DigitalMcGrath » Future Applications http://digitalmcgrath.com Digital McGrath Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:06:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 The Virtual Red Pen http://digitalmcgrath.com/the-virtual-red-pen/ http://digitalmcgrath.com/the-virtual-red-pen/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:08:20 +0000 digitalmcgrath http://www.digitalmcgrath.com/?p=105 I was sitting at work yesterday and my wife Karen called me. She was calling to inform me that I had a spelling typo and a grammatical typo on this site. This is not a big deal to me because she has always been my virtual editor. And 9 times out of 10 she will find something. The fact that I had typo’s is kind of ironic because there are two things that will cause me to leave a web site quickly. The first is poor programming. My frustration with that is a blog post all on it’s own. The second thing however, are typos. If I am visiting an e-commerce website, for example, and there is a typo, that makes me wonder if they don’t pay attention to the small details, how are they going to handle customer service if I have a problem. I know this sounds hypocritical, but I would not hold it against anyone if they saw a typo on my site and left. So this conversation sparked an idea…The Virtual Red Pen!

The idea is rather simple. Build an application that would allow visitors to mark up a web site showing where the typo’s are and then assign a grade to that web site based on the number of typo’s that were found.

It would work much like the google SideWiki, but instead of being in a tool bar on the side of the page, the information would be displayed right on the page.

It should also notify the web site owner that mistakes were found and give them a chance to correct them.

I know what you are thinking… You are thinking this is a great idea, but how is it going to make money?

Good question! And the answer is the same way everything makes money on the internet….Advertising!

When a user mouses over a mistake that is noted, a little pop up would appear informing the user “This typo is brought to you by ~Insert Company Name and Catchy Slogan Here~”

With every great idea, generous investors are needed. So if you are a generous investor and know a good idea when you see one, please contact me. If not, I may have to go on ABC’s hit television show “Shark Tank“.

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