Gilly's Webalations

Mobile Web: The ‘Do Nothing’ option

2009-05-13T13:09:00.002Z

From Q2 to Q3 2008, the number of Britons using mobile Internet increased by 25% (from 5.8 to 7.3 million) compared to 3% for PC-based Internet (34.3 to 35.3 million Britons) (Nielsen Online 24/11/08)

Just because the mobile web is booming, that’s not to say that every website needs a mobile version. In some cases it would be a spectacular waste of money to create a separate mobile version when the regular ‘desktop’ website will cater for mobile use just as well.

Before getting into the technicalities of handsets, mobile browsers, markup language and device detection, you need to first determine one key factor: Is anyone really likely to look at your website on their mobile phone?

What type of content are you offering?

Mobile phone users browse the internet in a different way to desktop web users. According to comScore, the fastest-growing categories for daily mobile web access in North America from 2008-2009 were:

News & information (BBC, TFL, Flight information, weather, Wikipedia)
Social Networking / Blogs (MySpace, Facebook)
Stocks and financial information
Movie information
Business directories
Entertainment (YouTube, Shazam, Flickr)

If your website does not fall into one of these categories, the chances are it won’t get much traffic from the mobile web audience.

What type of mobile web users are your audience?

According to Gartner, at the end of Q2 2008, Smartphones held about 11% of the mobile device market share Worldwode. If you already know that your audience are predominantly Smartphone users and your website is built in well-coded HTML with few images, then the browser on the Smartphone will display like a desktop browser and users can zoom in using touchscreen or QWERTY keyboard. This means that the ‘do nothing’ option might be an entirely viable one.

Will your website already render well on a mobile browser?

Every mobile handset is slightly different, but on most of the latest phones you can access the internet in one way or another. For desktop computers, websites might look and function differently on Firefox to Internet Explorer or Safari. Usually, well-written code will iron out these differences, but you may still notice a slightly different typeface, colour or positioning of elements depending on your browser. It’s exactly the same for mobile.

If the website is built in such a way that it will degrade sensibly on a small screen whilst still presenting the user with the relevant content, then it may not require a separate version. Ready.mobi will tell you whether or not your site passes the mobile test: The site will give you a free report and a ‘readiness for mobile’ score. It’ll also show you exactly how the site will look on some of the main mobile devices.

The quick answer

In summary, the ‘Do nothing’ option may be a good option if your website is either:

a) An unlikely type of content to be accessed via the mobile medium

b) Likely to be accessed by predominantly Smartphone users

c) Already rendering well on most handsets.

Watch out for the next Mobile Web blog where I’ll be talking in more detail about different options that are available for catering for the small screen.

Spring clean 2.0

2009-01-19T16:45:00.003Z

New year, new start, new blog template. Not sure I like it truth be told, but it's feels much like it does to rearrange your bedroom. I might prefer sleeping against the wall, but I'll position the bed in the middle of the room just to feel a little bit more alive for about 30 seconds. So pink is out, crazy notepad in.

As part of the new digital me, I am now a daily twitterer and follower of knowledgable digital gurus. Well, sort of. My main impetus admittedly was the opportunity to stalk Stephen Fry who has possibly the best life on this planet. Apart from the obvious manicness but even that adds interest. The man must never get bored. And when he does he just hops onhis private jet to chase armadillos or has a drunken debate with his old pal Hugh. And now I get to be a part of that every day. Hence why twitter is great.

My only slight grumble I have with Twitter is not that it's addictive, because I haven't reached that stage of neediness yet. It's that it's almost too much - too much pressure to be interesting, and too many tweets to keep up with. Aren't our lives fast-paced enough without having to constantly follow hundreds of people around the virtual planet? Finally I feel like I understand how Jack Bauer feels.

Facebook banner ads a waste of money?

2009-01-07T14:59:00.006Z

I joined Gyro International more than 6 months ago now, which puts me (still in the digital sense) into the advertising and marketing sector.

So, to stick to the theme I thought I'd write my first blog in a very long time on the pros and cons of banner advertising using social media platforms. I'm a regular user of facebook and I rarely even notice the advertising that is displayed there, but then I'm just one user out of 130million.

Looking at just banner advertising on facebook (not 'fan' pages which is another subject altogether), there are some obvious pro's and con's:

Positives

Increased brand awareness
Audience targeting / segmentation by age, sex, likes, dislikes, geographical location etc
130 million active facebook users

Negatives

Difficult to measure ROI (especially when it comes to brand awareness)
Banner ads are not conversational
Weak track record

Banner ads are enforced, not requested, whereas social networks are about conversations and personal preferences. Therefore perhaps Facebook is not really an appropriate medium for this type of advertising. I've struggled to find a solid Facebook advertising success story that uses solely the cpc advertising as oppose to other more pricey options like the sponsorship of applications. It almost feels as though Facebook knows that they're onto a losing revenue stream as the latest 'voting' strategy seems to me like they are clutching at straws.

I like the theory: using Facebook you can advertise painkillers to students in the UK aged 20-25 on saturday/sunday mornings. How can it fail? Yet where are the results? And why isn't everyone raving about it online?

2009 is the year for brand engagement with social media. But this won't come about through simple display ads. What's needed is an approach that sees brands listening and responding to what is being said on blogs and social networks. A good design and a wad of cash just won't cut it any more.

Mr. Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks describes a self-perpetuating cycle in social networks: “Advertisers distract users; users ignore advertisers; advertisers distract better; users ignore better.”

I'm inclined to agree.

Mobile 'Terminator' Phone - the next big thing

2008-07-11T16:06:00.005Z

In a few years time we'll all be browsing the internet on a regular basis on our mobile phones and millions of people in emerging markets will be surfing the net for the first time through their mobile handsets.

At the rate we're going, there will be 5 billion people 'connected' by 2015.

All this I can believe. However, the notion of Augmented Reality was, I thought until recently, confined to the movies for some time yet.

Augmented Reality I think of as being 'Terminator' vision. When Arnie looks at someone, he gets all their vital stats, history, address, name etc. And that is exactly the future of mobile phone technology.

We can already get GPS on our phones, so surely it's just simple sums:

GPS + WWW = Terminator vision (Augmented Reality).

Can't wait!

Recruitment and the human factor

2008-06-09T16:01:00.009Z

Finding the right job in London is like walking along a really long tightrope. Whilst juggling. Thankfully there are agencies to offer support and guidance along the way. Whatever their reasons for helping, it works for me.

For employers, finding the right candidate for a position generally comes at a hefty price. So you can understand why companies are looking to use latest technologies to cut out the middle man. Last year recruitment accounted for a quarter of all online advertising, and brands continue to experiment with new technologies to gain direct access to potential candidates.

Last year a virtual recruitment fair was held on Second Life which was hailed as a success by the companies participating. Blogging has become quite important in attracting candidates, as have PPC campaigns and (some would say) Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

I tried using Facebook to search for jobs and I found it confusing and unprofessional. However it's not a bad place for recruiters to advertise, as ads can be targeted towards the right candidate profiles. Having said that, most people I've asked aren't even aware of any advertising on facebook - a phenomenon known as 'banner blindness'. An innovative approach to advertising is needed for this kind of advertising to pay.

From my perspective recruitment agencies are in no danger of being ousted for now. They provide a valuable service to people like me, and it's in their interest to get it right for all parties. They connect the right people to the right jobs and it seems to work.

It's certainly the right thing to do for companies to divert their ad spend from offline to online. And there is a great deal of untapped potential for recruiting using new media methods. But the loss of recruitment agencies would mean a loss of the human factor, and isn't that what the recruitment industry is all about?

Video CV's - a novel approach, but not always the right one.

