The speed at which a website loads has no bearing whatsoever on the content of the website. So it seems Google are making a statement that, in general, websites should load faster. Of course, nobody wants a website to take a long time to load - it’s frustrating. But should Google’s ranking algorithm not focus purely on the actual content of websites?

What if I want to search Google for some kind of entertainment website - online games, for example. Such websites contain large amounts of Flash, which tends to increase a page’s file size substantially. Will this inclusion of site speed in Google’s algorithm not therefore mean that the search results become less relevant in this example? Slower loading pages will, after all, not rank as well as quicker loading websites.

In addition to entertainment websites, there is an issue with Flash and JavaScript in general. These are probably the two biggest offenders in terms of causing websites to load slowly. I would imagine that Google’s argument - and certainly the argument of many comment posters on articles I have read so far this morning - is that site speed is a usability issue. Essentially, this is not something that I would disagree with. However, the use of Flash and JavaScript is not always gratuitous. As all good interaction designers will know, JavaScript and, to a greater extent, Flash are two of the most powerful tools for enhancing usability on a website. So, although it is not always the case, in some cases a slower loading website will actually be just as usable - if not more so - than a faster loading website. Yet, with site speed now a factor in Google’s algorithm, such sites will presumably suffer in Google’s search rankings in comparison.

All that aside, it is now 2010 - almost everybody has broadband and connections are getting faster and faster. As web and media technologies progress, the total file size of websites is probably getting smaller, if anything. So, is site speed really a big issue? Big enough to make it worthwhile penalising slower loading websites in Google’s search results?

If site speed really is a big enough issue, then my suggestion would be for Google to make it an option for users to prioritise faster loading websites in the results of their search. A simple tick box would do the job. Users on mobile devices, or on slower connections, could then make use of this option, while other users would continue to receive accurate search results not influenced by factors irrelevant to websites’ content.

SI CAPTCHA

It’s pretty straight-forward to install and it works a treat. Just go to the Plugins section of WordPress, select ‘Add New’ then search for ‘captcha’. There’s plenty of options but SI CAPTCHA seems to have the best rating and I’ve found it works perfectly. Hopefully I’ve seen the last of the recent surge in comment spam on my blog!

By default, Google treats all ccTLDs with preference in search results when someone searches Google in the ccTLD’s country of origin. For example, if you searched Google in the UK, websites using .CO.UK domains would be treated preferably in the search results compared to sites using other ccTLDs, such as .US or .COM.AU, and sites using TLDs such as .COM or .NET (unless, of course, they have been Geo Targeted towards the UK). On the flipside, .CO.UK websites would perform less favourably in searches performed in other countries. Of course, I am not suggesting that this factor alone would place a ccTLD ahead of TLDs and other ccTLDs in search results by default - there are many, many factors that determine a website’s search engine rank - but this is very much one of them.

Using Google Webmaster Tools, you can set the country of a TLD with what is known as Geo Targetting; a method of determining the geographical location of a website. This helps to enhance search engine performance in the country in which the website is located. For example, you might run a .NET website in the UK, in which case it would boost your UK search engine results to Geo Target your domain towards the UK. However, it is not generally possible to use this method to change a ccTLD’s geographical location. Google treats such domains as being located in their country of origin by default. For example, a .CO.UK website would be seen by Google as being located in the UK by default and this cannot be changed.

Nontheless, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, the .TV extension was created as the ccTLD for Tuvalu and, while it remains a ccTLD, it has since been made available worldwide and has been heavily marketed as such by domain registrars. Google has reflected this by making it possible to Geo Target a .TV domain in the same way as a TLD.

The .ME extension was created as the ccTLD for Montenegro. Similarly to the .TV extension, it was later made available worldwide and I was one of many who flocked to snap .ME domains up when this happened. However, despite being made available worldwide, Google refused to allow this ccTLD to be Geo Targeted – all .ME websites were treated by Google as being located in Montenegro, meaning they would perform strongly in Montenegran search results but not in other countries.

