Life moves fast in a web 2.0 world. You can’t wait to respond to technical issues. You plan for them. Ideally, when one of your servers fails, your business would experience little to no downtime. Your staff would have a spare system and a ghosted image of the failed machine ready to go live before you even knew it was down. In reality, servers and software are expensive and your staff might spend hours, if not days figuring out the failure and making repairs.

Keeping up with software updates across a variety of operating systems and applications is time consuming if the process isn’t automated. One missed software patch can allow hackers to gain entry and expose sensitive data. These potential fiascos mean serious downtime, lost productivity and fewer sales. They’re also easily avoidable.

Whether you have 10 employees or 10,000, you need intelligent IT solutions that scale quickly, are robust and provide performance and reliability. You need people who keep up with the latest technological advances and have the skills to support you now and the vision to chart your future. Thanks to the era of virtualization, you have those people.

Dell is here to support you. Service areas include:

• Desktop Configuration

• Security

• Storage Solutions

• Content Management

• Network Monitoring

Consulting with Dell Enterprise it management means working with IT professionals who are experts in cloud computing, database support, application integration and enterprise solutions. Enterprise software solutions simply refer to business or organizational software and systems as opposed to retail or personal software.

We can evaluate the software your office currently uses and observe how your operations work. Moving into the cloud means you’ll be able to access applications via the Web, so no more worries about keeping on top of updates or having the latest versions. If you have public computers, or employees who share computers, your machines can boot up with clean software installs every morning, fresh from the cloud. You’ll gain instant access to petabytes of off-site data storage.

Dell may advise that you outsource some or all aspects of your IT operations, even user support. Migrating your entire office to a new IT system may seem like a monumental task, but they will guide you and your staff through it and help streamline the entire process.

One of the biggest culprits when developing content for web sites and blogs is not making your content scannable. What does this mean? The tendency of web site readers is to scan to the left, where more information is located. In fact, the common movement of the eye is F-shaped. By employing a weak title, the first two to three words in the title won’t contain any kind of information or keywords that will compel the reader to click on the link. Even though scannability is something that is also important with the body text, it is of greater significance when thinking of a title for your post. Titles should always be within context.

Consider the title as microcontent – small bits of information that already give users a general idea of what the article or blog post will be. By treating your titles like this, users won’t have a problem determining what the article is about and won’t hesitate to click on the link to read it further. Treating titles like microcontent also has another use – it gives you a better representation when the links appear in search engines, RSS feeds and other venues that are link-generated

When setting up your website one of the most important aspects will be to choose a domain name.  It’s that domain name that will stick with you for the lifetime of your site.  You can change the template, change the purpose of the site, fire a designer, hire  a designer, but you just cannot change that domain name (unless you scrap it and do a redirect).  Finding an available domain name that you like and that is appropriate for the purpose of your site is complicated.   Here are a few things to think about when choosing a domain name:

1. Match the domain name to actual name of your site

One of the easiest and best alternatives is to get a domain name that matches the actual name of your site.  It’s a duh statement but so many people forget to match the site.  You will increase your branding as well as make it easy for visitors to remember the name of your site.  The worst thing that can happen is if people fall head over heels for your site but can not find it again simply because the domain name is not the same as the name of your site.  For example if you have a bakery site, don’t call it StubbornNelly.com.  No one will have a clue what your theme is.  Call it, TastyPastry.com, or even Anne Cookies around the corner.com.

2. Keep it short – and Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS)

Keeping the domain name short is a challenge if you are looking for a .com domain as all three and four letter words are already taken.  Yep, and all standard English words are gone too (designer.com, awesome.com).   Coming up with a name that is short will be easier to remember and pass along by word of mouth.   But remember, a domain name should however not be kept short just for the sake of keeping it short.  Do not use acronyms as a url if they look bad as an acronym.  Think of all those failed websites because people did not see different words as one word.  Like don’t come up Patterns, Octogons and Other Pics and give it POOP.com.  That’s a failed domain name.

Some great short named domains:

• IBM.com (why call it international business machines)
• digg.com (i dig you, you dig me)
• Match.com (find a matching partner)

3. Use keywords

Optimizing your domain name for search engines is a big help.  In using one or two of your single most important keywords you will have better chances of getting a higher rank on the search results, thus increasing traffic.  This will not be easy, as most “natural” names already are taken.  Combine an important keyword then with something secondary. These sites came up with great names:

• GraphicDesignBlog.com
• TutorialMagazine.com
• Dev-Tips.com

4. Describe your site

Your domain name is an excellent way of describing what your site is all about.  Say for example that you manage a site about fishing. Your domain name should in some way describe that fishing is exactly what your visitors will find on the site. Again, fishing is a major keyword of your site, so exploit it with a well picked domain name.

