Best Practices by Yahoo gets an Update
Yahoo’s developer area is becoming the top resource for web designers and developers. Maye it’s because they’ve adopted a policy of hiring exceptional people who have a clear and concise idea of how design and the web should work.
If you get a chance, take a look at their new Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site
They have a lot of new options on the page, a lot less explanation, and seem to follow what we would assume are best practices.
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion for Jan 2008
One of the best methods for developing sites and managing campaigns is to learn from the best. Marketing Charts has published their Online Retailers by Conversion and found LL.Bean at the top of the charts.
Note: To be considered, e-commerce sites must have had a minimum of 500K unique visitors during the month.
Here it is, the list of January’s top 10 converting retail sites*…
- LL Bean.com - 23.6%
- J Jill - 19.8%
- Proflowers - 17.8%
- Office Depot - 17.8%
- Drugstore.com - 17.3%
- Coldwater Creek- 15.6%
- CDW - 15.0%
- Chadwicks.com - 15.0%
- Bose.com - 14.9%
- eBay - 14.9%
WebRunner becomes Prism
The divide between the web and the desktop continues to be bridged and Mozilla labs has began another push of their project WebRunner. I just downloaded the program and have been running it with great success. I have to admit, I still like using my browser more.
Mozilla Labs is launching a series of experiments to bridge the divide in the user experience between web applications and desktop apps and to explore new usability models as the line between traditional desktop and new web applications continues to blur.
Check out a recent post at Mozilla Labs Blog
Download Prism from Mozilla
SHARE is great
The new adobe product, SHARE, has gone into beta and I just setup an account.
I’m here to test out a few options of this new system so don’t mind the images. Here are the details from the site.
“Share” beta is a web-based service that allows you to upload and share files. You can distribute the URL for the file to a selected number of users, post the link for the URL on a website, or embed the code for previewing the file in a web page. You have the option to allow recipients to invite others to view your shared files or limit access to only the specified recipients.
Using Share enables you to upload and share large files with others without attaching the files to an email message. Users have access to the latest version of the files through Share. It also enables the recipients to preview PDF, JPG, GIF, and PNG files using the web browser before downloading them.
Google Aquires Zingku.com
Zingku, the company that attempts to mobilize your passions has been aquired by Google. Here is the message I got from Zingku:
We’re Moving to Google
We’ve entered into an agreement to have Google acquire our Zingku service. If you want to continue with our service, you don’t need to do anything; your account and service will be transferred over to Google at the completion of the acquisition.
If you’d rather not maintain your account as a result of the acquisition, no problem. You can choose to discontinue your account any time before October 4, 2007 and your account won’t be transferred over to Google. We will delete your account and all information connected to your account. Your user agreements with us will terminate. To discontinue your account, email support@zingku.com. We will contact you at your registered email address to confirm your deletion request before completing it.
gPhone Coming Soon
Was doing my morning read and found an article at rediff. It states that the gPhone is set to launch in the United States and Europe in two weeks.
Sources close to the development said a simultaneous launch across the US and Europe is expected, and announcements would be sent to media firms in India and other parts of the world. US regulatory approval, which is expected soon, is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, they added. Google plans to invest $7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.
This is great news considering my wife and I both need new phones! Wow, I might end up being as cool as all those iPhone users.
Working with Google Analytics in Joomla
As many of you know I’ve been working on a very large website lately. It’s name is Magic Butter and its a great cartoon, webisodes, humor website. Anyways, I just got done adding tracking code to all of our MP3’s, Wallpapers, and Icons. The way you do it is really simple.
First you take your original code:
Then you take the tracking code:
onClick="javascript:urchinTracker ('/downloads/wallpapers'); "
Then just add those together. And Voila! you now get to track downloads on your site. There is additional code for flash, ajax events, and so forth. Man, who knew tracking your site could be so meticulous.
Oh, and another quick note. I used tracking code in this article. I’m currently reading “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day” by Avinash Kaushik. In the book he suggests using code such as:
?uid=namehere
That allows for you to track incoming and outgoing links with a bit more accuracy. So, when people click the above links, I’ll be able to track it a little better.
Web Professions
Setting up a company is busy business. You not only need to clearly define all the flare of your business, but your actual core competance. I began going over the different fields I’ve been learning about a trying to become a quasi expert in. Here’s my brief list of professions:
- Copywriting (english/journalism)
- Search Engine Marketing (marketing/business)
- Analytics (IT/Marketing/Statistics)
- Useability Testing (Cog. Psych)
- Accessibility Coding (HR)
I will be adding more to this post with better definitions when I have time. You know, I do have a day job.
Launching a New Site
Well I’ve been very busy with a new project called Magic Butter and its the creation of a new found friend! Its been quite a ride and were finishing up the last bits of the new store, a great show that we’ve been working on for months and months (if not a year now), and of course there are some great late night cartoons to watch.
I figured I would post those links on here just to show a nice array of what the site has to offer. Its really a huge website and you can really get lost in all the fun stuff.