Guess Which Economy Doubled in Size Last Year
Despite the global recession, it seems one economy was doing really well over the last year. But quite interesting fact is, that economy doesn’t come under the radar of Word Bank, IMF or ADB, those who keep their eyes open all the time. Know where it happened? At Second Life.
Believe it or not, the virtual economy of Second Life, a popular online computer game that lets users create a new reality for themselves, doubled in size last year. Users spent more than a billion dollars on virtual goods over the last year, compared to $360 million for the year before. Second Life’s economy is now larger than the economies of nations such as East Timor, Samoa and Dijibouti.
JS libraries that changed the perception of Java Script
Remember the old age (not far behind… just few years ago) where you had to type a whole bunch of codes just to add a new row to your HTML table ? I’ve almost forgotten that era with the convenience added through some of these libraries.
The Javascript Libraries That Shape The New Web
Friends don’t let friends use IE6
Bad news for web designers and developers.
According to the most recent data from California-based Web metrics company Net Applications, 27.2% of all Internet users are still running IE6, making it the most popular version of IE. By comparison, IE7 accounted for 23.1% of all browsers in action last month, while the newest edition, IE8, had a usage share of 12.5%.
Friends don’t let friends use IE6
Start selling online with the Google Checkout store gadget
Google released the Google Checkout store gadget which will be a easy to use add-on to small business owners. It allows you to use Google Checkout and Google Docs to to create your own online store in a matter of minutes.
To install the gadget on your site or blog, Google outlines just three easy steps,
- Sign up for a Google Checkout seller account.
Checkout will process your orders and help you attract new leads, convert more sales, and enjoy advanced fraud protection.- List the products you want to sell in a Google Docs spreadsheet.
You’ll just need to create a copy of our template spreadsheet, and then replace the sample inventory with your own.- Place the Google Checkout store gadget on your website.
You can embed your online store anywhere you’d like — on Google Sites, Blogger, or your personal website.
Start selling online with the Google Checkout store gadget
No such thing as a Google killer
Whenever there’s a new search start-up the hype also follows that there’s a “Google Killer”. Here are few words from a new search start-up itself.
So let’s just get this out of the way: there is no such thing as a Google killer. No company is going to play David to their Goliath and slay them with a well-aimed stone from a slingshot. Google is here to stay.
There’s No Such Thing As A Google Killer
How to get noted…
Trent Reznor of NIN, shared some tips on how a lesser known artist could get established and become noted. His thoughts are applicable to any new entrant whose trying to build a name in their respective industry.
Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this – give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.
Six mobile design testing tools
Web has moved from PC to mobile. So now the question comes…does your site work in all mobile platforms ? Here are some tools that can help you there.
As the number of people using mobile devices increases, so too does the pressure to ensure that our websites look good and are legible on a mobile device. The ideal, and unrealistic situation, would be to test on real handsets, but obviously this would be impossible for most designers. Fortunately, there are number of tools available online, allowing you to put your site through its mobile paces.
Six Tools For Testing Designs On Mobile Devices
Top 3 Cost-Cutting Strategies for Web Designers
Given the state of the economy, it is important to recognize the declining value of the United States dollar. Without getting deep into this topic, note the 97% drop in dollar value over the past century. With numerous causes for inflation transpiring, including bailouts, government “stimulus”, and foreign spending, one can only expect a greater loss of purchasing power in the near future. So what specific steps can a web designer take to plan for continuous currency devaluation? The three strategies below can help cut costs in the long-term without sacrificing the level of work and service delivered to clients.
Top 3 Cost-Cutting Strategies for Web Designers
(Thanks for mentioning CurdBee as an option!)
Google’s PHP performance tips attract ire from PHP world
Earlier this week, Google posted on how to make PHP performance better as step of their campaign to “make the web faster”, but has given some noteworthy tips (such as avoiding SQL querying within a loop) as well as some insignificant ideas.
This may have been ignored if it was published in some other source, but since it’s endorsed by Google, PHP community has taken a special interest and rebuffed some of these so called tips.
A Note on Google’s So-called Best Practices
Make the Web Faster – Google groups
PHP performance tips from Google
CurdBee featured on FuelYourApps
An interview on the behind the scenes work of CurdBee is published in FuelYourApps. If you are interested to know what inspired us, our workflow and decisions made during the process – this would be a good read.
