Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Website Development With Video
I'm currently doing some website design work for Great Barrier Reef diving company Calypso Dive and have been putting together a nice way for them to display a video gallery to their website users. This has involved me trying to find a good tool for shrinking the videos that come off their cameras. Even the smallest clips have been 20MB which is just too much for most people to download. Anyway, I've found a free tool so if you're interested contact me at Ion e-Business and I'll let you know where to download it from.
Coral Reefs Declining Fast
Coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian oceans are disappearing faster than had previously been thought, a scientific study has shown.
Nearly 1,554 sq km (600 sq miles) of reef have disappeared each year since the 1960s - twice the speed at which rainforest is being lost.
The corals are vanishing at a rate of 1% per year, a decline that has begun decades earlier than expected.
Details of the survey appear in the journal Plos One.
Read more at BBC online.
Nearly 1,554 sq km (600 sq miles) of reef have disappeared each year since the 1960s - twice the speed at which rainforest is being lost.
The corals are vanishing at a rate of 1% per year, a decline that has begun decades earlier than expected.
Details of the survey appear in the journal Plos One.
Read more at BBC online.
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Teachers - Are They Really This Stupid?
Teachers have called for websites such as YouTube to be shut down as part of efforts to prevent pupils and staff being bullied. Delegates at the conference of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) said bullying can continue outside school and work hours.
They said bullies can send abusive text messages or e-mails to victims.
A spokesman for the website YouTube said the vast majority of people used the site responsibly.
At the PAT annual conference in Harrogate, delegates heard that bullies have posted mobile phone videos on websites, showing teachers as well as pupils being attacked or humiliated.
Read more...
They said bullies can send abusive text messages or e-mails to victims.
A spokesman for the website YouTube said the vast majority of people used the site responsibly.
At the PAT annual conference in Harrogate, delegates heard that bullies have posted mobile phone videos on websites, showing teachers as well as pupils being attacked or humiliated.
Read more...
Silicon Valley Start Ups
According to the Wall Street Journal, half of the 20 most inventive towns in the US are in Silicon Valley.
Nowadays the place is not just about silicon chip makers; all technology is here.
It is a string of satellite towns full of clever people, incredibly successful tech companies, and hopefuls looking to make the big time.
This place was the centre of the dotcom bubble of the mid 90s, when investors were pouring money into anything with a dot in the title. Of course it was also the hardest hit when the bubble burst. For every surviving big player, hundreds went under.
Now the optimism is back, along with the money.
Read more at BBC online.
Nowadays the place is not just about silicon chip makers; all technology is here.
It is a string of satellite towns full of clever people, incredibly successful tech companies, and hopefuls looking to make the big time.
This place was the centre of the dotcom bubble of the mid 90s, when investors were pouring money into anything with a dot in the title. Of course it was also the hardest hit when the bubble burst. For every surviving big player, hundreds went under.
Now the optimism is back, along with the money.
Read more at BBC online.
Zazz Rules
I love Zazz. They sell some great stuff at amazing prices. I buy a lot of gear from them for my web site design company and it always turns up and works too.
Zaz
I love Zazz. I've said it before and I'll say it again. They sell some great stuff at amazing prices. I buy a lot of 'stuff' for my web site design company through them and it always turns up and works.
Monday, 30 July 2007
Sony Shares Up
Sony profits for the April to June period have more than doubled as robust demand for its cameras and a weak yen offset losses at its games unit.
Net earnings for the first quarter at the electronics giant rose to 66.5bn yen ($552m; £269m), up from 32.3bn yen last year.
The fall in the Japanese currency against the US dollar and euro helped boost the firm's overseas earnings.
But its Playstation 3 console continued to struggle in a tough games market.
PS3 troubles
Problems with the company's next generation games console - designed to compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii - caused its launch to be delayed.
Despite Sony cutting the price of the PS3 in the US, sales of the system still significantly trail Nintendo's Wii machine. Sony's games division saw losses widen to 29.2bn yen.
Sony said it aimed to increase shipments of the PS3 to 11 million units by 2008. On Wednesday, Nintendo upgraded sales forecasts of its Wii console to 16.5 million machines for the year to March 2008, up from a previous forecast of 14 million.
