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Responsive jQuery Content Slider – FlexSlider

Facebook-Web-Design — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:05:10 +0000

FlexSlider is a lightweight (4kb minified) jQuery content slider plugin that is fully responsive, works great in any resolution and adapts itself nicely.

It uses unordered lists, any HTML content can be placed inside each

and they will be converted into slides.

Items can be browsed with the help of navigation buttons, keyboard or an auto-slideshow feature.

There are built-in animations offered for the transitions: fade and slide. And, it is possible to define the slide + duration speeds.

FlexSlider also has some options to improve usability like "pausing on action" or pausing on hover".

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Keen On… David Allen: How to Get Things Done in America (TCTV)

BlogPoster — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:57:29 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write this post all week. But you know how things are – there is always something better to do, always something more fun, always one excuse or another to put it off. If you are like me and struggle to get things done, then David Allen might be your man. He’s the Mr-Getting-Things-Done of the self-help world, an efficiency guru with 1.3 million Twitter followers, best known for his classic 2002 book Getting Things Done, which still remains a best-seller.

Right now, America needs David Allen. So when he came into the TechCrunchTV studio, I asked him how America, and especially Washington DC, could learn to get things done. What he had to say – both about how to make our politics and personal lives more efficient – might surprise you. If there is one thing you manage to get done today, it should be watching David Allen.

How to get things done in America

Click here to test your GTD-Q

Getting things done as a system

Does the Internet help us get things done?

Why some cultures get things done better than other cultures

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DAVID ALLEN

Person:
DAVID ALLEN

Website:
http://www.davidco.com/

Companies

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jFontSize – Instant “Font Resize” Funtionality For Web Pages

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 04:30:10 +0000

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An option for resizing text is a very good way of helping visitors to read easier.

jFontSize is a jQuery plugin for integrating the popular "A+ and A- buttons with the functionality of resizing text" into web pages.

The buttons are actually inserted with standard HTML-CSS (so any type of buttons can be used) and the plugin controls the resize part.

It is possible to target a specific element (or the for the whole page) and the resizing will be applied only to the contents of that element.

Also, various options can be configured like the "max-min number of resizes" and "how many pixels each command will resize".

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

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Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
Psd to Xhtml
SSLmatic – Cheap SSL Certificates (from $19.99/year)

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Invite Your Friends To Google+ With New, Tweetable Link

BlogPoster — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 06:15:43 +0000

Google just made it easier for you to invite friends to its new social network, Google+, by providing a short link you can post on the web or share with others over instant messaging. In order to get the link, says Google product manager Shimrit Ben-Yair, you simply click the “invite friends” button on the right-hand side of the stream – the same place invites were found before.

This news was announced yesterday by Google engineer Balaji Srinivasan, but the functionality didn’t go live until last night.

With the new feature, you have the ability to invite 150 more people to the network.

Smart thinking, Google. Use Twitter to get more sign-ups! I like it.

I remember wasting hours on Twitter last month, handing out invites by manually (and painfully!) copying and pasting email addresses sent to me through @ replies or direct messages into the Google Plus invite form. This is so much easier. I can just tweet out a link and be done with it! I think I’ll do that right now, actually. And it looks like I’m not the only one, if this Twitter search is any indication.

There is one minor problem with the link, though – you have to shorten it yourself if you post to Twitter or you’ll end up with a mess like this. Why didn’t Google provide an automatically shortened link using its own URL shortening service Goo.gl? You know, the one it called the “stablest, most secure and fastest” URL shortener on the web? That seems like a missed opportunity indeed.

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GOOGLE+

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Invite Your Friends To Google+ With New, Tweetable Link

BlogPoster — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 06:15:24 +0000

This news was announced yesterday by Google engineer Balaji Srinivasan, but the functionality didn’t go live until last night.

With the new feature, you have the ability to invite 150 more people to the network.

Smart thinking, Google. Use Twitter to get more sign-ups! I like it.

Crunchbase

GOOGLE+

Product:
GOOGLE+

Website:
http://plus.google.com

Company

Learn more

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7 Ways to Get More Referrals for Your Web Design Business

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 02:47:29 +0000

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A long time ago, I heard one businessman ask another, "What can I do to help you out?"

The man thought for a moment, and then said, "The best thing you can do for me is refer someone else my way."

He was probably right. Because customers value the advice of people they know, referrals are often the best leads a business can get.

What’s the best way to get more referrals for your web design business? Here are seven strategies that have worked for me in the past.

1. Produce Better Work

It might sound simplistic and you might think that you’re already doing great work, but I can guarantee that if you actually spend some time today and dedicate yourself to getting better, then you will.

Better work means better results, and better results mean better clients.

If you want clients to rave about your work and spread the message far and wide, then you need to do work worth raving about.

2. Ask for Referrals

You would be surprised how often we miss opportunities simply because we don’t ask for them.

One solution that I have found to work well is to schedule "the ask" just like you would any other business activity. Develop a checklist of items that you complete for each project. These are important things that should occur with every project you take on — scheduling milestones, invoicing, etc. — and then add "asking for referrals" to the list.

Don’t make referrals a one-off task that you do when the mood is right. Always ask for them in an appropriate manner, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

3. Look for Buying Symptoms

One reason many people don’t get as many referrals as they would like is that they don’t know that they should be asking for them.

Knowing how to get referrals for your business starts with understanding how your potential customers talk.

For example, what do people say when they go to the chiropractor? "My back hurts" or "I have lower back pain," right? Those are the symptoms of someone who might buy from the chiropractor.

What are the symptoms of someone who might buy from you, a web designer? If you specialize in a certain type of client, what are those people saying before they get ready to buy?

Use the same phrases and words your clients will use, not industry jargon. If you know what potential clients say before they buy and how they say it, then you’ll be in a better position to find those people and ask for referrals.

4. Ask for Introductions, Not for Business

If there’s one thing that customers are cautious of, it’s desperation. If you seem desperate for business and willing to take on anyone, then the message you’re sending is that you must not be in high demand and/or aren’t very good at what you do.

You might be saying, "But wait, I thought you were supposed to ask for referrals?"

Yes, you are — and the best way to ask is to request for an introduction to someone new, not for someone who would buy from you right away.

5. Work in Exchange for Referrals

This may sound strange, but hear me out on this one.

Working for free and then getting a couple of excellent referrals out of the job can be a savvy move if you want to improve the type of clientele you work with. This is especially true if you are trying to get larger clients and you know one or two people who might be able to get you access to them.

There are two critical points to this strategy.

First, you can’t work for referrals all the time. Do it with well-connected clients once or twice, and you’ll be set. Referrals, after all, don’t pay the bills.

Secondly, there should be a clear understanding from the beginning that they are working with you in this capacity. They should know that they are expected to put you in touch with potential clients for the work you are doing.

6. Reframe Your Message and Enter New Areas of Business

Sometimes we focus so much on a specific niche that it feels like we know everyone in the industry and there just aren’t many more referrals to go around. If that’s the case, then it’s time to reach out to different customers.

For example, I just landed a referral recently because I branched out into a community that I hadn’t sampled before — freelance writers.

Don’t be afraid to stretch outside of your typical client base and ask if there are people you can help. It might be the perfect way to find another market that needs your services and generate a new stream of referrals.

7. Refer Other People Who Do Great Work

The strategy here is to build a network of professionals who refer each other’s services. For example, maybe you’re a UI designer and you know someone who’s great at Ruby on Rails and someone who’s great at PHP and someone who’s great at iOS app development.

Whenever it’s a good fit, you can refer a customer of yours to the appropriate person. In turn, a customer of theirs looking for a UI designer will be referred to you.

