Although it just came out with a new version last week, Mozilla already has plans to pump up its popular browser, Firefox by developing a new feature—multiple process browsing capability. The project, dubbed “Electrolysis,” will improve Firefox’s speed and stability, along with other ancillary advantages.

The idea of multiprocess browsing is already present in the lickety-split browser, Chrome, developed by Google, and even by Internet Explorer. Since Firefox is still the browser of choice for many web users, it’s time for Mozilla to jump on the multiprocessing bandwagon and get a system of their own to better compete with the other big name browsers.

Easier said than done. Multiprocess browsing, as the name suggests, enables a browser to perform several functions simultaneously. In order to effectively render any given web page, a browser must process data of differing types. With the onslaught of complex web pages with thousands of script elements, all complicated and intertwined, multiprocess browsing is a must-have for speedy and secure browsing. If not, the browser runs the risk of crashing if it should encounter a browsing snafu.

Thus, for Firefox, the prospect of rolling out a new browser with multiple process capability is a daunting task. At its core, Firefox is a browser resistant to change. The very structure of the code subjects it to a major overhaul if multiprocessing is to be implemented.

But the advantages are overwhelming. Developer Benjamin Smedburg blogs that the changes will provide “increased stability, performance, and security”—the three touchstones of a good browser. Their plan, according to Smedburg, goes something like this: First, slap together a code that employs multiple processing. Next, fix all the bugs, glitches, uglies, and no-nos, then add some cool features. Finally, get the whole package ready for deployment, adding the finishing touches to performance and compatibility. At last, it’s ready for takeoff. Programmers are tackling the challenges head-on, and stage two may just be the most difficult part of the whole process.

It sounds good so far. In fact, already the code (for the most part) is working. Multiple process browsing from Firefox is only two steps away. A few users question Mozilla’s foray into multiple process browsing, complaining that the redesign might renege on Firefox’s best selling point—it’s speed. Others point to the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it philosophy, reminding Mozilla that Firefox just doesn’t crash. Regardless of the naysayers, Mozilla is moving forward with the plan—hoping to keep Firefox at the top of the faster-moving spiral of new-and-improved web browsers.

The advantage here is that AJAX applications can be developed quicker and with less chance of consistent errors.
Interesting facts for programmers on features:

• Reduces the learning curve on web application development
• Cross-browser compliancy on all functions
• Asynchronous Remote procedure calls more efficient between application and server
• Widget panels easy to manage
• History management and service layer work easier
• Debugging is a simpler process
• Event tracker that allows you to catch events on the client machine

The idea is to allow applications to be created easily by programmers with varying skills in AJAX and Java. The tool is fantastic at creating front-end applications like database programs and you can create an AJAX application while still using Java. The Java in turn is then converted to JavaScript and embedded into an HTML page.
The best programmers need the best tools. Though, it’s also about development time and hitting deadlines that can often be very tight in the world of IT. So, the need to create high performance applications more efficiently is always a requirement. Programmers can write the Java code and compile it into optimized code. By optimized, I mean cross browser compatibility that avoids HTML errors popping up.
It would be useful if Google produced a plug-in to allow developers to contribute further. For example, UI development is restricted. Though like the Android platform for phones and most SDKs such as the iPhone SDK, Google web toolkit will continue to attract new ideas for patches and application integration.
Much development time is lost dealing with browser related issues and maintaining the code at work. So, Google Web Toolkit helps here by reducing the time consumption spent building code and checking for errors.

I recommend application developers looking to test the functionality of Google Web Toolkit to try out a tutorial. This one on the IBM site will allow you to test the full functions and capabilities while teaching you the inner working of this AJAX tool . You will need Apache Derby for the tutorial which can be downloaded here

If writing AJAX applications is a month to month task, as a developer you should check out this tool and join the developers’ community at Google Groups. Before you embark on using the tool check the contributor’s guide
Your AJAX coding days just became easier.

Basic 2.0

Basic 2.0 as it’s name implies is a very basic layout. Not only is the layout very basic but it is also very clean. Every section of the layout can clearly be defined but still flows very well together. When looking at this theme, it feels as if you are looking at a virtual version of your local newspaper.

