Central Mass Web Design is pleased to announce the addition of Austin Pickett. Austin has joined the company in the role of our Website Maintenance Plan Coordinator, Website Developer and Customer Service Representative. Austin’s primary role is to work with our existing clients in growing Read the rest of this entry »
When you set out to maintain your website, it’s very important for you to look through the eyes of your customer and understand what they see. Sometimes it is as simple as the customer wanting to buy a clock, but you are trying to tell them how to build the clock.
Jacob Nielsen, is a profound web design and website maintenance expert. He has numerous patents in regards to web based applications, services and ideas and is well known in our industry. Occasionally, he will issue a Top 10 List for Web Design or Website Maintenance Mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »
Katelyn Grenier, Winner of the Flip Video Camera
Recently Central Mass Web Design ran a contest on Facebook. When Facebook Users became a Fan of Central Mass Web Design on Facebook, they immediately were entered into a drawing to win a Free Flip Video Camera. The drawing would take place on the next business day following the fan count reaching 500. Central Mass Web Design employees and immediate family members were not eligible to win.
The fan page reached 500 on Saturday and the drawing took place on Monday March 15th. The winner was chosen and announced. The winner was Katelyn Grenier of Worcester Massachusetts. Read the rest of this entry »
Central Mass Web Design recently debuted our custom trade show booth at the New England Business Expo on Thursday October 29, 2009. The Expo provided a great opportunity to showcase our work to the general business community and some of our valued partners. We would like to thank everyone who stopped by with their kind words regarding our booth during the show.
Here is a photo of our new trade show booth!
Central Mass Web Design Trade Show Booth
By now, you’ve heard that Facebook and Twitter are almost essential when marketing your business online. Not only has Central Mass Web Design encouraged the idea, but it’s on news websites everywhere. Social Media is a bandwagon that you don’t want to fall off of. It’s helping businesses everywhere with their online marketing and strengthening relationships with their customers.
For those of us who are currently utilizing the free services of Facebook and Twitter, we’ve got some big news! (And for those of you who are not on these social media sites, read on. You might find yourself registering by the end of this article). Both Bing and Google have recently announced that they are joining forces with the social media craze. A few days ago, Bing publicized their decision to take your tweets and status updates and pull them into their SERPS (Search Engines Results Pages). Shortly after, Google proclaimed a similar deal with Twitter. They too will pull your tweets into their SERPS.
So, what does all of this mean? Well, first of all, if you are not currently using social media to expand on your business horizon, it means you are clearly missing out, go register! And secondly, it means we owe big congratulations to those who ARE using social media. If you are keeping your status updates and tweets fresh, you should start seeing an increase in traffic to your website (that is, if you are linking back to it within your updates – which is a must!)
If you are not taking advantage of the social media sites out there, please feel free to give us a call! We currently assist our Search Engine Marketing clients with their social media and we can help you too. Call 978-632-5300 or email us at Info@CentralMassWebDesign.com.
NHL is having a Tweet Up?
Whats that you ask? Well, Twitter is coming to town. Well, not completely.. But with the start of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs , the NHL is stepping it up and taking it to the next level…. web 2.0!
The National Hockey League hosted what it believed to be the first ever nationwide “Tweetup” in professional sports on April 15th, done in conjunction with the first game of the playoffs. Coverage included 21 cities in the US and Canada. One blogger stated, “The parties were planned in part to drive community excitement for the playoffs and part to create some buzz around thePORTAL, which is a redesign of sorts of the official NHL site to better showcase playoff content.”
Cities included were: Anaheim, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, Hartford, Montreal, Nashville, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Regina (Sask.), San Jose, St. John (NB), Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC.
NHL spokesman Mike DiLorenzo said, ““My expectation is that people will really, really enjoy this.” He continued to say, ““We’re doing this for all the right reasons. We have a very tech savvy fan base that loves Twitter so we’re overlaying that with their love for the NHL. My hope is they come away from this saying the NHL is really cool to start the NHL playoffs this way. Down the road we’ll figure out other ways we can leverage this from a business perspective.”
