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More and more dentists have started to reach out to patients through patient-centric websites. Today, there are plenty of website design experts who specialize in creating sites for dentists. These websites come loaded with plenty of interactive features from patient education videos to free Smile Analysis features that can help patients make better decision about their dental health. Many of these dental websites also use search engine optimization techniques to reach out to their patients and consumers who are looking for information regarding dentistry services. Dentists believe that using websites as a tool can educate patients in preventing and in spreading awareness about dental health. Existing as well as future patients will have complete access to information about the providers, education videos and photos of dental procedures, along with extra information when they visit these sites.

Opera, the Norwegian browser developer, has unveiled the Dragonfly web design and developer toolkit this week. This new product has emerged as a collection of web design and development tools, and lays special emphasis on debugging. Dragonfly is a hybrid web application, which essentially means that users never have to update it since its latest version is always pulled directly from the Web. It is also always compatible with any version of Opera being used at the time. Opera has long since realized that the world and technology has gone mobile, and this is why it has provided remote debugging tools for mobile devices as well. A web designer or developer will simply have to switch on the remote debugging function and Dragonfly will then connect to your Opera Mobile and allow for debugging to take place directly from the device. You can even hack on to your site on tablets, TV’s or on your computer with this remote debugging feature. Dragonfly can also mask as other browsers to ensure t

A while ago, I decided that I wanted to redo all my websites. Three of my websites are informational ones, and two are ecommerce-based sites. Like with most entrepreneurs, I have tried my level best to keep up with the Internet revolution and I’ve done pretty well. But doing pretty well is no longer enough if you are in the ecommerce industry, which sees shopping behavior change every single day. If you’ve had enough experience with building and maintaining your websites, then you’ll know that it is trickier than it may appear. You are not looking to make your website better; you need to make it great. The basic reason being ROI. A great website will pay for itself in terms of increased traffic or increased conversion rates. But getting a new site can be quite expensive, but in the long run it is worth it. But hiring the wrong web development firm to build your website can be a very expensive mistake. It is very important to be more careful and deliberate when hiring a web development

Mobile applications are the new but cool kid on the block. Often equipped with the nest and latest graphic designs and decked in the hottest new functionality, mobile applications are very promising prospects. Mobile websites on the other hand offer more device compatibility, easier access and lower development costs. It is the nerdier counterpart but provides different possibilities. When choosing a good marketing campaign, your choice will naturally depend on your goals, products, target customers and more. Instead of focusing on the campaign, it would be a better idea to look at your goals and the customers. It is very important to prioritize. You don’t need to choose between the two, you can use both. Who are your customers: Different customers like different things. People’s preferences keep changing with the latest developments. When choosing your mobile marketing strategy, consider how your target audience will be able to engage with your brand. Make them browse first and downlo

How do you design a website that not only looks great but acts as a great money making machine for you? Here are a few key principles of web design that show you the easy steps to designing your site. Focus on the Site: Before getting started with the web design, it is important to clearly define what the main purpose of the site is. Are you creating a web store? Is your website going to be an information hub? Are you creating a branding website? Depending on the function of the website, the design can be created. Website Features: Jot down what features you will need on your website. Do you need a shopping cart for your online store? Will you need a password protected section? Make a Map f the major sections of the site: Draw rough diagrams of the site and show the hierarchy of the site and how various sections are related to each other. Your website should be content-driven. It is the content that makes your site more effective. Writing the content for your site should not be left t

Everybody knows that Google is one of the biggest search engines. But what most people don’t know is that Google also provides various tools and resources for website development. Here are some of the most valuable tools offered by Google: Google Code: Google Code is a website that provides a whole range of development tools, code snippets and API. It also publishes development-related news, videos and events. It is a great source of information for developers. The API’s and Tools section is particularly important. This is a directory of API’s for all the Google products and services. If you want to include a map on your site or your own image search, then all the necessary information is here. Each API page will provide you with links to documents and code samples, forums and blogs Google Web Toolkit: This is a starter pack filled with goodies including plugins, code libraries, user interface design components and developer tools. This kit was put up to help web developers build com

