Archive for the ‘web apps’ Category

It’s Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!

Posted by Eric on April 13, 2010  |   No Comments »

fort wayne web deisgn HTML5 logo Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!There’s a new buzz word going on around the web.  It’s called HTML 5.  And, unless you are a web designer, you probably haven’t heard anything about it.  But, it is rapidly promising to be an amazing way to bring new and exciting things to the web.

Need some proof?  Check out this link that showcases some of the coolest new features of HTML 5, created by the boys at 9Elements Design Studio: HTML 5 DEMO!

Now for many of you – about 32% of you to be exact (according to my Google Analytics) – you saw nothing except the “OH NO” warning.

Wonder why that is?  Well, the simple answer is that Internet Explorer doesn’t yet support HTML 5 elements.

There’s a simple test out that tries to tell us how well any particular browser does at implementing the new HTML 5 standards.  You can find this test at http://www.html5test.com.  I recently went through the test with 6 browsers – 3 Mac and 3 PC.  Here’s the results, starting with the best:

  1. GOOGLE CHROME for the Mac
    Google Chrome for Mac HTML 5 Test ResultsAs you can see, Google Chrome for the Mac scored 137 points out of a possible 160.  A pretty good score.
  2. GOOGLE CHROME for the PC
    fort wayne web deisgn googleChromePC Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!Now the real question here is why Google Chrome for the Mac scored 137 but Google Chrome for the PC only scored 118?  But, 118 was still good enough to snag second place
  3. SAFARI for Mac
    fort wayne web deisgn safariMac Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!Coming in just 5 points behind Google Chrome for the PC is Safari – Apple’s built in browser for the Mac.  Still a pretty nice score!
  4. FIREFOX for PC and for MAC
    fort wayne web deisgn firefoxPC Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!Here we have a tie (the way I think we should).  Bot Firefox for the PC and Firefox for the Mac scored exactly the same score – 101.

    Now, before I move on to last place, notice the above score.  All of them are above 100.  In the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty good result for modern standards such as HTML 5.

    But, now we have last place:

  5. Internet Explorer 8 for PC
    fort wayne web deisgn ie8pc Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!A whopping 19!!!! You have got to be kidding me.  This is the best that Microsoft could do?  All the other browsers score over 100 and Internet Explorer – the most recent up to date version – scores only 19?  Obviously something is very wrong here.

So, with all this information about browser scores and HTML 5 comes the obvious question – WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?  Well, the answer is that HTML 5 is going to be the future of the internet and wether you are choosing a browser or, even more important, choosing a web developer, you want someone who is familiar with HTML 5 and can leverage all of its power for your site.  You don’t want someone stuck with old, out-dated technologies designing your site using the same tools, the same tricks that were popular ten or even twenty years ago.

Got questions, want to make comment?  Comment below or CONTACT US today to talk more!

Save Money and Work Together!

Posted by Eric on April 6, 2010  |   No Comments »

Microsoft Office has become a staple of almost all businesses.  We don’t really even talk about Word Processors any more, we just talk about Word.  But, at $300 – $350 for the full version, it can quickly become a very expensive choice.  For a company with 100 employees, this comes out to a cost of $300,000!  And, assuming that Office is upgraded every 3 years, that cost continues to grow!

But, is there really any other option?  Don’t I just have to own Microsoft Office if I want to work with the rest of the world?  The answer is a resounding NO! There are many options.  And, the best news is that many of them are FREE!

I want to look at just one option here – Google Docs.  This is, in my opinion, one of the best options available to replace Microsoft Office.  It has most of the critical features found in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and it is free!  100% FREE!  And, Google Docs, offers some great collaboration tools that you simply cannot find in Microsoft Office.  So, if you are interested in saving $300 per employee, and want to work together better, read on!

First of all, let me say that this isn’t a review of Google Docs.  Nor is this a side by side comparison of the benefits of Google Docs versus the benefits of Microsoft Office.  All I want to do, is introduce people to Google Docs, and maybe, just maybe, make you think that there might be another option.

Google Docs provides an excellent replacement to MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint.  Below you will see my file listing (well, part of it), in Google Docs:

Listing of My Google Docs (notice that many are shared)

Listing of My Google Docs (notice that many are shared)

Looking over the list, you’ll see that my files include Word Processor docs, Spreadsheet Docs, and PDF’s.  Also, you will notice that many of them are shared – “me to 1 collaborator”.  This means that we BOTH can work on the document.

Recently I was working on a project with a client.  She e-mailed me a list of edits in a Word Doc.  I made the changes and noted all my changes/question in BLUE.  Then e-mailed the new document back to the client.  She made further comments, this time in red.  The client’s associate also made comments and clarifications, this time in green.  The process continued a back and forth process until the Word document was basically useless.

There is, of course, a better way.  All three of us could have been working on the SAME document.  Then we can see all the revision

See Revision History - Working Together on Google Docs

See Revision History - Working Together on Google Docs

Once I open up a Google Doc, you’ll see from the file menu an option to “See revision history”.  Clicking on this option brings up a screen like the one below:

Listing of Previous Version of One Google Doc

Listing of Previous Version of One Google Doc

From this screen, you can see the entire revision history, when the revision was made, and who made the revision.  You can instantly roll back to a previous version and then come back to the current revision.

Now, there is never a need to e-mail documents back and forth.  No need to invent different colors for everyone on the team.  And, no need to use the ultimately annoying track changes in MS Word (where every change, every spelling fix, everything has a line and box beside it).

