When you click on an icon to start a Web browser or an office application, does it start as fast as it used to when you just bought your new PC?
It is an almost inevitable natural process that, with time, your computer does not run as fast as it used to. More and more unneeded information slows down your PC's performance. Traces are left when you install and remove software. While you can usually remove most files that are left over when a product is just removed, what about the invisible traces that are left in your computer's registry?
Every Windows application uses the registry to store its configuration data. Many products do not remove the data completely, which results in residual information abandoned in the Windows registry. One or two or even three programs won't harm your registry enough to significantly slow down your computer. If, however, you use your computer for months and years, the registry becomes bloated with these residuals. This, in turn, causes major slowdowns in your PC's operation.
What would you do to stop that from happening? Limiting the number of programs you download and install is one option, but also an inconvenience. Reinstalling Windows from scratch is another option that will, for a while, restore your computer's original speed. But how much time are you going to waste reinstalling and reconfiguring Windows and all the applications you are so used to? Probably so much time that you'll decide not to bother.
Luckily, there is a solution that does not require such drastic measures. Reg Organizer by chemtable software will restore your PC's performance to its original level by thoroughly scanning your Windows registry, cleaning up abandoned registry keys and automatically fixing any problems and issues that your computer can acquire over time. Run Reg Organizer regularly, and your computer will stay as healthy and as fast as it was on day one!
While Reg Organizer's fully automatic mode is great, the product offers much more than just that. After all, there are many so-called 'registry cleaners', why bother with another one? Unlike the competition, Reg Organizer has many registry tweaks and tricks to allow advanced computer users to gain better control over their PC.
Reg Organizer allows you to locate and take care of all information that belongs to a specific application, even if it has been uninstalled. Get safer registry imports by allowing Reg Organizer to handle such requests; you will see clearly, in tree-like form, exactly what keys are about to be imported when you click on a .reg file. This is a feature that really should have been a part of Windows by this time!
Finally, you can set up Reg Organizer to track all changes made by software that you install or uninstall. Keep your PC pristine clean by effectively and completely removing all residual traces of information when you uninstall an application! Download your free copy for evaluation at:
http://www.chemtable.com/organizer.htm
Monday, July 2, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Microsoft or not?
Friday was another repeat, this time from May 15, 2006. However, TCR does not want to leave you empty handed and is bringing you an article by one of our staff members, Paul ( www.tiglo.co.uk ). Although Paul is from the UK, he takes a keen interest in reading about Jim Cramer's Mad Money (and of course at the best JCMM site on the 'Net - www.thecramerreport.com !) and hopes you will enjoy his insight into one of Jim's opinions.
Cramer is currently favouring a buy into Microsoft (MSFT), believing the bad times are behind and it's back on the up. An analysis of the share prices over the past few months shows that Microsoft is over its lowest points ($21.51) and gradually climbing (currently $24.40). One could argue that Cramer is right.
However, continued changes in Vista's release date, even if it means a more stable and secure Operating System will be released (or that is the theory). Microsoft's OS and webbrowser cycle is poor as it is:
* Windows XP was released in 2001
* Internet Explorer was released in 2001
Internet Explorer 7 is set for release in the first half of 2007 and Windows Vista is set for general release in the first quarter of 2007. Both products will offer many improvements and new features over the older versions but the reality is very little of it is new.
One feature to finally reach Internet Explorer is tabbed browser. To a non-technical person, who just uses what's supplied on their MS Windows desktop, this may seem new and exciting, however tabbed browser has been around since 1996 (although it was a feature in a non-public beta version of InternetWorks since 1994) and has been available in popular browsers such as Opera and MozillaFirefox for several years.
Microsoft won the first browser war but now it's coming to a battle in many areas. Product cycles are quicker for open source software such as OpenOffice.org, MozillaFirefox and MozillaThunderbird - new features, bug fixes, and security updates are released regularly. Due to the products' open source nature it is easier and cheaper to develop plugins and compatible applications.
On the operating system side, Microsoft has competition from Linux. Linux is now becoming more mature and is being adopted by governments and educational institutes alike. Novell (NOVL) is investing a lot of money in Linux, having bought German company SuSE Linux GmbH in January 2004.
One key area that they have invested a lot in over the past year is Xen, which is virtualisation software and allows multiple Operating Systems (Linux or Windows) to be run as guests on a single system (the host, which can be either Linux or Windows). This is one threat Microsoft has seen and responded to by improving its Virtual Server support offering and making it available for free. However, is this too little too late?