Max Magazine

Max Magazine’s design reminds me of CNN’s former design (http://web.archive.org/web/20060127013714/http://www.cnn.com/) from around 2006 with a Digg.com’s color scheme. The layout provides a clean design, which includes room for images to compliment your articles, simple previews for your articles, and even spaces for ads that don’t overwhelm the entire design.

ComFy Magazine

ComFy Magazine was designed by the same creator(s) of Max Magazine. This is another great design, which provides a clean layout to display a lot of information. One of the “features” that ComFy Magazine provides is the ability to break your articles into smaller sub-categories, which allows you to display multiple articles on one page.

Red Carpet Magazine

This is another design from Deluxe Themes, which is very good magazine inspired theme. The layout for this theme is a little busier then the other two themes we have seen from this designer. It seems as if the design inspiration came from an entertainment site. This would be a great theme if you want your site to be graphic heavy, yet still be very readable.

Young Corn

Young Corn’s theme is a great mix between a news site and a default Wordpress designs. Like many Wordpress designed, this one still keeps the larger preview of an article which is common in most Wordpress themes, but like many news sites the design allows you to break the content up into categories, and even prove a featured article. The theme’s layout is very simple, and very clean, which makes it easy to navigate the site.

The navigation of your site is the most important part of the content architecture stage. Writing accessible pages with a menu system that is easy to use is crucial to retaining visitors. So, what is the best method for the menu links – graphics or just text buttons? I can tell you now that plain text is always the best way and using CSS to craft the buttons means you are not stuck with a dull and boring layout.

You don’t need stylish graphics for your menus to dazzle viewers. You want your visitors to be able to navigate to the information they want with the greatest of ease. Take a peek at some corporate web sites and you will find that graphic usage is kept to minimum. By using text more, the pages are more search engine friendly meaning your pages will be more exposed and therefore higher ranked on Yahoo and Google.

Use CSS to create your buttons and you will have more web friendly pages. Here is an example and we shall create this one together:

Using these methods, you can create menu buttons that are friendly to the search engines. Corporate web sites need their designers to be adding as much strength to the optimization of the web pages as possible. It only takes some lines with the correct text and you have buttons using CSS and HTML, and no requirement for the use of graphic image buttons.

Here is the code with comments explaining the usage, feel free to change the colors, sizes, etc.

<html>
<head>
<title>How to create button-like navigation using CSS?</title>
<style>

/* each button text is placed using an unordered list, so the styles are applied to li attributes */
/* this positions the menu tight against the corner of the page */
#cssbuttons ul {
margin: 0 ;
padding: 0 ;

}

/* this formats the text and the spacing between the buttons – adjust margin to increase spacing */
#cssbuttons ul li {
font-size: +1
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ;
margin: 0 ;
display: inline ;
text-align: center ;
}

/* this defines the button size and color, border color, and padding changes the size */
#cssbuttons li a {
padding: 4px ;
text-decoration: none ;
color: #1523a6 ;
background-color: #ffffff ;
border: 1px outset #1523a6 ;

}

/* this defines the color of the button background and text when the mouse hovers over it */
#cssbuttons li a:hover {
color: #ffffff ;
background-color: #1523a6 ;
}

</style>

</head>

/* a div is used to position the text on the CSS styles above, you can add div positioning tags as necessary for your pages */
<div id=”cssbuttons”>
<ul>
<li><a href=”index.php”>Home</a></li>
<li><a href=”about.php”>About Us</a></li>
<li><a href=”services.php”>Services</a></li>
<li><a href=”faqs.php”>FAQs</a></li>
<li><a href=”blog.php”>Blog</a></li>
<li><a href=”contact.php”>Contact</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

</html>

By applying some simple styles, the buttons look a lot better than the graphic image choice. The aim is to own nice clean code. Each button can adopt various sizes and hover effects and you can easily edit the code.
CSS up those buttons and optimize your web code.

Some facts were collected by a company called Janco Associates on the current usage of IE worldwide. While Firefox is fast becoming the browser of choice, the market share is not showing it yet with IE having about 75% of the market, and Firefox around 17%.

So, should IE8 be utilized in preference to the latest Firefox versions? Should IE7 users give up their browser knowledge for some extra power offered by IE8?

To answer this, and really lay out an article that will help you decide, here are the salient good and bad factors that should be in your decision making process. The choice depends on whether you are a developer interested in knowing the uses or just an end user whom is curious about the potential benefits.