The result is that you extend your reach and have several people searching for new business instead of just one.

What about you? What are your best ways to get a referral? Share it with us in the comments.

About the Author

James Clear is the founder of Passive Panda, a site about earning more money, more time, and more freedom. Join Passive Panda’s Free Newsletter on Earning More to receive the 7-part Freelancing 101 Course and proven tips for earning more. Connect with Passive Panda on Facebook.

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IQTELL

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 02:36:15 +0000

IQTELL is a cloud-based platform to manage everything you need, including email, contacts, to-do lists, notes, documents, online shopping, bookmarks, projects, work and more. IQTELL provides you with your own virtual workspace which is securely accessible anywhere. Once you login to IQTELL, you are already logged into all of your email and have access to your important items all "under one roof". IQTELL is fully customizable and can be modified to perfectly fit your needs. Best of all, IQTELL is FREE.

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How To Develop Using HTML5: Demo Part 1

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:39:42 +0000

To really understand the new html5 semantic elements you need to use them in practice. To do that I’ve created a demo of a typical blog post page. I want to share that demo and do my best to explain why I chose to structure the page as I have.

Before getting to the explanation please know that I’m still sorting some of this out for myself. I’m not saying the way I set up the demo page is the right way or even the best way. It’s simply the way that seemed most appropriate to me as I developed the page.

Even as I coded the demo I could think of other possible ways to structure it and at times felt a sense of confusion over which element made the most sense to use.

Here’s the demo page, which you may want to refer to as you’re reading through this post. All the images in the post are also links to the demo.

Note: Because there’s a lot to cover I’ve split this post in two and will publish the second part on Thursday.

The Layout

To keep things simple I opted to create a 2 column fixed-width and centered layout that will likely look familiar. If you look at the demo or the image above you’ll note it includes the usual basics for a blog post.

header
content area
sidebar
footer

Note: The image above is a cropped version of the demo page. I cut out most of the middle in order to make the image small enough to fit here.

HTML5 Boilerplate

There’s not a lot to see here with the basic shell. Naturally I’m using the new html5 doctype. I’ve also defined the language as English and also defined the character set.

I’ve also included the html5shiv script for IE8 and below with a conditional comment.


"en">

"utf-8">
"description" content="Demo for a typical blog post coded using new html5 semantic elements" />
</span>HTML5 Structural Semantics<span>
< link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" >

I purposely kept the shell simple since I was mainly concerned with the new structural elements. There’s more you might want to and probably should include and I’ll refer you to the html5 boilerplate site for more and better information.

Additional Resources

Below are a few sources for html5 boilerplate code.

The Presentation

Most of the css was added in a quick and dirty manner. It’s there to make the demo presentable and also to test how the page looks in older versions of Internet Explorer. It’s hardly the best code or all that interesting where this demo is concerned.

The one bit that’s most relevant for our current purpose is at the top of the page.

section, article, header, footer, nav, aside, hgroup {
	display: block;
}

If you remember we needed this code since our new elements have no default styles in some browsers.

Above: The demo as viewed in Internet Explorer 9 on Windows Vista

The High Level HTML5 Structure

Let’s get to the good stuff. I wrapped everything inside the body with a wrapper div, which I used to set the width of the page and center it.

I chose to stick with a div here instead of using a section because the container is only meant for presentation. A section tag would indicate the content inside is related. Since different kinds of content will be inside, a div seems most appropriate.

"wrapper">
	everything else here

Inside the wrapper the high level page structure is as follows:

"wrapper">
	"masthead" role="banner">
	"content">
	"primary">
	"footer">
	"contentinfo" role="contentinfo">

The structure contains 3 of the new elements, probably where you’d expect them to be. The header element contains the logo, tagline, and navigation. The aside contains the rss and category information, and the footer contains the designed by credit and copyright.

The information just above the copyright may seem to make sense as a footer or at least a section, but if you look at the content, it isn’t really related. There are 3 distinct sections of content, hence the use of a div to enclose it all.

The post itself, the meta information, and the comments are all inside a content div. I’ll show the details next time, but directly inside this div is an article tag which also wraps everything

"content">
	"post">
		post, meta, comments here

I could have left out the content div and moved it’s styles to the article, but I included both to allow for the possibility of other content like a trail of breadcrumb links. Those links might fall inside the div, but wouldn’t be part of the article.

You may have noticed that both the header and footer contain the role attribute. Roles exist for assisted technologies. While I’ve included roles in the demo I’ll hold off talking about them in this post and save the talk for another post where I can give it the attention it deserves.

Let’s continue by looking inside the 5 structural containers inside our wrapper div.

Header

The header element is fairly easy to understand and use. What you’ve been marking up till now as div id=”header” (or similar) you’ll now markup with the header element instead.

One adjustment with headers is that you can and likely will use more than one header in a document. (We’ll see this when we explore the other containers). Because we can have multiple headers it makes sense to give this one an id or class.

	"masthead" role="banner">
		"bar">
		"">"logo" src="" alt="" />
		
			html5 Web Design
			Building your website for the future
		
		"navigation">
			"main-nav">
				"" title="">Home
				"" title="">About
				"" title="">Blog
				"" title="">Contact

Immediately inside is a div, which I used to create the thin black bar across the top. Since its only function is presentational a div seemed most appropriate. Next I’ve added a logo, which should look exactly as you’d expect.

I included both the site title and tagline as headings inside an hgroup. Currently I wouldn’t use headings for either, but I wanted to give hgroup a spin. In the future I think this will be the common practice.

Our main navigation is inside the header and as you would expect it’s marked up using the new nav element. Again I’ve added a role. Otherwise it should look as you would expect main navigation to be coded.

Aside

Let’s move to the right and the aside before getting to the content as the aside is a bit simpler.

Remember an aside is meant for tangential content. While the content here is certainly useful it could easily be removed without affecting the main content on the page.

The class name is arbitrary. There are other asides in the document and I decided this was the primary aside, hence the choice.

	"primary">
		"rss">
			"">"images/rss-24x24.png" alt="" /> Subscribe
		
		
			Categories
			
				"">CSS
				"">Web Design
				"">WordPress
				"">Blogging
				"">SEO

Finally a section tag. Here we simply have some text and an image wrapped in a link that points to the feed. Clearly related stuff.

On a real page you might also include a subscriber count and an option to subscribe via email. Both would be related to the link we have here so again a section is the most appropriate.

Below the rss section is another nav element. Nav isn’t meant for every occurrence of a group of links, but because this is sub-navigation for the blog that would likely be included on multiple pages, it made sense to code it with the nav element.

You’ll notice the h3 inside the nav. Admittedly I wasn’t consistent in my use of hx tags in this demo. In some places I use h1s relying on an outline algorithm I know doesn’t work in most browsers and in other places I kept track of the hierarchy myself.

I also didn’t include a header inside. I could have wrapped the h3 like so.


	Categories

This was a gut call. As html5 becomes the de facto way to develop pages and sites I suspect most every hx tag will fall inside a header element. However it was hard to see any advantage to adding it here.

This is one of those places where I can’t say whether or not what I’ve done is the best practice. I think the html5 spec wants me to use header tags here, but again I didn’t see an advantage.

Let’s stop here and continue next time with the main content div.

Above: The demo as viewed in Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP

Summary

Like I said at the top you really need to use the new elements in practice to understand them. Their definitions are relatively easy to grasp, but once coding you’ll be faced with some less than clear choices.

Over time I suspect we’ll have plenty of best practices to guide us. At the moment we’re mostly on our own to figure out when to use div, section, and article or whether or not we should include a header inside a section.