5. Avoid confusion

In general, domain names are not expensive.  Register domains with misspellings of your original domain if you want to make sure you catch most type in domain traffic.   Redirect those misspelled domains to the main website.  This is a great for sites that use hard to spell words or need to protect their brand identity. Examples:

• Google.com
• Googel.com
• Gogle.com

6. Consider alternative domain extensions

If it is impossible to find a good domain name with the prefix .com you might want to consider using an alternative domain extension. Many countries have opened up their country code top level domain for international registration.  This is perhaps your chance to create the perfect domain hack. Examples:

• Del.icio.us
• Ma.tt
• Designm.ag

Picking a domain name will take time, energy and some creativity from your side but its worth it in the end. The last tip is to checkout recently expired domain names at snapnames.com – many names will be awful or cost a fortune, but once in a while you will be able find a real gem at a reasonable fee.  Good luck on finding the domain of your dreams!

A nice follow up to the rendering news earlier this week.

Have you tested it? How does your design work with it?

The what now? Default rendering modes? What? Ina Fried explains:

With IE8, Microsoft plans to have three rendering modes: the new standards-compliant mode, the IE7 rendering engine, as well as an option for displaying older Web sites. Because of the default shift, Web sites that want IE8 to use its IE7 engine will have to add a tag to their site’s code.

Word has it we’ll get an IE8 beta in a few months time. Maybe IE8 will be what finally kills IE6? Hardly.

9 years is serious time for a web browser. There is no excuse for IE5 to exist anymore.

Luckily, it just about doesn’t. On my Swedish sites I’ve got 0% IE5 visitors, and on the international ones it’s below 0.15%.

In other words, IE5 is dead. Now please kill IE6. Thank you.

Clicking the PayPal link will reveal that the ransom money goes to cownapper@johncow.com, i.e. the John Cow fellow himself.

Brilliant or madness? I don’t know, it is great linkbait though, as the link spreads.

Scratch that, I think it’s silly. $100 to release the site? That’s undermining your own value to me, and that hurts your brand. Might be a fun way to try and earn some extra money, from a blog I guess, but I’d reckon asking for donations would work better.

Outsourcing To The Rescue

Like in all sectors of the modern economy, outsourcing is becoming a major force to be reckoned with. And while I won’t go into detail about why I think the United States and Europe should stop freaking out about this phenomenon, it is clear that this could give the average freelancer a huge edge. Suddenly, you can cost effectively hire yourself a team when need be, but maintain your freelance status. It is like having temporary employees working for you, but only when you need them. The savings potential is massive and meanwhile you can pass yourself off as the most versatile freelancer out there.

But here is the dilemma: Should you tell your client that you outsourced a component of their project?

The Ethical Dilemma

You could easily not tell your client that you had to outsource a part of their project. Meanwhile, things go off without a hitch and everyone is happy. Unless of course something goes wrong with that piece and you don’t know how to service it. Then again, you could always outsource the fixing of the issue. The point is, this could continue and your client would never know the difference and you still look like the whiz kid.

Just like in any other economic sector, everyone will be reaping the benefits of this outsourcing. You will look like a true professional, your client will be happy about your relatively low prices (compared, to say, a boutique designer), and the end user will get that well designed, well functioning website that they came looking for. You aren’t necessarily obligated to tell anyone how your development process went.

Potential Pitfalls In Outsourcing

This is not to say that you won’t run into problems. The real issue will be finding a company to outsource to that is reliable and produces excellent results. There are tons of these services out there, located everywhere from India (where else) to Illinois and choosing the right one is no small task. In his ebook, Outsourcing Web Projects: 6 Steps to a Smarter Business, Dave Hecker puts it well:

“Remember that there are no barriers to entering the web development business. Any person from anywhere in the world can simply say “I’m a web developer” and start bidding on jobs. As a result, there are large numbers of inexperienced and unqualified vendors in the web design industry, and most of them lack the experience to execute your project properly”

Overall, outsourcing can be an invaluable tool for a web developer and is an option that should not be shrugged off. At the same time, you cannot ignore the potential problems and should always do some research about the company you are interested in. Either way, you can end up looking like a true professional. How do you feel about outsourcing your work?

This article was written by J David Macor.

