Internet | Webdesigner Depot

18 Jan
Stop American Censorship — a campaign from Fight for the Future
Infographics, Internet, News
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Two bills currently making their way through the United States Congress—SOPA and PIPA—threaten freedom of expression and security online, not to mention the American economy (and economies of countries directly tied to the U.S.).
In protest of these two incredibly dangerous and damaging bills, large portions of the internet will voluntarily blackout in whole or in part on Wednesday, January 18th. Among them are Wikipedia, Mozilla, and Tumblr.
If you’re a U.S. resident, be sure to educate yourself about the bills, their potential effects, and what you can do to stop them from passing. Call your Congressional representatives or send them emails telling them you don’t support SOPA or PIPA. Participate in the blackout, and support other sites that are participating. And most important of all—spread the word!
Check out the infographic below for even more information, and then visit the Stop American Censorship website to get involved. Read more
18 Oct
A web of lies
Ethics, Information, Internet
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I recently added to my top ten most embarrassing moments of my professional life. No, I won’t be listing the top ten but this one was extremely disturbing because it affected a lot of people and basically went unnoticed and pushed out the truth and replaced if with a falsehood that had become the truth. I’m referring to an article I wrote about a famous designer but the images of the fantastic work weren’t actually his.
It was not my intention to prank or scam readers but I used the wonderful World Wide Web to gather my information and that was a blunder I should have seen coming. It wasn’t until a reader pointed out that the designer did not do the work, that I scrambled to find out the truth. At first, I thought, by the way the comment was worded, it was just a spam scam for a website and this was glomming onto the popularity of the article.
I started searching via Google to see if the work did truly belong to the designer, as I had found them on there. It seems my article had replaced most sources on this designer. Both a power trip and a frightening realization–I had rewritten history as far as the web was concerned.
Read more
4 May
Do’s and don’ts for designing email newsletters
How to, Internet, Web Design
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If you run an online business, drawing customers to your website is vital for your continued success.
While lots of effort tends to be spent on SEO and gaining new visitors, ensuring they return is another matter. Email newsletters are the perfect opportunity to inform your past visitors of reasons to return.
Even if you don’t use email newsletters for your own business, you’ll likely run into a client who wants to use them sooner or later.
Email is one of the oldest forms of online communication, and one that hasn’t evolved much since it’s inception due to it’s use on a wide variety of devices and a lack of solid formatting standards.
Therefore, it’s safe to assume that at least one of your subscribers is going to be viewing your email on a 20-year-old computer running an obsolete operating system and you should take that into account. Read more
2 May
How do you convince the average web user to switch to a non-IE browser?
Browsers, How to, Internet
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As web designers and developers, we love to see how our sites and web apps look and function using a really good browser.
It’s true that with the release of IE9, Microsoft has made great progress in the so-called browser wars. And although IE9 is a fast and reliable browser that has pretty good support for CSS3 and HTML5, there are still quite a few missing technologies that we all would like to see in Internet Explorer soon.
But the reality is that while we as developers know that the user experience is greatly improved when a site is viewed in Chrome, Opera, Safari, or even Firefox, our users are not aware of this. And it’s sad to say that it will still be a very long time before developers can say that we’re happy with the state of browser usage stats for our client projects.
Personally, I always do what I can to promote the good browsers. If I see someone using an older version of Internet Explorer, I will gladly tell them to upgrade to the latest version of IE or try out something like Google Chrome instead.
I had this experience recently when I went to my friend Alex’s home for dinner. He was showing me some stuff on his computer on IE8, and I tactfully asked him if he’d ever tried Google Chrome. From there, things got interesting, and I decided to take some notes and share the experience. Read more
6 Jan
Too Many Blogs?
Blogging, Information, Internet
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A few years ago, blogging was the be-all and end-all of online content creation.
Individuals and companies alike all wanted to get in on blogging, and they saw it as the best way to reach people.
Blogs about blogging sprouted up everywhere, telling people how to create better blogs, how to make money from their blogs, and how to get more traffic.
But has the blogosphere grown so large that there are, simply put, too many blogs out there?
