Most blogs that I see are not remotely spider friendly. By that I mean the search engine spiders have to wade through a good bit of html only to find there isn't much there but the posts. Each and every blogger has to view their blog the way the spiders do, and then fine-tune things to be not only spider friendly, but also to spoon-feed the spiders what you want them to eat. How do we do that? Well, for starters use a utility that examines your blog the way a spider does.
Spider Simulators.
There are several simulators available that will do the hard work for you. They visit your URL, strip out the HTML code, and serve up the meat of your blog site the way a spider sees your site. Here are the best sites to use:
WebConfs Spider Simulator
SEOChat Spider Simulator
Webmaster Toolkit Spider Simulator
Fix Your Theme
Now that you have looked at your site using one of the simulators, you may notice that there are no meta names or descriptions listed. You may even find that the top lines are spam for your theme designer. The first thing you need to do is realize that most themes are designed for looks, not for search engines. You need to add some "meat" to your theme by way of meta descriptions and keywords. In WordPress, you will probably need to open your theme editor and use the header.php which is where most theme writers put meta information. Examine what you see closely. With Blogger, you will need to use Blogger's theme editor for the main page. For starters, try adding a line in the section of your theme for keywords. Although Google does not put much emphasis on keywords, some search engines do. A meta keyword listing would be something like [meta content="term1, term2, phrase one and two, another phrase, term3" name="keywords" /] (we used square brackets so this code will display. Replace with angle brackets).
The terms and phrases, obviously, should be something relevant to your site that you would like the search engines to pick up. Try running a simulator again and see whether the keywords are now being picked up. With the WebConfs spider simlulator you not only get the meta listing, you also get links from each of your keywords to other suggested keywords. Experiment, learn about meta and how spiders looks at your site. Fine-tune your site. You may have information in a sidebar that is being wasted. Notice where the spiders put sidebar information. Keep in mind that most spiders consider text at the top of a page to be more important than text near the bottom.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Back to Blogger?
Possibly. We're strongly considering going back to the original blog platform.
On the other hand:
"But things don't appear to have gone entirely smoothly. According to some Blogger readers, the software exited beta in the manner of an egg nog-filled guest leaving a Christmas party." --Cnet
Stay tuned. It's the war of the blog platforms. We may just run Blogger and WordPress side-by-side so everyone can judge which is better.
On the other hand:
"But things don't appear to have gone entirely smoothly. According to some Blogger readers, the software exited beta in the manner of an egg nog-filled guest leaving a Christmas party." --Cnet
Stay tuned. It's the war of the blog platforms. We may just run Blogger and WordPress side-by-side so everyone can judge which is better.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Hitler and Copyright
Here is one of our favorite posts from the Blogger Blog archives-
Simon Waldman has a quiet little British blog he calls Word of Waldman. Recently, as he was going through some old magazines from the 1930's, he ran across an article in Homes and Gardens about Hitler and what a nice chap he was. It occurred to Simon that this would be a good blog subject. That is, how public perceptions are created by media perceptions. So, he scanned the article and made it part of his post.
Simon did take it down, but sent Homes and Gardens an email: "These are interesting and important historical documents. As you are clearly aware. They should be widely available for as many people as possible to learn from them. That they can be, instantly, is one of the great beauties of the internet. I'm afraid as well, that simply getting them taken off my site is unlikely to be the end of it. These are digital files. They have been seen by thousands of people. It is incredibly easy for people to copy them and put them up on their site anywhere in the world. As of now, I have no idea how many versions there might be on the web."
Well, Simon knew how the Internet works. The corporate world apparently does not. In trying to apply a very weak and nonsensical copyright claim, Homes and Gardens insured that their embarrassing article would be seen a thousand-fold more times than if they had kept quiet. As for Simon, he is a bit bewildered by all the attention this has brought his blog. "I don't know...for a couple of years I blog away in a quiet little backwater of the blogsphere, barely registering among the Technorati, writing my all matter of things to a daily audience barely big enough to fill a minibus. Then all I do is scan in a few old magazine pages and put them up...and before you know it...global media exposure." You gotta love blogging. It can turn any of us into a journalist with something important to say. By the way, here is one of Home and Gardens "copyrighted" photos from the article. Notice how enforcing their copyright magically made everything disappear?