It is understandable that Google prevent Geo Targeting for certain ccTLDs. Take .US as an example – the registry for .US domains restricts the registration and usage of .US domains to those either residing in, or operating a business in, the USA. In this case, it is quite right that Google do not allow people to Geo Target this ccTLD for any country other than the USA. However, there have been no such restrictions in place for .ME domains since they were released to the world. In spite of this, over a year passed before Google finally allowed .ME domains to be Geo Targeted. During this time, huge numbers of people outside of Montenegro who invested in .ME domains suffered – the search engine performance of their .ME websites was suppressed because, while they will have been performing well in search results in Montenegro, they will not have fared so well in their own countries. A knock on effect of this is that the value of .ME domains as saleable assets has been restrained.

Google do not own the Internet. They do not govern domain registration or usage – they are not a domain registry of any sort. If a ccTLD is made globally available, who are Google to prevent people from using these domains as such? Domain registries make and enforce the rules for domain registration and usage – Google should follow these rules. When a new ccTLD is released, or the rules are changed significantly for the registration or use of any ccTLD, Google should adapt to these rules immediately. I cannot see any logical or justifiable reason for them not to do so. So why did it take Google over a year before they allowed the .ME ccTLD to be Geo Targeted, like its .TV counterpart? Google’s actions – or lack of – may well have cost a lot of people money. But heaven forbid Google should ever have to explain themselves.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9585

It’s not exactly a one-line solution but it certainly does the trick better than anything else I’ve found. It’s also pretty easy to understand and, if you so wish, edit. I hope you find it useful!

“For security reasons, we recommend downloading the latest and greatest version.”

For security reasons? That’s the bit that got my attention. They use this statement every time there is a Firefox upgrade available. Forgive me if I’m reading it wrong, but this statement says to me that the current version of Firefox is not secure. Given how frequently Firefox upgrades become available, does this statement from Mozilla not suggest that every version of Firefox becomes insecure soon after its release? In which case, are they not suggesting that you should use a different browser altogether, for security reasons?

For the second part of my rant, I would like to ask you a question. Just what on earth is the background image all about on the aforementioned Mozilla web page?! The part of the image to which I am specifically referring is below:

From where I’m sitting, it seems to be a group of translucent birds flying out of a pipe. Anyone got any ideas what it means? My guess would be that the pipe is a metaphor for Internet Explorer and the birds are a metaphor for Firefox users, flying free from Internet Explorer as they download the latest version of Firefox. But do those translucent birds realise how insecure the world outside that pipe is?!

Not only did .ME prove to be record-breaking in terms of public sales, it also generated over $2million from the landrush auction period alone. It achieved the fastest growth of sites on a particular extension being indexed by Google - .ME domains now account for almost ten million of Google’s indexed pages - and Alexa reported that the number of .ME domains in its top 1million websites was soaring past the corresponding numbers for .MOBI and .ASIA domains, both of which extensions had been released some time before .ME. It was the fastest growing new domain extension on record.

So what’s so special about .ME?

Whenever a new extension is released, domain buyers flock to snap up domains regardless of what the extension is – be it .ME, .YOU, .CHEESE or .LIPSTICK – because some domains are of a certain value irrespective of their extension. The type of domains I’m referring to are keyword domains. For example, carinsurance.biz, tailoredsuits.info, or cheapflights.com. The value of these domains is in the volume of searches for the respective keywords via search engines; your potential customers are already searching for your website. It’s a bit like hiring premises for a shop on a busy high street – your potential customers are already on the high street, waiting to buy your products. Since there are a limited number of domain extensions, there are subsequently a limited number of domains that can be registered with any particular keyword. So the supply of a keyword domain is very small, but demand is huge – hence domainers flocking to snap up these types of domain whenever a new extension is released.

