online internet consulting greece

Blogger is changing from own domain hosting to CNAME redirecting

2010-03-29T13:12:00.000+03:00

For years we have been using Google Blogger thats is a great simple and easy-to-manage blog tool. Mostly we have used it for travel blogs and implementation for our partners in order to participate in the online social networking and share their experience and expertise.

Blogger is finally stopping their FTP blog to domains owned by their members. Instead they offer a much better option where the blog till can use he same address but not if it has been a folder published after the domain name, such as www.website.com/blog/.

Google are instead offering the CNAME redirecting option to a sub-folder on your owned domain name so it will look like blog.website.com. Considering its much better in many ways yo ucan still redirect your old blog with a 301 in your hosting control panel.

The fact that Blogger ws a very slow publishing tool was driving me crazy but now its published and edited in seconds and so easy to use and manage.

Our new blog was earlier published at xhtml.gr/web-design but as I write this article everything is moved to our new blogger CNAME redirection at http://onlineconsulting.xhtml.gr.

Information about the changes are to be found at Blogger.

Internet seminars via Skype

2010-03-28T23:02:00.000+03:00

Web design is a very popular new media technology to learn. Michael have recently given introducing lessons in private to some students and with great success the lessons are continuing online by Skype or other communication services. We find it very convenient and easy with the fast Internet connections one can get in Greece today.

The web design lessons have with great success been scheduled to continue with Photoshop sessions and also image galleries and CSS on advanced level. Thanks Irene that you appreciate our online sessions as we are slowly getting to the more advanced lessons.

Web accessibility to become mandatory in Europe

2009-03-17T08:24:00.001+02:00

A long-running discussion related to web accessibility is whether it should be required by law or not. Some believe it is the only way of making organisations ensure that their websites can be used by everybody, while others argue that it should be up to each organisation to decide.

My opinion is that for the private sector the “let everybody decide for themselves” argument may have some validity, but only some. Public sector websites, however, must be accessible to all, regardless of which browsing device they use or if they have a disability.

That’s why I find it very interesting that on 12 June 2006, ministers of 34 European countries endorsed "A pan-European drive to use information and communication technologies to help people to overcome economic, social, educational, territorial or disability-related disadvantages".

Read more at Roger Johansson or the source information Information and communication technology for an inclusive society – Frequently asked questions

European Accessibility Forum Frankfurt

2009-03-17T08:18:00.001+02:00

Accessibility has been transformed. Demographic developments have made accessibility an economic and ethical imperative as well as a sign of professionalism. The industry’s leading innovators – including the European Commission, France Télécom, IBM, jQuery, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, the W3C, the Web Standards Project, and Yahoo! – are now sharing their knowledge and discussing social and political developments on the internet: the web that surrounds us all, the web we do not want to slip through even if we should become incapacitated in our old age.
European Accessibility Forum Frankfurt

There are many well-known accessibility names among the speakers who will discuss the following topics:

* Accessible Web Applications
* Mobile Access – Device-independent or Accessible?
* Comparison of National Accessibility Guidelines
* Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA)
* Web Standards and Accessibility in Higher Education
* Harmonising European Accessibility Guidelines
* The Business Value of Accessibility

It is also interesting for us to mention that Web standards are closely related to the XHTML CSS and Web Standards Development in General.

Firefox 3 - not compatible with standards?

2008-06-19T20:02:00.000+03:00

Firefox 3 has been released and installed in many many computers due to the guiness world recond try. I as a web standards front end developer have noticed some problems to sites I recently developed for web standards and validation compability.

The new Firefoc browser have differences in heights and widths of divs and ul lists. I have noticed some of the sites to not fit anymore or have lack or alignment in the layout and structure of XHTML/CSS strict 1.0 standards.

Also facebook has errors in alignment in this new browser and its weird ofr me that finally standard develop webites do not work properly anymore. Its a disaster for the web standards and also for developers trying to follow the web standards if its not possible to upgrade a brower that change in these cases of web standards and validating from W3C...

I hope i will get some comments on these issues and have an explanation from Firefox development...

Usability and accessibility for Internet websites

2008-03-04T14:21:00.001+02:00

HTML table structure, an ancient standard!

At the end of the 90’s I studied HTML and web design with multimedia technology and I found some very interesting facts about the business. We developed websites and structured information based on newspaper reviews, color understanding, and HTML as the main technology for website building. I was using software that was creating the HTML automatically, like writing the text in a word document and Voila! The website was created with a few clicks of a design program. We started to study HTML and wrote all coding by hand in a text editor, saved and viewed, changed saved and viewed, over and over again. At the time it was amazing how one could make a website just by writing code in a text file and then view it in a browser.
The browser back then was Netscape 3.0 and Internet Explorer was not even thought of yet. Imagine me, the grandfather of the web trying today to make new developers to upgrade their knowledge that I abandoned for almost a decade between 1996 and 2005.

