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The mobile web in numbers

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:19:43 +0000

There can’t be much doubt that the mobile web is exploding in popularity. From the initially mobile web access offered commercially with the Nokia 9000 Communicator phone in Finland in 1996, things have stirred quick.

Today we’re seeing increased sales in smartphones and tablets, quicker mobile data connections, apps, and more. Basically, we’re accessing Internet services more and more from something that is not a PC.

We’ve place together some numbers to have a crack to show a picture of what the mobile web was like so far in 2011, how it is has developed, and perhaps take a peek into the future as well.

From trim and slim to media galore

Nokia 1100: best selling mobile phone ever (250 million units sold so far)

The mobile web used to mean trimmed-down web pages, accessed over WAP or additional slow connections, serving up mainly text-based content to mobile phones with small screens.

Displays were measured in hundreds of pixels or less and the main method of input was the excellent ancient numerical keypad present on most mobile phones.

Today we see smartphones on the rise larger and quicker, now even with HD displays and soon with quad-core processors. With 4G connections reaching into speeds of hundreds of megabits per second, even a feature-length movie can be downloaded in minutes or streamed live.

Add tablets to that mix, which are often powered by even more powerful processors and have displays of up to 10-inches, making them suitable for browsing regular web pages in their full glory.

By adopting these latest mobile diplomacy, users’ expectations have changed dramatically. Today mobile web users expect a site to load just as quick on their mobile device as it does on their desktop.

That means more work for you if you design and develop websites. But it also means tremendous opportunities for your business.

More and more smartphones

Apple iPhone 4: best selling smartphone ever (75 million units sold so far)

Although a smartphone is not required to access the mobile web it sure helps having the larger show with touch input, quicker processor, and more storage that a mobile phone usually offers.

And customers worldwide are picking up smartphones nearly quicker than manufacturers can make them, it seems.

5.9 billion – The estimated number of mobile subscriptions worldwide in 2011.
13% – The smartphone share of all mobile handsets in use worldwide.
78% – The percentage of worldwide mobile data traffic that is consumed by smartphones.
1.6 billion – Number of mobile diplomacy sold to end users in 2010, an increase of nearly 32% compared to the year before.
19% – The percentage of worldwide mobile diplomacy sold that were smartphones.
472 million – Number of smartphones estimated to be sold worldwide in 2011.
982 million – Estimated number of smartphones to be sold in 2015.
80% – The share of diplomacy accessing mobile websites that have a touchscreen.
50 million – The number of public worldwide who have a mobile phone but that do not have electricity at home. In additional words, mobile access has further reach than electricity.

movable data

Many smartphones and additional mobile diplomacy have support for Wi-Fi, but to be truly mobile they require some type of mobile data connection, such as 2G, 3G or 4G.

With quicker connections come higher demand for mobile data. Although that demand has gone up significantly in recent years, the expectation is that it will continue to rise for a long time to come:

It’s hard to find any data numbers specific to mobile web, but here are a few that we find fascinating:

21.1% – By 2015, Nokia Siemens projects that mobile users will use this much of their mobile data on “mobile web/additional data”.
400 PB (petabyte) – The amount of mobile data traffic per month in the second quarter of 2011.
20% – The amount of mobile data traffic generated by the top 1% of mobile data subscribers.
1.2 billion – The number of active mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide in 2011.

movable web browsing

Web browsing is one of the most common actions on smartphones and tablets, with many diplomacy being capable of showing the full, rich experience of a regular website. But the web browsing experience doesn’t just depend on what hardware you have, it also depends to a large extent on what mobile web browser you use.

In the latest StatCounter figures, Opera is still the leading mobile web browser with 22.5% market share, followed by movable Safari on iOS with just over 24%. That’s when we combine iPhone and iPod touch in the iOS number. iPhone on its own is just under 20%.

Additional in rank we’ve found related to mobile web browsing:

85% – Percentage of handsets shipped globally in 2011 that will include some form of web browser.
60 – The number of different types and versions of mobile web browsers in use on mobile handsets.
6,500 – Estimate of the number of distinct web-capable mobile device models out there.
3 – Spot of web browsing, behind messaging and apps, in a evaluation of share of active smartphone usage.
11.7% – Percentage of web users in China that exclusively use a mobile device to access the web.
140 million – Number of public that used the Opera Mini browser in October 2011.
86.2 billion – Number of pages served By Opera Mini.
12.7 petabytes – Amount of operator data that was compressed for Opera Mini users.
6.95% – movable’s share of global web browsing stats in November 2011.
2013 – Gartner predicted that the mobile web will be larger than the desktop web by then.
26x – Smartphones and tablet computers will increase mobile web traffic by this much during the next four years.
97.17% – Google’s share of all mobile search in November 2011.

movable-specific or general-purpose sites

It’s quite clear that for a large part of users accessing the mobile web regular web sites just won’t work. This could be because they’re too large (in terms of file size or pixel dimensions), they have scripting that is not supported by the mobile device, they don’t support graphics, or some additional reason.

