Mashups, you have been hearing the term, but you don’t know what it is. A mashup is a new type of web application using content already existing on the web in a new and innovative way. Mashups are considered part of Web 2.0. A good example of a mashup is chicagocrime.org, a web site that combines crime data from the Chicago Police Department with Google Maps. Google not only supports mashups, but they provide actual mashup framework and tools.

Not all mashups are map oriented, stumbleupon.com is search engine that is unique in that it matches the search results to your personal preferences. As they state on their site “Using search engines to locate relevant content typically means hunting through pages of results. Rather than searching for quality web sites, StumbleUpon members are taken directly to web sites matching their personal interest and preferences.” Joining is easy, over 3.3 million people have already joined.

If you have a blog and want to increase your reach you should use the mashup feedburner.com. FeedBurner allows you to “pubvertise” (their word, not mine) your blog through their web site. For a small monthly fee (starts at .99 per month) FeedBurner will analyze, optimize, publicize, monetize and troubleshoot your blog performance! An innovative way to build better blogging networks for a minimal cost.

If you want to customize your browsing use webwag.com. Webwag allows you to access all the information and services that matter to you, you can choose the newsfeeds, online services, live TV, emails, sticky notes, weather forecasts, etc. all from your Webwag page. You can even choose to have a Flickr feed so that you can keep up with your favorite pictures. My favorite is the Sodoku feed, you can choose how hard or how easy a sudoku challenge you want and can even see the solution if you get stuck!

There are a lot of good mashups out there, if you are interested in finding more just go to one of the mashup directories. I personally like mashup.com’s “Software Mashup of the day”. Have fun finding the right mashups for you!

Before beginning the web design process, determine why you are doing a web design and what are your goals and objectives for your new web site. Do you want to move your site to the next level, make it a call to action? This can be done by allowing visitors to subscribe to a monthly newsletter or having an e-commerce section on your web site. Remember if you have people sign up for a newsletter, you will have to produce a newsletter. A simple HTML newsletter can be created as a part of many content management systems.

Is your site redesign being used as a way to bring visitors back to your site, if so you might consider switching to a content management-based web site. Content management systems allow you to easily update your web site yourself. No need to know HTML, if you can type you can update your web site. This will keep the site current and allow your visitors to see something new each time they visit your site.

Are you trying to make your site visually current? Design changes, and what is "hot" today, may look dated tomorrow. Specific colors and graphics can often date a web site. Animated gifs were very popular a few years back, today they look out-of-place. We always suggest a clean look that reflects the clients inner style. The site can be fun (take the Ribit web site for instance!) or elegant, the most important thing is that the site will appeal to the visitors, and give them an easy way to find what they were looking for (a purchase, information, etc.). Pages should be quick and easy to load.

You need to make sure that your site is easy to navigate. We try to live by the two click rule, it should not take more than two clicks to get to any given page on the web site. More and more we use drop down navigation to allow visitors to get to any page in the web site from any page in the web site. You never want a visitor to feel trapped on your site, they should be able to find what they want easily and quickly.

Don't forget that marketing on the web is key. Branding on the web is just as important as in traditional media. You don't want someone to visit your web site and be confused. Your web site should reflect the branding you use for your traditional marketing, i.e., visitors should still recognize your company. Don't be confused, you should not just take your corporate brochure and recreate it on the web. You wouldn't use your corporate brochure to make a radio or television commercial, so don't make it the basis of your web site. Your web site should be interactive, allow visitors to find information that would not be in your brochure (perhaps a calculator, a current listing or projects completed, etc.) your web site should be a living example of who your company is and what you can provide to visitors.

Remember when redesigning your web site, it might be time to redesign your web site copy. People want to get succinct information, when you have a lot of information to impart consider drill downs to break up the text or a downloadable format (i.e., a word file of a .pdf file). If people are interested they will obtain the information. You don't want to intimidate people with a page that scrolls forever, they will find another site to give them the information without what appears to them to be a herculean task.

Finally, remember that although you have hired a company to help you design your web site, while they are the experts on the internet, you are the experts on your customers. To design the best possible web site for you and your customers, one that will meet or exceed your goals and objectives, you and your web design company must be a team. No one nows your company better than you do and no one knows the web better than your web design company, working together you can create the ultimate web site!

Or: Why Apple Moving to Intel Chips is No Big Deal

So by now all of those who pay attention to such things have heard. On Monday, June 6th at the 2005 WWDC, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be gradually transitioning their systems from the PowerPC chips supplied by IBM to some form of chip from Intel.

So?

Keep in mind, this is not the "so?" of a non-Mac-using PC-head. This is the "so?" of a Mac-loving, Microsoft-hating, graphic artist who's credentials as a rabid Mac Zealot are doubted by no one. You are reading the words of a man who once turned down a paying job because they wanted me to work on a Windows toybox, telling the prospective employer "I cannot work for someone who will not allow me to use the proper tools to do the job. Asking anyone to actually do work on a Windows machine is the same as telling your mechanic he has to fix everything on your Mercedes with a Sledge Hammer."

But I digress. As usual.

The reason I say "so" to this big news is that it doesn't affect me. Or you. Or really anyone at this point, other than developers of applications that run on Mac OSX. My system, a venerable Dual 450 MHZ G4, still works. The system I am about to acquire, a young and exciting Dual 2.3 GHZ G5, will also work. It will serve me for 5 years just as my beloved G4 has done. The system you have now will continue to work beautifully (provided you are on a Mac, if you are on Windows, your system never worked well). Any system you buy from now until the Intel transition is complete, and indeed afterwards, will work perfectly well. The transition will, for the users, be totally transparent. We will probably be only peripherally aware it has even happened.

If you are a developer, things will be different for you. You will have to tweak some of your code over the next year. But, seriously, wouldn't you be doing that anyway? No developer I know sits on their butt for a year at a time and does not touch their code. So basically developers are simply going to be tweaking their code, like they would do anyway, over the next year or so. Surely a nightmare come true (note sarcasm).

Another little bit of twaddle I keep hearing in places like the MacAddict Forums is that developers are "angry" at this news.

Huh?

I watched that Quicktime stream of the keynote. I heard the reaction. Sounded to me like the developers were pretty damn happy. This was the audience at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference. This isn't some consumer expo. The people in the audience enthusiastically applauding were the developers. They were the very people that are going to be doing those tweaks to their code. They sounded pretty hyped over the news. I'll take that reaction as a barometer over the uninformed and formless comments of some dink on a message board any day, thank you.

I think the comments by Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen best captured the attitude of developers when he took the stage with Steve Jobs on Monday and said, referring to the switch to Intel, "What took you so long?"

Welcome to our new web site! We are very excited and hope you will be too! Being the proverbial cobbler's child, our web site was woefully out of date, but after much time and effort, we finally have our new web site online. We will be spending time keeping it current (okay, I still need to add a few things, tweak some copy, but we were just so excited about the new site we couldn't wait to make it live) and of course we will be blogging on a regular basis.

Look forward to seeing both Jason and I keeping you current on what we are up to and current events that might be of interest to our potential and existing clients.

I know this entry is short, but look forward to my blog next week. Right now I have to work on a client's site!

Thanks for visiting our new site and have a great day....