KEY Factor # 52. No more than 1/4 of your page should have Flash. All Flash files are hidden from all search engines and cannot be indexed.

The difference between a web developer and web designer - June 13th. 2010

Recently I've been exploring the world of the web designer where I've noticed lots of designers calling themselves web developers. In fact, I caused some confusion by calling myself a web developer when this did not imply a focus on web application development in the web designer's mind.

In my opinion, web designers should not be referred to as developers because they do not code. HTML and CSS are considered "code" in the web design world so they start to call themselves web developers as soon as they master a little HTML markup and some CSS. But I thought there was a clear distinction between web design and web development. Web design involves Photoshop, Macintosh systems, page layout, typography, CSS, multimedia and anything to do with the creative side of a web site design. Web development involves databases, server side scripting in PHP, ASP.NET, or Java, client side scripting in JavaScript, and anything concerning web applications or dynamic web pages. You've got your front end and your back end.

I've been very active on the ASP.NET Weblogs community where I read a lot of blog posts and do most of my blogging. But I've noticed that most of the ASP.NET gurus don't seem to think of themselves as primarily web developers. Their focus is on very esoteric aspects of programming, i.e. heavy computer science engineering. For example, I find a lot of blog posts about unit testing which is actually difficult to do in ASP.NET. From my perspective, the ASP.NET community seems to be too heavily into enterprise programming and not focused on web development. I suspect this is because most enterprise programmers aren't working on internal window applications anymore. They are actually working on web applications for the enterprise. I consider a web developer to be more of a specialist in web applications. A web developer is primarily a programmer but he also concerns himself with anything related to Internet technology so he cannot be too much of an engineer geek.

Firefox 3 Quick Impressions - June 13th. 2010

I installed Firefox 3 final version this week and I am not as thrilled as I expected.

My Yahoo website (still) does not work with Firefox 3 (I had same problem with Firefox 3 beta). For some reason, when I type an address in address bar or into a search box and press enter nothing happens.

By trying to imitate the glossiness and polish of IE 7, Firefox 3 lost some of the pro-appeal.

I am regretting the upgrade from version 2 to 3. I am typing this quickly because I want to publish out my first impressions before I figure out the quirks and get sucked into a self-induced Firefox 3 apologia.

5 KEY Factors when to avoid a webmaster - June 13th. 2010

1. They call themselves a "Webmaster"

Anyone who calls themselves a "webmaster" probably isn't a master of anything. The term "webmaster" has become a translation for the word "amateur." It really is an outdated term that hasn't been used in year.

2. They can make you a great splash page Flash animation

There are two very important reasons regarding this. First, it is an easy way for people to run up the price for something you probably didn't need and most visitors will skip. Second, it means all the information on your main page will not be indexed by search engines and in return limiting your sites viability.

3. They are a FrontPage expert

Any developer / designer with a degree knows that Microsoft FrontPage most definitely isn't a professional tool. FrontPage will pass for Mom and Dad who want to create a website dedicated to their dogs, not someone who's trying to do business.

4. They offer a counter for yours site

You'll add an ugly relic of the early internet on my site so that my competitors have an idea of my web stats?
Counters make a website look as unprofessional as possible.

5. They will submit your website to 1000's of search engines

How many different search engines do you use on a regular basis? If you really need to find something most people go to Google or Yahoo. There really is only about 100 search engines you want your site to be indexed in anyway.