Web Development

After years of rumors about Google releasing a web browser, the wait is finally over and the rumors were true.  First off, it has a very clean look.  Right off the back I noticed it put the “tabs” at the top of the browser window which seems to be an excellent place for it.

I noticed that it remembers all of your search history and visually displays in a 9-box grid when you open the browser by default, you can change it to go to a homepage, personally I like how it handles the browsing history being that my homepage is Google.  Now the address bar is now has multi-functions.  When you place a search or URL into it, Chrome searches your web history, bookmarks first to see if you have a match before you have to actually do a search.

Another nice feature is the “Incognito Mode” (Ctrl+Shift+N) which allow you to do searching that does not leave an entry in your search history.  With Google being a search engine, I was hoping this feature would be included and it was.

At the time of this writing the Windows XP/VIsta version was the only one available for download, if you use a Mac, please make sure to sign-up so they know the demand is out there for this and a Linux version.  Last is the fact that the browser renders very quick and is responsive.   Try it out and make sure to read Chrome’s Terms of Service so you know what your agreeing too.

Download Google Chrome

In recent times we have come a couple new project leads where we are bidding on a web development project where we were the local and more experience design shop and the competing bids were from another local development shop that outsourced the work to India (not to single them out, we have seen Vietnam & Russia).

In this situation we actually pulled our firm out of the bidding process.  We felt that it was not in our best interest to devalue our services to compete against a firm that was using talent that was under-experienced and qualified compared to our firm that has team members that hold degrees to show their commitment to their craft.  Not to say that in this fast moving web world you need a degree to produce quality work but it does help when you are looking for that quality work.

We felt if we lowered our quote to be competitive with the other firm it would actually do more harm to us and other professionals out their that work very hard to charge the rates they charge.  It is my personal opinion that I would rather support local professionals and economy than ship our money over seas just to make a profit.

My view is that you get what you pay for in these situations.  There is a place for outsourcing in the web development world but there are trade-offs you make when going that route.  Here is list of items you should think about when making the choice.

Items to consider when Outsourcing:

1. Do you need to meet face to face?

2. Do you need a designer or developer that speaks “Web Design English”?

3. Do you need someone formally trained in the fine arts for creativity?

4. Do you need to get feedback during normal business hours?

5. Are you looking to build a long term relationship with a local firm?

6. Is quality and attention to detail your biggest concern?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions then you should really consider a local (Made in America) design and development firm.  Yes, I agree you will pay more for local talent but in the end you will usually get a higher quality product in the end.  The situation were outsourcing IMHO works the best is when you know exactly what you want and you have diagrammed it to the last detail so there is not decisions that will need to be make by the outsourcing firm.

Dal

.02

Today’s post we will talk about website hosting and what to look for in this type of service. With so many host choices available for your website it is hard to know what you need and how to judge a web host. Please forgive me if I miss some questions or tidbits of information, this is meant to be a primer to get you thinking about your needs when it comes to hosting your website. First we will put forth a number questions you will need to ask yourself or web developer:

Questions you should ask yourself:

1. What Platform [Linux(Apache) , Windows (IIS/.Net) or Macintosh (OSX Server)] ?

One of the first questions you will come across is what operating system you will be delivering your website or web service on. A majority of websites are delivered on some version of Linux as the operating system (OS) using Apache as the the web server. Others are developed using Microsoft’s OS and IIS as the web server or Apple’s OS X operating system on the Xserv server platform.

2. Service Requirements of your Website?

Next you will need to look at the different software and technologies you will be using on your website. Especially with open-source software you will need know what the software’s requirements are (PHP, MySql, Python, etc…). Not all hosts are running the most current or older version of the software you will need so that will create a compatibility issue. Also there might be certain types of access you will want like Shell or default settings you will want enabled like mod_rewrite on apache.

3. Response & Uptime of the Server and Datacenter

This has to do with the hardware, connection and setup of the datacenter. Depending on the desired response time (hopefully well under 8 secs) you are looking for, you will want to get info on the type of connection and server you will be on too gauge the kind of performance you can expect from your host. If you are going shared rather than dedicated hosting you will also want to know how many other accounts they put on your box. Another consideration for shared hosting is what other companies are hosting on your box. If you are using a shared IP address this could have affects on your SEO rankings. If one of the companies on your IP block is spamming or doing other tactics that violate the terms of service then your website could be associated with this practice and that would harm your rankings and traffic. Datacenters are gauged in tiers from (1-4) with 4 being the highest. The higher the tier the most redundant their power and network systems are and the lower the downtime or higher the uptime. People usually have heard about the five nines uptime (99.999%).

Things to look for in the Web Host:

1. Pricing

Well this is pretty self explanatory. Low price is always sought but make sure you understand the lower you go, the more you will be sacrificing something, features, space, bandwidth or support. Read the fine print

2. Customer Service & Tech Support

This is the either the most important or top two things that I look for when looking into a web host. I can’t tell you how many times I have dealt with inadequate customer service or innate technical support. Most very cheap hosts will make it almost impossible to get someone on the phone or if you do then they do not know anything useful. Other will make you submit everything through a email ticketing system. When you are running a web business you need to make choices like you would for a offline business. So when you find a host that actually has good support and a knowledgeable staff, keep them close like a blanket. I am not going to make any specific recommendations in this article, but there is a host in Southern California that has a beautiful website and service & support that matches the flashiness of their site. I kid you not that they “actually” answer the phone between 3-5 mins and the person on the phone either knows something or will really send it to the right person and you will get a phone call back within 45mins. I was so blown away by this service that I feared they would go out of business or I was dreaming because that almost never happens.

