about accessibility

If you already know about wave toolbar then you are smart and ahead of me. Honestly speaking I didn’t know until I came across with the  blog called “about accessibility“. I have checked a very good post on wave toolbar. Before I already knew that accessibility  plays  important role with website development but I always have a thought in my mind that it requires  more work and fixes  to make your website accessible. So, I gave up trying it.  I personally never cared much before reading the article that how you can actually easily make a website accessible  by  simple add-on called  wave toolbar for Firefox.

In the  article, author has  described that how you can easily  use the tool with the help of graphics and  very  well written format. The words used  are very simple to understand and  informative. The website  consists few more  interesting articles like “converting Microsoft word to pdf” and “wave developer extension tool“. The site is new and hence only contains three categories accessibility, how to and open source tools. I hope they will add more categories and content in near future, but right now  i found everything is very well organized and unique to read.

I will rate the Website 4/5 and you can more read about wave toolbar here.

Kiss

When performing SEO its best to first implement the KISS strategy, Keep It Simple S…..

Forget about the old school keyword density equations, being completely W3C compliant, creating X amount of content, pages or acquiring X amount of links.

KISS SEO would include, but not limited to:

• Unique TITLE tag for each page that includes your page’s targetted keyword(s) plus the benefit followed by Company/Site name.
• Unique META Description tag for each page that should be used to enforce the page’s usefulness and be the marketing pitch to the visitor.
• A CSS styled H1 tag centered around the page’s main keyword(s) focus – as a side note when I spoke with Matt Cutts at SMX Advanced he said Google doesn’t weigh the H1 tag any heavier than an H2 or H4, but it shouldn’t be used more than once.
• Content that is both informative, unique, and useful by fulfilling a need of your target audience.
• URLs in a non-dynamic descriptive format.
• A flat site structure with breadcrumb links.
• Absolute internal linking.
• An html user friendly site map plus the backup parachute of a sitemap.xml file.
• Robots.txt file blocking any duplicate content (print pages, etc).
• Using 301 sever side redirects to consolidate similar pages and domain changes, including canocalization such as www vs non-www.

SEO can be boiled down to simply good organization of your site’s code and assets plus acquiring quality links natuarally via useful interesting content.

If this were Gene Simmon‘s KISS SEO then it would be keyword heavy toward the ASSets.

Source : wolf-howl

10 iphone applications

Apple’s iPhone

is the most popular mobile communications platform ever. With millions of users and millions of uses, iPhones can be used to do just about anything. With all that power in your hand, have you ever thought to use your iPhone to administer your Web sites? iPhone apps for webmasters allow increased flexibility for everyone who needs to manage a Web site while on the go. Now you never have to be away from your stats, databases, and code. The following are 10 iPhone apps for webmasters that make life on the go a whole lot easier.

#1 Mocha VNC – This is a VNC client that allows you to take complete control over any remote computer running as a VNC host. This handy app gives you incredible power at your fingertips no matter how far away your Web server is.

#2 Chart Beat – Get up to the minute information about visitor activity on a Web site with Chart Beat. This app packs the power to send you alerts concerning visitor levels and activity as well as to alert you when pages are slow or the Web site is down. This program runs in real time and keeps webmasters in touch with their projects everywhere they go.

#3 Network Ping – This handy network tool works just like the tools you keep on your computer at the office, only you can use it to perform valuable tests right from the your iPhone. Network Ping even has a Telnet program that gives you remote access to routers and servers so you don’t have to interrupt your dinner to run to the office.

#4 Domain Scout – If you need to begin development of a new Web site or even move one to a new domain; you need to find an available domain name to use. That’s where Domain Scout comes in. Not only will this app tell you what’s available, it can return DNS and WHOIS information of registered domains.

#5 WordPress – WordPress admins and bloggers alike can use this iPhone app to create and edit pages, handle comments and a variety of other features. It’s practically like having the WordPress admin interface right there on your phone.

#6 Ego – For the webmaster who needs to stay in touch with the stats, Ego is the perfect solution. This iPhone app collects stats from Feedburner, Ember, Twitter, Google Analytics and other statistics in one easy-to-view interface so you can see all you know at one glance.

#7 FTP on the Go – This essential application for webmasters brings the power of FTP to your iPhone. Create bookmarks for all your servers and then you can easily and quickly download, edit, and upload files to your Web sites. Used to be you had to be at the office or near a hot spot to do this, but now you can use FTP wherever and whenever it’s needed.

