Menu consultants use this prime space for high-profit items, and price “anchors”, in this case the Le Balthazar seafood plate, for $115 (£70). By putting high-profit items next to the extremely expensive anchor, they seem cheap by comparison. So, the triple-figure price here is probably to induce customers to go for the $70 (£43) Le Grand plate to the left of it, or the more modest seafood orders below it.

This could easily be applied to cross-selling/up-selling products on any ecommerce website.

One of the big things for me is [following] up. If I’m on the fence about a candidate but they take the time to e-mail me and thank me for having them come in, it shows me that they are motivated, tactful and professional. On the other side of the coin, if I interview someone and they are using lots of banal business speak and don’t give me any impression of what their personality is like, I will usually pass. I hate when I ask a candidate what their favorite thing to work on is and they say ‘everything’ — it leaves me with the impression that they either have no personality or won’t speak their mind.

Click on the picture above to see a chart with a full breakdown of the iPhone, Palm Pre and Android.  I was kind of surprised how similar all three of them are in terms of features/specs.  I see now that AT&T is definitely sticking it to me for the voice/data/messaging plan I’m on.  Is it me or does the Pre look pregnant?

My definition of an ambigram is a word (or name) that can be read with equal ease from more than one vantage point. To me, a logo that has two symmetrical letters or a graphic image that looks the same from more than one vantage point have ambigrammatic qualities, but are not ambigrams, per se. (personal and hair splitting, I know…) Further, though, I think that an ambigram must be readable without an accompanying typeset version of the word, and the letters must not be tortured in complete disregard for their heritage. An image that is symmetrical, but is not attractive or readable, is not, in my opinion, an ambigram.

The week before last I went to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York.  It was the first time I had been to a big industry event since I went to Comdex back in college.  I was pretty disappointed by what I saw.  I’m not sure if it was indicative of the industry at the moment or more of a commentary on the kind of startups that the O’Reilly crew seem to attract.  

I couldn’t believe how many social networking community website startups were in attendance.  It seemed like one after another with no real differentiators at all. They were all pimping their blogs and profiles and a lot of them were geared towards business.  The idea that someone would buy a copier and then want to join a social network on the web where they could talk about their copier and upload pictures of their copier, etc.  is absurd.  There are many B2B avenues where user generated content will never make an impact.

What I could see as feasible is a social network that the dealers of those copier machines used where they could exchange information on how to sell, what methods were working for them, what kind of ad copy or advertising was working, etc.  But something like that would require Konica Minolta or Ricoh to really make an effort to foster that kind of community – particularly among small business owners who generally are short on time.

Overall, this Web 2.0 Expo was a big disappointment with very little innovation or originality.  I hope that their are more innovative startups out there than what I saw a week ago.  Somebody must be coming up with fresh ideas, whoever they are, they clearly don’t talk to Tim O’Reilly.

(thanks shareabrain)

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

Possibly the most important invention of the past century, the web is undeniably one of the most robust engines of knowledge transfer, political and social change, artistic endeavor, and economic growth the world has seen.

This year’s survey corrects many of last year’s mistakes, with more detailed and numerous questions for freelance contractors and owners of (or partners in) small web businesses. There are also better international categories, and many other improvements recommended by those who took the survey last year.