Archive for September, 2007
SEO Definitions
September 24th, 2007
MatthewThis is a líst of twelve SEO-related definitions in alphabetical order (with notes) serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading. Read alone it will get you up to speed on some key terminology that you’ll need to know to intelligently engage the ever-changing world of SEO.
• Algorithms. A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to “rank” web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet. Why? Imagine if they were leaked - suddenly the less-than-honest would have a very specific guideline to follow in climbing to the top of search results in a less-than-organic way, ruining the quality of Google’s search results and their entire competitive advantage with it.
• Bot or Bots. See also “crawlers”
• Crawlers. Googlebot, for example, is a search engine crawler. Googlebot periodically traverses the web in record time, indexing content, links - everything contained in page source code - and storing it in Google’s search index. Then, when a user visits Google and enters a search phrase, the index, filtered by the algorithm, is what the user gets. Please note: there is some delay in this process since the results you’re getting are from the index and not the live web.
• Directories. When webmasters realized just how much power inbound links have in determining search rankings they quickly set out to do two things: 1) get inbound links and 2) set up web sites where other webmasters could achieve inbound links (meaning big traffíc revenues for the site). Hence the directory farms you’ll find today. Link building has been a priority on the líst of any SEO-savvy webmaster for years, and as a result “quick fix” directories that allow streamlined listing submissions get a ton of traffíc. However, Google and the other major search engines are on to this tactic, and the word among SEO “experts” is that the benefits of listing your site at directories are diminished if not gone.
• Frames. Frames are a way of laying out a website with multiple documents in one browser window. Essentially, there is one main document which contains the frameset tag - this document specifies the dimensions/placement of the frames and also the documents that will “populate” those frames. From an SEO standpoint the use of frames for your layout is not recommended. Since frames do not use links in the same way, and since links may point to one frame from another, they may cause serious problems for crawlers. Additionally, there are almost no uses for frames that can’t either be 1) duplicated with other methods or 2) thrown away without much fuss. If your site was built with frames and you’re thinking you don’t want to rebuild - it might be tough luck if you’re interested in optimizing for search. Consider it a learning experience - build yourself a CSS-based layout.
• Gateway Pages. Also “doorway pages.” Although there isn’t a real consensus about what these pages are, their function is always cited as their definition. In other words, these pages are created to “rank well in search engines” by playing to the algorithms. Often viewed as “spammy,” “gray hat” or even “black hat.” However, any page written with search in mind, and geared towards search, can be construed to be a “gateway page.” The difference between a page well-optimized for search and a “gateway page?” No clear lines there, but quality of content is probably the determining factor.
• HTML. Okay, most of you probably know this one, but there are probably some of you who don’t. HTML stands for Hyper-Text Mark-up Language, and it is the core building block that has made the web the greatest modern tool for business, social, informational, political and any other causes. Search engines look exclusively at a web page’s HTML code to determine its relevance. Therefore, it’s a good idea to pay attention to HTML and familiarize yourself with proper tagging techniques if you’re hoping to get a good handle on SEO.
• Link Popularity. Inbound links are probably the most important optimization point for web pages. Number, quality, trust - these are all factors that affect the value of an inbound link. Going back to the HTML root of search, link popularity (in terms of quantity) measures how many pages point to your site using anchor text.
• Link Building. In short, the process of gaining links at other web sites pointing in to pages on your own.
• Link Baiting. The process of generating high-quality content on your pages that users will appreciate and link to voluntarily.
• Meta Tags. Meta tags are found at the top of a page’s source code. They are used to specify certain things that might not be found in the page content. They also allow webmasters to put up certain “flags” that search engine crawlers can react to. There are many Meta tags available for use, and many of them can help with SEO to a great extent and for a variety of purposes. However, Meta tags are no longer used in the way they originally were - as a place to stuff keywords to drive your site up in rankings. Some webmasters out there are still doing this, but they are decidedly behind the times and unaware of the impending, or already cast-down, penalties.
