Watch a Video of Developing Chrome Apps on Desktop and Mobile Distribute and Profit

 This video is worth the view to see where Google is headed when it come to web and native apps on the desktop and mobiles.

http://gigaom.com/2013/12/09/chrome-apps-101-video-shows-googles-vision-of-future-web-apps-on-mobile-and-desktop/

Check Out the Lastest News on SILO for Web Application Security

                                               authenic8.com

In this age of security leaks and hackers businesses are always looking for promising systems that can protect data and employee devices.

A new company, Authenic8 , has developed the product "Silo". This Silo app has a highly secure containment.  Silo stands out because mobile employees it is valuable when using personal devices over insecure networks.

Authentic8 stated the following their launch of Silo.  "Each time they launch Silo, users get a freshly built browsing environment with SSO links to provisioned apps. All web code is contained within Silo, meaning apps are insulated from exploits, and business data is kept separate from personal browsing. Users interact with a benign display of the web app, keeping all web code off the device. And at session end Silo is destroyed along with all transient browsing data, leaving the device and server stateless. With Silo, your web apps live beyond the reach of network, client-side or web borne exploits."

Ken Hess for Consumerization asked the team of  Authentic8 the following question.:
"What happens if the user hits a site that's been compromised? Can it have any negative affect on the user's device?"
The team answered:
The answer is, "No". And the reason is that your web application isn't running on your device. It runs in the cloud, in a sandboxed environment. Your device is not directly attached to the web service in any way. So, imagine the worst, most devious virus or malware possible that's infected a site that you have setup to access in Silo.

 Watch a video demonstration of Authenic8's Silo in action.

http://www.zdnet.com/authentic8s-silo-the-ultimate-security-solution-7000023271/

Crummy Passwords is the Reason that Adobe was HACKED!

                                           news.mindprocessors.com 

This following article should be a wake-up call to computer users in selecting their passwords. Knowing that persons use the same password for every login that they use is opening the door for security breaches and hackers getting your personal information. 




Despite the endless warnings, despite all the advice, despite the plethora of useful articles on the matter, it seems computer users everywhere just can’t help creating really crummy passwords.

Analysis of user passwords gathered from the recent Adobe attack reveal a Top 20 list full of easy-to-remember but equally easy-to-guess passwords, with “123456” topping the chart.

The Adobe hack affected 38 million accounts, though this figure relates only to active users. The security breach actually hit more than 150 million accounts, though most are no longer used.

Adobe has changed passwords on affected accounts and contacted users to let them know how to reset their account with a personally chosen password. It also instructed users to change their passwords on any other website where they may have used the same user ID and password as their Adobe account.

Some of the stolen data has started to show up across the Web, with Internet security researcher Jeremi Gosney uncovering a mass of passwords, despite the U.S. software giant saying they were protected by encryption. However, an Adobe spokesperson said last week that up to now there have been no reports of suspicious activity on user accounts affected by the security breach.

Now that you know “123456” topped the list of 1.9 million passwords, perhaps you can guess what came in at number 2…..“123456789.” Number 3 will be enough to make any Web security advisor consider giving up the day job in despair: “password.”

Crummy passwords

Here are the rest of the top 20 most popular passwords gathered from the Adobe hack: adobe123 / 12345678 / qwerty / 1234567 / 111111 / photoshop / 123123 / 1234567890 / 000000 / abc123 / 1234 / adobe1 / macromedia / azerty / iloveyou / aaaaaa / 654321

The thing is, if someone uses a number like “123456” for their password on one site, it’s a safe bet they use the same number on all the websites for which they have accounts, as you’d only get confused if you had a different number for each site – unless, of course, you keep all your passwords in a big red notebook with “MY PASSWORDS” written on the front. And those who have “adobe123″ as their password no doubt also use “facebook123”, “twitter123”… you get the idea.

Gosney said he’s currently unable to verify the passwords he uncovered, though he’s “fairly confident” of the list’s accuracy. To find out more about how he collected the data, and to see the top 100 passwords as selected by Adobe users, click here.

