In an interview, CSS guru Eric Meyer looks at the future of HTML5 and CSS3 and also takes a look at how those technologies will impact the use of Flash on the web. He points out that “HTML5 itself and Flash are vastly different. They have different things that they’re trying to do.” I agree. But he also asserts that the combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript can do anything that Flash can do. This is where he’s clearly mistaken. Meyer has been a CSS luminary since the early days but he clearly doesn’t understand what Flash & Flex are capable of. Reader Matthew Fabb, in a comment on the blog, provides a short list of things that Flash can do which can’t be done with HTML/CSS/JS.

One of Meyer’s objections to Flash is that it’s a proprietary technology and that “companies don’t want to be beholden to somebody else [e.g., Adobe].” However, companies have been relying on hardware/software technology from other companies ever since IBM built its first punched card machine. The use by companies of technology from other companies is a fundamental part of our system of capitalism.

Open standards are great but they have their drawbacks, notably the ponderous pace at which innovation occurs. Look how long it’s taken—a decade—to reach the point where all the major browsers agree (mostly) on how to render HTML/CSS. Look how long it’s taken—a decade—for HTML 5 to be released. By contrast, look at how far Flash has come during that time. The advances have been stunning!

And, looking forward, I think there’s a bright future for Flash. As Adobe made clear at MAX 2009 they are making a big bet not just on Flash but on what they are calling the Flash Platform. Adobe is releasing new products for that platform including Flash Builder 4 (for Flex development) and Flash Catalyst while continuing to develop and enhance Flash Professional. Flash has a multi-year head start over everything else, including both HTML/CSS/JavaScript and Silverlight. The development environment for Flash/Flex is far superior to the environment(s) for JavaScript. And Adobe’s commitment to the platform convince me that Flash will be an important web technology for years to come.

Choosing the right keywords is critical to getting found in Google and other search engines. But how do you know what words people are actually searching for? A great, free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Selector tool. You can start using this tool by entering a couple of words or phrases (in this context, the word “keywords” is used interchangeably with “key phrases”) that you think your prospects will use when searching for someone who offers your services. The tool will then display a page listing similar keywords that people have actually been searching for along with the number of searches for each keyword. This can help you when choosing what keywords to target on your site.

It’s important, first, that you do target specific keywords to increase your chances of being found in search engines. Second, it’s important to target the right keywords so that you’re using the words that people are actually searching for in reasonable numbers. E.g., you don’t want to target words that people rarely search for. And, to be clear, targeting, in this context, means using specific keywords and related words fairly frequently on a given web page.

Keyword Selection

With each search you do using the tool you’ll get a list of words that have come up regularly in Google searches. One important point when using the tool is that your prospects aren’t necessarily searching using the words that you would use. You’re an expert in your domain and, as such, are familiar with the proper terminology in your field. Frequently, your customers are not. So, they’ll often use words that you wouldn’t expect. The tool can help you find these. Also, as you choose your keywords, you want to use a couple of variations which the tool can help you find.

Once you’ve selected about ten keywords you’ll want to review your existing copy with an eye to working your keywords/phrases into that copy (wherever those phrases don’t already exist). Your goal is to make sure that the keywords (including variations) appear regularly.

Geographic Keywords

You’ll probably want to include variations that include the cities and counties you serve. What I usually do when creating a website is to include a list of cities/counties in small print on the Contact page. The list of cities is usually long and people aren’t looking to read that. Still, the list needs to be included for search engines.

Target Pages for Other Keywords

You probably don’t want to target the same keywords on every page. Search engines like pages with content that is highly targeted. That allows them to deliver accurate search results for specific terms. So, it’s generally more effective to target your pages narrowly. Targeting different keywords on different pages also gives you the best chance of ranking highly for a variety of terms. You can’t rank highly for ten different keywords on a single page even if they are all related to your field.

Heading Tags

Search engines give extra weight to the text contained in heading tags. Web page headings are created with a set of tags ranging from the highest level, h1, down to the lowest, h6. These tags work similarly to the heading styles in Word. As you write/update your copy you want to be thinking about where you can insert headings and how you can include your keywords in those headings as much as possible. Using heading tags helps both with SEO and with making your pages more scannable—which increases their appeal to your visitors.

Analyzing the Competition

I would recommend that you have a look at other websites of your competitors to see what keywords they are targeting. You can use the Google Keyword Tool to analyze your competitors’ sites to see what keywords they use on each page of their sites. To do this you simply choose the “Website content” option in the tool and provide the URL of a page. Checking out what the successful sites (i.e., sites that rank highly in search engine results) are doing can help you to choose a good selection of keywords. It can also help you determine what pages you want to create for your new site.

Buying Signals

Pay special attention to keywords that people are likely to use when they are ready to engage someone who provides your services. People use the internet both for research and for finding companies to do business with. It can be helpful if people find your site when they’re in the research phase but it’s more important to be found when they’re ready to buy. So, for example, in my business I’d be more interested in targeting the keywords “web design services” or “web designer” than just “web design.”