• Robots. See also “crawlers.”
• Search Engines. If you don’t know what a search engine is congratulations on finally making it out from under that rock. Search engines are essentially programs that scan an existing index of the web based on a query of search terms, or keywords, that a user enters. However, the word more commonly refers to companies as a whole - Google, for example, controls a search engine, while Googlebot is the crawler that gathers content for its index, but most users and webmasters think of a search engine as the whole package.
• Search Engine Marketing. Most often this refers to Pay-Per-Click marketing in which an advertiser bids on chosen keywords and writes several ads to be displayed should their bid achieve placement. These ads are displayed in the “sponsored” section of search engine result pages (SERPS). However, in some circles this term is used to refer to any action taken to gain rankings both paid and organic.
• Search Engine Optimization. This one is open to interpretation. It is quite often used to encapsulate a huge amount of different tactics. On-site optimization, off-site optimization (link building, etc) and many other techniques all feasibly fall under the SEO blanket. However, there is an obvious difference between optimizing a page’s code to be clean and search friendly and writing link bait that will be popular and get linked to.
• Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The pages resulting from a search engine query run by a user. Webmasters review these pages to determine where their pages are ranking for certain search terms.
• Sp@mming. Basically, any unnatural effort to bring a page higher in search results. What constitutes sp@m is open to some interpretation, but the only interpretation you need to worry about is that of the major search engines. If Google, for example, considers a technique “spammy” you’d be wise to cease at once.
• Spiders. See also “crawlers.”
• Submission. For SEO this has traditionally meant submitting a web site to search engines so they’ll know about and crawl it. SEO firms offered submission services as a big selling point to bring in clients. However, for a long time now submitting your site to search engines hasn’t done jack. They’re all much smarter now - just focus on gaining quality inbound links and your site will be indexed in no time.
This is just a sample of the core vocabulary associated with SEO. Is this all you need to know? Absolutely not. But in my experience these are the words and phrases that newcomers have the most trouble with. If these definitions help one person have a better understanding of SEO, then I will be satisfied.
iPhone Rebate of $100
September 19th, 2007
MatthewIf you bought an iPhone at full price before Apple’s price cut of August 22nd, Apple wants to calm the frustration you may feel for having paid too much. You are entitled to a $100 credit but don’t expect cash. The $100 is an Apple store credit, applicable to future purchases. Here is how to claim your iPhone credit.
Wordpress Plugins
September 18th, 2007
MatthewOne thing that I look for in any WordPress plugin is the ability to simply put the plugin in the plugins directory and enable it — without needing to fiddle with inserting code into my themes or any of the other WordPress files. I like the fact that I can switch themes easily whenever I feel like it, without mucking with any files on the server at all.
For the most part, the plugins I recommend don’t require much more than downloading the plugin, uncompressing it into wp-content/plugins in your WordPress directory, and enabling it in the Plugin Management console. I’ve already touched on the database backup and Akismet plugins in the WordPress 2.0 review, so I won’t go over those again.
Admin Drop Down Menu
The WordPress admin menu is a two-tiered affair that requires you to select the top-level menu, wait for the main page to load, and then select the desired function and wait for that page to load. For instance, say you want to manage users. If you start at the WordPress Dashboard, you need to navigate to the Users page and then to the Authors & Users page, instead of being able to go to the Authors & Users page directly from the Dashboard.
The Admin Drop Down Menu plugin makes the header menu much easier to use by providing a two-level drop-down menu bar. Instead of having to navigate to the top-level menu and then to the sub-menu, you can simply move your mouse over the top-level menu and then to the sub-menu function you wish to use.
I’ve installed this plugin on my blogs and found that it works very well with stock WordPress menus. It also generally works well with menus that are enabled by third-party plugins, although it doesn’t quite work fully with the WP-DBManager plugin. Overall, it’s proved to be pretty useful, and it saves me a few clicks each day when I manage my blogs.