But with the quick development in smartphones and tablets it’s also clear that many recent diplomacy have enough show size and processing power to deal with the regular versions of many websites.

BaseKit Introduces New Powerful Tools for SMEs

admin — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:02:55 +0000

(From Website Hosting)

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The world’s most flexible and marvelous website builder, BaseKit, brings forth a new way to design advanced and powerful websites than ever. The unleashed power is fantastic for the novices who can now easily develop their own websites without hiring costly design services!

The users can simply take complete control over designing and development of their websites without any coding, handling its hosting with fantastic ease! Using this innovative and highly powerful platform, nearly anyone can make and host incredible websites. Users can manifest, what is in their mind, into reality. A template that by now exists can also be manipulated to get the design desired.

The Glaring Attributes of this tool include:

Integrating graphics from any outside resource via drag-and-drop

Simple, simple and readily usable editing, configuring and design features

Viewable on multi platforms, even on iPhones and iPads

There is nothing to be downloaded!

Chris Winstanley, the VP of Marketing- BaseKit, says “This is a major enhancement for our customers, allowing them to make and manage professional websites easily. It can be very hard for start-ups and entrepreneurs to build quality websites without having to invest large sums of money in web design agencies and we aim to level the playing field. The design and editing tools we’re launching today add to our hugely successful web design platform. In our small history, our software has by now enabled over 100,000 individuals and businesses across the world to make, host and manage their websites.”

The price plot of this tool is quite feasible. Prices, for packages, start from £6 (US$10) upward monthly counting boundless hosting, bandwidth, infinite access both to website editor and to millions of professional templates. Users can also delight in a free trial for some duration.

Find out more here, BaseKit SMEs Solution. To download templates, click download.

Related posts:

Dotster Introduces Groundbreaking One-Page ‘Instant’ Website

HostDime Introduces Windows VPS Packages

Namesco Introduces Advanced SiteMaker

Original: BaseKit Introduces New Powerful Tools for SMEs

Using Drupal CMS for Web Development

SeoLink — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:27:44 +0000

As one of the leading open-source content management systems, Drupal is written in PHP and used in the back-end for nearly every website on the Internet. The software has become extremely well loved due to its availability, simple installation and usage, customization and search engine-friendliness. It is a system that powers millions of websites and applications while being supported by a large community of experts from around the world.

For web development, professionals require specific perimeters when selecting a content management system. These include:

Cost-effectiveness

Flexibility

Customization

Dynamic web manipulation

Search engine-friendliness

Communication with support

One of the best aspects of Drupal is the cost. The software does not charge licensing fees since it is open source. Therefore, for web developers this is a major attraction to the platform. They can develop incredible websites or applications without any cost which trickles down to the customer.

Also, Drupal allows its users to develop and manage a variety of content types such as audio, video, polls, user management, blog, text, podcasts and revision controls. Therefore, users have the flexibility to make basically no matter what they want in a robust environment.

In addition to the ability to develop a variety of content, customization of the platform is nearly endless. One of the best customizable features is the ability to make modules to streamline the in rank flow thus making it simpler on developers and additional users.

Once a website has been designed, simple module modifications will allow the user to change any aspect they see fit. This confirms the robustness and vibrant nature of the software while giving the users complete control over every aspect of the design process.

Furthermore, most web developers require search engine friendliness. Luckily Drupal provides exactly that and allows for development to ensure websites have a high search engine ranking. Once the website is produced, it can easily be managed through a user-friendly interface designed for those with basic programming knowledge.

Finally, the platform provides simple access to support by asking help from the many Drupal experts. The experts are forum communities that are frequented by expert developers and additional users who can help with the question.

Drupal is a fully-supported, search-engine friendly, customizable, robust and flexible content management system that is the exact solution for web developers. As the community continues to grow and produce enhancements to the software, the technology will improve and could ultimately become the leading platform in the world.

How to Increase the Speed of Your Website Safely

admin — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:56:28 +0000

The most preferable internet website is one that loads quicker; hence the visitor does not have to wait for long periods of time for it to work. If a website is slow, it also suffers from the risk of losing valuable traffic, which will lower its potentiality. While listing sites, search engines like Google also take into account the loading time and if the time full is long, the site might get removed. So the question remains, will sites with slow loading time lose their spot?

