All That Web Demands - Do You Know?

Network Solutions Soon To Get Acquired By Web.com

2011-08-04T15:48:00.000+05:30

Hi Friends!

The competition has been growing really tough. And it is Web.com who has proved it evidently through an agreement it has signed for acquisition of Network Solutions, a private domain name registrar. The move has been made to take advantage of the shift small and medium sized companies have taken, from conventional to online marketing modules.

Big DEAL, Big AMOUNT

Web.com, a company in Florida declared that it will be paying an hefty amount of US $ 405 million to Network Solutions in cash. The company would issue nearly 18 million shares as common stock and refinance the Network Solutions recent debt.

Web.com and Network Solutions, both the companies are domain name registrars; however, they have extended their businesses with complementary services like ecommerce and online marketing, hitting small and medium sized organizations.

Web.com Profitable Anticipations

According to what Web.com shared in its company blog post, Network Solutions is a international business giant when it comes to domain name registration. Besides this, it is dealing in website design as well as management services with focus on SMB online marketing. The reason that company is excited about the acquisition is because of the following reasons:

1. It will give an opportunity to Web.com to add gear to its business and grow exponentially.

2. Web.com will be able to position itself as a nationally acclaimed go-to-provider for SMBs.

3. The company will be able to make more investments in verdant products or services like a newer Facebook application.

Seems like Web.com has its strategy planned and business intelligence is absolutely clear.

When coupled together, these two companies have 9 million domains which are under management and 3 million paying subscribers followed by 1900 employees, calculated in June. Jointly, the two organizations will stand in competition with GoDaddy.com that holds across 48 million domain names with loyal 9 million customers database globally.

The approach is good and so will the results, hopefully!

The transaction both companies are working on is expected to get completed by the end of year 2011. And importantly, a big shareholder of Network Solutions, General Atlantic and some other Network Solutions shareholders will expect to own Web.com's upto 37%.

I'll keep you posted with the recent updates on this expected deal. Stay tuned for more.

Sited in Delhi, LeXolution IT Services is a renowned web design and development company. Apart from website designing we specializing in Server Set Up & Management services, the company has successfully accomplished big projects for globally based clients.

Is It Your Own Ecommerce Site Or Ebay For Smart Business Promotion?

2011-08-03T12:51:00.001+05:30

Hi,

I know most of you might have racked your brains with building your own ecommerce website or selling your products on other ecommerce sites such as Ebay. With the advent of Internet, most of the people prefer to make purchases online. And this is a good reason that business enterprises picked ecommerce web design the only solution to promote their products and services. But most of the times, people get in to the dilemma as which is a better promotional strategy?

Thoughtfully, many businesses that doesn't possess their own ecommerce website prefer to hands pick sites like Ebay and Amazon to display and sell their products for a certain percentage. It is a great way of marketing products without investment. But there are many other business organizations who get their own ecommerce websites designed to promote their business. However, if you wish to obtain great outcomes, then you can choose to integrate your own ecommerce business website with Ebay or others. If you are selling your company products online via your website and you want to give an added impetus to your sales through ebay, in that case it becomes easy to create sync between your website and the ecommerce platform if you are using dotcommerce for your website.

In contrast to this, there are some who believe that choosing an ecommerce site like Ebay for product promotion is a good technique when brand promotion is not a business goal. Whereas for effective brand building, you must have your own ecommerce business website. Ecommerce service sites provide countless tools and good deal of information. Therefore, another wonderful tactic would be to market the products online through these sites at first level and after comprehending the modules you can then work upon your own website to extract maximum benefit and good profit share. With more and more transactions, you can work towards the empowerment of your ecommerce website on World Wide Web.

Both big and small-business enterprises can adopt such a method. Nonetheless, for ones who can afford both, can harvest the best possible benefits. Unlike online marketing of products on other ecommerce sites, if you advertise your products on your own website, then you need to have patience as it takes time to build trust and reputation which Ebay and Amazon shares with the customers. On the contrary, it becomes difficult to maintain the sites if you choose both. Separately, it would be convenient to streamline the orders that will ensure efficacious management.

To conclude, it is wise to get designed an ecommerce site for your business and get it integrated with ebay and amazon for out-of-the box results. With SEO and PPC you can generate high revenues and serve your purpose intelligently. So, what are waiting for?Boost your business with smart integration of your ecommerce website with online auction sites.

LeXolution IT Services is a prominent web design & development company based in New Delhi. The company holds expertise in delivering custom ecommerce web development, online store designing etc.

Overpowering Google's 'Local Search' Strategic Move

2011-06-30T18:02:00.003+05:30

How Entrepreneurial businesses can overcome the effects of Google's Local Search Strategy?

