Web Design Ireland

posted by Robert on Jun 13

Soapbox represented Microsoft’s attempt kill YouTube.  It failed.  Actually, since Soapbox was pulled off the market, then reintroduced, you could say that it failed twice.  In any event, Microsoft may now take another shot at YouTube, and this time the company’s hopes rest with Silverlight.

Of course, Silverlight is yet another technology that has had its share of problems.  Chris Duckett even wrote an article titled, “Lights out for Silverlight.”  But he admitted, “The one saving grace for Silverlight is if a YouTube-esque site creates an amazing video experience with Silverlight and it really takes off.”

Which may mean Microsoft and Silverlight are on the right track.  SiliconRepublic.com’s Marie Boran writes, “Microsoft is working with other companies to develop a YouTube-like video-sharing site . . .”  She then went on to quote Tim Sneath, Microsoft’s group manager for a Silverlight team, who appears to have some very interesting things in mind.

“We’ve tried to take it to a different level,” he said.  “[W]e want to enable scenarios like delivering 720p broadcast-quality video over the internet.”

And as for Silverlight not being popular, well, Sneath doesn’t feel at all left out.  “We’re working with large number[s] of different partners, going after firms with large number[s] of unique visitors a month, trying to figure out how to work with companies that want to deliver these rich internet experiences to their customers and have them take this technology and move it forward,” he continued.

That’s about as far as this idea seems to have gotten, however - the planning stages.  There’s no further word about what to expect, or when to expect it.  Still, it’s encouraging to see someone taking another run at YouTube.  YouTube is facing piles of lawsuits, but otherwise, the service could be getting a little complacent.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 13

You’ve used Google Reader and BlogLines, but have you used Safari? Safari has been my RSS Reader (and browser) of choice ever since its debut years ago, but now its available for Windows as well! It’s not a web-based reader like others, but you can read, search, and sort all of your RSS feeds offline as well as online. Its subtle number count in your bookmark bar keeps you well informed when new content opens up.

Some other cool features? Resize your text areas (great for blogging!) and a nice clean look for buttons:

Oh yeah, and its FAST. Faster in HTML performance, Javascript Performance, and Application Launch compared to IE, FireFox, and Opera. Check it out for yourself. Here’s a screenshot, and the blurb from Apple’s site:

From Apple’s site:

Built-in RSS.
Scan all the latest news, information, and articles from thousands of websites in one simple-to-read, searchable article list delivered right to you. The built-in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader in Safari tells you when new articles or blog posts have been added to your favorite sites, so you never have to guess.

Whenever you land on a page that offers an RSS feed, Safari displays an RSS icon in the address field. Click it and you view the simple RSS feed. Bookmark it and Safari tells you how many updates have been added since your last visit. The RSS view in Safari is customizable, so you can adjust article length or sort and filter articles by date, title, and source. You can also use the built-in search field to find articles relating to topics of interest. All from one place: Safari.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 13

For as long As I care to remember I’ve been having issues with my Wordpress .htaccess file.

.htaccess file is a small Apache file that lets you do all sorts of funky things with requests made to your server. It’s also one of SEO’s best tools. I have a lot of custom 301 redirects set up, including a redirect which makes my site available only via the www subdomain.

Wordpress Permalinks

Well Wordpress has a habit of rewriting the .htaccess file to allow some of the SEO-friendly URLs you regularly see (also known as ‘permalinks’). And each time it does so I lose my rules. It’s a royal pain in the arse and when this happened just the other day I thought I’d take the time to fix this for once and for all. I had to dig through the Wordpress Codex to see what was causing all the trouble. save_mod_rewrite_rules() is the culprit. That little function, and my own ignorance of how Wordpress processes the .htaccess file.

The solution

As with most solutions it’s really very simple. As with most simple solutions it’s only simple if you know about it. So here it is:

Wordpress .htaccess file looks like this:

# BEGIN wordpress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
rewriteEngine On
rewriteBase /
rewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-f
rewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d
rewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</ifmodule>
# END wordpress

Now here’s the really important bit:

Never place your own rules within the ‘wordpress’ block

The Wordpress block is the bit that starts with # BEGIN wordpress and ends with # END wordpress. My mistake was to place my rules within this block (after the rewirteEngine On line). This seemed the sensible thing to do - after all rewrite rules must come after rewirteEngine On, and my understanding was not to repeat this command.

How Wordpress rewrites .htaccess files

When Wordpress rewrites the .htaccess file it does so by first checking that the file is writeable, then exploding the file using the # BEGIN and # END strings. Anything outside of those markers should be left intact after WP rewrites the file.