For the End User:

1. The new IE8 features can be turned off so that the usual IE7 familiarity is still there with a compatibility view.
2. A lot more bug and stability issues fixed than the latest IE7 updates.
3. Browsing the web is more secure than the IE7 browser.
4. The search box is more customized and offers search keyword suggestions. This is useful for both end users seeking out information and SEO marketers needing suggested phrases.
5. Takes twice as long for a browser page to open as compared to Firefox.
6. At this stage, possible compatibility issues may occur with various add-ins like Skype.
7. A new tool called Accelerators allows quick access to various online services such as tracking items on Amazon or eBay.
8. Detected infections are reported to Microsoft and the offending site domain adding strength to worldwide web stealth virus detection and elimination.
9. Attacks from one site to another can be detected using IE8’s cross-site scripting ability.
10. Great zoom features for smooth magnification on text.

For the Developer:

1. Support for HTML 5’s new messaging call function attributes for postMessage. This is a bonus for DOM programmers who work with iFrames as more security has been implemented. If you code mashups, this will be a little extra security.
2. Style sheets can be created using the HTML4 and CSS2.1 specifications.
3. The styles for the display attribute can accommodate adding table styles to non-table elements.
4. The Active Scripting coded engine allows for various languages to be coded during any client-side work – Jscript and the VBScript modules included.

With Windows 7 just round the corner being available from May 5th, IE8 will no doubt be the default browser with the system. So, new users will need to get used to the new version or use the compatibility mode in IE8 after buying a new system with Windows 7 pre-installed. So, the choice is there, not a forced entry into a new browser version; it becomes a user choice based on the benefits and whether or not the upgrade is relevant and useful.

AJAX Rating Stars

AJAX Rating Stars, allows visitors to rate an image, an article, or anything you would allow. Not only does it allow a rating system, but the rating system is customizable and interactive. Unlike most rating systems where you click a bullet, AJAX Rating Stars allows users to “fill” in the number of stars they want to give the item being rated.

Site | Demo

FancyZoom 1.1

FancyZoom is an nice alternative to the popular Lightbox JS. The script allows a user to zoom in on an image without leaving the page, or even reloading the image itself. FancyZoom doesn’t create “gray out” the site when zoomed in, and it also allows the user to interact with the site behind the zoomed image both of which can’t be done with Lightbox JS.

SIte | Demo

AJAX Pagination v1.2.2

One of the issues sites run into once they start to grow is how to cleanly display more than one page of content. The solution developers came up with is called pagination. Popular blogging software, like Wordpress, provide a very basic pagination which only allows you to go forward or back one page at a time. Where as other sites, like Google, which allow you to jump multiple pages at a time. AJAX Pagination gives the ability to jump multiple pages at a time, or even directly link to a page. The pagination that is created with by this script is very similar to the one on Digg.com.

Site | Demo

AJAX Tab Content v2.2

Since the early days of the world wide web, designers have been trying to create a clean, and simple to use tab design. AJAX Tab Content fills that void. The code will allow a user to change the content in the main section of the site simply by clicking on a tab. This is very useful when you have multiple ideas, or themes that you would like to group together.

Site | Demo

Coda Popup Bubbles

Have you ever heard of a “tooltip”? Tooltips are little windows that pop up when ever you hover over an object, most of the time providing more information about the subject. With Coda Popup Bubbles you can add the same concept on your own site. A great way to use a tool tip is to display profile information on your page about members of the site. You could provide the members email address, or any other information simply by hovering over the user’s name.

Site | Demo

Sunday Morning

Ever need to have something translated on a site but you didn’t was to switch between Babelfish or Google Translator in order to do the translation? Sunday Morning allows you to provide lazy users with the power of Google Translation on your site, via a simple double click or the click of a button. The script allows three different ways for users to translate text on your site. The user can either double click an area and have a menu option to translate the text, or you can translate the text to one language when the user double clicks a single word. The last way the translation can occur via the click of a translate button. All three are a simple but effective methods in translating text for a user.