3. Features

Other than having the services you need for your website, you will want to look at the features for the web host’s packages to see what they come with. Most some with Cpanel (admin control via web browser), this is very useful for companies that need to manage their computer services internally or can not afford a part or full time server administer. Also you will want to look at the bandwidth and storage you get with the package, Look for other feathers like the ability add on multiple domains and how many FTP/Email accounts it will allow you too have.

4. Location of Datacenter

Lastly, you will want to take into account where your website host’s datacenter is physically located. Even through the internet is interconnect at near light-speed, that doesn’t account for traffic on network switches. Having a host that is located close to the backbone should give you faster response time to you and your customers. For larger websites you might want to have servers on the east and west coast so your traffic is load-balanced depending on the location of the server request. This is usually for websites with heavy traffic but if you know you are going to have the next big thing then it would be wise to think about this and incorporate it into your planning.

In closing I hope this primer about web hosts and hosting feature will be helpful in helping you choose you next host.

-Dal

Will the record oil prices and rising gasoline costs be the boon needed to create a renaissance for e-commerce?

I believe so. At the writing of this article according to Bloomberg.com, West Texas Intermediate crude is at $136.33 /barrel and the average price for a gallon of gas is $4.03/ gallon. With record prices with not sign up retreating anytime soon I believe we could see a whole new waves of online consumer that will use the web to purchase items to save gas to the mall or whatever superstore you prefer.

Main Reasons People Shop Online:

1. Save Time

2. Save Money (might be changing?)

3. More Selection (usually)

4. Save Gas (????)

5. Enjoys Shopping Online (small but growing)

At this rate I believe more people will move purchases online to save trips they would normally drive to a shopping center.  Suburbs and Rural areas will mostly likely see the greatest growth in this area, being they are usually the farthest away from major downtown business districts.  This brings us to the next question.

With the rise in fuel prices, will we see prices online rise?

I think so as well, with these higher gas prices (and a host of other issues) we are already seeing prices for air cargo and travel rise in step.  This increase will have too be offset at some point.  I am not sure how long Amazon.com and the likes will absorb these increased operating costs before they will need to offload some of that too the consumer to maintain or prop-up decreasing margins?

In conclusion I wanted to close with saying that we are entering an unprecedented time that will have many ups and downs and a good thing to do is to keep an open mind, weigh the options and make your own choice.  In the end, this is just my opinion. Please email me with comments and if they are insightful or interesting I will add them with your first name, last initial and city/state.

.02

Dal

In todays post we will be discussing what a Sitemap is and why it is important.

What is a website Sitemap?

In a simplest sense a Sitemap is a page on a website that serves as your master archive for every page ever produced on your website that you want the general public to access.  Normally you want a simple HTML link in the footer of your website that shows up on every page.

What is the value of this Sitemap?

First off, this gives your designer more creative flexibility to do more creative navigation options that could have elements like Flash or Javascript that can cause some difficulties for the search engine spiders when they go to navigate your website to look for new webpages.  With this in place the search engine spider is always one link from your entire website.  The less you make the indexing spider work the better in our opinion.  Second, if you choose to move to a different web domain or you change your URL structure you will have a reference that will help you make a proper 301 redirect (we will cover these later) so you do not lose any valuable Google PageRank.

Anything else?

I have read some statistics that 10-15% of web surfers still look for the sitemap when they come to a new website to find what they are looking for so they see this as a time saver as well.   Saving time for a visitor coming too your website is always a good idea.

-Dal

One of the concepts I found that has persisted is that Graphic Designers are Web Developers (Coding) and Web Developers are Designers. This seems to be a common view among many business acumen and the professionals them self.

The problem lies that many times when you receive your website you either have a great design with average coding or a average design with excellent coding. This does not even take into account if the coding is search engine friendly. Most of the time when you meet an exceptional Graphic Design he will have some sort of Art degree. This is a good thing, this means this person has formal training in design, color balancing and strong typography (fonts) skills. Rarely I will find a very competent programmer in this same person that can code their design into a fully functional website.

When you meet a strong coder that has knowledge in Apache (Linux) and IIS (Windows) administration, CSS, PHP and MySQL experience along with other specialty skills you will rarely find a great natural designer or a designer that decided to head down the web programmer career path. These are two separate skill sets that are rarely found in the same person. If you do have someone who says they can meet these two highly specialized skill sets, I would look closely look over their portfolio and evaluate the design and the coding on their own merits.

You will find that if you bring a designer and coder together for your project the end results will more then if you have a single person deliver both.

Professional Web Development is what separates a Website from Web Business

We combine core search engine optimization enhancements and highly usable design to create efficient and effective websites.

Infoscour specializes in website content management systems (CMS) and e-commerce solutions. We utilize web technologies such as CSS, PHP, AJAX, Linux, Joomla, WordPress and OS Commerce to reduce development cycles and licensing costs.

Our development strategy is simple. Ask the right questions at the right time and that time is at the beginning of a website development project. This saves on development time by not letting major changes enter into the project during the most costly part of the process, the programming. It also makes sure your input is involved so the finished product is the same as the goals set in the beginning.

Open source technology gives us the ability to integrate cutting edge features and technology to improve the users experience on websites we develop.

When approaching website development you also need to into account what platform you host your website on and specific improvements you will need installed to optimize the performance and response time of your website.