April 14, 2007
Like Its 1997
If you were a big web surfer in the 90s you probably remember the browser wars - Microsoft was hell-bent on getting all the market from Netscape (as if there weren't enough browsers for both of them). At one point there were actually websites that you COULD NOT SEE in Netscape (which I used for many years back then). We all know Microsoft paid dearly for its aggressive grab for 100% market-share, but that didn't end what I call Browser War Light.
You have your users with IE 6, some using Firefox (particularly snobby bunch who tend to be designers who think it is the ONLY browser worth using, and, apparently, designing for - the rest of the public using other browsers be damned), some on Safari, and a growing percentage on IE 6.
Why should all these different browsers be a concern to Internet marketers? Because web sites have a tendency to look different in each of them, depending on how clean the code is. This is particularly true if you use table-less designs and primarily use cascading style sheets (css) for placement of items on the page.
Rule of thumb: look at your website in as many browsers and browser versions as possible. Clean mark up will lessen the problem, but I know even top-notch designers/coders can find some of the differences between IE6 and IE7 frustrating.
So if you don't want a chunk of your visitors seeing your type floating over or disappearing behind images, be sure to validate your code, but also, LOOK AT IT in other browsers.
I just had an experience with a new site I took over - it claimed to validate perfectly - had it's little w3.org validate banner - and it does validate - but it is a total spider trap and the Google spider can not get into the site to index it for searchers.
Bizarre but true - 100% validated code can still contain spider traps and kill your SEO!
Posted by smashmonster at 10:29 AM
September 22, 2006
Google Misery on the Horizon
Once again Google appears to be doing some major house cleaning - and generally these housecleanings result in some excellent and valuable sites being dropped (or just as bad, sent to the bottom of the proverbial barrel). Google's actions have become progressively baffling over the years - and it gets harder and harder to figure out what the hell they want. You can do something on your site - but because some jerk spammers did this in spades at some point, what you thought was perfectly okay is now an offense to Google's sense of all that is right and good in the world ( their unofficial motto being "don't be evil" ) and you get shoved out with the flotsam and jetsam of so many really bad sites. This can be particularly disconcerting if you have had a site for 7 or 8 years and it did reasonably well and your ad revenue meant the site essentially paid for itself. There are many hobby sites out there like this - and it's a shame they end up in Google's dustbin.
I was thinking I just coined a new phrase - Googledygook
Based on the phrase gobbledygook:
gobbledygook: incomprehensible or pompous jargon of specialists
However, it appears in doing a Google search (oh irony) that others have already come up with this term and in fact someone is squatting on the domain name (grin).
Actually I have coined a phrase in the past - back in January 1999 I bought the domain cybercilious.com - I thought it was a fun play on supercilious - it was tongue-in-cheek because back then there were folks charging INSANE amounts of money for web design - people were really getting royally ripped off. I would hear about someone paying 100K for a site that basically didn't work very well. I've never really used the domain for much, and some people mistake it for thinking I'm the one who is haughty - LOL no way, my designs are simple at best, downright ugly at worst. Many of those people who thought they were indispensable so they could charge obscene amounts have now sadly seen their jobs shipped off to India and Pakistan.
Anyway, I think I thought someone would make the phrase popular (clearly I am too lazy to do all the things necessary to popularize an idea) and then I'd be offered 100 grand for it....almost 8 years later I'm getting tired of how slow everyone is to catch on to how brilliant a name this is - oh, I'm being supercilious now ;-)
Posted by smashmonster at 06:42 PM
December 19, 2005
About When Do You Think God Started Hearing the Word 'Google' in Prayers?
It used to be a relatively easy thing to do...get to the top of Google. But spammers changed all that - they made it so Google has to stay one step ahead of them. Which means a few great sites get filtered out with the garbage because it "appears" to be like something it isn't.
If you've ever had a strong position for years and years and suddenly lost it, you realize how powerful Google can be to destroy a legitimate online presence. Survival of the fittest isn't a perfect science. We know many lovely species have disappeared off the face of the earth - they didn't deserve to survive any less, and just as these many species have fallen victim to human greed and indifference, so many quality web sites will fall victim to the indifference of the Google algorithm.
Posted by smashmonster at 10:08 AM
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