Having recently celebrated it’s 10th birthday (watch this space for details of NSDesign’s 10th birthday early next  year), Google continues to be busy on the development front, releasing a number of new products and services recently.

Two of my favourites so far - Google Chrome - their new web browser, and Mail Googles, a fun addition to their GMail platform that might save a few people from sending the occasional dodgy email late on a Friday night while under the influence…

Chrome is big news in the web world - 1) Because it’s a new browser from Google, and 2) Because it brings with it the possibility of another browser war, with Google’s rivalry with Microsoft stronger than ever.

We’ll post our own review of Chrome soon, but for now, suffice to say that Google’s first effort into the world of browsers does a decent job, and most importantly, seems to be pretty much standards-compliant (being based on the Webkit engine which powers Apple’s Safari) which should save a few headaches from a design/development point of view.  Read Bruce Lawson’s “On Google Chrome” for a more detailed evaluation and opinion.

A million miles from the “strategic move” that is Chrome, Google also announced Mail Googles.  Had it been April 1st I’d have thought it a joke, but think about it a little deeper, and it’s really not a bad idea!..  We’ve had many a domain order, placed at 3am (you know who you are!) from customers returning from the pub…  Many of which are on the phone next day trying to ask for their money back…  “Can I get a refund for ScottyKingofBeer.com please?  I don’t really remember ordering it…  Maybe we’ll follow Google and introduce something similar…  then again….

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I have to say that I am a proud and happy user of Firefox, I keep it open all the time while I’m at work developing web sites, at home I never betray it with other when surfing the net, and I never miss the occasion to advice a friend to download it and start to use it.

Today, after one year and a half from the last mayor version,  Firefox 3 has been released promising substantial improvements.

Memory Leak issue
Probably the most well known negative aspect of Firefox is that after a while that the browser is running, it starts using excessively memory, this is know as memory leak. Fortunately in this new release the way how Firefox manages the memory has been improved and now it’s noticeable a huge difference in terms of overall speed.

User interface
A lot of work has been also done to improve the user experience adding new functionalities. It is more easy to access the bookmarks thanks to a new system of star rating, tagging and search functionality. The address bar is now a lot more flexible allowing users to use it not only to type in URLs but also to search websites already visited or search for bookmarks. The zoom re-sizes all elements of a viewed website (not only the text as it was in previous versions) this improves user experience for those with particular accessibility needs as it renders, scaled up or down, pixel perfectly, all websites independently from how they are developed.

Offline web applications
Switching Firefox 3 to “work offline” it is possible to use web applications without connection, data will be saved on the computer to be later synchronized on the server once an Internet connection has been detected. This is a new way how to use web applications and it is still in process of standardization within HTML 5 specifications.

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When AJAX started to become popular, more and more people started to provide great usable websites improving the user experience, and even applications based on the web started to appear.   Javascript frameworks allow developers to create great applications providing them with complete libraries, unfortunately these frameworks are a quite heavy component of the website.  And here comes the news of today.

Google has just launched a new service, Google Ajax Libraries API, basically some of the main frameworks are hosted on Google servers and available with the intention to reduce the amount of data that the users browser has to download every time it is visiting a different website that uses an AJAX framework.

Clearly the advantages are not only for the users but also for those who own a website using this service, by saving the server bandwidth, offering visitors a faster website, and not having to worry about staying up to date with the framework updates.

The frameworks available at the moment are jQuery, prototype, script.aculo.us, MooTools and dojo.

Sometimes I ask myself what Google still hasn’t invented yet?

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Catch-all email may sound like a great way to setup your email - but in practice, it’s almost guaranteed to give you problems.

At first glance - the ability to setup your email to allow everything@yourdomain.com to be received to your inbox sounds great - especially if you’re trying to promote yourself as being bigger than you actually are.  Once setup, you can simply promote sales@ info@ support@ anythingyoulike@ addresses, all handled in exactly the same way by your default email account.

The main problem with catch-all email is spam.  Unfortunately Spam Email isn’t going away - it’s continually on the rise, and the methods spammers use get more elaborate and harder to tackle.  By allowing email to anything@yourdomain, you are inviting a spammer to bombard you with email.  Dictionary attacks (whereby the spammer sends 1000’s of email to randomwords@yourdomain) are common, and with a catch-all email setup - each of spam these emails will be delivered to you. 

The end result is not only a LOT of unnecessary spam email to go through and delete from your inbox, but the potential for your web hosting account to run out of available web-space.  Emails take up space, and it doesn’t take too many spam emails (especially if the mailbox you’re directing them to isn’t regularly checked) to consume 100’s of MB.  Far too often we see “help I’ve run out of webspace” support tickets, caused simply by spam email to a default (catch-all) email account.