Hiring a professional website design form can cost you a fortune. However, there are plenty of cheaper options available in the market as well, especially if you are working on a tight budget. In the market, there are a wide range of costs that can be available to when looking for a designer to design your website. There are plenty of deciding factors that come into play when designers charge you a fee. One of the biggest deciding factors as to the cost of your web designing project is the basic goals that you want achieved on your site. If you have specific technical requirements, then you should be willing to pay higher prices in the market. Such services are far more expensive and you should opt for them only when you have an established website. There is really no point in spending too much on a website that is still new to the Internet. Another deciding factor is the actual source of the web design. A freelance designer would cost you far less when compared to a professional agenc

Payment gateway is a service that should be designed and developed on your ecommerce site to help with the online billing process. It basically consists of a built-in billing processor that enables the collection of credit or debit card information and its transmission through the Internet. An online payment gateway system is similar to that of a credit card processing terminal. It is basically a software application that enhances the functionality of a credit card company, thus allowing your customers to make online payments through your site. There are essentially 2 types of payment gateway systems: The secure form order is the most widely used system. It helps by directing the client to the third party website for processing the credit card information into an individual merchant account. The merchant-side application program interface is another system. Here, a code will be integrated onto the server that hosts the merchant ecommerce site. Some of the benefits of an online payment

When looking for and interacting with web developers for your website development project, you’ll come across a wide range of responses. Some web developers will be keen to work on your project and will even ignore the legal contract, while some others might work on the standard terms. There are still others who actually sit down and negotiate an agreement that suits both parties. The latter option is probably the best way to go so that even before your project starts, you can sit down with your developer and come to an agreement on each of your expectations for the project. Yes, there will be many standards terms that will apply, but here we will only focus on the important legal issues that you should address. Clarifying the amount of work to be done: If your developer is going to work on a fixed fee, then it is very important to clarify just what work will be done for that money. Give the developer a proper specification for the project, both in terms of look and feel as well as fun

Surveys have shown that nearly 53.2 million Americans of the age of 45 and above suffer from some kind of visual impairment that could range from mild to severe. However, in spite of having visual impairments, many people still take to the Internet every day. The Internet is jammed with all sorts of articles that talk about designing websites for blind users. But what about those who are not blind but visually impaired? Most people suffering from visual impairment do not need any kind of screen reading software. However, in spite of this, the net can still be a very difficult place to navigate through when you can’t see properly. Here are a few tips on how to design your site so that it is more accessible to the visually impaired: Enlarged Text: Most of the time, enlarging the text is what a visually impaired person really needs. You could put in an option for an alternate stylesheet with larger font sizes and ensure that your text does not get broken when you enable text-only zoom in

Once you know why your website cannot do without a Flash intro, it is very important to remember when creating one. Following these points will provide your customers with a pleasant experience on your site, right from proper navigation to handling the control of the intro. Provide a “Skip” button: Always provide a “Skip” button from the start so that your visitors can either view the intro if they want to or skip it if they don’t want to. Never test your visitor’s patience by forcing them to view your entire Flash intro. Provide HTML Links below or above the intro: Always remember to put in static HTML links in all the important sections of your website. This is very important if you have the navigation menu built into the Flash intro. These static links can be either placed below or above the intro. Static HTML links will provide your visitors with the option to jump from one page to another directly without having to wait for the intro to load. It will also help the search engine bo

When developing a website for your business, it is very important to first have a web strategy in place. Here are 5 things to know before you build a good web strategy: Know your Target Audience: Everything on your website, right from the content to the navigation, needs to speak out to a target audience and address their problems. So find out who your target audience is first. Measure and Revise your Strategy: Although your website is your most popular marketing tool, most of your visitors will not read or understand half the data on it. So it is important to measure all the popular pages, the popular routes, where your visitors came from and what keywords are being used to find you. Listen before getting started: Before jumping into Facebook and Twitter, make sure you use all the effective reputation monitoring tools to find out what people are saying about you. Use Offline Marketing Techniques: While it is debatable whether traditional marketing is more effective than online methods