Meanwhile, if, after looking through the list above, a bead of sweat has formed on your brow as you start to realize how ridiculously simple your passwords are (or should we say “password is”?), then check out this article to find out how to create something a little more secure. Or get an app to help you.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/11/06/123456-adobe-hack-highlights-crummy-passwords/ 

A New Tool for Web Designers Has Been Launched by Google for Building HTML5 Sites and Ads

This new visual tool called "Web Designer" has been launched by Google.  It is a new tool for building interactive sites and ads.  Google is billing this as "professional-quality design tool. This new tool is now officially in public beta and available for download in Mac and Windows.



While this ad pedigree shines through across Web Designer (the default layouts are for DoubleClick rich media ads and AdMob mobile ads, for example), there is nothing in the tool that would prevent you from building interactive single-page sites and animations for other purposes, as well. Some of the features, however, are currently only available for ads, though Google says it plans to expand these tools for other purposes in the future.

At its core, Web Designer is a visual tool, but you can also delve right into the JavaScript and CSS to fine-tune different aspect of your site. Indeed, Web Designer allows you to manipulate all of your code directly in a built-in editor and lets you quickly preview your creations in every browser you have installed on your machine.

The tools come with all the usual visual design tools you’re probably familiar with. Some of the more interesting ones Google has developed for Web Designer include a pen tool for free drawing, as well as a timeline for managing your animations. Web Designer also features the ability to create 3D content using the power of CSS3, as well as a set of pre-built components for galleries, maps and embedded YouTube videos.

For animations, one of the core features of the application, Web Developer features a Quick mode for building animations scene by scene and an advanced mode that gives designers more control over each of the elements on the page.

It’s worth noting that projects like Adobe Muse, Reflow and others include most of Web Designer’s features, too. But by making Web Designer available for free, Google is putting quite a bit of pressure on the incumbents in this space.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/30/google-launches-web-designer-a-visual-tool-for-building-interactive-html5-sites-and-ads/

Amazing Website Testing Tools for Web Developers

As a web developer you would like to be assured that all the problems have been solved in the functionality of the great site before you launch the final product for your customer.  The following top 10 tools for web developers will help in testing for Cross Browser Compatibility, Website Speed Test, Security Test, Responsive Design Test, Accessibility Test, and so on.

Safari Web Inspector

Web Inspector feature is one of the remarkable Apple’s Safari web browser gems. Users can be able to see Safari Web Inspector after turning development tabs. It shows images, stylesheets and scripts on any webpage.

But, the most useful portion of Web Inspector is its Network feature that displays in real-time the order and speed in which documents and scripts transfer to the browser from the server. This tool allows you to find which files, scripts, or images are putting the most strain on browsers. After knowing the strain, you can simply fix it.

Firebug Firefox Extension

Firebug is the most favorite extension of programmers that solves debugging issues with front-end code and CSS. Checking out through Firebug is the best response, if any image or style that’s out of line. Moreover, users can also be able to change styles within the extension to see how a website will truly show in the browser.

UI Parade

UI Parade (Live Tools) is a collection of free online designer applications, allowing easy developing UI elements with some experience of coding. Apart from creating custom elements, users can easily download creations in their applications and websites.

AccessColor

Professionals, who want to test the color brightness and contrast of the background and forefront of all components available in the Document Object Model (DOM), can have AccessColor.

This marvelous tool is best for searching an appropriate combination of color mixtures within HTML & CSS documents instead of developing each value to input.

W3C Validation Services

W3C is one of the best standards in all of web validation. W3C Validator displays errors based on industry standards by looking into the markup of any website.

Users can find more than a dozen languages and a dozen varieties to choose from. One can find numerous assistance related with W3C validation like amplified load speed of web pages, future-proof feature check, cross browser compatibility, easy repairs & fixing, better search engine ranking, etc.

  Selenium

One of the leading open source testing frameworks for web applications, Selenium is based on Java scripting, offering a collection of choices that used for creating a comprehensive automation test suite.

Some of the effective components of Selenium are Selenium Client API, Selenium Grid, Selenium IDE, Selenium Remote Control, Selenium Web Driver and Marionette.

