It's finally here. Today is the final day that Microsoft will support Windows Vista. From 12 April, Windows Vista will effectively be disowned by Microsoft, thrown out of the house by its parents, and forced to get a job of its own. "After April 11, 2017, Windows Vista customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft," the company writes in an ultimatum. "Microsoft has provided support for Windows Vista for the past 10 years, but the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners,...
A logo redesign is a process fraught with danger... just ask Instagram if you need a reminder. But free software company Mozilla has taken that very leap of faith, using its community as inspiration. And to be fair, it's new logo is fairly subdued. The creators of Firefox this week unveiled the design, which features a colon and two forward slashes, much like a website's URL would. Mozilla's design head Tim Murray explains that this design is an incorporation of the "language of the Internet" into the company's new identity. "Our logo with its nod to URL language reinforces that the Internet is...
We've seen chat bots become the new "cloud" this year, as everyone from Google and Microsoft to Facebook gets in on the action. However, we've also seen some novel uses for these AI-powered bots, with the most recent example being a bot that builds a website for you. It's called Heek. Yep, Heek's AI chatbot asks you a number of questions, such as your name, the type of industry you're in and desired website designs. The bot also makes suggestions, such as adding contact forms, page navigation options, testimonials and more. Once you've done most of these basics, you can tweak the website further with...
The digitalisation of business is inevitable and companies that resist the change, risk losing customers, revenue and potentially, even their reputation. The stakes are even higher for companies whose websites are the first and only place interested customers visit. In reality, a website only has seconds to make a good first impression. A responsive site is essential. The latest Ericsson Mobility Report states that smartphone subscriptions continue to increase and that the number will surpass those for basic phone subscriptions during the third quarter of 2016. According to the report, the growth will continue, especially in markets such as Africa and...
You might have the best looking website, the most innovative product or service and even the best digital marketing strategy, but it won't generate any leads if the process of obtaining information of interested people is difficult and cumbersome. The web is a crowded and noisy place and people will most likely visit the next result on Google if you can't help them instantly. People will only spend a couple of seconds on your website and if they have a difficult time finding what they want or it's difficult to make a purchase or requesting more information, they will leave....
Since the dawn of the World Wide Web in 1989, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) has evolved exponentially in the last two decades. The foundation for HTML 5 was laid back in 2004 as the aged HTML4 was struggling for relevancy amongst developers. HTML4 was standardised in 1997 and the world had begun to expect more from web technology. The Worldwide Wide Web Consortium(W3C) had focused its resources on the development of Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) 2.0 at the time. Founded in 2004, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) had identified the relevancy and the potential of a...
In a business world obsessed with speed, output and disruptive innovation, it is no surprise that there is a newfound obsession with ‘agility’. From startups to tech juggernauts, it is now trendy to be seen as agile, nimble and able to pivot quickly. In the complex world of software development, however, agility is far more than a buzzword. It is a necessity. As a result, for managers and developers within a software company, agility has very real and tangible implications for how work is approached. To draw on a very simple comparison, let’s look at the construction industry –...
While the term design most often conjures up images of objects – from clothing to consumer products to skyscrapers – true design in its most honest form refers to a dynamic process rather than a static end-result. Quite simply, design thinking is the process of observing, researching, experimenting, modelling and testing processes (as well as products), in order to improve them to their maximum potential. In today’s digital era, with an abundance of information, as well as data collection, storage and processing technology growing in leaps and bounds, more and more enterprises are finding ways to process this data...
Since 21 April 2015, Google has been seriously considering the mobile-friendliness of websites when ranking them in the search results. According to the search engine giant, it wants users who utilize its search facility to get results that are relevant, of high quality and that can easily and comfortably fit in their mobile phones. The company has further bolstered this decision by innovating a label that is used to distinguish websites that are mobile-friendly from those that are not. This helps a user who is going through a result page using their mobile phone to know which site to click...
For outsiders, software development may seem difficult – of course – but relatively straightforward given the relevant training. Development partners are given the business problem or brief, the timeline, and the budget. From there, it’s happy coding… right? Not so much. Software development is an inherently complex and nuanced task, and requires both experience and talent to achieve the desired outcomes. It also requires an in-depth understanding of the systems and processes needed to get to a certain point. In the world of enterprise software development, there is more often than not a tussle between clients and development partners. Sometimes, clients...
When considering click through rate (CTR) as a factor in ranking, there are numerous questions that come to mind. Does it affect how well your website performs or how well your website helps you earn money? This article will look into how CTR affects ranking with regard to organic results found in the search engines results page (SERP). First, it is essential to define the terms CTR and organic results. CTR is the click through rate that measures the number of people who manage to click a link as opposed to the number of people who have had the opportunity...
When you think of refreshing your website, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The overall look and feel, right? Have you ever considered sprucing up the copy? Probably not. That’s a mistake. Copy ages the same as design. While it’s often overlooked, your website’s wording is crucial in shaping the way your brand is perceived by current and potential consumers. A website revamp needs to cover all bases, not just those that make your site look good. It’s imperative that it reads well too. Copy is not something you write once and then forget about. It should be refreshed...
The awkward but frank domain name .blog will soon be available to purchase for bloggers everywhere. This comes after Automattic, the company behind Wordpress, announced that it had "secured" the rights to the name. Fittingly taking to Wordpress to announce the news, the company noted that users will "be able to purchase a .blog domain at WordPress.com or through our partner domain name registrars." "And again, the .blog domain will be available to everyone, regardless of what kind of site you have or who hosts it," the company expands. So what does this mean for web users? Well, your blog can now officially be...
As part of its drive to ensure optimal user experience, Google continuously adjusts its search algorithm in favor of websites that perform well. This means that a really slow website can harmful to your brand or business, in terms of online visibility. Sadly enough, it is completely ignored by many publishers and digital entrepreneurs. Google takes into account user experience in its search algorithm as John Mueller points out: "We do say we have a small factor in there for pages that are really slow to load where we take that into account." Maile Ohye, likewise from Google suggests “ seconds...
The web and its related technologies have never been short on interactivity. Ever since the first browsers were made available to the public, the hyperlink and later client-side scripting languages have given people a wide variety of ways to interact with websites. It has taken longer, however, for the web to develop a set of standards by which animation, video, sound and logic can be presented in an application format with the web browser as the user interface. The earliest solutions to this problem involved custom plugins like Flash, Java and various multimedia extensions to the basic technology of...
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