| LED Digest 1867: Do Minority Browsers Matter? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== Guest Moderator: Published by: Veronica Yuill LED Digest post,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ September 9, 2004 Issue #1866 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ===== NEW ======================= <Moderator Comment> ~ Welcome Back, Adam! --== Why The Rank? ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "There's very little content overall... There are hardly any links to the site. The content doesn't change. What's giving such good ranking!?..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Shopping Cart Code -- Advice Needed ==-- ~ Beth Durkee "You may want to move towards PHP or ASP with Dreamweaver MX and a shopping cart from Macromedia's developer center..." --== Internet Standards ==-- ~ Sheryl Coppenger "The word proprietary derives from property, not popularity..." --== Alternative Browsers ==-- ~ Kathryn Martyn "Why would I design for other browsers first when the majority are using IE?..." ~ Svein Kare Gunnarson "You ignore the minority at your own peril..." ===== NEW ================================= <Moderator Comment> Well, I've come to the end of my stint as guest moderator, and the Digest will be back in the capable hands of Adam next week -- on top form after his honeymoon I hope! I've enjoyed looking after the Digest -- the only difficult part was finding a suitable quotation for the end of each issue <g>. Keep those posts coming ... Regards Veronica ---------------------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Why The Rank? My client is baffled, and so am I. Why does this site have number 1 ranking in Google? http://www.olympus.net/personal/brewster/ If you search for "book designer" as an exact phrase, it's first out of 15,000. Searching for 'all words', it comes up first out of 5,410,000! There's very little content overall - The site has a tiny number of pages, a couple of which have almost no text. There are hardly any links to the site. The content doesn't change. Etc. What's giving such good ranking!? Thanks, Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Beth Durkee Subject: Shopping Cart Code -- Advice Needed Dear Tom, A few thoughts for you and information I hope you'll find helpful. The "Tool" your currently using appears to be a custom solution which typically runs on a UNIX or LINUX server using PERL scripts. If you wanted to expand your knowledge and tweak your existing tool I would recommend learning more about cgi and PERL. Moving forward, though, you may want to move towards PHP or ASP with Dreamweaver MX and a shopping cart from Macromedia's developer center. PHP can run on any type of server from what I understand. Perhaps others in the forum are more adept with PHP and I leave the expertise to them. ASP would run on a Windows/IIS server. I've worked with the UltraCart extension available on Macromedia's web site and found it very flexible and easy to customize if you read the manual that comes a long with it and have a good working knowledge of Dreamweaver MX. The UltraCart extension was available in a few different programming languages at the time and I went with ASP. The Macromedia forums are a GREAT source of additional information, as well. Pick a cart and language and don't try to mix 2 different languages and things will go a lot smoother during your transition. Good luck, Beth M. Durkee, CIW Eyeland Creations W: http://www.eyelandcreations.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Sheryl Coppenger Subject: Internet Standards Michael Martinez wrote: >>TCP/IP, when it was developed in 1972, was very much a proprietary protocol (and the fact it was funded by the US government doesn't change the fact that it was proprietary -- at the time, only DARPA computer systems had access to it).<< Michael, I take issue with your definition of proprietary. By law at that time, any software developed by the government had to be given to any citizen who asked. In my first job in the 70s I worked for the government and spinning off tapes of software was one of my tasks. To be sure we had programs that nobody outside our agency was using -- but that didn't make them proprietary in any meaningful sense of the word. We did not have an exclusive legal right to the software and it was not used for making a profit. It's not a matter of how widespread the use is that makes it proprietary. It's the extent to which the entity that created it defines its property rights. >>And there were no systems which took advantage of the technology at first. Furthermore, the first Web browser his very own "WorldWideWeb" (renamed Nexus), only ran on NeXT computers (a very proprietary environment).<< Completely irrelevant, as long as someone could have used the interface spec to write one for another computer without being sued. >>An open standard is freely adopted from proprietary innovation, not mandated by a single authority. You create an innovation and put it out for people to evaluate. If enough people like it and adopt it, it becomes an open standard. It may evolve or spawn other ideas, but it can only start out as a proprietary idea.<< The word proprietary derives from property, not popularity. IMO you're completely off the mark. Sheryl Coppenger http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~sheryl ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Alternative Browsers I agree with Kathy Wilson here, or perhaps I misread John Barrick's statement that, "Never start your web site viewing in IE unless that is the only crowd you are interested in." Why would I design for other browsers first when the majority are using IE? I thought it made more sense to design for the majority, and tweak for the minority. Personally, I try to make my sites so simple nothing breaks in any browser anyway, but every so often I think it's time to learn something new and I go wading in the CSS pool, only to be scared off by the browser sharks that refuse to cooperate or play nice. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Svein Kåre Gunnarson Subject: Alternative Browsers John Barrick said in his post... "Never, and I mean it folks, never start your web site viewing in IE unless that is the only crowd you are interested in." Kathy Wilson Anderson: "Actually, yes, this IS the crowd I'm interested in. IE users comprise approximately 90% of the internet users, according to the statistics for my client's websites." So IE users isn't the ONLY crowd you want to reach, then. There are two things you make me think of here, however: 1. According to all I've heard from different web designers experiences, it's cheaper and faster to develop for modern, standards compliant browsers, and then - if necessary - make some hacks to make it work as intended for IE, than it is the other way around. That's why it's better to check in a newer browser first. 2. A story from some years ago, where a web site owner was asked why he cared for the Netscape users, dwindling in numbers as they were. It turned out that the minority of Netscape users provided the owner with the majority of income. That has always reminded me that you ignore the minority at your own peril. Svein Kåre Gunnarson Crazee Aftermoon - A varied experience http://www.dionaea.com http://www.cafepress.com/dionaea/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." - Henry David Thoreau |
