List-Corp.Com

I've recently finished a huge project for List-Corp.Com, Inc., which was a site design, and graphics creation for a large, and modern national business directory. You can click and view their web site. They have signed on for me to create the designs an graphics they'll be using for their entire network of nine total web sites by the end of 2007.

They wanted a design that was easy on the eyes, and ad-free site, and something easy to navigate and locate the information they have in their almost ten thousand categories.

I'm also building some of the software they are using! For instance, they wanted an easy method to have current news headlines on their front page, that could draw from multiple sources. Now usually JavaScript can be used to do this, but they wanted content that could be indexed by search engine spiders, so I built a handy little ISAPI to hit multiple sites, with the keywords they specified, parse the news links, and send them back to a file they could place with Server Side Includes.

The project has really went well, and they have a ton of information available, If I so say so myself, it's the nicest directory on the web.

IE7 Breaking Websites

Is Internet Explorer Version 7 breaking your CSS? Especially your 3-column layouts??? It's probably all the IE CSS hacks that you have for IE6 according to the IE developer staff, Their support for standards is greatly improved.

I know I'm having a heck of a time with some float issues. But that's the price we pay for the relative ease of CSS design. I mean remember tables?

About the only thing I use a table for these days is for a form design, still pretty easy to make those look good with the use of tables. But back to IE 7 breaking our CSS

The title of this post has a few answers, and below our some helpful links for you if you are facing this bug-a-boo. I guess we should have downloaded the beta of IE? Huh...

Some IE Blog Posts
IE7 CSS Hacks

Oh, and while I'm at it who else hates Yahoo and Google for indexing content on webmasterworld.com??? I mean you can't access the content, without a subscription but it seems neither Yahoo or Google have figured out this yet. You thing with a billion or so dollars you could put a few people on it especially for a site that has probably thousands of indexed pages!

Just de-list them already! You know how many times I've clicked on a link of their's and come up with a, "Only Paid, lah-de-oo-ga-dee"

Anyway good luck with the IE7 troubles... Hope this post helps a little.

BoogleBot

What's Up with GoogleBot??? Seems like it's been crawling my server for days on end, off and on. Sometimes it goes aways and is right back in a minute or two? Does anyone know if Google has the capabilities to crawl sites that there are no external links to?

That's a good question, because sometimes I put up a site I'm working on, if I go Server Side Includes, to test it out.

If anyone know the answer, please post it here. That way I don't have to research it for hours. Just a quick note to le me know, maybe I can do something for you someday...

Thanks in advance... OneSurfer

SEO Optimization

I think a lot about how to improve the web sites that I code. The site in the link above really helps, and it runs very quickly. It analyzed your site and gives you a lot of detailed information regarding your keyword density, your title relevancy and such.

It's one of the more useful online tools that I've come across, and I thought I'd share the link with others that might not know about it. The service is completely free, and very useful, as I've mentioned.

Happy coding...

Google Experiment

Everyone is always looking for the best way to stay on top in the SEO market, and I guess I'm not really that different. I do share on thing in common with Google. I like clean, and simple designs, and interfaces for my software, and my websites.

Apparently, Google is experimenting with a new search engine, to see how the market reacts to different user interfaces. I would like to think part of their popularity was an ad-free interface.

I looked at the Search Mash home page and it doesn't even have a button. I'm assuming that you have to press the enter key on your keyboard. I didn't try it out, preferring actually to use a scraper for my searches, especially if I'm searching for my keywords. Otherwise, Google has a tendency to give skewed results. *Particularly if you search from the server the web site is running on.

Bu anyway, back to the NEW Google??? The page is so clean it could be freshly diapered. Anyone with any more information is more than welcome to post and let the blogging community hear their thoughts on this new Google venture.

Click over to the title of this post for the full story.

Malicious Software

I was over at the Microsoft site, and was glancing around.

I came upon the security guide for Windows Vista. Microsoft engineering teams, consultants, partners, and engineers, plus customers have approve after reviewing this prescriptive guidance. What the heck is a prescriptive guidance???

Why make up terms to make things sound more important than what they actually are??? Remember Active Desktop, and the so-called, "channels".