In my case I had to add a new block with a second rewirteEngine On so that Apache wouldn’t break (although I don’t think this is strictly the correct way to write the file). Here’s what my new revised .htaccess file looks like:

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
[... ]Funky custom rules go here[ ...]
</ifmodule>
# BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</ifmodule>
# END WordPress

Perhaps the Wordpress folk could add an additional comment into the .htaccess file that explains this better?

Well there you have it - how to stop Wordpress overwriting your custom .htaccess file rules.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 13

British digi-rag the Inquirer’s Fernando Cassia had a run in with the “GoogleMind,” as he calls it, after entering a query that sent up red flags. To continue his search, Cassia had to prove he wasn’t a robot.

With a name like that, he’d have to prove to me he wasn’t a character from a romance novel (oh, Ferrrrrrrnando!) – just kidding.

Cassia encountered an error message people are running into more and more often. Type in a query and el Goog returns with this message:

_{We’re sorry…}

_{…but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.}

The message goes on to recommend running a virus checker or spyware remover and asks that Cassia type in the letters from a captcha.

The query that set off Google’s automated query alarm? “Cyberguard password,” he says.

Cassia wasn’t sure how a query was “harmful” to other users of the search engine, and that is not immediately clear from the text of the error message. A quick search on that text shows that Cassia’s not the first to see it.

Others speculate that Google’s unexpected response is an attempt to thwart SEOers running automated programs that queries to measure search results in some way. Bots eat up the system, it would seem.

But the wording is a bit misleading, maybe Google was just “dumbing it down” as they say for less tech-savvy searchers. That idea is interesting in itself as the queries that seem to bring back that error message are highly technical terms that no novice would use.

No, the masses like to search for Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and fanciful combinations of the two – often with the hopes they’ll be paired up with a guy named Ferrrrrrrnando.

Sorry, Fernando, couldn’t resist.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 13

OK, if Google knows so much about me, why is it giving me all result pages in Spanish this morning and taking me to Google Mexico? After all, the cookie on my machine hasn’t been erased. They have all my history. Have I ever done a search in Spanish? No. Have I ever translated something from English to Spanish? No. Have I ever visited Google’s Mexico site at http://www.google.com.mx ? No.

So, why, when I want to go to google.com, does it redirect to google.com.mx and give me everything in Spanish?

Hey, Matt Cutts, can you tell the various teams around the world to PLEASE pry into my privacy details somehow and figure out that I speak English, that I want to go to the real Google site (search results are different on the Mexican site than on the English one)?

Oh, and Google isn’t alone. Yesterday I attended a workshop where they were using MySpace. It switched to Spanish too, even though the computers were all setup in America and had English operating systems loaded.

Same thing happened when we were in Germany and Switzerland too.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 13

eBay has announced a number of new services and platform enhancements to help developers extend eBay content. The announcement was made at the eBay Developers Conference in Boston today.

eBay’s platform extension gives its third-party developers a place to build and monetize new applications and put them anywhere from phones, blogs, televisions, Web sites and social networking platforms.

The new services include:

eBay Shopping Web Services: a suite of faster, more responsive APIs that makes searching on eBay up to 16 times faster and allows developers to easily create buying applications

eBay Bidding API: qualified developers can enable bidding on eBay from anywhere

eBay Client Alerts: lightweight, near real-time alerts about platform activity

New JavaScript and Flash Developer Centers: making it easier for JavaScript and Flash developers to access the eBay Web Services platform

New Production Call Plan: access to API calls in the production environment raised from 10,000 per month to 150,000 per month, allowing new developers to rapidly scale up their applications

“eBay’s developer community plays an important role as we pursue our mission to help people all over the world connect through commerce,” said John Donahoe, president of eBay Marketplaces.

“The innovative applications being created by developers help entrepreneurial sellers use our platforms to grow their businesses, thereby expanding the economic opportunity to a wider audience than ever possible.”

Other eBay companies also made announcements that extend their platform. They include:

PayPal introduced a new suite of APIs, including Mobile Checkout, which allows developers to integrate any mobile website with the PayPal checkout process.

Skype Extras: Skype Extras are plug-ins written by independent third-party developers that let users expand Skype functionality and enrich their Skype conversations

Shopping.com announced plans for a re-architected API that will be available in Q3 2007, which will have a new easy-to-use interface, detailed documentation, and tools for faster implementations.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 13

Google filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, in secret, several months ago; the complaint suggested that Vista’s desktop search function is too hard to turn off.

Now, as you might have noticed, the complaint has become public, and several interesting details relating to the matter have also come to light.

Google Names Microsoft In Antitrust Matter

Chief among them is the fact that “the top antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by Google . . .

” What’s more, the official (Thomas O. Barnett) used to work at a law firm “that has represented Microsoft in several antitrust disputes,” according to The New York Times.