#8 pTerm – All the terminal applications you need are included in this great app. TCP, SSH, Telnet are all in this emulator that works remarkably similar to Putty. This app includes CTRL and ESC and uses its own on-screen keyboard to help webmasters get their job done.

#9 Database Viewer Plus – Whoever thought admin power like this would be available on a phone? When you need to change, update or view your Web database, this is the application you need. Oracle, SQL, DB2, dBase, FileMaker Pro, Excel, and MySQL databases are all accessed through this one interface. A multi-lingual interface and 128 bit encryption make this a secure and versatile way for webmasters to administer databases. An incredible synchronization function makes sure that you always have the latest database version available regardless of whether you are working from your iPhone or from your desk.

#10 Cheat Sheets – No matter how experienced a webmaster is, there’s always a critical moment when important code is forgotten. PHP, CSS, jQuery and HTML cheat sheets take care of that by making code references available on the spot so you can get your pages up and running in a hurry. The HTML version even lets you try your code from within the program so you know that you are posting solid code.

bloggin is good for health

Blogging is good for your health, according to a press release titled the “Brain of a Blogger” from two doctors, Fernette Eide M.D. and Brock Eide M.D. M.A. of Eide Neurolearning Blog:

1. Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking.
First, there are blogs and there are…well, blogs. The best of blogs are rich in ideas and promote active exchange and critique. Rather than creating closed communities of like-minded troglodytes, these best blogs foster conversation, interactions with other blogs and other information sources, and invite feedback from their readers. Posts can form “threads” or links to other Web materials where readers can examine primary source material or articles that offer competing ideas and views. Blogs that follow this format are far from simple substitutes for television or video games. In fact, they are an ideal format for promoting critical and analytical thinking.

Because blogs are text-based, bloggers must write and visitors must read (rather than passively view) the postings. In research comparing newspaper and television news, public policy experts have previously found that consumers are far more likely to question what they read than what they see in pictures or on TV. There are several likely reasons for this: First, text can be assimilated in a self-paced fashion, allowing time for analysis and reflection. Second, words must–by their very nature–be analyzed, organized, and interpreted before they can be understood, providing more time for critical reflection. In contrast, pictures and music have more direct access to brain areas dealing with emotion and motivation, thereby potentially avoiding or even subverting reason and reflection. Third, pictures and music not only have the potential to alter our interpretations of the words we hear, but can actually alter our perceptions of the words we believe we have heard. Because our perceptions are formed by combining our sensory input with contextual cues from other inputs or stored memories, strongly arousing visual or sound images have a profound ability to alter the words we hear. This is the reason behind Reagan aide Michael Deaver’s famous statement to CBS’s Lesley Stahl that he didn’t mind what CBS said about Reagan on TV, so long as any voiceovers were accompanied by pictures of the President standing in front of a flag. Blogs, with their text-based format, tend to avoid the more manipulative aspects of visually-embedded media.

2. Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking.
To remain popular with readers, blogs must be updated frequently. This constant demand for output promotes a kind of spontaneity and ‘raw thinking’–the fleeting associations and the occasional outlandish ideas–seldom found in more formal media. (Fortunately, the permanence and easily searchable nature of archived posts helps maintain some sense of decorum.) Blogging technology itself fosters this kind of spontaneity, since blogging updates can be posted with just a few clicks whenever a new thought or interesting Internet tidbit is found. Blogging is ideally suited to follow the plan for promoting creativity advocated by pioneering molecular biologist Max Delbruck. Delbruck’s “Principle of Limited Sloppiness” states we should be sloppy enough so that unexpected things can happen, but not so sloppy that we can’t find out that it did. Raw, spontaneous, associational thinking has also been advocated by many creativity experts, including the brilliant mathematician Henri Poincare who recommended writing without much thought at times “to awaken some association of ideas.”

3. Blogs promote analogical thinking.
Recent international surveys have shown that students in the United States have fallen far behind most of their first world peers in problem solving and critical thinking. This fall has coincided with a shameful decline in school-based instruction in critical analysis, rhetoric, and persuasive writing. However because professionals like attorneys, philosophers, and academicians run many excellent blogs, we all can benefit from their intellectual rigor, and their use of analogical thinking when communicating to the common world of the blogosphere.

Back-and-forth blog-based exchanges between experts also provide a unique opportunity for young thinkers to witness and evaluate arguments from analogy on an ongoing basis, and to develop their own abilities to think analogically.

4. Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information.
Because blogs link many facts and arguments in branching “threads” and webs, and append primary source materials and reference works, they foster deeper understanding and exposure to quality information. In turn these sources can seed other creative projects.

5. Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction.
Research using the Lemelson-MIT Invention index found that invention is best fostered in solitude (66%); yet other research has shown the beneficial effects of brainstorming with a community of intellectual peers. So blogging may combine the best of “working by yourself” and “working with other people.” Bloggers have solitary time to plan their posts, but they can also receive rapid feedback on their ideas. The responses may open up entirely new avenues of thought as posts circulate and garner comments.

Their conclusion: “it looks as if blogging will be very good for our brains. It holds enormous potential in education, and it could take societal communication and creative exchange onto a whole new level.”

How to Create Meta Tags

Meta tags are used to help some search engines index your page, especially if your page has frames. Meta tags should be placed between the <head> and </head> tags of your document. The most common meta tags are going to look like this:

<head>
<title>Meta examples</title>
<meta name=” ” content=” ” />
</head>

The name=” ” will indicate what type of meta tag you are using. The content=” ” will be the content of the tag you provide for the search engine. To make more sense of this, lets look at the meta “keywords” tag.

Meta Keywords Tag

<meta name=”keywords” content=”meta tags, search, homepage, web sites” />

1. name=”keywords”
   Informs the search engine’s spider that a group of keywords should be in this tag.
2. content=”meta tags, search, homepage, web sites”
   Your list of keywords and key phrases. In the “keywords” tag, you separate each keyword or key phrase by placing a comma between them.

Be careful not to repeat the same thing too many times here, and be sure the keywords are relevant to the content on your page. The Search Engines are attempting to crack down on people who use these tags to repeat the same word over and over in order to get a better listing, or using keywords that have nothing to do with the content of the page. For instance, if I were trying to get more traffic, I might use the phrase “Hannah Montana” to get more people to stumble onto this page. As you can see, this page has nothing to do with Hannah Montana, this is an HTML tutorial!

Meta Description Tag

The next useful meta tag gives a description of your page. Here it is:

<meta name=”description” content=”How to add meta tags to your page.” />

1. name=”description”
   Tells the search engine’s spider a description of the page is to follow.
2. content=”How to add meta tags to your page.”
   Your very own description of your Web page. Type in what you want the description of your page to be, and use some of your key phrases as part of the description. Many of the search engines use this as the description that will appear in their listings.

Other META Tags

The above tags are the two most useful and popular meta tags. There are a couple more that I will mention here, just in case you want to use them.

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Language” content=”en-us” />

This tag allows you to specify the language the Web page uses. In this case, en-us stands for United States English. For a listing of other language options, see Language and Country Codes.

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″ />

This one declares the content type and character set.

<meta name=”author” content=”Your Name” />

This tag lets you specify the author of the Web page. Just insert your name and anyone viewing the source code will know you wrote it. I haven’t seen a search engine make use of this tag for indexing purposes yet.

<meta name=”generator” content=”Notepad” />

This tag lets you tell everyone what program you used to create your page. Now that you are a Notepad coding machine, go ahead and let everyone know you did it yourself! I haven’t seen this used for indexing purposes either, but maybe the engines will let us narrow searches to documents that were coded by hand…

Source : Pagesource

Usability is very Important

Usability is the measure of the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system – whether a web site, software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device.

According to Usability Expert Jakob Nielsen:

On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a web site is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave.

If users get lost on a web site, they leave. If a web site’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?

There’s no such thing as a user reading a web site manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface.

There are plenty of other web sites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.

What is usability

Is your web site usable? There are several definitions for usability, but basically the following 4 characteristics can be considered usable:

• Quick and easy to learn;
• Efficient to use;
• Allows rapid recovery from errors;
• Easy to remember;

Does your product or web site have the above characteristics? Usability increases benefits for both parties: the User (potential customers) and the Provider (yourself).

Users benefits from usability

Your visitors can benefit from usability, because:

• They will be satisfied, not frustrated, with the web site or product;
• They will enjoy interacting with the web site or product;
• They will achieve their goals effectively and efficiently;
• They will cultivate confidence and trust in the product or web site.

If your users are satisfied, they will become loyal, and may even recommend your product or service to others.