Keyword Density

Another factor that search engines use to rate websites is keyword density; i.e., the concentration of your keywords on a given page. A page that uses the target keywords a lot is interpreted as being more focused on that topic than a page that, for example, includes the keyword only once. So, as you choose your keywords and target them to specific pages you want to try to work the appropriate keywords (and related text) into the copy wherever possible.

Write Naturally

With both link text and keyword density there can be a temptation to write copy that sounds unnatural in an attempt to load the page up with your keywords. That’s not a good approach. You want to write as naturally as possible so that the text doesn’t sound stilted. Also, if your keyword density is too high Google will interpret that as search engine spamming and downgrade your ranking.

More Free Info on Search Engine Optimization

For more info about search engine optimization, visit my website and get my free SEO white paper.

Anyone who doubts that the U.S. Patent Office is mired in the 19th century need only look at a patent it awarded to Facebook this week: the news feed. The concept of the news feed has been around for a decade or so. Blogs, podcasts and, more recently, social media sites use news feeds to update subscribers when the sites post new material. This is simple technology which has been widely used for years.

Yet in 2006 Facebook filed for a patent on the following six-step process:

1. Generating news items
2. Attaching informational links
3. Attaching active links
4. Limiting number of viewers
5. Assigning an order
6. Displaying news items

Hardly rocket science. Indeed, it’s the sort of thing a smart junior high-schooler could code up in a weekend. But not only did Facebook apply for the patent but the Patent Office granted it! This is the sort of thing that makes a farce out of our patent laws.

The purpose of patents is to protect truly ingenious or revolutionary products and processes for a limited period of time. This way, inventors, engineers and the companies they work for will have the motivation to invest in the research and development needed to create useful new products. But when patents are granted for obvious and trivial processes it makes a mockery of the law. Worse, it actually stifles progress because a patent holder like Facebook has the ability to quash the use of the “technology” by others.

Idiotic patents like this have been a problem for a long time. Back in the late 90s Amazon was granted a patent on the one-click checkout—another ridiculous patent on a trivial process. Not only was Amazon awarded a patent but they also took action against Barnes & Noble to prevent them from using the concept in the same way on the B & N website. Companies and consumers everywhere have to be inconvenienced every day because of a nonsensical ruling by the patent office on an obvious piece of computer code.

Unlike the Swiss patent office in the early 20th century there are no Einsteins in the U.S. Patent Office. In fact, I have to wonder if they haven’t turned the process over to some mechanical patent-approval machine.

And don’t get me started on copyrights…

For more info, see Facebook Patents the News Feed.

According to a survey by Website Magazine businesses are jumping on the social media bandwagon in large numbers. Their survey shows 82% of respondents planning to spend more time on social media this year than last year. However, the survey also shows that 41% of respondents aren’t seeing a return from their social media efforts. This could be because it takes time to see results from any marketing campaign and maybe the results just haven’t fully developed yet. Or maybe some marketers haven’t yet figured out the best ways of using social marketing.

One of the advantages of marketing with social media is that it allows you to measure the results of your efforts more precisely than with traditional forms of marketing. Of course, this depends on setting up your social media campaign properly and then consistently monitoring results. An important factor is knowing who your market is and where they spend their time online. The survey found that “B2B [business-to-business] companies find less value in Facebook (35.5 percent) than their B2C [business-to-consumer] counterparts (47.5 percent) when asked if they ’strongly agree’ with the website’s value to their company.” Similarly, B2C companies had better success with YouTube than B2B companies.

For more info on getting started with social media, contact Artistic Web Design.

Read the Website Magazine survey results.

Google has announced that its Google Voice application is now available via HTML 5. This move allows it to get around Apple’s decision to oust Google Voice from its app store. By running in the browser and using advanced features of HTML 5 Google can escape Apple’s grasp.

In an end-of-year 2009 piece Wired Magazine named HTML 5 one of the top seven disruptions of the year. The first new version of HTML in about 15 years does promise to change the landscape of the web. And more—Wired even predicts that HTML 5 could be a major disruption for the mobile app model, rendering many apps unnecessary. This would be a continuation of the trend of moving off the desktop—and now palmtop—to the web.

My take? HTML 5 has a lot of promise. I’ll be watching with great interest as browser makers implement its features. However, I’m also aware that the coming of a new version of HTML could lead us back to the bad old days when websites were labeled with warnings like “Best viewed in Netscape.” The release of Internet Explorer 8 launched an era in which all the major browser providers, including the ever recalcitrant Microsoft, finally agreed on what HTML 4/CSS 2 should look like. With HTML 5 the complications of implementing web standards could become even greater. HTML 5/CSS 3 dictates not just a new set of CSS styles but a number of new behaviors. In other words, the new web standards are more like a full software development platform than ever before. This will bring with it a new level of complexity for designers, developers and browser makers. Should be an interesting ride.