To get a clearer picture, check out the following example. If there are two websites offering somewhat same services, one that loads very quickly but has very small content, and another website has a wide range of videos and downloadable files which make it load slowly. The differences even if disregarded by viewers, will be considered by Google. Since there are a number of factors which help determine the site ranking than just speed, the sites’ relevance plays an vital part. But if the site is relevant and quick, it automatically gets top priority.

Numerous things shape the speed of your internet connection. To get optimum results from arrangement:

Scan your computer with anti-spyware programs removing any viruses or malware in the system.

Temporary internet files takes up space, so only keep the ones you need.

Only use multimedia and graphics when needed.

Use WinZip to compress your files to lower the time full to send them.

The Microsoft Outlook’s cache exchange mode allows you to work even if you are offline.

Tabs take up memory, so close any unnecessary ones.

All the extensions which you need to gain access to internet for data on every site should be removed. Select just the vital add-ons.

The increase in web traffic is qualified to the services which carefully direct in rank so providers like Akamia are very necessary. The function of Akamai is to direct the in rank from provider’s servers to the user’s desktop. This makes the content distribution extremely quick. Akamai’s web application firewall is very effective hostile to preventing harmful attacks before they enter the user’s infrastructure.

The next thing to do is caching. Caching is a shortcut which saves you the trip to the main web server every time you require a resource. What it does instead it restores the files from a local system browser cache or proxy cache. By making your own cache policy for your website, you can set boundaries for the resources to improve the overall performance of your site. You can also question a web developer to make the policies and reduce the load on the administrator.

By optimizing your graphics with Adobe Photoshop, the image size can be lowered as much as 75% with just a few options. Though, do not change the settings of the image to low otherwise the graphics will get blurred and unclear. Optimizing the graphics can help you lower the loading time. WordPress users have the option to optimize graphics directly without downloading any extra applications.

Decreasing the number of components will speed up you HTTP requests significantly, so try to simplify the design of the web page. Go simple on the graphics, add only the relevant matter. If you choose to merge the numerous scripts into one, the HTTP request will be reduced and still support all the heavy graphics. A stylesheet can be used to integrate all the CSS into just one script.

Facebook Signs Deals With Global Power

admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:43:26 +0000

Global Power Supply, a provider of vital power equipment and complete incorporated power supplies for backup in case of emergency and primary power applications, got selected by Facebook to satisfy the power demand required by their new data focal point located in Prineville Oregon. Facebook started developing the data focal point with the aim of producing an environment friendly, energy saving computing infrastructure at very low prices.

“Inspired by the model of open source software, we want to share the innovations in our data focal point for the entire industry to improve upon.”-Tom Furlong, Director of Operations at Facebook.

The data centers of Facebook have been developed to be very energy efficient and cost-effectively signal systems. To do this, Facebook’s engineering team needed a custom built power system and backup generators which can meet all the requirements of their huge server loads. Global Power Supply also has been able to transport, hold and support all these desires by offering a vast array of products counting a vast range of customized services and support.

“Global Power Supply has a unique vendor neutral approach that allows us to grant highly customized critical power solutions.” -Ron Zamir, CEO at Global Power Supply.

Critical Power Infrastructure is crucial for the continuous function of Facebook’s ever increasing arrangement.

“Having energy efficient software and servers means we can support more public on Facebook and offer them new and real time social experiences.”- Tom Furlong, Director of Operations at Facebook. Global Power Supply provides their clients with unique project management services to apply and oversee all aspects of their project through completion. “Global Power Supply takes a ‘Value Engineering’ approach to the design and implementation of their custom generator power systems in order to minimize costs and maximize reliability.”- Ron Zamir, CEO at Global Power Supply.

The work on the Prineville data focal point started in January 2010, and is said to be completed in five years time. Global Power Supply plot to keep effective alongside Facebook’s engineering team to offer functional and testing support till the venture finishes. “Global Power Supply has been a valuable member of our data focal point deployment team, their expertise in standby power applications as well as their competent and responsive project management approach has allowed us to meet our project goals.”-Jay Park, Director of Data Focal point Design and Construction at Facebook.

In this area Global Power Supply:

Global Power Supply is a well loved provider of equipment and technical solutions for vital project management and logistics. Global Power Supply provides solutions to basic services across the world, like purchasing, selling and servicing vital power equipment, curriculum management, restoration of data and technical consulting.

In this area Facebook:

Launched in 2004, Facebook has become one of the largest social networking sites available today. Facebook connects millions of public worldwide 24 hours a day. The organization is privately owned and is situated in Palo Alto, California.