Site | Demo

TimeLine

Timeline is exactly what it says it is. This script will allow you to create a time line of events in a nice horizontal time line. Most time lines are static, but with this script your time line will be more interactive. The user can drag the time line either left or right in order to advance to a future date, or to go back in history. Say good bye to those static time lines of the past, once you tried this script you won’t want to go back.

Site | Demo

Pie & Donut Charts

For the most part, pie charts are static, like time lines, and boring. With Pie & Donut Charts, you can make pie charts on your page interactive. This script allows users to click wedges in the pie chart, which separates the wedges from the other parts of the chart. Pie & Donut Charts will give your pie charts a degree of interactivity which will make those charts fun again.

Site | Demo

DeepBlue

This theme provides a rich blue background, and orange highlights. The best thing this theme has going for it is it’s ultra clean layout.

Deep Blue Wordpress Theme

Dots

Dots is a theme that most people would not consider professional due to its dark colors, but that is what makes this theme so great. Other than the yellow for contrast this theme is made of black or shades of gray. It would be very easy to make your point stand out with Dots.

Demo | Download

Trendy Orange

A simple but bold theme, with a very refreshing choice of colors. The orange and light blues compliment each other very well. The designer even went ahead and put space in the design for ads if needed.

Business Blog

Business Blog has just enough flair to be considered a Web 2.0 theme, but simple enough to be professional. A perfect balance of simple with Web 2.0 style.

Team

Team has a very user friendly interface. Instead of having most of the menu items to the right of the page like most Wordpress themes, the menu is to the left giving an extra boost to a professional theme.

Meeting

Meeting cleans up a lot of the issues that most Wordpress blogs have, and that would be the clutter between articles. To add to the clean look Meeting also adds rounded corners to most of the images it uses.

Medical

Medicals is another theme with the menus on the left instead of the right. It is a very clean theme with light colors.

Blogging Pro

This is one theme that is really designed for ad placements, and still not look cluttered. Also, the monochrome blue and white theme is very eye catching.

So what has changed in IE 8? Microsoft seems to be more open and accepting more of the W3C standards for CSS in this version of Internet Explorer. According to MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network), “Windows Internet Explorer 8 is fully compliant with the CSS, Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) specification and supports some features of CSS Level 3 (CSS 3).”. If this is true, then developers should be very very happy. There should not be a need to use hacks to get around IE issues in the future. In the same article, Microsoft even list what parts of CSS IE 8 supports, even listing the CSS 3 standards in the list. When looking at the HTML and CSS Matrix which is linked from MSDN’s Internet Explorer Compatibility Center is reporting that IE 8 will support Pseudo Classes such as :before, and :after. This is very exciting as a designer since psudeo classes can be a very powerful design element. This does not mean that Microsoft does not throw in their own CSS standards. According to Microsoft these do comply to CSS 2.1 standards. So now all vendor standards, will start with ms- which will make it very easy to know what is industry standard and what is Microsoft standard.

Another feature which was added in IE 8 was the ability to use different style sheets for the same site. This is similar to the personal style sheets that a user may use, but still allows the designer to have control over the site. This feature will find all the alternative style sheets listed in the site’s code and allow the user to choose which style they want to use. This is very good if you have special style sheets for users with disabilities or from the designer aspect you can test different styles without editing your live style. I am hoping that this is a feature which other browsers will support in the future.

One of the issues that previous versions of IE had was the lack of built in developer tools. Before the Firebug add-on in Firefox was created, most designers had to use either third party software, or the very basic built-in browser tools to try to fix issues with their site. Firebug added a lot of what developers have been wanting for a while. Opera picked up on this by adding DragonFly in the beta version of 9.5. Microsoft has chosen to follow Opera’s lead and add a built-in developer tool to their browser which for the lack of creativity is called Developer Tool. From the screen shots that are on MSDN, Developer Tools seems to be very similar to Firebug. This will be a big hit with developers, because now they can edit their sites “live” just like they can with Firefox and Opera.

Microsoft also is trying to increase the security in Internet Explorer 8. In order to do this, they did something that most companies will not do with their products, they removed CSS expressions. Microsoft also stated that they removed the feature not just for security reasons, but to also comply with W3C standards even better. Steps like this are the right steps for Microsoft.

With the release of Internet Explorer 8, it seems that Microsoft is starting to wake up to reality. It maybe the loss of market in the web browser field, or it maybe just Microsoft showing more maturity, but with the information provided it seems that Internet Explorer is stating to take steps in the right direction. The entire web will grow faster, the more compliant Microsoft makes IE to the industry standards.