Simply semantics

2008-06-02T08:34:00.004Z

In my quest to appear knowledgable in interviews I've been trying to stretch my geekness as far as it will go. My latest quest is to understand the semantic web and what it means to the future of the web. Here are some of the definitions that I have found:

1. Semantic web - 'the meaning of the web'. Huh?

2. Semantic web - 'an extension of the web'. Ok. Still not understanding.

3. Semantic web - 'a way of sharing data and content'. Right, similar to mashups or something, yes? Well, sort of. Not quite. Mashups use web applications to pull in data from different sources and present it in a single form, making potentially dozens of Web calls (for example: www.flickrvision.com).

On the other hand, the Semantic web is a web of data. It needs no application and makes no web calls. The data is the web and the web is the data. It doesn't use javascript or HTML, it uses a different language altogether. Semantic web is potentially the most powerful and efficient way of distributing data and content.

It uses a language called RDF (Resource Description Framework), which is apparently even difficult for developers to understand. RDF was designed to provide a common way to describe information so it can be read and understood by computer applications. Go any deeper and you start getting into terminology that sounds like something out of Harry Potter so I'm going to stop there.

In my research I also stumbled across SWOOGLE, a semantic search engine. This actually left me more confused than I was before, and more convinced that this technology is not for the likes of me to concern myself with for the time being at least.

The semantic web is a work in progress and has the potential to transform the web into one giant, immensely powerful database.

Keep up the good work, Superbrains - rather you than me.

How do you win online?

2008-06-01T18:27:00.004Z

How people use the internet is changing every day. Users are becoming blind to banner advertising and tend to tend to engage more with interactive ads or games.

Right now silver surfers are the fastest growing online population, although they tend to use the internet to stay in touch with family rather than shop online. Men use mobile internet more than women and nearly all of all internet users in europe read the news online.

However tomorrow's metrics may well tell a different story.

How then to digital marketing agencies know what's best for their clients? Perhaps the truth is that they don't, which is exactly what makes the industry such an exciting one to be a part of. Marketing and advertising agencies cannot rely on tried and tested methods any more - instead, they are much more likely to go for an integrated and innovative approach if they want to succeed. Take a look at Pot Noodle's latest effort as a good example.

Writing for the web? Suppress your ego!

2008-05-22T17:17:00.007Z

I spent today at an excellent course ran by the Neilson Norman Group, the web usability experts. Before the course I believed that I wasn't half bad at web copywriting. I don't use UPPER CASE, I don't centre align, I put keywords in bold (sometimes) and I never put a hyperlink from click here (as oppose to meaningful text).

Not that simple.

There are principles to writing content for the web, the most important of which is this:

Keep it short.

Why? Because people don't read the text on websites the same way that they'd read a book or a newspaper. They scan it. Research proves it. People visit websites for the purposes of research, not entertainment. So make it easy for them to find what they want. How?

Short paragraphs, short sentences and short words.

If you're a website owner, here's what to do to make a start today:

1. Get the metrics - find out the most visited page on your website (ask your web agency if you're not sure).

2. Reduce the number of words on that page by 50% - bullet points or a table might help you get your message across more succinctly.

3. Split the content into short 'chunks' with meaningful headings.

Writing for the web is not a chance to show off. It's not about big words, cheeky headlines and artistic licence. Like all things to do with website usability, it is about the audience and giving them what they are looking for. Get that right and you'll find that you've probably ticked a fair few the SEO and accessibility boxes as well.

Trademark bidding - not so bad after all

2008-04-11T14:01:00.005Z

I've been reading about the recent change in Google's trademark bidding strategy and it made me wonder. Will this change in the rules only affect people who have trademarked a search term, or will it push prices up across the board? In 1 months time, people will be able to start bidding against each other for trademarked keywords. For instance, coca-cola may start bidding for 'pepsi'. In fact, every man and his dog might start bidding for Pepsi, pointless as that may be.

One way of looking at it is that Coca-cola would be essentially burning money by advertising using this method. This is because people searching for Pepsi WANT Pepsi, so all Coca-cola has managed to do is frustrate the customer. On the other hand, the customer might click on the link and realise that Coca-cola has a special offer on, so they'll buy Coca-cola in future. In that case, was it worth it for coca-cola to pay £20 for pinching that 1 Pepsi customer? Added to that is the power of Pepsi being number 1 in the natural listings anyway.

And what about other Big Brands? Adidas could put a bid in for the keyword 'Nike', so that when people search for Nike trainers, up comes an advert for Adidas trainers. Hang on - that already happens. Why? Because Nike haven't 'trademarked' their brandname with Google. There wouldn't be any point because Nike allows its resellers to sell their brand over the internet, probably together with other sports brands.

And what about the resellers - are they likely to suffer? Lets take The Biz - they're selling a wide variety of surf brand clothing, and they might decide to bid on the keyword 'billabong t-shirts'. My first reaction to that would be MORE FOOL THEM. Even before Google changes it's rules, they'll be paying a fortune for such a vague keyword with very low conversions.

However, if they were to bid on 'mens red billabong t-shirt' (with a phrase or exact match), it's unlikely that Quicksilver will be bidding against that for a keyword so in that scenario, trademark bidding isn't going to make much difference to The Biz's Adwords spend. On top of that, if they take the searcher directly to a targeted landing page, the likelyhood of converting that click to a sale shoots up.

So the answer is this: As long as you're doing it right, Google's introduction of trademark bidding won't affect your adwords spend. We have just finished developing a product that ensures you do it right and takes the soul-destruction out of keyword targeting so that you can create specific keyword ad campaigns for every single one of your ecommerce products (whether you have 100 or 1 million products) that take people directly to a targeted landing page. In the click of a mouse. No laborious filling in of 200,000 fields required.

India - the good, the bad and the ugly

2007-11-27T10:05:00.000Z

This is my last post in India, and I wanted to write about the things I've noticed and learnt along the way, although there is so much that I'm sure I'll miss something:

Indian men are often sen walking hand in hand and arm in arm - in fact they are not gay (apparently), it is just the way. Homosexuality is actually illegal in this Country although Mumbai is leading the fight against this law.
A country of contradictions - Indian people are known to brush their teeth for 20 minutes or more. They are actually incredibly hygienic in the way they eat and share food and drink, never touching the mouth of a bottle with their lips. However the streets are their landfills, and the rivers their sewers and many people have luminous orange teeth.
In some regions of India, widows are complete outcasts of society. It used to be that they were burnt to death and some say that this still happens although it is rare.
If you are born into a low Hindu caste, and you get sick, you might refuse treatment and put your life in fate's (or the gods) hands. I learnt this from a Spanish girl who was working for MSF in the Bihar region after the floods this year.
In Delhi (and elsewhere), people tap into the electricity grid illegally, and if you walk the streets with your eyes to the sky you'll see knots and tangles of wires pulled in through people's windows.
Speaking of electrics - why are there SO many switches everywhere? Every room I've entered has a minimum of 6 switches, although only 1 light and 1 fan.
People advertise their children in the local papers (in Delhi) for arranged marriages. Similar to a lonely hearts column.
Indian salesmen are the best in the world.
A camel costs from 10000-20000 rupees (GBP 130 - 250)
During Diwali, thousands of Owls are sacrificed - tortured, mutilated and bled to death as a sacrifice to bring wealth and fortune.
As urban growth accelerates, so do pollution levels. For the past 15 years the Indian Government has been procrastinating about introducing a high capacity bus system that allows buses to run in dedicated lanes where no other vehicles can enter. It is cheap as it doesn't require new road space to be constructed. This has been proven to work in South America and other countries, yet still hasn't been introduced anywhere here yet. At times in these cities you can barely breathe or see past the smog, and no-one seems to care to do anything about it.
The poverty. I was naive and stupid to think that it wasn't that bad. I thought that, although India is a developing country, the economy was catching up rapidly with the west. Now I'm not convinced. I can understand why global warming is not high up on the agenda when the majority of people are just surviving on 100 rupees a day. Last night I walked back at night, past the men sleeping in their taxis, or on the pavement amongst the giant rats and stench of urine. If I hadn't looked down I may have stood on the small 2 or 3 year old, wearing nothing but a vest curled up asleep on the road. I wanted to take him home but then what about the other children, mothers and babies? There doesn't seem to be a refuge for them. I can buy a big bag of rice that will last a boy 4 months, and maybe some milk so that a mother can feed her baby, but then what? And what about the others? At first it was a challenge, and then there was pity and frustration, and then a certain numbness to it all. And now I feel tired and very sad.