Semiologic CMS
Semiologic CMS is a set of plugins and themes for WordPress that work together to turn a WordPress blog into more of a content management system. I run Semiologic CMS on Dissociated Press because I like the Semiologic three-column theme and several of the plugins that come with Semiologic. Each plugin is activated separately, so if you want to use a couple of the plugins, you can do so without running the plugins you don’t want.
Semiologic comes with more than 10 plugins, but I’m only going to highlight the ones that I’ve found most useful. I recommend grabbing the Semiologic bundle and taking it for a spin to see what it offers.
The opt-in, front-page plugin that comes with Semiologic allows you to restrict which posts are visible on the front page by category. Once you enable the plugin, you create a category called "Blog" so that only posts with that category are shown on the front page. Note that you can change the name of the category after creating it, so if "Blog" is too generic, you can change it to whatever you like.
Instead of limiting the front page to a specific category, you may want to display a static page instead. The static front page plugin displays a WordPress page with the slug of "home" on your front page, rather than the most recent posts.
Semiologic also comes with several "tile" plugins to display archives, categories, links, and so forth. These are not displayed by default — Semiologic gives a lot of control over what content is displayed on your blog.
One tile plugin that I particularly like is the subscribe me plugin, which displays a list of feed subscription services, such as My Yahoo!, Bloglines, and the Google homepage or Google Reader, and lets readers click on any of the links to read your blog using that RSS service. You can customize the plugin to display only the services you want, so if you want to disable the Yahoo! link, for example, it’s easy to do.
Admin menu for WordPress
The admin menu plugin is part of the Semiologic bundle, but I want to mention it separately because it’s so useful and because you don’t have to use it in conjunction with the rest of the Semiologic CMS stuff. It provides a small menu at the top of each page of your blog. The menu is a small strip, about 20 pixels high, that lets you navigate directly to various admin pages — such as the Dashboard, Options, or Write Post pages.
The admin menu is a simple plugin, but extremely useful. The only downside is that it doesn’t play well with all WordPress themes. It works really well with the themes included in the Semiologic bundle, but not so well with the Green Marinée theme that I use on Zonkerama.
Adhesive
One thing that continually surprises me about WordPress is that it doesn’t include a way to make a post "sticky" by default. Luckily, the Adhesive plugin makes it possible to create sticky posts. Once you put the plugin in your plugins directory and activate it, each post displays a checkbox for "sticky" in the Post Status box.
By default, a post that’s made sticky shows "Important Message!" in the date field, rather than the date of the post. However, you can configure Adhesive to display a different message or the actual date of the post.
This plugin is particularly useful if you’re using WordPress for a professional blog or business and you want to make sure that readers see a specific post. Want to let your readers know that your blog will be down a few hours next week? Just create a regular post and make it sticky.
Though not essential, the only thing missing from this plugin is the ability to change the sticky status on a specific date.
WP-Cron
The WP-Cron plugin allows you to schedule certain functions in the WordPress admin panel. It comes with several helper plugins that depend on the main plugin. For example, the WP-Cron Moderation plugin sends an email every hour about comments that are awaiting moderation.
The function that I’m most interested in, however, is the ability to schedule backups. Once you enable the WP-Cron plugin, you can schedule daily backups of your WordPress database to be sent to an email address. It’s possible to set up a cron job to do a MySQL dump of your WordPress database, but this is far, far easier.
Assuming your database isn’t too large when compressed, this can be a very handy way to ensure that you have daily backups. Simply set it and forget about it — the backups will execute on a daily basis without any effort on your part.
WP-DBManager
Speaking of the WordPress database, the useful WP-DBManager plugin allows you to create backups, restore from a backup, optimize the database, run SQL queries against the WP database, and manage saved backups.
Yes, WordPress comes with a plugin that allows you to make backups, but WP-DBManager also allows you to restore directly from the backup and delete old backups. It basically provides a one-stop shop for fiddling with your database from the WP2 admin menu.