I’ll pick up where we left off next time, though of course the demo will still be there if you want to poke through my code and see how I set the page up. Again I’ll remind you my code isn’t necessarily right or the best. It’s simply what made the most sense to me as I developed the demo page.

Like many I’m still working much of this out for myself. Hopefully sharing my thoughts will help make it easier for you to work it out.

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Telus Announces The Upcoming Availability Of The 4G Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 [Telus Announces The 4G Galaxy Tab 10.1, Keeps The Price A Mystery & Notes The Arrival As "Coming Soon"]

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:06:53 +0000

It looks like we have a bit of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 related news this morning. First, the reminder, the 4G LTE capable Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is available with Verizon here in the US as of today. But moving up across the border and into Canada and we have some news for those who are Telus customers — the tablet has been moved into the “coming soon” phase.

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Original Post: Telus Announces The Upcoming Availability Of The 4G Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 [Telus Announces The 4G Galaxy Tab 10.1, Keeps The Price A Mystery & Notes The Arrival As "Coming Soon"]

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Fully Understanding the this Keyword

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:56:12 +0000

Today’s tutorial comes courtesy of the extremely talented Cody Lindley, from his latest book: JavaScript Enlightenment. He discusses the confusing this keyword, and the various ways to determine and set its value.

Conceptual Overview of `this`

When a function is created, a keyword called this is created (behind the scenes), which links to the object in which the function operates. Said another way, this is available to the scope of its function, yet is a reference to the object of which that function is a property/method.

Let’s take a look at this object:

Notice how inside of the getGender function, we are accessing the gender property using dot notation (e.g cody.gender) on the cody object itself. This can be rewritten using this to access the cody object because this points to the cody object.

The this used in this.gender simply refers to the cody object on which the function is
operating.

The topic of this can be confusing, but it does not have to be. Just remember that, in general, this is used inside of functions to refer to the object the function is contained within, as opposed to the function itself (exceptions include using the new keyword or call() and apply()).

Important Notes

The keyword this looks and acts like any other variable, except you can’t modify it.
– As opposed to arguments and any parameters sent to the function, this is a keyword (not a property) in the call/activation object.

How is the Value of `this` Determined?

The value of this, passed to all functions, is based on the context in which the function is called at runtime. Pay attention here, because this is one of those quirks you just need to memorize.

The myObject object in the code below is given a property called sayFoo, which points to the sayFoo function. When the sayFoo function is called from the global scope, this refers to the window object. When it is called as a method of myObject, this refers to myObject.

Since myObject has a property named foo, that property is used.

Clearly, the value of this is based on the context in which the function is being called. Consider that both myObject.sayFoo and sayFoo point to the same function. However, depending upon where (i.e. the context) sayFoo() is called from, the value of this is different.

If it helps, here is the same code with the head object (i.e window) explicitly used.

Make sure that as you pass around functions, or have multiple references to a function, you realize that the value of this will change depending upon the context in which you call the function.

Important Note

All variables except this and arguments follow lexical scope.

The `this` Keyword Refers to the Head Object in Nested Functions

You might be wondering what happens to this when it is used inside of a function that is contained inside of another function. The bad news is in ECMA 3, this loses its way and refers to the head object (window object in browsers), instead of the object within which the function is defined.

In the code below, this inside of func2 and func3 loses its way and refers not to myObject but instead to the head object.

The good news is that this will be fixed in ECMAScript 5. For now, you should be aware of this predicament, especially when you start passing functions around as values to other functions.

Consider the code below and what happens when passing an anonymous function to foo.func1. When the anonymous function is called inside of foo.func1 (a function inside of a function) the this value inside of the anonymous function will be a reference to the head object.

Now you will never forget: the this value will always be a reference to the head object when its host function is encapsulated inside of another function or invoked within the context of another function (again, this is fixed in ECMAScript 5).

Working Around the Nested Function Issue

So that the this value does not get lost, you can simply use the scope chain to keep a reference to this in the parent function. The code below demonstrates how, using a variable called that, and leveraging its scope, we can keep better track of function context.

Controlling the Value of `this`

The value of this is normally determined from the context in which a function is called (except when the new keyword is used – more about that in a minute), but you can overwrite/control the value of this using apply() or call() to define what object this points to when invoking a function. Using these methods is like saying: “Hey, call X function but tell the function to use Z object as the value for this.” By doing so, the default way in which JavaScript determines the value of this is overridden.

Below, we create an object and a function. We then invoke the function via call() so that the value of this inside the function uses myObject as its context. The statements inside the myFunction function will then populate myObject with properties instead of populating the head object. We have altered the object to which this (inside of myFunction) refers.

In the example above, we are using call(), but apply() could be used as well. The difference between the two is how the parameters for the function are passed. Using call(), the parameters are just comma separated values. Using apply(), the parameter values are passed inside of an array. Below, is the same idea, but using apply().

What you need to take away here is that you can override the default way in which JavaScript determines the value of this in a function’s scope.

Using the `this` Keyword Inside a User-Defined Constructor Function

When a function is invoked with the new keyword, the value of this — as it’s stated in the constructor — refers to the instance itself. Said another way: in the constructor function, we can leverage the object via this before the object is actually created. In this case, the default value of this changes in a way not unlike using call() or apply().

Below, we set up a Person constructor function that uses this to reference an object being created. When an instance of Person is created, this.name will reference the newly created object and place a property called name in the new object with a value from the parameter (name) passed to the constructor function.

Again, this refers to the “object that is to be” when the constructor function is invoked using the new keyword. Had we not used the new keyword, the value of this would be the context in which Person is invoked — in this case the head object. Let’s examine this scenario.

The Keyword `this` Inside a Prototype Method Refers to a Constructor instance

When used in functions added to a constructor’s prototype property, this refers to the instance on which the method is invoked. Say we have a custom Person() constructor function. As a parameter, it requires the person’s full name. In case we need to access the full name of the person, we add a whatIsMyFullName method to the Person.prototype, so that all Person instances inherit the method. When using this, the method can refer to the instance invoking it (and thus its properties).

Here I demonstrate the creation of two Person objects (cody and lisa) and the inherited whatIsMyFullName method that contains the this keyword to access the instance.

The take away here is that the keyword this is used to refer to instances when used inside of a method contained in the prototype object. If the instance does not contain the property, the prototype lookup begins.

Notes

- If the instance or the object pointed to by this does not contain the property being referenced, the same rules that apply to any property lookup get applied and the property will be “looked up” on the prototype chain. So in our example, if the fullName property was not contained within our instance then fullName would be looked for at Person.prototype.fullName then Object.prototype.fullName.

Buy the Book!

This book is not about JavaScript design patterns or implementing an object-oriented paradigm with JavaScript code. It was not written to distinguish the good features of the JavaScript language from the bad. It is not meant to be a complete reference guide. It is not targeted at people new to programming or those completely new to JavaScript. Nor is this a cookbook of JavaScript recipes. Those books have been written.

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Daily Inspiration #882

Web-Design — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:06:33 +0000

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo.

If possible use the HTML code:

Do you want to see all images from all Daily Inspirations? Check out http://daily.abduzeedo.com

365days

Adam

admin_tutorialstorage

alex tass

Altaf

Best Bookmarks

Coolvibe

cuded

David Fréchou

Email Inspiration

Fabiano

Fabio

fantasyinspiration

Feature Me

Gisele

HdK

Jiddy

marco puccini

Meng To

nagiViTy

thaeger

Visions Paradox

Wobo

Via Twitter

Send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo using #abdz in the end of the tweet.