Although I feel relieved to be leaving in a way, I also feel a horrible guilt to be turning my back on these people. Ghandi would be disappointed in me. Maybe I should take a leaf out of his book and give up my material life and devote myself to the poor. But I know I'm not going to. I'll go straight back to my nice flat, with my nice clothes and expensive food and moan about the weather in England.

I think I understand this country less now than I did before I arrived. It's such a massive, unique blend of history, culture, character and religion and to get to the heart of it would take a lifetime. One thing I do know for sure is that I will definitely be coming back - Bollywood beckons.

Do you want to be a Bollystar?

2007-11-27T09:45:00.000Z

Quick recap - Sam and I travelled from Delhi to Goa last week, visited a few sunny beaches, explored the capital, Panjim, and then headed to Mumbai for our last few days. There's not much to tell when it comes to Goa - perhaps it's because I'm from Jersey and have been spoilt with beautiful beaches my whole life. The difference in Goa is that there are more beach huts, stoned hippies (debatable), palm trees, and people selling fresh pineapple. Also, the sunset seems to be bigger and more red. In Goa I felt like I was cheating slightly, and had actually left India - although it's the same continent it really does feel like a different country.

Enough about Goa, Mumbai is much more interesting. The home of Bollywood and the Gateway to India. Bollywood. Sam and I both were offered the opportunity to be Bollystars for the day - 13 hours on set for a massive 500 rupees (GBP 6). Miles away, beyond the shanty villages, are the Bollywood studios. Apparently much of the filming is carried out in western Europe, and when the budget is tight, they relocate the sets to the North Mumbai studios. Because the majority of the films are shot in western Europe, they require western actors to fill in the studio sets to retain the balance. It seems so odd to me but it's the way it works. Apparently light skin is a hit - there are even skin-lightening creams advertised on tv (for men and women).

Back to Bollywood - originally we were excited, but that wore off after 5 hours of sitting around, being told conflicting information, and being dressed up like stupid dolls. Fortunately I got away with it and it was only Sam who had to act (actually ACT!), as the maid. I watched the filming and the shouting and the chaos unfold, relieved to be allowed to sit and read my book whilst poor Sam suffered. Finally it ended at about 10pm with Sam on the verge of tears after being bullied and misled for most of the day.

This morning I was accosted by two more scouts asking me to be an extra in Bollywood. But thankfully I fly out tonight.

Do you like spinach?

2007-11-20T11:12:00.000Z

After Jaipur, we caught another bus to Pushkar, where we had heard they were holding their annual camel fair. We arrived at the hotel Sony had recommended us which was hidden in the backsteets of the town. On arrival we were held up by the manager for a long time on the roof, as he explained to us the sights of Pushkar. We soon found out that he was trying to stall us whilst tapping into the electricity line, so that we wouldn't find out about the lack of power. It didn't matter, we stayed as it was clean and cheap enough.

Pushkar surround a holy water lake lined with Ghats - on finding the lake we were immediately accosted by some self-proclaimed priests who instructed us to wash our hands and face with the illuminous green water and pay stupid amounts of money for a string bracelet and our families safety! I have never felt so cheated and angry in my life.

However, we weren't there to find enlightenment and good karma, we were there for the camels. And they were incredible. For as far as the eye could see, camels and nomads with brightly coloured turbens were scattered across the dusty landscape. We stayed watching for hours and it has to be one of the highlights for me so far.

I have to show you a picture of a dinner we had in Pushkar - I asked the waiter what he recommended and his response was: 'Do you like spinach'? I said yes and went for the spinach and veg curry, whilst Sam went for the stuffed pepper. However, we both ended up with this:

The Indian sales technique

2007-11-20T10:55:00.000Z

Just to let you know that I've finally managed to put a few pictures on and added some Taj Mahal pictures to the last post. It's been a crazy week and so much has happened. From Agra we caught a bus to Jaipur where we were driven high-speed around the city by Sony, our friendly auto-rickshaw driver. He took us to the Maharajah's palace which was amazingly beautiful, and after that he took us on a tour of his mates shops! This is where I learnt about Indian Salesmen, and why it is they're the best in the world:

1. Pay rickshaw driver commission for bringing the unsuspecting tourist to your shop.
2. Tell customer to take off their shoes when they enter - makes it feel special for them, and also makes them feel at home.
3. Drug customer with Chai.
4. Show customer how product is made.
5. Tell customer it is the only place in the country where you can find such quality.
6. Bring out every type of product you have and put it in front of the customer. This takes time, and customer feels bad that you have gone to such trouble.
7. Emphasize quality, beauty, and uniqueness.
8. Be persistent and don't let them walk out of the door until they have seen everything there is to see, heard everything there is to hear, and spent everything there is to spend.

Dirt, Smog and the Taj Mahal

2007-11-14T15:11:00.000Z

This will be a short post as I'm feeling very tired and smogged out today. I now have a travelling companion, Sam, although in her short time in India she has already been suffering from a nasty sick bug which kept her head in the toilet for the majority of last night. We spent the day on a very crowded (by which I mean that half the passengers were travelling on the roof) bus from Agra to Jaipur where we've got lucky with a nice hotel near the centre.

Yesterday we were in stinky Agra for the day and visited the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. Unbelievably foreigners get charged 75 times that of Indian residents to get in but it was worth it nevertheless. The Taj is actually a tomb - Shah Jahan had it built for his wife when she died giving birth to her 14th (or maybe 12th) child!

I'm afraid there are to pictures to post yet (although I took about 100), as I haven't got the right cable, so I'll keep this a short and dull entry. Rajestan is a tiring place but hopefully tomorrow I'll wake up with a new lease of life and some much-needed assertiveness...

28 years old and scared of the dark

2007-11-11T07:28:00.001Z

I arrived back in Delhi this morning at 4am after having just had my first Indian adventure - one that I doubt I'll ever forget. I went to Rishikesh on the advice of my friend Katy. Unfortunately I didn't follow her guidance on how to get there and had one of the worst travelling experiences of my life. Clare's driver, Sunil, dropped me off a Delhi's central bus station in the morning a few days ago - on the way in the middle of 5 lanes of traffic, was an elephant meandering along the road. I've decided it was an omen.

At the bus terminal I was immediately followed by a number of men through the station and there wasn't another traveller in sight. I can't begin to explain what the station is like - suffice to say I was eager to leave after about 30 seconds. A man approached me and told me there was a 'deluxe' tourist bus (lie number 1) to Rishikesh (lie number 2) which took 6 hours (lie number 3). The bus was full of Indian people and there was one seat available right at the back in the middle of the aisle. Before I knew what was going on my bag was on the bus, and I was on my way.

We drove for a few hours slowly as the traffic was bad due to Divali on the weekend. More people got on and stood in the middle of the bus. I was glad they were there because they blocked my view out the front window of the bus. A man on the bus asked me if I was searching for my spiritual guru in Rishikesh. When I said no he looked at me like I was the devil and didn't speak to me again for the rest of the journey.