Elsewhere, performance was strong in Sony's electronics division, which benefited from strong demand for Handycam video cameras and Bravia liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets.
With sales of conventional TV sets in decline, Sony faces a tough battle to win a share of the flat-panel market against LCD TV market leader Samsung Electronics.
Sony maintained its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2008 of 440bn yen. This is up sharply from 71.75bn yen in the 2006/07 financial year when it was hit by costs relating to the delayed launch of the PS3 and a recall of faulty laptop PC batteries.
Net earnings for the first quarter at the electronics giant rose to 66.5bn yen ($552m; £269m), up from 32.3bn yen last year.
The fall in the Japanese currency against the US dollar and euro helped boost the firm's overseas earnings.
But its Playstation 3 console continued to struggle in a tough games market.
PS3 troubles
Problems with the company's next generation games console - designed to compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii - caused its launch to be delayed.
Despite Sony cutting the price of the PS3 in the US, sales of the system still significantly trail Nintendo's Wii machine. Sony's games division saw losses widen to 29.2bn yen.
Sony said it aimed to increase shipments of the PS3 to 11 million units by 2008. On Wednesday, Nintendo upgraded sales forecasts of its Wii console to 16.5 million machines for the year to March 2008, up from a previous forecast of 14 million.
Elsewhere, performance was strong in Sony's electronics division, which benefited from strong demand for Handycam video cameras and Bravia liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets.
With sales of conventional TV sets in decline, Sony faces a tough battle to win a share of the flat-panel market against LCD TV market leader Samsung Electronics.
Sony maintained its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2008 of 440bn yen. This is up sharply from 71.75bn yen in the 2006/07 financial year when it was hit by costs relating to the delayed launch of the PS3 and a recall of faulty laptop PC batteries.
Thursday, 12 July 2007
E-Marketing growing Fast
The annual value of pan-European online advertising is set to reach 16bn euros ($22bn; £10.8bn) by 2012, more than double that of 2006, says a study.
The report by research body Forrester said online adverts would leap to 18% of market share, up from 9% currently.
It said 52% of people were now regularly online, spending more time doing so than watching television.
The UK will continue to see the most online advertising in the next four years, ahead of Germany and France.
European internet users now spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said.
As a result of this increased internet usage, 36% of people who go online said they spent less time looking at the television as a result.
The report said search engines would continue to dominate online advertising spend, followed by display advertisements and e-mails.
"After five years of dipping their toes into the online marketing waters, firms have come to realise that the net is a valuable medium for client acquisition, retention and market expansion," said the study.
For more information on Google Adwords campaigns call Ion e-Business for help.
The report by research body Forrester said online adverts would leap to 18% of market share, up from 9% currently.
It said 52% of people were now regularly online, spending more time doing so than watching television.
The UK will continue to see the most online advertising in the next four years, ahead of Germany and France.
European internet users now spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said.
As a result of this increased internet usage, 36% of people who go online said they spent less time looking at the television as a result.
The report said search engines would continue to dominate online advertising spend, followed by display advertisements and e-mails.
"After five years of dipping their toes into the online marketing waters, firms have come to realise that the net is a valuable medium for client acquisition, retention and market expansion," said the study.
For more information on Google Adwords campaigns call Ion e-Business for help.
Saturday, 7 July 2007
FBI Tackles Zombies
The FBI is contacting more than one million PC owners who have had their computers hijacked by cyber criminals. The initiative is part of an ongoing project to thwart the use of hijacked home computers, or zombies, as launch platforms for hi-tech crimes.
The FBI has found networks of zombie computers being used to spread spam, steal IDs and attack websites.
The agency said the zombies or bots were "a growing threat to national security".
The FBI has been trying to tackle networks of zombies for some time as part of an initiative it has dubbed Operation Bot Roast.
This operation recently passed a significant milestone as it racked up more than one million individually identifiable computers known to be part of one bot net or another.
The law enforcement organisation said that part of the operation involved notifying people who owned PCs it knew were part of zombie or bot networks. In this way it said it expected to find more evidence of how they are being used by criminals.
"The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited," said James Finch, assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division.
Many people fall victim by opening an attachment on an e-mail message containing a virus or by visiting a booby-trapped webpage.
Many hi-tech criminals are now trying to subvert innocent webpages to act as proxies for their malicious programs. Once hijacked, PCs can be used to send out spam, spread spyware or as repositories for illegal content such as pirated movies or pornography.
Those in charge of botnets, called botherders, can have tens of thousands of machines under their control.
Operation Bot Roast has resulted in the arrest of three people known to have used bot nets for criminal ends.
One of those arrested, Robert Alan Soloway, could face 65 years in jail if found guilty of all the crimes with which he has been charged.
In a statement about Operation Bot Roast the FBI urged PC users to practice good computer security which includes using regularly updated anti-virus software and installing a firewall.
For those without basic protections anti-virus companies such as F Secure, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs and many others offer online scanning services that can help spot infections.
The organisation said it was difficult for people to know if their machine was part of a botnet.
However it said telltale signs could be if the machine ran slowly, had an e-mail outbox full of mail a user did not send or they get e-mail saying they are sending spam.
The FBI has found networks of zombie computers being used to spread spam, steal IDs and attack websites.
The agency said the zombies or bots were "a growing threat to national security".
The FBI has been trying to tackle networks of zombies for some time as part of an initiative it has dubbed Operation Bot Roast.
This operation recently passed a significant milestone as it racked up more than one million individually identifiable computers known to be part of one bot net or another.
The law enforcement organisation said that part of the operation involved notifying people who owned PCs it knew were part of zombie or bot networks. In this way it said it expected to find more evidence of how they are being used by criminals.
"The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited," said James Finch, assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division.
Many people fall victim by opening an attachment on an e-mail message containing a virus or by visiting a booby-trapped webpage.
Many hi-tech criminals are now trying to subvert innocent webpages to act as proxies for their malicious programs. Once hijacked, PCs can be used to send out spam, spread spyware or as repositories for illegal content such as pirated movies or pornography.
Those in charge of botnets, called botherders, can have tens of thousands of machines under their control.
Operation Bot Roast has resulted in the arrest of three people known to have used bot nets for criminal ends.
One of those arrested, Robert Alan Soloway, could face 65 years in jail if found guilty of all the crimes with which he has been charged.
In a statement about Operation Bot Roast the FBI urged PC users to practice good computer security which includes using regularly updated anti-virus software and installing a firewall.
For those without basic protections anti-virus companies such as F Secure, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs and many others offer online scanning services that can help spot infections.
The organisation said it was difficult for people to know if their machine was part of a botnet.
However it said telltale signs could be if the machine ran slowly, had an e-mail outbox full of mail a user did not send or they get e-mail saying they are sending spam.
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Record Demand For Final Harry Potter Book
Nearly 1.6m copies of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have been pre-ordered online ahead of its release on 21 July.
According to online retailer Amazon, JK Rowling's seventh Potter book has become its most pre-ordered product.
Demand has surpassed a previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered ahead of the release of The Half-Blood Prince.
The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, has its European premiere in London on Tuesday.
The film opens across the globe on 11 July.
According to online retailer Amazon, JK Rowling's seventh Potter book has become its most pre-ordered product.
Demand has surpassed a previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered ahead of the release of The Half-Blood Prince.
The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, has its European premiere in London on Tuesday.
The film opens across the globe on 11 July.
Friday, 22 June 2007
Cyber Attack on Pentagon Email
A hacker has managed to penetrate one of the Pentagon's e-mail systems, leading officials to take up to 1,500 accounts offline.
The e-mail system did not contain classified information relating to military operations, a spokesman said.
The Pentagon says it rebuffs hundreds of attempted attacks on its computer systems each day.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that a "variety of precautionary measures" were being taken.
"Elements of the... unclassified email system were taken offline yesterday afternoon due to a detected penetration," Mr Gates said.
He said it was expected that the system would be online again very soon.
Few details were available about the exact nature of the attack.
A Pentagon spokesman said attacks could come from a variety of sources including: "recreational hackers, self-styled cyber-vigilantes, various groups with nationalistic and ideological agendas, trans-national actors and nation-states."
Officials would not say whether the hacker was able to read e-mails sent on the system.
Asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Mr Gates said: "I don't do e-mail. I'm a low-tech person."
Excerpt from BBC online.
The e-mail system did not contain classified information relating to military operations, a spokesman said.
The Pentagon says it rebuffs hundreds of attempted attacks on its computer systems each day.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that a "variety of precautionary measures" were being taken.
"Elements of the... unclassified email system were taken offline yesterday afternoon due to a detected penetration," Mr Gates said.
He said it was expected that the system would be online again very soon.
Few details were available about the exact nature of the attack.
A Pentagon spokesman said attacks could come from a variety of sources including: "recreational hackers, self-styled cyber-vigilantes, various groups with nationalistic and ideological agendas, trans-national actors and nation-states."
Officials would not say whether the hacker was able to read e-mails sent on the system.
Asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Mr Gates said: "I don't do e-mail. I'm a low-tech person."
Excerpt from BBC online.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
V3 Accommodation Booking
Right now, there's a lot going on with the V3 accommodation booking system. It has been taken up by a number of large companies in the past few weeks - Total Travel have come online and WhatIf are coming soon. For those of you that don't know, V3 is a real-time availability search and booking system. You can have it on your computer for roughly £380 for 2 years which to me seems the bargain of the century. Integrating it with your website will cost you a few bucks with your website designer but you can do it in two steps - the first step would be just to put the link button to V3 on your site; the second would be providing branding files to V3 so that there are links back to your own website from the booking system and so that the booking system looks like an extension of your own website.
What you have to remember about anything like this though is that if you're website cannot be found on Google because it's performing poorly in the rankings then there's really not much point. It's a good idea to get a professional search engine optimisation company involved in moving your website up the rankings before or at the same time as you go ahead with adding new functionality. Currently, in Mission Beach there are very few accommodation providers who have their sites optimised so there is a hole in the market to be filled - get your site on the first page of Google and reap the benefits of your real-time availability booking system.
What you have to remember about anything like this though is that if you're website cannot be found on Google because it's performing poorly in the rankings then there's really not much point. It's a good idea to get a professional search engine optimisation company involved in moving your website up the rankings before or at the same time as you go ahead with adding new functionality. Currently, in Mission Beach there are very few accommodation providers who have their sites optimised so there is a hole in the market to be filled - get your site on the first page of Google and reap the benefits of your real-time availability booking system.
Friday, 15 June 2007
Can You Really?
I often get phone calls from potential customers in Mission Beach who think that website design is an easy thing to do and should cost less than $1000 for an e-commerce website! Well, let me put this misconception in the garbage right here, right now. Yes, you can buy template websites online that you can set up yourselves and if you're happy with one of those then go ahead and do it and, I really mean this, good luck to you. But be aware that you're setting yourself up for a number of problems.
Firstly, you've got a website but it won't have any of your branding on it so customers won't be able to recognise you or your products.
Secondly, how on earth are people going to find your website? You've just implemented an e-commerce facility but unless your customers actually know what your website is called then they are never going to find your website using Google. Google is a complex and highly annoying animal. Your website needs to be optimised for it and then there are a whole host of techniques that need to be applied for link building to make your site seem popular in its eyes. All of this work requires careful attention to detail and constant monitoring of your website after it has gone live in order to tweak it to get it up the rankings.
So, before you decide that you really need a website, get used to the fact that to have it built professionally is going to require an initial outlay that will be more than the $500 most people think a website should cost. To put this $500 in perspective, for a Cairns company this is less than 5 hours work. I will say it now that it is impossible to build a website from conception to finish including getting it looking just the way the customer wants in this timeframe. Anybody who says that they can is leading you up a path that ends in a croc-infested creek and isn't very good at their job.
If you still want a website after reading this then you're a realist; your website will be built professionally to exacting standards and will perform well in the search engines. The ongoing benefits of the web will become more apparent as your site moves up the rankings and the initial outlay will turn into a profit-making machine.
Firstly, you've got a website but it won't have any of your branding on it so customers won't be able to recognise you or your products.
Secondly, how on earth are people going to find your website? You've just implemented an e-commerce facility but unless your customers actually know what your website is called then they are never going to find your website using Google. Google is a complex and highly annoying animal. Your website needs to be optimised for it and then there are a whole host of techniques that need to be applied for link building to make your site seem popular in its eyes. All of this work requires careful attention to detail and constant monitoring of your website after it has gone live in order to tweak it to get it up the rankings.
So, before you decide that you really need a website, get used to the fact that to have it built professionally is going to require an initial outlay that will be more than the $500 most people think a website should cost. To put this $500 in perspective, for a Cairns company this is less than 5 hours work. I will say it now that it is impossible to build a website from conception to finish including getting it looking just the way the customer wants in this timeframe. Anybody who says that they can is leading you up a path that ends in a croc-infested creek and isn't very good at their job.
If you still want a website after reading this then you're a realist; your website will be built professionally to exacting standards and will perform well in the search engines. The ongoing benefits of the web will become more apparent as your site moves up the rankings and the initial outlay will turn into a profit-making machine.
Safari...so goody
Apple's surprise announcement of a Windows version of Safari has led to inevitable questions about its motives in reigniting the browser war.
For some, the move is simply an essential element to its forthcoming iPhone launch, while others see it as a more aggressive move for browser market share or even the launch-pad for a raft of upcoming Apple software.
The fact that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs chose to announce the move at an Apple Developer's conference indicates that the focus is on web development.
"The more Safari users there are, the better support for Safari there will be from web developers. As it gets more popular, so it becomes essential that any new web application supports for Safari from day one," commented John Gruber on his blog Daring Fireball.
But perhaps, with its iPhone due to be launched at the end of the month, the key motivation for a Windows-compatible Safari is to make it easier for Windows-based web developers to write applications for that device.
"Apple needs to make sure that websites work with Safari. It is at the heart of its iPhone and probably for Apple TV, so it's got to make sure that websites work with it," said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
Read more at the BBC website.
For some, the move is simply an essential element to its forthcoming iPhone launch, while others see it as a more aggressive move for browser market share or even the launch-pad for a raft of upcoming Apple software.
The fact that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs chose to announce the move at an Apple Developer's conference indicates that the focus is on web development.
"The more Safari users there are, the better support for Safari there will be from web developers. As it gets more popular, so it becomes essential that any new web application supports for Safari from day one," commented John Gruber on his blog Daring Fireball.
But perhaps, with its iPhone due to be launched at the end of the month, the key motivation for a Windows-compatible Safari is to make it easier for Windows-based web developers to write applications for that device.
"Apple needs to make sure that websites work with Safari. It is at the heart of its iPhone and probably for Apple TV, so it's got to make sure that websites work with it," said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
Read more at the BBC website.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Andersons Real Estate
The new Andersons Real Estate website has gone live.
Ion e-Business have incorporated many advanced features into the website such as property finding using a Google Map to pinpoint the location of properties and using SMS as a means of contacting potential clients with regards to property alerts.
Check out the website and see what you think. Andersons Real Estate, the Mission Beach real estate specialists.
Ion e-Business have incorporated many advanced features into the website such as property finding using a Google Map to pinpoint the location of properties and using SMS as a means of contacting potential clients with regards to property alerts.
Check out the website and see what you think. Andersons Real Estate, the Mission Beach real estate specialists.
Friday, 8 June 2007
Mission Beach Information Station
The Mission Beach Information Station website is undergoing a transformation. Over the next few weeks keep your eyes on the site as we give it an updated look-and-feel, introduce new content on Dunk Island and Hinchinbrook Island and introduce several new elements that will make it easier for web surfers find accommodation and tours in Mission Beach.
Monday, 4 June 2007
My Nice Working Environment
I'm so lucky to be living in Mission Beach. Website design here is a pleasure to do. Lunch breaks on the beach, business meetings with a beer overlooking the beach. It doesn't get much better. Apart from the fact that the weather needs to clear up a bit.
Sunday, 3 June 2007
EMI Signs Deal With YouTube
EMI Music - home to recording artists such as Coldplay, Norah Jones and Keith Urban - has reached an agreement with Google's YouTube that lets the website carry music videos and other content from EMI.
It also clears the way for users to post videos with select EMI content.
With the deal, San Bruno, California-based YouTube now has permission to host videos from all four of the world's major recording companies.
YouTube reached agreements with the other music labels in October, but Britain-based EMI had been the lone holdout.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
EMI Music, a unit of EMI Group PLC, will receive a cut of revenue from ads shown on YouTube when EMI content is being viewed, said Chris Maxcy, head of business development for YouTube.
"Through this agreement EMI Music and its artists will be fairly compensated for their work," EMI chief executive Eric Nicoli said in a statement.
Previous deals struck by the company with other record labels and TV networks have also included ad revenue-sharing.
Under the terms of the agreement, EMI will make its artists' music videos available on the site.
Computer users will also be allowed to use content from select EMI artists in videos they create and post on the site.
Like other record labels, EMI will be able to identify when its video or audio material is being used in user-generated videos on the website and have it removed, should it opt to do so.
"There will be cases where maybe a particular artist doesn't want to participate and the labels need to respect that," Mr Maxcy said.
"In those cases, that content will be removed."
Video and songs by The Beatles, for example, will not be available on YouTube, EMI said.
YouTube has quietly rolled out technology that uses word search and filtering systems to track content on the site.
The company is also exploring other methods, including audio and video fingerprinting, Mr Maxcy said.
It also clears the way for users to post videos with select EMI content.
With the deal, San Bruno, California-based YouTube now has permission to host videos from all four of the world's major recording companies.
YouTube reached agreements with the other music labels in October, but Britain-based EMI had been the lone holdout.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
EMI Music, a unit of EMI Group PLC, will receive a cut of revenue from ads shown on YouTube when EMI content is being viewed, said Chris Maxcy, head of business development for YouTube.
"Through this agreement EMI Music and its artists will be fairly compensated for their work," EMI chief executive Eric Nicoli said in a statement.
Previous deals struck by the company with other record labels and TV networks have also included ad revenue-sharing.
Under the terms of the agreement, EMI will make its artists' music videos available on the site.
Computer users will also be allowed to use content from select EMI artists in videos they create and post on the site.
Like other record labels, EMI will be able to identify when its video or audio material is being used in user-generated videos on the website and have it removed, should it opt to do so.
"There will be cases where maybe a particular artist doesn't want to participate and the labels need to respect that," Mr Maxcy said.
"In those cases, that content will be removed."
Video and songs by The Beatles, for example, will not be available on YouTube, EMI said.
YouTube has quietly rolled out technology that uses word search and filtering systems to track content on the site.
The company is also exploring other methods, including audio and video fingerprinting, Mr Maxcy said.
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
A Decade Of Good Website Design
The web looks very different today than it did 10 years ago.
Back in 1994, Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear.
But, says usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, some things have stayed constant in that decade, namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use.
Dr Nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today.
"Roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today," he said.
"Some have gone away because users have changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed."
Sites for sore eyes
Some design crimes, such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to visit, and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared, said Dr Nielsen.
"But there's great stability on usability concerns," he told the BBC News website.
Dr Nielsen said the basic principles of usability, centring on ease of use and clear thinking about a site's total design, were as important as ever.
"It's necessary to be aware of these things as issues because they remain as such," he said.
They are still important because the net has not changed as much as people thought it would.
"A lot of people thought that design and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off," he said. "But there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away because you have broadband."
Design decision
Dr Nielsen said the success of sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important.
"Those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful," said Dr Nielsen, adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the net.
"All are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things on the internet," he said.
"They are making simple but powerful tools available to the user.
"None of them have a fancy or glamorous look," he added, declaring himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied.
In the future, Dr Nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping people get to grips with the huge amount of information online.
"They are becoming like the operating system to the internet," he said.
But, he said, the fact that they are useful now does not mean that they could not do better.
Currently, he said, search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that they return in response to queries. Often people had to look at a website just to judge whether it was useful or not.
Tools that watch the behaviour of people on websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results.
Research by Dr Nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their use of search engines.
The latest statistics on how many words people use on search engines shows that, on average, they use 2.2 terms. In 1994 only 1.3 words were used.
"I think it's amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of those search terms," said Dr Nielsen.
Back in 1994, Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear.
But, says usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, some things have stayed constant in that decade, namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use.
Dr Nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today.
"Roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today," he said.
"Some have gone away because users have changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed."
Sites for sore eyes
Some design crimes, such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to visit, and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared, said Dr Nielsen.
"But there's great stability on usability concerns," he told the BBC News website.
Dr Nielsen said the basic principles of usability, centring on ease of use and clear thinking about a site's total design, were as important as ever.
"It's necessary to be aware of these things as issues because they remain as such," he said.
They are still important because the net has not changed as much as people thought it would.
"A lot of people thought that design and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off," he said. "But there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away because you have broadband."
Design decision
Dr Nielsen said the success of sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important.
"Those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful," said Dr Nielsen, adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the net.
"All are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things on the internet," he said.
"They are making simple but powerful tools available to the user.
"None of them have a fancy or glamorous look," he added, declaring himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied.
In the future, Dr Nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping people get to grips with the huge amount of information online.
"They are becoming like the operating system to the internet," he said.
But, he said, the fact that they are useful now does not mean that they could not do better.
Currently, he said, search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that they return in response to queries. Often people had to look at a website just to judge whether it was useful or not.
Tools that watch the behaviour of people on websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results.
Research by Dr Nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their use of search engines.
The latest statistics on how many words people use on search engines shows that, on average, they use 2.2 terms. In 1994 only 1.3 words were used.
"I think it's amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of those search terms," said Dr Nielsen.
Email Validation Spec
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has adopted a vendor-developed specification designed to detect e-mail with bogus header information. The technology could help reduce spam and phishing attacks that clog Internet traffic.
Yahoo was the initial developer of the spec, called DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), but other participants joined the effort, including Cisco, Sendmail and PGP Corporation for later revisions.
The hope is that the specification could succeed where other efforts have failed. It puts validation of both the sender and receiver at the domain level. Phishing almost always involves faking an address of a legitimate site, such as a bank or e-commerce sites like eBay and PayPal.
The spec will require a key for domains, but DKIM will distribute keys to any domain requesting one. Each domain has its own private and public keys. E-mail messages are signed with the private key and sent with the public key, which is embedded in the letter's header. The receiver then validates with the public key, and this tells the receiver that only someone with a valid private key could have originated the letter.
If the signature doesn't pass validation, the receiver has their choice of how to handle the letter. The DKIM spec doesn't dictate how to handle invalid letters. Most ISPs will likely label the letter junk mail although they have the right to block it.
Dave Crocker, principal consultant and founder of Brandenberg InternetWorking, is also involved in developing the spec and has decades of experience in working with e-mail systems. He said DKIM will be far more effective than the current method of IP filtering.
"IP addresses are a problem because they are associated with a machine rather than an organization or a person. Because they change, and they can be faked for all sorts of usage," he told internetnews.com.
One of the goals of DKIM is to create something easier to administer. A domain name is good for that, better than having it done on the individual clients. By having the server handle signing and validation, changes and updates are done on a few servers rather than every client computer.
However, that leaves DKIM open to a weakness. Crocker said it won't necessarily help defeat botnets (define), compromised computers with hidden software that pumps out spam unbeknownst to the computer's owner. Botnets are the primary source of spam on the Internet.
Because the client doesn't do the signing, the sending server does, DKIM has no way of knowing if an e-mail originated from the user's e-mail client or from a botnet program spitting out spam. And even if the good guys find a barrier, the bad guys find a way around it.
"DKIM is not about stopping botnets. It's about verifying that a message really involves whoever it says it involves. There's certainly an expectation it will be helpful against phishing because it allows you to start building for a basis for trust," he said.