Providers benefits from usability

As a provider, you may benefit from usability in many ways, including:

• Reduced development time and costs;
• Reduced support costs;
• Reduced user errors;
• Reduced training time and costs;
• Return on Investment.

Misconceptions

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has this to say about usability’s expense:

The time it involves, and its creative impact prevent companies from getting crucial user data, as does the erroneous belief that existing customer-feedback methods are a valid driver for interface design.

Usability can save your company

John S. Rhodes, Editor and Webmaster at WebWord.com, says:

Data indicate that usability offers a better return on investment than almost any other business action. When times get rough, usability shines. The benefits are huge. Usability is a weapon that can save you money, improve your competitive position, and improve customer loyalty. Now is the time to invest in the research.

After all, by making your web site usable, you make your visitors happier and your wallet more comfortable!

Google Tricks

Enter just the word http for your search to find the top 1000 PageRanked sites.

Enter only www in your search to see how Google ranks the top 1,000 sites.

Manually type the following prefixes and note their utility:

# link:url Shows other pages with links to that url.
# related:url same as “what’s related” on serps.
# site:domain restricts search results to the given domain.
# allinurl: shows only pages with all terms in the url.
# inurl: like allinurl, but only for the next query word.
# allintitle: shows only results with terms in title.
# intitle: similar to allintitle, but only for the next word. “intitle:seoforgoogle google” finds only pages with seoforgoogle in the title, and google anywhere on the page.
# cache:url will show the Google version of the passed url.
# info:url will show a page containing links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url. This is the same as typing the url into the search box.
# spell: will spell check your query and search for it.
# stocks: will lookup the search query in a stock index.
# filetype: will restrict searches to that filetype. “-filetype:pdf” to remove Adobe PDF files.
# daterange: is supported in Julian date format only. 2452384 is an example of a Julian date.
# maps: If you enter a street address, a link to Yahoo Maps and to MapBlast will be presented.
# phone: enter anything that looks like a phone number to have a name and address displayed. Same is true for something that looks like an address (include a name and zip code)
# site:www.somesite.net “+www.somesite.+net” – (tells you how many pages of your site are indexed by google)
# allintext: searches only within text of pages, but not in the links or page title
# allinlinks: searches only within links, not text or title

Above are few tricks I hope you all will enjoy

Blogging Tools

Do you know which blogging tools are used by Ultra Bloggers? As with all trades and professions you are only as good as the tools you use. Bloggers love to blog and all that other stuff you get caught up in, which at times can be quite interesting, is ultimately taking time from you and your passion.

While not an exhaustive list, the tools that follow will dramatically increase your productivity and return you to blogging zen… that is if you don’t already use them.

1. Evernote – Organised Inspiration

Evernote is a great web clipping tool but it’s more than that. Now with an iphone app and desktop application (and more) Evernote is quickly turning into a life clipper or inspiration clicker in this context.

2. Posterous – Blog by Email

Start a blog on posterous.com and start blogging by email. It’s incredibly simple to use and the best part is it will syndicate your posts to a multitude of different services.

3. Twitme – Auto Tweet

Why Twitme? First of all you need a way to get your latest blog posts with a link onto your twitter account. There’s no need to waste time signing into twitter and writing it up yourself when there’s a tool like Twitme for WordPress.

The reason I choose Twitme and not other Twitter related WordPress plugins is beacuase of its flexibility. With most other plugins you have to append a prefix to your tweets so all that time spent crafting an eye catching headline is ruined. Now you can structure the tweets anyway you want, so you can have the post title in there, the blog name, the link in whatever order you want.

4. Dropbox – Synchronise

This one’s simple. What DropBox does is upload anything you … err… drop into it onto its servers for you to access online. More than that if you install Dropbox on multiple computers it will sync documents between them, so you will always have access to you latest draft posts and articles wherever you are. With a massive 2 Gb of free storage when you signup, Dropbox is a real no brainer.

5. CreaWriter- Distraction-free Writing

Now for some writing. CreaWriter allows you to focus in on your thoughts with its back to basics and ad free environment – you can get your writing done in no time. With so many distractions on the internet nowadays, CreaWriter will help you get in the zone, it’s quick and easy and you can always add that fancy text in later.

Once active, Antispyware Soft runs fake system scan and displays a list of false or non-existing threats to scare you into thinking that your computer is badly infected. Antispyware Soft Demo is a typical scareware, so it won’t let you to remove the infections until you purchase the program. Of course, this is nothing more but a scam and you obviously shouldn’t purchase it. Instead, please use the removal instructions below to remove Antispyware Soft from your computer as soon as possible.