By the time we get to our final destination (not Rishikesh) it was dark. Everyone was turfed out onto the street which I later found out was just on the outskirts of Haridwar, 25km from Rishikesh. After a few more Rickshaw journeys, and being thrown out onto the street in various random places, I arrived in Rishikesh. I was dropped at the top of a hill and the driver gestured ahead into the darkness. I walked down a long windy road in the pitch black, found the bridge which Katy had told me about and, on the verge of tears at this point, I found a hotel.

The next two days were completely magical days. I met some wonderful people, did lots of yoga classes, walked along the River Ganges and witnessed the Divali festival. You have to dodge the street fireworks but the atmosphere is electric.

I have decided that it's been a good thing to have such a bad introduction to travelling in India alone, because every day since has been a wonderful surprise. I now feel completely energised, and although I didn't find my spiritual guru, I did find a strength I didn't know I had and a respect for the Hindi people who can be so kind and generous, and can party harder than I thought was possible in the absence of alcohol. Speaking of which - Andy's left me a beer in the fridge - time to go.

Delhi - magic and mayhem

2007-11-07T13:33:00.000Z

I don't think anyone can prepare you for the sights, sounds and smells of Delhi. I'd spoken to a few of my hardened traveller friends about what to expect, but this place goes beyond anything that my imagination could handle. Yesterday I arrived in the morning and was picked up by Sunil, my good friend Clare's driver. He was expecting to pick up two people - 'Gilly' and 'Challinor' - so it took a short while to persuade him that I was travelling alone. He kindly reminded me that I was not allowed to sit in the front seat and drove me to Clare and Andy's beautiful apartment in Sector 15, Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi.

The smog, dust and mass of contruction work going on is astounding. I have never been a place so polluted as this. And I now know why my friends have a driver because there is a very particular style of driving in India that would astound even an experienced Italian driver. The road markings are completely futile, and the car horn takes the place of indicators. Apparently there are 1000 more cars on the road every day in Delhi - it's a wonder the traffic moves at all.

Yesterday afternoon I tried to brave the streets of Delhi - my mission was to go into the centre and buy some mosquito repellant. I didn't get far. Delhi is so spread out so I knew the only way was to get a motor rickshaw. But after spending 15 minutes trying to cross the road, and another 15 trying to stop a rickshaw, I gave up. How pathetic!

Today was much more successful - mostly because Clare took the day off to show me around. We went to a mesmerising Sikh Temple, wondered around the streets and markets of Old Delhi, and got escorted out of the biggest mosque in Delhi. It was because I was filming in the courtyard and hadn't paid for the privelage. I'm learning.

I have approximately 43 mosquito bites, and a very sweaty back, but I'm feeling much more relaxed and happy than yesterday, mostly thanks to Clare and Andy. Tomorrow I'm braving it alone. Although I'm beginning to think that you're never alone in India.

London, Japan and Round the World flights

2007-09-13T12:05:00.001Z

Now that we’re all content with reading, writing, listening, watching and buying online, is there anything left for us to try? It’s important to ask yourself this now and again in order to keep up with the internet’s ever-changing technologies and uses.

Central to any advances in the internet from now on is internet speed. This will change the entire ethos of media distribution. What's the point in having a tv or dvd player if you can watch the same programme at the same high quality over the internet?

According to The Washington Post article: "Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future,” the Japanese are already way ahead of us in internet connection speed. Broadband service in Japan is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States, and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world's fastest internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.

So once we’ve caught up with Japan’s technology, where will that leave us?
One of the major changes we’ll see over the coming years will be in media. News and publishing will all move even further online and we’ll be able to watch, read or download a good deal more than we do currently.

Another advance which I’m hoping for is in schools education. Schools (rather than universities) are still quite behind in making the best use of internet technology and I think that there could potentially be some leaps forward in the coming years.

And finally, the last change which I hope we’ll see sometime in the next 10 years or so will be that network security concerns will be resolved and online voting will take off, resulting in an increased voter turnout.

One thing that I don’t think will change is our need for the human travel agent. Try to book a round the world flight online and you'll notice your blood pressure rising, eye twitching and fist clenching from the frustration of it.

Is the firewall dead?

2007-05-17T12:36:00.001Z

One of the last things we do at Webreality prior to putting an ecommerce store 'live' is to configure and activate the firewall. This is a complex procedure that needs the attention of a developer as it requires considerable understanding of network protocols and of computer security. In essence a firewall makes a website secure so that it is safe from viruses and worms. A firewall protects networked computers from intentional hostile intrusion that could compromise confidentiality or result in data corruption or denial of service.

Recently however, the Google security specialist Niels Provos made the bold statement that 'the firewall is dead'. He said this because the firewall does not inspect data that is downloaded through internet browsers - a loophole that attackers are starting to exploit. What this means is that attackers can infect PCs with 'bot' software which turns computers into zombies that can be remotely controlled. Until recently these 'bot' programs arrived at computers via spam email as downloads. Now they can come through seemingly ordinary websites and you may not even be aware of the malicious software as it installs itself.

This 'bot' technology is evolving at an alarming rate but thankfully internet security specialists are keeping up and constantly looking into new ways to track the 'botmasters'. So is the firewall dead? I hope not because it is an essential tool for keeping our internet safe and secure. However, it seems that it might not be enough to prevent malicious software from doing the rounds on the world wide web. So it is important to always take steps to keep your PC safe:

1. Keep your web browser up to date. If you haven't already done so it's time to install IE7 or the latest version of firefox.
2. Don't click on links within spam emails....Ever
3. Don't be sucked in by free software offers
4. Pay attention to warnings provided by search engines (they're displayed next to the hyperlinks.)
5. Make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date.

Click fraud - worth the worry?

2007-04-04T14:56:00.001Z

As pay per click (PPC) advertising gains popularity, more and more of our customers are raising concerns about click fraud, which is still a pretty fuzzy area. So what is it? PPC adverts are those 'sponsored links' that you see at the top and down the right hand side of the Google search page. Every time a web browser clicks on one of those links, the advertiser pays a small fee to Google. So on the one hand you don't have to rely on the organic search engine rankings, but on the other hand you are paying the search engine to help people to find your website.

With the correctly configured advert you can direct the 'searcher' straight to the page you wish them to land on and see. But what if someone starts clicking on your advert 20 times a minute? Even if you're only paying 10p per clickthrough it's still costing you £120 per hour! Even worse there are automated scripts available which can imitate legitimate web browsers clicking on ads - it may be against the law but as most things internet it is very difficult to track down the culprit.

In February Google announced that they are now making it possible to block certain competitor IP addresses from receiving ads in the hope that this will stop rivals from clicking on ads over and over again. Click Forensics, which provides click fraud services and operates a Click Fraud Index survey of advertisers and agencies, pegs the click fraud rate for the top tier search engines at just under 12 percent.

If you are concerned about this issue then there are a number of programs such as clicktracks and clickdefense that can be used to review and compare sessions, conversion rates, costs, IP addresses etc. in order to detect possible click fraudsters. PPC advertising is a major revenue source for the big search engines so they do take click fraud very seriously. Google and Overture will automatically detect some instances of click fraud and will not charge for these. If you do suspect that you are paying more than you should be on PPC advertising due to click fraud then the best thing you can do is to alert the search engines of the problem and let them do your dirty work.

In my opinion it would be wrong to be deterred from PPC advertising because of click fraud fears - with a well-thought-out campaign, the benefits of this type of advertising far outweigh the potential drawbacks.

Shameful - but not as bad as some!