WP theme

admin — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 20:01:37 +0000

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Every person who is involved into developing web sites and blogs can agree that it is essential to reckon both in this area content and in this area design of web sites. Of course, content is extremely vital for any web site no matter whether it is your person web site where you share your thoughts and thoughts with additional Internet users or whether it is your professional web site which is used for promoting your business on the Internet.

Though, when a person follows a link on the Internet and gets to your web site, the initially thing they pay attention to is, of course, the design of the web site. Correspondingly the initially depression is very vital. If the design is stylish and fashionable then you can be sure that your visitors will trust you and take the in rank you grant for granted. If the design of your web site is terrible, then they will not want to continue reading the in rank presented there. Thus, when developing your web site it is very vital to reckon in this area the design of it. If you want to be successful in this, you certainly need to resort to the help of a certain professional platform for web site developing.

One of the best tools intended for this purpose is WordPress. This platform allows you to add wonderful features to your web site so that it looks fascinating and attractive for its visitors. WordPress is very powerful software and at the same time it is quite simple to operate and use. To improve the design of your web site you need to apply WP theme. When you install WordPress on your computer you will find out that there are some pre-made templates of such kind there and you can always use them in developing your web site.

Though, you should keep in mind that everyone who has this curriculum on their computers can apply this particular theme so it is better to get another WP theme. In the modern world it is not a huge problem to find WP theme if you have a computer with access to the Internet. There you will certainly find a lot of web sites which offer you WP theme. The styles of WP theme might be quite different and here everything depends on you only. You can choose travel themes, cars themes, blogger themes, celebration themes and so on. The list is quite long and you can be completely sure that you will certainly find such WP theme which would satisfy all your wishes and desires. You also need to remember that it is vital to pay attention to the features of certain WP theme so it is convenient for you.

The popularity of WP theme is very high in the modern world and it also continues to grow because constantly new public find out in this area WordPress and they realize that they can make fascinating and attractive web sites or blogs easily. In most cases WP theme will be free for you. Though, if you need a truly unique and fascinating WP theme, then it is necessary to find a web site which sells themes of such kind. In this case you will know for sure that your web site will be unique and elegant and no additional web site will use this particular WP theme.

Cool examples of public status pages (and thank you for all the kind words)

admin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:26:02 +0000

Two weeks ago we released the beta of our new public report pages (also known as status pages), and we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback we’ve received from our users.

Not only did public say a lot of nice things…

Webmasters everywhere started using the new public reports straight away… (The reports are available to all Pingdom users.)

Fantastic examples of custom designs

Quite a few of our users have full advantage of the possibility to make their own themes for the public report page, matching the design with their own brand.

Here are a few (partial) screenshots of cool examples we’ve come across:

There are plenty of additional examples out there, but we hope these gave you an thought of what’s possible.

Thank you for all the feedback, keep it coming!

We’ve received a ton of fantastic feedback so far, and we really appreciate hearing back from you. You’re helping us shape these reports, making them even better and more useful for you, our users. We’ve by now made improvements based on your suggestions.

You can still make your voice heard. Please email beta at pingdom dot com with any feedback you may have (place “public reports” in the subject line). And to those of you who have by now shared your thoughts and thoughts with us, a huge thank you!

From:
Cool examples of public status pages (and thank you for all the kind words)

Awesome tech company office designs

SeoLink — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:05:18 +0000

We all know Google has awesome office spaces, they’re well known for it and we’ve all seen the colorful pics, but the truth is that quite a few tech and web companies have full the extra step and made their office environments pretty incredible places to work.

Here are a few examples…

Adobe

Adobe’s office in Waltham, MA. Photos by Stephen Searer, Office Snapshots.

Skype

Skype’s London office, design and photos from Morgan Lovell.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor’s Sydney office.

37signals

The 37signals office in Chicago.

eBay

Ebay’s UK office, design and photos from Morgan Lovell.

Pionen

The Pionen underground data focal point in Stockholm. Probably the coolest data focal point ever.

Etsy

Etsy’s New York office (via Apartment Therapy). Design by the Hangar Design Group, photos by Ty Cole.

Rackspace

Rackspace’s UK office, design and photos from Morgan Lovell.

The joy of excellent design

Looking around, there are literally thousands of interior design pics available from offices around the world, but we hope we were able to highlight a few cool offices that usually don’t get as much attention as those from Google (and even Chirrup and Facebook).

Why this sudden interest in interior design, you question? Aside from having some right design geeks here at Pingdom, we will soon be moving into a much larger office (we’re in the process of hiring a lot more public, so we need the space). We’re effective with a design firm to make that new office a study in awesomeness, easily cool enough to rival the ones you saw in this post.