The other common occurrence that we see is regarding Spoofed emails.  Again, sad but true - it’s common to have your domain name spoofed by a spammer.  Email spoofingis the practice of changing your name in email so that it looks like the email came from somewhere or someone else.  This isn’t too much of an issue itself (technically, the emails are NOT sent by you, or through your account - and this is easily proved by examining the email headers), but if a spammer sends out a few thousand emails using a from address of random@yourdomain - you can guarantee that most of these emails will bounce - right back to you - because your catch-all accepts email to random@. 

So..  take the time to setup one or more email addresses that you actually use, and make sure you disable catch-all email - otherwise, sit back and enjoy the spam.

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Microsoft presented the first public beta version of their new Internet Browser at the Mix’08 of Las Vegas: Internet Explorer 8.

Here at NSDesign we already started to give it a look and discovered many new interesting features. Apart from a few problems when opening up many tabs together, the browser seems to work pretty well, and the navigation interface, even with the addition of new functionalities, is simple to understand and doesn’t create so much confusion about how to use it.

Two functionalities that we found quite interesting are the crash recovery and the highlighting of the visited URL (to provide more security especially in the case of complex domain names that can trick the user).

These are not only the only new features, there are even more new features that developers can discover, in fact Microsoft, quite late (but never to late for something important like this), decided to pay more attention to the web standards making Explorer strictly standard compliant and other interesting features for developers.

Due to the fact that IE is the most used browser, this is a great news, in the future we are going to see more and more websites developed properly, providing completely accessible information contents. But not all good news come by their own, from another point of view a stricter browser can create some inconveniences to those people who own an old websites or those who have a website structured with not standard code, breaking their websites on the new browser. Explorer 8 offers versioning (backwards compatibility to make a website work like on older browsers versions, like Explorer 7, Explorer 6 and Explorer 5), it is an interesting functionality for a short term solution, but it doesn’t have to be considered a definitive solution to compatibility problems. The best way is always to use the correct standard codes, keeping separated content, structure and style.

Definitely the new Microsoft browser is optimum and can compete with other major ones like the new Firefox 3.

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It was a pleasure to be part of Scotland’s first Software as a Service (or SAAS as it’s known in the geek world) focus group yesterday, where a number of leading IT software and service leaders met up to discuss the state of the SAAS market.

For a quick summary of what SAAS actually is, check out Wikipedia, but essentially it’s the new (or not so new in some cases) trend of “renting” software via the web to customers, rather than the tradition sale of software as a physical product (a CD in a box) that the customer then owns.

The group has been brought together by STAC, whose remit is to support and encourage collaboration within the Scottish ICT and technology sector, and if the first meeting is any indication, the future of SAAS is bright. 

There’s clearly a lot already being done under the SAAS banner, and many companies (like ourselves with our NSBuilder and NSMail services) are currently deploying web-based software to the market with a high degree of success, however there’s lots to be done before SAAS truly competes with “traditional” sales and delivery of software, a fact that hasn’t gone unrecognised by Scottish Enterprise (also part of the focus group) who have at least pledged to support the concept of helping Scotland’s software developers thrive in the global SAAS markets - we’ll see.

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Ok - so we’re not actually for sale (before we get clients phoning in a panic), unless of course Microsoft wants to come in and offer $40 billion to aquire a thriving web design and consultancy company from Glasgow - the value they placed on Yahoo just last week, when they attempted to buy the web search company.

Their somewhat random offer was actually 62% above the “market value” of Yahoo, based on their share price at the time, a valuation most traditional businesses in the past would have jumped at.  But just how do you value a “Web Company”…  It’s certainly not an easy task, and (as MS have shown) not just down to the current stock market trends.

 So… will we see a MSNahoo?  Or will (as many as speculating) Google suddenly appear as a rival bidder.  And what will it all mean for us web users?  Less choice?  A better service?  Only time will tell…

Ps - I was only kidding about selling NSDesign for $40 billion…  I’d take less..

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New Apple Update

Anyone with an Apple Ipod Touch who hasn’t yet downloaded the new firmware release (1.1.3) is missing out big time! 

The new update to the software sees a handful of new features including an email client, weather updates, Notes and Google Maps with the fantastic location finding.

The latter is simply brilliant…  working without either GPS or GSM, relying purely on Wi-Fi Triangulation to pinpoint your current position on the map.  The iPhone is even better (so I’m told), using a combination of GSM (mobile phone masts) and Wi-Fi detection to give a more accurate result.

Wi-Fi Triangulation

 So how does it know where you are….  Google has partnered with Skyhook Wireless who provide a database of all known wireless access points, created by capturing the signals (apparently by driving round our streets in a souped-up geek van) from private and public wireless hotspots. 

When your iPod Touch requests it’s location via Google Maps, Skyhook’s WPS (Wi-Fi Positioning System) uses the device’s built in Wi-Fi to scan for nearby access points.  When detected, it confirms the strength of connection, and compares all of this to it’s database, using clever algorithms to calculate your position.  All very Mission Impossible, and some people have expressed concerns over privacy and security (both from a ipod/iphone user, and access point owner point of view) .