2007-03-28T15:59:00.000Z

I know, it has been over a month since my last gem of advice and it's not even the holiday season. Shameful. I've been busy but I think I could have found a spare twenty minutes to be writing a blog. Blogging though is one of those things that if you leave it for too long the whole concept morphs into an irritating niggle at the back of your mind which is far easier to ignore than to face. Perhaps that's how our local politicians are feeling about it.

Recently I've come across a number of indivuals who play a big part in our island politics and although they talk about starting their own blog very few of them if any are willing to share their insights online. I don't understand it, what are they so afraid of?

The web has become a participation-orientated medium - one where presidential hopefuls can win votes through youtube and social networking sites such as meetup.com. In America, Barack Obama, the new US presidential hopeful, is recruiting supporters via facebook - another social networking site. The site is popular with students who may otherwise not be interested in voting.

Yes it's true that sometimes the web can work against you - providing you're doing something wrong in the first place. But if not then at least you can fight your own corner. I think it's about time the States members took matters into their own hands and started participating with their islanders online. It takes less than 5 minutes to set up a blog, you may even learn something - it's really not such a scary prospect is it?

XML vs HTML

2007-02-14T12:00:00.001Z

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the language we use to build webpages. If you right click on a webpage and [view source], invariably notepad will open with a page full of gobbledigook but somewhere near the top you'll see the tag html. This is the language of the web and it tells the web-browser WHAT to display.

HTML can also go hand in hand with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which tell the web-browser IN WHAT WAY to display the html instructions. For instance, go to the webreality website, right click on any area of white space to [view source], and about 20 lines down find the sentence which reads [div id="navigationcontainer"]. Underneath that you'll notice lots of tags within which read [li]. These are list items and are referring to the navigation links on the website:

However, it is the CSS which tells the website to display these links in a straight horizontal line, with the white dashes in between and in a white font.

So what I'm saying is that there are two main elements to building a website:

HTML - Tells the web-browser what to display
CSS - Tells the web-browser where and how to display

However, HTML has a cousin called XML - like HTML it also identifies elements in the webpage and it uses a very similar syntax to HTML. However XML is much more portable and can be used in many different types of applications. It is for this reason that, with the advent of Web2.0, XML will probably end up replacing HTML altogether.

However at the moment not all browsers support the XML language so for now HTML is still the primary language of the web. If you'd like to understand this more have a look at the video below.

Google tip: Why it's useful to search your own website URL

2007-02-07T16:47:00.000Z

Google has a few tricks up its sleeve to help you see how your website is doing. In the Google searchbar there are a number of operators you can use to bring up information on your website.

Firstly, if you type in site:www.yourdomain.com, Google will bring up every single page within your site that has been trawled and indexed. If it brings up no records, then your URL has not been indexed and needs to be submitted. To do this, go to: http://www.google.com/addurl/. You can also use the [site:] command to find particular pages of your website. For instance, type into the searchbar SEO site:www.webreality.co.uk and Google will find the page(s) within the webreality site that contain information on search engine optimisation (SEO).

One of our clients the other day had inadvertantly managed to delete a section of their website. Rather than rolling back the database we were able to retrieve the content of that page by using the [cache:] command. The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache, in other words the last snapshot that was taken during the trawl.

Another useful operator is the [link:] command which will bring up all of the webpages linking to your website. Inbound hyperlinks are effective in improving your search engine rankings, especially if the link comes from meaningful keywords.

But remember, when it comes to search engines, content is a key factor in maintaining and improving upon rankings. To keep the search engines trawling it is important to make sure you update your site regularly with meaningful and useful copy.

Sock-Puppet Marketing and Bad Karma

2007-01-17T15:47:00.001Z

It seems as though people are cottoning on to the power of cyberspace marketing. But before you start throwing your money at Google or any agency that claims to know the ins and outs of e-marketing, it's worth knowing what to watch out for.

I recently learnt about 'sock-puppet marketing' which is a means of promoting yourself by way of fake online identities. Software writer, Will Shipley recently observed a number of suspicious instances of 'private' postings on the web that look like endorsements of products and services but which have actually been planted by the manufacturers themselves. The use of virtual identities, also known as 'avatars' is completely legal and currently there is no way of policing it.

Morally it seems a bit wrong to me that through dissing your competitors, and praising your own products you can drive traffic to your site and increase ratings. Such is the power of the web. The fact of the matter is that anyone can play that game. Anyone is entitled to have their say, and if its on the web, then equally anyone can read it. What goes around comes around. So it's worth checking up on your online reputation - it's easy and cheap to set up regular searches for your brand within blogs, forums and general search engines, and that way you can head off any bad press at the pass.

In my opinion sock-puppet marketing is a futile marketing exercise - the more it is used, the less trustworthy it becomes. And if a company requires to stoop to such levels to win business then surely their reputation is beyond repair in any case.

Anti-Virus software and my new PC

2007-01-03T16:46:00.000Z

I've just bought myself my first very own PC which means that I truly am becoming a computer geek. After lots of deliberation I went for a Dell, partly due to cost, reputation and familiarity, and mostly because that's what my sister was getting.

Getting the thing up and running was actually pretty pain-free which I found surprising. It seems that Dell has come up with a product so idiot-proof that even I couldn't mess it up. According to Tom the machine's got a decent specification (although not as decent as his of course), so I'm pretty happy.

But I have reached my first hurdle - Antivirus software. I bought McAfee with it but I haven't installed it yet since I heard that it makes your computer crawl, as does Norton apparently. Tom and Liam both suggest AVG as it's free (for now at least), and works really well. According to the most recent reviews, The Shield Pro is rated top for effectiveness, customer service, ease of use amd low cost. However for more advanced users, Kaspersky 6.0 comes highly recommended.

So that's my lesson learnt; next time I'll do my research first. And in the mean time I think I might have to return Mr McAfee back to the Delhi Dells and start again.

King of the castle - the web in 2007

2006-12-20T14:37:00.000Z

The world of web is moving at an astonishing rate. In China, websites such as www.teambuy.com.cn provide a forum for consumers to meet online and organise group excursions to virtual retail shops where they can actually haggle for cheaper prices. Genius! Next year, according the the Economist Intelligence Unit, much of the growth in ecommerce sales will come from populous countries such as India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and China where the broadband market is expected to reach 79 million subscribers in 2007.

According to Research Company, Forrester, British web spenders will outspend even their american counterparts with an average yearly spend of €1500 (up by 50% from 2006). Travel, clothes, groceries and consumer electronics will lead the way.

So with all these online shops popping up, how will e-tailers retain their market share? The answer lies in loyalty schemes, competitive prices and good search engine marketing. It is predicted that by 2010 Eurpoean marketers will spend almost €3.8bn on search engine marketing up from €856 in 2004. According to ZenithOptimedia, spending on internet ads will overtake billboards and other outdoor advertising in 2007.

What else? Well it looks as though some of the technology giants such as Microsoft, Dell and Intel might be getting a bit worried as free open-source software appears on the net - products such as Microsoft's Vista will emerge in an effort to keep hold of the industry crown. And it's not only the tech-heads who are worried - tv is beginning to lose its audience to the web through video-hosting services such as YouTube which streams more than 100 million videos a day! And they offer no advertising at all, so you can bet your bottom dollar that advertisers are going to be after a piece of that pie.

One thing is for sure, the web is now fully ingrained into our lives; as online communities continue to thrive and grow, and web access via mobile phones becomes the norm, it is plainly obvious that no-one in the business world can afford to turn a blind eye to the monster of the internet.

Who can you trust to tell the truth? Skype's got the answer!

2006-12-15T14:00:00.000Z

A long while ago I downloaded Skype, the free online communication software owned by Ebay. I use it mostly as an Instant Messaging service although in the past I have used it for free conference calls with clients based abroad. I was planning on using it to talk to my cousin in Australia but he's never online at the same time as me the slacker. Anyway it's a pretty cool piece of kit, and it's just got better!