So when we looked around for fascinating office designs to be inspired by, we figured we might as well share some of what we found with you. We’re pretty excited in this area this, as you can imagine.

From:
Awesome tech company office designs

How to Prevent Committing a WordPress Faux Pas

admin — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:12:16 +0000

While every website title-holder strives to develop an aesthetic and appealing site or blog, unfortunately not everyone succeeds. With the ease and convenience that content management systems such as WordPress brings to design, the need for experience in web design is no longer a requirement to build a functioning site or blog.

Novice bloggers using WordPress typically fall into one of the following design traps: abhorrent themes, obsessive advertisements, runaway spam, ancient postings and left-field posts. While each of these impending design casualties can easily be prevented, understanding excellent design is the initially step in avoiding a design faux pas when using WordPress.

Abhorrent Themes

Abhorrent may be a strong word to clarify unattractive WordPress blogs, but the truth is there are some sites that are simply hideous to behold. Unless you have a poor eye for design, there’s really no excuse for committing this faux pas with the thousands available free WordPress themes. Consider referring to affect theme charts or visiting top rated blogs to hone in on your design instincts.

Obsessive Advertisements

Granted advertisements on a blog are a necessity to breed revenue, though, only in moderation. Visitors quickly become annoyed battling with distracting ads while trying to read the content of the blog. Nothing says “I am unprofessional” like a site overflowing with advertisements. Also, too many ads cut into the potential revenue. As a general rule, house 1-3 ads per page on your site for a excellent balance. Rotate the placement of the ads for optimal revenue.

Runaway Spam

WordPress blogs offer visitors the instant and simple ability to post comments. Although the convenient posting feature is overall a excellent feature, though, it turns into a spam fest when spanners and bots wreck havoc on your blog. A downside to using a WordPress blog is that they usually don’t require visitors to register before posting, which in turn invites spam. Again, keep in mind that nothing screams unprofessional than a blog full of spam postings.

Ancient Postings

With the demand for fresh and current in rank, it’s imperative that your blog offer readers what they want; especially to accommodate RSS feed subscribers. This means you must be regular in posting daily or weekly updates to your blog. If you lack the ability to keep your site updated, then don’t be surprised if you see a significant decrease in your subscriber list. To keep on footstep, consider a posting schedule whether it’s once a day or once a month.

Left-Field Posts

Even though tangents are often common in the blogosphere, be conscious in knowing the difference between a tangent and a completely irrelevant post. Stab with writing in this area well-versed and informative topics.

When developing your blog, keep in mind these tips on how to preclude it from becoming a statistic of poor design!

Gender Email Marketing

SeoLink — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:01:57 +0000

New trends in electronic marketing have turned emails to being gender specific. This begs the question as to whether gender email marketing is a excellent practice. The answer is dependent on the product or service, your curriculum and brand loyalty.

A excellent method of making that determination is by reviewing response rates, purchasing lifestyle by gender, complaints and reasons for subscription cancellations. Once this in rank is collected, look for any patterns or differences regarding the subject time line, frequency, time of day and offer type.

In the real world, there is strong evidence that men and women react differently to emails. There are four studies that support this claim counting:

Research from a Pew Internet American Life study

A British research study

The 2010 Messaging Anti-abuse Effective Group Email Wellbeing Awareness report

An analysis of opt-out and complaint data

Research from the Pew Internet American Life study found that women use the Internet for relationship building, communicating and more personal issues like health, religion and religion. On the additional hand, men use the Internet for in rank gathering such as sports, how-to advice, weather, new and politics.

A recent British research study found the design of different websites and emails affect the two genders differently. The study proved women are not hard-wired only to pink. Instead, they prefer websites with different colors in the center and font. Men prefer dark colors and horizontal lines.

The 2010 Messaging Anti-abuse Effective Group Email Wellbeing Awareness report found that younger males pursued spam and phishing attacks more than women. There was a better chance of men opening and replying to spam and clicking on links. Women were less likely to trust these emails by reviewing the sender’s name, to determine whether or not to open the message.

Finally, the analysis of opt-out and complaint data learned regular behaviors with the rest of the studies. The analysis found women are more likely to complain and opt-out than men. Concurrently, women were more likely to mark email messages as spam.

These studies verify there is a huge difference between the preferences of men and women. Therefore, it is often advantageous to utilize gender email marketing when selling specific products. Though, it is vital not to go overboard with these features as you may end up missing out on a huge market share. Reviewing previous sales, complaints and overall numbers is the best method for making this determination.