It may or may not come as a surprise to many that WordPress has earned the top prize by winning the Overall Best Open Source SMS Award this year. Furthermore it is the first time in the past four years that WordPress has won the award, securing a place for them in the Hall of Fame category for the award in 2010. This is an incredible achievement for WordPress as it is now recognized as a full-featured CMS and not just a blogging platform in the market which signifies that it has become a great success amongst users and developers over the past year.

Other categories in the CMS Award included Most Promising Open Source CMS and Best Other Open Source PHP CMS. ImpressCMS won top spot for Most Promising Open Source CMS while Pligg and Pixie shared a tie for 1st runner-up position. Last but not least, winner of the Best Other Open Source PHP CMS was Plone followed by dotCMS and mojoPortal.

Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s CMS Award!!

The use of Flash technology is nearly universal around the World Wide Web and is used by well-known sites such as Youtube, NVIDIA, Shockwave and many more. However one of the main drawbacks of Flash on smartphones is that it is too resource-intensive and can drain a mobile device’s battery or slow it down.

Recognizing the performance issues, Adobe is utilizing graphical hardware acceleration for the full version of Flash to make it easier for mobile processing demands. Flash 10.1 has a powerful device integration which enables Flash developers to make use of device-specific features such as virtual keyboards, multi-touch gestures as well as accelerometers.

Apple nervous about adobe flash on iPhone
Missing from the line-up is Apple, whose iPhone SDK policies prevent Adobe from running Flash Player on the iPhone. Apple stated Flash is not good enough for its iPhone due to its resource requirements and it also poses a threat to the popular App store as it gives developers the opportunity to bypass Apple’s software development kit and create content with Adobe’s technology instead.

Argument is that iPhone users are becoming less interested in Flash apps on the iPhone as they have plenty of Apple ones to keep them occupied. Additionally, Apple appears to be backing HTML5 for its mobile platform which can provide some Flash-like abilities such as video streaming.

There is also now the Flash Player 10.1 pre-release version available for PCs and netbooks to give developers the chance to assess and give feedback to Adobe regarding compatibility issues and new features. A beta version is expected to be released for Palm WebOS later this year. Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available early 2010.

Earlier this week, Adobe Labs released its two newest beta test versions of its Flash 10.1 and AIR 2.0 (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technologies. Adobe said the new versions do not just include much-requested features but they also represent a big push into devices beyond the PC, starting with smartphones, and eventually applications that run on every device you use.

It will sit on top of a Linux kernel and will use a new windowing system. It will also have limited driver support therefore Google will only approve installations on a limited number of computers –mostly netbooks – including a number of Eee PCs. The Web will be its application development platform and may become a serious contender to Windows 7 in the netbook computer space.

Previously, Google had fixed the release date stating “The first netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.”

However thrilling TechCrunch’s news may sound, this isn’t the first time a rumor like this has been started. Just a month ago, numerous sources in China claimed devices running preview builds of Chrome OS would be out in the market as early as November. This was then followed by a series of premature reports of the OS that all turned out to be false information.

Nevertheless, it will be exciting to see how well Chrome competes with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard from Apple only recently released to consumers. But if there is one thing to be learnt in the world of technology, it is to never leave Google out of the loop.

Just don’t get your hopes too high if you are looking forward to having Google’s Chrome OS on your notebook before the month’s end.

]]> http://www.gauson.com/blog/2009/11/19/google%e2%80%99s-chrome-os-released-within-a-week-truth-or-rumor/feed/ 0 http://www.gauson.com/blog/2009/11/19/microsoft-and-yahoo-merger-what%e2%80%99s-new/ http://www.gauson.com/blog/2009/11/19/microsoft-and-yahoo-merger-what%e2%80%99s-new/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:29:08 +0000 G' Blog http://www.gauson.com/?p=332 Continue reading →]]> The Microsoft and Yahoo merger isn’t a foregone issue. It’s been three and a half months since the two companies announced they had reached a “binding letter agreement” on their search deal but straightening out the full pact is taking the two sides longer than expected.

