Author: Brent Kobayashi

Around the Office: accountable apps, SEO mistakes, fun design, more

Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the OnlineFriendly.biz team and Kobayashi Online have found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week. Daveed is interested in a regulationproposed in California requiring mobile application developers to explain what personal information will be recorded and how it will be used. According to reports, applications on Apple, Android, Blackberry, Windows, HP and Amazon stores must present users with an app privacy policy, and reports on data use. This will help…

Around the Office: Interactive Charts, Bent Photos, Lost Reviews, more

Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the OnlineFriendly.biz team and Kobayashi Online have found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week. Looking to show some compelling data? Daveed recommends using the JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit to not only set people see charts and figures as visualizations, but also to interact with them. Sure, it takes a little extra work than a typical pie chart, but the InfoVis Toolkit makes a huge impact. The White House even used…

Around the Office: online piracy, video marketing, great site design, more

Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the OnlineFriendly.biz team and Kobayashi Online have found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week. This was a busy week at Online Friendly since Kobayashi Online moved on Monday to its new location at 1200 Eglinton Ave. in Toronto. KO will now be under the same roof as Finesilver Design, giving clients access to all the insights, ideas, social media tools and technologies they need to communicate their brand…

7 Tips for Online Friendly Video Marketing

As people spend more time online, the adage that every company is a media company is more true than ever. Simply put, creating media surrounding your business helps create interest and attention, which is good for business. We see this with corporate magazines, social media updates, blog posts, and late-night infomercials. Video, while often ignored by companies, is an excellent way to educate customers, increase site traffic, and drive sales. With two-thirds of American adults in 2010 being connected by broadband Internet,…

Design Focus: Fontsmith

Design Focus is a regular Online Friendly feature that examines well-designed sites to show how Web designers have overcome some of the challenges of their profession. UK type design firm Fontsmith caught our attention with their calalog of creative fonts. In this Design Focus, we take a look at their website, and see if they put as much attention to their divs and style sheets as they do counters and serifs. Drawing attention to what’s important As a company that specializes in fonts, Fontsmith does well…

Around the Office: Kobayashi Online moves, email marketing lingo, and more

Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the OnlineFriendly.biz team and Kobayashi Online have found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week. If you haven’t heard yet, Kobayashi Online is moving to its new Toronto location at1200 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 801. Everyone has been busy packing and getting organized for the move in addition to making the online world friendly. Roberto invites you to learn his language with the help of 25 email marketing terms. Some…

Kobayashi Online has moved!

After many great years at 2243A Danforth Ave, Kobayahsi Online is moving to 1200 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 801, Toronto as of February 6, 2012. We think the move will help inspire us and our clients to innovate, explore and look ahead. Plus, Kobayashi Online will now be under the same roof as Finesilver Design. As the online world evolves, consumer behaviour is changing rapidly. By combining Kobayashi and Finesilver digital, marketing and design capabilities, our clients will be able to tap into insights, ideas, social media…

Around the Office: New WP Plugins, Google to Up Tracking, Ideas from Dx3

Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the OnlineFriendly.biz team and Kobayashi Online have found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week. A lot can happen in five months! Roberto is interested in testing out at least some of the 35 most interesting and useful WordPress plugins released since September 2011. Included in the list is: a plugin that replaces the default comments widget with the Facebook Comments widget; a plugin that regularly…

Marketing on the Move: Exploring Your Company’s Mobile Marketing Options

Signs and billboards often vie for our attention while we’re out and about. These can be thought of as predecessors of mobile marketing. As our glances turn towards our own smart phones and tablets, these devices have become a natural destination for advertising and engagement. Mobile marketing is marketing that engages people where they are, and when they’re interested in making a purchase. No wonder it has gained status as a business buzz term. But what is mobile marketing? It…

Around the Office: Fontsmith at 10, an HTML5 Doodle, Eyeing Social Media, more

Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the OnlineFriendly.biz team and Kobayashi Online have found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week. Eva is impressed with the minimal and clean site Fontsmith created to celebrate its 10 years creating custom fonts. In addition to the great website, Fontsmith has published a limited edition box-set of booklets it has produced over the past decade. What better way to celebrate beautiful fonts and 10 years…