Warmest Greetings,

:: Monday, June 30, 2003 ::

For the latest update on website accessibility adherence, grab a printer or curl up with your laptop >>> Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0W3C Working Draft 24 June 2003

Cre8asiteForums discusses it, and "flicker rates" >>> WCAG 2.0 (Accessibility Guidelines Draft

If you can't get your site into DMOZ (Open Directory), Cre8asiteForum's new DMOZ forum moderator, Jean Manco, may be able to offer suggestions. We welcomed Jean recently to the Cre8asiteForums team.

Coming in for a landing. "A landing page is the page where visitors from specific places, or with specific interests, will first land on your site. As such, whether or not it needs to be optimised for ranking, it absolutely must be optimised to make a good first-impression, and to engage the visitor, thus beginning the conversion process."
Ammon Johns talks about Landing Paths

User testing site of interest, that offers 5% off to Cre8asiteForums guests >>> Site-report.com

Some are saying "shove this." Google Toolbar 'BlogThis' Rankles Rivals .

Jakob Nielsen outdid himself with this one. Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster. Learn about "Informavore navigation behavior", hunting, scent, foraging...

"...eventually too many Americans will be having fun. This is unacceptable." A bit of marketing fun by Panasonic >>> People against fun

Which reminds me of the wedding I attended on Saturday. It was an outdoor picnic/wedding ceremony on a large country farm in New Jersey attended by people ranging from corporate execs to programming gurus specializing in MIVA and JAVA to the guys who hang out at the local bar to regular folks who collect antique cars, drink lotsa beer and don't visit the Dentist that often.

The ceremony itself lasted 5 minutes. The bride and groom read their vows and sweated in the hot sun along with the local town Mayor. The rest of us gathered around in a large group around the couple, wearing shorts, t-shirts, sandals or no shoes, straw hats and baseball caps and were holding beers, bottled water and soda cans. Everyone cheered and applauded when the couple were pronounced "husband and wife". The groom, in his 50's and marrying for the first time, took as his bride one of the most graceful, down to earth, supportive women I've ever met, who is at least 15 years younger than him. When in the presence of true devoted love, it's easy to have hope for ourselves.

Within a half hour of the ceremony, a laptop appeared with a slideshow of all the digital photos taken so far. It was one of the highlights of the wedding. Everyone could see themselves and re-live moments that just occured, in the presence of those who also experienced the same things.

We had the setting for a really good TV commerical.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/30/2003 12:28:16 PM

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:: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 ::

Bet you thought I was sick or something...actually, I've been playing nurse. My son broke his wrist on Monday at skateboard camp. It still blows my mind that a YMCA camp, which you assume is going to monitor kids to make sure they're geared up properly and that safe numbers of them are negotiating ramps, is in fact not paying attention. My son needed help with his wrist pads (new ones, so he was trying to figure them out) and nobody helped him. They let him start out on a large ramp, without his wrist pads (they told me the wrist pads aren't "critical" and not mandatory) and wham! He fell, tried to stop the fall and snapped his wrist.

The hardest part was telling his baseball team their top Pitcher (my son is a very good "leftie pitcher") couldn't play Monday night, which was Game One of the Minor league playoffs. It was great, though, to see how the parents, teammates and buddies from other teams came over to see how he was doing and to offer encouragement. I even had a few phone calls from Dads who know my son (from coaching him in several sports) offering condolences.

So that, plus my Blog software (BloggerPro) changed their user interface and I couldn't access my blog for several days, is why I wasn't here to entertain you.

The only REAL news is how danged hot it is here. We, in the Eastern US anyway, have had a very wet Spring. It's rained constantly (really messed up the baseball schedule too!). Now, as of Monday, we went directly from tons of rain to gobs of heat and humidity. It's 100 degrees here today, was in the 90's yesterday and they expect 100 or so tomorrow. One of my friends is getting married on Saturday, in an outdoor wedding. It's supposed to be hot then too. Are we allowed to wear bathing suits to weddings?