Any website development project requires extensive planning, strategizing and organizing. One of the biggest factors behind a successful website is the ability to effectively market and promote your site. The key element of any social media marketing campaign is to build “social authority”. Social authority can be built if an individual or a business asserts themselves as an expert in their area of expertise or field. Social media is not always about getting high Page Ranks or rankings in the Google SERPs. It is also about generating a sort of online “buzz” for your company, products and services. It is all about promoting and marketing your business to create a strong online presence. It is something akin to traditional advertising. If handled properly, social media can expand your online business faster than any other method can. However, it can also be done organically. Google has taken extra steps to penalize sites with spam content. If handled properly, social media can provide yo

Java is probably one of the most popular languages today and is more widely accepted that when it first appeared. This rapid demand of the language and its wide acceptance can be traced back to its various design and programming features that you can use to write a program and run it anywhere. Today, Java is the chosen programming language for network computers and has been used as the universal front end for enterprise databases. Java is essentially a simple, distributed, object-oriented, robust and secure language. Java has many more advantages over most other languages, which is why it is so suitable for most programming tasks. Here are some of the reasons why you should opt for Java in your web development project: Easy to Learn: Java is an easy to use language and so is easy to write, debug, compile and learn. Object-oriented: Java allows you to create modular programs and reusable codes. Platform-independent: This is one of the biggest advantages of the language. Its ability to e

No website is really complete until it has some of the necessary functions that are important to make it operational when it goes live. In order to ensure that your website is fully functional, it is very important to use some of the most advanced and user-friendly web development tools around. These tools will help you create a better and more functional website that will prove to be more beneficial in getting more web traffic. However, it is very important to first find out whether these web development tools are relevant to your business or not. Unnecessary usage of web development tools may lead to a highly cluttered and confused site that your visitors will not like. Here are a few web development tools that may increase the demand and profitability of your site: HTML Editors can increase the functionality: HTML editors are very important tools that are useful for search engine optimization. While many optimizers prefer to write their own codes, there are still plenty who prefer t

Website development first started off as a small business opportunity on the Internet a few years back. Today, it is one of the highest selling businesses available online. If you really want to know what offshore website development is all about, it is very important to first understand the entire process of website development. Website development is all about developing certain codes for the website and making them available for the Web. In short, website development is about creating websites and using the individual web pages to promote your business by launching it on the Internet. Today, most IT companies make their money by offshoring their website development projects. IT companies understand the importance of having qualitative and reliable business solutions that are of the highest quality and can be given within a timeline. The high momentum of freelance services is what makes them so attractive. Today, offshore web development companies are in great demand. Website develo

If you have started with the development and design of your website, then you probably are doing everything you can to include everything possible so that your visitors have the ultimate browsing experience on your site. It is very important to make it easy for your visitors to browse through your site. But how do you do this? For starters, it is very important to provide them with all the navigational help they will need. If your visitors can find the information, products or services that they are looking for quickly on your site, then they will surely come back for more or even recommend your site to others. And this is where sitemaps come into play. Sitemaps are basically an extended form of a navigational aid that allows you to display your entire website structure with all the links to the major sections as well as sub-sections. Sitemaps don’t necessarily have to be a series of links that come in a tabular form. You can also make it different by providing a few details about ea

Australians are now calling for the right to sue for invasion of online privacy! A senate committee report said that many of the greatest advances in online technology still have substantial implications for privacy. In the past ten years, the Internet has seen the rapid development and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies that are those technologies that are characterized by allowing for greater online interaction and user-generated content. We have seen the emergence of social networking sites, blogs and even photo and video sharing sites. The developments have gone a long way in making it possible for us to store and share great amounts of personal data, and have given us the freedom to upload personal information on the web. However, this coupled with other technological advancements has led to concerns about the privacy framework taken to protect the privacy of online users. Once uploaded online, it can be very difficult to delete, control or recoup personal information. The co