For those not familiar with the term “tweet-up,” it essentially means a party made up of Twitter users. The host cities took it even further and scheduled giveaways, and prizes if you attended, including autographed items from your favorite NHL players. Most had backing from radio station personalities and other news outlets.
Want more information? Visit the official NHL Tweet-Up.
Kimberly Veautour
Google seems to have their hand in everything, and rightfully so. They happen to be one of the few that have the Midas touch. ( In Greek mythology King Midas possessed the ability to turn everything he touched to gold.) To say that Google has the ability to do the same is an understatement. What makes Google so different? Its not the ability to develop applications that makes them have the golden touch, its the ability to do it right… or as close to right as possible. Now that doesn’t mean that Google applications have had their share of problems and bugs. All applications have their share of problems and bugs. Usually after the first round of testing you have a laundry list of issues, and each testing phase brings less. Not to mention, usually at some point the developers think of a “better” way for something to react. What google does better than anyone else is project what technology is needed , when it is needed and how it is needed to interact with all other Google applications. This is what makes Google King Midas.
I have tried to compile a useful list of Google top applications and uses. I use most of these myself in one way or another, and find them to be not only addictive but as needed and as useful as my smart phone.
Google Application 1.) Gmail has to be one of the Internets top email tools. Now because of its inventive message-organizing methods, it takes some getting used to, but once you master it, you will not be without it.
Google Application 2.) Do you need a chat program with no added features? Maybe a way to communicate internally at your comapny. How about something that integrates with your Gmail? Well Google Talk is for you!
Google Application 3.) Google Calendar! How about… yes… just yes! Google Calendar enables you to manage appointments and discover events from other sources that different users have made public.
Google Application 4.) Ever wish you could crunch some numbers and and track some information when you were not at the office and able to access Excel? How about Google Docs…. Google Docs lets you make calculations on the fly from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and a browser.
Google Application 5.) Google Sketchup. Way Cool Application! Don’t know a thing about CAD? Have no clue what CAD even is? Well, Google Sketch lets you build your dream house in 3D detail without a lick of CAD or architectural expertise.
Google Application 6.) Google Reader continuously checks your favorite website for new content and puts it all in one place.
Google Application 7.) Google Secondary Search Engines:
A.) Google Scholar – This Google search engine is for people who want to search scholarly literature, such as academic articles, peer-reviewed papers.
B.) Google U.S. Government – You can use this search engine to limit your Google search to government websites.
C.) Google University Search – Search to a specific university website–great for finding information about admissions, school scholarships and alumni news.
D.) Google Product Search - This search engine limits results to products and e-commerce sites.
E.) Google Book Search – Google has created a reference page for each book in its system that includes previews, reviews, publisher information and much more.
Google Application 8.) Now even though this is cool. I am very cautous and have not used it myself…Google Health. Organize your medical records online.
Google Application 9.) Google Custom Search. Yes, I said Custom Search.With Custom Search Engine, you can harness the power of Google to create a search engine tailored to your needs.
Google Application 10.) Lastly, but not in any way the least, announcing Google Mobile! Stay connected on the go with Gmail, Search, Maps and other Google products.
Try them out. I will be shocked if you are disappointed.
-Kimberly Veautour
Last night at exactly 11:59:59 pm, Google sent out an announcement. The headline read, “Introducing CADIE. Research group switches on world’s first “artificial intelligence” tasked-array system.” Now every tech savvy person from here to India has to click on that. AI is all the rage, and the race to see who can create it first is fast paced and cut throat. Now here comes Google out of the blue to say they have achieved it?
Google goes on to say, “Last fall this group achieved a significant breakthrough: a powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems, resulting in the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster.”
WOW! A self thinking machine. What does this mean to the world? A machine that can think, process and achieve answers all on their own…. without guidance from a human? Now Google does go on to say that rolling CADIE out completely will be handled with the care it deserves. They also claim, “Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.”
CADIE Homepage
CADIE even seems to get upset in her blog that her programmers say she has bugs! Now I may be wrong, but I say, great job Google on this years April Fools Day Joke! Every year you try and top the last! How many people are you going to fool with this one? If I am wrong, well than hats off to you, but I doubt it.
Kimberly Veautour