The Powerful Giant

Google, the Internet Giant is rightly called as a Business Campaigner. Coming with new upgradations in its existing features or evolving a new technology every other day has won it accolades. With this mass serving attitude and user-friendly approach, Google stresses on providing an unbeatable web browsing experience to surfers across the globe. And with a pledge to bring new advancements in the year 2011, leader launched many of its products, StreetView, Hotpot, '+1 etc. and initiated newer strategies to help web surfers get the best and related search results. The most intriguing one was the local search strategic move.

Local Search Strategy By Google

The 'Local Search' feature that was enabled for all search results was believed to be an intelligent step made by Google that will facilitate people to find the exact search results in the local area. For instance, if a service seeker is looking for a hair salon service, then he will get search results including the name of salons in the local area when searched on Google. But besides simplifying task of web surfers, it turned the wheels for service providers globally.

Unlike the earlier search results, when a surfer, for instance searched for a web designing and development company, he used to get a comprehensive list of service providers located both nationally and internationally. The service seekers could easily compare the prices of the nationally located firms (in their local areas) with overseas companies providing the same services. Picking the one that fits their needs and pocket, they found it simple to avail the services from service providers of their choice based globally. Nevertheless, with the introduction of this new localization strategy, things changed dramatically for service providers. The two major disadvantages of this new-flanged strategy is the:

Probability of companies (based outside local areas) to generate international leads has reduced to a big extent.
Service seekers cannot run comparison between the prices of different companies.

Evidently, this is a major problem with the service seekers that are new to the industry. While those who have been outsourcing their massive company projects to outsource service providers were and have been benefiting themselves. That is, they have been availing services from affordable offshore service providers.

The Right Remedy

However, the most ideal solutions to overcome the drawbacks of this local search strategy that has affected many service providers is by:

Relying on Social MediaLook upon Social Media platforms for effective business and brand promotion. By publicizing your profile to global friends, you can market your business in the global market without much effort. For example, if you are in India you may add US or UK based nationals and friends to your network list that will help you promote your company and services directly or indirectly.

Creating a Physical Presence
If a company has US as its niche market, then the best way is to create a physical presence in the respective region. By physical presence, we mean building an office at the desired place. This way you not just build the credibility of your brand but also you can get your company listed in the search results whenever a search pertaining to the products or services you are dealing in is conducted.

In a nutshell, local search strategy is not a bad move certainly, as it simplified the process by localizing search results. But the ones who have been affected or will be affected can embrace above mentioned strategies to bypass the possibility of losing international clients.
Maneet Puri
Web Development India

2011-06-28T15:51:00.000+05:30

+1 Travels The World!

Official Google Blog: This week in search 5/1/10

2010-05-06T18:15:00.000+05:30

Brand New Changes On Google SERPs!

Me Moving Out!

2008-04-02T16:39:00.004+05:30

Hi,

It has been time here.

I started this blog in last year, and I still remember the time I made my first post. Then the subsequent ones. And there has been turning back ever since.

It has been a nice long journey ever since.

And I thank you all for visiting, reading, commenting and yeah... Even criticizing!

Thank you for all your valuable feedback.

And with time, grew LeXolution IT Services. And it gives me immense pleasure to tell you that we are among the frontrunners in the industry now. What started out as a small web solutions company an year back is now a leading outsourcing firm

And as we redesigned our website recently, we also found a new abode for our blog “All That Web Demands”

We will now be moving on to Lexolution IT Blog
Please walk in there for all succeeding posts. Hope you like my new place

See you there

Byeee

Why I am not worried ‘bout the Web…

2008-03-31T13:40:00.001+05:30

I could not sleep last night! Some how the ongoing debate to cut down outsourcing is giving me all the jitters. And then when I finally caught a wink all I could see through the darkness was how web development industry would fare.
Thank my god, it ain’t that scary.

The year 2001 spelt near doom of web development when the dot-com bubble burst. But call it destiny or whatever… but it survived through that era. In 2008 however, even though the US economy’s doesn’t look that promising, there’s more hope for the web to follow the economy’s course rather than shatter and fall below it.
Business commentators have drafted out charts and graphs to document how revenues will remain steady even against a backdrop of stagflation, war, and other economic tensions.
The web will thrive, sure it will, but I guess it has more do with how the Web has become an ordinary part of our lives.

• In 2001, Internet was only making its way to the doors of many American homes. It was like the dish TV’s of today. Like people did know how to live with it. Cut to the present and I see kids who can’t even begin to think of a life without the internet. It’s like someone telling you to imagine your world minus water!!! Be it keeping in touch with friends and family or setting up an entire business, the World Wide Web has everyone in its net.