But .ME is not just any extension. While it has the same value as other extensions for keyword domains, it also has meaning. “Me” is, of course, a word – not just in English, the most spoken language across the globe, but also in Spanish and Italian. So you can juxtapose a verb with “me” to create catchy phrases – particularly call-to-action phrases – with a .ME domain. The possibilities are almost endless – this method of creating a phrase with a .ME domain can be applied to any industry. Some examples of this are “insure.me”, “date.me” and “entertain.me”. This type of domain is catchy, unique and, most importantly, easier to remember than other types of domain. This is firstly because they stand out, since most other domains are not catchy phrases. But secondly – and here is where I dip into my HCI knowledge – there is a science behind the memorability of these types of domain. This science is called ‘chunking’. Chunking, in a nutshell, is the way in which information is split into chunks that are manageable by the human mind. In other words, it is the way in which things are made easy to remember. Most websites use the more common extensions such as .COM, .NET and .INFO. In most cases, the domain does not comprise a phrase. When a user sees one of these domains, they have two chunks of information to remember – the domain name and the domain extension, e.g. “google” and “dot com”. Let’s look at a brandable .ME domain, however. The example we will use is “insure.me”. When the user sees this domain, they see a phrase - “insure me”. The user will, of course, have to remember both the domain and the extension. But the second word IS the extension and the two words collocate to form one phrase, meaning that the user effectively has just one chunk of information – the phrase “insure me” - to remember. This acts to constrict the amount of information processed by the user’s brain, thus making the domain significantly easier to remember. Some examples of websites already using this technique with other domain extensions are fly.be, buy.at and del.icio.us.

Right, now that I’ve had my HCI fix, it’s time for my entrepreneurial fix - let’s talk about brands. Every business needs a brand – it’s what its customers remember and refer to it by. If a business is web-based, its domain is of huge importance – it goes hand in hand with its brand and is paramount to its marketing. If I ask you to think of the first three successful websites that come into your head, which ones do you think of? My answer would be Google, Ebay and Amazon. Now think of their domain names – how many are keyword domains? In this case, none of them. Keyword domains have their value but, if you have big ambitions for your website, you need a real, strong brand. Google’s domain is not “searchengine.com”, Ebay’s domain is not “onlineauctions.net” and Amazon’s domain is not “bookshop.biz”. They did not choose to pick up a keyword domain and just sit and wait for some search engine traffic. They made names for themselves by creating their own memorable brands and standing out from the crowd. This is what .ME is all about. But why not create a catchy, memorable .COM domain instead? You could argue that most successful websites, like these examples, use .COM domains, so the web address is usually obvious. In which case, if you are able to come up with a catchy and memorable brand name, would a .COM not be better than a .ME? This can sometimes be the case, but not always. What’s more, all the good names are taken! Think SourceForge (.net), Craigslist (.org) or ImageShack (.us) - other domain extensions are coming into play more and more, so it is becoming increasingly important that your domain extension is obvious. Enter .ME – the perfect solution. Not only does it ooze potential for creating catchy, memorable domain names – it is also the most effective extension for allowing your website name to double up as your web address. No other domain extension can truly rival the marketing potential of .ME.

So, to answer the question - “what’s so special about .ME?” - it is a domain extension that gives you more potential than any other to create a unique, memorable domain name that stands out from the crowd. Dot com may always be king, as they say. But, in an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive for getting your website seen and found, no other domain extension manages to encapsulate the needs of the modern day website owner quite like .ME does. Don’t get me wrong – having a good, brandable .ME domain does not guarantee that your website will be successful, no matter how catchy or memorable it is. But it will give you a head start. If you have big ambitions for your website - and you really want to make a name for yourself - then .ME is for you.

Hope you find it useful - I do!