It also provides information on the tables in your WP database, so you can see exactly how many records are in each table and how large each table is. I did a few test restores with the plugin, and it worked just fine. If you’re using the Admin Drop Down Menu, you’ll need to disable it to get to all of WP-DBManager’s menu options. That’s a bit of an inconvenience, but not too bad.
Jerome’s Keywords Plugin
By default, WordPress posts are associated with one or more categories. However, a lot of folks want to be able to associate tags with their posts as well. For example, I have a Linux category on Dissociated Press, but I might want to tag a post with Ubuntu or Debian to further specify what it’s about. If categories alone just don’t do it for you, several WordPress plugins give you the ability to add tags (in one form or another) to your blog.
After testing several of the tag-enabling plugins, I settled on Jerome’s Keywords Plugin because it offers several useful tag-related features. In its simplest usage, it adds a field to the post-editing page for tags that relate to each post. To show the tags related to each post, you need to add some code to your templates to actually display the tags and links, but that’s a relatively simple operation. Once you’ve added them, readers click on a link for any tag that interests them and see all posts that are tagged with a specific keyword.
Another nifty use of Jerome’s Keyword Plugin is that you can create a keyword cosmos, which displays some or all of your tags and visually indicates which ones are used more often. For example, if you have 50 tags, and you’ve used tags like Debian or Ubuntu more often than GPL or FreeBSD, the Debian and Ubuntu tags will be displayed in a larger font to indicate they are associated with more posts than other tags.
Search and replace
The search and replace plugin can come in handy if you need to make changes throughout multiple posts on your blog. This plugin searches through posts, titles, excerpts, and comments to find a text string and replace it with whatever you like. You can limit it as well — for example, say you want to replace a string only in post titles but not in comments. It is case-sensitive, by the way, so searching for foo won’t turn up Foo or FOO.
This plugin is easy to use, but use it with caution — it doesn’t include the ability to undo a change, and it doesn’t give you the opportunity to preview its work before it makes the changes.
Post levels
Maintaining a blog can be a good way of keeping your friends and family apprised of things going on in your life. Unfortunately, it’s also a good way of sharing too much information with other parties who might find your blog.
WordPress allows you to password-protect posts, but this is a bit clunky. The post still shows up on your blog, but just has a message indicating that it’s password-protected. I’ve never liked this system — it’s like taunting readers, waving a password-protected post in their face. Even LiveJournal users have the ability to restrict posts to only their friends — unless you’re logged in and on the friends list, the posts are invisible.
The Post Levels plugin prevents the post from showing up unless a user is already authenticated. The post also doesn’t show up in the default RSS feed, so it’s virtually invisible to any users that aren’t logged in to your blog. The plugin also allows you to define the default level for posts and users, and to modify the title for protected posts.
The plugin is easy to use. Once you place it in the plugins directory and enable it, you can simply set a post’s level from public to 10, with 10 being the highest level of restriction. This way, it’s possible to have some posts that are public, some that are visible to all registered users (say, family), and some that are visible only to a select handful of users — like your best buddies from college who already know all your deepest and darkest secrets and have photos to prove it.
This plugin could also be useful in a work environment, where some posts could be visible to everyone, while other posts could be visible only to staff or management.
This plugin might not be very useful if you’re using WordPress to power a multiauthor blog. However, I strongly recommend it for personal blogs. It’s not unusual these days for employers to go searching Google for information on potential or current employees. It might be a good idea to limit what you share with the world at large.
CG-Samecat
The CG-Samecat plugin is part of the CG-PowerPack set of plugins. This plugin lists posts from similar categories, or the same category, as the post being read. This is useful if you want to let readers check out similar posts.
After enabling this plugin, you need to add a code snippet to your index.php, my-hacks.php, or another file in your WordPress theme. The PowerPack set comes with a readme on customizing the list of posts that are returned. It might take a little fiddling to get exactly the result you want, but it’s pretty easy to use.