When running, Antispyware Soft will also display fake security warnings and state that your computer is infected. That’s a part of the scam and just like the false scan results, should be ignored. It will also impersonate Windows Security Center and state that your computer is not secure or that your sensitive information can be stolen. It then will recommend you to purchase Antispyware Soft in order to protect yourself. Some of its alers may look like these ones:

The bad news is that this fake program will probably block nearly all legitimate program and of course anti-virus and anti-spyware application in the first place. In order to completely uninstall Antispyware Soft from your computer we strongly recommend you to follow the removal instructions below. Also note that you should scan your computer with legitimate anti-malware software such as Spyware Doctor, because this rogue program may come bundled with other malware where as the manual removal guide was written for Antispyware Soft only.

Antispyware Soft removal instructions

1. Restart your computer. As your computer restarts but before Windows launches, tap “F8” key constantly. Use the arrow keys to highlight the “Safe Mode with Networking” option as shown in the image below, and then press ENTER.

2. Open Internet Explorer. Click on the Tools menu and then select Internet Options.

3. In the the Internet Options window click on the Connections tab. Then click on the LAN settings button.

4. Now you will see Local Area Network (LAN) settings window. Uncheck the checkbox labeled Use a proxy server for your LAN under the Proxy Server section and press OK.

5. Download an automatic removal tool from this page and run a full system scan. Or download it form alternative location.

Tools

Bloggers have a lot to worry about when it comes to writing, creating, and posting their blogs. A blogger must take into consideration everything from page layouts and background colors to the content and topics of their posts. Creating excellent blog posts can be extremely difficult, but the following tools should make your job easier, faster, and more successful.

1. OpenOffice (Windows, Mac OS X & Linux): This is an excellent word processor for bloggers. It’s free and it allows extensive editing and customizing options. Additionally, the layout is user friendly and closely resembles the interface of Microsoft Office, which makes it extremely familiar to most bloggers. This word processor is designed for immediate use, which means there is no learning curve that prevents productivity. Writers who prefer a simpler word processor, however, should try Bean.
2. Bean (Mac OS X): This is an extremely simple word processor. It’s great for bloggers who write posts that consist of only text or bloggers who are able to create their photos, graphs, and other visual resources on additional software. Bean allows only basic editing, but for many bloggers, this may streamline the writing process and increase productivity. There are not hundreds of options to stumble through with this program, it is straightforward and simple.
3. MediaWiki: This software was originally designed for publishing pages on Wikipedia, but can also be used to publish and edit content anywhere online. Because it was designed to be accessible to everyone, it is easy and simple to use. Even bloggers who are new to publishing should have no problem using this free software. The program is designed to speed up the publishing process and save time.
4. Azureus (Windows, Mac OS X & Linux): This software is designed to make uploading and downloading torrents fast and simple. The layout of the software is attractive and organized. It will track the progress of multiple torrents at once and allows the user to view the exact number of seeders and leachers associated with each torrent. It also allows the user to view the individual parts of a torrent and choose which pieces to download.
5. WordPress: This popular software is used to design and customize blogs. The focus of the software is on creating aesthetically pleasing and user friendly websites. It will allow bloggers to create a site that readers will want to visit again and again. The software itself is extremely easy to use and an excellent resource.
6. StarDict (Windows & Linux): This extremely useful piece of software is a desktop dictionary. It contains a global database of words and definitions. The program allows users to choose their own dictionary preference, which means that you can be sure you’re getting definitions from a reliable source.
7. GNU Aspell (Linux): Even the best writers make spelling mistakes on occasion. GNU Aspell is an open source spell checker that is extremely accurate and easy to use.
8. XMind (Windows, Mac OS X & Linux): All great bloggers need great ideas and that’s exactly where XMind comes in handy. The software is designed to create a fun and interesting brainstorming experience. There are several different modes of brainstorming, which depend on the project and the writer’s objective. If you’re ever stuck on an idea or concept, XMind can help pull you out of your writer’s block.
9. GIMP (Windows, Mac OS X & Linux): This is a powerful and free image editing program. It will allow you to create an image that perfectly fits your blog and its objectives. It’s not as advanced as costly image editing programs, but it’s an excellent free program that can help you create a wide variety of images.