When your undying love and devotion to Google Analytics goes beyond daily criticism of other PPC products, you’re faced with little help from Bing Ads, Facebook Advertising or LinkedIn. Every day you’re weakened by the amount of time nonchalantly hoarded by these other sources, while deep down your creepin’ carpal tunnel scales from multiple sign ins, hundreds of individual setting clicks and other crazy things you do with your trackpad.

But alas, just when you felt the channel to PPC efficiency narrowing, we’ve opened a new connection. Brace yourself because your frustration ends today – and maybe you’ve heard of it already as we launched it just a couple weeks ago – Connectalytics, a new analytics tool.

With Connectalytics, you can use Google Analytics for all your PPC data crunching. All you have to do is complete 5 steps, and simple ones, too.

Bing is ready now, and it’s free up to 10K keywords. While you’re setting up Bing feeds and experiencing the overarching goodness brought by single-dashboard campaign analysis, we’re finishing up Facebook and LinkedIn connections.

In addition, we’ve just finalized a series of new enhancements based on feedback and suggestions from our current users (we love you) like:

• New internal commonly asked questions for users
• A pro pricing plan for users with more than 10K keywords
• Restricted Bing data to specified account ID
• Improved linking of Bing accounts by automatically populating a list of accounts (So you no longer need to search for the account ID.)
• Customizable source name in Analytics (defaults to “bing”)
• Activity log of feed to view number of keywords pulled per night, errors, etc.
• Improved error messages

Thanks to all the great feedback we’ve received and continue to see, we’ll keep working to make Connectalytics better and better. And just when you’re about to start complaining about Facebook’s analytics again, we’ll have more good news waiting.

Seriously, why are you still reading? This blog post is so long. Did we forget to say it’s free or something? Maybe we needed another obvious metaphor. Sign up now and stop wasting your time; it’s unbecoming of you (unlike Connectalytics, which fits you like a glove).

This week, the team mulled over a compelling code challenge: “How do you fill a grid in diagonal columns starting at the top left corner?”

As a person who legitimately takes pleasure in solving trivial puzzles, I approached the problem head-on. And although easy to solve on paper, the evolution of a grid quickly became tricky to invent for web use. But alas, after a couple Redbulls I came to a solution.

To achieve the diagonal grid fill algorithm, only the height and width of the grid are necessary. Each diagonal column must be filled from top to bottom, left to right. It’s achieved by a loop and decrements to the selected cell by (width-1) and (height-1). The loop continues until the selected cell no longer exists.

Below is a PHP representation of the algorithm.

<?php
	$grid = array(array());
	$h = 4;
	$w = 5;
	$count = 1;
	for ($i = 1; $i <= $w+$h; $i++) {
		$index = min($i,$w);
		$row = max(1,($i-($w+1)+2));
		while ($index != 0 && $row <= $h) {
			$grid[$row][$index] = $count;
			echo $row.','.$index.' = '.$count.'<br />';
			$count++;
			$index--;
			$row++;
		}
	}
?>

From here, implementing the code into JavaScript was fairly easy. With only a few simple syntax changes and a new grid from divs, the desired product was created.

<script type="text/javascript">
	function vuurrPixel(arg) {
		var size = 40;
		var h = $('.screen').height() / size;
		var w = $('.screen').width()  / size;
		var count = 1;

		for(i = 1; i <= (w + h); i++) {
			var index = Math.min( i , w );
			var row = Math.max(1,(i - ( w + 1 ) + 2 ) );

			while (index != 0 && row <= h) {
				if (arg == 'show') {
					$('.screen').append('<div style="display: none;" id="block-'+index+'-'+row+'" class="pixel"></div>');
					$('#block-'+index+'-'+row).css('top', (row-1)*size).css('left', (index-1)*size).delay(i*(size*.75)).fadeIn();
					$('.block').animate({opacity:"show"}, 1500);
				}else if (arg == 'hide') {
					$('#block-'+Math.abs(index-(w+1))+'-'+Math.abs(row-(h+1))).delay(i*(size*.75)).fadeOut();
					$('.block').animate({opacity:"hide"}, 1500);
				}
				count++;
				index--;
				row++;
			}
		}
	}
</script>

My problem conquered, I see many uses for it in the future. The diagonal grid fill algorithm can be used in many applications (slides, menus, etc…). Personally, my next feat is to use HTML5 canvases to implement the same algorithm for mobile compatibility.

GitHub Gist

After meeting with some good friends from the developer evangelist team at Twilio, we’ve added a couple additional features to Twimlbin at their request.

1. XML Output

The first of these new features will give users the ability to force Twimlbin to render the actual XML rather than the HTML interface when viewing in a browser by appending “/raw” to the end of any Twimlbin URL.

For example, if you visit twimlbin.com/external/6b322bf0fda7ae7a, you will see the entire Twimlbin rendered as an HTML friendly view. But with the new feature, when you visit twimlbin.com/external/6b322bf0fda7ae7a/raw, you’ll see the raw XML rendered to your browser.

Here’s another hint: This will work with any interface that accepts XML.

2. UTF-8 Encoded Character Handling

Another of the newly added features gives users the ability to properly validate UTF-8 encoded characters. Previously, if you put special characters (like emoji) in a Twimlbin, it would return back an invalid Twiml. This has been fixed and updated.

Keep an eye open for additional new features coming soon. We’ll also be adding support for all of the new Twiml verbs so things like Queues will properly validate as well!

Since the end of the KGB, few three letter combinations have evoked as many negative feelings as RFP. No agency I know enjoys going through an RFP process, and most customers dislike the outcome it produces. The process is broken and outdated for both parties. It needs to be replaced.

An RFP is ostensibly implemented in order to protect buyers who aren’t knowledgeable about which vendors are best suited to solve a specific need. Many times, they are required for government “fair bidding” requirements. The goal in these cases is to get an “apples to apples” comparison and remove biases from the procurer.

The reality, however, is a different story.

Here is where the RFP process fails for both parties:

Requesting Firm:

• Has to predict needs for a project even if they’re not an expert in that field
• Has to understand the responses to technical specifications and how the firm best fit their needs
• Has to match up different response language to ensure comparing “apples to apples”
• Has to go through a lengthy process designed to get a bid that is low priced as well as confident in the firm’s ability to perform up to specifications

Responding Firm:

• Has to interpret a document of needs with minimal context – often without a chance to have a real conversation with the Requester – which may or may not actually outline the root problems to be solved
• Has to provide a verbose response to prove their ability and reliability without actually building a working relationship
• Has to bid low enough to be noticed and hope vendor can then manage the project to that budget or get change requests approved

Once all the above hoops are jumped through, there is still no guarantee of good work or good fit between the vendor and client – WHICH IS THE WHOLE FREAKIN’ POINT OF AN RFP!

So how do you find a trustworthy vendor for your next project? Ask around, make a few calls, and get a feel for who you trust and who you fit with. Ultimately, you have to hope it all works out in the end.

At Vuurr, we have found the only way to be successful in solving problems for a client is to
work from a place of mutual understanding, starting where the pain points are and using our expertise to find solutions. Without taking the time to properly diagnose our client’s needs, we may be wasting each other’s time, money and effort on superficial quick fixes.

So whatever your next project entails, make sure you’re using resources that actually help you. Friends don’t let friends use RFPs.