1. SEO Title Tags

One of the big components that SEO engineers follow is making for sure your site’s title is the best that it can be. Most SEO engineers will recommend fitting some keywords, and your site’s name into the title. Wordpress’s default title format, will place your blog’s title first in your title tag followed by the title of the post. To make the site comply to most SEO suggestions, your blog’s title should come last in your title, and your post title first. This means that you should flip your default Wordpress title. SEO Title Tag allows you to change the format, along with some additional options. One of the other features of SEO Title Tag, is it allows you to change what Wordpress sees as the title of your post. For your users you can have a catchy title for them, and be able to use a more search friendly title also.

2. Google Sitemap Generator

One of the things that search engine do when they crawl your site is to look for a site map. This allows them to understand how your site’s layout is designed. Sitemaps also allow search engines learn more about your site. Here are some things, Google says sitemaps, can help them with:

• Your site has dynamic content.
• Your site has pages that aren’t easily discovered by Googlebot during the crawl process - for example, pages featuring rich AJAX or Flash.
• Your site is new and has few links to it. (Googlebot crawls the web by following links from one page to another, so if your site isn’t well linked, it may be hard for us to discover it.)
• Your site has a large archive of content pages that are not well linked to each other, or are not linked at all.

As you can see, from Google’s statement, sitemaps will allow their bots to find information that you may have missed yourself. Google Sitemap Generator plug in will make it even easier for your to create your sitemap. When you first add the plugin to your site, you have to manually create the file by going into the plugin settings and clicking “Rebuild Sitemap” to create the XML file. Once you have done that the script will update every time you create or edit. Along with updating your site map, this plugin will automatically notify Google, MSN, and Ask for you.

Adding these plugins to your Wordpress install won’t get your site to any search engine’s first page of results, but it is a start in the right direction.

add_slashes

Add slashes is one of the most commonly mis-used command in the PHP and MySQL relationship. This built-in function will add a slash before single quotes, double quotes, backslashes, and NULL byte. If the function was used for the string O’Reilly, then the output would be O\’Reilly. Beginners in PHP will commonly think that this is the proper way to secure the variables for queries, but this is not true. Add slashes was not really designed to be used to secure variables before a query, and should never be used in this manner if possible.

magic_quotes_gpc

Magic Quotes isn’t really a command, but a configuration option. This option is either turned on or off, and it will automatically add a backslash to any variable with a single or double quote, a backslash, or a NULL byte. There are a lot of programmers that depend on Magic Quotes to secure their code. This is a great option newcomers to the world of PHP if they don’t grow dependent on the option since Magic Quotes isn’t very secure. If someone who is willing, they can still compromise your code if Magic Quotes is enabled. Magic Quotes isn’t a option that you can depend on 100% of the time. For this reason, the PHP developers have made this option deprecated in PHP 5.3.0 and will be removing it in PHP 6.0. There are times that you will need to use this option, since some APIs and scripts require this option to be enabled. (If you have a web server and a site which requires Magic Quotes to be enable, enable the feature via your .htaccess file and not in your PHP.ini file so that your server has better security.)

mysql_escape_string

This is the first real built in function in PHP that addresses MySQL queries. It will escape single and double quotes, backslashes, NULL bytes, \x00, \n, \r, and \x1a characters. If you are using PHP 4.3.0 or previous versions, this is the excepted way to escape MySQL queries. In PHP 5.0, the developers created better function and this function is deprecated. There is one requirement that mysql_escape_string has, and that is a database connection. Without a database connection, mysql_escape_string will not properly add the escape characters needed, and can cause PHP to give an error.

mysql_real_escape_string

Mysql_real_escape_string is the function you want to use to escape any MySQL queries that you perform. As the PHP Online Manual states “This function must always (with few exceptions) be used to make data safe before sending a query to MySQL.” One of those exceptions is if Magic Quotes is enabled. If Magic Quotes is enabled the escape strings added via Magic Quotes are escaped a second time with mysql_real_esacpe_string. (To check if Magic Quotes are enabled use get_magic_quotes_gpc or use addslashes before mysql_real_escape_string).