AdSense-Deluxe
A lot of bloggers use Google’s AdSense or Yahoo!’s Publisher Network to try to defray the costs of hosting, or even to make a profit. If you’re using WordPress with AdSense, the AdSense-Deluxe plugin might be worth a look.
This plugin lets you embed AdSense or Publisher Network ads in WordPress posts, and it gives you a "sandbox" to preview ads and see what might be displayed for a given post using a test account. You can click on ads to see where they lead without counting as an impression or going against the terms of service. Note that this preview is not always accurate as to what actually appears on your blog, but it does seem to have a pretty good hit/miss ratio.
You can configure everything through the AdSense-Deluxe option menu. Just copy the AdSense code from Google into the AdSense Code box and create an AdSense block. You can display it in any post by adding the code in the text of the post. For example, if you create a block with the name "banner," you’ll add <!–adsense#banner–> into the body of the post.
You’re not limited to a single block, either. You can create as many blocks as you wish and simply paste in the code for the appropriate ad. It’s also possible to use AdSense-Deluxe to place ads on your blog outside your posts, though I haven’t spent any time trying to configure any in that fashion.
Finding more plugins
This is only a small sampling of WordPress plugins that are worth checking out. The WordPress Plugin Directory and WordPress Plugin Database are good places to start searching for useful plugins.
Basics to Photography
September 18th, 2007
MatthewWhether you take photos to create marketing materials, to track inventory or to post on your Web site, following the basic principles of photography and commanding a basic understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the camera will improve the quality of your photos.
Learn How Your Camera Works
Most compact digitals are usually easy to figure out, with the occasional exception. Their owner’s manuals can be informative, and sometimes include useful tips. The better ones are actually fun to read as you discover and understand the camera.
Read your camera manual and try everything in the manual with the camera. At worse you’ll wear out the batteries and have to recharge them. Digital cameras are ideal to learn how to take better photos. They waste no film, and you can see the results immediately. Learning how to use a digital camera is half the fun of owning one.
The practical application of the knowledge gained from reading the manual is critical. Here are some items to watch out for when experimenting and learning how to use your camera.
Resolution and Compression
A digital camera yields its best images at the highest resolution and least compression. This does not mean that every photo has to be shot in an uncompressed format, but only that an uncompressed format — or one that applies the lowest compression — will produce the highest quality images.
In use however, the uncompressed formats take too long to store each image for an everyday use, since without compression an image at high resolution can have a very large file size. This is why all cameras offer a JPEG format with a minimum compression. Images take less time to store, and in most cases the resulting image is nearly indistinguishable from the uncompressed one.
Regrettably, most cameras are supplied with memory cards that lack the capacity to store more than just a handful of low-compression JPEG photos. To ensure the best image quality is available, purchasing a larger-capacity card should be a top priority.
Basic Functions: Flash Modes and the Effectiveness of the Flash
The vast majority of digital cameras use an "Auto" setting for their built-in flash. If the camera’s meter determines that the ambient light is insufficient for a clear, sharp image, the camera fires the flash. Yet that may not always be the best thing. Here are a few examples where knowing the flash range — the maximum distance the flash’s light will reach and effectively illuminate a subject — will help you decide whether to use the flash:
In a very large room: Without a subject placed within the range of the flash, steady the camera and turn off the flash. However, if the subject is closer than 10-to 3 feet from the camera, then the flash will probably be effective. Another option is to use the Slow-Synch flash mode if the camera has it, and steady the camera. The Slow-Synch mode will capture the foreground with the flash, and the background by allowing a longer exposure time.
Outdoors:Here again, unless the subject is well within the range of the flash, turn it off. The use of the flash forces the camera to use a specific shutter speed (1/30 or 1/60 generally) and that speed is unlikely to be suitable for the scene.
Fireworks: The built-in flash of a camera is hardly likely to help capture a fireworks display. Letting the camera flash will prevent it from using a low shutter speed.
