by Fred on September 28, 2006
So you’re hiring a webmaster to build you a new website or application. You want three things. Quality, you want all the details like SEO, usability and standards testing all from the start. You want it to be built quickly. If it takes 6 months to build, you could miss other marketing opportunities. You also want it on the cheap so you’ll have money in your budget for your other marketing programs. You want it all.
It’s impossible to get all three, without very (1) clearly defined goals, (2) very clearly defined deliverables and (3) clear communication.
Either you get it very quickly and cheap with a lack of quality. Or you get high quality, very quickly with a big budget. Or you get high quality on the cheap without any adherence to release dates and you’re project releases late.
To get everything you want in a website, application or pretty much any project, know the skill sets you’ll need. Know your responsibilities and deliverables and read Sean Carton’s article for successful RFPs at Publish.com.
10 Tips for Successful Web Design RFPs : By? Sean Carton (for project managers and anyone hiring web contractors / web masters)
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1759,2003582,00.asp?kc=PBRSS05039TX1K0000788
Designing Through the Storm : by Walter Stevenson (for designers)
http://alistapart.com/articles/throughthestorm
by Fred on September 28, 2006
by Fred on September 27, 2006
by Fred on September 26, 2006
Apple is serving Podcast Ready with a cease and desist order for trademark infringement. Apple believes the term podcast is theirs. Podcast Ready makes this cool tool that lets you download mp3 files to most mp3players. It’s a podcatcher and it enables more people to listen to music without relying on Apple technology. I don’t think the name matters.
Anders Bylund at arstechnica.com is citing a report that "Out of $13 billion in VC investments in the first half of 2006, only $262 million went to Web 2.0 companies." That certainly keeps it all in perspective.
If you haven’t tried searching with your cell phone, try this. Create a new contact. Call it Google Search. For the phone number, type 466-45. Anytime you want to search for something, just send a text message with the search term to that number.
Lime Wire is suing the RIAA and TechCrunch reports ebay possibly pulling out of China.
by Fred on September 26, 2006
by Fred on September 23, 2006
A couple vulnerabilities were discovered and quickly fixed yesterday to keep your Mac and Apple AirPort secure. Update through your OS Updater or follow the links on our site.
If you're not sure if your site is being indexed by Google, go to Google Webmaster Tools and see. You'll need a google account and you'll need to cruise over to the new Google Base site. They've made some great interface changes and I think it'll make more sense when you look at it this time.
Microsoft Watch is reporting that Nokia will be using Microsoft's Live Search in their N Series and S-60 software phones.
and finally, Bismarck Lepe makes some sound recommendations for optimizing your video ads using Google Adwords metrics. We've got the links to for everything mentioned in this podcast at wowtechminute.com.
by Fred on September 22, 2006
A couple vulnerabilities were discovered and quickly fixed yesterday to keep your Mac and Apple AirPort secure. Update through your OS Updater or follow the links on our site.
If you're not sure if your site is being indexed by Google, go to Google Webmaster Tools and see. You'll need a google account and you'll need to cruise over to the new Google Base site. They've made some great interface changes and I think it'll make more sense when you look at it this time.
Microsoft Watch is reporting that Nokia will be using Microsoft's Live Search in their N Series and S-60 software phones.
and finally, Bismarck Lepe makes some sound recommendations for optimizing your video ads using Google Adwords metrics. We've got the links to for everything mentioned in this podcast at wowtechminute.com.
http://www.webprominute.org/wow-tech-minute-podcast/apple-security-google-webmaster-tools-video-ad-optimization.mp3
by Fred on September 21, 2006
Google Base is the best way to get your content to Google if you have a lot of content. Yes, it works if you have a little content but for large inventories it rocks. There are still questions regarding standards or whether or not they should give Google all their inventory information but the truth is, if you're going to put the information on the web, Google is going to get it. After all, part of the Google mission is to “Organize the World's Information.” That's a good thing in the right context.
What many people may not understand is that if you have just a little information and it's not in an RSS or XML feed then you still have a some great options. Blogs are great and Google has that too. No not Blogger, but the Google Page Creator. Here, you basically create a website or a blog site using their online tools. No I'm not trying to sell it, I'm trying to explain a solid option for getting your information indexed almost immediately by a Google bot. So if you're not being effective at getting Google to index your website, try Google Pages.
http://www.webprominute.org/wow-tech-minute-podcast/how-to-get-your-content-into-search-engines-now.mp3
by Fred on September 20, 2006
Today we're gonna dig a little deeper into Acrobat 8. Before you hit the pause button, hear me out. For starters it replaces Breeze, formerly a Macromedia product that provided video conferencing, white board, chat and more. It was basically the tool to use if you wanted to communicate something to multiple people or teams in disparate locations. Acrobat now lets you combine just about any combination of files. Yep, you can package things up and send them as a single pdf.
Acrobat Connect, what was Breeze, then allows your teammates to mark comments on the documents and video conference if necessary to work out any issues. Then there's automatic form creation from Word.docs. Apparently, the converted forms are interactive and collect data over the internet securely.
This all sounds like a bit much to me. But if it works like they're saying, it will be big and Adobe will surely cut into some Microsoft business mindshare. This could be just what Adobe needed. Personally, I don't know if I can ever bring myself to like Acrobat but I'm willing to take a chance.
http://www.webprominute.org/wow-tech-minute-podcast/adobe-acrobt-8-replaces-breeze-partial-review.mp3
by Fred on September 19, 2006
So you may not be able to build a web application but you can create a basic form and you know Flash pretty well. How do you maximize your skill set? Well here's a few tips from Becky MacNamara in Cleveland Ohio.
First, Becky says to implement Flash completely and correctly. She recommends a standards-based approach to loading the Flash movie from an external JavaScript file to get around the Eolas Active X issues. There's a Flash 8 Active Content Update template in Publish settings.
She says to always add accessibility information and tab orders to your buttons. Open up “Other Panels” from the “Window” pull down.
I liked her final thought the best, always use big hit areas on your buttons to give your design a friendly feel. Flash doesn't have to feel like html. I agree Becky, and thanks for the tips.
Send us your tips. If we use them in our podcast, we'll send you a t-shirt or something. Email brent at wowtechminute.com.
http://www.webprominute.org/wow-tech-minute-podcast/flash-usability-accessibility-tips-designers.mp3