Right now I’m typing this from our office on Ainslie Road, Hillington.  I only know this for sure because my iPod confirms this!!  Selfishly, I’m delighted that Glasgow seems to have some great coverage in the SkyHook database, second only to London, and while I expect it’ll be some time before the UK coverage even comes close to the Mobile Phone network, I’m convinced that over time this will become the “standard” locational mapping method.

A case for Google Advertising

There’s no doubt that the location detection ability of the iPod and iPhone is impressive, and a really cool thing to show off to your mates.  But as the uptake of these devices increases, along with an increase in the accuracy of detection and a wider coverage, the business potential for companies with a shop, office, or any “physical premises” suddenly becomes clear. 

Type “NSDesign” into Google maps, and you’ll be shown our office.  Now click on the “directions to here” option, and you’ll get a detailed route direct to our door, starting at your exact current location.  Pretty powerfull stuff and all do-able now.  Certainly a reason for making sure your business is listed within Google Maps.

Related Links:
Add a custom Google Map to your website
Extract from the book “Web Development Solutions” - Chapter: Adding Google Maps to your Website

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Last Sunday’s Glasgow Herald included a nice article and review on the recent “Digital Future Debate” where a load of technologists, educators, politicians and entrepreneurs all met up to discuss a strategy for Scotland moving technology forward for the good of the nation and it’s economy.

Firstly - I’m genuinely sorry I didn’t attend myself - I was invited but other commitments meant I couldn’t attend.  That said - it does sound like much of the discussions centred around some “not so new” ideas.

To summarise (you can read the whole article here), the debate focussed on 3 themes - Infrastructure, Innovation and Education.  The main Infrastructure discussion appears to have been the issue of getting the country’s broadband improved above the current 8 megabits per second maximum, with much condemning of the former Scottish Executive for not investing in a lightning fast fibre-optic network at the start of 2007.  BT’s role was under under examination, with their “8mb is fast enough for what we need now” attitude generally slated for the lack of future vision, and understanding of the potential that a truely high-speed bandwidth infrastructure might provide (the next Google or YouTube based in Scotland?).  From a web-hosting perspective, the days of “unlimited hosting” and “all you can eat bandwidth” might actually become reality (don’t get me started on the webhosts that currently offer this!!) if such a network became available.  Like everything - from an enduser point of view, it’ll come down to cost.

Innovation was an interesting one… with points such as “can every schoolkid get a laptop” and the notion of creating “digital tsars” charged with promoting and championing the nation to embrace hi-tech.  The later is an idea that personally I think has great potential.  There’s a few good initiatives currently happenning in Scottish Schools to help promote science and technology, the focus (quite rightly) being on demonstrating the actual practical implementations of learning the various curricular subjects, and seeing what they mean to the “real world”.  One example of this is the “Technology Challenge” that NSDesign hope to be involved with this year.

 This leads into the final topic of Education, where the best quote of the day must surely have come from Steve Leach (bigmouthmedia)-

“Typical entrepreneurs are people with high drive and low compliance. That makes them difficult to live with, but it also makes them top-quality business people, and the schools we have today are looking for the complete opposite,” he said. “They look for high conformance and low drive, and this is creating a nation of robots who walk in, do what they’re told and move on. I think we need to address that as a fundamental issue and look at ways in which we can reclassify classroom troublemakers as the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

This concept again ties in with some really great work already being done in Scotland, looking at education from a different angle, focussing on a skills-based learning system and equipping the people of Scotland with the capabilities to face the challenges of 21st century life.  The Urban Learning Space (which I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with) is one such initiative that I hope continues to pioneer in this area.

So - once we sort out Infrastructure, Innovation and Education - then Scotland will be in a position to become a world-leading hi-tech country where no one can stop us!!  If only it was that easy.  All good and valid points were brought up, but nothing (I fear) truely new, and as one “commenter” has already posted on the Sunday Herald website - “quite frankly, I hear this in EVERY country I visit”.  Don’t get me wrong - there is a clearly a need for such forums, and gatherings of the “people that matter” - it’s apparent that anything which can help this country adopt a more “joined-up thinking” approach is vital - but perhaps it’s now a time for less thinking, and for just getting on with the “doing”. 

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We got our hands on an apple iPod touch this week…  NICE!!!  Finally a device that provides a half-decent browsing experience on a mobile device - compared to the others (we’ve used a few here over the years) the apple blows the rest away.

Using an adapted version of Safari, browsing websites is intuitive and on the whole fairly easy.  It’s instantly obvious that some websites “work” better than others, and it’s fair to say that websites built to standards (xhtml, css and semantic markup) perform better than the usual (non-accessible) tables-based layout sites. 

We’re really quite excited about this, and will be doing some more research in the new year to identify the “best practice” for optimising a website for the touch, and of course the iPhone.  With some clever browser detection and customised CSS, it should be possible to get any website (especially the ones we develop!) to format perfectly for the smaller ipod screen, with a few automatic extras to make browsing that bit easier…  watch this space!!

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