Academic Web Blog

HTML5 has been receiving an extraordinary amount of attention, thanks in part to active support and promotion by Google, Apple, and Mozilla, among others. Despite its high profile, however, the HTML5 specification isn't even complete, much less officially blessed or broadly supported by browsers, and there are only a few pieces that are of immediate practical value.

Whensomeone clicks a link to an external site, should that link open in anew tab or browser window, or should it replace the contents of thecurrent browser window?

Choosing anemail service provider (ESP) can be a daunting task, given the largenumber of companies in this market and the subtle variations in theservices they offer. Pricing models also vary widely. It'sessential to start with a plan for what you expect to do.

Maintainingan email list of customers and prospects is perhaps the most fundamentalof Internet marketing techniques. Whether what is being sent is aperiodic newsletter, a series of tutorials, or customer updates, maintaining an emaillist is a fundamental technique.

If you'veever had to create HTML emails, I'm betting you found it to be a messyand confusing process. I know I have.

During thepast few days, there has been another batch of WordPress sites gettinghacked, this time with malicious code that redirects visitors to thesite to a fake virus scan page, which then tries to get the user todownload an "anti-virus" program that is, in fact, a virus.

Informationarchitecture is a big topic. However you are building sites, it'sessential to think deeply and clearly about how best to organize asite's content. If the site is a simple brochure site, then there maynot be much to think about, but the more content a site has, the moreimportant it is to invest effort in this area.

Perhaps thebiggest difference between designing for print and for the web is theopportunity to use interactivity. Sure, you can build your web pagesjust like printed pages that appear on screen, but if you do so you'releaving on the table some of the benefits the web has to offer. Interactivityin web pages is provided by JavaScript, the programming language thatruns in the browser.

Not that there wasmuch ambiguity in Apple's position on Flash and Adobe, but just in caseit wasn't crystal-clear to you, read Steve Jobs'Thoughts on Flash.

Readers ofbooks expect to find a table of contents and page numbers to help themnavigate. Viewers of web sites expect to find headers, footers, andpersistent navigation. If you don't provide it, you significantlyincrease the chances visitors will get lost, or frustrated, and give up.