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Moved to a WordPress platform
Blogger Blog, which is Blogger Forum's offical blog, can now be viewed at www.bloggerblog.com or www.bloggerforum.com.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Blogging with Word
Test of post with Word Blogger now has an add-in for Microsoft Word to allow Blogging to Blogger without leaving Word. I assume you can add color, links and other Word formatting.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Blog posts double
Technorati stats are showing that the number of blogs posted are doubling.
Posting volume has doubled this year alone - between January and August, in part due to the growing number of mainstream blogging tools such as MSN Spaces, AOL Journals, Blogger, and LiveJournal. At the end of July, about 37,500 posts were being created every hour.
Posting volume is likely a better measure of blog activity than the number of blogs being created, and a better indicator of whether blogging is just a fad or a sustained activity. -MarketingVox
Posting volume has doubled this year alone - between January and August, in part due to the growing number of mainstream blogging tools such as MSN Spaces, AOL Journals, Blogger, and LiveJournal. At the end of July, about 37,500 posts were being created every hour.
Posting volume is likely a better measure of blog activity than the number of blogs being created, and a better indicator of whether blogging is just a fad or a sustained activity. -MarketingVox
Thursday, July 21, 2005
BlogPulse updated
BlogPulse has updated its site to include more updated blog data.
BlogPulse now ranks the top blogs, blog posts, news sources, and news stories daily. "With this new edition of BlogPulse, marketers and bloggers can gain a much deeper understanding of how key bloggers are shaping, catalyzing, and influencing broader perceptions about brands, products, services and everyday issues," said Intelliseek CEO Mike Nazzaro in a statement.
This update also enhances searches conducted through the site for blogs. Query results will be sorted with a combination of data and blog rank contributing to that order. --WebProNews
If you visit the BlogPulse site, note the box that shows how many new blogs were created in the prior 24 hour period. When I visited, it was more than 56,000!
BlogPulse now ranks the top blogs, blog posts, news sources, and news stories daily. "With this new edition of BlogPulse, marketers and bloggers can gain a much deeper understanding of how key bloggers are shaping, catalyzing, and influencing broader perceptions about brands, products, services and everyday issues," said Intelliseek CEO Mike Nazzaro in a statement.
This update also enhances searches conducted through the site for blogs. Query results will be sorted with a combination of data and blog rank contributing to that order. --WebProNews
If you visit the BlogPulse site, note the box that shows how many new blogs were created in the prior 24 hour period. When I visited, it was more than 56,000!
Monday, July 18, 2005
Google raises bar?
Several times a year Google goes through some major tinkering with the algorithms it uses to rank Web sites. These major changes are different from the close to monthly changes you will see in positioning of sites. Around a year ago there was a very major change that dropped most sites by at least one notch. That is, from 6 to 5 --or whatever. The most recent change was almost as dramatic.
In the past few PageRank updates it has become quite apparent that Google is continuously raising the bar on PageRank. In their defense, with all of the reciprocal link building, link renting, etc. going on this was a natural reaction to the growing number high PageRank sites that attained those ranks simply by building or buying hundreds and thousands of links. -- Search Engine Journal
In the past few PageRank updates it has become quite apparent that Google is continuously raising the bar on PageRank. In their defense, with all of the reciprocal link building, link renting, etc. going on this was a natural reaction to the growing number high PageRank sites that attained those ranks simply by building or buying hundreds and thousands of links. -- Search Engine Journal
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Using AdSense
Some pretty good tips on using AdSense in your blog come from SelfSEO, like this:
Internet users are "trained" to look in certain locations and ignore things that are outside of thier narrow scope of vision. People can look to the sides for information, but the propensity for them to click your ads becomes significantly lower. By putting ads directly "in thier face", you have a greater chance they will click it.
Here's a few more tips:
I use a white background instead of a color background.
I remove the border on adsense so it does not look like an ad and make sure it matches the background.
I keep the Title and the Hyperlink "Blue".