The preliminary Vista security guide does seem fairly comprehensive, but one has to wonder, after the security nightmare that was Internet Explorer was for so many years, it is finally going to REALLY be better?

Tell me what you think...

Freight Payment Directory

I have just finished up building and refurbishing www. freightpayment.net.

I have totally re-tooled it to be a freight payment listings directory. Having been in the top ten for years with the companies I worked for, now that I work for myself, I figured to allow this site to help other more deserving companies increase their web site visibility.

So if you get a chance, check out the new site, and let me know what you think about the design. I would appreciate any feedback at all. As sometimes I tend to think I over-use some elements of design too often, but they seem to always look nice.

I intend to make this site very professional, with no ads, and nothing to distract web surfers from the information they are searching for.

Thinking about DMOZ??? Forget it...

You need to check out my post over at http://www.dmozsucks.org/. Especially if anybody is considering even posting anything over at http://www.dmoz.org


It's basically a waste of your SEO time and talent. There are much better ways to get quality inbound links for your website.

There was a day when not having a link in DMOZ hurt. That day is over. There index is full of dead and broken web sites, and the quality of the sites that are listed are not that great. Not to mention that most of the editors are owners of businesses that are in the category they edit! Of course links in DMOZ NEVER HURT!

Just forget it, don't waste you time.

Online Button Generator (Small Button Images)

Attention web site developers...

Here's two links that both allow automated creation of those clever little 90 X 15 buttons for your website.

You've all seen them, and know they add a little bit of credibility to your site.

Note: I prefer the button maker by lucazappa, rather than the one by Adam KAlsey

Here's the links: Brilliant Button Maker : Button Maker By Adam Kalsey

These automated tools make life for developers a little bit easier, and I personally thank both these sites, and the individuals responsible for them.

Web Server Security Issues IIS And Apache

After being responsible for customer's data on the Internet, and building and maintaining several successful and popular web applications for freight payment, and other data-centric purposes, it's reasonable to say I've given a lot of thought to network, and Internet security. I try my best to stay abreast of what's going on out there in the world of hacking and countermeasures.

I ran on this article by Port80software, and thought that it put into layman's terms what everyone should know about some simple effective, strategies for securing web servers.

The link is the title. Enjoy!

Microsoft ActiveSync No USB Modem Driver Needed

I recently decided to combine my Ipod, my Palm Pilot, and my laptop into one device. I chose the Cingular 8125. This hand held device takes pictures, surfs the Internet and plays music and video with Windows Media Player. The operating system is Windows Mobile 5.

It's been a great addition to help me track business stories, with live news and events via the web. Plus it's helping me develop a mobile version of the 1st-Audit web site, and track changes, not mention the storage deal. Tired of carrying USB flash drives? GET an 8125.

But alas, I got to the office, and was unable to explore my device, because I thought I needed a modem driver for my Cingular 8125, (which was oin the Cingular disc) due to plug and play not working on this mobile device. So I just downloaded and installed Microsoft ActiveSync, and voila! I'm now syncing at home and at work!

I can't tell you how much of a time saver this device has been to me. Like Ferris Bueller said... "if you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one up!" And yes, you really can just throw away the disc that comes with the 8125. All you need is ActiveSync!

Oh, and here is a review of the 8125 for those who want to know before they invest in new tehcnology.

Creating Site Maps For Google

Creating a sitemap is one of the most beneficial things you can do to

This site can help you create a sitemap, relatively easily, and in a variety of formats. Of course if you are going to have a state of the art web site, then go for the XML site map.

of course Google has a whole set of webmaster tools available to help you improve your site. Of course everyone is looking to have a great website that ranks high for their keywords, and so help yourself out and visit.

That all being said, the only thing that's for sure is that SEO is in a constant state of flux.

CSS Tabbed Navigation

Sliding doors, a css-based method for creating tabbed navigation is a great look for any web site. Some free tabbed navigation sets are available over at Exploding Boy While you're there, don't forget to download the freeware application that expands on the 14 free sets available and lets you visually build these css-based navigation menus, which are actually unordered lists. The software was create by OverZone Software, and is easy to use, and very effective...