If you about to start your own website and are new to the field of web design and development , there are a few mistakes that you should avoid in order to have a successful website. Most professional website designers will know what mistakes to avoid, and so should you. Here are a few mistakes that you should avoid as a web designer : Never use eye-straining colors on your site: If your text is unreadable because of the bad color combination used in your site, then you will be pushing your visitors away. So choose a good color scheme. Never use unreadable fonts: All kinds of visitors will come to your site from the young to the old, so make sure your fonts are readable for all age groups. Use simple fonts instead of fancy ones. Never control your user’s web browser: There are plenty of programs out there that will allow you to resize your visitor’s browser, allow them to open different tabs at one time, or redirect them without their permission. While this cool, most visitors

As a website owner, your main aim is to get higher search engine rankings and increased website traffic to your site. You can now get this by following the tips mentioned below: Find out what keywords people are using the most on search engines, especially if they pertain to your products and services. Use these keywords in your website content and in the design text to increase your website traffic . A majority of website designers tend to use too many graphical images and programs like Flash and Java. These can result in less traffic and lower rankings. If your web pages include spreadsheets, then they will definitely consist of cells and tables. Use the least number of cells and tables as possible in your web design. Concentrate on the meta-tags. Each of your web pages should have appropriate keywords used in the meta title and meta description tags. Make sure these tags are good. Try not to repeat your keywords too many times in the keyword meta tag. Always put the most important

Your website is your private marketing tool that is as effective as any advertisement, brochure or press release put together! When people are curious about a product or a company, the first thing they do is visit the company’s website. So, your website is the first impression that your customers will get of your company. Being the face of your company, your website should always fit into your marketing strategy . It should accomplish your marketing goals and objectives by communicating your brand’s message to a targeted audience. When people visit your website, it should properly introduce them to your business and it should give your customers the idea that you’re a leader in your industry. If it doesn’t do any of this, then you probably consider redesigning it. Your website needs to look good to make a good first impression. It should be able to inform your customers how it can fulfill their needs. A good website is not only about the looks or the cost. Your website acts as your str

What with the growth of the Internet, it comes as little surprise that Internet technologies are advancing at a very rapid pace. Today, more and more businesses understand the importance of a strong online presence and how it can help in your business development efforts. There is no doubt that starting a website is very valuable to your business. But how do you go about doing this in order to avoid problems and exploit the benefits. When creating your own website, there are 2 major parameters that you should consider. You could either get your entire website custom developed , or you could buy an off-the-shelf solution for your site. In the first case scenario, if you want to stand out from the crowd and believe that your business deserves a lot more than any run-of-the-mill template, then custom development is a great option. Every company’s website should be great and so should yours, as it is a very important constituent of your business. The advantages of custom development are: C

Facebook announced that it will be launching the latest version of its mobile website that is much simpler and will work on thousands of mobile platforms. The leading social networking giant has a monthly figure of 250 million active mobile users, and the majority of them access Facebook through mobile Web. The new site can be accessed at m.facebook.com. This site replaces the existing one at the same address for feature phones and there is a separate site for Smartphone’s that can be accessed through touch.facebook.com. This new version uses extensive implementation of WURFL, which is a database that helps to map the way in which the site is displayed to the best capabilities of each device. Facebook says that it will now be able to delete thousands of lines of old mobile site codes once the new site is released in the next couple of weeks. Facebook has also said that in order to achieve maximum accessibility, the new mobile Web development application is favored over a native appli

It seems like everybody is using the Internet these days, and you are no exception to this! If you need to start a website, who are you going to hire to design and build it? Perhaps you know a little about web designing , but is it enough to handle such a project by yourself? Whatever may be your experience, it is very important to make the right choices when hiring a professional website designer. Plenty of website owners shift from one web designer to another to undo the mess that a previous designer had left. If you are a business owner and not a designer, then you are probably not aware of the elements that involved in creating a successful website. This is why it is important to never jump into a business deal blindly, and to find out what kind of questions you should ask your designer before you hire him. Can I take a look at your portfolio and the kind of work you’ve done for previous clients? Checking out their portfolio will give you an insight into their skills and expertise.