Looking for a bargain? This is a cool find. I haven't tried it yet but you can. It's called Magazinepricessearch.com. You search for the best prices. Some are so cheap it's hard to believe. If you love to read, this could be fun to look into.

Sorry about the troubles we had at Cre8asiteForums yesterday. For a few hours nobody could post. One of the tables was corrupted. We're not sure why, but my Tech guys are checking into it.

Watch your back Google. Microsoft has plans to oust you. "Microsoft could then connect the search engine of its MSN portal to new file technology planned for the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, which will make it easier to search e-mail, spreadsheets and documents on PCs, corporate networks and the Web. The result would be a powerful technology reaching from the desktop to the greater Internet that could displace Google as the Web's leading search engine."

FLASH movies are a hit among some of my friends. Now you can search for them.

Ok. I can relate to this >>> Webmaster Guilt

17 percent seems kinda low. It's interesting to read how many small businesses still rely on standard promotion methods. See Small Businesses Embrace Search Engine Marketing

Looking for site submission software? We talk with SearchEngineCommando creators at Cre8asiteForums

I'm moving to a new home and trying to switch as many things as I can online. Can't tell you how much I want to evaluate their site for usability, and send them the list of bugs I found. One company had the nerve to send me an email saying they got my change request via their website but due to a technical problem, I STILL had to call their customer service to change my service. We all have stories like this. This article warmed my heart. It’s about the user, stupid!

With any luck, I'll be back tomorrow.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/25/2003 03:38:38 PM

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:: Friday, June 20, 2003 ::

Cre8asiteForums moderator, Sally Falkow, has a written an article on ecommerce called Finding the Pot of Gold on Your Web Site that includes quick reminder lists. I LOVE those types of articles! Quote: "Monthly reports from the National Retail Federation/Forrester Online Retail Index show that about 15.5 million households shop online every month, spending an average of $272 per person."

Cast your ballot here >>> 2003 InfoWorld Readers' Choice Awards ballot for favorite vendors and products released in the last year and covered by InfoWorld in the annual Readers' Choice Awards.

Do you submit pages again, even if they're already indexed by an engine? Is auto submission better/worse than hand submission? A look at SearchEngineCommando brings out the questions, and one of SEC's engineers too!

That was fast! Kalena races to test out Google's new AdSense promotion. You can see how it works on her site here >>> SearchEngineNews Blog

"Search Engine Vanity occurs when a company seeks to obtain number one search engine positioning for the simple purpose of one-upmanship on their competitors. Traffic data, click-thru-rates and conversions are all secondary considerations compared to the desire to ensure that when an Internet user searches for a product or service, their company website is listed above that of their competitors." We don't know anyone who suffers from "search engine vanity" do we????

Andy Beal writes Search Engine Vanity for SearchEngineGuide.com, whose owner Robert Clough ALSO has those danged GoogleSense ads humming along on his site.

Can I help it if I'm too BUSY to get to doing my own?

Black Knight, aka Ammon Johns went out to lunch and returns with a tattoo. He says so! It's buried in this thread about it being Friday. (See It's Friday.) This is what people do when SEO people get bored.

Now you know.

Recently said in Cre8asiteForums, when someone asked if FLASH would become the standard, replacing HTML. "One doesn't ask ranchers who need to tote bales of hay around to use compact convertibles."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/20/2003 01:52:34 PM

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:: Thursday, June 19, 2003 ::

Using CSS to create naviation access keys. For accessibility-minded designers interested in trying new things to make life easier for special needs Internet users, this article is fascinating >>> Accesskeys Quote: "WHO CAN USE YOUR WEBSITE? People with limited mobility may have a hard time controlling a mouse to click on links, and tabbing through menus can be slow going. The W3C introduced the accesskey attribute to enable users to select the appropriate key on their keyboards and navigate to a particular link."