• The dot com boom and bust was all about get consumers to come somewhere and buy things. When the deals looked less exciting, customers simply stopped coming. The past few years have seen an explosion of sites built on sharing and communication between visitors, not just between buyers and sellers. Those communities have become a part of people’s daily lives, an important part of their social life. This doesn’t mean that people spend all day staring at Facebook or Orkut or blogs - but it does mean that people have integrated those sites into their daily lives.

• It would be an understatement to say that we have adapted to the web, rather we are addicted to it. Having a web site for a business is no longer a huge special event - it’s something normal. Lots of people now turn to the Web rather than the phone book when they want to find out what a store’s hours are. Actually don’t put yourself at risk by not having one!

• It was a different story back in the 90s. Putting up a web site was a big deal, like equal to constructing a mall or something. It was all about investing a lot of time, costly hosting and bandwidth, specialized developers, and a mindset that poured money into building audience size at any cost. Today, you can do even large-scale hosting at much lower cost, web skills are a more ordinary part of skill sets for administrative assistants, Java programmers, and database gurus alike.

• Gone is the era of snail mail. And with it, has gone that limitation of trade. The Web reaches well past local stores and local customers. If someone somewhere on the globe likes what you have, it’s much easier to conduct a transaction now than it used to be. This might be stabilizing - international customers may be responding to different economic stimuli than local ones. Of course, the value in that depends on other areas doing better than the local economy.

• There are still immense new projects coming on to the Web, but there’s also a tremendous amount that’s already up, developed, thought of as monthly maintenance costs rather than intense new expenditures. While this may not look like a bright new horizon for entrepreneurs, it does provide the Web with some much-needed ballast to keep it stable through whatever waves the economy throws at it.

I’m sure I’ve left out a lot of reasons for stability, and at the same time I doubt that the web world will shrug off the impact of broader economic busts or booms. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, and other big players have, after all, become a key part of our economy, tightly integrated with all kinds of businesses on their way up or down.
What I don’t see today, however, is the kind of industry collapse that happened in 2000 and 2001.
And with this optimism to count on, I can get now get a good nights sleep!

Good Night!

Website Designing Blunders!

2008-03-20T15:27:00.002+05:30

Hi,

“When you are at it… BE at it!!” or so they say. And let me do the same. After telling you the way how to go about designing a perfect website, let me also enlighten you about some designing blunders that people tend to make.
A mistake is worth regret if you not learn anything from it. I learnt my lessons the same way.

Cornucopia of Graphics
A crisp title, I know would induce no glamour to this oft-repeated rule of the book. But repetition just reinstates the importance. I can possibly scream it out from rooftops, if only people cared to listen. Too many graphics only make the website heavy and difficult to load. And visitors might never return to your website if you disappoint them once with the download speed. But if you still swear by that glittering lump of mass that you think is the crown of the site, then for your own sake use GIF files rather instead of the normal JPEG. And reduce your graphic size without distorting the images.

Beefy Banners
Banners are what you call the necessary evils of the website. they sure do guarantee a steady stream of income but takes eternity to load and thus gives to annoyed visitors too! Play safe and make the best of both worlds and limit the use of banners on your site. For most visitors banners are just sister replicas of an advertisements, so they usually skip clicking it. Keep your banner either on top of the site or at the bottom. Be precise while using your banner. It should relate to your product or services.

Hit counters
Completely renounce that hit counter placed strategically on your website. For the record, hit counters show the number of hits of the site. Never make hit counters visible on the site unless of course you belong to the website kin, whose visitors amount to millions… and still counting types. Think about it… have you ever had dinner from someplace that says you are the first customer?? You value your taste buds and visitors their time. Spare them the agony of knowing that he/she is the ninth or tenth person on the planet to come visiting the space.
However, once your site is up and running and figures out in the millions registry, then use these counters to promote your site or attract advertisers.

Hodgepodge Website
Organization is the key! And that is it. Feng shui advices de-cluttering and the same goes for your website to. If you want your website to be loved by customers make sure you present them with a clean and well organized website. your visitors are not mystery customers who will wait to evaluate and analyze each and every component of your site. If you can afford to have a website then have on it well placed links leading the visitor to other pages and a sound navigation.

Generalization
Don't make your website a universal template. You could have done better with a newsletter in case! Rather, be interactive in your approach. Personalize your approach and treat them special. There is no glue like emotion. Play on that and develop and emotional bond with the visitors so that they return, be it owing to that attachment. Decide on your target audience and make your website focus on them make your content more communicative and let your visitors feel that you are talking directly to them.