I've just read about this great add-on called the kish-kash lie detector which analyses audio stream over a Skype call in real time and illustrates the stress levels of the other person - wowsers! As well as operating in real time the KishKish device can also record calls for analysis later.

Researchers found that frequencies in the human voice are sensitive to honesty. When a person is being honest the average sound in that range is generally in the lower frequencies, but is usually higher in dishonest situations. Although unfortunately I think you can only download a free trial version at the moment. It's definitely one to watch out for though - and if you're on a skype call any time in the near future, be careful what you say and make sure you say it in a really deep voice!

Windows Vista - Rate it, Slate it, There's no escaping it

2006-12-14T11:34:00.000Z

On 30 November 2006, Microsoft officially launched Windows Vista, Microsoft Exchange 2007 and the Office 2007, it's new operating system to replace Windows XP. Although it is 2 years late and its consumer launch misses Christmas, analysts agree the new version should be a big success. Windows currently runs on 9 out of 10 of the world's PCs so it is likely to be scrutinised to death in the coming months.

Some of the features to look out for in Vista are:

Increased reliability and security
Integration of Microsoft's media centre into the main operating system
Integration of desktop search, which will make it much easier for users to find both applications and files
Communications feature - VoIP (voice-over IP_, email, video-conferencing and IM (instant messaging) will be consolidated into a single communications facility....I think - please correct me if I'm wrong!

On the down-side, Windows 2000 cannot be upgraded to Vista. Windows Vista must be "clean installed," which means users will need to back up their files and data manually and then copy everything into place. Applications will also need to be re-installed. Microsoft is providing a beta of its Upgrade Advisor tool that will evaluate whether a PC is ready to run Windows Vista.

Technology analysts and consultants, Gartner believe Vista will be the last major release of Windows in its current form. 'User demands, Microsoft's business needs and technology changes will move future versions toward a more modular architecture. The trend of bundling even more functionality is set to reverse.'

Like it or not (and from reading other peoples blogs, it seems that 'not' is the preferred route) Vista is not something that can be ignored, and every organization is going to have to come up with a policy for Vista deployments pretty soon. If you ask me, it'll definitely be worth browsing some geeky blogs for Vista opinions in the coming months.

Meta tags - What are they and should you care?

2006-12-11T13:53:00.000Z

The meta tag is used by search engines to allow them to more accurately list your site in their indexes. It is embedded into the html so you wouldn't be able to tell a site which uses meta tags apart from one that doesn't. But there's much dispute over whether search engines recognise them at all. The truth is that good content is more likely to help you with your search engine visibility than fancy tags.

A meta tag looks something like this:
meta name="description" content="a description of your page" OR
meta name="keywords" content="a, list, of, keywords"
and it does not need a closing tag. The use of the tag has in the past resulted in some web site owners abusing it in the hope of tricking the search engines into driving traffic to their site. However, that was about 10 years ago and since then search engines have become a lot more sophisticated in their crawling mechanisms.

It is true that, for certain search engines, you may be able to exert a certain amount of control over how your site is indexed by the use of the meta tag. Correct meta tags won't help you in optimizing for Google, but misleading meta tags could cause your site to be penalized.

From reading other peoples opinions, it seems that although meta tags are not given much importance by search engines, title tags and meta description tags are still considered to be very effective tools for increasing clickthrough rate. It appears as though no-one's really certain about meta tags but generally people are still of the opinion that, providing the content and keywords are relevant, it is still worth doing. In short, meta tags aren't quite dead yet.

Choosing your screen resolution

2006-12-08T22:25:00.000Z

One of the last questions we ask our clients during a design consultion is which screen resolution they'd prefer and if they'd favour a fixed-width or percentage-based (stretchable) website . The term screen resolution is actually a bit of a misnomer because almost all computer screens display at the equivalent of 72-96 ppi (pixels per inch). What we are actually referring to is screen size or how big a website will appear on the screen.

The current trend is that more and more computers are using a screen size of 1024 x 768 pixels or more, currently accounting for 77% of users. Latest statistics state that only 17% use a screen resolution of 800 x 600. This is all very well but you can't rely on statistics alone to determine which screen resolution is best for your site. Thought has to be put into the intended audience, navigational structure and client expectations.

Here are some examples of the different screen resolutions available:

www.mourant.com - Simply change the size of the browser to see how the content stretches to conform to it. Notice how the left and top navigation remain fixed while the content area stretches.
www.cooper.co.je - This site uses a fixed width of 800 x 600 which is appropriate for their target market and works well with the design.
www.day2dayshop.com - They chose 1024 x 768 due to the quantity of content required, their navigational structure and their client base.
www.vistra.com - Vistra went for the 'less is more' philosophy choosing powerful imagery over a large screen resolution. Many design agencies use this approach often incorporating flash elements into their design.

So choosing the most appropriate screen resolution for your website is more than just a matter of statistics, it depends on the situation and the market, and also personal preferences.

Which browser has the best-looking buttons?

2006-12-05T09:48:00.001Z

It seems that almost every day at the moment I'm having to justify to someone why it is that I'm still using IE6. Whenever I admit to it I get this pitiful look from my work-mates as if to say 'don't worry Gilly, you'll catch up one day'. Well maybe I don't want to catch up. Maybe I quite enjoy having lots of browser windows open at the same time. Who needs tabs anyway? If it aint broke, why fix it?

PJB thinks I should be using Firefox 2 produced by Mozilla. Mozilla user experience lead Mike Beltzner says Firefox's "less is more" philosophy is what makes the browser so popular. It looks pretty slick and funky, has its very own spellchecker and all sorts. It also gives you control over web feeds (RSS) and claims to deliver good accessibility. I like the tabs and the funky little icons but I must admit, not everything I use works on it. But you can't blame the browser for that as it just means that the web-page has not been cross-browser tested yet.

Microsoft's IE7 has pretty similar features to Firefox 2.0 although with a much beefier download package of 14.8MB (more than 2.5 times the size of Firefox). Searching a webpage is more elegant in Firefox 2.0 than IE7, as is subscribing to RSS feeds. Microsoft hasn't launched a new web browser since 2001 whereas Firefox has constantly been releasing new versions which means that IE7 has a lot to live up to and is being heavily scrutinised.

In my opinion a browser's a browser, use what you like. You might get judged by your work colleagues but as long as you have one good argument you can usually get away with it. The fact of the matter is, Google's bound to release some amazing browser sooner or later anyway.

Here's one of my favourite arguments from the well-known IT genius, PC_Tool: 'IE6 is still ruler of the roost, my friend. Being gung-ho about Firefox is great and all, but don't let that get in the way of reality, mmmkay?'

Christmas online - fast delivery beats clever marketing

2006-11-30T16:55:00.001Z

Christmas - the time for giving, receiving...and acquiring new customers online. This year the worldwide online holiday shopping sales are projected to reach $25.3 billion, a 39% increase over last year, according to US-based researchers Gartner. Royal Mail expects to deliver around 100 million Christmas presents bought online between now and 23 December -- that's 30 million more than in 2005. And incredibly, in the UK more than £4m will be spent online each hour on presents in the run-up to Christmas.

Despite this rise in spending, research has found there is still room for improvement for e-tailers to deliver better customer service. At Christmas time, delivery time is key and although it seems as though more and more people are choosing to shop online at Christmas, customer satisfaction through timely delivery is really the only way to retain customers. A snazzy site can have all the bells and whistles in the world but if santa doesn't deliver in time, the customer certainly won't be visiting again.

