Recently, the Mix10 Developers Conference was held in Las Vegas.  Numerous speakers presented, including Dean Hachamovitch, the General Manager of Microsoft’s IE Group.  He said numerous things, which were recapped in Larry Barrett’s article on HTML Goodies.  Take a read at Larry’s article, it’s interesting, and thought provoking.

Internet Explorer 9 has a preview out there, you can find it here: Internet Explorer 9

I want to thank Larry for writing this article…but honestly…Does anyone want to see another version of IE?  As a web developer, and the owner of a website development company in the Boston Mass area, I am constantly frustrated by Read the rest of this entry »

The browser statistics have been released for December 2009. The stats are published monthly at W3CSchools.com. Of note, Chrome continues to grow in usage. Personally, I like Chrome. There are some great features that chrome uses and it’s much faster than Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Below are the stats for December 2009.

Tuesday Google rolled out 2 new improvements to Googles search feature, both of which will help users to more effectively get the information they need.  The first improvement has an expanded list of  related searches.  Google has implemented this technology to better understand associations and concepts related to your search.   One of its first applications allows Google to offer better related searches.

Google says, ” For example, if you search for [principles of physics], our algorithms understand that “angular momentum,” “special relativity,” “big bang” and “quantum mechanic” are related terms that could help you find what you need.”  Google search is now able to look at  more queries and make suggestions more relevant to what you actually need.

Secondly,  is the addition of longer search result descriptions, or as coders would say longer snippets.

When you search, each result gives you answers that start with a dark blue title and is followed by text.  This text is called a snippet.  Both of these together help you to know what each page is about.  Furthermore, important words in the snippet that are related to your search appear bold.

Most queries over 3 words are to long to do you any good.  Now with Googles enhancements they have been able to increase the number of lines in the snippet, which will allow for more information.  Showing more of the words that you type in the text of the page.

Google states, “Suppose you were looking for information about Earth’s rotation around the sun, and specifically wanted to know about its tilt and distance from the sun. So you type all of that into Google: [earth's rotation axis tilt and distance from sun]. A normal-length snippet wouldn’t be able to show you the context for all of those words, but with longer snippets you can be sure that the first result covers all those topics. In addition, the extra line of snippets for the third result shows the word “sun” in context, suggesting that the page doesn’t talk about Earth’s distance from the sun”

What does this mean to the average person?  Easier methods to find exactly what you need.  As search items grow and become more refined, less time will be spent looking through irrelevant listings.  Now for the website owner, this becomes more important.  Search engine optimization will be increased through keyword recognition.  Longer snippets allows for more exact search terms and keyword associated hits.

-Kimberly Veautour

Acknowledgments: Google Blog

I cannot tell you how many times computer and IT people tell me that Firefox is so much better than IE. Rest assured I have my own opinions about both, however when the computer repair folks are jamming Firefox down your throat, it eventually becomes offensive. The sad news is that for so long they were right. With such great accolades from self professed “geeks” comes fame, and with fame comes vulnerability. Hackers love to make a mockery out of websites and software that claim they are superior and Firefox is no exception.

Bit 9, the leader in application white listing(as they call themselves) has issued their “Dirty Dozen” for 2008. In a press release entitled “Threats in Plain Sight: Bit9 Identifies ‘The Dirty Dozen’ – 2008’s Most Popular Applications with Critical Security Vulnerabilities” they identify the 12 applications that have issues and Firefox is NUMBER 1! Welcome to the big time Firefox. You asked for the attention, your followers supported you through and through and now the hacker world is coming after you.

Maybe it’s time that our computer friends keep in mind that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Central Mass Web Design has been advised that Internet Explorer 8 has been released with a bug that will not always render the website the same way Internet Explorer 7 would have.

Microsoft has released an advisory to this with will permit the new browser to render like IE 7 if a piece of code is added.

If you are concerned that your site might not render correctly, then you should request CMWD to update the code by adding the Microsoft fix. This should not take long, however it can differ, depending on when and how your site was coded. If you are currently on a Website Maintenance Plan this change can be done during your monthly time, please request it. If you are not on a plan, please call our office and speak to someone about scheduling this update for you.

Please note that Browser Updates are not covered under our service agreements as we have no control over the browsers.