Browsershots

Browsershots User Interface testing tool is used for checking cross browser compatibility of your website. It is one of the best open source online web applications that make screenshots of your website in diverse OS and browsers.

Solex

Solex is another efficient open source web testing tool that acts as a HTTP proxy. This testing tool used as a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE. The best things about Solex are users can simply record, adjust and replay a client session.

All HTTP requests and responses between client and server are recorded by this testing tool. With Solex, user can also get the result through XML format and an optional XSL format.

Fluidui

If you are searching for a mobile app prototyping tool, then you have Fluid UI that design and test low and high-fidelity app mockups on a mobile device with simplicity. With the help of this tool, you can easily unlock creativity through its simple and UX oriented.

Watcher-mainly, is a Fiddler add-on that used by diffusion testers to determine web safety concerns. Watcher is one type of reflexive susceptibility scanning tool that especially designed for HTTP based web applications. Moreover, it doesn’t dangerous for cloud, hosting & construction locations.

http://www.whatech.com/members-news/web-design/16291-10-useful-website-testing-tools-for-web-developers-and-designers

Tips for Ensuring Your Company's Website Continue to Rank High in Search Engines

Most businesses are worried about keeping their high position in search engines. This is a valid worry due to the fact that Panda and Penquin can move a top ranked website and push it down to a lower ranking. There are some good tips that you can implement that will help to stay to the top on the web.



Search Friendly Structure:

For dynamic website address URLs (like the default URL links used in WordPress pages) it is important to use the "Permalink" settings. For example, “mysite.com/page-name” vs. “mysite.com/?page_id=123” can be easier for users to remember and better “symantically” for search engines. Another good suggestion is to create a Site Map to help search engines “crawl” the company website. This can be especially important for larger sites with complicated navigation. Also good for Search Optimization is a well thought-out web page description for every page on the site.

Content

Integrating great web content in 2013 is paramount for not only communicating with site visitors, it also helps a website get a boost in rankings. Good content helps build brand awareness and authority in a sea of competitors all trying to convey why they are the best at what they do. Ensuring the site has an up-to-date list of company ethics, privacy policies and product/service guarantee’s, can go a long way to build loyalty. The web page content should include a “sprinkle” of important key phrases related to the company business for search engines, but more importantly, good content should convey information that will prompt site visitors to return to the website at regular intervals, guide visitors to make contact with site owners or perhaps make visitors want to "bookmark" site pages for return visits.

Site Promotion


There are many ways to promote one’s website which can include writing articles with a link back to one's website, creating a company blog to post updates and events, participating in online forums within the company niche, creating quality press releases and listing a site in local web directories, just to name a few. Business owners must also understand that when it comes to "links", quality, trumps quantity. In other words, understanding what a quality back-link is, will ensure owners look to gain links from web pages that are important, relevant, newsworthy or "nich" sites, rather than trying to obtain a mass quantity of low-quality links.


Don't Put All the Eggs in One Basket

There are many search engines on the internet today. And although Google controls the market share in traffic, those website owners that follow all search engines guidelines and utilize other methods of generating qualified traffic by not depending on just one or two search engines for business, will never see major declines in business. This is especially true when Google decides to make a major update in their algorithm.

Analytics

In weather circles, they say "if you don’t analyze it – you can’t track it". The same principle apply to website statistics. Knowing how much traffic a site is getting, how many visitors are “returning” and “new”, how long visitors stay or how quickly visitors leave the site, are just a few important statistics to consider reviewing, on a regular basis. These statistics allow web developers to make small subtle changes to websites to generate positive results.

These are just a few suggestions to help business owners maintain good website positioning in an ever changing Internet landscape. Contact a local web developer for more suggestions on how to improve one's website and search positioning to take on new business this year and in 2014.