@andaurstudios

@letmebeinspired

About the author

I’m from Brazil, co-founder of Zee with Fabio. Nowadays I like to play with Fireworks, Photoshop and improve my skills in CSS. If you wanna request some posts, please feel free to contact me or follow on Twitter.

Choose an Irrelevant Skill When Asked "What Are Your Weaknesses?" in a Job Interview [Job Interview]

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:22:22 +0000

Here’s their example: More »

&partnerID=167&key=segment" /> .5734,cat.TechBiz
.rss" />

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Choose an Irrelevant Skill When Asked "What Are Your Weaknesses?" in a Job Interview [Job Interview]

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:21:28 +0000

Here’s their example: More »

&partnerID=167&key=segment" /> .5734,cat.TechBiz
.rss" />

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Choose an Irrelevant Skill When Asked "What Are Your Weaknesses?" in a Job Interview [Job Interview]

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:21:23 +0000

Here’s their example: More »

&partnerID=167&key=segment" /> .5734,cat.TechBiz
.rss" />

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Mailnesia

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:35:06 +0000

Mailnesia is like other webmail services, but there is no registration or password here. You only need a user name to read messages. What is that good for? Certainly not for private letters, but mainly for website registrations, where you don’t want to expose your real email address.No setup, just send mail to any @MailNesia.com address. Useful if you don’t want to expose your real email address, for example at a website signup. It "clicks" on registration links in the email, completing your account validation at once.Avoid SPAM, unsolicited commercial email and newsletters by using a mailnesia.com email address on websites, guestbooks, forums, when writing comments or whenever an email address is needed. Share your real email address only with people you know and trust.

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Groovor

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:41:09 +0000

"Groovor is an entertaining internet service that enables users to view and rate people achievements as well as tell about things that make their life unusual". Millions of people with their own unique history are around us every day. All of them are forced to move forward by the purposes and problems, which are the integral components of today’s life. The chain of achievements – that is the best biography of the modern person.

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Vidergy

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:40:32 +0000

Vidergy fixes the pain of video overload by being the "Pandora of YouTube videos."

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"Fish Don’t Know They’re in Water" [Quotables]

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:57:50 +0000

&partnerID=167&key=segment" /> .5734,cat.TechBiz
.rss" />

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"Fish Don’t Know They’re in Water" [Quotables]

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:57:00 +0000

&partnerID=167&key=segment" /> .5734,cat.TechBiz
.rss" />

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How to Embed Retweetable Tweets on your Site Using Twitter Web Intents

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:35:10 +0000

This is something I’ve been struggling with for the last couple of days, and I’ve finally got it working (sort of).

The Aim

The aim here is to embed the most recent tweet from our Twitter account in our sidebar, and enable visitors to retweet, reply, or favourite that tweet, directly from this site.

At time of writing, it is working and looks like this:

Our lastest tweet, with Retweet, Reply and Favourite buttons

The Solution

I had seen this kind of thing at the top of Yoast.com before, and recently Joost posted about Twitter’s new Web Intents, which provide the functionality for the retweets etc.

However, as I noted in my comment, there was no mention of how to embed the latest tweet, or how to get the tweet ID from that tweet into the URLs for the Web Intent buttons. So I had to do some Googling.

I found a ton of posts very similar to Joost’s, outlining the general usage of Web Intents, but no explanation of how to integrate this with embedding the latest tweet.

So I had to try and figure it out myself. Not being a developer, this was no easy task.

I found a method for embedding your latest tweet, many thanks to Kristarella. This worked fine for displaying the tweet, but I still needed to get the ID of the tweet to use in the Web Intent links.

This is where I had to get my hands dirty. I made a copy of the blogger.js script, and made some changes to the twitterCallback2 function as follows:

Select All Code:

function twitterCallback2(twitters) {
  var statusHTML = [];
  var linksHTML = [];
  for (var i=0; i<twitters.length; i++){
    var username = twitters[i].user.screen_name;
    var myID = twitters[i].id_str;
    var status = twitters[i].text.replace(/((https?|s?ftp|ssh)\:\/\/[^"\s\<\>]*[^.,;'">\:\s\<\>\)\]\!])/g, function(url) {
      return ''+url+'';
    }).replace(/\B@([_a-z0-9]+)/ig, function(reply) {
      return  reply.charAt(0)+''+reply.substring(1)+'';
    });
    statusHTML.push(''+status+' '+relative_time(twitters[i].created_at)+'
');
    linksHTML.push('RetweetReplyFavourite');
  }
  document.getElementById('twitter_update_list').innerHTML = statusHTML.join('');
  document.getElementById('tweet-links').innerHTML = linksHTML.join('');
}

What I’ve done here is set a variable myID = twitters[i].id_str; which returns the unique ID of the tweet.

I’ve then used this to set the tweet_id parameters in the Web Intent links, which I have stored in the linksHTML variable.

Finally I’ve output the Web Intent links, with their newly found tweet IDs, to a placeholder

And hooray! It works! … Almost.

The Problem

The problem was discovered when I retweeted someone else’s tweet, and then refreshed our homepage. The tweet and its buttons disappeared.

The tweet and buttons disappeared

Some more time on Google, and I discovered that the json feed I’m using as per Kristarella’s method, does not support retweets. So if the latest tweet is a retweet, nothing will be displayed. Rubbish!

Back to the Drawing Board

I found a promising looking post on maraboustork.co.uk, which demonstrated how to use Twitter’s atom feed instead, which supports retweets, and then convert that into a json object for output. They even have a WordPress plugin for it!

I spent some time implementing this method only to find that when you use the atom feed, the tweet ID is not available, so this method would not be compatible with the Web Intent buttons after all.

Help Wanted

So I switched back to the original json method, and that’s where I am right now. The integration is working at the moment, because our last tweet was not a retweet. But as soon as we post a retweet, the latest tweet will disappear, leaving only the username link (which is hardcoded).

I can live with that for now, but it’s not ideal, so I’m appealing to our readers to help me out on this one. As I said I’m not a developer, so I don’t know if the code changes I made above are the right way, or even a particularly good way to go about this.

If you can help me out, you will receive much praise and kudos from me, and your solution will be published here forever more to help out anyone else in the same boat (I have already come across quite a few).

Thanks in advance!

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Logo Design: Ice Cream and Popsicles

Web-Design — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:25:27 +0000

The Logo Design series is up and running! We’re thinking ahead and we want to find new ways to sort these listings. Last week we had a post on logos with elephants… today it’s all about logos with ice cream and popsicles!

As usual, we’ll search for logos in these galleries: Logopond, Logo Faves, Logo Moose, Logo from Dreams, Logo Gala, WS Logos, The Logo Mix and Wolda. We hope you all enjoy our selection! Cheers.

About the author

Hello, everyone! I’m Paulo Gabriel, a 26 year old designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil. I have worked as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you… and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

[Freebie] "Educons" Icon Set (PSD included)

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:37:02 +0000

To continue our grateful thanks to our readers and community in general, we are glad to release yet another freebie: Educons, an icon set with 15 quality educational related icons. These icons come in PNG format in 2 different sizes 128×128 and 64×64 pixels along with layered Photoshop PSD file of each icon.

These icons are designed by GraphicsFuel.com exclusively for Hongkiat readers, and are delivered in both Photoshop and PNG formats.

All icons are free and you can download, edit and use them for your individual or commercial projects. You should not host the downloaded source files on your server and redistribute them as your own either in part or whole. If you like the icons, do consider sharing it with a retweet or a Facebook like

Hope you enjoy this icon set!

