Month: August 2003

August 4, 2003

  • Thought

    Digital Web Magazine — An interview with Jeffrey Veen:

    “‘Hurdles’ is a polite way to put it. The Web has been following an enormous pendulum swing for some time now. Back about five years ago, when I was still at HotWired, we could do no wrong. Every stupid idea was a new paradigm and the foundations of a new economy. Now, things are just as silly. Nobody will touch the Web, and everyone is running away screaming.”

  • Thought

    Boxes and Arrows: Web Traffic Analytics and User Experience:

    “By looking at the data on what users do on the site, however, you can enhance your effectiveness as a specialist in the user. You already have information and knowledge gained through observation and direct questioning of individual users. Now, you can add to that insights gained from the broad swath of information pulled during their actions on the site. These numbers represent the real-world behavior and interests of the user.”

August 2, 2003

  • Internet Best Practice — 001

    Google is currently the de facto standard in search and you’ll benefit by thinking about Google as you build your site.

    Google recently released the beta of Google Toolbar 2.0. One of the neat features included in the new toolbar is AutoFill of web forms.

    Here’s how Google describes this feature:

    “The AutoFill tab in Toolbar Options enables you to automatically complete forms on the web. Enter your information and it’s stored securely on your own computer. When you see yellow-colored form fields on web pages, you can choose to have Google complete the form for you with the information you’ve entered.

    AutoFill stores personal data where only you can access it — your own computer. And your credit card data is encrypted and protected by a password you set. None of this information is ever sent to Google. In the Toolbar, the AutoFill button is enabled when you visit a page with fields that AutoFill can fill. Otherwise, the button in the Toolbar appears gray”

    As users download and become comfortable with the Google Toolbar, they will demand that sites build forms that work with the AutoFill feature. Luckily, Google likes standards:

    “You can ensure that AutoFill will work on your pages by using field names defined in the ECML (Electronic Commerce Modeling Language) standard, found at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3106.txt.”

    Now for some sites, it may be onerous to change data field names on all forms. But if you have the option, you should use any existing standards. While the ECML field names may not have been important when you built your forms, now that Google has brought the standard to consumers, it will be.

    Originally posted to the Internet Best Practice Newsletter. To receive your free copy.

August 1, 2003

  • Thought

    News.com: End of the road for SMTP?:

    “Some of those tackling the problem are looking at amending protocols other than SMTP. Microsoft, for example, advocates a change to the domain name system (DNS) that would make it harder for spammers to disguise their identity.

    The DNS is a distributed database, maintained by a number of different companies that provide domain names for Web site and e-mail addresses. The problem with the system, spam-fighters say, is that like SMTP, it provides no system for authentication.

    ‘One of the things we want to do is attack this issue of spoofing,’ said Harry Katz, program manager of Microsoft’s Exchange server group. ‘That’s job one, in terms of putting a curb on spam, and we think we can do that (by) making a minor enhancement to the DNS.’

    The ‘minor enhancement’ Microsoft is preparing to release would let individuals, companies and other organizations publish the identification numbers of their mail servers in the DNS database.”