmarking icons at the bottom of every single friggin’ blog post out there?

Given the Ebola-like spread of these things they must be really effective, right? Not so much. Zero out of Technorati’s top 10 blogs feature those icons. And only two out of the 15 entries in the current crop at Digg’s Top Today page offer “Digg me” icons.

This focus on campaigning over content seems like a classic case of misplaced priorities. The reason posts wind up at Digg, Delicious, or elsewhere isn’t because the authors made it easier to vote for them (it’s already easy). A post winds up at these sites because people respond to its content and quality.

So think twice before badgering readers with “vote for me” pleas. The hectoring is tiresome, it results in extraneous visual noise, it makes your site look cheap, and the benefits are dubious at best. Instead, focus on delivering great content. If you do, people will figure out how to spread the word just fine.

Cheap Thrills Cuisine is a culinary comic strip. [tx KB]

Could the Aston Martin Rapide Concept be the most beautiful four door ever? Sleeeeeeek and smoooooooth.

Watch this movie (1MB) to see how Lineform, an Illustrator competitor, uses a line of text under the toolbar to explain what’s happening and which key modifiers are available.

This is the second in a new series we’re doing here on SvN called Design Decisions. In this series we take one design decision, break it down, and explain why we made it.

In this installment we’re going to be talking about the new Backpack page blank slate. The blank slate is something we first started talking about in 2003. We’ve been trying to refine it ever since.

The blank slate is the first screen someone sees when they do something new. Where do you drop them right after they create a new account? What do you tell them on a screen that starts blank but will eventually be filled with content? That’s the blank slate.

The current blank slate when creating a new Backpack page looks like this:

We’ve never been thrilled with it, but it basically says “there’s nothing here so to add something click one of the buttons above.” Problems: The text is too small, too light, and too verbose. But we do have an arrow pointing up.

Super-Sized TV Remote: “With giant buttons, this extra-large remote is easy to use and impossible to lose.” Even with all that room they still need to use acronyms (e.g. CAB and AUD) instead of full words?

No Ideas But In Things says, “Probably a lot can be discovered and utilized from the multiple buttons and levers of a typical motorcycle’s hand controls. Imagine a mouse as functional.”

The Black Box (concept): “The Black Box concept is to recall and respect the classic long-time conventions and real-world experiences of using various common tools and devices; keep only the meaningful and minimal interface elements to fulfill the maximal user desires.”

On my way into work last week I heard a Consumer Reports radio spot. It was one of those interstitial infomercials during the commercial break of another radio show.

They were talking about digital cameras. They recommended a few models. Then they recommended a few comparison pricing sites to find the best prices. It all sounded like good advice until I heard them say something like:

“Here’s a great tip: Make sure that you check out the cameras in person at a local store before you buy it online. This is a great way to get the best price and be sure you’re happy with what you’re buying.”

I’m paraphrasing, but that was the spirit of it. I find that advice unfortunate and disappointing. I’m surprised to hear it from Consumer Reports.

They are basically suggesting that you should take advantage of your local stores. Not take advantage as in taking advantage of buying locally and supporting your local economy, but as in taking advantage of them in a malicious way.

No Ideas But In Things

“No Ideas But In Things is a library of controls, animations, layouts, and displays that might be a source of inspiration for interaction designers. Dan Saffer is the curator.”

Monome creator says limitations promote intuitive design

The Monome designer says, “I’m an ultra-minimalist, and there’s an incredible draw for me towards simplified systems. When you introduce limitations it promotes more intuitive design.”

The lost world of Joseph Pulitzer

“A century ago, newspapers were bigger, bolder, and more beautiful. What happened?” [tx Peter]

Blossom plant at My Dream App

“The Blossom plant responds to your productivity! Choose a virtual plant to illustrate achievement of your goals. Create criteria that feed it and criteria that neglect it. For example, to feed it: Actively use Excel or Photoshop. To Neglect it: Actively use World of Warcraft or browse blogs on Safari. IF your plant is healthy and flowering, you know you’re meeting your goals. Consistently failing to meet one’s goals will slowly wilt the plant. Clicking on the plant can display stats of current health, graphs of app usage, and suggestions of what to work on next to meet your goals.”

10 Steps You Can Take To Guarantee Failure

“5. Don’t Do – Talk. Try to fill up as much of your day with socializing as possible. Talk about all the things you will do someday or that you were gonna do. Just make sure you don’t mess it up by doing anything productive.”

Cork’d Blog

The original corked blog had a Cabernet color scheme…

...but now it’s more Chardonnay. Could it be that light type on a dark background doesn’t age too well? Fwiw, Apple’s decided the cool factor of a dark background is worth the legibility cost at its MacBook Pro and other screens.

T-Mobile

T-mobile gives credit card context to demonstrate phone sizes.

Safety scheme
Needapresent.com is trying to make you feel safe with this badge. But first off, the headline (“Internet shopping is safe.”) is a bit too sunny. Reminds me of the old addage that whenever someone insists they are your friend it’s a pretty good sign they probably aren’t.

Second, an unknown acronym (ISIS) and the word “scheme” aren’t exactly great ways to instill confidence. Might as well talk about the site’s great “PTHX security racket.”

The Fart Button
Online advertising reaches new lows (too painful to show here). JSM writes, “I know I know, ads like this are easy to take for granted, but I stopped and had to think of the person who actually had to sit and make this.” Coming soon: The pull my finger pulldown.

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

So far we’ve sold over 23,000 copies of Getting Real in PDF format. We introduced it on March 1 of this year, so we’re pretty thrilled with the results.

But 23,000 readers isn’t enough. We want millions of people to read the book. So today we introduce two new flavors that make the content even more accessible. And, in one case, completely free.

1. The free web version. Same content, just in HTML. And it’s free for anyone to read.

2. The paperback version. Same content, just in a 190 page paperback with a glossy black cover. We’re self publishing this version through Lulu. Since Lulu takes quite a cut, we’re pricing the book at $29. If we see the volume numbers we hope we’ll see we’ll look into a cheaper publishing/printing method and bring the price down. But Lulu’s print-on-demand technology is a good first step.

3. Both of these join the PDF version which is also available in a 10-pack group license. The single copy PDF is $19 and the 10-packer is $49.

You can get to all three versions from the Getting Real site.

For those who’ve read the book already, we hope you’ve found it valuable. For those who haven’t, well, now you have no excuse ;)