There is now a even better version of XHTML version of Reader by Google for mobile devices available at http://www.google.com/reader/i/ .This version is aimed at the iPhone as it is aimed at mobile phones with advanced browsers. It is designed to offer many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. You can scan the headlines for news items that catch your eye and then click to expand the headline. You still have all of the available features such as staring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place. Check it out at http://www.google.com/reader/i/.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Twitter - another web 2.0 fad?
Twitter, another Web 2.0, hyped up buzzword, or is it. I had reluctantly been watching it for a while then decided that I would have to check it out seeing though I am a web developer and it could possibly have some positive implications on my work. Let me explain, for those that don't know. Twitter is a micro blogging tool that allows you to write 140 characters at any given time of day or night for any given reason. You can do this via web widget, browser, SMS or one of many other methods.
When I first heard about Twitter, I simply couldn't see why anyone would use it. Now, after using it for about a month, I most definitely can see how and why it can benefit businesses or individuals. I can now follow other web developers and see what they are doing as well as companies that I am interested in (i.e Apple etc) via their company employee's or via a website that follows a particular topic. See check my profile to see the feed that the Twitter is providing me with everyday. http://www.twitter.com/subske . By following people, businesses or what ever maintains the twitter account, I get some inside information about what they are thinking, writing, doing etc. It inspires me to keep working on and can be interesting at the same time to find out what people are doing online everyday.
I can also see that for businesses it can be used as a communication tool to let others know what their business is doing and where they are tracking with each item that the business is working on. In a way you can build hype up around products that you are launching and use it to promote things that are in the pipeline. I can understand why allot of large businesses would be scared of this however smaller businesses can now build up hype about what they are bringing out and provide their customers a feed of information about anything they propose.
Finally, one other thing you can do with the tool is to embed your twitter feed into your website or blog. It can be used to generate addtional content on your web page or blog for the search engines to run over, as they tend to love fresh content. I will probably be implementing my Twitter feed on my blog pretty soon, I just want to use it for a bit longer before I do so.
When I first heard about Twitter, I simply couldn't see why anyone would use it. Now, after using it for about a month, I most definitely can see how and why it can benefit businesses or individuals. I can now follow other web developers and see what they are doing as well as companies that I am interested in (i.e Apple etc) via their company employee's or via a website that follows a particular topic. See check my profile to see the feed that the Twitter is providing me with everyday. http://www.twitter.com/subske . By following people, businesses or what ever maintains the twitter account, I get some inside information about what they are thinking, writing, doing etc. It inspires me to keep working on and can be interesting at the same time to find out what people are doing online everyday.
I can also see that for businesses it can be used as a communication tool to let others know what their business is doing and where they are tracking with each item that the business is working on. In a way you can build hype up around products that you are launching and use it to promote things that are in the pipeline. I can understand why allot of large businesses would be scared of this however smaller businesses can now build up hype about what they are bringing out and provide their customers a feed of information about anything they propose.
Finally, one other thing you can do with the tool is to embed your twitter feed into your website or blog. It can be used to generate addtional content on your web page or blog for the search engines to run over, as they tend to love fresh content. I will probably be implementing my Twitter feed on my blog pretty soon, I just want to use it for a bit longer before I do so.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Free Top Level Domains
If you are looking at acquiring a top level domain for your website then before you make a purchase I should highlight that you actually have a couple of other free domain registration options. Firstly there is the .tk domain which is quite old which can be registered at http://www.dot.tk/. Then there is a new top level one which I have just found named .co.cc which you can register at http://www.co.cc/. The dot .co.cc seems to be fairly new so jump onto it as you can pickup quiet a nice domain name for free at the moment. I have just registered three new domains there which are the following, http://www.munchit.co.cc/, http://www.tdixon.co.cc/ and http://www.subske.co.cc/. I was going to keep going and register more but decided that I should leave some for the rest of us out there. If anyone else has any ideas about free domains out there please leave a post so that we can have some sort of list here of the free domains available out there. I would also be interested in anyone who has setup a website with one of these domains to leave a post with their URL so I can check out what people are using these domains for. Happy domain registering.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Link Tiger - Broken link finder
Link Tiger is an easy to use broken link finder that can be used for free if maintaining a single website with no more than 1000 links contained throughout your website. As a website developer it can also be used to maintain more than one site with more links however a licence fee is required in this case. Link Tiger allows you to locate the broken links on your website so that they can be fixed before the customer has time to see it. From my experience with the product it is very easy to use with the summary page providing you with a list of broken links on your website that is really easy read. The page then provides you with the ability to click on the broken link item listed while the software locates and highlights the broken link on the page, so that there is no searching through the page trying to find the link. It is a very useful online service that I recommend that you use if you are concerned about having broken links throughout your website. Broken links can have an effect on your search engine rankings as well as be a bit of a turn off for your website visitors so it is important that you fix them if they appear on your website.
http://www.linkfinder.com/
Saturday, March 01, 2008
The state of Social Networking
There are currently a number of Social Networking sites that stand out above the rest and this post basically points out the sites that really stand out when it comes to the concept Social Networking. One thing that should be noted is that these sites can be used to create more traffic for you website or blog as they provide you with the ability to post comments or create pages that link back to your online presence.