In a statement, Microsoft said the two companies remain dedicated to their arrangement and given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some issues that need additional clarity and definitive details. Yahoo then released a statement saying both companies are optimistic that they will be able to close their deal by early 2010.

For the time being, Yahoo is concentrating mainly on their media sites most of which are No.1 in their categories. Sites such as Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Finance are very popular and attract millions of unique visitors on a monthly basis. Microsoft, on the other hand, is happy that it is finally getting what it wants which is an increased search market share to take on rival Google giving them the scale and resources to create and expand the future of search.

At the end of the year, Yahoo plans to end its paid inclusion program, formally called Search Submit Pro which is similar to pay-per-click, after having received complaints that having paid advertisements incorporated in organic search results could create biased results. Yahoo’s page inclusion program enabled users to pay for page inclusion but not page rank.

On the plus side, having reliable and guaranteed page inclusion enabled web developers to optimize their web pages for specific search results. Protests were made as Yahoo’s page inclusion program was trickling into traditional search engine optimization (SEO) practices that included keyword manipulation and pay-per-click advertisements. Most web developers believe the end to paid inclusion will kick-start pay-per-click advertisements and other online marketing businesses. Yahoo had chosen the final date at the end of the year to give their advertisers time to adjust to the changes.

Last month, Google and Microsoft grabbed larger pieces of U.S. search market share whereas Yahoo lost market share for the second month in a row. Analysts say Yahoo’s 18% search share was the lowest mark ever and that Yahoo must find a way to stabilize its share loss. Microsoft on the other hand, increased its market share for five straight months, boosted by its new Bing search engine and integration of Yahoo’s search technology.

With Yahoo out of the core search business with Bing handling the back-end of the project whereas Yahoo will take care of the front-end design, lots of users will expect Yahoo to focus even more on the content side of the business so it is undoubtedly true that Yahoo’s properties such as Yahoo! News and Media Group, Yahoo! Sports as well as Yahoo! Finance will get lots of investments and plenty of attention. Seeing as how Yahoo will be left in a vulnerable position as it stated it can no longer operate search by itself, I cannot help but wonder what will be Yahoo’s imminent future?  But with passion and new creations to further develop search user experience, it is highly likely that Yahoo will carry on playing a significant part in all of this.

As Microsoft’s Bing takes over Yahoo search, web developers who saw a great deal of traffic from Yahoo will find it useful to optimize their own sites for Bing. With Bing utilizing Yahoo’s database of profiles, analytics and behavioral targeting, Microsoft is going to close the gap between itself and Google which in turn should aid in core search improvements and facilitate advances on their personalization front as well. It is exciting to know that search technology will continue to develop and converge with other digital arenas such as mobile, platform gaming and other interesting areas that we have yet to envision.

It comes with InPrivate Browsing which is a feature many of the popular browsers have had for a long time before Microsoft included it in the IE8. The feature whereby cookies, history, passwords, objects and form data disappear once the browser is closed. That way you can browse the Net without saving your history on your own PC in case you ever need to shop for that special gift so your family would not accidentally find out or use a shared computer without worry and not leave a trace.

Microsoft also utilizes ‘Web Slices’ technology that takes Internet Explorer one step ahead of Firefox’s ‘Suggested Sites’ feature button. With Web Slices, this will automatically trace sites that may be related to the one you are viewing therefore keeping up with frequently updated sites directly from the Favorites Bar. If a Web Slice is available on a web page, a green Web Slices symbol will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the browser which you can then click to easily subscribe to and add them to the Favorites Bar.

Now what is a web developer without his/her tools? Microsoft claims they have “the most comprehensive developer tools built in” but compared to Firefox’s built-in Javascript console topped with their add-ons, Microsoft still has a long way to go. Sure the IETester “MyDebug” toolbar does have a number of good tools, but that has nothing to do with Microsoft as the toolbar is an entirely separate product. As both a web developer and avid user of all browsers, there is no browser out there better than Firefox in terms of customizability. Needless to say, it would be a long time until someone can beat Firefox in that area.