FM Web Services offers Responsive Web Design, website analysis, SEO Press releases, Search Optimization and Facebook pages for businesses. Located in the Toronto area (GTA), IFM has helped business achieve an effective online presence and has helped clients as far away as Bermuda and Mexico. For more on Social Media, SEO or Web Design for businesses, visit IFM at http://www.ifm.ca


http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11152104.htm

No More Confusion as to Which Portable Applications are the Best to Use in Website and Design

Why are portable applications so awesome?  Portable applications can be stored in pen drives and hard drives so you do not have to carry around your laptop. You may have wondered which applications to use in order to be beneficial in website development and design.

These are the top portable applications that have been suggested should  be a great help to developers.



KompoZer Portable:

KompoZer Portable is one of the excellent portable applications that isHTML editor. This application rivals the functionality of Dreamweaver. As compare to NotePad, it is a great application that allows you to enjoy advanced features and easy code editing functionalities that are not possible through other apps.

Riot:

RIOT is also the best portable application that can be used to compare the original with the optimized image in very less time. The application has easy to use interface that allow users to use this application without any kind of difficulty and it instantly see the resulting file size. For advanced users, this image optimizer is fast and easy-to-use that is simple yet powerful.

GIMP Portable:

GIMP is a free portable application that is a great alternative to Photoshop. Many users find it quite difficult when they used it to Photoshop, but it is extremely powerful, if they use it as a portable application. It is as powerful as Photoshop as there is not better alternative than GIMP.

Inkscape Portable:

Inkscape Portable is an open source scalable vector graphics editor that allows you to perform your drawing while on the go. This application is standards-compliant and its portable version is the most powerful that allows you to make your different parts of developing website easy. It supports with different SVG features that include markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.

Icofx:

The best and professional icon as well as cursor editor, IcoFX is an award winning application that is a perfect solution for icon creation, editing and extraction. This application is designed to work with Windows XP, Macintosh icons supporting transparency and Windows Vista. It allows you to generate windows icons up to 256×256 for Windows Vista/7 and Macintosh icons up to 1024×1024 for Macintosh OSX 10.7 Lion.

MobaPhoto:

MobaPhoto is a free and open source image manager that is one such application that does not require any kind of installation. Stuffed with numerous features, this application is very useful in terms of its quality, performance and features. Being a very useful application, you can use it to manage and track tons of pictures.

Fotografix:

Supports with layer, scripts and filters, Fotografix comes with small footprint and it is only 760kb after extract. Packed with numerous features such as Eye dropper, Clone, Magic Wand and more, this application is an alternative for you when you just want to do some easy image editing and do not want to open various applications like GIMP.

http://www.whatech.com/members-news/web-design/16101-7-best-portable-applications-for-web-developers-and-designers

Mobile Developers Will Have a Smile on Their Face With the New Service From AMAZON

pcworld

Amazon web services is now offering mobile developers cross-platform push notifications. Why would developers benefit from this service?

                                                  voxville
                                                          

Amazon pitches Simple Notification Service with Mobile Push as an easier way for developers to add notifications than previously has been possible. Using one API, developers can send notifications to iOS and Android-based devices, including Amazon's own Kindle Fire tablets.

Previously, adding push notifications at a large scale on multiple platforms has been complicated for developers, according to Amazon. That's because each smartphone OS has a different service that delivers notifications. So to support multiple mobile platforms, developers must integrate with each platform, which introduces operational complexity and cost, Amazon said.

Mobile Push is compatible with Amazon's own Device Messaging platform as well as Apple's Push Notification Service and Cloud Messaging from Google. Notification messages sent to a mobile endpoint can appear as message alerts, badge updates, or even sound alerts.

The service can send messages to individual users on specific devices or broadcast identical messages to many subscribers at once. For developers who find themselves with a hit app on their hands, it can scale from a few notifications a day to hundreds of millions, according to Amazon.

Developers can send up to 1 million notifications each month for free. After that, customers pay 50 cents for every million messages published, and 50 cents for every million messages delivered.

 

Mobile Push is built into the existing Simple Notification Service, which is still labelled as a beta and already lets developers send notifications to their users via SMS text message and email.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241598/Amazon_offers_mobile_developers_cross_platform_push_notifications

Tips For Writing on the Web

What is your goal when writing on the web?  Is it to showcase your intelligence or is it to inform people of interesting or helpful facts to a specific group?  Knowing the audience in which you are writing for is imperative for success. Below is a an article for advice on writing on the web.