Blogs are an important form of social networking and sites like Bloglines allow you to search and subscribe to blogs that discuss topics that relate to your websites content. A simple form of Social Networking is the ability you have to leave comments on blogs that link back to you website. Please do not spam blogs, but write worthwhile comments that have relevance to the blog post and your website and that will capture readers attention and prompt them to visit your website.
Facebook is one of the most successful Social Networking sites and provides more functionality than most of the other sites. Create and account and network with people that have similar interests as yourself and use the site to promote events, educate users that will want to visit your site and use it promote any products that you may be selling. It is a great place to connect with business contacts you may never bump into otherwise.
MySpace is another service that can be used to spread the word when it comes to events and products that you have currently developed. Primarily the music world has taken over MySpace and it is used heavily by musicians to demo a few of their tracks and keep their fans in the loop with what is going on with their group. It can however be used to promote services that might be useful to certain types and groups of people that use the service.
Twitter is something different again. It allows users to type how they feel at a particular moment in the day, which to me seem pretty useless, but there seem to be a lot of people that use the service so maybe you could use it to twitter about the products you are working on or gain peoples interest in what you are trying to achieve etc with the product or service that you are offering.
On a business note Linkedin is for meeting business people that have similar interests as yourself. Although I have not had a chance to play with this one I believe that this would be useful to gain interest about your product or service with people that are in your industry.
Then there are the social bookmarking websites which are sites, such as Del.icio.us, Digg and StumbleUpon etc, which allow users who bookmark your article to flag your article on the social bookmarking website. They all work slightly different with Del.icio.us just being a website that manages your bookmarks online, with some great search and networking tools available to search similar user bookmarks. Then you have sites like Digg it. This is used so that when an article that is attractive gets digged by users the relevance of the article on the dig network receives coverage and then the article is feature and hence receives more traffic through the Digg network.
I could keep going on but believe that this gives a pretty good overview of the state of online social networking at the moment and outlines some of the key online products. If you have any other interesting web 2.0 social networking applications worth a look let me know as I am interested in finding some more social networking applications.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Blackle Search
I was working with another web nut recently and he alerted me to an alternative to search engine, powered by "Google Custom Search", called "Blackle". When you visit the site http://www.blackle.com/ you are presented with the standard Google layout, only the background is totally black. The reason behind the black background is it attempts to save energy every time you conduct a search. The reason it works is because by default your screen colour is black as an alternative to predominantly white backgrounds that website designers tend to favour. The site also reminds you every time that you use it the amount of energy saved to date, as well as reminding you that every bit of energy saved counts.
I understand that the reason that the majority of website backgrounds are white, is because when you print a page, it would obviously consume allot of printer ink if you had to print black pages with while text on them, rather than a white background with black text, so obviously this theory could not be used on a large amount of websites. However in the case of a search engine why not use a black background, as it is very rare that you want to print your search results out.
The theory that "Blackle" is based on is that "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's colour settings and desktop graphics, as well as the colour and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002.
Because of the popularity of Google, if Google actually replaced the background of their search engine with a black background we would save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. These figures are taken from a blog post titled "Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year".
The website was create by an Australian business called "Heap Media", who have created a number of other online products which are worth taking a look at. One of my other favourites is "Anonomi" which basically replaces an email address, on a "Contact Us" page, with a contact form that hides your contact email address. This prevent those spam bots from collecting you email address and can reduce the amount of spam you receive, by preventing your email address to getting on one of those nasty email lists.
There are also some interesting sites related to saving energy if you are interested in the subject, with one of the most popular blogs being http://treehugger.com/.
If anyone out there has any other interesting energy saving websites they would like alert readers off, please add as a comment to this post with a link as it would be greatly appreciated, because this is a topic I am quite interested in.
I understand that the reason that the majority of website backgrounds are white, is because when you print a page, it would obviously consume allot of printer ink if you had to print black pages with while text on them, rather than a white background with black text, so obviously this theory could not be used on a large amount of websites. However in the case of a search engine why not use a black background, as it is very rare that you want to print your search results out.
The theory that "Blackle" is based on is that "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's colour settings and desktop graphics, as well as the colour and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002.
Because of the popularity of Google, if Google actually replaced the background of their search engine with a black background we would save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. These figures are taken from a blog post titled "Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year".
The website was create by an Australian business called "Heap Media", who have created a number of other online products which are worth taking a look at. One of my other favourites is "Anonomi" which basically replaces an email address, on a "Contact Us" page, with a contact form that hides your contact email address. This prevent those spam bots from collecting you email address and can reduce the amount of spam you receive, by preventing your email address to getting on one of those nasty email lists.
There are also some interesting sites related to saving energy if you are interested in the subject, with one of the most popular blogs being http://treehugger.com/.