Have a seat. An interview with Mark Newhouse The article is cool. The "3 legged stool" stuff is also interesting >>> Real World Style - 3 legged stool This article offers a lot of resource links.

The usability moderators at Cre8asiteForums have invited a new moderator to the team. Welcome Scottiecl of RightClickwebs.com

I'm not the only person confused. Apparently pieces of Alta Vista still belong to Overture, and some were shipped off to FAST. Whatever the heck is going on, AV is still a player. See AltaVista Unveils World's Largest Multimedia Index Today

And STILL people are sobbing on the sidelines of the latest Google Dance.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/19/2003 10:13:53 AM

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:: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 ::

More ways to earn money from your website >>> Google AdSense pays you to allow Google ads on your site.

How stupid do I look?

"Dear Kim Krause,
I know my message will come to you as a surprise. Don´t worry I was totally convinced to write you in reference of the transfer of US$10 Million United States Dollars
to your account for onward investment (hotel industries) in your country. I am Mr Stephen Mani the son of the former chief of defence-staff Late General Hannis Mani of
Guinea Bissau."

Gawd, I hate spam!!!!

A new crawler to deal with >>> MSN Bot Quote: "MSNBOT indexes documents on the Internet so that they can be studied and used for purposes such as Web search engines."

Studied? Like a science experiment or studied for rank or studied for use by MSN Search for what??? It's a prototype crawler not presently adding pages to MSN Search, according to their FAQ.

Overture changes it's mind. FAST Acquires Alta Vista.

FindWhat spends some cash >>> FindWhat.com buys Espotting for $163m

The same man who wants to outlaw birth control also wants to blow up computers. And Republicans keep voting him back. Go figure. Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading

I look forward to the Google Dance because when people start a Cre8asiteForums thread about it, they title it with things like "Oh my GAWD!", "Help. My site is gone!", a hopeful "Google Dance Finished?" and now What the heck!

Microsoft is busy. They're no longer going to make a browser for MAC and are getting into the anti-virus business. And, if you haven't heard, if you want to upgrade your browser in the future you'll have to upgrade your entire OS. No more freebie upgrades. Bummer. I'll cry all the way to Opera's house.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/18/2003 04:51:47 PM

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:: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 ::

It pays to be small.

"Data from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce show that small entrepreneurial firms have been responsible for 95 percent of all radical innovation in the United States in the past half century and that smaller firms have generated 24 times as many innovations per R&D dollar as larger corporations with more than 10,000 employees." See Stimulus Package Will Spur Micro-Business Growth, Economy Expensing, Individual Income Tax Rate Reductions Encourage Investment

"Small websites get less traffic than big ones, but they can still dominate their niches."Diversity is Power for Specialized Sites by Jakob Nielsen

It pays to take small steps.

"The big survivors of the dot-com crash -- Amazon, eBay, Dell, Google, Yahoo, and CNN -- have each foregone the big redesign in lieu of continual changes on the site. The changes are so fluid that users hardly notice." The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch By Jared Spool, Principal, User Interface Engineering

It pays to pay per click.

"Five or 10 years from now, we are going to look back at the current state of Web search and be embarrassed, like we are now when we look back at old technologies like Betamax VCRs and 8-track tapes," said Gary William Flake, Overture's chief science officer." Search Engine Pioneer Overture Prepares for New Chapter

Motivation.

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877)

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/17/2003 11:11:41 AM

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:: Friday, June 13, 2003 ::

SSS - Still Seeking Submissions to help build up the Cre8asite Web Resources Directory >>> Submission How-To Quote: "Do you know of a great, free web development article, tutorial, or freeware utility? Submit it to our directory today!"

If you haven't seen it yet, SEMList.com is a large Directory of SEO/SEM companies, as well as it offers information on SEO conferences, and related links.

Even in his 80's he was handsome. Sad to hear Gregory Peck has died, but happy he slipped from this plane peacefully.

"E-commerce will kill traditional retail." Remember when people thought this? Guess some still do >>> 5 Internet Myths From Jeff Bezos , Amazon CEO.