I keep Adsense "above the fold", so they are the "FIRST" things that people see when they arrive at the site.
I try to keep the ads "left" aligned.
I use the 160X600 vertical for people to see when they move vertically down the website page.
I try to place images near the google ads. Images draw the eyes near the ads.
I keep the site concise, clean and focused.
Internet users are "trained" to look in certain locations and ignore things that are outside of thier narrow scope of vision. People can look to the sides for information, but the propensity for them to click your ads becomes significantly lower. By putting ads directly "in thier face", you have a greater chance they will click it.
Here's a few more tips:
I use a white background instead of a color background.
I remove the border on adsense so it does not look like an ad and make sure it matches the background.
I keep the Title and the Hyperlink "Blue".
I keep Adsense "above the fold", so they are the "FIRST" things that people see when they arrive at the site.
I try to keep the ads "left" aligned.
I use the 160X600 vertical for people to see when they move vertically down the website page.
I try to place images near the google ads. Images draw the eyes near the ads.
I keep the site concise, clean and focused.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Relationship searches with Grokker
Search engines help you find sites based on relevance to your search topic. For example, if you search on "Blogger Forum" (without the parentheses) you get a linear list of results based on the sites' importance.
Now, suppose that instead of a linear result you could get a 3-dimensional result. Suppose further that instead of a return based on a site's importance in relation to your search topic, you got a result based on the relationship of sites to not only your topic, but to each other. It is a lot easier to see what I mean than to try and explain it. So, here is the same "Blogger Forum" search, but done with Grokker: http://www.grokker.com/applet.html?query=blogger%20forum. Once you play with this for a bit, try entering your own search topics.
You will notice that you have relationships that are loosely connected and relationships that are within "neighborhoods" of related topics. You can see that Blogger Users is a neighborhood that includes Blogger Forum as a site and Blogger Family as a neighborhood that also includes Blogger Forum. However, the relationships within each neighborhood is a bit different. If you then click on one of the sites, the relationships change depending on the choices you make.
Warning: you may find you are spending hours investigating these relationships and discovering sites you never knew existed because a new relationship was suggested to you by Grokker.
Now, suppose that instead of a linear result you could get a 3-dimensional result. Suppose further that instead of a return based on a site's importance in relation to your search topic, you got a result based on the relationship of sites to not only your topic, but to each other. It is a lot easier to see what I mean than to try and explain it. So, here is the same "Blogger Forum" search, but done with Grokker: http://www.grokker.com/applet.html?query=blogger%20forum. Once you play with this for a bit, try entering your own search topics.
You will notice that you have relationships that are loosely connected and relationships that are within "neighborhoods" of related topics. You can see that Blogger Users is a neighborhood that includes Blogger Forum as a site and Blogger Family as a neighborhood that also includes Blogger Forum. However, the relationships within each neighborhood is a bit different. If you then click on one of the sites, the relationships change depending on the choices you make.
Warning: you may find you are spending hours investigating these relationships and discovering sites you never knew existed because a new relationship was suggested to you by Grokker.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Getting dropped by AdSense
Now that Google has opened AdSense to a larger base (bloggers), there seems to be more reports of Google dropping people from the AdSense program for alleged abuse.
A typical email from Google goes like this:
Hello xxxx,
It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated
on the ads on your web pages. We have therefore disabled your Google
AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an
effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.
The Blogger_user_support Yahoo Group has a thread now on the subject:
Just wanted to share that after a 14 day application process, I was approved for Google AdSense and began using it. I was surprised and happy to see the money I was earning. I also began using site meter at the same time and was surprised at the number of hits I am getting per day, about 100 per weekday. However all of a sudden on day 3 of AdSense my revenue was 75% less than before and then 4th day it was zero and 5th day I received an email stating I was booted out of the program.
Their email seemed to be a standard letter in which they accused my account activity as looking like I am using a robot program or an automated ad clicking program or other computer programs to artificially inflate my clicks. Therefore they closed my account and won't even pay me for those 3days. I am miffed and frankly, offended.
How do you avoid being accused of AdSense manipulation? Take a look HERE for a good article on the subject. It goes from the obvious (don't click on your own AdSense links) to the less obvious.