Xen's benefit is that it's open source, therefore bugs and security issues will be fixed quicker, possibly even before the problem is public knowledge, as the source code is visible for everyone to evaluate and test for insecurities. A quick response to bugs and security is critical in a business environment and an area Microsoft can not compete within due to its closed source nature.
Virtualisation is becoming a more important area due to the increasing costs for power. Fortunately, hardware is becoming more powerful, often more powerful than is actually required, so virtualisation is definitely for today as well as the future. Why invest in hardware for 6 servers when all 6 could run from within one operating system through virtualisation?
With Vista and Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft is trying to play catch-up, but the fact is it now has seriously tough competition. There is now a big take up of alternative browsers, office applications and operating systems. While the market change might be slow, it's definitely happening. I cannot see Microsoft being in the same market position in 10 years that it is now. Its market share will continue to evaporate.
The Bottom Line:
Microsoft is facing serious threats in the home, education and business desktop arena. It's facing threats in the business environment as a server (aside from as a webserver, where Linux/Unix is in the majority). Microsoft might hit a high when Vista is (finally) released, however Bill Gates stepping down in the way that he is does suggest to me that the bulk of the money has been made and it's now time to do something with it. The IT industry is often a "come today, gone tomorrow" so it's always difficult to choose which company to invest in, especially as the current trend is "over priced " when those companies that have managed to stick around decide to float themselves on the stock market. I won't advise you who to invest in, but I will say don't just look at the software/operating system area, also look at hardware and consultancy companies too. Big Blue, International Business Machines Corp (IBM), has been around for a long time and there will always be a demand for such companies.
Cramer is currently favouring a buy into Microsoft (MSFT), believing the bad times are behind and it's back on the up. An analysis of the share prices over the past few months shows that Microsoft is over its lowest points ($21.51) and gradually climbing (currently $24.40). One could argue that Cramer is right.
However, continued changes in Vista's release date, even if it means a more stable and secure Operating System will be released (or that is the theory). Microsoft's OS and webbrowser cycle is poor as it is:
* Windows XP was released in 2001
* Internet Explorer was released in 2001
Internet Explorer 7 is set for release in the first half of 2007 and Windows Vista is set for general release in the first quarter of 2007. Both products will offer many improvements and new features over the older versions but the reality is very little of it is new.
One feature to finally reach Internet Explorer is tabbed browser. To a non-technical person, who just uses what's supplied on their MS Windows desktop, this may seem new and exciting, however tabbed browser has been around since 1996 (although it was a feature in a non-public beta version of InternetWorks since 1994) and has been available in popular browsers such as Opera and MozillaFirefox for several years.
Microsoft won the first browser war but now it's coming to a battle in many areas. Product cycles are quicker for open source software such as OpenOffice.org, MozillaFirefox and MozillaThunderbird - new features, bug fixes, and security updates are released regularly. Due to the products' open source nature it is easier and cheaper to develop plugins and compatible applications.
On the operating system side, Microsoft has competition from Linux. Linux is now becoming more mature and is being adopted by governments and educational institutes alike. Novell (NOVL) is investing a lot of money in Linux, having bought German company SuSE Linux GmbH in January 2004.
One key area that they have invested a lot in over the past year is Xen, which is virtualisation software and allows multiple Operating Systems (Linux or Windows) to be run as guests on a single system (the host, which can be either Linux or Windows). This is one threat Microsoft has seen and responded to by improving its Virtual Server support offering and making it available for free. However, is this too little too late?
Xen's benefit is that it's open source, therefore bugs and security issues will be fixed quicker, possibly even before the problem is public knowledge, as the source code is visible for everyone to evaluate and test for insecurities. A quick response to bugs and security is critical in a business environment and an area Microsoft can not compete within due to its closed source nature.
Virtualisation is becoming a more important area due to the increasing costs for power. Fortunately, hardware is becoming more powerful, often more powerful than is actually required, so virtualisation is definitely for today as well as the future. Why invest in hardware for 6 servers when all 6 could run from within one operating system through virtualisation?
With Vista and Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft is trying to play catch-up, but the fact is it now has seriously tough competition. There is now a big take up of alternative browsers, office applications and operating systems. While the market change might be slow, it's definitely happening. I cannot see Microsoft being in the same market position in 10 years that it is now. Its market share will continue to evaporate.
