Yellowseed Web Design Services

Although he can be criticised for not always practicing what he preaches, Jakob Nielsen is still one of the gurus of usability. In this introduction to usability he explains what usability is and why you should care.

Here's a great list that describes some common-sense techniques for increasing visitor traffic to your weblog. A lot of these suggestions apply to websites in general, so even if you haven't yet blogged, it's worth a read.

With new technology called near-field communications, you could use a cell phone to make purchases, or even download a movie trailer from a poster. Check out this article about near-field communications to learn more.

I appreciate when clients come to me with their ideas, but once I start work, I prefer they not get too involved. But how do I say this without sounding insulting?

When too many people get involved in the creative process, especially modifying and tweaking a design, they usually create something horrendous: originality and cohesion are sacrificed for a bland pastiche of blinking graphics and sloppy markup.

Here’s a great article that describes the inverse relationships in web design between time and number of “designers” involved and quality of the final product.

Are you trying to figure out how to increase your website's profile in your online niche market? Here's some good tips on how to brand your site like a pro.

Recent surveys suggest that companies who place customer relations as their top priority are able to charge up to 9% more for the goods and services they offer and grow twice as fast as the average.

For those of you still using Microsft Word and Excel, you have our sympathies. These programs cost you money; they force you to save your documents to one computer and make copies if you want to share your document you have to make multiple copies. Word and Excel make collaboration on writing and spreadsheets awkward, if not impossible. 

First, here's the clip: Daily Show Take on MySpace. I found this clip through Digg.com (which makes a hat-trick of primo Internet/pop culture references). If you've never heard of myspace.com or online social networking, this is a great introduction.

This article about usability from webpronews.com asks "Given the many excellent reasons to make provisions for disabled users when creating a web site, why do so many professionals in the web design industry ignore this important facet of the online community?"

Here's a blog posting from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners Lee on what might become the most important political issue to ever face the Internet - Net Neutrality.

There are a lot of reasons to be in favour of web standards - they ensure that your web site is more accessible, easier to manage and, usually, faster to download. But there are many misconceptions about how to apply web standards when creating a web site. Here's a good article about 9 Ways to Misunderstand Web Standards.

Ever wonder how spammers make money? Here's a great 10-step list on how to become a spam king, without ever sending an email.

On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky.

Google is preparing to launch a system for handling online transactions. The system will compete with EBay's popular PayPal system providing a "free" system for online transactions.

Natural language speech recognition is markedly improving voice-activated self-service. Powered by artificial intelligence, these speech-recognition systems are altering consumer perceptions about phone self-service, as calls for help no longer elicit calls for help. That, in turn, is spurring renewed corporate interest in the concept of phone self-service. In 2004, sales of voice self-service systems topped $1.2 billion.

Yahoo gets ad placements on eBay, while eBay auctions will appear on Yahoo, and PayPal becomes payment backend for Yahoo online payments.

The overtures of a merger? Read this story here.

In a split with other tech firms, Cisco, 3M, Qualcomm and others ask Congress not to enact any new laws mandating Net neutrality. Check out the story here.

Wondering how much you can get for your domain? Linkfish.com performs an instant analysis of you domain and assigns it a market value based on a number of factors. This is a great tool if you're considering selling your business - your domain's value can boost your asking price. It can also be helpful in choosing a domain.

Skype makes a break for it. The company is now offering FREE phone calls to any phone in Canada or the US.

With the launch of it’s new calendar service, Google has shown once again that it is the world’s leading developer of web-based applications.

Google Calendar is an incredibly useful tool that uses the iCal protocol first developed by Apple to allow users to create and share their calendars. Because it can display and publish iCal and XML feeds, sharing and collaboration are easier than ever.

Google Calendar also integrates seamlessly with gmail which means that not only is Microsoft Outlook in trouble, but Google has served notice that desktop productivity and office applications will soon be obsolete.

Sign up for you own google calendar at http://www.google.com/calendar/