Design, Develop, and Grow
For those wanting to be one of the first to download, Internet Explorer 7 is now available. For a video review of the software, check out CNET’s review of IE7.
IE7 is a good first step forward for web standards. Hopefully future releases will embrace standards in their entirety.
Is is of note that IE7 is only for Windows XP Service Pack 2
Admin Note: We suggest you upgrade to IE 7 as soon as possible to see what Devlounge should really look like in modern browsers.
I came across a great podcast today from my favourite Brit, Paul Boag. The podcast is geared towards those that need web standards explained in non-technical terms. The podcast is also useful for those still skeptical about using web standards (perhaps your boss?).
For the podcast, please follow this link: The business benefits of web standards.
Say you’ve bought a junker of a car. The car can barely run, gets horrible gas mileage, and can be heard coming from two blocks away. You decide to take the car to a body shop to get all the welts out, as well as give the car a new paint job. You buy new tires and rims for the car, change out the upholstery, and even add in a nice sound system. You’ve invested all that time and money to change out the appearance of the vehicle, but the car still runs and sounds horrible. The car looks great, but will anybody want to drive your unreliable vehicle? At least it’ll look good broken down on the highway.
The same could be said for a particular website. You can spend all the time and energy “souping” up your website to make it look nice, but having a nice looking website isn’t going to prevent visitors from leaving and never coming back. Visitors want something more than just looks.
Our jobs as designers, programmers, or web developers is never done. It seems that once a design is finished, we start thinking of things that can be tweaked, added, or taken away. It’s even worse with all the Web 2.0 speak and AJAX that seems to be everywhere. We don’t want to be left in the dust.
However, in our efforts to have the latest and greatest incorporated into designs, we may have left someone else in the dust: our visitors.
I ask each and every one of you to take the following questions into account the next time you want to add the latest and greatest feature to your website.
If you don’t know how visitors use your site, please try Crazy Egg to get a good idea of how users use your site.
If visitors are using your site as you expect them to, then there’s probably no reason to add any extra features to “assist” the visitor.
Usability often takes a backseat when it comes to adding website features. Visitors want your content and want it now; will the feature make it easier or harder to get to your content? Keep in mind that users like to be in control.
Here are some usability issues that may need addressing:
For other usability concerns, please check out this website: Web Site Usability Checklist.
What is your site visitor getting out of the new feature? Will it be a one-time “wow” factor, or will the feature be useful for many visits to come? Visitors typically want quick and easy access to the content they are after. Will the new feature get in their way? Furthermore, will the feature even be used? If you can’t see yourself finding the feature beneficial on other sites you visit, it may be a good indication that others won’t either.
In other words, will visitors even know how to use the feature without you telling them how to use it?
It is very unlikely that a user will take the time and effort to learn a feature that is unique to your site.
There are other factors that need to be taken into account when adding in new site features. I encourage the readers of this article to add their own insight in the comments. If there is enough feedback, I will write a part two that incorporates your comments.
We’ve all seen those anti-piracy ads that Hollywood is so fond of. You know, the ones about stealing cars, DVDs, and purses. The ad tries to tell us that if we don’t steal any of those things, then we shouldn’t pirate movies either. Perhaps Hollywood should add one more item in there along with the cars and purses: “You wouldn’t steal anybody’s web content, right?” If you are a writer for the web, you should be worried about people stealing something that is very dear to you: your content.
Why on Earth would someone want to steal your content — your written text that you have spent hours upon hours creating? The amount of time and sweat that is put into creating content is tremendous; now some creep can come along and steal what is rightfully yours.
An increasing pain among content-generators (aka, bloggers) is the common splog, or spam blog. These blogs can take the form of blogs with randomly generated keywords that make absolutely no sense. They can also take the form of your content with a bunch of ads interspersed. With splogs taking your content and advertising within, that means that someone else is making money on the content you are creating! So what do you do about it?
Fortunately, for those who use the WordPress blogging platform, there are several plugins that assist bloggers against the evil splogs. One of the more notable plugins I have come across is called AntiLeech. I will devote the rest of this entry as a review of the plugin and how it deters sploggers.
As described on the AntiLeech plugin page, AntiLeech does not stop sploggers from accessing your content. The plugin does, however, allow you to control what content the splogger receives.
Installation of the plugin is relatively straightforward. Just unzip the .php file in your WordPress plugin directory on your web server. From there, you can activate or deactivate the plugin within the “Plugins” Administration Panel.
One thing to note here is that if you have Steve Smith’s(Ordered List ) FeedBurner Plugin installed, now is the time to deactivate it. The reason is that AntiLeech and the FeedBurner Plugin do not play well together. Never fear, because AntiLeech has its own FeedBurner redirect.
You’ll find all of AntiLeech’s options under the Options Administration Panel. Here are a few steps to follow to make sure your FeedBurner redirect is successful:
http://www.yoursite.com/feedThat should about do it for the FeedBurner redirect.
Here is where the magic of AntiLeech begins. You can choose what content sploggers receive.
In order to detect leechers, AntiLeech places a small image that says “ANTILEECH” at the bottom of every feed entry. You can enable or disable this option.
You can also choose not to include links back to your content. This is where everything gets controversial. Sploggers can potentially kill your search engine rank because there is duplicate content out there. The search engines might eventually think that you are spamming as well. One of the ways to combat this is to give the splogger garbled content, but still include a link back to your site. Now will Google punish you if a splogger links back to your site? I leave that answer open for debate. The point is, the choice is yours if you want the splogger to have a link back to your site.
You can also change the content that the splogger will receive. Here is an example of what the splogger might receive using Generated Content. You can also choose to give the splogger Truncated Content (post summaries) or alternatively leave some choice words for the would-be splogger.
There are two ways you can set up who is or isn’t a splogger: one is by User-Agent, and the other is by IP Address.
You can add a splogger by User-Agent by selecting any User-Agent that AntiLeech has detected. You can also manually add in a User-Agent.
If AntiLeech hasn’t detected any User-Agent, but you have noticed a couple of IP Addresses that are sucking down your pages, you can add those IP Addresses to your splog list.
Overall, I feel that the AntiLeech plugin for WordPress is very well done. One thing I would like to see in a future release is some statistics for the added IP Addresses and User-Agents (such as highest daily page view). Of course I could always view my site stats, but this way the information would all be in one place.
If you have WordPress, hate people stealing your content, and want to get back at the evil sploggers, then AntiLeech should be your anti-splog plugin.
