by WebKeyDesign | Jun 1, 2005 | Internet Tools
The big searching companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are working hard on developing new searching technologies that finally may solve some of the problems we all have with current internet searches. Yahoo’s Mindset is perhaps a good peak on the future of search and just how useful it may become when search results are no longer laden with an overabundance of advertisements and special offers.
Mindset works just like a regular Yahoo or Google search, but on the results page, you can move a slider to either Shopping or to Research, this way your results become filtered depending on where you move the slider bar to.
I tried a generic search for “Toshiba tv review” and when moving the slider to Research, the first link was in fact an actual review of a Toshiba product, and not an add or store listing for one.
It will be interesting just how well Yahoo’s Intent-based searching develops and how Google will implement their own version of it in the future.
by WebKeyDesign | May 27, 2005 | cPanel
In cPanel, the Error Pages function allows you to modify the different html pages that a user will see when an error is registered on your site. The most common being the famous 404 Page Not Found error that you get when a page does not exist. This tutorial will show you how to setup a proper 404 Error page, so that visitors to your site will hopefully find what they are looking for.
cPanel lets you save the custom 404 Error page as anything you want, but the default name for it is 404.shtml. It is best to go ahead and code an html file and then upload it to your public_html folder as 404.shtml. You can then view and edit this file by going to cPanel: Error Pages.
As to what to include in your 404 Page, you can use our own WebKeyDesign 404 Page as an example. The basic things to include would be:
1. Your site logo, with a link to your home page.
2. An explanation for the error, like “Sorry the page so and so cannot be found on our site”. If you insert the code <!–#echo var=”REQUEST_URI” –> into your html, this will display the url that the browser requested. On our 404 page, we include the code <!–#echo var=”HTTP_REFERER” –> so that the person knows who referred them to the incorrect page.
cPanel offers the following variables in Error Pages:
- Referring URL: Displays the URL that referred a user to the page.
- Visitor’s IP Address: Displays the users IP address.
- Requested URL: Displays the URL requested by the user.
- Server Name: Returns the servers name or websites URL.
- Visitor’s Browser: Displays information about the user’s browser.
- Redirect Status Code: Displays the error code associated with the error.
3. A Default Page to your site is very helpful, for visitors to learn more about your site. Usually the default page should be a site map, an about page, or at least your home page.
4. Contact Information is essential. Some visitors will want to contact you, so include your contact page or email address for your site. The webmaster@mydomain.com is probably best to use if you are going to put an email address.
Other ideas for your 404 page:
The search box is a good idea. On our default page, we setup a form that simply searches our site through Google, but you could get more complicated, by including your own site’s search box and code. To implement a simple search box include the following form code:
<form action="http://www.google.com/search" name="searchbox"
method="get" style="margin-left: 2em;" />
<input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en" />
<input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" />
<input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="Yoursite.com" />
<input maxlength="256" size="40" name="q" value="" />
<input type="submit" value="Search" name="btnG"
style="font-size:75%;" />
</form>
You will need to change the Yoursite.com to whatever your actual domain is of course.
Another good idea is a navigation bar for all of your site’s main pages.
One last thing to consider is that Internet Explorer will nto display any 404 Error page that is less than 512 bytes, which means your error page needs to be at least around 12 lines of code.
For more information visit some of these sites:
by WebKeyDesign | May 25, 2005 | Software
Most site design happens in an editor of some kind, be it Dreamweaver, Nvu, GoLive, or your text editor like BBEdit, UltraEdit, or Notepad even. However the editing and revisions, the little fixing of syntax only can be done if you double-check your work in the browser itself, and you have to do this constantly! This is where browser tools come in and really make this process easier to do. By default, the easiest of all browsers is of course Firefox and so we will cover some interesting extensions that you simply can not live without if you do any kind of site design, then you need to have these tools at your disposal. If you don’t, then you are just making things harder on yourself.
Web Developer Extension:
Available from ChrisPederick.com is Web Developer. This extension adds a toolbar to Firefox which features all kinds of tools for web design. You can clear the cache of your browser, see the stylesheet for a site, as well as edit it to see the results right away. The only thing that is really missing from WD, is a cool color picker or color lookup tool.