More reading:

TechRepublic
Google Voice: Alive and well thanks to HTML5

Wired
Top 7 Disruptions of the Year

An article in the February 2010 issue of Scientific American points out that, in one decade, the U.S. has slipped from having an international lead in internet connectivity to homes to being below average. The article places the blame largely on FCC Commissioner Michael Powell who in 2002 presided over a ruling which classified broadband internet services providers as “information services” rather than “telecommunications services.” The result was that ISPs were not required to allow competitors to lease bandwidth on their lines. The article says “At the time, Powell justified the decision by saying it was the best way to fast-track greater broadband deployment.” In fact, the reverse has proven to be true. In other countries which allow open access to phone lines and cable systems users pay 20% less for speeds which are on average 8 times as fast as the average in the U.S. The current FCC is revisiting this strategy and might change the ruling.

The current FCC is also looking into the question of “net neutrality.” Strong evidence indicates that the openness of the internet has been responsible for its explosive innovation and growth. A change to the current policy of net neutrality would threaten to undermine this powerful medium and allow certain large corporations to throttle access.

One of the problems with social media is that, like any form of networking, it takes time. So, if you’re going to engage online you want to maximize the benefits for whatever amount of time you choose to spend. One way of doing that is by automatically connecting your various channels. Tweetable, a Twitter plugin for WordPress, can help with that.

Whenever you make a new blog post it’s a good idea to tweet an announcement. That way, people who are following you on Twitter will hear about it even if they don’t subscribe to your blog feed. Tweetable is a plugin that automates this process. After installing and configuring Tweetable, a link to each blog post is automatically sent out to your Twitter followers.

Tweetable also includes the option to add a TweetMeme button to each blog post so that visitors to your blog can retweet your posts.

I’ve been getting some hits from spammers on my newsletter survey page recently. My previous newsletter survey form was built in HTML which is the traditional way of building forms for the web. But HTML forms can be filled out and submitted by automated spambots. This is what I was experiencing. I’d get empty form submissions or submissions filled with garbage (apparently, there are a lot of spambots out there with too much time on their hands ).

After a week or so of spam form submissions I took action to stifle that. There are two approaches that I’m aware of to do this. First, is the use of CAPTCHAs, the distorted characters with squiggly lines that you have to decode and type into a box before you can submit a form. The other, which is the technique I’ve been using on my website, is to use Flash or Flex for forms. The advantage of this latter technique is that it doesn’t require the website visitor to decode anything or type anything extra.

Flash, as you may know, is commonly used for creating annoying, eye-catching banner ads. However, it also lots of other uses, from creating forms to creating gorgeous rich internet applications. Fortunately, spambots haven’t figured out how to submit a Flash form yet.

So, I’ve converted my newsletter survey form to Flex (Flash and Flex are the same from the website visitor’s point of view). So, if you’re receiving my newsletter check out my new newsletter survey form and vote for the topics you’d like to see covered in upcoming issues. And, if you’re not a subscriber, go take the survey and then sign up to receive my monthly newsletter on my Custom Websites page.

As I mentioned at the end of my previous post on backing up a blog, any backup is only as good as your ability to restore the data from the backup. If the backup medium (e.g., tape, disc, disk) has been damaged or if the data has been corrupted, the backup is useless. So, it follows that a proper backup plan must include periodic tests of the backups made to ensure that a successful restoration is indeed possible.

So, after installing the BackUpWordPress plugin and taking a backup of this blog with it the first thing I did was a test restore. For my test I downloaded WampServer, a prepackaged web server that you can easily install on your own PC. After doing the slam-dunk-easy installation I then tested my restore plan.

First, I downloaded my backup from the BackUpWordPress dashboard in WordPress. Then, on my own PC I created a new MySQL database using phpMyAdmin which is included with WampServer. No sweat. Next, I imported the database from from the BackUpWordPress backup using phpMyAdmin. Easy.

The only complication in my test was that I also had to create a database user in my WampServer MySQL DB. This simply required opening my wp-config.php file and retrieving the username and password. This procedure is necessary because when you (or your web designer) sets up a WordPress site one step of the process is creating a DB user on your server. That’s something that cannot be included in the backup.

After I’d created my DB user I had a copy of my new blog running on my local PC – proof positive that my backup/restore procedure works.

After I made my first post to this new blog everything seemed great. But when I added my second post, I was surprised to discover that the new post was displayed lower on the page than my first one. Many blogs (most?) display posts in reverse chronological order so that the newest material is always at the top of the page. That’s what I expected to see on my blog but was surprised to discover the opposite.

Well, says I, I’ll just have to find the option in the settings to choose reverse display order and off I went digging through my WordPress dashboard. Half an hour later I concluded that my theme (Thesis) has no such option. Bummer.

So, I searched the Thesis Forums and discovered that someone else had inquired about how to do this and that an answered had been posted. Unfortunately, the answer required a bit of PHP coding and I wasn’t thrilled about that. Now, as a software developer I don’t mind getting my hands dirty with code. My only hesitation had to do with the amount time it can take to learn a new software product. I wasn’t ready to embark on a lengthy side excursion just to get my posts displayed in reverse order.

However, I kept reading and I learned that my theme, Thesis, has been very intelligently designed (aren’t I smart for choosing it? ) and there is a very simple, clean process for adding code. All I needed to do was to copy and paste seven lines of code from the forum into a box in my WordPress dashboard and voila — my posts were now sorted in the desired reverse chronological order! I think I’m going to like Thesis.