90% of developers are still using old technologies?

Implementing web standards in the website development stage seems to not be such a priority for most web developers or designers. Most developers are still using tables to structure their website pages and it’s sad that no efforts are being made to learn and follow the World Wide Web Consortium (W3c.org) guidelines. There are several difficulties in order to get the new standards implemented. For instance browsers do not follow the standards and it takes a long time to set-up the guidelines. In general it’s a procedure of about 2 years from the standard set-up until we actually can practice it online.

Accessibility web development

Due to the old techniques of web development still in use today, there have been several issues such as load time, search engine visibility, and accessibility for the handicapped, that just keep getting worse because the demands of websites are increasing. I have been developing websites since 1996, back then we used the TABLE as the major structure solution. It was a very messy experience but we all learned to be really good at this. Because of the differences between browsers and lack of standard support in the Browsers we had to be sure that the websites were compatible to all of the browsers, increasing the development time. Today I use XHTML and Semantic mark-up standards and validation with the standards organizations.
In the end of 2005 I started to read many articles about the new XHTML CSS development technology and I started to develop websites from templates I found online, Soon I was stable on the development and had totally discontinued use of the TABLE layout model. DIV. SPAN, H, P and with minimal mark-up. It also separated the content from the layout in many cases and decreased loading time drastically. It was easy to advance in this of standardized design and it also made SEO easier. Search engine optimization has become the new hot interest for me and in combination with XHTML CSS it has increased ranking results and keyword positioning. Since I work with both technologies today I find it very difficult to make a fully competitive SEO without them.

XHTML/CSS development decrease website size 80%

Website production has been a technique that we used since 1993, when HTML was introduced to new website html developers and a success for presentational options for sharing information between Universities and international institutes.
HTML was not designed to be used in the manner that it is used today. The developers of HTML had not envisioned that the TABLE TAG would serve the general development structure. Since 2001, all web developers that worked with HTML should have been introduced to XHTML, this is not the case today. HTML still exists in 90% of all worldwide websites and the standard is old and has exceeded its use.
The major advantage of XHTML and new technology development is that the size of the files and code are 80% larger increasing download time and downloading costs. The implementation of this new technology would have a dramatic change in the industry. For dynamic websites AJAX and PHP it is also much more convenient to use the XHTML standard as it opens doors to new solutions and clever options also with DHTML and JavaScript.

XHTML + Semantic Mark-up = SEO success?

Site map structure is key to Search Engine Optimization and success in the ranking business. I have learned to do SEO by inspiration from many sources. One of these sources is seo-forum.se where the elite of SEO people and SEO beginners are gathered together to share experiences and techniques.
What I have realized is that SEO is a small business without correct website development and semantic mark-up standards. Using the semantic technique and correct valid code for each element for the website development is very important.

travel and hotels directory greece

2008-01-18T18:06:00.000+02:00

Hotels, accommodation, hostels and accommodation in Greece is easy to find online. This travel directory was found when i search for hotels in Athens and i think it was a nice website, easy to find your hotels in categories and well organized.

The Greek Islands are the biggest categories and have plays a major role in the travel directory because there are thousands and thousands hotels in Greece to be listed and found by online services like this.

Hotels will also be able to add their link in the hotels directory for free and the only thing needed is to link back to the directory. This is the idea with this travel link and accommodation directory, to keep it free and offer the services for free...

Google up and down

2007-12-27T12:23:00.000+02:00

Merr yChristmas people, Google is offering the most weird changes I have experience for a long time. Ranking positioning and search results are lower than ever, so what is actually happening in Google and what are we to expect in the future of various changes to let us fall or rais in the search engine results??

I have somie websites where i rank and work with positioning regarding xhtml and development, css and the profession of being a high ranked xhtml css development source online. I have optimized the website of my own, www.michaelpersson.com for search engine keywords such as xhtml development, xhtml developer and xhtml css development, with great reaults where the website actually is ranking #1 within a range of 60.000.000 number of results which makes me very happy. Recently I had a fall down of ranking and results so I was actuallt only #1 - #5 within some 4.000.000 hits..

Again today im back as number 1-4 position with this website and als omy personal website for the top results... but what is actually happening with Google here??