Aardvark Extension:
While Web Developer has some nice outline tools, it might be overkill for when all you want to do is figure out what the class id of a div is on the page, or better yet, you want to kill a graphic or an entire section. This is where Aardvark comes in. Once you install it you just go to Tools and choose to start Aardvark and you can then simply glide your mouse over the different page elements to see what their id and class is.
Mouseover DOM Inspector
Unlike the previous two, Mouseover DOM Inspector is not an extension to Firefox, instead it is javascript. All you have to do to use it is go to Slayeroffice.com and save this bookmark link to your bookmarks. Then any time you want to enable it just go to the page your want to inspect and go to your bookmark. A popupwindow will display now with information of the various elements you mouse over on your page. Some designers might actually prefer this script over Aardvark.
ColorZilla Extension
For figuring out what the color code is of different elements on a page, nothing beats ColorZilla. With the simple activation of the eyedropper on the lower left corner, you can now know what any color code is for any element on the page. This is a must for when trying to work with interesting color palettes.
Web Color Names Extension
I will also mention Web Color Names, because even though it is a simple color chart, it still comes in handy when you want to look up a color really quickly in the standard color palette.
by WebKeyDesign | May 24, 2005 | Webmastering
There are many steps to starting a web site, but the most often overlooked one is the first one, namely what domain name to register for your new site. Undoubtedly, almost any single word domain name is taken by now, and two word domains are also hard to come by, so this leaves you with a three word domain. For example when I started WebKeyDesign, I had to choose an inventive three word domain name like WebKeyDesign.com, because KeyDesign and WebDesign.com were already taken, and even a less business like name, like BlueMidnite.com or .net were taken. There are of course the letter and number combination domain names like 123DesignSomethingName.com or perhaps 931DesignSomethingName.com, but these domain names are not as valued due to their complexity.
So what exactly is a good domain name?
First off know who your target audience is for you site.
If it is a business, you will want to have your company name as your domain name, but seeing how many domain names are already taken, if you absolutely can not get YourCompanyName.com, the second best option is to come up with a name that describes your business or what you sell, like SteelSecurityDoors.com or BestValueDoors.com.
For a personal site, like a web log, you have a lot more options. Most business sites want to be a .com site because 9 out 10 times, people will try a .com site first. But for a personal site you can choose a .net or .info level domain name. I would not recommend naming your site FirstNameLastName, unless you really want to promote yourself as a business, instead you should probably choose a domain name to reflect your content, like DebbiesFishTales.net or AngryManCries.info are some interesting names for weblog sites. If you are going to be a technology oriented site, you should strive for a .net domain name if you can.
Avoid hard to spell domain names.
Although you can spell words differently, many people will find it hard to find your site if you use a peculiar spelling or use a hard to remember combination like BestValueDoorsbyACMEandSons.com. You want to keep the domain name easy to remember and easy to spell to help people remember your site.
Do not choose a domain that resembles another one.
Some people have deliberately chosen domain names that either mimics or highly resemble more famous domain names like Microsoft.com or even Google.com. This just invites lawsuits and other legal issues. It is best to choose a domain name that does not lend itself to such reputations. If you find that your domain name is taken for a .com, but not a .net or .info, think about what your site will have in common with the currently registered site, if there is any similarities, I would consider choosing a different name altogether.
Lastly, to check if a domain name is taken, you can go to Network Solutions or any other registrar and lookup any domain name to see if it is taken already.
If you absolutely can not think of anything on your own, you might consider using a domain name generator. This Site Point article discusses popular domain name generators.
Choosing your domain name is an important step into creating your web site identity, it will define your site immediately and impact it in more ways than you know, and so you should take some time in choosing the right one for your site.
by WebKeyDesign | May 24, 2005 | Software
The first Internet program I ever used was Fetch, the classic Macintosh FTP client. But that was back in the days of System 7 and now we have Mac OS X, and though Fetch is still around, I find myself using the often updated Cyberduck for all my FTP needs.
David V. Kocher has put together one of the best FTP clients and since it is released under the GPL license, it is also freely available for personal use. Cyberduck also takes advantage of OS X technologies like Keychain, Rendezvous (now known as Bonjour), and Applescript. Although there are other Mac FTP clients you can buy, Cyberduck is the most updated program I know.
Cyberduck