In the looks department try as it might, Microsoft just cannot seem to compete with the silky shades of Opera, the clear contrasts of Mozilla Firefox, or the smooth, cool and soft-hued graphics of Safari. The need to adapt one’s website to each browser is crucial for website development in the front and back-ends. Nothing worse than it working brilliantly on one browser and then not-so brilliantly on the other top four browsers. As a developer I work with all the browsers to ensure that each one of my websites is fully optimized with the features of every browser. A point to note for developers as well is how browsers fare on the Acid3 test. Compared to Safari 4 (which scored the full 100/100 on the test), all the other browsers were hugely inferior to Safari in their rendering capabilities. Although IE8 tests were poor, the standards built into IE8 are far better than IE7 and IE6.

It is true IE8 does account for a lot of the CSS 2.x standards that are available at the moment, however it also includes many IE-only features that makes it hard to utilize the standards.

Though IE 8 is noticeably faster than its predecessor IE7, according to tests run by Computerworld IE8 was 9.6 times faster using Google’s new Chrome Frame plug-in than IE8 on its own. Computerworld ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite three times each for IE8 with Chrome Frame, and IE8 without the plug-in, then averaged the scores. This did not make Microsoft a very happy camper in this category. Google’s Chrome Frame allows IE8 to utilize the Chrome’s browser’s WebKit rendering engine and its high-performance V8 JavaScript engine as well, thus making Chrome the fastest out of the top five Windows browsers by comfortable margins.

IE8’s SmartScreen Filter is their latest security feature that protects users against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise their data, identity and privacy.  To add to that in two studies recently conducted by NSS Labs funded by, wait for it, Microsoft, it was found that IE8 was discovered to be the safest web browser. The studies focused on socially engineered malware and phishing. NSS attributed this to “concerted efforts Microsoft is making in the SmartScreen technology.”

At the end of it all, it still boils down to personal preferences.  More than two-thirds of the world uses IE since it a standard browser with Microsoft’s OS and that does not seem to be changing in the near future. If you are one of them, that’s good news for you. I have to admit IE8 has made a massive leap forward for standards support but I cannot help but wonder how we will see IE8 in a year or two as Microsoft has been playing catch up with most of the other popular browsers for a long time. Though to help get the most out of your web experience, it is recommended that users of any IE version prior to IE8 should either upgrade to IE8 or switch to another browser in order to experience greatly increased speed, reduced security risks and many other benefits. Whichever browser you choose, you are assured a safer, faster and satisfying browsing experience than ever before. Suffice it to say as to which browser experience is the better out of all them that is best left to the users to decide and put a vote to.

Microsoft’s new search engine called Bing has been launched too early in my opinion. It has long way to go before it can even be considered as a serious search engine or even compete with Google. Bing has some serious problem with the search results if it cannot find a website’s url when the website has already been indexed.

To test the Bing search engine when it was launched in the beta phase I searched for Gauson.com in the search box. I knew that Microsoft’s Live search had some problem with finding the exact url address of some websites. Now that the Bing is no longer in beta phase the problem still persists. Microsoft may have changed the packaging and made few improvements but the verdict is that Bing needs many more changes in order to provide good relevant search results.

Microsoft may want to take few notes from Google where webmasters have control over the way the search engine indexes the website.

Design Websites for the Apple iphone

The Apple iPhone is part of a class of mobile phones called smartphones. It has an impressive battery lifespan and allows users to surf the Net even while on the go. Research has shown that the iphone is used nine times more than the next Smartphone which is the Windows mobile.

If you are a web designer like me, you may have started wondering what you can do to improve your website by not only making it look fantastic on PCs and laptops but also on mobiles too. With the iPhone’s display size of 480-by-320-pixel resolution, it takes a little bit more than designing your website to fit a smaller screen size.

Here are a few ideas to keep in mind when building your website:
• You can design web pages for wide-screen and Flash enabled browsers, however check that the important information is easy to see even on a small screen that cannot manage any special applications (such as Ajax, Flash, Javascript, cookies, etc.). Anything more than XHTML Basic will be more than what some mobile phones are able to handle.