The Bottom Line:
Microsoft is facing serious threats in the home, education and business desktop arena. It's facing threats in the business environment as a server (aside from as a webserver, where Linux/Unix is in the majority). Microsoft might hit a high when Vista is (finally) released, however Bill Gates stepping down in the way that he is does suggest to me that the bulk of the money has been made and it's now time to do something with it. The IT industry is often a "come today, gone tomorrow" so it's always difficult to choose which company to invest in, especially as the current trend is "over priced " when those companies that have managed to stick around decide to float themselves on the stock market. I won't advise you who to invest in, but I will say don't just look at the software/operating system area, also look at hardware and consultancy companies too. Big Blue, International Business Machines Corp (IBM), has been around for a long time and there will always be a demand for such companies.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The Art of Good Web Design
The impact of a good web design is not about being fancy but how efficient and workable the whole website is. The innovative and effective elements compose the alluring yet valuable case of bringing a quality website to the target market to compliment the services offered as well as the products that are presented.
CG Design can bring you the innovative web design, corporate branding solutions, as well as promote the important factors in bringing a good quality website that constitutes the customer’s needs. The web design and overall planning are the processes that will spearhead the total impact of providing communication and efficient use for the customers—and potential customers.
Establishing Communication:
What would become of a relationship without the communication? Fact is all of us communicate in a manner of ways that bring critical approach to several aspects in any business or relationship. With thorough planning and up-to-date execution as well as the proper understanding of what communication has in store for a website, the results could be mesmerizing. Meeting deadlines is not just the case here, but also the ability to contribute on the matter with immediate yet excellent way of providing the needed tools in the effectiveness of a website to the customers.
The Ideal Factors for Web Designing:
There are ideal factors that are considered in developing a profound and effective website.
First off, your idea of an effective website should be able to provide the guidelines on what to do with the planning and then setting the tables for construction of an improved approach. But normally, the undertaking and responsibility of the job could be in our hands, and if you give us your confidence and trust to fully get the job very well done, then it would be more than just a pleasure. The concept will materialize a newly innovative website that poses the art of web design along with the importance of usability and not just the fancy attitude.
Second, the logo and background are one of the most important aspects of web designing. Whether the logo is reflective of the business or positions itself a personal site then the thorough and in-depth planning should be able to provide you the most satisfying results. Backgrounds have the same impact, whether static or automated; the impression of giving the appropriate colours should provide the best possible element that will give appeal to the visitors and turning them into customers.
Thirdly, the colour coordination, sizes, and shape harmony will introduce a better aspect along the course of website development. The colours will enhance the capability of the site to provide attractive yet effective way of delivering the right message to the customer. The sizes and shapes have the also the ability to contribute for the website to along the right path.
CG Design provides the most appropriate and right tools to make your business one of the most coveted and desired services online. Additionally, we deliver the best concluded website that gives not just attraction to the customers but also the usability and communication that they are all hungry for.
CG Design can bring you the innovative web design, corporate branding solutions, as well as promote the important factors in bringing a good quality website that constitutes the customer’s needs. The web design and overall planning are the processes that will spearhead the total impact of providing communication and efficient use for the customers—and potential customers.
Establishing Communication:
What would become of a relationship without the communication? Fact is all of us communicate in a manner of ways that bring critical approach to several aspects in any business or relationship. With thorough planning and up-to-date execution as well as the proper understanding of what communication has in store for a website, the results could be mesmerizing. Meeting deadlines is not just the case here, but also the ability to contribute on the matter with immediate yet excellent way of providing the needed tools in the effectiveness of a website to the customers.
The Ideal Factors for Web Designing:
There are ideal factors that are considered in developing a profound and effective website.
First off, your idea of an effective website should be able to provide the guidelines on what to do with the planning and then setting the tables for construction of an improved approach. But normally, the undertaking and responsibility of the job could be in our hands, and if you give us your confidence and trust to fully get the job very well done, then it would be more than just a pleasure. The concept will materialize a newly innovative website that poses the art of web design along with the importance of usability and not just the fancy attitude.
Second, the logo and background are one of the most important aspects of web designing. Whether the logo is reflective of the business or positions itself a personal site then the thorough and in-depth planning should be able to provide you the most satisfying results. Backgrounds have the same impact, whether static or automated; the impression of giving the appropriate colours should provide the best possible element that will give appeal to the visitors and turning them into customers.