Is blogging going to fall by the wayside in favor of other forms of user-generated content and social media? Where do blogs fit in the age of Twitter and Facebook? Read more
27 Jul
How to Handle Information Overload
How to, Information, Internet
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The Internet holds a wealth of information on virtually any topic one could think of. With a simple search, you can gain access to knowledge about almost any subject out there.
In fact, you can often get so much information returned that it’s a little intimidating even knowing where to start. Information overload gets more and more common as ever-growing amounts of information go online.
At its worst, information overload can be paralyzing. Too much information can leave us feeling overwhelmed and unable to make decisions. It can leave us more confused than if we’d never had the information to start with.
The good news is that information overload can be dealt with. It doesn’t require disconnecting from the Internet or anything extreme, just some prioritization and organization on your part. Read on for a complete guide to dealing with information overload. Read more
24 Feb
What Is the Future of Online News?
Business, Financial, Internet
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Newspapers around the world are struggling to survive while competing with websites that offer comparable news more quickly and without a subscription fee.
Many newspapers have embraced the Internet and use their own websites to post news, but their online revenue is a fraction of what they get from print advertising and subscriptions.
Newspapers are losing money and one by one they are going bankrupt.
How can print newspapers maintain their profits while competing with online news?
This article explores the predicament and looks at the role that website writers, designers and developers will play in the near future. Read more
28 Dec
How to Find Anything Online: Become an Internet Research Expert
How to, Information, Internet
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Einstein once said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
The same could be said of intelligence. What they don’t tell you is that the “smart” people of the world are, in most cases, just better at researching and learning things than everyone else.
But researching is a learned skill, not something you’re born with.
And while some people might be predisposed to learn things more easily than others, it’s generally not enough to make a measurable difference.
By learning how to research, you can quickly and fairly easily become knowledgeable about just about anything. And with the Internet, almost anything you could ever want to know is at your fingertips. You just have to learn how to access it.
It’s all there, online, for free. Here are the techniques I’ve used to find pretty much anything online. Read more
30 Nov
Internet Famous: Becoming an Online Celebrity
Blogging, How to, Internet
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Some people dream of being famous from the time they’re quite young. They crave the spotlight, and will do anything to be the center of attention.
They want nothing more than to become a celebrity, to have legions of adoring fans, and to have their name recognized the world over.
For others, fame is a means to an end. They want to be famous so people will buy their product, hire them to do something they love, or to influence others to support a cause they really care about.
They see promoting themselves and becoming a celebrity as a way to further their career, business, or other efforts, and nothing more. In many cases, these people would prefer not to be famous if they could be as effective in other ways.
Whichever category you fall into, if you’re reading this article you’re probably interested in becoming an Internet celebrity. Read on to find out more.
Read more
9 Nov
A Guide to Creating Email Newsletters
Information, Internet, Web Design
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Email newsletters are hotter than ever.
They’re a great extension to your business’ communication toolkit and offer you and your clients an excellent channel by which you can reach potential and existing customers.
In this article, we’ll explore common design patterns of email newsletters and learn which approaches work well, so that you’ll be prepared to create one for yourself and your clients.
We’ve also included a compilation and analysis of different newsletter designs so that you can learn from them as well as tips on what to do and what not to do.
If you know of any other tips, please share them with us in the comments area. Read more
7 Oct
The History and Evolution of Social Media
History, Internet, Social Media
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Social media has become an integral part of modern society.
There are general social networks with user bases larger than the population of most countries.
There are niche sites for virtually every special interest out there.
There are sites to share photos, videos, status updates, sites for meeting new people and sites to connect with old friends.
It seems there are social solutions to just about every need.
In this article, we’ll review the history and evolution of social media from its humble beginnings to the present day. Read more
13 Mar
40 Comics Strips for Web Designers
Blogging, Comics, Freelancing, Internet
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With the massive exodus towards online publishing, many people hardly reach for the newspaper these days. If there’s one thing I truly miss from the newspaper, it would be reading the comic strips.
There’s something magical about comic strips that seems to lighten your day and make you feel good. There’s certainly something to be said about starting your day with a bit of humor.
I figured that we’re so immersed in the Internet that it would be cool to compile a list of funny strips related to web design, the Internet and of course blogging.
Take a few minutes from your busy day to relax, have some fun and see how many of these situations relate to you… Read more