Devit!

We seem to find this though process to those who are just realizing how influential Google and other search engines can be to their business. “The higher we rank in Google the more hits we will get meaning more sales.” And then, “How can we rank higher in Google?”. After giving a brief insight into how a search engine works, through algorithms, we come to the final question. “Is there a software package than will optimize my site for the search engines to get me a higher ranking?”

The answer of course is a big NO. To answer why we have to delve a little deeper into how a search engine works. Search engines use specific algorithms (mathematical formulas basically) to determine which sites rank higher than others. Keyword frequency and incoming links are examples of criteria that might have an impact on ranking.

With this in mind think of the manipulating power you would have if you could reverse engineer those algorithms. In fact that is what many found they could do in the early days of search engines. But this very fact completely undermines the usefulness of a search engine. Instead of getting results that are most relevant, you are getting search results of the sites who had reverse engineered the search engine and manipulated their content to show up first. This is where you had sites with white text on a white background just to rank higher (just to make it clear, white text on white background will get you blacklisted as an SEO spammer so please don’t do it!).

In fact I believe that the downfall of many of the biggest search engines of that era was because of this very fact. Their users were not able to find what they were looking for because the results were so manipulated.

And now we come to the crux of a successful search engine – absolutely no one can know the algorithm being used to find search results. It is rumored that even at Google, their is no one person who really knows the full extent of how their search algorithm works.

Therefore if someone is advertising a program that can rank your site higher on Google, don’t buy it. If someone guarantees that they can rank your site #1, don’t believe them. All that can be done is a best guess. For advice and help when looking into SEO, find someone with experience. Only after working with many different sites can you even begin to have an idea of what affects search engine ranking.

Here’s a great article on just this from Highrankings.com

I’m not sure we’ll ever get there but HTML 5 promises to add a few extras that web developers have been craving for a while.

One of the main features of the new HTML 5 specification would be to add a number of tags that help to describe the content of web pages. For ages we have been using div tags with specific id tags (<div id=”header”>) to describe various elements. HTML 5 proposes adding header, footer, nav, section, article and aside tags. For design and display purposes the advantages aren’t really tangible, but for semantic data descriptions it is helpful. It becomes more obvious when mobile devices such as cell phones and blackberries are used more frequently to browse the web. Content can be broken down and displayed different in various different contexts. Yes, this is possible now through alternate style sheets but having additional tags will help make this process less painful and more efficient.

Don’t get too excited as the work is far from finished. In fact according to the referenced article, estimates suggest the standard will be finished in 10-15 years! In computer years that is several lifetimes. Who know, by that time the current state of browsers and content may be obsolete.

A Preview of HTML 5 at A List Apart

There are very few instances I can think of where re-installing you entire operating system can be a fun painless process. No matter what it seems you always miss something and lose some data. It seems like Firefox developers had the same gripe and did something about it.

In order backup/save/move all Firefox settings such as bookmarks, extensions, saved passwords – everything that makes using Firefox a good experience – you only need to pay attention to 1 folder. On windows this folder is located in “documents and settings/your username/application data/Mozilla”. For details follow this link on “How To Manage Profiles“.

If you’ve seen this error, you’ve probably already spent some time trying to resolve it. We only encountered this error on our test server and it turned out the missing piece was a web.config setting. Also the following piece of code at the top of a page seems to alleviate some AJAX refresh bugs.

1) Make sure this in is your web.config

   <httpModules>
      <add name=”ScriptModule” type=”System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions,               Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35″/>
   </httpModules>

2) Add this to the to the Page declaration if you’re experiencing some page refresh bugs

   enableEventValidation=”false”

If you’ve found alternatives to this problem or our suggested solution isn’t working for you, please feel free to comment below.

Lists for development tools are often posted with the top 10, 15 or 25 tools for a particular task. Cutting through those list we’ve produced a list of tools that we think will save you time. Whether you work for an organization or you’re a freelancer these tools should help you succeed. If you think we’ve missed some feel free to post comments with links to tools you’ve found save you the most time when delivering high quality code. Web Development wouldn’t be where it is today without these tools below and many others available online.