Thirdly, the colour coordination, sizes, and shape harmony will introduce a better aspect along the course of website development. The colours will enhance the capability of the site to provide attractive yet effective way of delivering the right message to the customer. The sizes and shapes have the also the ability to contribute for the website to along the right path.
CG Design provides the most appropriate and right tools to make your business one of the most coveted and desired services online. Additionally, we deliver the best concluded website that gives not just attraction to the customers but also the usability and communication that they are all hungry for.
Creating Web Graphics with Adobe FireWorks
Adobe FireWorks - Just how good is it for web designers?
Accelerate web design and development with Adobe® Fireworks® software, the ideal tool for creating and optimizing images for the web and rapidly prototyping websites. Like it’s new step-brother, PhotoShop, FireWorks is a superb piece of graphics software that no web designer should be without. Similar to PhotoShop, in that it has the same intuitive workspace and a huge support network through online forums and support sites, FireWorks is specifically optimised for web graphics and for web design. Fireworks offers the flexibility to edit both vector and bitmap images, a common library of prebuilt assets, and timesaving integration with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash software.
Designers can mock up designs quickly in Fireworks, or leverage other assets from Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash. Then move directly into Dreamweaver for easy development and deployment. The interface includes a comprehensive set of design tools, including styles, blend modes, filters and auto shapes. Web designers can choose from dozens of styles to quickly change the aesthetics of any object. Options include chrome, stone, ice, reflective, glass, plastic, and more. There are also dozens of lend modes to customize the appearance of your objects and interface elements; a plethora of lighting effects, shadow effects, styles, and blend modes (including seven new blend modes from Photoshop), to add depth and character to text and symbols. Optimize graphics for virtually any delivery scenario with preview, cross-platform gamma preview, selective JPEG compression, and a wide range of export controls, and then cleverly splice them for the web or CSS with the 9-slice scaling function. A great new feature in the CS3 version of Fireworks is the ability to create multiple web pages at once. Designers can use the new Pages panel to create multiple pages in a single document (PNG file), and share layers across multiple pages.
Each page can contain its own slices, layers, frames, animations, and canvas settings, making it easy to simulate website flow in a prototype. Added to that, the new multi-layer support allows users to include multiple web layers within a single Fireworks (PNG) file, share a common web layer across all pages, or be selective about which pages include the web layer. Designers can also edit a single layer and then apply the change globally – saving loads of time. There’s better integration with Illustrator in CS3, as well as enhanced integration between other Adobe products, including PhotoShop and DreamWeaver. This helps to make the whole web design, development and graphic construction as seamless as possible. In all, FireWorks is a fantastic design tool for all web developers and designers. Anyone even thinking of web design should download the free trial and have a play.
I guarantee you won’t be disappointed! You can check out some of the graphics that can be created with Adobe FireWorks for web design at the DataMouse site.
Contact DataMouse.biz for all your web design, database design or graphic design needs.
Accelerate web design and development with Adobe® Fireworks® software, the ideal tool for creating and optimizing images for the web and rapidly prototyping websites. Like it’s new step-brother, PhotoShop, FireWorks is a superb piece of graphics software that no web designer should be without. Similar to PhotoShop, in that it has the same intuitive workspace and a huge support network through online forums and support sites, FireWorks is specifically optimised for web graphics and for web design. Fireworks offers the flexibility to edit both vector and bitmap images, a common library of prebuilt assets, and timesaving integration with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash software.
Designers can mock up designs quickly in Fireworks, or leverage other assets from Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash. Then move directly into Dreamweaver for easy development and deployment. The interface includes a comprehensive set of design tools, including styles, blend modes, filters and auto shapes. Web designers can choose from dozens of styles to quickly change the aesthetics of any object. Options include chrome, stone, ice, reflective, glass, plastic, and more. There are also dozens of lend modes to customize the appearance of your objects and interface elements; a plethora of lighting effects, shadow effects, styles, and blend modes (including seven new blend modes from Photoshop), to add depth and character to text and symbols. Optimize graphics for virtually any delivery scenario with preview, cross-platform gamma preview, selective JPEG compression, and a wide range of export controls, and then cleverly splice them for the web or CSS with the 9-slice scaling function. A great new feature in the CS3 version of Fireworks is the ability to create multiple web pages at once. Designers can use the new Pages panel to create multiple pages in a single document (PNG file), and share layers across multiple pages.