Portraits: Good portraits are very difficult to obtain reliably when using a flash built directly into a camera. Even with systems such as red-eye reduction, the light from the flash is usually too directional and unflattering. Instead, try using daylight, or ambient incandescent lighting. Adjust the camera’s white balance to the dominant light source, and steady the camera before taking the shot. Alternatively, use the fill-in mode to light your subject while retaining a feel for the background.
Photos taken from inside a car or through a window: Unless the window is open, the flash will reflect back at the camera. Turning it off is better.
Program Modes
Whether the camera provides a straightforward Program mode or other modes such as Aperture and Shutter priority modes, learn to use them and apply them appropriately.
A standard Program mode usually provides better control over the camera than does an Auto mode. Many cameras allow the use of exposure compensation and white balance settings in the Program mode, but preclude their use when the camera is in Auto mode.
Aperture priority: This allows control over the depth of field — the zone of relative sharpness that the camera captures at a given aperture. You’ll find that the wider the aperture (small f-numbers such as f1.8, f2.8), the shallower the depth of field and that the smaller the aperture (high f-numbers such as f8, f11), the longer the depth of field. Use aperture priority to blur a distracting background, or to ensure that a scene is sharp from foreground to background.
Shutter priority: This function provides control over the speed at which the shutter operates. Fast action requires high shutter speeds to freeze the movement.
Special Controls
Most cameras provide additional controls and functions. Most important among these are:
Exposure compensation: This serves to correct, or bias the camera’s metering. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. The camera’s metering system isn’t infallible, and the manufacturer know this, which is why they provide a means by which the exposure decided by the camera can be adjusted in specific situations. For example, extremely white and reflective subjects can cause the camera to underexpose. Therefore, a positive compensation can help correct the error.
White balance: This is designed to provide a fine control over the way the camera "perceives" white and therefore determines all other colors. Although most cameras are ideally suited to daylight, some types of light throw the white balance off and in turn shift the other colors in the image. One of the best examples of this is fluorescent lighting, often found in many business environments. Adjusting the white balance for an unusual light source is generally preferable to simply leaving the camera to its default "Auto" setting.
Metering: In the vast majority of situations, the standard default metering of the camera will work just fine. However, once in a while, it will not be suitable for the subject. Many cameras provide at least one other metering system while some provide more. A Spot meter function bases the exposure (aperture and shutter speed) on a tiny area of the frame.
With a few camera models, the spot meter can be set to follow the focus point, a handy feature. Center-weighted metering takes into account two zones in the frame, a circular zone in the middle — larger than what the spot meter uses — and the rest of the frame. Usually, the two readings are combined in such a way that the central point receives greater importance than the periphery.
Optical zoom and digital zoom: If your camera provides a digital zoom only or both an optical one and a digital zoom, study their differences. The optical zoom does not change the image size or the resolution. The number of pixels used to describe the image remains constant. Therein lies the difference with the digital zoom.
A digital zoom works by capturing only the central portion of the entire image received by the camera’s sensor. It uses a software algorithm – or interpolation — to increase the size of the image. The interpolation of the original image data can cause the photo to become quite blurred, as the algorithm "invented" pixels to increase the image size.
No clicking flash design
September 18th, 2007
MatthewThis is a website that takes the click out of using a mouse. I’m sold on the idea. After using it for a few seconds it’s completely natural not clicking. I think it really adds to the experience of the site–the silence, feeling like the site knows what you want before you tell it. Kudos to the designers.
Find a good domain name
September 18th, 2007
MatthewGood domain names are out there, but they can be hard to find. Here are some tools to help you in your search.
1. Dislexicon - Takes common words and adds suffixes and prefixes. It even gives you the meaning. This site is great for finding short domain names that look like they could be real words.
2. JustDropped - This site lets you search for domain names that have recently expired. You get a few searches for free with limited results. I’ve found that the free searches are usually adequate for my needs.
3. Word Mixer - This one lets you enter up to five words which are mixed up into new, semi-pronouncable words. The same website also has a couple other tools that are useful such as the random words tool which is hit or miss, and the mixer seeds page.