Barnett seems to be innocent of any mischief or conspiracies, but the Times’s Stephen Labaton adds, “Mr. Barnett’s memo appears to have backfired . . . .  Prosecutors from several states said they intended to pursue the Google accusations with or without the federal government.  In response, federal prosecutors are now discussing with the states whether the Justice Department will join them in pursuing the Google complaint.”

That leaves the subject of the complaint itself, then.

As mentioned earlier, Google has implied that Microsoft’s new operating system isn’t playing fair.

“The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft’s own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points,” a Google spokesman told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  “Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft’s search index.”

There’s no telling which company will win this dispute - given the armies of lawyers that each of them have at their disposal, it may not even matter which corporation is “right.”

Each has its own supporters, however, and it seems that the early edge has gone to Microsoft’s side.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 11

Malicious software targeting OpenOffice.org documents is spreading through multiple operating systems, according to Symantec.

“A new worm is being distributed within malicious OpenOffice documents. The worm can infect Windows, Linux and Mac OS X systems,” according to a Symantec Security Response advisory. “Be cautious when handling OpenOffice files from unknown sources.”

Apple’s Mac OS is not a virus-free platform, said Jan Hruska, who co-founded rival antivirus firm Sophos and was one of the first ever PC antivirus experts.

“Viruses on the Mac are here and now. They are available, and they are moving around. It is not as though the Mac is in some miraculous way a virus-free environment,” Hruska said. “The number of viruses coming out for non-Mac platforms is higher. It gives a false impression that somehow, Apple Macs are all virus-free.”

The worm was first spotted late last month, but at the time, it was not thought to be “in the wild.”

Once opened, the OpenOffice file, called badbunny.odg, launches a macro that behaves in several different ways, depending on the user’s operating system.

On Windows systems, it drops a file called drop.bad, which is moved to the system.ini file in the user’s mIRC folder. It also executes the JavaScript virus badbunny.js, which replicates to other files in the folder.

On Apple Mac systems, the worm drops one of two Ruby script viruses in files respectively called badbunny.rb and badbunnya.rb.

On Linux systems, the worm drops both badbunny.py as an XChat script and badbunny.pl as a Perl virus.

Symantec rates the worm as a “medium risk.”

Source: http://news.com.com/

posted by Robert on Jun 9

Mozilla has finally, after much delay, put its new book-marking system in a Firefox build. Places, originally expected to be a key part of Firefox 2.x but dropped well before the final release, is included in the Alpha 5 of Firefox 3, code-named Gran Paradiso.

Places is expected to replace the decade-old bookmark system with a new data-storage layer that will eventually also provide support for browser history, as well. The general idea behind places is to make it easier for users to both access and create bookmarks.

Also included in the Alpha 5 of Firefox 3 is a new crash-reporting system. Breakpad, formerly known as Airbag, is based on technology originally developed by Google.

With this release, Mozilla is also attempting to plug a particularly nasty problem that it has had in recent months with its Password Manager. Alpha 5 has a rewritten Password Manager that is an attempt to deal with a number of legacy issues that plague its use.

Password Manager was the subject of a high-profile flaw in November that Mozilla claimed to have fixed in February.

But at least one security researcher disagreed with the fix and Window Snyder, head of security strategy at Mozilla Corp., admitted at the time that a full rewrite might be in order.

The release of Alpha 5 is a bit later than the original Mozilla plan had called for. The Alpha 4 release came out at the end of April, with Mozilla planning to release new versions every 30 days until July

The final Firefox 3 release is expected before the end of the year.

Source: www.internetnews.com

posted by Robert on Jun 9

Hitwise also found that Google was the main driver of traffic for shopping and classified Web sites and is growing more rapidly as a source of shopping traffic than the search engine category as a whole.

In May of 2007, Google was responsible for 15.6 percent of shopping and classified visits, an increase of 8.7 percent since May 2006.

Single word search queries accounted for 23.7 percent of search terms driving traffic to shopping and classified Web sites in May 2007. This was an increase of 20 percent since May 2005, which revealed that search toolbars are being used more often as the main way to navigate.

The top 20 social networking Web sites also grew as a source of traffic for shopping and Classifieds Web sites, which accounted for 3.6 percent of visits in May 2007. This was an increase of 86.7 percent since May 2006.

Leading social network MySpace, accounted for 3.2 percent of visits to shopping and classified Web sites in May 2007.

“Search data provides a wealth of information about how consumers look for what they need and shop online,” said Tancer. “Marketers can leverage search data to better understand their brand and that of your competitors’ brands to make smarter business decisions moving the needle on their brand equity and associations.”

Source: www.webpronews.com