Each page can contain its own slices, layers, frames, animations, and canvas settings, making it easy to simulate website flow in a prototype. Added to that, the new multi-layer support allows users to include multiple web layers within a single Fireworks (PNG) file, share a common web layer across all pages, or be selective about which pages include the web layer. Designers can also edit a single layer and then apply the change globally – saving loads of time. There’s better integration with Illustrator in CS3, as well as enhanced integration between other Adobe products, including PhotoShop and DreamWeaver. This helps to make the whole web design, development and graphic construction as seamless as possible. In all, FireWorks is a fantastic design tool for all web developers and designers. Anyone even thinking of web design should download the free trial and have a play.
I guarantee you won’t be disappointed! You can check out some of the graphics that can be created with Adobe FireWorks for web design at the DataMouse site.
Contact DataMouse.biz for all your web design, database design or graphic design needs.
Creating Web Graphics with Adobe PhotoShop
USing Adobe PhotoShop from a web designer point of view.
Adobe® Photoshop® software helps to improve the workflow path from imagination to imagery. Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and web designers, software delivers features such as automatic layer alignment and blending that enable advanced compositing. Although we shall cover some other graphics packages, such as FireWorks, in other articles, when creating images for the web, there are few tools that compare with PhotoShop and its diverse range of web design-specific tools.
Web designers can create or modify images with a wide assortment of professional, fully customizable paint settings, artistic brushes, and drawing tools. When this is combined with an intuitive workspace and the ability to import and export a wide range of file formats, including PSD, BMP, Cineon, JPEG, JPEG2000, OpenEXR, PNG, Targa, and TIFF, PhotoShop is one tool that today’s web graphic designers should not be without. The colour palette, for example, can be optimised specifically for web-safe colours. Web designers can also undo and redo any set of editing steps in an open image with the History palette, and automatically track all editing steps within your files with the Edit History log.
Export steps to a text file or save them as part of image metadata for easier documentation of your work, file audits, and more. This makes managing specific icon palettes much, much easier in PhotoShop. Being able to create an image across multiple layers and then splice that image into specific segments ready for use with Cascading Style Sheets makes it easier for web developers to become web designers. Cutting a base image into segments and using CSS can create superbly styled and visually impressive websites very easily. Combined with DreamWeaver and the new integration tools available between the two software packages, both web design and web development just became even more seamless.
If you create custom icons and web graphics – as opposed to web banners et al – you will usually have a common theme across your icons. For example, orientation, palette colour or sizes. With PhotoShop, you can automate common production tasks in a variety of ways. Set up event-based scripts, record a series of steps as an Action for efficient batch processing, and design repetitive graphics faster with Variables. Being long established as the software of choice for web designers, PhotoShop has a massive on-line following. Forums and support sites are in abundance, with over 113 million web pages available when searching for PhotoShop information! Whether you’re creating fun web graphics with comic styling and bright colours, realistic images for printed portfolios or vector graphics for scaling, PhotoShop is the perfect software. You can check out some of the graphics that can be created with Adobe PhotoShop for web design at the DataMouse site.
Contact DataMouse.biz for all your web design, database design or graphic design needs.
Adobe® Photoshop® software helps to improve the workflow path from imagination to imagery. Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and web designers, software delivers features such as automatic layer alignment and blending that enable advanced compositing. Although we shall cover some other graphics packages, such as FireWorks, in other articles, when creating images for the web, there are few tools that compare with PhotoShop and its diverse range of web design-specific tools.
Web designers can create or modify images with a wide assortment of professional, fully customizable paint settings, artistic brushes, and drawing tools. When this is combined with an intuitive workspace and the ability to import and export a wide range of file formats, including PSD, BMP, Cineon, JPEG, JPEG2000, OpenEXR, PNG, Targa, and TIFF, PhotoShop is one tool that today’s web graphic designers should not be without. The colour palette, for example, can be optimised specifically for web-safe colours. Web designers can also undo and redo any set of editing steps in an open image with the History palette, and automatically track all editing steps within your files with the Edit History log.
Export steps to a text file or save them as part of image metadata for easier documentation of your work, file audits, and more. This makes managing specific icon palettes much, much easier in PhotoShop. Being able to create an image across multiple layers and then splice that image into specific segments ready for use with Cascading Style Sheets makes it easier for web developers to become web designers. Cutting a base image into segments and using CSS can create superbly styled and visually impressive websites very easily. Combined with DreamWeaver and the new integration tools available between the two software packages, both web design and web development just became even more seamless.
