Lone Star Productions

Changes to Google Authorship Are a Potential Game Changer for Search and Social Media

Mark Johnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:24:21 +0000

Google’s new authorship initiative (links below) has the potential to be a real game-changer for organizations that focus on delivering news on the Internet, be it via blogs or traditional news sources. Here’s how it works: In a clear attempt to establish Google+ as the post facto standard for social media identity (at least for authors), writers are being instructed to link their Google+ identities to the publications they write for. In turn, the articles on the respective publication site are linked back to the author’s profile, either via a designated author page, or more directly from an article itself. So, you may start seeing more of those little Google+ icons popping up on articles across the web, similar in fashion to Facebook Like and other social media icons. This is intended to be a win-win situation for both Google and the authors – Google gets needed traction for their Google+ social media environment in the battle against Facebook, as they are clearly differentiating Google+ as a “more serious” reflection of an individual’s total identity, in contrast to Facebook, which can easily denigrate to something resembling an immature collection of rants and raves over a period of time. The authors and their publications gain the potential for desired publicity and possibly an increase in pageviews for their respective articles (something that authors could readily use with the recent removal of the “search by author” capability within Google News). Only time will tell in determining if this initiative serves to increase pageviews as well as provide what the sputtering Google+ platform needs to both increase its growth as well as differentiate itself positively from the likes of Facebook.

Google’s new guidelines on authorship:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986

Recent details on improvements to the Google authorship process:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1229920

Forget Web Development, HTML5′s Biggest Impact is on Advertising

Mark Johnson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:31:23 +0000

There have been a lot of posts about how HTML5 is great for website development. The subtler, yet more interesting story about HTML5 is that it has incredible potential to make advertising both rich and scalable, especially as publishers and advertisers grapple with the requirement to serve slick creative to all devices. As a result, the W3C standard that is “not ready for production yet” is gaining tremendous popularity on mobile and tablet devices and has become a major game changer for mobile display advertising.

Bullseye Style

Mark Johnson — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:36:36 +0000

Like most small businesses when they start out, Bullseye Style was looking for a way to establish an identity in a crowded field, and do it as economically as possible. More than anything, they wanted something purely visual that made people think. They’re in a highly visual field, yet most organizations name themselves descriptively with text only, or with the founder’s name.

We designed a logo that was very visual and symbolic, and although it makes the viewer stop and think, it’s quickly resolvable, and satisfied the client’s desire to focus on their ability to “target” a client’s specific needs. And because it uses only shades of black and red against a white background, the client can have all materials printed in the most economical 2-color format.

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Maca Foods

Mark Johnson — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:27:56 +0000

Maca Foods sells a small but growing line of food products with personality. They had a tight budget for logo design, but wanted a colorful logo to go along with their high-concept product line. When your products have names like Wacko Jacko Pumpkin Butter, you need a lively logo to go along with them.

We designed a logo that was simple and colorful, fits with the product line, but doesn’t detract from the individually strong product identities. And even though it uses multiple colors, the actual printed areas are relatively small and easy to reproduce.

Winning Business with Social Media

Mark Johnson — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:39:20 +0000

Every day, hundreds of millions of people log into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a mind-bending array of other services, posting comments about their lives, their experiences and their interactions with companies. At the same time, businesses have discovered that social media offers a powerful way to connect with customers and strengthen relationships, hopefully benefitting the bottom line.

Stonyfield Farm

Mark Johnson — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:40:04 +0000

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur facilisis venenatis pulvinar. Etiam magna sem, ultrices eu luctus non, gravida sed sem. Donec et fermentum lectus. Mauris ac velit quam, sed mollis ante. In et bibendum velit. Fusce tincidunt, ligula ac laoreet imperdiet, nulla ligula elementum erat, vitae vestibulum quam justo quis nulla. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Suspendisse bibendum felis eget arcu aliquet fringilla. Donec at blandit mauris. Vivamus quis ligula sem.

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Bullseye Style

Mark Johnson — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:32:34 +0000

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Web Development

Mark Johnson — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:09:30 +0000

Online Advertising

Mark Johnson — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:07:23 +0000

Interface Design

Mark Johnson — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:06:42 +0000