November 14th, 2009
by Andrew Poblano
I’ve been a blogger for several years now, and I’m always open to the idea of trying out new blogging platforms. I’ve blogged about a wide range of topics, and my friends often laugh at me about this. From the tongue scraper to wine goblets, I’ve blogged about just about everything.
As far as using a platform goes, I’ve always had different opinions about this, as I’ve never known which way to go with things. I’ve tried so many different options, and at the end of the day I want something easy to use that looks great.
While many were great, there are some that I’ve liked more than others. Generally, I stick to three now and what I go with really depends on the needs of the blog. Here are my top three, as I’m sure that one of these will be a great fit for you.
First of all, I’d definitely recommend taking a look at Blogger, which is offered free of charge by Google. It’s very easy to set up a blog this way, and you get the benefits of having your content indexed shortly after it’s published.
Secondly, I would definitely look into Wordpress if you want to be a bit more adventurous. The many widgets and plugins offered through Wordpress are phenomenal.
There are so many different ways to take advantage of Wordpress plugins, and I’d definitely suggest playing around with it if you have a decent knowledge of the Internet.
The last one I’ll mention is a more recent addition to the blogosphere, and it’s called Posterous. This is a great service that allows you to post to your own blog without ever having to set it up. As long as you email them your post, they’ll have it up automatically for you in less than a minute.
The same can be done for pictures and videos too, making it very, very convenient.
March 21st, 2009
by Chris Channing
Web design has many means of being developed, thanks to a wide array of technologies. One in particular is Macromedia Flash, a type of technology that allows for some astounding benefits that the average web design is devoid of.
By using Macromedia flash, a web designer is able to include flashy animations and effects within their design. This can lead to an increase in leads generated from a website, since the extra animation can be used to focus attention to a specific aspect of the website. This is great for a business website that is trying to sell its services, or sell the services of another website.
Flash only requires a plug-in to work properly. It is independent of both the operating system and the Internet browser used by the Internet user, so it is a great tool to make a compatible design among all types of systems. This is usually a hard task to achieve, since static web designs are susceptible to changes in different Internet browsers such as FireFox or Internet Explorer. Using Flash almost completely erases and problems with cross-platform compatibility.
When making the average web design, a designer will likely have to code the back end of the application separately from what he or she uses to make the design of the website. Flash essentially melds these two things together, by allowing for a itself to act as both the front-end and back-end with its scriptin elements. Flash can do just about everything popular development languages such as PHP do- and in some cases even more so.
Businesses that incorporate a certain amount of Flash into their website will also notice that they have a higher sense of credibility than websites that do not. This is due to the fact that Flash is able to create a much more stunning layout than a regular web design that is considered static. This shows to the user that the business is serious in its web design- and is not afraid to go a step further to attract new types of business.
Macromedia Flash allows for a lot of functionality, but it does have some downsides in using it. Since it requires a Flash plug-in, some may not have the plug-in and won’t be able to view Flash contents. Obviously this is bad if the entire website is in Flash! Designs that use Flash also load slower, since there is typically a lot of animation or scripting to load by the client computer.
Final Thoughts
Web development companies would be a good option for those who aren’t sure how to take advantage of what Flash has to offer the average website. Shop around and ask for samples before you decide on a company, so you are satisfied with the price and the end result.