Estimationm of the reasons: I guess Google is updating software and hardware like all others in the conmputer and internet business and its fair to do as well as makeing internet or search engine better. I think though that Google is updating their search engine to follow a stricter publication standard where validated websites will be recognized as higher trust and interest, lucky me optimizing and bulding all websites in valid xhtml 1.0 strict and css but is this really what Google is doing?? Well for me and my concerns i would be really happy if this happens now as im not in the risk zone to be of the ranking but i feel bad to all others hobby publishers what make websites in Frontpage and have no clue about this option or quality validation...

So will 2008 be my top ranking year and should i thank Google for this...?

I wish yo uthe best for your ranking and a happy new year...

Michael

Implement Google maps - useful but damn ugly!!

2007-08-30T13:45:00.001+03:00

Google maps is nothing new to me but i was firstly impressed by the speed and the good maps. Its all from google earth i guess and fantastic to offer people this options to a hotel website or a guide to find a storeplace or a home. Maps that are interactive and add a lot of value to a website.

Is it not possible that Google hire also designers to make things pretty? I mean usability and content is king but does everything have to be so damn ugly??

I am not able to use these technical functionalities in the Google Maps into any of the hotel websites i produce for huge hotels here in Greece.... its useless for me and my clients because these items has no good appearance... so Google. All aplause to your services but can we maybe try to make things pretty and good looking. Im sure it would be much more usaful to us developers and web designers...

Thanks for great services...

Web development usability principles

2007-08-27T12:11:00.002+03:00

10 Usability Principles to guide you through the Web Design Maze

Motivate
Design your site to meet specific user needs and goals. Use motivators to draw different user "personae" into specific parts of your site.
User task flow
Who are your users? What are their tasks and online environment? For a site to be usable, page flow must match workflow.
Architecture – it's 80% of usability
Build an efficient navigational structure. Remember – if they can't find it in 3 clicks, they're gone.
Affordance means obvious
Make controls understandable. Avoid confusion between emblems, banners, and buttons.
Replicate
Why reinvent the wheel? Use ergonomically designed templates for the most common 8-12 pages.
Usability test along the way
Test early in design using low-fidelity prototypes. Don't wait until the end when it's too late.Know the technology limitations Identify and optimize for target browsers and user hardware. Test HTML, JavaScript, etc. for compatibility.
Know the technology limitations
Identify and optimize for target browsers and user hardware.Test HTML, JavaScript, etc for compatibility.
Know user tolerances
Users are impatient. Design for a 2-10 second maximum download. Reuse header graphics so they can load from cache. Avoid excessive scrolling.
Multimedia – be discriminating
Good animation attracts attention to specific information, then stops. Too much movement distracts, slowing reading and comprehension.
Use a stats package
Monitor traffic through your site. Which pages pique user interest? Which pages make users leave? Adjust your site accordingly. Free website statistics

Source target human factors international

Usability for website visitors

2007-08-27T11:54:00.001+03:00

Opening new windows from a web browser is something that was popping up in the old 90's and nowadays is ancient. We force clients to open new popping windows to go to another website and eliminate the user to go back by BACK BUTTON. One knows that so often this window covers the behind general browser and some people will get lost in the window world, lose their main webpage and don’t find the back button to go back. I have seen if over and over again and it’s frustrating to just watch.

To develop website makes your knowledge so much higher in usability and we are trying to make it easier to navigate a website. Ok, how do you as a MAC user open a new window or a TAB if you want to keep your main web page but are curious to see what is behind the new link? I asked my colleague here and she actually didn’t know, she is a new MAC user and maybe don’t have the technical interest to really dig in the specifications. I know that settings are made for personalize your computer and its easy to set up as one wants it, but it does not really go with standard if one do not do.

Eliminating pop-up’s and new windows seem to be one of the less common consideration to standard users and how website visitors uses the internet. In development world the programmers and web developers are familiar with the idea about 'right click' and open new TAB or open in new window? What am I suppose to do then with my standards?

Well, I am trying to force standards on client website visitors, to use the right click and open the navigation in another window. I do it all the time but what is common here. What is the normal way of doing this.

Just click and lose all the old websites and get lost in the window world?
I will continue to try to convince my clients to use right click to open in new TAB and i will follow standards of web development, website standards that follow the world wide web consortium. I believe the responsibilities are theirs to have specify the standards and do the right thing for us, the standard xhtml css developers to follow!

Search Engine Optimization and XHTML - CSS

2007-08-23T15:08:00.001+03:00

It is dangereous to think only design when making a website. A website is not something cosmetic prestty that needs to be pretty to be liked. A website has normally a information function and if it is pretty, YES its obviously more attractive but that's not the main issue in a website production.