Some of the big players this season are Ikea, John Lewisand Topshop. Ikea's site opens with a flashy interactive quiz-like scenario questioning 'how many guests are you expecting this Christmas?'. It's great fun if you're looking to buy furniture or waste some time, and certainly an original concept.

John Lewis has also cottoned onto the festive 'look and feel' for their website, encouraging customers to make a purchase by offering free delivery and customised gift ideas. Topshop has gone a slightly different route by launching a 'Pass the Parcel' viral email campaign which has 100,000 layers of gifts and prizes, including a years supply of shoes. That works for me!

Accessibility - another word for common sense?

2006-11-27T16:13:00.002Z

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, interact with and contribute to the web. The term 'disability' is pretty wide-ranging and covers visual disabilities, hearing impairments, physical disabilities, speech disabilities, cognitive and neurological disabilities, and age-related conditions.

So what can be done to make a website accessible? Personally I think that the answer is common sense: a well-thought-out website should automatically be accessible if it has been designed with the user in mind. For instance, a website with a good search facility will provide accessibility to a dyslexic user and to someone with cognitive disabilities. An online shopper with color blindness would benefit from a website with sufficient colour contrast and redundant information for colour. Using style sheets (CSS) also provides a colour-blind user with the option to control how colours appear on the screen.

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops guidelines for accessibility of websites. You can read their 10 quick tips for making accessible sites on their website. Through the use of W3C compliant html and css coding, a website should inherently cater for users with disabilities. However, when writing content for a website it's still always worth thinking about who you are writing it for: after all, the world wide web has to cater for a pretty massive and diverse audience.

Test your website's accessibility with Wave Accessibility Tool.

Getting Google to Notice You

2006-11-20T17:38:00.001Z

Almost 23 million people in the UK visited a search engine in January 2006 = 84% of the Internet population. The UK Internet population alone clicks on over half a billion links on search engines every month (click-throughs). Google continues its dominance of the search market generating nearly two-thirds (64%) of all click-throughs and almost 19 million visitors each month - three times as many as nearest rivals Yahoo! and MSN Search

Sometimes I think about those google geeks and how much trouble they cause me. We launched a site for a client last week and the very next day the client phoned and demanded to know why they weren't top on Google yet. I had to explain that it does take time - maybe even months for Google to send its little crawlers around the website, but I assured the client that they'd get a very good ranking eventually. The reason I'm sure of this is that I know we build our sites to W3C standards which means our html is very clean and tidy. That makes it much easier for the crawlers to analyse the webpage content.

Another reason I am confident this site will rank well is that they have spent a great deal of time inputting relevant content which accurately descibes their topic. And lastly they have lots of their manufacturers hyperlinking to their website, which effectively means they are getting votes so they must be important.

The good thing about Google is that there is no human involvement, which means it is a genuine source of objective information. That is unless there's money involved, such as the pay-per-clickthrough feature (Google Adwords), but I'll save that for another day.

The Rights and Wrongs of Installation

2006-11-16T18:51:00.001Z

If ever you are angry with your laptop, try not to uninstall your monitor driver as funnily enough your computer no longer believes you have a monitor and so displays nothing, leaving you with absolutely no means of fixing it. I know this from experience after the hours of fun and games I had last night messing around with the screen resolution, I thought the only way to fix my problem was to re-install the driver. In order to do that I thought I must uninstall it first, and surely when I restart the laptop, the machine would realise it had a monitor, reinstall itself and happy days - problem solved.

Wrong.

Another similar Gilly-moment I had this week was when I erased my outlook email account. This is easier than it sounds believe me. I was meaning to delete the test account I had (very cleverly I thought) set up earlier that day but in the heat of the moment I selected the wrong account to delete. My entire inbox, contacts, calendar, and sent messages vanished before my eyes.

Fortunately for me I work with understanding IT bods who seem to revel in my misfortune and cluelessness. It is important to make these mistakes in order to learn from them - just not twice in one week!

Caching, Cookies and Cups of tea

2006-11-16T18:35:00.001Z

Ever wondered why it is that you make a change to your website and yet the old version is still visible? The answer is because the webpage you have changed has been cached. A cache is effectively a 'storeroom' on your hard drive or server where data is kept. The reason for it being that it makes it quicker to retrieve past information, thus reducing the time required to read and write data.

So what is it that causes caching? One answer is cookies. These are small data files which are placed on your hard disk by a website in order to record your preferences when you return or remember and log information that you have input such as shopping basket contents.

One use of cookies is for affiliate tracking. So if a customer buys something from 'website A' but has found 'website A' from a link from 'website B', 'website B' will get a commission on that sale and every subsequent sale made by that customer on 'website A'. That sounds confusing I know but it is worth understanding because online affiliate schemes are basically a way of making money through well-thought-out hyperlinks.

A good housekeeping tip - if you want to clear your caching and cookies then at the top of your web browser, click on Tools>Internet Options and 'Delete Cookies'/'Delete Files'.

Image optimisation and the magic of 'Save for Web'

2006-11-13T14:04:00.001Z

Firstly, my apologies to my ardent blog-follower of a sister who has not had anything to read for over a week. Sorry Janet - this one's for you!

I'm taking a class on the uses of Photoshop at the moment; it is an amazing piece of software both for professionals and for anyone who likes to play around with pictures. It's not cheap though unfortunately, but it does have a cheaper cousin, 'Photoshop Elements' which works the same way only with a few less features.

One of the main problems I have come across with people wishing to add images to their websites is filesize. Usually when you take a picture with your digital camera and transfer it to your computer, the image has a filesize of about 2MB (that's 2,000,000 bytes). You can't just put that image straight onto a website because that web page will take forever to load - that's if it loads at all.

Try right-clicking on the picture of me above and select 'Properties'. You'll see that picture is 7,773 bytes (or 7kB). Once upon a time that photograph was 2MB, but just by cropping, risizing and using that magic 'Save For Web' option, the image size has been optimised to achieve the right balance between filesize and picture quality.

What about format? Using the right image format can also shave the bytes of your filesize. Here are a few simple tips for shrinking your image filesize, and you don't need expensive software to do it - most of this can be done using microsoft paint.

Use GIFs for logo's, line drawings and simple images
Use JPEGS for photographs
NEVER use bitmaps
Check the dimensions are no bigger than necessary
Crop out the rubbish
Check the resolution (you only need 72ppi - pixels per inch) for the web
Reduce the number of colours
Be minimalist - a word can tell a thousand pixels

Domain Mapping for Dummies

2006-11-01T08:52:00.001Z

Yesterday I was asked to describe what domain mapping was and it had me stumped. I knew it was different to domain forwarding (otherwise known as URL redirection or web forwarding) although I wasn't exactly sure how.

Domain forwarding (or web forwarding) is where you can have any number of different domains registered. They can all be pointed to the same website IP so that when you type in the URL of any one of those domains, the same website will be displayed, but the URL will retain the domain name entered originally. Some of the purposes of domain forwarding are:

To have similar domain names all pointing to the same website (e.g. try typing in www.gooogle.com)
So that you can move a website to a new domain and still retain the old domain
To have short, meaningful aliases instead of long, easily forgotton URLs

Domain mapping is different to domain forwarding because the permalinks and URL contain the address of your primary domain, even if you type in a completely different domain which has been 'mapped' to the primary one. So how is this useful?

For ecommerce sites it is invaluable as it means that you only have to pay for one SSL (secure socket layer) certificate: that of your 'primary' domain. You absolutely have to have an SSL to encrypt credit card transactions - shown by the little padlock symbol that appears at the bottom of the screen - but they don't come cheap so you don't really want to have to pay for one for each domain you own.

