I’ve been on a lot of Flash-only sites lately, and I continue to be annoyed at the experience. After typing the URL, I get “Please Wait…” or the even-less-polite “Loading content.” Now, I haven’t even seen a logo or anything yet, so I have no idea if the wait will be worth my while...
Free Web Site Advice
Last Updated On… Who Cares?
It’s time to start thinking clearly about when, how, and whether to put dates on your Web pages. You know, the snippets (usually at the bottom of a page) like “Page last updated: June 2, 2005 17:51:06 EST“? On its own, this statement is pretty useless. Remember, Web pages tend to stay out there...
Why "Consulting" Matters
There’s a substantial disconnect when businesses outsource their Web projects. Here’s the problem: in general, the agency is oriented towards discrete projects (y’know, where there’s a start and a finish), while any business is ongoing and ever-shifting. Maybe for initial designs and site redesigns this works, but quality Web sites are more organic than...
Announcing: More Free Web Site Advice…
In a few weeks, I’ll be presenting “Web 101 for Business,” an overview of Web sites specifically for small business. Thursday, February 23, 2006 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sherman Oaks Public Library, Community Room 14245 Moorpark St., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 (Moorpark at Beverly Glen/Tyrone Ave) Cost: Free! The presentation will start with...
Domain Ownership Woes — or, What Do You Mean, I Don't Own Myself?
Two stories of note about the ownership of domain names — one recent and one in the past — both, thankfully, with happy endings. Each illustrates the need to maintain some control over your domain name (i.e. your URL, such as brianwold.com). Note about Domain Names A registered domain name is owned by the...
Giving Away the Farm
I was speaking with a potential client this week who said, “I can be pretty particular about things, so I’ll want to make sure the Web site is exactly right.” Fine with me — you should be particular about things. It’s your Web site, representing you and your business. Hire some help, sure —...
Goodbye TABLE, Hello DIV
When I recently switched this blog to WordPress, I made another switch as well, to a table-free layout. Yep, this page is now a CSS-only page. There are no tables, and all layout, images and positioning are located in the CSS stylesheet. Why? Several reasons: Pages are smaller, so they load faster. The stylesheet...
Today's date is…
Why do Web pages display today’s date and time? In case you need a clock? In case your watch stops working? In case you’ve fallen down a well but still have wireless service? Most of the time, including the date and time provides little value and clutters up the page. Of course, the idea...
New Year, New Blog, Same Attitude
Happy 2006, everyone! I’ve just finished switching my blog’s underlying technology from Blogger to WordPress. It’s been an interesting challenge — one that’ll inspire a few posts in future days. The reason for the switch? Blogger is a fine tool, and when I started this thing a couple of years ago, it was an...
Buy Something From "Wild About Music"
I made a lot of online purchases this Christmas season — getting things gift wrapped and shipped directly to the recipient instead of having to stand in line at the post office was a powerful motivator. And most of my online shopping experiences went without a hitch — some better than others, I suppose....