• The iPhone automatically scales websites when necessary. Therefore, build web pages that have multiple thin columns instead of pages with one big column. If the content is narrower on a normal web page, the less the Web page will be scaled down to fit into its window.

• Try putting your content on multiple pages to make them easier to read as it can be hard to read huge sections of text on one page on your mobile phone.

• Images on a website often make websites look nicer when seen on a full screen. However, by keeping images small and optimized, users are much happier as they do not need to wait long for the images to be downloaded.

• Keep your links short as they may get annoying after a while if users are often visiting your website and need to type in long URLs.

Hope these tips help. Happy designing!!

Let’s start with Joomla first.

Joomla is designed to work well in shared hosting packages. The look of Joomla’s installer looks much the same like the installers used for common desktop software, as well as the administrative interface that content editors use. There are a small number of entry barriers when using Joomla and it should take little time for website developers to get familiar with the system. If you need extensions to cater for your website and that are not available at extensions.joomla.org, it would not be too expensive for you to get a programmer to design one for you as Joomla is written in PHP, which is a widely recognized script language specifically designed for website development.

Joomla can be a fantastic choice to build a professional website with lots of pages, content types such as events and news items and strong navigation. Unfortunately, it has limited functionality when it comes to dynamic content structures. One example is the website navigation is only allowed no more than two levels of hierarchy, and you can only link one page to another based on free-form page tags, rather than more accurate metadata and rules.
I have taken ideas from a few websites to help list the pros and cons of Joomla.

Pros of Joomla

• Easy deployment
• Large community of developers (more than Drupal) for helping with setup and development
• Multi-lingual. Translation and language support in modules. Works most of the time.
• More intuitive administration user interface
• Editing content is simple
• Lots of polished modules for things like calendars, polls, etc.
• Easy addition of modules. Good modules that works as advertised and have many options, supported by the authors, commercial or not. Lots and lots of modules, professional ones too. Modules for most everything.
• Versioning is available
• Most of the most popular modules and Joomla itself, is bug-free. Ok, there might be a few work-arounds needed, but you can mostly work around them, or maybe you just misunderstood something.
• There is SEF and SEO, alas not as good as Drupals, it works and you don’t need too many modules for something decent

Cons of Joomla

• 1 installation of the software gives you 1 website
• Modules cost you money
• Limited roles and permission allowances
• Categories can only go two levels deep
• Out-of-the-box blogging functionality is mediocre
• URLs are not search engine friendly (there is a purchasable module)

Ok let’s move on to Drupal. Now Drupal, like Joomla will work well in a shared hosting package. It is easy to get started like Joomla but it will not be as easy a set-up compared to Joomla but if you are technically savvy, you should not have too much trouble there.
Drupal has many great and extensive tools for content editors or developers to design websites without the hassles of going into the code and offers accessible standards-compliant pages. Its workflow makes it simple for developers that need multi-level approval processes. In addition to that, Drupal offers deeply integrated plug-ins for incorporating other specialist tools.

Pros of Drupal

• Easy deployment
• Editing tabs integrated into actual pages
• By far Drupal’s strongest feature is its category structure known as taxonomy. This is whereby Multiple levels of categories are allowed along with an easily integrated tagging system
• Modules are plentiful, free, and suitable for non-profits
• Human readable URLs which are search engine friendly
• 1 installation allows you to create and manage multiple websites (very handy when creating campaign sites)
• Highly configurable user permissions handling
• Editing content is simple as well
• Very flexible in its configuration
• Many high profile sites use Drupal (e.g.: MTV UK, BBC, the Onion, Nasa, Greenpeace UK, Kleercut )

Cons of Drupal

• Administration area is clunky, but it’s getting better with each version
• Support for the free modules can be frustrating
• Adding a visual theme to Drupal can be time consuming
• Terminology in the administration can be cryptic

So finally the decision comes down to which one will you choose? It really depends on your website. If you are looking for an easy to use content management system to manage your content, I would suggest Joomla. If it is a community building website where you require integrated and extensive tools, then go with Drupal.