I don’t know how much money Spotify are making but it seems to be taking off somewhat, judging by how much I keep hearing about it all over the place. So I’m going to assume that they’re doing ok for cash. In which case, could they not afford to have their own ads done a bit more professionally? I find the ones that start with “Hi, I’m Joe Bloggs from Spotify, we hope you love Spotify as much as we do”, and finish with “everyone loves music”, pretty annoying and borderline patronising. But I can just about tolerate these. It’s the latest batch that have irked me.

First off we have Dave Berry - or at least it sounds like Dave Berry. He’s a pretty successful radio DJ from XFM in London. He’s done loads of voiceovers - I hear him on adverts all the time. And, as I mentioned above, I’m assuming Spotify are doing alright for cash. So why are both Dave Berry’s Spotify ads so unbelievably rubbish? They’re poorly scripted, poorly voiced and the audio quality is AWFUL. Seriously, they must have got the microphone in a Christmas cracker and then said “just make something up for 30 seconds Dave, anything will do”.

And secondly, the voicemail adverts. Ah yes, phone Spotify’s voicemail and leave a message - tell them what you think of Spotify. That’s all fine, the idea itself is not overly offensive. But what occured to me when hearing one of these ads just now was that each advert is the same duration - around 30 seconds. The Spotify bit (the guy saying “leave us a voicemail on 0207…” etc) is the same duration every time - it’s the same recording. And the adverts are always the same duration. So the first half of the advert - the voicemail left by a Spotify user - has a set duration. My question is, does everyone who calls their voicemail just happen, by coinsidence, to speak for exactly the same duration of time? And, by another freak coinsidence, is this duration of time the exact same duration of time that the voicemails in their adverts must last for? The cynic in me suggests that this is more than a coinsidence and that the ‘voicemails’ they have put in their adverts are faked.

Like I said, I’m all in favour of Spotify - it’s brilliant. I just find Spotify’s own adverts to be pretty irritating in various ways - I just wanted to have a quick rant about it.

Ah, now I feel better

I purchased a Blackberry Bold a few months back and have been experiencing a problem with the screen going blank at random. From time to time, it just seems to go into standby randomly and the only way I could get the screen to come back on was to shake it. I searched the web like crazy and found nothing - and pretty much everyone I know who has a Blackberry (either Blackberry Bold or Blackberry Storm) has been experiencing the same problem. However, I have finally figured it out.

When you put your Blackberry into its case, there is a magnet inside the case that the Blackberry detects. It then automatically goes into standby in order to prevent any buttons being inadvertently pressed if you lean on it while it’s in your pocket.

What I found was that the screen was going blank when I was holding the Blackberry against the case - so it was obviously detecting the magnet and thinking that it was inside the case, hence going into standby. It wasn’t the shaking that got the screen to come back on - it was simply pulling the Blackberry away from the case!

So that’s it. I hope there’s some people out there who read this post and find that it solves the problem for them - I know how infuriating it is! Thankfully I never got round to sending my Blackberry back to Vodafone to get it repaired - I may have looked a bit silly…

At the footer of most websites, you will have a copyright notice, along the lines of:

© Copyright 2009 TheMasterBrewer

Have you ever found it a nuisance having to update the year every January on all of your websites? I used to. But it’s actually very simple to make your websites automatically update themselves using a little nugget of PHP. Your web pages will of course have to be written in PHP if you use this method - basic HTML files (.htm or .html) or files coded in other languages (e.g. ASP, JSP, etc) won’t work.

So, what’s the code? You simply use the PHP date function to retrieve the current year. You can retrieve it in various formats, but the format we require is a four digit full numeric representation of the year. This is called using an uppercase ‘Y’. So, the code is simply:

date(’Y')

Simple, huh? You just echo this and it comes out as 2009, or whatever year it is. So, for the above copyright statement, your code would be:

&copy; Copyright <?php echo date(’Y'); ?> TheMasterBrewer

That’s it. The next time the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, all your websites will automatically update the year in their copyright notices.

Many of you will read this and think “duh”, but hopefully some of you will find it useful. If you have any questions, let me know. Cya!