If you create custom icons and web graphics – as opposed to web banners et al – you will usually have a common theme across your icons. For example, orientation, palette colour or sizes. With PhotoShop, you can automate common production tasks in a variety of ways. Set up event-based scripts, record a series of steps as an Action for efficient batch processing, and design repetitive graphics faster with Variables. Being long established as the software of choice for web designers, PhotoShop has a massive on-line following. Forums and support sites are in abundance, with over 113 million web pages available when searching for PhotoShop information! Whether you’re creating fun web graphics with comic styling and bright colours, realistic images for printed portfolios or vector graphics for scaling, PhotoShop is the perfect software. You can check out some of the graphics that can be created with Adobe PhotoShop for web design at the DataMouse site.
Contact DataMouse.biz for all your web design, database design or graphic design needs.
Web 2.0 Making a Difference on the Internet
Blogs, wiki's, ease of use, participation, usability, recommendation, social software, simplicity, audio ,video, IM, design, AJAX, convergence, CSS, mobility, open API's, RSS, web standards,search engine optimization, XHTML, micro formats, standardisation & many more new technologies.
If you use all or some of these features in a website, you will find yourself in second generation of World Wide Web. Yes, Web 2.0 is making a difference by adding various advanced functionality. The term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, however it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the way system developers are using the web platform. We can say that Web 2.0 is an improved form of World Wide Web.
Before RSS which is one of the most widely used feature of Web 2.0, several similar formats already existed for syndication, but none achieved widespread popularity or are still in common use today, as most were envisioned to work only with a single service. These originated from push and pull technologies.
The specifications & features of Web 2.0 include server-software, content-syndication, messaging-protocols, standards-based browsers with plug-ins and extensions and various client-applications. Innovations of Web 2.0 are web based applications and desktops, rich Internet applications, client side software, XML & RSS, specialized protocols & web protocols. All these new features, specification & innovations are taking the Internet and web design to next generation.
There is undoubtedly a significant degree of hype around Web 2.0 at the moment, but behind the hyperbole lie some important principles, and some powerful potential. We are seeing the emergence of Web-based services that pull data from a wide range of back-end systems to deliver value to users, when, where and in the form that they require it. We are seeing adhoc relationships being formed by and for these services at the point of need, rather than the costly and time-consuming human creation of contracts or service level agreements. Previously passive recipients of content are beginning to engage, combine and recombine data that they are given in new and interesting ways.
The Web 2.0 has also made easy for website design & use but the world is all about change & its pretty acceptable question. If Web 2.0 supports that many new features, what’s next after Web 2.0? May be Web 3.0? Yes Web 3.0 is on its way and will arrive with many more features & functionality.
If you use all or some of these features in a website, you will find yourself in second generation of World Wide Web. Yes, Web 2.0 is making a difference by adding various advanced functionality. The term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, however it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the way system developers are using the web platform. We can say that Web 2.0 is an improved form of World Wide Web.
Before RSS which is one of the most widely used feature of Web 2.0, several similar formats already existed for syndication, but none achieved widespread popularity or are still in common use today, as most were envisioned to work only with a single service. These originated from push and pull technologies.
The specifications & features of Web 2.0 include server-software, content-syndication, messaging-protocols, standards-based browsers with plug-ins and extensions and various client-applications. Innovations of Web 2.0 are web based applications and desktops, rich Internet applications, client side software, XML & RSS, specialized protocols & web protocols. All these new features, specification & innovations are taking the Internet and web design to next generation.
There is undoubtedly a significant degree of hype around Web 2.0 at the moment, but behind the hyperbole lie some important principles, and some powerful potential. We are seeing the emergence of Web-based services that pull data from a wide range of back-end systems to deliver value to users, when, where and in the form that they require it. We are seeing adhoc relationships being formed by and for these services at the point of need, rather than the costly and time-consuming human creation of contracts or service level agreements. Previously passive recipients of content are beginning to engage, combine and recombine data that they are given in new and interesting ways.
The Web 2.0 has also made easy for website design & use but the world is all about change & its pretty acceptable question. If Web 2.0 supports that many new features, what’s next after Web 2.0? May be Web 3.0? Yes Web 3.0 is on its way and will arrive with many more features & functionality.
Planning Your Website
If you built a bridge without a blueprint, it would probably fall down. A website that hasn't been planned is just as likely to fail. Ensuring a successful website means successful planning, explore some of our top tips that that will take you through some of the steps you need to take in order to ensure your site is a success.