A typical email from Google goes like this:
Hello xxxx,
It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated
on the ads on your web pages. We have therefore disabled your Google
AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an
effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.
The Blogger_user_support Yahoo Group has a thread now on the subject:
Just wanted to share that after a 14 day application process, I was approved for Google AdSense and began using it. I was surprised and happy to see the money I was earning. I also began using site meter at the same time and was surprised at the number of hits I am getting per day, about 100 per weekday. However all of a sudden on day 3 of AdSense my revenue was 75% less than before and then 4th day it was zero and 5th day I received an email stating I was booted out of the program.
Their email seemed to be a standard letter in which they accused my account activity as looking like I am using a robot program or an automated ad clicking program or other computer programs to artificially inflate my clicks. Therefore they closed my account and won't even pay me for those 3days. I am miffed and frankly, offended.
How do you avoid being accused of AdSense manipulation? Take a look HERE for a good article on the subject. It goes from the obvious (don't click on your own AdSense links) to the less obvious.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Yahoo guidelines on employee blogging
Now that Yahoo has it's own blogging feature (Yahoo 360), the company has come out with official guidelines for it's employees who choose to blog. Company guidelines are essential since so many bloggers have been fired or otherwise disciplined without any warning in advance as to company policy on the issue.
In essence, the policy states that no employee may blog about any company issue unless the issue has already been made public by the company. This would probably be a given in any standard-form blogging guideline that a company might want to implement. Taken a step further, what about companies that have official blogs?
"Some companies have a two-tiered blogging scenario. On the official level, they employ marketing people such as Microsoft's Robert Scoble and Google's Michael Krantz who are specifically tasked with evangelizing via the short form."
"Meanwhile, well-known employees often write personal blogs in which they have to constantly remind readers that they're not speaking for the company." -InternetNews
So, it can get pretty hairy out there deciding not only what the guidelines should be, but whether the employee is an official blogger, official blogger but blogging on his own time, or just an employee who mentions the company. Three sets of guidelines, perhaps?
In essence, the policy states that no employee may blog about any company issue unless the issue has already been made public by the company. This would probably be a given in any standard-form blogging guideline that a company might want to implement. Taken a step further, what about companies that have official blogs?
"Some companies have a two-tiered blogging scenario. On the official level, they employ marketing people such as Microsoft's Robert Scoble and Google's Michael Krantz who are specifically tasked with evangelizing via the short form."
"Meanwhile, well-known employees often write personal blogs in which they have to constantly remind readers that they're not speaking for the company." -InternetNews
So, it can get pretty hairy out there deciding not only what the guidelines should be, but whether the employee is an official blogger, official blogger but blogging on his own time, or just an employee who mentions the company. Three sets of guidelines, perhaps?
Friday, May 20, 2005
Dear Blogger: a wish list
Fredrik Wacka sums up what all of us have been talking about for about two years (since Google took over Blogger). His open-letter to Google starts out with a statement we have heard over and over again here at Blogger Forum: "I have tried to find ways to switch from Blogger to another publishing system, but there are problems I'd like to avoid. So I figured I could try influencing you to improve Blogger instead."
Here's what Fredrik wants, and it's a short, reasonable list:
1. Categories -- it's standard in almost every other blog publishing system. Now that categories automate Technorati tagging too, I really need them.
2. An integrated TrackBack function -- it's an extra burden to do it manually, and I often skip that part I'm afraid. Give me Pingback too while you're at it. You don't have to be embarrassed that you didn't invent it. Who cares?
3. Comments that are as customizable as the rest of the templates. And please stop asking people to sign up for a Blogger account as your default option. It makes many choose not to comment (I use Haloscan instead).
Speaking of comments, take a look at some of the comments Fredrik's article has received from Blogger users.
Here's what Fredrik wants, and it's a short, reasonable list:
1. Categories -- it's standard in almost every other blog publishing system. Now that categories automate Technorati tagging too, I really need them.