4. WordFinder - This is actually a tool for crossword puzzles, but it can also be very useful for finding a domain name.
5. DomainsBot - This search engine is geared specifically towards finding a domain name. It works best if you’re looking for a compound-word domain rather than an invented word.
6. Online Generators - If all else fails, sometimes you’ll find a gem using one of these online generators. This is usually a last resort for me though, they tend to suck up your time without out producing much.
100 truly free fonts
September 18th, 2007
MatthewI came across this website and thought I would share it with you all. It has some great free fonts. Check them out and make your documents, letters, or whatever.. STAND OUT.
Google Sketch Up
September 18th, 2007
MatthewWhat is Google SketchUp 6?
Google SketchUp is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily. Google SketchUp was developed to combine the elegance and spontaneity of pencil sketching with the speed and flexibility of today’s digital media.
Developed for the conceptual stages of design, this powerful yet easy-to-learn software allows for quick and easy 3D form creation, the result is an interface that supports a dynamic, creative exploration of 3D form, material and light.
Google SketchUp combines a compact yet robust tool-set with an intelligent guidance system that streamlines the 3D drawing process.
3D for Everyone
Design software has been around for decades and is clearly here to stay. But we think something has been missing—the freedom, flexibility and fun that should go hand-in-hand with the design process. It’s our view that while traditional CAD software is necessary for developing detailed drawings, it’s simply too complex for most conceptual design work.
Google SketchUp bridges the divide between design utility and fun. As designers ourselves, we created Google SketchUp as much to satisfy our own wishes as those of our users.
We know you’ve heard it all before: what company doesn’t claim that its software is ‘a piece of cake to use’ or ‘the best around?’ We’re guilty of saying this too. But you don’t have to take our word for it—you can try it yourself. Just download Google SketchUp 6 fire it up and give it a spin. Most people say they’re off and running in a few hours.
But nevermind what we think, here’s what customers have told us Google SketchUp is to them:
Using tables in your design
September 18th, 2007
MatthewBecause the Internet is getting faster, you can create pages that are longer than before. But optimization means that your page is mostly text, as that will have a faster download speed than a page that is primarily images.
There are also other issues in Web site optimization for speed. We’ll look at these issues on the following
A single table on a Web page will not slow downloading. But the moment you put one table within another table, it gets more complicated for the browser to render, and so the page loads more slowly.
Nested Tables for Page Layout
When you create a page with tables, keep in mind that the more tables that are within tables, the slower the page will load. Normally, when a page loads the browser starts at the top of the HTML and loads it sequentially down the page. However, with nested tables, it has to find the end of the table before it can display the entire thing.
Also, if you’re trying to write valid XHTML, tables should not be used for layout at all. Tables are for tabular data (such as spreadsheets) not for layout. Instead you should use CSS for layout - this renders more quickly and creates valid XHTML.
Table Design
If you design a table with multiple rows, it can often load more quickly if you write each row as a separate table. For example, you could write a table like this:
<table width="100%">
<tr><td colspan="2">
top row
</td></tr>
<tr><td>
left column
</td><td>
right column
</td></tr>
</table>
But if you wrote the same page as two tables, it would appear to load more quickly, because the browser would render the first and then render the second:
<table width="100%">
<tr><td colspan="2">
top row
</td></tr>
</table>
<table width="100%">
<tr><td>
left column
</td><td>
right column
</td></tr>
</table>
Why frames are slow
September 18th, 2007
MatthewWhy can frames be slow?
For every frameset, the browser has to request and download n+1 Web pages, where n is the number of frames in the frameset. The browser first requests the frameset page, which then tells it to load all the frames. These frames are requested from the Web server and delivered to the site.
Unfortunately, there is not a lot to be done about the inherent speed of frames. If you use a framed site, then make sure that each frame in the frameset is small and loads quickly. Keep the images small and use small amounts of text.