Domain mapping is also great for blogs. One example of where we have used domain mapping recently is for a client's blog. The blog portal is: www.blogmybook.com, and her full blog URL is: http://blogmybook.com/blogs/bliss_blog// - bit of a mouthful really. So, using domain mapping you can now enter bliss.blogmybook.com or www.blogmybook.com/bliss and still end up at the same place. And the cost - zilch. Magic!

Slick Shopping for Web-Spenders

2006-10-30T15:53:00.001Z

I wouldn't class myself as a conventional female highstreet shopper. Don't get me wrong, I love getting new things, but I prefer things which are either shiny, have an 'on' switch, or make a noise. But the one thing I do have in common with every other shopper on the planet is that I dislike standing in the checkout queue. Spending money should be as quick and painless as possible. In that sense, shopping online is just the same as shopping on the high street.

So how can you acheive a slick online checkout? Here are a few quick wins:

Have a minimal number of uncluttered steps
Have a 'progress indicator' (this is just a fancy way of saying breadcrumb navigation)
Have a visual of what's in the shopping cart
Allow shoppers to edit their selections easily
Have a price guarantee
Build confidence and trust by having the SSL certificate clearly marked

And there's one last thing to remember about the 'successful' checkout. I don't know about you but I'm a sucker for the last minute impulse buy - I have an entire section of my bag dedicated to the chocolate, gum and mints which have this strange jedi-like power over me when I'm standing at the checkout. It works exactly the same way online. Cross-selling and upselling work brilliantly at the checkout stage for ecommerce stores, especially if you are clever enough to advertise products which are associated with those already in the user's basket.

And one last little secret to the successful checkout - once a customer has bought and paid for their products, don't send them back to the last product they put into their basket because it's a waste of their time. If you want to keep them interested, they should be directed either back to the homepage, or straight to the special offers page.

JavaScript and the Curse of the Pop-Up

2006-10-26T16:31:00.001Z

JavaScript is NOT the same as Java - they are distant cousins but Java is a programming language whereas JavaScript is primarily a scripting language for use within HTML pages to add functionality. Because Javascript is embedded into HTML in order to be read by a web browser, it means it can be copied easily. Although annoyingly there are variations of JavaScript and different browsers don't always support the same JavaScript. It is supported by recent browsers from Netscape and Microsoft, although Internet Explorer supports only a subset, which Microsoft calls Jscript.

So what exactly does Javascript do? Well, JavaScript can spice up websites with dynamic content, open pop-up windows (which are really annoying), create mouseover menus (equally irritating), and change images as the mouse cursor moves over them.

So is it really that great? In my opinion, not really. Although it might be able to do a few snazzy things, there are browser incompatibility issues and SEO isses - most search engines are unable to index these scripts properly. So what's the alternative? Well, you can achieve added functionality such as the mouse 'rollover' effect by using standard compliant CSS. And where JavaScript really is essential, make sure you follow the W3C DOM Level 1 or 2 standards and most browsers should execute it correctly.

Breadcrumbs - Top Tip for Navigation

2006-10-23T16:31:00.001Z

Breadcrumb navigation is actually one of those rare IT terms which makes a bit of sense. The terms makes you think of a trail which leads you somewhere. Exactly right. It shows where in the website hierarchy the currently viewed page is located. Here are a couple of good examples:

Using this form of navigation process, not only does it tell you where you are and how you got there, but it also provides user friendly shortcuts to other sections of the website.

For e-commerce sites, breadcrumbs are really useful during the checkout process to give shoppers a bird's eye view of where they are and how far they have to go in the order process.

Using breadcrumbs can also improve your search engine ranking because they use contextual text links - google loves those. But beware - multiple clickpaths can lead to pagerank dilution (if there are many different breadcrumb trails to the same loaf of bread). To minimise page duplication for the search engines, you can append the parameter containing the breadcrumb trail to the end of the URL using javascript. Ok, quite honestly I don't know how you do that but perhaps that's a good subject for tomorrows blog.

In short - breadcrumbs are a great navigation tool particularly for complex websites. They are both user friendly and google friendly so they definitely get my vote.

Web 2.0 - pointless buzzword or technological revolution?

2006-10-20T15:36:00.003Z

It seems that the term 'web 2.0' has made it to the mainstream. I was hoping it wouldn't because I never really understood what it meant - I don't even believe that the guys who made it up knew what it was about. They were just trying to reinvent themselves after the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. But now with millions of people blogging, uploading videos, dating, and downloading every second, it seems plainly obvious what web 2.0 is all about.

A few years ago the internet was an information portal unlike anything we've ever known. But as the technology has advanced, so has the sophistication of the internet. With the advent of web 2.0, users can actively participate and interact online by leaving reviews and posting comments. Not only that but there is a new breed of web-based applications produced by businesses and software companies who are using web services to share data. Even RSS, the subject of my last blog is none other than a product of web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is nothing but another layer of complexity, the icing on the cake perhaps...actually lets just call it the first layer of marzipan - web 3.0 has already made it to the wikipedia. I better catch up!

What's all the frss about?

2006-10-18T08:10:00.001Z

RSS has been around for quite some time although it has recently become a bit of a buzzword in my office. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, Rich Site Syndication or Really Simple Syndication - yet another acronym which doesn't really describe what it is or what it does.

Using RSS you can pull content from a website database without actually having to go to the website. Obviously the website which you are pulling from has to allow it which it does by registering the document with an RSS publisher. So in essence it's a great way of sharing and transferring information between websites. Content types such as news feeds, event listings, project updates and headlines are often displayed using RSS.

The even greater thing about RSS is that you can use it to pull any information you want from any website or blog straight to your desktop. More and more sites now offer feeds which you can identify by a small button that says either RSS or XML. To read them you need an RSS feeder which you can download for free. I use sharp reader but there are plenty to choose from. I'm subscribed to Baldy's Blog, our internal project log and a great bbc news blog which means I get alerted any time one of those sites is updated.

So, why all the fuss about RSS? That I can answer - RSS is the way forward for all e-commerce stores. It is the best e-marketing tool available and will bury those horrible spammy email newsletters that nobody ever reads. But more on that another day.

Lesson #1: Have a cluster of black boxes

2006-10-17T13:00:00.000Z

My first blog is on the subject of servers - I hear the word server so many times during the course of my day and it seems to me that it is the crux of our business. So I suppose I should know what they are, where they are and why they are there. I'm told that they're all the black boxes scattered around the place - we even have a 'farm' of them up the road! I've seen it - it's not as exciting as it sounds believe me. The one under my desk is not as important as the ones in the cupboard and at the farm but I find it pretty useful.

There are different types of servers used in the web business: web servers, file servers, database servers, mail servers and servers which are a mixture of the above. The web server does what it says on the tin - it serves up web pages. To do this it needs an IP address. So far so good. The file server stores all the files that might appear on the web page, and the mail server stores the email. Easy.

And then there's the database server.

In my place of work whenever someone mentions the 'sequel' server I start to feel anxious and out of the loop. Incidentally, I am aware that 'sequel' is not referring to Superman 2 and it is in fact an acronym which stands for 'structured query language'. There you go, I do know something after all!

The SQL server is nothing but the industry favourite for database management systems, kindly provided by none other the Microsoft. You ask it questions (in its preferred language of course) and it spits out the answer.

And last but by no means least, there's the backup server. Even I know the cardinal rule of the IT industry: back up your files regularly. Even the most reliable computer is liable to break down eventually - I think it's called planned obsolescence. At Webreality we are especially safe (or paranoid) so we keep one backup on a totally separate server to the others.

So when it comes to our servers I suppose I have a lot to learn. But here's what I think are the good practice basics when it comes to servers:
1. Keep them dedicated to their task - this streamlines internal processes by distributing the workload between the servers.
2. Give them plenty of Ram to do their job .
3. Always have a backup to prepare for the day your server decides to give up the ghost.