Let's keep Earth user-friendly. Hydrogen fuel may disturb ozone layer.

Grumpy quote of the day: "If you are going to go and buy something on a new website, you will fail. If you go to a new website, you will not be able to use it. That is the average user's experience." (January, 2001, Jakob Nielsen)

Inside Bragadocchio's brain. Still my favorite blog because, frankly, this guy knows a lot about everything and his gentle enthusiasm lulls me into wanting to be interested. Now that's a gift.

Ignore today's date.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/13/2003 09:33:04 AM

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:: Thursday, June 12, 2003 ::

Patience, dear Prudence.

Google in a Fog Quote: "Some have noticed that things at Google are a little wonky lately. New pages haven't been added to the main index in months, the entire update for April has been thrown out, Google has deployed some new algorithms, and backlink data is weird and out-of-date."

A test of user patience >>> Designing Web apps? Don't commit without client input This IBM article is a good find for introductory usability material, but print it out and grab your reading glasses first.

Experience the difference >>> Search Engine Marketing vs. Search Engine Optimization by Jill Whalen, of HighRankings.com.

Last heard at Cre8asiteForums >>> "I have yet to see an ignorant pig." (see Dirk's latest post to Enigma.)

Is having GoogleGuy in your forum worth the headaches? GoogleGuy Q&A

Gotta a SEO/SEM Blog? eMarketing Blog Directory.

And lastly, I saw this yesterday and forgot to mention it. I usually hate forum splash pages, but Chris Ridings proved me wrong. SearchGuild has one that warms my user-oriented heart.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/12/2003 04:07:43 PM

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:: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 ::

When someone says something is dead, that means it's still pretty much alive, right? First it was the "Meta tags are dead!" announcement, and the debate over whether or not that's, in fact, true. (Not true but how search portals apply them for sorting has changed.)

Now, the debate is over whether SEO is dead. Kalena Jordan (WebRank Ltd) raises a boulder over an author's head and Jill Whalen (HighRankings.com) chimes in with "Just because they can't do SEO they say it's dead." Never try to tell SEO/SEM professionals they're wasting their time. It's quite the opposite. The really good ones are in high demand - and worth every penny.


Search engine refresher >>> Greg Notess: Internet Search Engine Update

The little green boxes to the right are Google Ads >>> Alexa and Google holding hands

Don't hate me because I blog. Why Some People Hate Weblogs

Someone made an offer to buy my townhouse. $3000 less than what I'm asking, but seeing as how I have settlement on my new house in July, beggars can't be choosey.

I was one of those annoying kids in school who hated math class because nobody could convince me I'd ever need it. I now firmly believe Realtors should give talks to all Third graders. My third grader thinks I'm going to be rich because he knows the asking price of our house. I keep reminding him to SUBTRACT a zillion things from that amount and trust me, mommy gets a new house and lots of debt left over after that.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/11/2003 08:59:32 AM

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:: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 ::

If you think human relationships are hard to keep up with, you should try being in the search engine biz, trying to keep up with engines! The latest view of UK search portals can be viewed here >>> UK Search Engines

On the horizon, from the makers of Homesite >>> FeedDemon:

Quote: "There are thousands of RSS newsfeeds available and they provide a wealth of information - but accessing that information is often cumbersome at best. I've needed a tool to help me keep track of all the blogs I read and let me organize links that I might want to include in my own blog later on.

When will FeedDemon be available?

My goal is to make the first beta test version available before the end of June. The final release date will be determined by feedback received on this beta version."

Why hiring me is worth it >>> Usability Business Case:
Quote: "Usable designs are associated with increased customer (user) loyalty and reduced costs. Usability engineering therefore generates a massive ROI (typically 800-1200%). While it is possible to save money in the short term by ignoring this key area, the alternative to usable design puts long-term revenues at risk."