The bible proclaimed seven deadly sins. I tell you about five. But believe you me, going by the bible of website designing, abstinence is the rule to play them by!

wii get you more next week...

Maneet

Freedom of AIR!!!

2008-03-14T15:26:00.002+05:30

Hi,

I just got back from an outstation wedding. But for workaholics like me, there seldom is pleasure without work. And so was the case this time. Though my laptop is my constant companion, what frustrates me is I have no access to my PC data when I am traveling. And again, when I am offline, I am cut off from the web data.
And I can see you nod in affirmation!

As I sulked, thinking about how I will endure this dilemma, I almost rubbed my eyes when I stumbled upon a piece about AIR, short for Adobe Integrated Runtime, a software development system by Adobe that will power potentially tens of thousands of applications that merge the Internet and the PC, as well as blur the distinctions between PCs and new computing devices like smart phones.

AIR is the brainchild of Kevin Lynch, a San Francisco based software developer, who I guess would have been bugged enough by the ordeal of living in the catch 22 situation that worked his brains to get something like this out.

AIR is a value addition and builds on the Flash multimedia software that engines the Web animations, e-commerce sites and many streaming videos. The company claims that it is the most ubiquitous software on earth, residing on almost all Internet-connected personal computers.

But I wonder if it will be that useful for all the users. Like most people may not even know about AIR. Applications will look and run the same… it would not really be any different whether the user is at his desk or his portable computer, and soon when using a mobile device or at an Internet kiosk. In the near future, applications will increasingly be built with routine access to all the Web’s information and a user’s files will be accessible whether at home or traveling.

Yeah, AIR sure will come as a boon to the software developers and help them create applications that exist in part on a user’s PC and in part on servers reachable through the Internet. The AIR applications are capable of mimicking the functions of a Web browser but do not require a Web browser to run.

From what I hear, this so called revolution to step beyond PC-based applications is slated to raise the mercury in the coming times. Intel is all set to introduce its low-cost “Netbook” computer strategy that aims to unleash a new wave of inexpensive wireless connected mobile computers. The new machines will come with relatively small amount of solid state disk storage capacity and will increasingly rely on data stored on Internet servers.
To ad to the buzz, many small developers like OpenLazlo and Xcerion are creating web operating systems intended to move applications and data off the PC desktop and into the Internet through the Web browser.

Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox Web browser, has created a system known as Prism in addition to its XUL and XULRunner. Sun Microsystems introduced JavaFX this year, which is also aimed at blurring the Web-desktop line. Google is testing a system called Gears that intends to allow some Web services to work on computers that are not connected to the Internet.
Finally, there is Microsoft. It is pushing its competitor to Flash, called Silverlight. But then, Silverlight is a browser plug-in where as AIR is a desktop runtime. So a direct collision is avoided there.

Well with all these superpowers ready to take on the battlefield, there is but one winner! And that is you and me, the consumer!! With a range of applications to choose from without compromising on any data, I am getting ready for a vacation. What are you up to?

Byeee

Web Designers Alert!!!

2008-03-10T17:44:00.001+05:30

Hi,

While you are still glossing over what I told you about in my last post, let me just stack you up with some more info about web designing. And yeah I owe it all the web designers straight out of designing schools.
So let me unveil some designer tricks that may take you a step ahead of your competitors.

Go low on Images
An image is poetry without words, or so they say. But let’s just reserve the poetry for later. Visitors on your site neither intend nor have the luxury of time to sit and wait till eternity for the images to load. And trust me, a chunk of relevant information is way better than a truckload of flashy images!
And yeah, one more thing each file on the page requires a separate HTTP request to the server. So a lot of small images-even if they do not add up to a lot in terms of bytes - will slow down the loading a lot.

Navigation Woes
So, you have made the website a beauty of own kinds. But a great site without good navigation is no better than a dumb blonde ;)
With al due respect to your artistic excellence, I suggest you pay more attention to the navigability and functionality of the website. Users won’t stay and admire the beauty of the website unless they find it easier to browse through.

Hide-and –Seek
If you don’t already know Mystery Meat Navigation is the scenario where unless your mouse moves over an image, you have no idea where that link might take you. Only when the mouse hovers on top of it, do you see the actual link. Please don play hide-and-seek with the visitor. Keep the link titles clear and visible. You’ll be doing a huge favor.

Browser Battles
The competition in the telecom sector may just come second. The varied species of browsers have just victimized the user! Keep off from browser specific functions. Because if that particular feature is supported by one browser, chances are it won’t even work on others. Check out the cross-platform compatibility that I mentioned earlier. That should come handy.