Download

Download "Educons" (PSD + PNG)
Download "Educons" (PNG)

More: Click here for more Hongkiat.com exclusive freebies.

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Ideal Mealz

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:56:12 +0000

Ideal Mealz enables you to prepare chef quality, delicious, healthy, home-made meals right in your kitchen. We offer a convenient solution to that ever present question at the end of the day: "What’s for dinner?" Ideal Mealz provides you with the recipe, the grocery list, as well as the preparation and cooking instructions to make up to a month’s worth of meals in just a few short hours. Ideal Mealz was created by a Personal Chef that prepares gourmet take away meals for busy families, elderly clients, singles, empty nesters, and those looking for healthy alternatives to chain restaurants.. We take those same great meals and adapt them for you to make at home. We do the recipe development, grocery list preparation, and provide both video and written cooking instruction for you. You devote an afternoon a month and a few minutes each night to cook. Not a bad investment of time to have a month’s menu of dinners at your fingertips.

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Innovageek

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:55:07 +0000

InnovaGeek freely offers the opportunity to publish "teasers of technologies and innovations" available worldwide on its website and mobile application. The goal is to increase the technology visibility for free to help innovators to find partners, new customers or new markets or selling patents.

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PHP-Driven CSS Preprocessor – PCSS

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:45:12 +0000

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PCSS is a PHP(5) library that allows us to write CSS(3) code with a simpler + shorter syntax and brings awesome features like server-side browser specifics, class nesting, default unit and variables.

As the CSS is preprocessed on the server-side, every designer's dream: "dynamic CSS" comes true and variables can be used easily.

The rules being processed on the server-side also helps avoiding redundant commands (like many "-webkit", "-moz", etc.) as only the rules needed for the browser will be generated.

Using the library, we can set a default image directory and default unit (em or px) to prevent rewriting them again and again.

There are also shortcuts provided for @font-face usage and nesting of CSS rules.

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

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JavaScript Library For Guiding Users: Guiders.js

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:40:05 +0000

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For any website/web application that expects an action from its visitors (like "filling a form" or "making a selection") or help them browse the way required, offering an online guide can be a good idea.

Guiders.js, a JavaScript library developed and used by the popular A/B testing service Optimizely, is recently open sourced and enables us to create flexible guiders.

The guiders are in the form of a dialog box, they can be attached to an element or centered on their own and positioned however we want.

Custom event handlers can be used to hide and show guiders. This makes interactively showing the user how to use your software by having them complete steps possible.

It requires jQuery and very easy to setup by simply creating the list of guiders, ordering them and attaching the events we want to each.

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

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Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
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ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, June 18, 2011

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:34:56 +0000

We’re always on the lookout for upcoming Web tech events from around world. Know of something taking place that should appear here? Want to get your event included in the calendar? Let us know in the comments below or email us.

Sponsor

Discuss

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ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, June 18, 2011

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:34:28 +0000

Sponsor

Discuss

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Pegby

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:06:21 +0000

Pegby is the new browser-based productivity app that emulates "pegging" cards onto a constantly updating board. Make plans and list "to-dos" with the ability to customize according to taste. Share all your data seamlessly and in realtime.

Pegby is extremely intuitive to set-up and fun to use, yet scalable to manage even the most robust projects.

*Currently in open beta…Pegby is FREE for everyone.

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Daily Inspiration #846

Web-Design — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:34:05 +0000

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo.

If possible use the HTML code:

Do you want to see all images from all Daily Inspirations? Check out http://daily.abduzeedo.com

Adam

alex tass

Best Bookmarks

B.Romain

CristianValverde

cuded

fantasyinspiration

Feature Me

Flyerfolio

HdK

Hysterical Minds sent

Joseph

Meng To

Reznor

ruedi

Also, send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo using #abdz in the end of the tweet.

About the author

Flash-Like Animations With JavaScript – Mashi

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:15:06 +0000

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Mashi is an open source JavaScript toolkit for creating timeline-based, Flash-like movies and complex animations using HTML, CSS + JS.

It is standalone, modular, object-oriented and lightweight. Additional plugins are only required for advanced usage.

In contrast to other animation tools, Mashi uses a scene-based timeline. So you are not limited to a timeline divided into dozens of equal frames per second but you can split your timeline into self-contained and independent scenes at will.

The toolkit has an automated preloader which loads images used in advance for a better user experience.

Mashi has a "controls" module which provides buttons like "play" and "pause" with their logics and it works in all major browsers including mobile and tablet.

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

Advertisements:
Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
Psd to Xhtml
SSLmatic – Cheap SSL Certificates (from $19.99/year)

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Flvrd

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:10:18 +0000

Flvrd (pronounced as flavored) is a place where flavors meet visuals. Flvrd lets you share and explore interesting pictures or videos through flavors. It is fun to stumble upon and share interesting pictures or videos on the Internet – be it a picture of a cat rolled over or a video of Rebecca Black’s new hit song. But how to make them easily discoverable by people that have similar taste? Let’s get Flvrd! At Flvrd, it’s all about taste. We want people to easily find pictures and videos they like, based on their tastes. Flvrd categorize pictures and videos based on "flavors". These flavors represent the tastes (feelings, characters, expressions and emotions) of the pictures and videos.

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bedmap

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 22 May 2011 18:05:58 +0000

Bedmap is an interactive map-based tool for hotel search. We aim to make it painless and even "easy" to search by location, sort by feature (free wireless anyone?), and compare and book instantly.

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Humans.txt – Let The Users Know Who Built That Website

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:40:16 +0000

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We all know robots.txt, the text file that is uploaded to the root folder of websites and helps us communicate with the search engine bots for telling them which pages to not to index.

What if we want to communicate with humans and tell them who built the website? There is usually not a suitable space for this in websites and visitors may not be interested in seeing such an information inside "about" pages (in most cases).

This is where Humans.txt, which is an initiative for knowing the people behind a website, comes in.

Just like robots.txt, you upload a humans.txt file to the root folder of the website and can mention every detail that "careful eyes" would be interested in learning about the team behind, the designers, developers, copywriters, etc.

It won't be wrong to expect it getting popular as some big guys like Google or Flickr already have it. And, WRD has it too : ).

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

Advertisements:
Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
Psd to Xhtml
SSLmatic – Cheap SSL Certificates (from $19.99/year)

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Ruby for Newbies: The Tilt Gem

Facebook-Web-Design — Mon, 16 May 2011 02:56:17 +0000

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Ruby is a one of the most popular languages used on the web. We’ve started a new Session here on Nettuts+ that will introduce you to Ruby, as well as the great frameworks and tools that go along with Ruby development. In this episode, we’ll be looking at Tilt, an all-inclusive wrapper gem for Ruby template engines.

Video Tutorial

Subscribe to our YouTube and Blip.tv channels to watch more screencasts.

Rendering Templates

If you’ve used a Ruby web framework—like Rails and Sinatra—you’re probably familiar with at least one of the many template engines available: I’m about about options like ERB or Haml. When using them in the context of a framework, it’s pretty simple … but sometimes they seem very embedded; what if you want to use them in your own project? Is there an easy way to harness their usefulness?

Enter the Tilt gem. Billed as a “thin interface over a bunch of different Ruby template engines,” you’ll find it makes rendering templates a breeze.

Of course, we’ll install it first.

gem install tilt

If you’re not using RVM (which you should be), you might have to run that with root privileges (sudo).