Most users visit a web page for 10-15 seconds. In that brief time, 80% will skim the page for keywords they already have in mind. Therefore, before you begin writing web content, it’s important to understand your audience and anticipate what content and keywords they’re trying to find.

Adhering to the following guidelines will improve your web content:

1. Make your text easy to scan

• Put the most important information at the top of the page.
• Use plenty of embedded links, subheadings, bullets, lists, anchors, etc., to break up your text.
• Use tables, numbers, and charts to convey information visually when you can.

2. Cut your content down to basics

The biggest mistake writers of web content make is providing too much content and introductory text. In general, cut your print text by at least 50% and use the following guidelines:

• Web writing should be clear, concise, and direct.
• Write at a 6th- to 8th-grade reading level.
• Always try to write in first or second person.
• Whenever possible, stick to facts.
• Use active verbs and concrete words whenever possible.
• Try to avoid jargon, abbreviations, technical terms, and cleverness.
• Keep paragraphs short and stick to one main point at a time.
• Sentence structure should be simple and varied.

3. Write accessible link phrases

Accessible link phrases should differentiate links on the same page and be understood easily when read out of context. In general, links should:

• be brief and descriptive
• provide information even when read out of context
• explain what the link offers
• not deal with the mechanics of the site
• not include phrases such as, "Click here for more info"
• identify a new document type if not html (i.e. PDF, DOC, XLS)

4. Write short headlines

Users can generally only process several words at once, so generallyshorter headlines are better.
   Headlines should:
            



Headlines should:

• be concise and direct
• be able to stand on their own or be understood out of context
• avoid jargon, abbreviations, cleverness, and technical terms
• be search engine friendly. Visit our SEO Guidelines for more information.

https://itservices.uchicago.edu/page/writing-web

Five Website Strategies for 2013

Do you have any strategies for your website development?   There is a lot of competition out there and you may need some advice to help your sites get noticed.

Once considered a calling card for your business or an online brochure, websites have now evolved into a visually packed battle ground for businesses. If you think your marketing is just fine with your standard website, think again! There’s a good chance your standard website just won’t be compelling enough in the new year. Make your web strategy a priority in 2013 by implementing these five trends.

1. Support Mobile Devices
If you haven’t updated your website to support mobile devices, this should be your top priority in 2013. People are accessing your website from a multitude of devices – including smartphones and tablets – at a record pace. The easiest way to support all devices is implementing responsive web design, which enables your website to be viewed on nearly any device. If your website is more complicated, consider creating a separate mobile website or creating a mobile application. Not sure if you’re ready for mobile? Test your website to check for mobile compatibility.

2. Make your Website a Place to Stay
Websites need to be more than just a home page and a list of services. Effective websites have become interactive playgrounds, using video and games alongside striking images and intelligent content. Make your website a place where people come for a long visit. Websites that entertain and educate the audience are much more effective than the traditional sales pitch.

3. Provide Great Content Marketing
With the numerous changes to search engine algorithms, you need to provide fresh content on your website on a regular basis to compete and be found. Strive to create relevant, timely content that people find valuable and ultimately want to share. And sharing is one of the best ways to drive traffic and obtain new, high-quality leads.

4. Tell Your Story Visually
The amount of information that people are accessing in any single day is staggering. Visual storytelling, often through infographics, is quickly becoming a popular way to communicate with viewers. A strong visual element allows visitors to scan information and absorb the data quickly. It’s a great way to get your information and website shared on social networking too.

5. Reignite Your Email Marketing
With the number of smartphones on the market, people have access to email instantly. Rethink your email marketing strategy with the ideas of social, local and mobile. Focus on segmenting your email list based on the preferences and locations of your subscriber, and send out information that is easy to view and digestible on the go. Be sure to make your email list subscription a focal point of your website to build subscribers.

 http://parkbenchdigital.com/blog/5-website-strategies-2013/