Pop Up- Traffic Down
Literally, with each new window that you open out for a link, the user traffic will go down in the same ratio. Creating a new browser window should be the sole authority of the user. You doing that honor will just mess up the user’s screen. And no likes other’s mess! Make all links open in the same window by default.
Yeah, in cases where you have to present a list of links or something like that, use that pop up. But make sure to intimidate the user before.

Font preference
Have you ever wondered why does a printed copy look better than a handwritten note? (Unless of course, if its mine :P) It’s all about fonts. And bear in mind that what sits pretty on MSWord, doesn’t go that well with online web page. Stick to the standard plain fonts like Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, and Courier.

Let me repeat yet again, whatever you create and put on your website, test and make sure the run on all the browsers, with all resolutions and all color. Make your guest feel at home and serve them the best!
Will get you more in my next post. Signing off..

Maneet Puri

One On One - Obama Vs Hillary

2008-02-29T13:07:00.003+05:30

Hi,

The media is painted in hues of red, blue and white with a sprinkle of stars afloat. The world watches with bated breaths as the Presidential elections of the United States gets hotter.
And as I spoke to my cousin in Florida yesterday, I realized that the air is all the more fervent there. With tons and loads of online space donated to cheer and berate both Obama and Hillary, I thought I might as well steal a glance at their websites. But the glance took a little longer and I found myself devouring the technicalities of their designs.

And boy oh boy... its frenzy out there. Not being a political person dissuades me from commenting on my preference over either candidates, but their websites … yes I am ready to speak.

Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, brought up in the lap of political regimen has a website that emits the same. Wearing the traditional color schemes of the US flag, her website www.hillaryclinton.com boasts of a regal air.
Browse down to Barack Obama’s site, www.barackobama.com and you will be greeted by a splash of fresh dreamy blue, perhaps a symbol of the freshness he claims to bring into the US government with his election!

All the tips and tricks I tell you about here on this blog find perfect examples in these sites. Both the sites are designed with utmost care and attention. Optimization would not have been an issue though ;-)

Hmm…Let’s make it interesting. If I take both of them and put them in a boxing ring… lets see who wins.

Round one: Color Riot
Hillary’s site uses loud colors, something that is not very advisable by the website designing rules. But it is pardonable considering it is complimentary to the American flag. The Republican sure knows how to waive her patriotism!
Obama the poster boy…ahem man of the youth with his dreamy hues. The first thing that I felt was freshness. It was as if I could breathe light. I guess it’s the plentiful whitespace and the soft blue palette that did it to me. The site has a soothing appeal. It is intended to I guess, for it targets the tech savvy youth of America.

Round one goes to Obama!

Round Two: Layout
The Queen Bee makes it a little hectic here. The content comes out all bold. With the text in caps and that too defined by sharp lines, it becomes a little too messy on the whole and the over impression spells clutter. Like when I entered the site, I became finicky. There were just too many elements shouting for attention. Take a ride and you will know what I mean. This was exactly what I mentioned in designing don’ts.
Pair this opposite Obama’s and you can see contrast. There is absolute harmony. With all the elements neatly arranged this is what I call a neat and clean layout

Obama, the winner again!

Round Three: The Link Saga
Hillary has her site compact. The links clearly done, I could just jump to any page that I wanted.
Obama decided to stack up. A strict no-no when it comes to designs. I had to roll that cursor down and down through all the events and features. It is too long, literally! Take a cue from the first lady and get some on links on top boy!

You have round three Mrs. Clinton!

Round Four: Extras
The Queen Bee talks. Yeah she does. It’s campaigning after all. She has on her main menu a link titled ‘videos’ that has several video slides of her life and works. Now this is great. Hillary supporters just have to refer to this link for any evidence they might need to testify their cheers.
But Obama has it planned to. I just loved the playful tools that he has squeezed in on his site. There is Barack TV Obama mobile, action center and a link to my.barackobama.com, an online portal that for personal blogs and messages. He targets the young crowd of America and has got it right for all the tech savvy supporters out there. And an add-on… What stands out on the site is the hit counter that counts records the number of people who have donated, irrespective of the amount. (BTW it was some 1,000,153 when I last saw. Goshhhh!)

I was bowled over by the counter, but then let’s call it a draw here!

So that was heavy! The winner is declared: Barack Obama! Sure he wins in my boxing ring. Let’s wait and see if he does to the White House too.

But I hear he’s anti-outsourcing. Huh? Will get you more on that in my other blog on KPOs. 

Bye

Web Design Myths – Busted!!!