Of course, you’ll need to start with a template to render. We’ll keep it simple:




    
    <%= title %>


    A few of the Tuts+ Sites
    
    <% sites.each do |name, link| %>
         <%= name %>
    <% end %>

Save this to tutsplus.erb. Notice that the title text will be inserted with Ruby, as well as the list of sites. Now, let’s render it. We’ll do it this way (save this in using_tilt.rb):

require 'tilt'

sites = {
    "Nettuts+" => "http://net.tutsplus.com",
    "Psdtuts+" => "http://psd.tutsplus.com",
    "Mobiletuts+" => "http://mobile.tutplus.com",
    "Audiotuts+"  => "http://audio.tutsplus.com" }

context = Object.new
def context.title
    "Tuts+ Sites"
end

template = Tilt::ERBTemplate.new("tutsplus.erb")

File.open "sites.html", "w" do |file|
    file.write template.render(context, sites: sites )
end

Of course, we start by requiring Tilt. Then, we create our data for the template: a simple hash, as well as a plain vanilla object. We give the object one property: title. Then, we create our template object. Here, we’re creating an instance of the Tilt::ERBTemplate class but the whole point of Tilt is that you can use whatever template engine you want: for example, you could use the Tilt::HamlTemplate, Tilt::SassTempalte (for CSS), Tilt::CoffeScriptTemplate (for CoffeeScript), or whatever supported template engine you want However, it’s important to note that Tilt is just a wrapper: you need to require the appropriate library for the template engine you want to use. So, if you want to use a Tilt::HamlTemplate instance, you need to require 'haml'. You can see what libraries are required for each template engine in the Readme.

Finally, we open the file we want to write the output to. The HTML (or CSS, or JavaScript, depending on the template and engine you’re using) will be returned from the render method of the template object. The render method takes two parameters. The first is a context object: all the properties of this object will be available as variable within the template. So, our context.title property will be available as just title within the template. If there are any other values you want to pass into the template, pass them as part of the second parameter, which is a hash.

So, we can run this script on the command line:

ruby using_tilt.rb

Now, look in the directory that you’ve been saving these files in: you should see a sites.html file. If you view it, you’ll find that the template has been rendered:

Yielding for More Power

You can do more complex things with Tilt if you pass a block to the render method.

Tilt::ERBTemplate('other.erb').render(context, other_params) {
    "some text"
}

Inside your template, you can yield to the block; whatever is returned from the block will be inserted at that point in the template.

While you can, of course, just pass a string via the block, as above, there’s a more interesting use case. Recently, I’ve been using this functionality in Tilt to embed a page-specific template inside a site-wide shell. For example, we can split our above template into two files:

layout.erb




    
    <%= title %>


    <%= yield %>

sites.erb

A few of the Tuts+ Sites

<% sites.each do |name, link| %>
     <%= name %>
<% end %>

Now, to render our page, we can do this:

template = Tilt::ERBTemplate.new("layout.erb")

File.open "sites.html" do |file|
    file.write template.render(context) {
        Tilt::ERBTemplate.new("sites.erb").render(Object.new, sites: sites)
    }
end

Notice that since we didn’t have any object we wanted to use as the context object, we just passed a plain vanilla blank Ruby object. The HTML that is returned from the rendering of sites.erb will be inserted where the yield keyword is. If you run the above code, you should see the same output as before.

Using Other Options

You’ll notice that, up until now, we’ve had to choose the template engine we want to use when creating the Tilt subclass object. However, Tilt will recognise the file extension of the template you pass it, so you don’t have to explicitly choose an engine: it will pick the right one, based on the file extension:

t = Tilt.new "tutsplus.erb"

t.class # => Tilt::ERBTemplate

If, for some reason, your templates have a file extension that’s not what Tilt would expect, you can register that:

Tilt.register Tilt::ERBTemplate, "some_extension"

t = Tilt.new "my_template.some_extension"

t.class # => Tilt::ERBTemplate

Finding out More

There are a few more niche things that Tilt can do; if you’re interested in finding out more, I recommend you check out the documentation.

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GoWorkIt

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:35:37 +0000

GoWorkIt is a fun and instant service that allows anyone to work at just about anything. GoWorkIt is also an amazing tool that enables employers to find high quality workers "On the spot". GoWorkIt is a fun and instant service that allows anyone to work at just about anything. GoWorkIt is also an amazing tool that enables employers to find high quality workers "On the spot".

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246countries

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:21:21 +0000

246countries is a platform to trade virtual country ownerships online. The aim of "246countries" is to create a lasting homage to the nations in all the different countries on earth. 246 countries (including even overseas territories and collectivities) are shown on an interactive satellite map and are initially blanked out. Each country can be bought by a sponsor as a sign of his esteem for this country.

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Revview

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:51:06 +0000

Revview is a social networking service for movie fans. It lets you post movie reviews in a simple and unobtrusive way. You can also make plans to see movies with your friends and followers.

In a way, Revview can be described as "Twitter for movie reviews". It aims to make movie reviews less formal and fun. Using Revview, writing a movie review is almost as simple as posting a tweet or a Facebook status update.

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Five Social Media Mistakes That Suck

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 07 May 2011 07:46:39 +0000

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Along with all the excitement over the potential power of social media, a handful of common bad strategies and decisions have begun to pop up.

These aren’t just small issues, either. Several of them are serious enough to critically damage your overall social media efforts, and could even stop your program dead in its tracks. I’ve seen several of these terrible mistakes appear repeatedly across companies of all sizes.

Shining a light on these common social media missteps will help you (or your clients) avoid the same mistakes.

1. The "Shoot First, Then Aim" Mentality

It’s amazing that there are still many companies and organizations who launch their social media presence without first establishing a clear purpose and goal for it. Who are they targeting? What’s the ideal outcome? These, and most other basic questions that must be identified and answered, are left ignored.

I’ve witnessed Facebook pages that grow to tens of thousands of Likes based completely on the strength of a brand. It’s only a matter of time before your fans realize that the overall strategy is missing and call you on it. Updates are sporadic, the information shared is not exclusive, and questions go unanswered.

I believe one of the best ways to view your social media presence is this: Think of it as a small town/city. If you had a town of 10,000 or 100,000 citizens, do you think it could run effectively without some sort of governance and leadership?

If you hope to have an effective presence, start with this in mind and be sure you know how you (and who) will govern it.

2. Using the "If You Build It, They Will Come" Strategy

There are Facebook pages and Twitter accounts that catch fire with little promotion. These are edge cases; perhaps it’s a big, recognizable brand or a celebrity that already has a big following offline.

It’s more common to see the opposite: A social media presence that’s launched with no marketing and no existent fan base. Much like the early days of forums, blogs, and e-commerce, many companies set up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts because everyone else is doing it. And they expect fans will eagerly beat a path to their door.

There are dozens of articles, books and blogs that can help to promote your social media presence. Use of online as well as offline promotion is vital to building momentum and developing an effective Facebook page, blog, or Twitter account.

3. "Our Public Relations Agency Will Take Care of It"

Agencies can be a great help in launching your presence, but that’s just the first step. What about the long term? Do you plan to have the agency continue to develop and promote your presence one year from now? Three years from now?

In most cases, the cost of an agency can make a long-term relationship cost prohibitive. Have a vision of how you plan to handle the care and feeding of your presence over the long term.

In addition, social media users seek authenticity. They want to hear updates directly from those that run the company — the developers, the CEO, the secretary, the new intern. It’s no fun getting updates from people who aren’t engaged directly in the company’s day-to-day.

Be sure to consider how you might manage customer care via social media as well. If you do a great job of building awareness and relationships, it’s only a matter of time before your customers and prospects begin to use it as a core communication channel for customer service and support. Who will monitor your social graph and respond? What tools could you use to make social media engagement more fruitful and efficient?

Odds are that your agency is great at marketing and promotion, but they are not close enough to your product to effectively offer customer care. Look to the model you use for offering customer support via phone and email and consider leveraging the same resources to support customers through social media. That can be a more effective and possibly more affordable way to offer support compared to using a public relations, advertising or marketing firm.

4. Neglecting Traditional Media ("Social Media is All We Need")

Just like print ads or any other media, social media should not stand on its own. It should be supported by broader strategies for both marketing and customer support. Over the past two years, too many businesses have pushed aside traditional approaches to building their brands in favor of social media.

No doubt that social media is vitally important and is here to stay, but only as a component of a bigger overall strategy. If your entire strategy is social media, you would probably be best off to pause and reevaluate your approach.

5. Anyone Can Be a Social Media Strategist

The good news is that many companies now realize that social media is not an easy thing to do. That means there are more people taking it seriously and not asking a niece or nephew or an in-house Facebook aficionado to manage social media on behalf of the entire company.

The bad news is that it can be hard to tell who is truly qualified to help. It seems everyone’s become social media gurus.

In my opinion, social media has evolved so quickly that almost no one should claim to be a guru or expert. Even the most veteran "Facebook guru," at most, only has seven years of experience, and that’s if they helped Zuckerberg build it!

Odds are, most self-proclaimed experts have two or three years of experience in a field that is shifting and evolving rapidly. Take any statements of anybody claiming to be an "expert" regarding their level of expertise with a grain of salt.

My general rule is if someone refers to themselves as a "guru" or "expert", run away. Fast.

A few suggestions that can help you avoid the false gurus:

Gather and follow up on references with needs similar to yours. How did the project go, and what has the ongoing involvement been?
Do your best to understand if they have a complete understanding of how the various components of marketing and customer care fit in with social media. If they don’t have broad experience in these areas, it will be difficult for them to understand how social media fits in.

Launching and growing a social media presence is a long-term proposition, so be sure you choose a partner who will be there to support you over the long term, even when social media becomes old news.

Conclusion

Social media needs to be a part of your overall marketing and customer care strategies. It should not stand on its own, and it needs long-term goals to have any chance of real success.

If you or your clients decide to venture into this space, take the time up front to develop a strategy, ask for expert help, and put a long-term plan in place with concrete goals.

What mistakes have you seen? What would you add to this list? I’d love to hear your ideas, so share them in the comments.

About the Author

Jason Schubring has built more than 100 websites and delivered e-mail campaigns for companies of all sizes. His strategic, design, and Web development background creates a unique perspective on effectively combining digital and traditional marketing. To connect with him, follow him on Twitter @jasonschubring or find him on LinkedIn.

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Tiny JS Frameworks Under Your Hand – Microjs

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:30:10 +0000

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We generally use one of the popular JavaScript frameworks like jQuery, YUI, MooTools or Prototype for web projects even if the project only needs a very small part of the functionality.

Such a usage ends up in bigger-sized web pages although it can be prevented easily by using "to-the-point" micro frameworks.

Microjs is a website which is a directory of such tiny (<5kb) JavaScript libraries and frameworks.

From a list of options, you can select the feature you need like: a base framework, CSS animation, data manipulation, etc. and it'll present you the resources that can meet your requirements.

Although getting used to new frameworks may seem like a "loss of time", it'll probably pay back in load times (specially for the mobile).

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Muzeit

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:10:58 +0000

A new way for sharing ideas! Cut a part from any song and send it to your friends wall or email. Get inspired by browsing the categories and seeing "Muzes" made by other users. Hear music without leaving facebook.

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Likester

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 03 May 2011 07:36:38 +0000

We’re here to help you understand what people like. This includes your friends, your neighbors, and people you’ve never met from across the street or around the world. When you sign up with Likester, you contribute your anonymous data (what you like), in exchange for seeing what everyone else likes. What you have "liked" is publicly available information anyway, so you’re not giving up any privacy to play here. Once you join our site is organized into six main areas, that we think will help you navigate the universe of likes most efficiently.

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WordPress Tip #4 – Semantic HTML for Contact Form 7

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 03 May 2011 07:20:37 +0000

If you’re looking for an easy way to stick a contact form on your website, it doesn’t get much better than the Contact Form 7 plugin. Just specify an email address, paste a shortcode into your page, and you’re away!

But if you’ve ever edited the default form, you may have noticed that the HTML it uses is not as good as it could be. There are no label elements, it uses the ‘line-break’ tag, and it uses paragraphs to separate the form elements:

Select All Code:

1 2	Your Name (required) [text* your-name]

Not great for accessibility, and not semantically correct. Let’s fix it up a bit:

Select All Code:


Your Name (required)
[text* your-name]

I’ve taken the same text input, wrapped it in a ‘form-entry’ div, to separate it from surrounding form elements, given it a label corresponding to the input name, and removed the ‘break’ and ‘paragraph’ tags.

This will provide enough containers for you to style your form as you see fit, and better yet, it’s accessible and semantically correct HTML.

The plugin automatically provides useful class names on the inputs, so that you can style text inputs differently from checkboxes etc.

So if you’re creating your own form with Contact Form 7, you may want to use this format as a starting point to keep your code nice and semantic.

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Birdview Projects

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 05:42:02 +0000

Birdview Projects has been in development for over 2 years and it is the world’s first "Human-Centric" project management software. It has been created specifically for creative teams who don’t have time or desire to deal with yet another do-it-all software that becomes a project in itself to learn and master. Birdview Projects is an ideal solution for project managers and teams who just want their work to be done and to have some fun in the process. What makes Birdview Projects stand out from the competition is the focus it puts on teams (because afterall, your projects and tasks evolve around your people) and some unique features. Get a bird’s-eye view of your projects, receive instant feedback, set and complete goals; these are just some of the features that will make your every-day project management so much easier.

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Avoiding Unscoped Work from Unreasonable Clients

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:02:08 +0000

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Have you ever had a dispute with a client? Most freelancers and contractors will answer this question with a resounding "no" because we tend to think of disputes as something which results in court proceedings, or at least, the intervention of lawyers.

However, ask them to tell you how many unreasonable clients they have had, and most businesses will reel off numerous examples!

Many people mistakenly believe that contracts are only useful in the event of a dispute, but this is not true. A good contract can save you time, money, stress, and even improve your sales opportunities and your brand image.

Oftentimes, employers are branded as "unreasonable" because the employee felt obliged to spend unplanned time on the job that they could not bill for.

Some common reasons for this extra unscoped work are:

The client changed her mind about the project requirements
The client extended the scope of the project beyond the brief
The client asked for a "tweak" without understanding the ramifications
The client expected services that the freelancer had not originally intended to provide
The client has not provided the required information needed to complete something
The client has been slow in approving drafts despite impending deadlines
The client asked for something to be finished earlier than the original deadline

Disputes and spending unplanned (and, thus, unbillable) time working for "unreasonable clients" result in lost profit, having less time to spend on getting new work (e.g., opportunity costs), and stress.

Amazingly, even when you have bent over backwards to avoid a dispute — and despite all that extra effort — your business and reputation can also be damaged because, in the minds of the client, you’re the one being unreasonable!

In these circumstances — from a commercial perspective, at least — it makes sense to view both disputes and unreasonable clients in the same way: do our best to avoid them.

So, how do we do that?

Managing the expectations of our clients up front and giving the client clear options to extend the scope of the work — by agreement and subject to appropriate changes in the price and agreed timelines — are the keys to avoiding disputes and doing unpaid work.