2. An integrated TrackBack function -- it's an extra burden to do it manually, and I often skip that part I'm afraid. Give me Pingback too while you're at it. You don't have to be embarrassed that you didn't invent it. Who cares?
3. Comments that are as customizable as the rest of the templates. And please stop asking people to sign up for a Blogger account as your default option. It makes many choose not to comment (I use Haloscan instead).
Speaking of comments, take a look at some of the comments Fredrik's article has received from Blogger users.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Possible Blogger enhancements
Blogger has been quiet for quite some time on what will be next in the Blogger.com world. With the persistent problems in performance, Blogger users would first like to be assured that more effort is being put into developing a more stable and reliable base product.
However, there is talk about other enhancements in the development or "We're thinking about it" stage.
Here are some ideas that Blogger is looking into as reported in Computerworld:
Native image uploading. The ability to upload images directly through a native Blogger interface instead of through indirect methods.
Private groups. Although it is possible to password protect blogs with third-party products, Blogger does not support private blogs or private areas. This would allow Blogger users to control who can view their blogs.
Gmail integration. This would be a natural. However, everyone is a bit fuzzy at this point as to what integration would entail and exactly what benefits this would bring to Blogger and Gmail users.
Mobile Blogger. Google introduced the latest enhancement to Blogger last week, when it launched Blogger Mobile, a feature that lets users create a new blog and post to it from mobile devices. "There's lots of people walking around with little blogging appliances which others may call mobile phones." --Biz Stone
However, there is talk about other enhancements in the development or "We're thinking about it" stage.
Here are some ideas that Blogger is looking into as reported in Computerworld:
Native image uploading. The ability to upload images directly through a native Blogger interface instead of through indirect methods.
Private groups. Although it is possible to password protect blogs with third-party products, Blogger does not support private blogs or private areas. This would allow Blogger users to control who can view their blogs.
Gmail integration. This would be a natural. However, everyone is a bit fuzzy at this point as to what integration would entail and exactly what benefits this would bring to Blogger and Gmail users.
Mobile Blogger. Google introduced the latest enhancement to Blogger last week, when it launched Blogger Mobile, a feature that lets users create a new blog and post to it from mobile devices. "There's lots of people walking around with little blogging appliances which others may call mobile phones." --Biz Stone
Monday, May 09, 2005
Using a blog for promotion
One of the busiest guys around and an expert at self-promotion is Phil Town. Phil is a motivational speaker and has a new book coming out on investing for the small investor.
Getting a book published is expensive and takes a good bit of time to get up and running. A blog, on the other hand, can be up and running in a day. Then it is just a matter of having something to say.
Phil apparently never has that problem. He is motivated. If you take a look at his site, http://www.philtown.typepad.com, you will notice a few things. First, he has a catchy tag-line that lets you know right away what the site is about: "I teach people how to get rich no matter what happens in the market. Rule #1 is: Don't lose money!"
Phil decided to use TypePad as his blog platform. Take a look at his blog and analyze his layout and how he presents information. Use your browser's ability (View, then Source in IE) to drill down to his source code to see how he has headings set up for the search spiders. Phrase-rich statements surrounded by "h2" get more attention from Google and the other engines than just plain text. One of his phrases is "I teach people how to get rich no matter what happens in the market." I have no doubt that within a short time his site will be on the first page of any search for combinations of that phrase.
Take a look at the site. It is rich source for learning how to set up a blog to promote yourself or your business.
Getting a book published is expensive and takes a good bit of time to get up and running. A blog, on the other hand, can be up and running in a day. Then it is just a matter of having something to say.
Phil apparently never has that problem. He is motivated. If you take a look at his site, http://www.philtown.typepad.com, you will notice a few things. First, he has a catchy tag-line that lets you know right away what the site is about: "I teach people how to get rich no matter what happens in the market. Rule #1 is: Don't lose money!"Phil decided to use TypePad as his blog platform. Take a look at his blog and analyze his layout and how he presents information. Use your browser's ability (View, then Source in IE) to drill down to his source code to see how he has headings set up for the search spiders. Phrase-rich statements surrounded by "h2" get more attention from Google and the other engines than just plain text. One of his phrases is "I teach people how to get rich no matter what happens in the market." I have no doubt that within a short time his site will be on the first page of any search for combinations of that phrase.
