In an attempt to bolster it’s already sizeable 45% search share on the Internet, Google yesterday unveiled custom tools which will allow other Web sites to limit the range of material that they want to include in their search indexes as well as rank the importance of specific pages.
The free service, unveiled late Monday, marks Google’s latest attempt to expand its lucrative online advertising network and extend its influence on how people navigate the Internet.
“Now people can get the power of Google search even when they’re not on Google.com,” said Shashi Seth, group product manager for the custom search engine.
Google has designed this system to appeal to Web sites that want their search engines to focus on specific topics. For instance, a fishing site might tailor Google’s customized search engine so it doesn’t scan music sites to minimize the chances for confusion when the term “bass” is entered.
Web sites run by government agencies, universities and nonprofit groups will be permitted to deploy the custom search tools without being forced to run Google’s ads. — Read More
Harness the power of Google search to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Specify the websites that you want searched - and integrate the search box and results into your own website — Click here for details
*** Recommended Reading: Create Your Very Own Google Customized Search Engine ***
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Written by James Opiko on October 24th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Marketing and Search Engines and Directories.
Internet Explorer 7 has been shipped and webmasters, developers and designers are busy testing their webpages.
Many bugs found in IE 6 and below have been fixed and many more need to be worked on. Microsoft also “fully recognizes that IE is behind the game today in CSS support.” — IE Blog.
Internet Explorer 7 is more standards compliant and Microsoft pledges to continue refining IE and to “build a platform that fully complies with the appropriate web standards, in particular CSS 2 ( 2.1, once it’s been Recommended).”
In IE 7 Microsoft has made a solemn effort to fix the browsers acquiescence to W3C standards and CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) compatibility. CSS interpretation as recommended by W3C has been improved tremendously giving designers and developers more leverage in functionality for cross-browser design.
Here are some excellent pointers I dug up today regarding CSS & IE7:
Preparing your CSS for Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer & CSS issues
More CSS Articles
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Written by James Opiko on October 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Writes: Daisuke Wakabayashi (Reuters)
Microsoft Corp. released Internet Explorer 7 on Wednesday, the first major upgrade to its Web browser since 2001 with new features aimed at preventing online fraud and improving ease of use.
Microsoft’s IE remains the most widely-used software to surf the Web, but the long gap between major releases allowed for the emergence of the company’s most formidable browser competitor since it vanquished the once-dominant Netscape.
Mozilla Firefox, a free open-source browser, has steadily gained users since its introduction in 2004 with features such as an integrated search window to allow users to do a Web query without opening another page, tab browsing to toggle between different sites and a pop-up window blocker.
These features are included in the new Internet Explorer and Microsoft also touted the security improvements to the browser including color-coded warnings in the address bar to indicate whether a Web site can be trusted.
IE 7 is available immediately to Windows XP users and it will eventually serve as the default browser for Microsoft’s much-anticipated Windows Vista operating system, due out to consumers in early 2007.
Full Story
*** Paul Thurrott authoritatively reviews Internet Explorer 7 ***
“Internet Explorer 7 is an absolute no-brainer: If you use Windows, you should almost certainly upgrade immediately: IE 7’s security features are top-notch and its functional improvements are nicely designed and greatly appreciated. For the short term, certain people may run into occasional Web site compatibility issues with IE 7, but I think those problems will fade quickly. Certainly, most major Web sites have already been upgraded to work correctly with Microsoft’s latest Web browser. I’ve had a field day in the past making fun of IE, but with IE 7, the browser has finally turned the corner. This is one product that Microsoft should be quite proud of. My only question, really, is what took them so long? Seriously, download it now. Highly recommended.” — Paul Thurrott | October 18, 2006
……Read Paul’s Internet Explorer 7 Review in Full
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Written by James Opiko on October 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Webmaster, Design and Development.
Reliable sources indicate that the release of FireFox 2.0 is imminent - apparently to upstage the release of IE 7 which is set to be shipped in less than two weeks.
The Browser war between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and the Google backed FireFox has “shifted gears,” so to speak.
As a measure of their seriousness, Mozilla has setup a Mozilla-Wiki for “Firefox/Feature Brainstorming,” in which they state their desire “to collect all the ideas for feature enhancements in a single place.” “Our goal is to create a single index that lists what sorts of things we’re thinking of doing, with links to more detailed ideas about implementation specifics or concerns, and targets for inclusion in the project.”
Click here to access the Mozilla-Wiki
Get FireFox!
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Written by James Opiko on October 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Webmaster, Design and Development.