Webmasters are outraged over the recent change in Google’s policy, now specifically targetting what they refer to as “Link Schemes”:

Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links

Item #1, #2, and #4 have long been questioned as ethical behavior when it comes to using the hyperlink, all of them somehow gaining the reputation from webmasters and publishers who now largely consider them as inappropriate ways of link building. #1 though is always an after–effect of a hyperlink, be it positive or negative in an SEO context, unless when used with the rel="nofollow" attribute which is typically ignored by search engines. On the other hand, #3 is a different discussion altogether.

Changing the Web’s Nature

Google’s action is significantly questionable since it is posed to alter the way the world wide web behaves, something that already existed even before the birth of the search giant. In a way, it tries to take away our freedom to link meaningfully; your blogroll of friends who most likely are also linking to you is now a possible violation that could get you banned from the Google index!

Google’s Matt Cutts acknowledges the ramifications of their policy update, even suggesting that webmasters may do as they please, continue reciprocal linking and all, just as Google can have their way with regards to their index and the search results they produce. Though all of these actions are indeed meant to produce better results for their users, it is also irresponsible to pass the burden of weeding out unethical linking to the publishers themselves. In their effort to completely remove spam sites from their index, they are effectively asking for a change in behavior from the majority of users and publishers. It’s like regulating and telling us how to use an icepick since it can also be used to do bad things. So maybe my example was a little off, but you get my drift.

Information Monopoly

I think it’s now time for us to realize that Google has some sort of “information monopoly,” based on the fact that it is the preferred tool people use to find anything they need, now both online and even offline. It has too much power at its hands that no publisher or webmaster would dare Google’s ire, since a great deal of sites rely heavily on search engine traffic, in most cases, Google. To be fair, the search giant isn’t to blame since none of its competitors have provided compelling technology to suggest a trend that moves toward a democratized search market. At the end of the day, almost everyone will still be using Google for almost everything they do.

With this in mind, all the more do we need a more understanding Google, we need it to practice its “don’t be evil” mantra pro–actively without adversely affecting those who always try to play fair.

Nurturing Responsible Publishers & Webmasters

Taken in a positive context, though Google’s move may appear over–zealous, their actions should help nurture a more responsible breed of publishers and webmasters. By suggesting that we do as we please, they may be daring us to behave within the bounds of what we think is right, with or without reciprocal linking or the other schemes they cited. By doing so, they can adjust accordingly and learn what parameters to give weight on and what to disregard, to produce the most appropriate search results and discard what shouldn’t be there. However, the process may not be straightforward, it is likely that many of us publishers may be affected in the short–term. And the bad ones weeded out in the long run.

It’s gonna be rough, but what choice do we really have? In the end, both users, publishers, and webmasters will benefit from all this. Hopefully.

Written by Markku Seguerra, rebelpixel.com.

Stop using IE hacks on your sites and let them see the ugly side of IE6. Eventually, they will find a better browser (ie. Firefox) or at least upgrade to newer version of IE.

Do you agree?

With all due respect to Nick, and as frustrated as I am, I think this is a rather short-sighted and selfish approach. Sure it’s a royal pain to put in conditional CSS statements and PNG hacks because IE6 doesn’t understand PNG transparency, but do we really think that just leaving out the hacks so that users see the “ugly side of IE6″ will convince them to upgrade their browsers? No, it won’t. I’ll tell you what it will do: it will make them head for the back button quicker than you can say “Bill Gates”, and on to a competitor’s site who IS customer/reader focused and who understands that many of these people who are still on IE6 don’t even realize they need to upgrade. They may not even have a choice, as they surf the internet during their lunch at a company stuck in the dark ages, or they might even know there is a newer version out there, but haven’t the slightest clue as to how to install it.

Obviously, there are some conditions under which you could easily drop the hacks:

• the site’s target audience/customer is tech savvy.
• your stats tell you that only a small percentage of your audience is still on IE6. Who cares if close to 40% of people are still in the browser dark ages. The only stat that matters is what browser your visitors are using.
• leaving out the hack isn’t going to disrupt the user experience that much anyway.

If you don’t want to have to deal with all those hacks, then don’t design a site that uses transparent PNGs or requires conditional CSS. I’m as frustrated as the next person with the snail-like pace at which people are upgrading their browsers, but it’s just part of the job. We’re not designing web sites for US, we’re designing sites for THEM. What are some other ways we can push people to upgrade?

This article was written by Randa Clay. Read more about design, marketing, blogging, branding and all things creative at RandaClay.com.