Week 3B: A Little on the Fringe

Social Crafties, by now you may have guessed that I'm a little on the fringe. I love alien videos (always blurry, of course), conspiracy theories (by people even fringe-ier than me), and a good ghost story by the campfire (on YouTube). These are the people that really believe, "The Truth is Out There".

It all makes me feel so normal by comparison.

That's why I listen to a late night radio show called Coast to Coast AM (C2C). They present radio shows on all of the above and more. Many shows feature social issues like sustainability, the environment, and alternative medicine. I listen to their radio show almost every night until I fall asleep.

I know... some of you are thinking, "Loser!", but this show boasts millions of listeners. I've got lots of C2C bro's and sista's.

Their website, Coast2CoastAM.com, includes oodles of videos and articles. If you want to find out what is on the show tonight, it is easy to find. If you have a favorite guest, you can find out when they were on the show last and what they talked about. The short double stacked menus at the top easily take you where you want to go. If you subscribe to the site, you can listen to shows for the last five years.

At first glance, it appears busy, but the layout and groupings are genius. You can scroll down a bit, find whatever catches your eye, and you're off and running! I wish I had an hour to cruise this site every day. It would never get old. So very much information, so enticingly laid out, and it changes every day. It is truly astonishing, how they handle all this information, all the time.

Big headlines make it easy to pick out your favorite pics, videos and articles. Lots of weird pictures grab your attention, drawing you in. The color scheme featuring black and midnight blue fits the late-night feel of the show. Their customers are the night owls, and they know just how to cater to them.

What could they do better? Not much, but I think if someone stumbled across the site and didn't listen to the show, it may take a while to catch up. A little two sentence explanation in the header might be good. What do you think?

Oh, and if you want to listen to the show, it is on:

KOGO, AM 600, 10 pm to 2am.

KFI, AM 640, 10 to 2 am, except Saturdays.
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The other site that makes me crazy (in a good way) is YouTube. Oh, the hours I have fiddled away on that site!

On the other hand, I have learned so much.

YouTube is a site full of videos that people load up. Land on the front page, and the platform already knows the kind of stuff you like, or maybe the kind of stuff other people like who use the computer. My partner's a history buff and a gamer. See what YouTube suggests below...

But the glorious thing about YouTube is the unassuming little search box at the top of every page. Here you can search to your heart's content for all the stuff you enjoy. YT's humble search box is really a powerful finder of what you want. You can put in one or many words to find what you need. Let's try "Social Media Tips & Tricks" and see what happens.

Up comes a list of videos just for you. Picture on the left and description on the right, nice grouping. Using white space, they make the screen appear orderly, neat and clean. They show a title, who made it, how old it is, and how many people have viewed it. Everything you need to know in order to make the first decision.

When you click on one, a window fills about 1/3 of your screen. At first, this window may have an ad. That's OK, we've all got bills to pay. Usually you can click it off after about 3 seconds. This is the moment you begin to see the video. There are controls under the little screen to help you put it on pause, control the volume, and blow it up big enough to fit your whole screen. It's a blast.

Now here's the enticing part. After your video, there are more suggestions to the right. All laid out clean and neat, for your perusal. Let the stickiness begin.



These new suggestions may or may not have anything to do with your recent search, like the "Grandma Catches Girl Poopi..." No, we're not going there, but you get the idea, you can click it if the mood hits you.

If I could fashion a virtual crown, and have a contest for the "Grouping King", YouTube would win.

...................2 min .....................3 min .......................4 min .........................
(Where the heck did Maxine go?)

Sorry, got distracted on YouTube. What was I saying?

Oh yes, YouTube is the "Grouping King". He's also slick, and sleek and sticky. Oh... so... sticky.

<sigh>

YouTube you're awesome.

Maxine

The Team 

 I left comments at these blogs. Check 'em out.

 

Matthew Truss - Big reveal on four sites.
https://csittruss.blogspot.com/2016/09/week-3a-website-critique.html?showComment=1474939529415#c1471796508331234678

Travis  Stehmeier - The optimist.
https://semi-there.blogspot.com/2016/09/week-3a-principles-of-good-social-media.html?showComment=1474939838347

Tiffany  Lehman - Lady with a good eye.
http://tiffanylehman365.blogspot.com/2016/09/evaluation-of-different-websites.html