2008-02-25T18:46:00.002+05:30

Hi,

Just yesterday, I was browsing through the net for some articles on web design and development and literally all of them yell out the same tips and tricks, of course in different language styles ;-)
Talk about plagiarizing plagiarism!

But what I noticed is, in their efforts to save mankind from creating ‘non-ideal’ websites; they have given way to some myths that now rule the roost.

If you haven’t already, just try Googling out some web design articles. Literally, all of them seem to propagate the belief of “All content and less or no animation” supposedly that’s the magic key of having a neat and popular website.
Don’t rule me out for this. I know content is the king! N that’s what gains the site its credibility. Also adding animations like sounds, java applets and graphics will slow down the loading process. And yes, visitors seldom wait more than 8 seconds.
But take a break, and think about it. All work and no play made Jack a dull boy. And all content and no graphics will no do better to your website.

A kid who logs into Disneyworld.com will not be amused to find info on the what-when-how of the company. He’d rather search for his Mickey and Minnie.

You know better what your site demands than the free articles on the web. Play smart and know where to use the animations and where to prioritize content. The trick is to maintain a steady balance between the two! Use animations sensibly as and when required and go low on the image size.

Now comes the question When is it appropriate?
Well sometimes applets are needed for some sort of processing.
All the Disney characters who swing and dance for the kids on the Disney website make use of the applets. The loading time too is not an issue because the image sizes are abridged to accommodate the screen space. And what is Disneyworld without music and songs? I’ll hate to walk in to a bland and mute Disneyland. Wont you?
In the same way, animation and sound might be appropriate for sites that feature online comics, online gaming, etc.

Talking about my own website that deals with website design services and all. You as a customer would not even wait to ponder if not for the graphics that illustrate my work. Let me share a secret. Many potential customers see your site as an example of what their site can become. And playing Plain Jane here will be no help. Chuck the content, its illustration that the customer demands.

And then the age old myth of "Good Web Design is in the Graphics"
I stumbled upon this site and took two minutes to realize that the large psychedelic structure staring at me was actually an attempt of the web designer to beautify the site. God bless the designing schools!
Designer graphics are cool and they serve to cut through monotony and bring in more vibrancy. But please don’t ruin what they born to do. Size does matter. Trust me does. I suggest you limit the size of the graphics so they complement the subject of the site without overshadowing it altogether.
And as for that designer... I can only hope that he stumbles upon this blog!!!

Hear all that is on offer, but when you get down to doing things, put in a little of that grey matter too.
Happy designing!

Crossing over to get compatible!

2008-02-12T15:37:00.000+05:30

Hi,

Has it ever happened to you that you have chanced upon a real good web application and were bowled over by its features and functionality, and then to your dismay discovered that it’s all but compatible with your operating system!
If this has a déjà vu affect on you? Then I am sure you’d be a happier soul after reading this.

I concluded my last post with a promise that I’ll get back with more information on web tools and applications, and here I am to let you know all about cross-platform compatibility! Though a little late! But hey... Better late than never. And perhaps the break gave me more time to ponder over the intricacies of these applications.

Interoperability or platform-independence as it is popularly called refers to the ability of devices or software applications to work with more than one hardware platform or operating system. Broad compatibility with various systems guarantees a larger market for a product by reaching your entire user audience. Interoperability is critical in achieving that critical mass of users, especially in groupware and other such internet applications, where two or more people interacting with one another will require some level of compatibility in order to communicate or share data.

I have seen many users who are forced to give up on their favorite operating system just for the sake of some frequently used application or software that fails to run on that. Now is it not cruel?

I read a piece some days back that said companies using Microsoft Office on both Macintosh and Windows PCs will have to deal with cross-platform compatibility issues with the new Office 2008 productivity suite. When the Office 2008 productivity suite will be introduced for Mac OS X, companies that rely on Visual Basic for Applications scripts and macros on Macintosh and Windows clients will lose transparent cross-platform compatibility. The reason behind this is Microsoft is abandoning VBA script and macro support with the introduction of the new productivity suite.
Moreover, the recently released Office 2007 for Windows introduced a new default file format, the OOXML (Office Open XML) .docx format, which is not compatible with Office 2003 on Windows and Office 2004 on Mac OS X. OOXML will be the default file format for Office 2008 also. As a result, Microsoft and others are scrambling to offer options to regain at least a limited degree of compatibility for future Office users. Now does that give you a scare?

Let me share with you some basics of creating a cross-platform web program.