Now, just share the doc on Google and you can all work together.

Going Google?

Posted by Eric on October 19, 2009  |   1 Comment »

Going Google? Fort Wayne Web Design Goes GoogleWith Microsoft’s SharePoint conference in Las Vegas starting today (Monday, October 19), Google has broadened its Going Google ad campaign.

Not familiar with the campaign?  It is Google’s ad campaign to push harder into the business world with its enterprise offerings.  Here’s a short YouTube video Google put out:

If you haven’t been watching Google for a while, then you might have missed what they’ve been doing lately.  While still owning the majority of search volume online (around 60-65%), Google has begun pushing into other areas as well.  A few of the key areas that I think any business should consider:

  • GMAIL – Google has made some incredible changes to G-mail that can be a HUGE time and cost saver to many businesses.  Now any domain (yourWebDomain.com) can run it’s own e-mal through Gmail.  What does this mean?  It means that you can take advantage of Google’s Anti-Spam features (powered by Postini) – which are some of the absolute best in the business.  You can also read your e-mail online through the G-Mail interface.  You can have an assistant send e-mail on the boss’s behalf ( e-mail delegation), and e-mail archiving.   You get ALL of this without giving up your own domain name.  This means that you continue to have you e-mail as Joe@YourDomain.com, but the e-mail is routed through the GMail Service.  The person sending you an e-mail AND the person receiving an e-mail from you all see the Joe@YourDomain.com as the e-mail, but you get all the storage, spam filtering, e-mail archiving / backup, web interface, etc. of Gmail!

    Cost: $5 per user per year
    Savings:  This could be a huge savings.  Companies can stop paying thousands of dollars for expensive spam filters / appliances.  Also (as you will see below), this cost could be even bigger in that you could COMPLETELY DITCH an Exchange server!  This could save thousands more every year!

  • Google Calendar – Google calendar is a powerful, shareable calendaring system.  And, the best feature is that it can integrate seamlessly with MS Outlook and Apple iCal!   In addition to this, it completely supports multiple users – meaning you can see when other in your organization are busy and schedule meetings with them.  You can also share your calendar, allowing others to simply view it, edit it, etc.  Again, this gives everyone all the functions of a typical MS Exchange server at a cost that will save thousands every single year.

    Cost: $5 per user per year (this is the same $5 user per year as the above, not in addition)
    Savings: Again this could be huge.  Getting rid of an Exchange server will save any organization thousands of dollars a year.

  • Google Docs –  Google has been putting out three very powerful web based programs – Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and PowerPoint programs.  These programs aren’t as advanced as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  But, most users don’t use the advanced features in these programs.  And, again, the cost savings is HUGE!  All three programs also allow for complete sharing of docs.  This means you NEVER again have to e-mail a doc to a co-worker.  You simply share it with him or her and you both edit it together.  You can see changes made by Co-Worker X and roll back, etc.  It makes collaboration a snap!

    Cost: FREE (although when used with the $5 per user per year, it is a bit simpler to collaborate)
    Savings: Well, let’s see with the average cost of MS Office from Amazon running around $325, the cost savings is $325 multiplied by the number of workers who choose to use Google Docs.  Again, The answer here is THOUSANDS more, potentially!

  • Google Analytics – Do you have a website?  Do you know how many visits you get?  How long people stay on your site?  Which pages are visited the most?  All of this data is available for FREE from Google.  Simply add a few lines of code to the bottom of your website and you can get all the data about your site you could want and MUCH more!

    Cost: FREE
    Savings: None, unless you are paying for an analytics page now or using some stupid looking hit counter (then you don’t save money, you just save the hassle of having a stupid hit counter on your home page)

These are just four of my favorite Google products right now. There’s a ton more that we could talk about.  Things like: Google Voice, Google Wave, Google Checkout, Google Wave, etc.  All of these are available for free and could save companies a ton of money and a lot of time.

Interested?  Got Questions?  Leave me a comment or contact us.  We’d love to talk more with you about how we can help save you money!

Digg Dialog with Marissa Mayer

Posted by Eric on August 8, 2009  |   No Comments »

Just recently, I’ve been watching the Digg Dialog with Marissa Mayer. I’m embedding it below.

But, first of all, a little information to make sure we are all up to speed:

1. DIGG – for those of you who don’t know about DIGG, you have to check it out. Digg is one of the most popular web site’s in America. Founded by Kevin Rose (his blog – http://kevinrose.com/), DIGG (http://www.digg.com) is a user generated news site.  Users submit new articles that they find on the web.  Then the users vote (i.e. DIGG) these stories up or down.  Stories with the most diggs appear at the top (on the home page).  With well over 50 million users – it can be VERY interesting to see what is being dugg right now.

2.  DIGG DIALOG – this is the same concept as digg – but applied to interviews.  DIGG will announce a new Dialog coming up.  Then users will submit questions that they would like asked.  Users will then vote (digg) stories up or down.  The top 10 questions – as determined by US, not the interviewer or news channel – are then asked.

Previous Dialog’s have included Trent Reznor, Richard Branson, Nancy Pelosi…

3.  MARISSA MAYER – Marissa is the Vice President for Search and User Experience at Google.  Her influence is all over the search side of Google.

So, the top ten questions, as voted on by the DIGG community were asked of Marissa.  Here’s the video: