AUSWEB BLOG

Apple CEO Steve Jobs posted an open letter today, finally clarifying Apple’s long held position against Adobe’s Flash format. Job’s politely worded letter listed several reasons for their decision not to support Flash on their mobile devices.

Most of the reasons have been suspected for some time, including the performance costs on mobile CPU’s when playing Flash files. The main point of contention for Apple is that  Adobe’s Flash format is a closed system which has some concerns for their end users and developer libraries. Definitely a valid point of contention, but quite ironic for Apple to complain about.

How does this affect you I hear you asking? Well the slow battle on this front is what will eventually shape modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and javascript which are looking for a unified solution for rich media content, not reliant on any one format or monopoly. You can bet Adobe has been feeling the effects for some time.

HTML Adobe, apple, Flash, HTML5

When you signup for an AUSWEB hosting plan, the first thing most customers do is upload their website – replacing the default New AUSWEB Customer index.html file for new accounts.

A common question we receive, is ‘how can I create a simple landing page for my website?’. Usually from customers who are using their domain for Email and/or file hosting and not yet ready to invest either too much time or money into a fully-fledged website – and just want a simple landing page with an image or contact details and info.

Obviously there are numerous options for HTML coding, anything from Notepad to DreamWeaver is capable of coding something suitable for all situations depending on your experience. However, if you’re looking for something quick and easy that doesn’t require much knowledge of HTML, a web based What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG for short) editor is probably just the thing you need!

Fortunately, Google Sites has one of the easiest and most user friendly WYSIWYG editors available, allowing you to specify various HTML options and choose from a range of pre-defined themes and templates, before letting you adjust everything in an easy and intuitive browser based editor even novices can use. You can change text, colours, images, add and remove links, as well as simple and advanced table and layout format settings. Everything you need to design the simplest blank landing page with a contact address, to a full webpage setup is available to you.

Head over to Google Sites to check it out, all thats required is a Google account!

Google, HTML, Web Design design, DreamWeaver, Google, Google Sites, HTML, Web Design, Website, WYSIWYG

Matt Cutts Talks Communication Strategy

One thing that Google is pretty good at is providing resources for webmasters to learn from. The regular videos from Matt Cutts in which he answers user-submitted questions are no different. It just happens to be this very topic that is addressed in the latest YouTube upload.
Read more…

Feeds, Google, HTML, News, Scripting & Coding, Search, Web Hosting News

A common question we receive from our customer’s is ‘How do I improve my Google search results?’.  While there’s no easy answer, there are many opinions on SEO best practices. It’s easy to become lost in the various “do’s and don’ts”, and myths of Search Engine Optimisation practices (SEO), but as usual it’s best to head straight to the source for information and one of the most useful tools for managing your website(s) is provided by Google themselves, with their free “Webmaster Tools” suite.

All that’s needed is a Google account, and to add and verify all websites you own and wish to monitor. From fine-tuning your robots.txt file, used for managing how Google’s robots crawl your website, to analysing your search term keywords and managing your sitelinks – Webmaster Tools is a handy first port of call, especially before extending to other Google services such as Analytics, and Adsense.

Google, HTML, Web Development analytics, crawl, Google, robots, SEO, Webmaster Tools

HTML5 is the next major revision of “hypertext markup language” specification – the core markup language of the world wide web. The specification of HTML5 is ongoing and expected to continue for many years, however parts of HTML5 will be finished and implemented in browsers well before HTML5 reaches final recommendation status.

SmashingMagazine.com have put together handy little primer for web designers and developers looking to stay ahead of the curve. Interesting reading as there is already quite a bit to get a jumpstart on for the future. From new structural element and tags, to extended API’s opening up huge possibilities for web applications with application cache and offline data storage.

Google is making extensive use of HTML5 features with their online collaboration software Wave, while Apple’s latest Safari browser has also implemented several HTML5 features. Apple has also been busy on the iPhone side of things, taking advantage of HTML5′s application caching features and database support to speed up the end user experience with iPhone OS3.

HTML, Web Browsers, Web Development application cache, Google, HTML, HTML5, iPhone, offline data storage, safari, Wave

Joomla! has recently updated to 1.5.12 with a host of bug and security fixes. You can download the latest version and view the release notes at the link below:

Joomla! 1.5.12 – As usual pay close attention to the upgrade instructions, especially if you are upgrading a live or heavily modified Joomla website!

CMS, HTML, Joomla, News, PHP Applications, Web Design, Web Development CMS, Joomla, Patch, Security, Update

Firefox is constantly evolving, and for that reason it has fast become one of the web’s most favoured browsers – now estimated to account for over 22% of the total market share for browsers.

Version 3.5 has been released for little under a week and already there are some extensive guides up for tweaking every last drop of performance out of it.

Here at AUSWEB we’re all about performance! Whether you’re a first-time user or a FireFox veteran, this comprehensive guide will give you detailed descriptions of all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for speeding up your FireFox. Take a look over at Tweakguide.com

HTML, Mozilla, Tweaks, Web Browsers, firefox browser, firefox, Guide, HTML, Mozilla, Tweak

After being in release candidate stage for several months now, the latest release version 3.5 of Firefox is finally available. Promising a host of improvements to speed and usability. Here’s a full list of what’s new in text or video rundowns to checkout while you download!

Also worth a mention Mozilla Labs have also released the latest version of Weave which requires version 3.5. Weave is handy service which allows you to securely encrypt and synchronise bookmarks and personal info across multiple browsers, allowing for automatic syncing your of Firefox at home and work or wherever.

With plans to support automated website logins, pretty handy! The new release includes automatic logins and OpenID support (for supported sites), and can sync your browser preferences across systems which is a big advantage over cross-browser solutions like Xmarks.

HTML, Mozilla, Software, Web Browsers browser, firefox, Mozilla, Release Candidate, Weave

The 404 Not Found error page is probably the most common error most web users will come across. Most designers and webmasters however, often choose to leave the default settings for these error pages, resulting in the generic unimaginative 404 Not Found error text we’ve all seen many times.

These basic error pages are automatically served up by the web server. However, if you prefer you can create and edit custom error pages from your cPanel. Once logged in you will see the option for “Error Pages”, which will let you easily manage and edit all your available error pages.

There are many roads to take, from the stylistic approach, matching the aesthetics of your site’s design, the informative, with custom search or suggestion options for where the visitor should be looking or even taking the humorous route with custom images, it’s all up to your imagination. The folks over at CSS-Tricks have compiled a handy guide with several ideas and tips for adding a little extra flair on your site, head on over to their 404 Best Practices post for some ideas!

HTML, Scripting & Coding, Web Browsers, cPanel 404, Apache, cPanel, css, HTML, Not Found, scripting, web server