Most websites fail. For every Google or Amazon there are thousands of sites that don't make it, so what can you do to make your website a success? The first thing you need to do to avoid failure is to define exactly what you mean by success. What do you want your website to achieve?
Before you do anything you should decide on a short, clear goal for your site and then write it down. You can just have one goal, but it sometimes helps to have a handful to help you develop your site. Possible goals may include:
- To make enough money selling your line of hand-made jewelry to give up your day job
- To tell everyone how great your pet hamster is
- To sell your range of skateboards to people outside California
- To get more parents to send their children to your school
- To fill more rooms in your hotel during the off-season
- To educate divers about the dangers they pose to coral reefs
- To raise money for cancer research
- To help people understand trigonometry
It's important that you only set a small number of goals for your site. If you try to do too many things at once, you'll fail.
Focusing On Achieving Your Goal
Your goal can help you make the right decisions when designing your website - but only if you can keep focused on it. Whenever you need to make a decision, ask yourself which of the options is most likely to help you achieve your goal.
One decision you must take for any site is how large to make the text. Small text often looks nicer, but larger text is more readable. Imagine you were designing a site for a financial advisor whose goal was to "get new customers". Would large or small text help you to achieve the goal better? Larger text would be better in this instance, as most investors are older people and many wear glasses.
But what if their goal was "to get more young customers"? Smaller text might be more likely to appeal to younger investors, although you still need to make sure they can read it.
Hot Tip: Be careful when choosing your web designer. Some designers may be more interested in creating an attractive website for their portfolio than a site that makes money for you. Having a goal written down helps make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction. Understanding Your Visitors
A website without visitors is as pointless as a pencil without lead. To make sure the people who visit your site don't leave straight away you'll need to identify your target audience, the people you want to visit your site, so you can ensure the design and content will appeal to them.
You need to know as much about your target audience as possible. Ask yourself lots of questions about them:
- How old are they?
- What kind of jobs do they have?
- Where do they live?
- What computer do they own?
- How much do they use the Web?
- What other sites do they visit?
- Why have they come to your site?
The Call to Action
Once you've got a clear idea of who your target audience is, you'll need to think about how you are going to use this knowledge to achieve the goal you've set for your site. If you're planning a business site then you probably want the visitor to buy something from you, either now or in the future. If your site is non-commercial, you probably still want your visitor to do something specific, like donate money to a charity or improve their knitting.
So, how do you get your visitors to do what you want? Well, you need to ask them - and it needs to be obvious. There's no point in having a "buy now" button if your visitor doesn't notice it. Your whole site, from the design to the writing, should be focused on getting your visitors to take up your call to action. For some sites, like Amazon, the action they want the visitor to perform might be to make an online purchase, but for others it could simply be tempting the visitor to make a phone call or send an email.
Whatever your call to action is, you'll need to understand your target audience in order to get them to perform it.
Check Out the Competition
There's no such thing as an original idea any more, at least not on the Web. If you're designing a new site it's almost certain that somebody somewhere will have done something similar before.
You might not welcome this competition but try to think of it as free market research. Your competitors may have spent a lot of time and money coming up with ideas for their site and there's nothing to stop you using those ideas for free. Take a look at your competitor's websites to see what they've done well and what they've done badly.
Learn From Other People's Mistakes
If you're able to offer visitors something your competitors don't, there's a good chance they'll start using your site instead. Visit other people's sites and think like an awkward customer. What's wrong with their site? What could they do better? What are they missing?
Here are some of the things you might find:
- Their site looks cheap so I don't trust them. A site that looks professional would make me much more likely to buy online
- I don't have Flash, so I can't use their site
- It takes me too long to find the books I want
- There are lots of spelling mistakes on the site and I found the articles boring, even though it's about my favourite singer
- The site takes a long time to load, I can't wait that long so I'll probably go to another site instead
- I found the order forms really confusing. I'd rather call them up than buy from their website
Credit Where Credit's Due
It's probably easy to pick holes in your competition's website, but also remember to focus on the things they've done well. Imagine you're a potential customer coming to the site. Try to perform one of the "tasks" you'd want them to carry out, such as finding the company's phone number and address or buying something online.
How easy it is to carry out the task? How long did it take? What impression of the company did you get? Remember, looking at other people's websites for inspiration is a great idea. However, copying them isn't. It may be tempting to cut corners by copying the terms and conditions from another site
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