Design Challenges

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Facebook Thumbnail

It seems that now-a-days social networking is all the rage. I been on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg and all other social media for a long, long time now, but haven't seen the big potential in any since the days where Digg was driving all the traffic to my sites.

Since I started using Facebook, about two years ago, I have seen an influx of communication with family and friends that I would typically not reach out to on as much of a regular basis as I do with the social platform. As for twitter, honestly, I just don't see the point or get it. I can do much more with Facebook, and see Twitter as a spam platform for celebs to sell themselves and companies to sell products. I just can't be bother.

My sites all have Facebook Connect and automated interaction with social media, and see the value in the traffic that is driven everyday from the sites to mine.

I learned today that as Web developers, we still have some control of our sites within the social platforms. For example, when someone grabs one of your links to post on Facebook, the link shows up on the page with a brief description and a thumbnail. The description comes from the meta description data, lack of the tag forces facebook to grab the first few lines of text it encounters. The thumbnail comes from the first tag it finds, or you can specify via the tag with photo to grab. To do so, specify it as follows,

<link rel="image_src" type="image/jpeg" href="http://www.domain.com/path/icon-facebook.gif" />

The bottom line is than in this day of super automation, it is nice to know that you still have some control over what happens beyond your control. Good luck and keep on socializing, someday computers will run the world on their own, we will continue to get paid, and socializing will be all we do.

Labels: advertising, brand, content management, Design, Digg, Search Engine, SEO, Social Bookmarking

Thursday, December 11, 2008

SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is the science behind gaming Google, Yahoo, Windows Live, and countless other search engines into having your site appear on the first ten listing of the results page for as many key terms as possible.

SEOMoz is a site dedicated to gathering news, information and tools to help up game and scam the search engines for ranking. In my effort to help you game the search engines I will provide you two useful insights:

1. Search engines are, like social networking, a popularity game. The more people like you, the more they will link to you. The more people dislike you, the more they will link to you. No it is not a typo, If someone likes you they might be inclined to write about you and maybe provide a link to your site. If people really hate you, they will provide negative writing about you, but in doing so they will still link to your site. The more incoming links to your site the better you do in the search engines regardless whether it is in good connotation or not.

2. If you have the right tools you can increase your ranking. The first step is knowing where you are so that you can change your positioning. SEOMoz recently introduced their toolbar, yes I know yet another toolbar to add to your repertoire. It is located on their site free of charge. Another tool is the Firefox plug-in from SEO Tools. SEO toolsis there to help you learn, rank, and dominate. The plug-in allows you to quickly see Google's cache date, site age, incoming links, Alexa and Compete rankings, whois data, among others in the SERP (search engine result page) pages.

The bottom line is that you have to be in the know before you can become known. Stay up to date on your industry, spread the word about your products and services, and get others to do it for you. If you take the initiative you can go a long way.

Labels: dreamweaver, initiative, Search Engine, SEO, Social Bookmarking

Social Media Etiquette

So with my recent interest in Social Media I been reading everything and anything I can get my hands on in an effort to reach a broader audience for our Web site.

Many folks in these Web media sites speak of abuse, spam, and other methods marketers use to get the masses to buy their products. I don't blame them, in this economic times only those who are able to adapt and change their habits will survive.

What I fault many on, however, is the lack of class or how they go about spreading their message. Lets face it, if someone is interested in your product they will reach it and not classified any message about it as spam.

In my search for knowledge I came across this guide and thought I share with all my readers. It is the "The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook" by Tamar Weinberg.

The bottom line is that social networking is a contract between you and a community of individuals like you. It is not cool for you to assume that you are part of a group just because you click on a join link. You need to earn the right to have your opinion validated. It is also not cool to mass email folks who have not welcome you to do so. Lastly, it is not cool to ask me to take a movie test, race your car, or waste my time asking me to click on your clover leaf.

Labels: content management, RSS, Social Bookmarking, Web Design, Web Searches

More Social Media

So I just ~~wasted~~ sat through a one hour webinar on tweetering and how to maximize it for business. Mostly I learn that people have a lot of time in their hands. I don't have enough time to worry about breathing let alone let people know what I'm doing, how I'm doing, or why I'm doing it.

