2006 March - Design Notes: A CSS Web Developer’s Blog

Archive for March, 2006

Web Desktop: The Next Big Internet Tool?

A look at the current start pages, why they don’t have it right, and what the start pages of tomorrow will look like. Mockup included. Google - are you listening?

This is a very interesting proposal for those of us on broadband. I don’t see it being accepted in rural areas where most people are still on dialup. Still, it’s worth thinking about.

Learning from Successful Businesses

I started Design Delineations with the intent of creating great Web sites that would sell things, share information, and help small businesses achieve their goals. Soon I discovered that there was much more to business success in the online world than having a well constructed Web site. I have been learning what I can about online marketing since then and want to take things down this road a bit more.

Inspired by the great value that television shows like the Small Business School offer, I will begin conducting audio interviews with business owners who are successfully using eCommerce to increase their business revenue. If you are interested in being interviewed and having the interview published here, please contact me with a short biography of yourself and your company along with a single paragraph summary of your marketing efforts.

March 14th, 2006

Comparing Thunderbird and Outlook 2002

Charles Herold of Opinionade has published an excellent comparison of the new release of Mozilla’s email and RSS reader, Thunderbird, with Microsoft’s Outlook 2002. For anyone concerned about security or interested in open source software, this will be an excellent read.

March 14th, 2006

Virus Protection Cure Worse than the Disease

According to ComputerWorld, McAfee released an update last Friday that incorrectly labeled and deleted legitimate files from any computer that had it set to automatically delete corrupted files. Included among these files were Microsoft Excel and standard Windows XP utility files such as shutdown.exe and install.exe.

Having come to believe some time ago that Norton’s Symantec products cause system instability and now seeing how nasty a McAfee misstep can be has led me to remove virus scan software from my computer.

Is this justified? I think so. With the advent of an open source browser that has strong security (Firefox), a firewall on XP that seems quite strong, an online virus removal program that actually works in most cases (Trend Micro’s Housecall) and the nasty underperformance of installed virus removal and protection software, There’s little else that makes sense to me.

I try to browse carefully, using Firefox and only clicking on links whose destination I am reasonably sure of and avoiding most advertisements unless I know the company advertising. I keep my firewall on. I know the url of Trend Micro’s Housecall.

No longer seeking a cure when I do not have the disease, I am browsing much more happily. Since I have tools at my disposal and can run them online as needed, I will not worry and enjoy a faster and more worry free computing experience.

For those who simply must use Internet Explorer, there is probably no alternative except to run virus scan software. In my opinion, McAfee still performs best. But keep to the minimum package: VirusScan only or with the personal firewall, which seems ok. For those who don’t mind a bit more work, installing the open source ClamWin for Windows is an excellent choice.

Edit: Since I wrote this, I discovered the the free version of AVG includes an on-access scanner. This definitely gives it an edge over Clamwin.

March 14th, 2006

Typefaces and Grades

College design student, Phil Renaud, has an interesting theory about the impact of typography on term-paper grades. This is insightful and fun reading!

March 12th, 2006

A Common Mistake: Online Marketing is Active, not Passive

Why doesn’t a glitzy online catalog cut it in the world of online commerce? Lately, a number of streams of thought have been running through my mind. I’ve been busy designing Web sites, talking to people about marketing, and watching people with varying personalities working to make a go of online commerce - and, of course, reading books.

Here’s the big idea. Those who talk big about the Web and eCommerce as a way to make money easily either know more about marketing than I do, or they are completely unaware of the values of most people who browse the Net .

Instead of using Web based tools to engage visitors as individuals with opinions and feelings, the natural path for most of us is to assume that people visiting our Web site are there as passive rather than active viewers. For example, a Web site that tries to sell its products by simply creating an online catalog and adding “Buy Now” buttons, and doing little more.

Though in reality, the affordable eCommerce solution that most businesses need is not more technically advanced than this, it also should include an attempt to seek feedback about the products offered and to provide information that is useful to potential customers. The difference between treating a customer as ignorant, suggestible, and passive and engaging them as active participants is largely psychological, not technical.

Including a Blog or other software package that publishes valuable information about your products and company can help facilitate two-way communication. By doing everything you can to foster two-way communication, your company no longer is treating its customers as impulse purchasing couch potatoes and is acknowledging them as intelligent contributing individuals with unique reasons for their purchasing decisions.

Though an eCommerce initiative needs high-quality products, an excellent offline marketing strategy, and clear vision (not to mention financing) to succeed, it is my opinion that the most commonly missed component of an eCommerce strategy this: We fail to view our customers as intelligent - collectively certainly more intelligent than our company. As a result, we fail to engage their imagination, contribution to our vision, and ultimately, their dollars.

This oversight is, according to Blog Marketing author, Jeremy Wright, a holdover from television marketing where a passive stance is assumed. The Web is active, and companies can either harness that energy or they can let someone else do so.

3 comments March 12th, 2006

Quickly Let the Blogosphere Know About Your Blog Posts!

Ping-O-Matic’s server update seems to have greatly improved its bulk ping speed. This service is by far the best bulk ping service judging by the number of robots that crawl my posts after I notify ping-O-matic’s RPC client.

Over the last few months, I’ve been VERY frustrated by the long wait times and errors generated because WordPress waits for the ping-O-matic server to do its work. Let’s hope those wait times are gone for good!

This is an extremely useful service as long as it can handle the load!

March 7th, 2006