Just came across the above videos on the Skype website explaining the advantages of using their new product offerings – Skype Connect & Skype Manager. I absolutely love the style of story-telling that has been used. It seems like this is the style that Skype is moving forward with to explain their new product offerings & features.

The web landscape is dominated by a large number of blue brands… but Red occupies a large amount of space as well. What’s driving this? You might want to say that carefully organized branding research and market tests were done to choose the perfect colors to make you spend your money, but a lot of the brands that have grown to be global web powerhouses, started as small web startups… and while large corporate giants with branding departments spend quite a lot on market research, user testing, branding, etc. Lots of the sites listed above got started with brands created by the founders themselves with little to no research into the impact their color choice would have. I once asked Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook why he chose blue for his site design… “I’m color blind, it’s the only color I can see.” …and now 500 Million people around the world stare at a mostly blue website for hours each week.

While the initial reasoning for the colors chosen may be trivial, the impact that these dominant players now have in the web world will surely influence the smaller startups that want to share in the positive color associations created by their bigger siblings… Once a rocketship of a web startup takes flight, there are a number of Jr. internet astronauts hoping to emulate their success… and are inspired by their brands. And so Blue and Red will probably continue to dominate, but we can have hope for the GoWalla’s, DailyBooth’s and other more adventurous brands out there.

A wonderfully hand-crafted font by graphic designer, Andrei D. Robu

Capacitive screens has now become a commodity for touch screen devices. Screen technology is now taking the next leap and the coming years imagination is the only thing stopping us. We will soon have dual screens, malleable screens, screens built into wifi connected mirrors, desks or backside of gadgets clothed with e-ink screens, tactile feedback, color screens with great contrast in sunlight, holographics/stereoscopic screens, color e-ink touch screens, or screens actually knowing where they are in relation to other screens thanks to ultrasonic emitters and microphones.