Take a look at the site. It is rich source for learning how to set up a blog to promote yourself or your business.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Blogger Forum tries out Serendipity
Our own sample blog on Bloggerforum has always been on the Blogger.com platform. However, there are certainly many other platforms out there to choose from. So, how do you make a decision as to the best blog platform to trust your scribblings to?
Obviously you want something dependable, easy to use, and nice-looking. Oh, yes, also with all the bells and whistles chronically lacking with Blogger.com. We decided to run the same blog postings here in 3 platforms: Blogger, Serendipity, and the internal "News" module that is part of this site. Actually, the New section is, in essence, a blog and it works quite well.
As to the decision to run Serendipity as the third choice, that was almost a natural. Serendipity is extremely easy to install and run (you need your own server, however). It also has what Blogger lacks: categories, RSS feeds, calendar archives, themes you can change on the fly, plug-ins, etc. etc.
We will be running our sample blog in both Blogger and Serendipity for the immediate future so folks can see a side-by-side comparison. We may add other blog platforms. Also, we will have our "Blog" tab give you a choice of which blog you want to see. Meanwhile, you can see the blog in two places (besides our own News section). Our Blogger based blog, and our Serendipity based blog. Enjoy.
Obviously you want something dependable, easy to use, and nice-looking. Oh, yes, also with all the bells and whistles chronically lacking with Blogger.com. We decided to run the same blog postings here in 3 platforms: Blogger, Serendipity, and the internal "News" module that is part of this site. Actually, the New section is, in essence, a blog and it works quite well.
As to the decision to run Serendipity as the third choice, that was almost a natural. Serendipity is extremely easy to install and run (you need your own server, however). It also has what Blogger lacks: categories, RSS feeds, calendar archives, themes you can change on the fly, plug-ins, etc. etc.
We will be running our sample blog in both Blogger and Serendipity for the immediate future so folks can see a side-by-side comparison. We may add other blog platforms. Also, we will have our "Blog" tab give you a choice of which blog you want to see. Meanwhile, you can see the blog in two places (besides our own News section). Our Blogger based blog, and our Serendipity based blog. Enjoy.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Blogger reveals juicy Disney tidbits
Blogger Jim Hill has been blogging about Disney for years at www.jimhillmedia.com. Although Disney is his favorite subject, Mickey and his friends probably were not terribly happy with everything Jim had to say about the Disney corporate world on his site. Things got a bit nasty when Jim blogged on the the well-known dispute over management:
Hill butted heads with the multimedia giant once before, at the 2004 shareholders' meeting in Philadelphia. Hill, who had been covering the leadership battle between Disney chief executive Michael Eisner and Roy Disney, was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article accompanied by a sketch of him. When he arrived at the meeting, Hill said company officials pulled his credentials. The incident happened in front of the press corps and he was on cable news the next day. Then as now, Hill's blog saw a Space Mountain-size spike in hits. Chicago Sun-Times
Hill ran into problems more recently because of an unofficial Disneyland tour he was arranging through his blog.
Once again, this demonstrates that it pays to find your blogging niche if you want to develop a large following.
Hill butted heads with the multimedia giant once before, at the 2004 shareholders' meeting in Philadelphia. Hill, who had been covering the leadership battle between Disney chief executive Michael Eisner and Roy Disney, was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article accompanied by a sketch of him. When he arrived at the meeting, Hill said company officials pulled his credentials. The incident happened in front of the press corps and he was on cable news the next day. Then as now, Hill's blog saw a Space Mountain-size spike in hits. Chicago Sun-Times
Hill ran into problems more recently because of an unofficial Disneyland tour he was arranging through his blog.
Once again, this demonstrates that it pays to find your blogging niche if you want to develop a large following.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Serendipity .8 released
One of the best and most overlooked blogging platforms out there was upgraded on April 15.
Finally, after about 8 months of hard development and 6 beta releases the Serendipity Team is proud to finally release version 0.8 of Serendipity.