If anyone out there has any other interesting energy saving websites they would like alert readers off, please add as a comment to this post with a link as it would be greatly appreciated, because this is a topic I am quite interested in.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Web based Operating System
Something that has interested me recently with all of the "Web 2" activity going on is the area web based Operating Systems. I have stumbled across this one which seems to be in use mainly in Europe called "eyeos". Its a very simple operating system, if you can call it that, however toots a number of simple applications that are functional in a web browser. Who knows this could be the way of the future, but I think that it has a long way to go yet before it can replace the likes of Windows, Linux or MAC OS. I mean I played with it for a couple of hours to see what sort of functions I could perform with it and it runs quite well and doesn't seem to fall over, however the big drawback is the limited amount of applications for the OS. It comes with a "Notepad" style application as well as a few games and office applications, but every application had many shortcomings. I would have a look at it as it is quite interesting and as a web developer it is interesting the technology that is used to hold it together, but Ii think it has a long way to go before I trade in my current OS.
One other concern of mine in this arena is do I want my computer applications and data in the hands of a Company that cold virtually access my information at any time they want. Maybe I'm paranoid but I think you can see my point.
Take a look at the link below;
http://demo.eyeos.org/
One other concern of mine in this arena is do I want my computer applications and data in the hands of a Company that cold virtually access my information at any time they want. Maybe I'm paranoid but I think you can see my point.
Take a look at the link below;
http://demo.eyeos.org/
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Apple "Safari" - New Windows Browser
Long time no tech tips post. This is a true reflection of amount of current project work I have at the moment. Anyway lets explore my latest Internet discoveries..
There is now a forth major contender in the browser market for Windows users. Most of us have heard of "Internet Explorer", "FireFox" (My personal favorite), "Opera" but now there is one from Apple "Safari". So after installing and having a play with it I quiet enjoyed the browsing experience. It is quick, has all the features the other browsers have, and has quiet a nice look and feel. I even set it as my default browser for a couple of days, however as a developer could not trade all of my FireFox extensions, for the new browser, so switched back not too long after.
I'm not going to lie, the browser does render pages and launch quicker than all of the other browsers and features all the modern features, such as "tabbed browsing", "pop-up blocker", "auto-fill forms" and built in "RSS Reader" and does come with the classic Apple look and feel (just like i-Tunes really) but it is really a browser for a basic Internet user. Another cool feature is the find feature which actually highlights the word searched upon in a pretty cool animated way.
One thing I don't like is that I couldn't use my de.icio.us bookmarks with the browser and I'm not sure Apple are going to open up the browser for developers to build in extra functionality. We will see I guess as it still is in beta.
I think that the main reason that Apple launched this browser is because the i-phone has just been released and the browser on this phone is Safari. It is definitely a strategic move to attempt to get Windows website developers to build support for the browser into their websites so that the i-phone can handle web based applications. I mean if they had not released the browser then I'm sure that the majority of us web developers would not bother supporting the browser unless it is a major contender on Windows machines. Another interesting point to make is there are millions of i-Pod users who download i-Tunes to manage their music, in the near future I can for see a move from Apple to include the browser with the download of the i-Tunes application. This will put them in a good position to take a good share of the browser market for Windows PCs.
I suggest you give it a go, check its features on the Apple site and start supporting it as a developer, as I imagine with the i-Phone and i-Tunes download amounts will make this browser quiet available to the public. On top of that why not reach the i-Phone mobile application market by making sure your website works in the browser correctly. Download the browser from the link below;
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
There is now a forth major contender in the browser market for Windows users. Most of us have heard of "Internet Explorer", "FireFox" (My personal favorite), "Opera" but now there is one from Apple "Safari". So after installing and having a play with it I quiet enjoyed the browsing experience. It is quick, has all the features the other browsers have, and has quiet a nice look and feel. I even set it as my default browser for a couple of days, however as a developer could not trade all of my FireFox extensions, for the new browser, so switched back not too long after.
I'm not going to lie, the browser does render pages and launch quicker than all of the other browsers and features all the modern features, such as "tabbed browsing", "pop-up blocker", "auto-fill forms" and built in "RSS Reader" and does come with the classic Apple look and feel (just like i-Tunes really) but it is really a browser for a basic Internet user. Another cool feature is the find feature which actually highlights the word searched upon in a pretty cool animated way.
One thing I don't like is that I couldn't use my de.icio.us bookmarks with the browser and I'm not sure Apple are going to open up the browser for developers to build in extra functionality. We will see I guess as it still is in beta.
I think that the main reason that Apple launched this browser is because the i-phone has just been released and the browser on this phone is Safari. It is definitely a strategic move to attempt to get Windows website developers to build support for the browser into their websites so that the i-phone can handle web based applications. I mean if they had not released the browser then I'm sure that the majority of us web developers would not bother supporting the browser unless it is a major contender on Windows machines. Another interesting point to make is there are millions of i-Pod users who download i-Tunes to manage their music, in the near future I can for see a move from Apple to include the browser with the download of the i-Tunes application. This will put them in a good position to take a good share of the browser market for Windows PCs.
I suggest you give it a go, check its features on the Apple site and start supporting it as a developer, as I imagine with the i-Phone and i-Tunes download amounts will make this browser quiet available to the public. On top of that why not reach the i-Phone mobile application market by making sure your website works in the browser correctly. Download the browser from the link below;
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)