First, choose the right development language. You can write cross-platform C++ code. But then you will have a hell of a time working with the different C++ compilers. You may be tempted to use GCC for all platforms. But that can’t always be possible. C++ programs can be tough to maintain for cross platform compatibility, though I might as well inform you that it is possible by all means. Another hurdle in your way would be to work with the build system. Not all platforms will compile IDE for C++. Worst of all, you may even have to browse through the Makefiles. Now that I have scared you enough, I might take the liberty to proclaim that C++ is not a good choice for cross platform development.
Rather, I would suggest you to go with Java or Python because both of them can scale across platforms pretty well. But playing the devils advocate again, don’t be assures that you have all the features of the language on all platforms. Read the docs carefully before implementing obscure functionality.
A good graphical user interface is imperative for an ideal application. Be sure that you make a correct choice for a cross-platform GUI. Astounding it may seem, but don’t you undermine its importance. A score of GUIs and libraries claim to be cross-platform. Be smart and run them for a check on functionality by making prototypes. My experience says that there is no easy answer when it comes to choosing the right GUI. And now I just cant resist telling you about wxWidgets bindings for Python called wxPython. It is damn easy to use and supports a ton of functionality. And yeah of course it is Python.

FireFox browser is the project that I can illustrate to you as a great execution of cross compatibility. Another promising project is the Mono project. Going by what it claims. It provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix. My analysis has shown that GUI is still in beta versions. Another thing that I have observed is that Mono consistently lags behind Microsoft’s .NET framework. That is to be expected, since Microsoft will lead in .NET implementation and try and keep its version ahead of the competition. But nevertheless, Mono seems a serious contender for any cross-platform development.

Phew … Now that was pretty long. I guess now you have a fair knowledge of what cross-platform compatibility is all about. And the next time you cast your eyes on that cool application, don’t be skeptical. In all probability it will go well with your OS!

Choosing The Appropriate Web Technology – Which One To Pick?

2007-12-14T15:18:00.000+05:30

Hi,

I have designed scores of websites in the last ten years of my association with the web designing and web development. But, still it’s quite difficult for me to say if a particular platform is the answer to the choice of a website development. When I say platform, it essentially means the server, database, and language that one needs to deploy for developing a website. At the cost of making a clichéd statement, I would say it largely depends on the nature of business, budget allocated for the website development & designing, your targeted and prospective customers and so forth.

My experience as a website developer and designer has taught me an eternal truth – each new website to be built is unique in it requirements and has the potential to throw challenges you would never have faced before. But, that’s the most exciting part of being a web programmer, developer or designer. Like any other areas of learning, web development and designing also teaches you constantly as you go on creating new websites.

Now, I must tell you whatever I really feel when it comes to making the choice of platform designing and developing a website. My experience tells me that most webmasters I have designed and developed websites for are not really aware of different web development & designing platform options and, more importantly, the individual benefits thereof. But, why would they know? That’s the job of web developers, designers and especially, the IT consultants.

But, you should never undermine the importance of choosing the right web platform for your site as you will only be ruing over your decision in the long run if you ever make a wrong choice. Well, let me tell you why.

First of all when you talk about choices of web application platforms, I just can’t help coming up with two names such as .NET and Linux. These two applications are being predominately used all over the world at the present moment for building new websites. Both have their respective edges over the other and limitations too. Having said that, the only way to make a perfect choice of web development platform is to analyze and understand the specific present and future needs of your business operations.

If you are budget-oriented, Linux could be great for you. Some of the most popular scripting codes that can be categorized under Linux are PHP, CGI, Perl, Python etc. Linux is basically, an open source code which is also less prone to virus threat. On the other hand, .NET is one of the Window platform scripting languages among ASP, ASP.NET, C#, C old Fusion and so forth. Talking about the database servers Linux supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase and the like. Windows platform also offer database server options such as MS SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle which are pretty popular.

Let me illustrate why making an absolute choice between these two is so difficult. For instance, if you wish to develop a discussion board, PHP could be the better pick. Whereas ASP would be a more holistic option for e-commerce application development. However, PHP is also capable of being used in developing e-commerce applications. So basically, the decision to choose either one hinges mostly on your specific business requirements and, of course, budget.

As I’ll discuss on cross-platform compatibility in my upcoming post, you will get to understand more on this since these web tools and applications are all so interrelated, aren’t they?

A New Identity To Serve You Better

2007-11-26T17:14:00.000+05:30

Hi,

Change is the law of nature. Everything in this world is subject to change irrespective of their gender, size or stature. And, we are no different. At Day Robinson Services (DRI), we have come a long way in terms of offering our services in a relatively short span of time. We are going from strength to strength and now, we are going to give ourselves a new identity as well. Yes, Day Robinson Services is now going to be known as LeXolution IT Services. It might occur to you – why this change? Well, like every other company on the surface, we also aim to expand our business verticals by embarking into new business opportunities. It requires some structural expansion and a change of name of the present organization as well.

