For the past few months we have been using the new service. This provides us with GMail for our business. So far it has worked great. The spam blocking works great and the portability was our main reason for switching from a POP server.

In case we ever decide to switch back to our old POP e-mail system all current e-mails are being backed up using a POP main reader that connects to the business GMail accounts to make backups of the e-mails on the server.

A lot is going on right now. First and foremost, we would like to thank all of our customers (new and old) for your support! Here’s what’s new with Connections Design.

1. We just wrapped up a site for Sonshine Performing Arts Academy. It’s a Springfield area dance academy with a web site geared towards young students and their parents.
2. We are working on an interactive interface for you to see the progress of open jobs, current and historical invoices for your account and manage your hosting levels. This is a major project, so we expect it to be several weeks before this is production ready.
3. Hosting! We are already offering hosting to current clients. Offering hosting services with design services makes the most sense. We will be adding the ability for others to learn about and sign up for our high quality hosting on-line.
4. New location. We are still in the hunt for a new office location. As soon as this is secured we will be announcing the location.

One thing is very important, we are never too busy to help you, so please call us at 417-619-2651 if you need anything.

The web is an ever-changing entity. Not only does the content change, but the technologies behind the web changes at a very fast pace.

Right now, XML is extremely important. You can subscribe to a feed of pretty much any content source (news papers, search results, and even this blog). In addition XML is quickly replacing CSV text files as the preferred means of exchanging data between web sites and applications. If you aren’t using XML in some fashion on your site, then it is behind the times. Every single site I have worked on this year has an XML feed of some sort (not always accessible to the public).

AJAX is another new technology. It is designed to give web applications a feel of a desktop application without extra downloads. I really like AJAX, when it is used logically. For example, Google seems to be using a lot of AJAX with their GMail, Calendar, Spreadsheet, and other applications. Other times I see AJAX applications that just don’t make sense. In the next 2-3 years I think that most mainstream web sites will be using AJAX in some way or another.

Finally, Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is nothing except for a term. Maybe XML and AJAX are items that fall under the Web 2.0 name. I feel that the web is changing technologies so constantly that it is difficult to say when one phase starts and ends. Some people say Web 2.0 is just a term that refers to the trend in new sites that are driven in large by the user. Others say it is little more than slight gradients in the header and slow page loads. I’ll let you be the judge.

For months I have been wondering about the listings that some sites have been able to get where the main listing in Google has a list of links under it to interior pages.  It seems like an invaluable addition to the free organic listing these sites already have.  Today, I found out more information about the Google Sitelinks.

Google uses an automated algorithm to determine the links for the main interior pages and to decide if the site is authorative enough to deserve these special listings.  So far it seems like only the top 1-2 listings on highly competitive phrases get these type of listings.

Now we know that it is automated and depends on site layout and popularity.  I guess that’s a start.

When talking with people about web design, almost everybody mentions something about Flash. Why? Sure, it’s on a lot of pages and can make good animations. The problem is that it is an inefficient tool for a productive web site.

• Flash cannot be easily indexed by search engines
• Flash slows down page load speeds
• Flash is not installed/enabled on all computers (making the web site useless)

There are other problems with Flash, but those are the main ones.

I think this plays well with our company’s theme of creating sites that are functional under the skin. We want to create sites that rank well in search engines, are easy for users to use, and accessible to the largest amount of users possible. I believe it is possible to do all of this while still having a pleasing visual layout.

MSN is launching a new way to advertise. Instead of advertising on specific keywords in a search, you can now target people that search for things in a particular category. If you are searching for tires, headlights and other automotive related terms MSN would categorize you in an automotive category of sorts. Advertisers would then be able to bid on advertising to you because you are into automotive searches, even when you are doing non-automotive searches.

The problems I see are that if a person is thinking about something one day, but aren’t really interested in that subject they could be shown ads for that subject for an unknown period of time afterwards. The result: searchers getting irrelevant ads and advertisers inadvertantly targeting the wrong people.

On the other hand, there are some great possibilties with this. If you advertise on a very narrow niche, then there may not be enough search traffic to satisfy your company. If that is the case, you would be able to branch out and advertise to people who may be interested in your niche and just don’t use the correct terms to warrant advertising on those words.

In the end I have one main problem with this… When I tried to sign up for AdCenter a few weeks ago I received an error page and was not able to complete the sign up process. It leaves me wondering how well any new services will work.