Internet Explorer 9 Released
Today Microsoft releases its latest version of Internet Explorer - 9. Key updates in this new version are aimed at performance improvements like speed and a more streamlined user interface reminiscent of the other mainstream browsers already available like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
Download the latest version of Internet Explorer 9 from Microsoft.
What's new, according to the Windows Internet Explorer 9 Fact Sheet:
• Fast. Internet Explorer 9 is all-around fast. Part of reimagining the role of the browser to deliver immersive, compelling Web experiences is rethinking the concept of fast. Today, fast is too often narrowly defined as page load time. Tomorrow, a browser will not be able to call itself fast unless it lets people interact with graphically rich sites and applications with lightning speed. Fully hardware-accelerated graphics, text, video and audio through Windows 7 means that the same markup not only works across the Web, but also runs faster and delivers a richer experience. Designed to take full advantage of the power of your computer’s hardware through Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 delivers dynamic experiences that are as fast and responsive as native applications installed on your computer.
• Clean. Internet Explorer 9 puts the focus on the websites you love, with a clean experience for your Web that meets you where you are. With Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7, we rethought the role of the browser and how people interact with websites and Web applications. While other browsers focus on the browser itself, Internet Explorer 9 is site-centric, as opposed to browser-centric. You have the websites you love with a clean look that makes your websites shine.
Hardware Acceleration
Web browsing is the No. 1 thing people do on their Windows-based PC, and as such, they increasingly expect the same experience they associate with their PC applications from their favorite Web-based e-mail service, photo site or social network site. This kind of immersive experience does not occur on the Web today, and using a browser is often associated with limited performance and interactivity. Microsoft developed Windows Internet Explorer 9 to help change this.
Video: Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial
Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial -- WebBizIdeas
Goodbye FBML Pages
Back on Feb 11, 2011 Facebook announced on its Developer Blog that as of March 10, 2011 you will no longer be able to create new FBML (not to be confused with XFBML) pages on Facebook. All new pages will be required to utilize iframes, which has been around for a while now.
Who does this affect: A lot of people. Static FBML has previously been one of the most utilized apps for Facebook page developers to publish a quick tab on their pages. The functionality wasn't great, but it was pretty easy and a lot of people took advantage of that.
While the change will not 'turn off' existing FBML tabs, Facebook does "strongly recommend that these apps transition to iframes as soon as possible." With the recent updates giving the axe to a lot of previous FB functionality, it is a distinct possibility that the existing FBML pages will get phased out as well sooner or later.
FBML Roadmap
With our recent launch of Requests and the support for iframe on Pages Tabs, we are now ready to move forward with our previously announced plans to deprecate FBML and FBJS as a primary technology for building apps on Facebook. On March 11, 2011, you will no longer be able to create new FBML apps and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app. While all existing apps on Pages using FBML or the Static FBML app will continue to work, we strongly recommend that these apps transition to iframes as soon as possible. Lastly, we want to be clear that our deprecation of FBML does not impact XFBML, such as the tags that support social plugins.
Web Analytics Data Collection Strategies
Proper implementation of a good web analytics package for your website, couple with good analysis of the data, can help you boost the conversion rates of your website.
However, how effective your implementation is falls back down to your data collection strategy. There are several important elements to consider in your strategy:
1. Technology - There are many ways to implement web analytics. For a quick list, there are web statistics log files, web beacons, customizable JavaScript tags and packet sniffing. Each has its pros and cons. While the industry standard for analytics implementation is using JavaScript tags, it might not be a suitable strategy for you, for example, if your website marketing strategy is primarily email marketing based. In this case, web beacons might be a better (but still not perfect) way, since JavaScript implementation for email clients are still a grey area.
2. Proper Tagging of Every Page - The data you collect is only as good as how well you tag your pages. Missing out pages in a web analytics implementation is not unheard of, and the inability to track some pages in your site because of this will result in skewed data, which leads to skewed analysis. Be sure that the right pages are tagged in the right way.
3. Knowing What to Capture - Very often, the analytics implementation is closely tagged to what you want to find out. For example, if your goal is just to increase the conversion rates for your emails, then this implementation might be different from what it would be if your goal is to increase visitor engagement on your site. Again, going back to the second point - proper tagging is needed for each page, event and action.
4. Privacy Issues - As much as you can track each and every click that every visitor makes, it is important also, to make sure you respect your visitors privacy, and at the bare minimum, tell them that a web analytics program is in place and some of their data is being capture as they surf on your site. Consumers nowadays are concerned about their privacy, and they have the right to be.
Kent Tan is a full time article writer and web content publisher. Check out his latest website about Leather Hiking Boots and Goretex Hiking Boots.
Author: Kent Tan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Excel VBA – Convert Text to Date
This is a quick little Excel VBA macro to convert a date in text format into an actual date format.
This can be easily modified for other string formats as needed.
Sub ConvertToDate()
'=======Convert "yyyymmdd" text format to "yyyymmdd" date format=======
For Each cell In Selection.Cells
s = cell.Value
If s = "" Then
Else
cell.Value = (Left(Trim(s), 4) & "/" & Mid(s, 5, 2) & "/" & Mid(s, 7, 2))
cell.NumberFormat = "yyyymmdd"
End If
Next
End Sub
Windows 7 GodMode
This looks to be a really cool hidden feature in Windows 7.
Create a folder called GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} and upon opening it will contain many customizable operating system features.
See the original article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10423985-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
PHP Export to Excel
Here is some code I found that will allow you from PHP code to export data directly into an excel file. I haven't personally tested this but the source I had for it was no longer available online so I'm reposting it here.
< ?php session_start();
$ID=$_SESSION["ReportData"];
?>
< ?php
$line = '';
foreach($ID as $line) {
foreach($line as $key => $value) {
$data .= $value . "\t";
}
$data .= "\n";
}
$data = str_replace("\r","",$data);
?>
< ?php
if ($data == "") {
$data = "\n(0) Records Found!\n";
}
?>
< ?php
header("Content-type: application/x-msdownload");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=extraction.xls");
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header("Expires: 0");
echo "$data";
?>
PHP Output Buffer
While working with the new Google Analytics Export API and a PHP example, I wanted to be able to output a csv version of the data to a file that could be downloaded.
I found this PHP function that allows output buffering. Still working the bugs out of my data export, but the output code works well.
http://my.opera.com/zomg/blog/2007/10/03/how-to-easily-redirect-php-output-to-a-file
Google Analytics API
Google has opened up the Google Analytics API (export) for general use!
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gdata/1.0/gdataProtocol.html
Alex C wrote a quick PHP script to pull pageviews from all available accounts. Read the setup here: http://www.alexc.me/using-the-google-analytics-api-getting-total-number-of-page-views/74/
Google Analytics Profile Limits
There are a maximum of 50 profiles per Google Analytics Account, and a limit of 25 Analytics Accounts per email address.
OtherPage Merchant Beta
My friends over at the OtherPage have announced the launch of the OtherPage Merchant Beta where merchants can join for free and list their products similar to other comparison shopping engines.
As a special note, the first 25 merchants who sign up for OtherPage will receive preferential treatment for life!
Join the OtherPage merchant beta!
OtherPage is launching a consumer facing website in April, 2009, through which we hope to drive tremendous end user product demand. We have some very unique marketing strategies we will be deploying, and invite merchant participation at no risk.
A Revenue Share Business Model
Unlike the vast majority of merchant aggregation systems, OtherPage will work off a percentage of sales that we drive. Our pricing is determined by the category in which you sell. Check out our prices, and then sign up for free.