I just learned that companies have invested an awful lot in to twitter specialist to monitor the feeds and ensure that customers are feeling the love. To me twitter is an avenue for folks to complaint. The one marketing benefit I see to the whole social media site is updating potential customers of specials, sales, and other offers which have potential for mass distribution.

The bottom line is that social networking is about two years old, I often wonder where will it be next. First came geocities, followed years later by myspace, then came digg and facebook, twitter has gained 4 million members in the last year. Those sites came about because everyone wanted their own space on the net. Twitter was developed as a mass text messenger for those who wanted to read or pretend they care. Where is the social media phenomenon heading to next? Will we see the Sims or other games involve networking next?

Labels: content management, Customer Service, Digg, initiative, Social Bookmarking

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Networking sites and comunications

So many social networks so little time, however I do get frequent email updates from them.

We went to the movies yesterday and there was a preview for "He's Just Not That Into You", seems funny, but what really stay in my head is a line from Drew Barrymore where she talks about cyber-stalking and how you have to jump from this network to that other network and text message and ohhhh!!!!!!! it hurts to keep up with all this nonsense.

The bottom line is that in this day and age of social networking and cyber-visiting your friends is tough to find the time to do it, yet alone keep up with everyone. I don't spend a lot of time on this sites and rarely visit facebook, linkedin, and yet to have a twitter account, but I do receive helpful emails with notifications for things that sometimes matter. I could care less what you are doing right now, it simply doesn't have an impact on me whether you are thinking of which "f-word" phrase is more reasonable or you are having lunch, what has a bigger impact is the ability to reconnect with forgotten friends and keep up with the bigger picture of what your current friends are doing. We relocated 1 and 1/2 years ago to the Jacksonville, FL area and is hard to make friends, but is nice to get an update of what my old friends in CT and NY are up to. We may not find the time to talk all the time, but I know what you're doing...

With that said, congratulations Michelle on the launch of your new site!

Labels: brand, Connecticut, Florida, Social Bookmarking, Web Design

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

iGoogle Themes

Last year Google introduced iGoogle, an addition to the Google Web site that allows customization, thereby creating an individual homepage for each user. You can login to your personalized page via the iGoogle top right menu on the Google homepage.

Not only do you get to use the predefined gadgets, but you can add your customized RSS feeds or create your own gadgets via the Web developer tools.

Today I noticed that Google was featuring theme images for the iGoogle homepage. It got me intrigued and I starting browsing the many themes available. Thus far I had been using the beach theme which changes it looks depending on the weather and time of the day. However, there are many other themes available. You can even give it a world and create your own themes. I haven't experimented yet, but hopefully I will be giving it a whirl soon.

The bottom line is that Google chooses to keep improving every product, first came iGoogle, then came Google Tabs, followed by Google Themes, now iGoogle social networking via design your own themes, user rating, user comments and FAQ. This company knows how to get things going and keep going. Google guys, forget American Idol, you are my new idols.

Labels: Alexa, CSS, Design, Google, RSS, Search Engine, Social Bookmarking, software, techniques, Web Design, Web Searches

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Social Bookmarking

Today I was reading an article on Google privacy issues where the author was trying to explain the evil of the company. I, for one, think that Google is out to make money like everyone else, however they do it gracefully and with no mal intention in mind.

However, the interesting part of the article was found at the footer where they placed a widget I never seen before. It is called Add This! The widget allows any blogger, Web designer, or Web guru to allow folks to quickly add the article to the countless sites now available for social sharing.

I typically make it a habit to be in tune with all the goings on of the Web and stay up to date in all the popular sites, but somehow this one slip under my radar until today. Add this! ranking on the top 5000 Web sites of the world as measured by Alexa, seems to be a popular widget site with such sites as ABC, PC Mag, Template Monster, and many others using it, seems to make sense to start using this.

The bottom line is that sometime sis best to rely on some one's tool rather than reinvent the wheel and create your own tools. It is very easy to create and add a social bookmarking site to your pages, but why should you spend the time designing and developing it when someone else already did it and is providing it to you free of charge.

Labels: Alexa, Digg, Social Bookmarking