Is anyone out there really still using Internet Explorer 6 and other ancient browsers that don’t render alpha channel transparencies properly? I sure hope not because today’s web designers use them readily, and they look far superior in quality to transparent gifs and other images. In fact, our new site that is about to launch is heavily composed of transparent pngs. This poses an problem for companies such as ourself, that offer high end web design services and users who are still stuck on antiquated systems running IE6. Where do you draw the line? At what point do you ditch the minority of users that can’t properly render your site and move on to the bigger and better technology? This is also very related to the problem of creating web sites that display properly at certain resolutions. At what point do you break the line and start integrating newer innovations and features that are supported on higher end systems?
Thankfully Firefox, IE7, Safari and other modern day browsers tackle this transparency issue and display them to perfection allowing web designers to fully utilize them. The addition of such transparencies really can make your site stand out and give it that extra appeal!
I for one embrace web 2.0 and all that comes with it. I hope the casual end users will too, and upgrade from their 1024×768 monitor and IE6 and take advantage of the new technology that is out there!
Google has released an open source browser plugin that provides a JavaScript API for displaying 3D graphics in web content. Google hopes that the project will promote experimentation and help advance a collaborative effort with the Khronos Group and Mozilla to create open standards for 3D on the web. Google’s plugin offers its own retained-mode graphics API, called O3D, which takes a different approach from a similar browser plugin created by Mozilla. Google’s plugin is cross-platform compatible and works with several browsers. In an interview with Ars Technica, Google product manager Henry Bridge and engineering director Matt Papakipos say that Google’s API will eventually converge with Mozilla’s as the technology matures. The search giant hopes to bring programs like SketchUp and Google Earth to the browser space.
O3d Info
O3D is an open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser. This API is shared at an early stage as part of a conversation with the broader developer community about establishing an open web standard for 3D graphics.
I read an interesting article over today at SEOmoz where randfish claims that footer links may be “devalued by search engines automatically” and furthermore that “Yahoo! says they may devalue footer links” and suggests that “Google might do this (or go further) as well.”
This is very alarming and can effect the rankings of many websites who rely on footer links to improve their rankings as well as webmasters who use footer links as a means of navigation (like we do in this site). Footer text links serve an important role in web design and lots of times will give a website that rounded out feel. Also, footer links are very helpful and beneficial for navigation with pda/phone/handheld devices that cannot render a full size page correctly, or pages that are specifically made for these devices. Furthermore, people who are using text based browsers on terminals such as lynx or links also rely on such links for navigation purposes.
The ramifications of such a strategy is sure to shake up the SEO world and we here at Barlam Enterprises will definitely be evaluating our current link structure for our sites as well as our clients such as Alaskan Northern Lights, distributor of light therapy products.
While Yahoo only claims a small share of the search engine market place, only time will tell if and when the big G will implement these ideas. However, when or if they do, you can be assured many more will take notice than currently are.
When Macromedia acquired FutureSplash’s vector based animation software and released as what we know as flash in 1996 to the world a whole new form of web development was unleashed.
This software originally focused on animation to progress the vigorous frame-by-frame animation that was hand drawn. It wasn’t until ActionScript a scripting language that can be easily mistaken for JavaScript was introduced that it was even thought of to develop websites.
With the fine-tuning of the scripting capabilities the software now allowed for animators to quickly script their movements rather than animate their movements one frame at a time.
Newer versions keep making animation even easier, and allowing more activity on web applications, such as flash navigation or the ever popular animated intro to a website. But with the algorithms introduced by the industries leading search engines, what will this bring to flash based websites?
Since flash is an image based animation program, all text, images, and navigation features are converted into images. This means that a search engine will see the flash websites as nothing more than an image. Think of it this way as the search bot is searching through your website which just happens to be flash based (all aspects of the site are included in the flash including text and navigation) it will see nothing. Therefore the bot returns to the search engine that nothing of relevance can be found on your page. This is bad news, especially since search engines drive 80% of traffic to your site.
Since text based navigation seems to be of high importance for these algorithms your site will be excluded from the search engines.
So how do I Incorporate Flash with the search engines in mind?
Moderation is always best when considering to use flash. But this really depends on your companies target market. If you are trying to get the attention of 13-18 year old kids then more animation and movement on your site may be crucial to sales.
As a developer try to stay away from flash navigation. Navigation is a great source for bots to index your site, so use it wisely. If you have to use flash navigation because you need the button to flip 360 degrees when a user rolls over it, then include a text based linking system at the bottom of your site.
Another thing to keep out of your animations would be crucial searchable text that is essential to your product, or company. Keep your text coded in html, you don’t need everything in flash to have an enticing website.
Ask your Web Desigers how they plan on incorporating your Flash animation into your website. If you are planning on running a SEO campaign tell them this ahead of time so they can take that into consideration when developing your website.
Is Flash Dead?
Flash is a great way of grabbing your customer’s attention, and is great for implementing videos, mp3’s or explaining a diagram or business process that couldn’t be illustrated with simple words. Flash wont ever go away, but developers need to use caution of what they want to include in their flash files. Who knows maybe the next generation of Flash developers will make a searchable flash file.
What is a web template you may ask? A web template is a pre-designed website that is built by a web designer and sold for a fraction of the price of a web design company.
So it’s obvious that a web template is a great idea? Well there are always two sides to every story. Although the template is cheap, it lacks the tailored design that a company needs. Suppose your company decides to buy a web template, you buy it download it, and then you have this file saved onto your computer. Now what?
If you have ever looked at a web template it is somewhat confusing. Every web developer has there own methods to create a functional website. So your sitting there reading the directions of where the folder is to place your main text, you then locate the file and realize that you don’t have the software capable of editing this code. If you do have the software and you can locate the file now you have to invest your time trying to decode someone else’s thought process.
So now you need to make a decision to either hire a web development company to help you implement your text, navigation and logo, or to scrap the template and take a loss on your investment.
Templates can be good however if you are on a strict time constraint to launch a new product line. They are generally cheaper than having a web design company create your company’s site for you assuming you know what you are doing when it comes to web development. One thing that they lack though is customization.
Say you purchase a template spend the money for someone to “brand it” to your companies needs, and then the company that sold you the template sells another 20 of the same template that you bought.
How will that look if your customers come across a competitor’s site that looks exactly the same as yours? Would you trust the company, or would you think it was a scam?
I Really Don’t Have the Budget Though!
One acceptable reason to use a template is if you are on a strict budget. Do some research, and be sure you ask what files are contained in the template. Make sure you have all the software needed to customize the template. Most templates that we have seen have html, .swf, .psd, and php files.
So what software will you need? For the html and php files a simple notepad in Windows will work assuming you have html coding knowledge. Or you can purchase editing software such as Dreamweaver, or FrontPage.
The .swf file won’t do you any good. If the template contains flash make sure it includes a .fla file otherwise you won’t be able to edit it. Also note the version since not all versions of flash are compatible.
The .psd file will only work with Adobe Photoshop, so make sure you have that program if you would like to edit any layouts or photos that may be included in the template.
Software isn’t cheap so do your homework before you invest in a template, and contact a local web design company for a quote for the same project, it may end up being cheaper in the end. [digg=http://digg.com/design/Web_Template_Or_Custom_Website]
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