Freelance website owners can now try their hands at building their own web pages! How so? There’s a new online tool in town that allows users to create and publish web pages without having to endure the intimidating costs of regular website design services . Launched by Google, this free tool helps to empower freelancers and enables them to create and edit web pages exactly as how they appear online, without the need for any complex software or HTML. This free tool however, is currently in its testing or ‘beta’ phase, which means that it will be improvised to meet the users’ needs, especially if they send in suggestions to Google. This initial roll out is only open to those users with a Gmail account, but with the immense number of sign-ups coming in, Google was forced to temporarily suspend this service. Because of the overwhelming demand, Google had to suspend any additional sign-ups. However, they are going to start offering sign-ups again very soon. Users who wish to use this servi

Many people have asked me what the best web browser was to use, and although this may seem like a simple and straightforward question, it is indeed very difficult to answer this by simply pointing at a specific web browser. After lots of research, we have compared a number of web browsers for various platforms and have based our judgment on this. So, which is the best web browser available today? Most of us tend to use Windows more than any other Operating System. And so I will discuss the browsers that run on this Operating System. Most of the popular web browsers that run on Windows are: Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Internet Explorer is probably the most used browser. It is wise to have other browsers installed on your computer as well to check for cross-browser compatibility. After using Internet Explorer for many years, I shifted over to Firefox. Firefox is great browser and has some really killer add-ons, making it very useful to web developers. H

With the web going mobile, there is no turning back now! More and more users have begun to access the Internet right from their mobile phones. So, what does this mean to all the web designers and developers? It means adding a mobile strategy to your business campaign! Depending on the type of project, your strategy will differ. But you do need a strategy on how you want your client’s website to function in the mobile space. So, whether you are designing a static site or a content-driven site, it is always wise to follow a careful approach that includes looking at your mobile website experience. Identify the need for a Mobile Site: You will generally get a mobile design project if: it is a new website and is in need of a mobile as well as a desktop strategy, if it is a redesign project that includes a mobile site, if it is an addition of a mobile site to a desktop site. Find out the requirements first before you get started. What are the Business Objectives: Your client will hire you to

If you’ve just started your own ecommerce store and need to find the best options for accepting and processing credit card payments, then you have come to just the right place! With so many companies out there, choosing one can be a daunting task. We will help you with this! PayPal: When selecting an online payment processor, always start by making a list of your priorities. What is the most important – speed, security or history/track record? PayPal is one of the most widely used Internet payment processor and may also be the best option for you. Google Checkout: Google entered the online payment processing field a few years back and have really come a long way since then. Like with everything else, Google is quite good at anything they do. Check this option out and see if it brings you any luck. Your Web Provider: Your web hosting company or Internet provider may also provide you with a variety of payment options of their own. If you haven’t selected an Internet company yet, then ask

With so many ecommerce solution providers out there, it has become a lot easier to develop your own online store today. There are hundreds and hundreds of free ecommerce templates to choose from. And for this very same reason, it can be very difficult choosing just the right template for your site. As a newcomer, you’re probably going to bank on the best looking template. But choosing a template takes a lot more than that. Ecommerce templates, whether free or paid, determine the stickiness or viscosity of your web page. If all this seems like gibberish to you, then let me explain it better. If you page is sticky, then your visitors are going to spend more time on it, especially if it comes replete with an eye-catching title, attractive images and informative content. Apart from choosing a good looking template, there are other factors to take into account: If you are building an online store, then you need a logo. Always make sure that your logo matches the design of the template. If i