Dan's Web World - Blog

Sharing what I know on web design, search engines, hosting, and more.

Jan
13

RSS Feeds On Your Website

Several clients are asking me to create and embed RSS feeds on their sites these days, so it seems like a good time to review what these are and how to use them.

Intro to RSS

RSS Feeds have been in use for 10 years, but still feel like a new technology, one that's still expanding to new audiences and finding new uses. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and turns online content into a simple, (mostly) text-based series of articles. Gone are the styles and graphics on a web page, with only the text remaining. These lists of text-based articles are...
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Dec
08

Ecommerce and Multiple Distributors

Online sales can be problematic for companies who rely on a network of distributors. On one hand, business owners want to reach new customers, and an online store is a perfect opportunity. But on the other hand, opening an online store could anger their distributors, appearing to competing with them (or not just appearing, but actually competing). So nothing gets done. But this isn't a happy ending. Is there another way?

A new solution

Working on a recent project for a client company called Tail Tamer showed me another way. This retailer...
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Nov
07

Websites Acting Like Apps

While I've downloaded a lot of great apps since I've started using an iPhone (which was just this year), I'm also a big user of the Safari Browser on the iPhone. As a web designer, it's interesting to use a mobile device that presents websites as mini-versions of the real thing. (well, almost the real thing, there a few differences).

One thing you start to notice when browsing on the iPhone are the mobile versions of websites. When visiting certain sites, a small script detects that you're using an iPhone, and redirects you to a similar site–usually the same URL,...
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Oct
14

Fonts in Web Design

Choosing what font to use in web design is somewhat like going to the same restaurant every day, and there's 3-4 items to choose from. Helvetica's good, it's popular item... but you had it so many times. Arial isn't any better, tastes almost the same. Trebuchet seemed really spicy for a while, but now... you get the idea. If you want to use fonts and text on your web pages (and for usability, SEO, and accessibliity, you really should), you're stuck with a few choices. And that really hasn't changed for the past 10 years. There are a few options, however, that may help....
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Jun
14

Google Apps

Most web hosting packages, including my own, offer email accounts, so you can have email addresses such as "name@yourdomain.com". While it's often assumed that website hosting and email accounts are one and the same, they're really two different things that hosting companies combine for the sake of convienence.

It's not as convienent for some web users. You generally have to be capable at setting up email accounts on your home computer, or have someone in-house who knows how to do it. It's not hard, but things like Firewalls can get in the way, and some people aren't...
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Dan's Web World - Blog

Sharing what I know on web design, search engines, hosting, and more.

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