By David Gewirtz
ZATZ editorial coverage has always been a reflection of the interests and needs of our readers.
From the very earliest days covering Palm devices, to our long history of tracking IBM and Lotus, to our constant Q&A sessions for troubled Outlook and Exchange users, to our brutally unyielding gadget reviews, what we've covered has been based on what you've requested.
Analytics are better, of course, than they were back when we started. We can see which articles are most popular, which categories of coverage are most popular with our regular readers and which topics draw new readers searching for answers on Google.
Over the years, we've tuned our coverage. In DominoPower, we added more career coverage and -- unlike even Lotus -- conducted a campaign showing Lotus prospects why they should consider switching to Lotus, rather than away from Lotus solutions.
In OutlookPower it became apparent, right around the time Outlook 2007 came out, that Outlook users needed help. Although we continue to review Outlook add-ins and discuss email best practices, what most Outlook users want is help answering Outlook questions. So that's what we do. More than 80% of our OutlookPower articles are about email trouble-shooting.
Computing Unplugged took a different path. It was initially formed as the smartphone world overtook the PDA world, and we merged PalmPower, PalmPower's Enterprise Edition, and Pocket PC Life into one publication aimed at mobile consumers. But now that everything is essentially mobile or unwired, Computing Unplugged has become our general technology publication. We cover everything from what to buy to how to tune Linux to trends in media and are constantly surprised that the most arcane Linux routing articles are read as voraciously as our rants about Wal-Mart toasters.
But analytics can get us only so far. Real, direct dialog is important. As I discussed a few weeks ago, we're actively updating our technology and that will lead to new designs and capabilities on our sites. What we write about, thankfully, isn't dependent on what coding gets completed by when. What we write about is influenced by what you want.
So tell us what you want. Send email to editor@zatz.com and let us know what you'd like to read. If you want to go the Twitter route, tweet me @DavidGewirtz and let me know, personally. Be nice, be constructive, and we'll listen.
Have a great week!