Many new and important features have been introduced, the core code has been made much more flexible, our code is polished up and many bugs and security issues were addressed.
Serendipity is one of my top five blog software programs. Take a look HERE for a list of the many features and then download a copy for yourself. It's free and it's good.
Finally, after about 8 months of hard development and 6 beta releases the Serendipity Team is proud to finally release version 0.8 of Serendipity.
Many new and important features have been introduced, the core code has been made much more flexible, our code is polished up and many bugs and security issues were addressed.
Serendipity is one of my top five blog software programs. Take a look HERE for a list of the many features and then download a copy for yourself. It's free and it's good.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Is your blog PC?
Politically correct, that is.
Do you have an obligation to make your blog accessible to the handicapped? What if a blind person wants to read your blog. Do you have a way to reasonably accommodate your blind readers? It isn't as far-fetched as you might think. Southwest Airlines has already been sued because they have not made their Website accessible to the blind.
This isn't the first lawsuit alleging that the ADA applies to the Internet. In 1999, the National Federation of the Blind sued AOL alleging that its service was inaccessible to blind users. Earlier this year, Access Now sued Barnes & Noble and Claire's Stores alleging that both websites violated the ADA. Both cases settled out of court. WiredNews
But here's the question I've not been able to get answered after looking at these pending lawsuits: how exactly do you make a site accessible to the blind? I mean, come on, what technology are we expected to employ?
Apparently, all you have to do to be able to sue is make the claim that a site discriminates simply by virtue of the fact that the visually impaired cannot see it. So what suggestions are made for ways to make the Internet accessible to those who cannot see it? None that I can find. I suppose if you required all Web site to have streaming audio for everything that is displayed, including audio descriptions of all graphics, maybe that could work. Of course, it could also put the Web pretty much out of business as ways to handle the bandwidth demands and the expense are dealt with.
Do you have an obligation to make your blog accessible to the handicapped? What if a blind person wants to read your blog. Do you have a way to reasonably accommodate your blind readers? It isn't as far-fetched as you might think. Southwest Airlines has already been sued because they have not made their Website accessible to the blind.
This isn't the first lawsuit alleging that the ADA applies to the Internet. In 1999, the National Federation of the Blind sued AOL alleging that its service was inaccessible to blind users. Earlier this year, Access Now sued Barnes & Noble and Claire's Stores alleging that both websites violated the ADA. Both cases settled out of court. WiredNews
But here's the question I've not been able to get answered after looking at these pending lawsuits: how exactly do you make a site accessible to the blind? I mean, come on, what technology are we expected to employ?
Apparently, all you have to do to be able to sue is make the claim that a site discriminates simply by virtue of the fact that the visually impaired cannot see it. So what suggestions are made for ways to make the Internet accessible to those who cannot see it? None that I can find. I suppose if you required all Web site to have streaming audio for everything that is displayed, including audio descriptions of all graphics, maybe that could work. Of course, it could also put the Web pretty much out of business as ways to handle the bandwidth demands and the expense are dealt with.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
"Blogger sucks" gets 6,500 Google hits
Despite some claims that searching on "blogger sucks" (with the quote marks) will get 700,000 hits, the point is still well taken. The fact that Blogger is getting so much bad press should prompt the Blogger/Google folks to take some action.
It's getting a little nasty out there.
In a post called "Blogger Stinks," Ryan McReynolds, who shares his views on life, God, intimacy, politics and media philosophy, wrote: "I'm getting really tired of all the glitches and hiccups of Blogger. You may have noticed double posts at times on this blog. That's because you never know whether clicking something on Blogger will actually accomplish what is intended. Lately it seems like clicking does nothing but bring up a 'document contains no data.' Maddening." --WiredNews
It's getting a little nasty out there.
In a post called "Blogger Stinks," Ryan McReynolds, who shares his views on life, God, intimacy, politics and media philosophy, wrote: "I'm getting really tired of all the glitches and hiccups of Blogger. You may have noticed double posts at times on this blog. That's because you never know whether clicking something on Blogger will actually accomplish what is intended. Lately it seems like clicking does nothing but bring up a 'document contains no data.' Maddening." --WiredNews
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