Making a website for blind people sound really weird but this is what xhtml and css today can make. Blind website visitors can use internet as well as you and me like any regular person but we have to start to create these websites that makes it possible for them.

Xhtml and Css is the solutions for this issues and its well practiced by many old webdesigners in order to learn what works and do not work. I am new in the xhtml and css field but i make all website lately valdiated by W3c organisation for absolut best results on appearance and structured coding.

Validating website coding does not help any website to be better, its more a validation of the correct code is used in a front-end development and a verification that one have made a good job. It is not related to information structure or either appearance or information quality but a way of making better websites.

Development of XHTML & cascading style sheets structure.

2007-08-23T15:05:00.002+03:00

Cascading style sheets, let’s call them CSS, are another part of the website nowadays where one can easily add colours, alignment, background and behaviours to a specific part or a global section of the website.
Navigation use to be developed by some ancient table coding where alignment was not good and different browsers was presenting different layout. CSS is the method of presenting standard developed websites for any kind of users and any kind of computer.
Alignment in CSS is much easier and can be developed globally or just as specific alignment where configuration is needed. With CSS you are free as a developer nut issues with changing templates in a later stage can be a tricky problem that might force a developer to make new templates in order to make things work.
Validated websites by World Wide Web consortium - W3c.org
XHTML and CSS development is easy but one need a lot of experience to make a good job. It is very important to have been involved in earlier development standards and its believed easier to have HTML experience where tables was a major technology to develop websites.

Cascading Style Sheets, CSS development.

2007-08-23T14:56:00.001+03:00

Information structure and xhtml development.
In order to structure your website content HTML or XHTML is used. Normally it divide the page in sections and navigational parts where content will go and how content will appear.

Search Engine Optimization and Xhtml CSS

2007-08-22T12:17:00.000+03:00

Updating a old website to appear in the earch engines has some difficulties. There are some hard core way to do it and it means a full face lift and reconstructiong of the website need to be done, this is expensive and has a huge investment, but longer effect essentially.

Updating a website is a daily job and the more you update the more popularity you will have. It is a war of popularity and appearance that is more importnat than having the dorrect content actually.

The smart and cheap way to optimize a website is to buy articles that will review your website services and then have a link to your website. Google is today updating content in just a few hours, blogs within minutes and your content can be HOT and INTERESTING right after your updates.

Without SEO you might never get your ROI back in your pocket, that is really important for your business and to grow your business. In order to grow in the right direction your clients will find you by your specific keywords, instead of running after them you will save money and invest in the best way.

CSS for Developers

2007-08-06T23:50:00.001+03:00

By Molly E. Holzschlag and Andy Clarke

A one-day workshop designed to cover technical aspects of CSS. It's aimed at developers but also anyone who wants to build highly flexible, easily manageable, standards-based websites with CSS and XHTML should attend. It's an in-depth course, taught by two of the most well-known advocates of standards and accessibility.

Transcending CSS

2007-08-06T21:44:00.001+03:00

To make things more complicated, most web design teaching materials focus on the technical rather than the creative. Countless resources and guides focus on semantics, compliance, and validity. While these are all important, they mean little to the creative designer who wants to impress his or her clients and employers with exceptional design without worrying that the way they approach the design will be compromised by creativity-limiting technical issues. So how do creative designers learn to be artistic yet functional? With Transcending CSS:
The Fine Art of Web Design.

Transfer your business!

2007-08-06T21:42:00.000+03:00

The purpose of a website is in general a additional advertising and publishing option
to any kind of traditional business. Making a website is easy and anyone that has some
skills in computer are able to manage publishing their own website for online purposes.

Learning from the best...

2007-08-06T21:00:00.000+03:00

The web has changed, and so has the art of creating web sites. Few visual designers are natural programmers, and as a result, visualizing how to work with markup, CSS and a range of programmatic techniques to create beautiful design is difficult.

To make things more complicated, most web design teaching materials focus on the technical rather than the creative. Countless resources and guides focus on semantics, compliance, and validity. While these are all important, they mean little to the creative designer who wants to impress his or her clients and employers with exceptional design without worrying that the way they approach the design will be compromised by creativity-limiting technical issues. So how do creative designers learn to be artistic yet functional? With Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design.

w3c recommendations

2007-08-06T19:41:00.002+03:00

You will find links to W3C Recommendations, Proposed Recommendations, Working Drafts,
conformance test suites and other documents on the pages for each Working Group. Each
document also contains email addresses you can use to send comments or questions, for
example if you have been writing software to implement them and have found problems or errors.

creative xhtml development

2007-08-06T19:29:00.001+03:00

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from
SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic
publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.