Not faster than a speeding Concorde. Most Americans are still on pokey 56k modems >>> As of April 2003, most users in the US connect to the Internet using dial-up modems of 56Kbps or less.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/10/2003 11:26:44 AM

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:: Sunday, June 08, 2003 ::

Below is my son at my desk, playing with the stones he and I chose together on Mother's Day at a holistic arts fair.

The picture was taken by my partner's 5 year old son.

With the book "User and Task Analysis for Interface Design" sitting on the desk next to his face, I saw potential for a great ad for my testing services.

What do you think?

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/08/2003 08:18:41 PM

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:: Friday, June 06, 2003 ::

Usability Rocks!

Two names that may be new to you, (unlike Jakob Nielsen) from the usability camp have found their way to Cre8asiteForums.com. It's an honor to stretch our minds and learn from these "progressive thinkers".

Meet Dirk Knemeyer - A look at Information Design

and

John Soellner ("DCrx") of Design Crux
Information, Captology, Desirability in Design

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/06/2003 01:57:44 PM

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:: Thursday, June 05, 2003 ::

Is Google a he or a she? Is Google Female? and why do humans have to put a gender on things anyway?

When was a kid we had to walk 10 miles to log on to the Internet...Online Before the Internet: Early Pioneers Tell Their Stories

Seeing my name in print hasn't gotten old yet. SEOlist.com

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/05/2003 08:08:29 AM

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:: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 ::

Yes, I'm here. I don't know what happened to yesterday. I was here then too, but too busy to write. So here goes:

If you're not of "inside Google" stories yet, here's another one >>> Google looks for new ideas as much as profits

Keeping up...ValueClick Buys Search123 Quote: "While the top players Google and Overture fight over the top portals for distribution, a variety of small outfits serve the lower rungs of the search market, providing paid listings for meta-search engines and niche sites. In addition to Search123, companies like Mamma and ah-ha.com offer paid listings for the lower end of the market."

One of the busier areas of Cre8asiteForums.com is the discussion on the Google Dance. I completely avoid it, as being a mother and business owner are enough to get my jollies in a tizzy. If you're on the suffering webmasters who live and die by the Google Dance, read >>> Coping With GDS, The Google Dance Syndrome

Quote: "By the way, one thing NOT in the cards for future index changes are any plans to pull blog content out of Google's regular search results. Google made a special point of stressing that blogs are staying, during my interview with them last week."

Quote: "Cutts readily admits that it's possible to find pages in the current index that use tactics Google does not like, such as hidden text and hidden links. It's hoped that the new filters will help better eliminate this, in the future. However, Cutts added that the presence of such pages doesn't necessarily translate into bad relevancy."

Get smart. Einstein Archives Online provides access to Albert Einstein’s scientific and non-scientific manuscripts. Cool.

I'm not quite sure why some usability web sites are so unusable, but if you can read some of them, you do learn a few things. Here's one >>> Using the 5Es to Understand Users

AOL takes IE bait for 7 more years and Firebird is not a car >>> Mozilla Firebird

and finally, naming my new puppy is still on everyone's mind, right? I'm hooked on OKALANI, which is Hawaiian for heaven. Can anyone beat that?

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/04/2003 05:04:07 PM

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:: Monday, June 02, 2003 ::

It ain't over yet, some think >>> Google Wins SearchKing Lawsuit

Follow the light >>> Northern Light, the once popular search engine, may not be dead after all.

Fighting back >>> The Open Directory introduces abuse report system Quote: "There has been complaints about editors using the Open Directory (ODP) to forward their own interests only. ODP meta editors are introducing an abuse report system in order to defend the directory's quality and integrity."

Congratulations to the Cre8asiteForum moderators who are speakers at this years SES Conference in London. We're very proud to have such well known, respected SEO/SEM leaders as part of the Cre8asiteForums' team. >>> Around the Search Engine Strategies event in London. Yes, they've been begged for pics and gossip...

Why having Internet email sucks >>> Spam now more than half of all received email

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/02/2003 08:04:05 AM

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