1. Firebug (Firefox Extension – Can’t live without it)

2. HTML Validator (Firefox Extension – Based on HTML Tidy , Helps catch your mistakes)

3. Google Suggest (Often one of the best tools for solving a problem or finding an alternative solution)

4. Umbrello UML Modeller (Opensource – Plan ahead, save time!)

5. ColorZilla (Firefox Extension – Grab any color on any website with the click of a mouse)

6. Pearl Crescent Page Saver (Firefox Extension – Take screenshots, various options)

7. VMware (Virtual Servers – test in any environment)

8. SEO for Firefox (Important SEO information in google and yahoo search results)

9. Notepad++ (Lightweight text editor supporting multiple programming languages)

When creating a new website for a client a lot of effort goes into creating the visual look. Elements such as colour choice, photography and illustration, intuitive navigation and your company’s brand all play important roles in shaping your customers’ perception of your company. When it comes to your website’s search engine performance, however, none of these things really matter. To the search engines’ computers content is king.
Read the rest of this entry »

Switching gears from strictly software development topics, we’re going to look at the benefits of working in London, Ontario. rtraction calls London home and has enjoyed growing it’s business in The Forest City (is the nickname for London). London has a lot to offer to both businesses and employees alike. The city has the infrastructure available to support Information Technology companies and there are many organizations that are designed to help businesses flourish.

Organizations such as Techalliance, London Chamber of Commerce, The London Economic Development Corporation and many more. There are many cultural events and attractions making London a very exciting, vibrant city to live in. If you’ve recently moved to our city or are considering it you may want to check out the Newcomers Club.

Some of London’s most successful companies revolve around software development:
Digital Extremes – developers of Unreal and Unreal Tournament, Dark Sector, and Epic Pinball
Big Blue Bubble – developers of Mobile and Console games
Info-Tech Research Group – is a global leader in providing IT research and advice
Activplant – a leader in enterprise manufacturing intelligence
Autodata – provides tools for the automotive industry

For more information about London, Ontario try these sites below:
The City of London
Ambassador London

For a look at our heritage and other attractions try these sites below:
Landmarks London
Tourism London
London Arts Council

It’s been quite a while since the first Javascripts were written to obfuscate emails from the SPAM bots. With more bots than you want to admit on the loose, it became essential real quick that we find a way to avoid our clients emails being harvested for use by the not so savoury.

Since that time the need for websites that pass accessibility standards has increased. Many clients want their site to be readable by the widest possible audience. In some cases, those with visual impairments are the target audience. Although javascript is fairly common, their is a small percentage that go without because of company policy or otherwise. With the growing number of mobile devices that usually have limited Javascript support it is becoming more important to have a backup system.

This article details adding a secondary level of accessibility to obfuscated email addresses without losing the small audience of people (6% according to w3schools).

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/gracefulemailobfuscation

If you’ve ever worked with AJAX then you can probably relate. When it comes to debugging complex problem over AJAX it can be difficult to pinpoint the problem. For example if the AJAX call is failing to retain the session or something similar it can be very difficult to determine why. Often we might look at the AJAX debug information built into most libraries but that won’t necessarily point you in the write direction. The AJAX debug information may prove to be no help at all if the calls back to the server are failing before the execution of your AJAX functions.

For a solution to this problem – look back and go simple. Debug the problem by outputting information to a file on the server. Write out all the session information, and record the passed data. Doing this will hopefully save you some time and frustration if you’re having problems with debugging AJAX.

When your busy working on a website sometimes it’s easy to forget about all the useful functions that can help you save time and make your code more efficient. Take the time to refresh yourself with some of the most useful custom JavaScript functions. Below is a link to the article with a list of all the functions and a brief explanation of how each function works. Also, take note that these functions have been wrapped in a common.js file for your use. The download for this file can be found at the bottom of the article.

Using custom functions that other developers have come up can be a smart way to code. The key when using someone else’s code is to ensure it’s well commented, and the code has been vetted in a public atmosphere. The more eyes reviewing a piece of code the more likely it is for any potential bugs to be found and resolved.

Read more: Top 10 custom JavaScript functions of all time!