It would also help that both sender and receiver are using DKIM. Moviola.com, a film equipment rental company in New York and Los Angeles, is one of the first companies to sign up for the service since its mail provider was involved in testing the specification, so it really isn't seeing benefits yet, said Shawn Silvas, system administrator with the company.
But he expects to. "It's going to change the nature of who's spamming," he said. "Hopefully it will help get rid of the spam, like zombies, but it won't help with business spam from legitimate companies like JC Penny. But if it can help reduce Viagra and stock spam, that will be nice."
Silvas said he doesn't care much for the existing spam blocking methods, such as IP black listing, because IP addresses can change on a DHCP network.
"Just because an IP has sent out spam in the past isn't always bad, and just because it's flagged as good doesn't mean I want it. That really hits hard on small businesses whose e-mail is legit because if they are on a DHCP connection, they could get blocked," he said.
The DKIM spec has been fully approved by the IETF and published as an RFC, so people can start deploying it now. Crocker maintains a list on his home page, which at this point is rather modest. He expects it to grow.
Yahoo was the initial developer of the spec, called DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), but other participants joined the effort, including Cisco, Sendmail and PGP Corporation for later revisions.
The hope is that the specification could succeed where other efforts have failed. It puts validation of both the sender and receiver at the domain level. Phishing almost always involves faking an address of a legitimate site, such as a bank or e-commerce sites like eBay and PayPal.
The spec will require a key for domains, but DKIM will distribute keys to any domain requesting one. Each domain has its own private and public keys. E-mail messages are signed with the private key and sent with the public key, which is embedded in the letter's header. The receiver then validates with the public key, and this tells the receiver that only someone with a valid private key could have originated the letter.
If the signature doesn't pass validation, the receiver has their choice of how to handle the letter. The DKIM spec doesn't dictate how to handle invalid letters. Most ISPs will likely label the letter junk mail although they have the right to block it.
Dave Crocker, principal consultant and founder of Brandenberg InternetWorking, is also involved in developing the spec and has decades of experience in working with e-mail systems. He said DKIM will be far more effective than the current method of IP filtering.
"IP addresses are a problem because they are associated with a machine rather than an organization or a person. Because they change, and they can be faked for all sorts of usage," he told internetnews.com.
One of the goals of DKIM is to create something easier to administer. A domain name is good for that, better than having it done on the individual clients. By having the server handle signing and validation, changes and updates are done on a few servers rather than every client computer.
However, that leaves DKIM open to a weakness. Crocker said it won't necessarily help defeat botnets (define), compromised computers with hidden software that pumps out spam unbeknownst to the computer's owner. Botnets are the primary source of spam on the Internet.
Because the client doesn't do the signing, the sending server does, DKIM has no way of knowing if an e-mail originated from the user's e-mail client or from a botnet program spitting out spam. And even if the good guys find a barrier, the bad guys find a way around it.
"DKIM is not about stopping botnets. It's about verifying that a message really involves whoever it says it involves. There's certainly an expectation it will be helpful against phishing because it allows you to start building for a basis for trust," he said.
It would also help that both sender and receiver are using DKIM. Moviola.com, a film equipment rental company in New York and Los Angeles, is one of the first companies to sign up for the service since its mail provider was involved in testing the specification, so it really isn't seeing benefits yet, said Shawn Silvas, system administrator with the company.
But he expects to. "It's going to change the nature of who's spamming," he said. "Hopefully it will help get rid of the spam, like zombies, but it won't help with business spam from legitimate companies like JC Penny. But if it can help reduce Viagra and stock spam, that will be nice."
Silvas said he doesn't care much for the existing spam blocking methods, such as IP black listing, because IP addresses can change on a DHCP network.
"Just because an IP has sent out spam in the past isn't always bad, and just because it's flagged as good doesn't mean I want it. That really hits hard on small businesses whose e-mail is legit because if they are on a DHCP connection, they could get blocked," he said.
The DKIM spec has been fully approved by the IETF and published as an RFC, so people can start deploying it now. Crocker maintains a list on his home page, which at this point is rather modest. He expects it to grow.
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