This can be done most easily with a bespoke and well-written set of contract documents. Accordingly, a contract is not something which is only useful in the event of a dispute. Rather, it is an invaluable weapon in your fight to eliminate (or at least minimize) time-and-profit-stealers such as unscoped work.

To reduce the risk of misunderstandings and to reduce the opportunity for the client to develop unrealistic expectations, your contact must clearly state:

What you will do for a client
What they must do for you
What is included and excluded from the project
How much additional work outside of the scope will cost

Many web designers already produce detailed price quotes and yet still spend a great deal of time doing large amounts of unpaid work for unreasonable clients.

Why?

Firstly, because they know their company inside out and upside down, it sometimes simply doesn’t occur to them that a client might have a different viewpoint.

Indeed, our view of what it is reasonable for us to be expected to provide and what falls outside the scope of the original agreement may be significantly different from that of the client’s.

For example, a web designer may be expecting to produce a couple of design mockups for his client to choose from. The designer may expect the client to register the domain name, provide a suitable logo for the web design, and submit all copy and photos to be used for the final product.

However, the client’s expectations may be far removed from that, and may think the project will include copywriting, marketing, SEO, and so forth.

This conflict of expectations between both parties is what leads to problematic projects.

Many employers have no comprehension of the time it takes to create a good website. A simple "tweak" in their mind might seriously put the project’s budget and timelines in jeopardy.

Secondly, whilst many price quotes state what is included in the project’s fees, they often fail to indicate how changes to the original brief will be dealt with, or how delays caused by the client (e.g., failing to approve drafts or provide information) will impact timelines and costs.

And thirdly, documentation is often written in a technical, convoluted and confusing style which may not be understood by the client. The contract may sometimes even be "borrowed" from another organization, and, as a result, may not even reflect the actual working practices of the business using it.

When the expectations of both parties have not been properly managed, they begin to drift apart. And when the client demands more of the designer than she expected to give, there are only two likely outcomes: Either the designer accommodates the client — and makes much less profit than originally planned — or the parties fall out and the client tells everyone he knows how "difficult" his web designer was.

Wouldn’t it be better, therefore, for the web designer to be in a position where he could say to his client, "Of course, I’m more than happy to do that additional work for you, and the charge for that will be [insert fee here], as set out in our contract"?

We all want to provide a good service to our clients, and there are times when we will be happy to do additional work without charge. However, clients and web designers benefit from thoroughly understanding the process they are embarking on, and setting clear ground rules for situations requiring a deviation from the original plan.

As well as providing additional sales opportunities, planning for these things up front also gives you the security and confidence you need to be assertive where appropriate.

The extra precautions at the start of a project means fewer "unreasonable" clients, more profit and less stress. What’s not to like?

About the Author

Margaret Burrell is the owner of Annesley Business Consulting Ltd. A former solicitor, she has spent over 30 years writing contracts for businesses, from start-ups to blue-chip companies. She focuses on creating clear and user-friendly documentation written in plain English. Connect with her on Twitter @contractclarity or @margaretburrell.

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33Mail

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:41:23 +0000

Traditional disposable email address services give no long term ownership and control over a disposable address i.e. they expire or are available for anyone to use. 33Mail seeks to solve this problem by allowing users to have their own personal disposable email address service. Sign up and pick a username, let’s say you pick "joesmith". Now, any email address ending with …@joesmith.33mail.com will be forwarded to you. The next time someone asks you for an email address, just make one up. For example, if you are signing up for Tribble.com, give them tribble@joesmith.33mail.com. 33mail will forward any emails they send directly to you. Let’s say at some point in the future Tribble starts sending you emails you don’t want. All you need to do is click the "block" link that we add to these emails, and we’ll take care of making sure Tribble never send you another email through this address.

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Handlebars.js Part 3: Tips and Tricks

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:54:09 +0000

So we’re about done learning about Handlebars.js, but I’ve got a few examples of tricks I’ve found while using Handlebars that I figured I would share. If you haven’t read them yet, I’d highly recommend reading Part 1 and Part 2 of the series on Handlebars before you dive into this post.

The `debug` Helper

It can be easy at times to get confused about where you are in the stack in a Handlebars.js template. I usually keep a debug helper around to help me figure that out.

Handlebars.registerHelper("debug", function(optionalValue) {
  console.log("Current Context");
  console.log("====================");
  console.log(this);
 
  if (optionalValue) {
    console.log("Value");
    console.log("====================");
    console.log(optionalValue);
  }
});

You could then use that helper in any template like:

{{debug}}

or like:

1	{{debug someValue}}

and you’ll see output in the JavaScript console letting you know what’s going on:

Current Context
====================
email: "alan@test.com"
first_name: "Alan"
last_name: "Johnson"
member_since: "Mar 25, 2011"
phone: "1234567890"
stripeClass: "even"
__proto__: Object
Value
====================
Alan

A jQuery Plugin

It tends to be a pretty regular pattern with Handlebars to compile a template, process it with some data, and then fill a DOM element with the results. Here’s a quick jQuery plugin that does all of that for you:


  
    What's Up?
  
  
    
      This is where the content goes!

Updating More Than Just The Template Area

A lot of dynamic applications tend to have a layout that generally stays the same regardless of the template you’re displaying, and then a content area that shows the template that you’re looking at. Maybe there’s a sidebar with some navigation in it that generally stays the same, but each time you update the main content area you also need to update the title on the page. It’s pretty easy to cheat a bit with Handlebars to make that work. Handlebars helpers are allowed to not return anything, in which case they won’t add anything to the template output. You can use a helper that doesn’t return anything to update other parts of the page!

Imagine a site that has a structure something like this:

And maybe the markup looks like this:


  Title
  
    
      Links
      Go
      Here
    
  
  
  	Content goes here!

Here’s a quick helper that will let you update the h1 for the title each time you apply content to the main content area:

Handlebars.registerHelper("title", function(fn) {
  $('h1').html(fn(this));
 
  return "";
});

And finally, a template that uses the helper:

  {{#title}}Details for {{name}}{{/title}}
 
  
    ...user details template stuff goes here...

When the template above is run, it will call the title helper, but since the title helper just returns an empty string, it won’t add anything to the template output. It will, though, use jQuery to update the h1 element for the page’s title.

Wrapping Up

I think this about wraps up the series on Handlebars.js. It’s been fun to share Handlebars.js with everyone, and to hear about the apps you’re writing with Handlebars.js. Please let me know in the comments if there’s anything else relating to Handlebars.js that you’d be interested in hearing about, or if you have any questions.

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Microsoft & Apple Hire Linguists For Trademark Battle [The Flame War Over The "App Store" Trademark Continues As Tech Giants Turn To Language Experts To Prove Their Point]

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:29:51 +0000

In case you haven’t been following this case, Microsoft and Apple are engaged in a battle over Apple’s trademark of the word “App Store”. App Store is Apple’s popular…

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Microsoft & Apple Hire Linguists For Trademark Battle [The Flame War Over The "App Store" Trademark Continues As Tech Giants Turn To Language Experts To Prove Their Point]

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:29:44 +0000

In case you haven’t been following this case, Microsoft and Apple are engaged in a battle over Apple’s trademark of the word “App Store”. App Store is Apple’s popular…

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Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Now Available, E220s Set To Arrive Next Month [Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Comes Available, Brings 14" Display, Core i3 Processor, 250GB Storage, 4GB RAM & A Starting Price Point Of $699]

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:23:29 +0000

We saw Lenovo unveil the ThinkPad Edge E420s and E220s in January during CES and at the time they were both slated for availability in April. Well, as it turns out, the ThinkPad Edge E420s has come…

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