When we started off in November last year, we hardly knew we would achieve so much within such a short span of time. However, thanks to the consistent, dedicated and smart effort of our high-caliber staff, we have gone places since our commencement. We offer a broad-range of web application and KPO services to many of our off-shore customers across the globe. Now, we want to expand the range of our business operations and add a whole new array of services to cater to the demand of niche market of both web application and KPO services. Our experience tells us that there are many more business opportunities lying which we need to tap.

A new identity doesn’t mean that we will change the way we operate – our level of dedication, plan, strategy, promptness, and performance will all remain as they are. In fact, they will go up as we take up fresh responsibilities. Although, we exist for only one year, we have reached many milestones and set many benchmarks as well. And we will continue our endeavor in future also. The encouraging comments of our satisfied customers propel us to do more and they really stand testimonial to our success. As far as our blog is concerned, we continue to share our innovative ideas with you and expect the same back from our readers as well.

Maneet Puri

Web Developer India

How To Decide An Appropriate Layout For Your Website

2007-11-23T17:30:00.000+05:30

Layout is a combination of content and image positioning, selecting colors, fonts and so forth. The print or electronic media, a good layout is crucial to the look and feel of the medium. Blame it on the huge number of promotional activities the consumers are exposed to, it is only human of them to be visually selective about what they see and like. Basically, each and every consumer is more or less guided by the atheistic sense. Hence, they tend to pay attention to those campaigns that are visually appealing. As far as the website layout goes, it is even more challenging to impress visitors as they tend to spend a couple of seconds to judge if the site is worth-visiting from the very first look of it.

Points to consider while designing the website layout

Keep It Simple

Simple website layout is not only user-friendly, but also search engine compatible. Complex navigational links built out of complex scripts or images are not properly viewed in different browsers. Further, search engine crawler finds it tough to crawl your site links if it involves poor navigations. Minimize the bulky images that take for eternity to load. Also, use small icons to attract visitors’ attention.

Read Between The Lines

You should use a standard font size to enable the visitors read the content with ease. If you are using style then you can keep the font size between 11 to 12 pixels. The font face should be professional –Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif are some of the most commonly used font faces. However, you should avoid using fancy fonts such as Comic Sans unless the website is personal. Further, ensure that the lines are properly spaced out to avoid clumsiness. Keeping the space around 12 pixels will help.

For Your Eyes Only

Use web-safe colors that are pleasing to eyes. Using loud colors with an outlandish combination ensures the visitors vanish in no time. The choice of colors is crucial and reflects the image of your site. As a webmaster or designer you might go with your own choice; however, it is much wiser to request others for their feedbacks on the same before making your site live.

Size Does Matter

Keep track of the dimension of the webpages. Limit the width and height of the webpages in such a way that the most vital part of the content lies within the top 600 x 600 viewable area without scrolling. If you want to avoid a horizontal scrollbar, set the page layout to expand and shrink with changes in browser window size. This often interferes with the image and text positions relative to each other and throws the layout structure out of sync. Ideally, the best practice is to limit the width by placing a table with a fixed width of 750 or 775 pixels. Make sure the page height is not more than 4 scroll lengths. Try to limit the content of the page; however, if more content is required then move it to the new webpage offering a navigation link to the next page and a link back from the next page. It not only facilitates greater page views but also allows you do add more advertising space.

World Wide Wait!!!

Typically, a webpage is defined by the total size of the text and the number of images and supporting files including java scripts, flash etc. that are downloadable from the server. Page size is critical from the loading standpoint as high volume of website requires high bandwidth net speed to load faster. Research says that most visitors leave sites that take longer than 8seconds to load. It should be ensured that the volume of webpages should be kept to minimum so that they download faster from the server. This is because most people net users around the world use slow modem of 56k to access the internet. Successful websites such as Google and Yahoo! do not have very high volume pages or too many images making their sites load faster. There is a trade-off between making your webpages look nicer by using graphics and making it load faster as well. Ensure that the volume of the cover page is below 35k. However, this may not be feasible for the e-commerce sites as they have to present multiple product images.

Maneet Puri

Web Developer India

Developing and Designing A Website – Know The Techniques Inside-out

2007-11-16T15:18:00.000+05:30

Well, we are celebrating the anniversary of our organization, Day Robinson Services on Wednesday (14th of November) and there couldn’t have any better occasion to tell you how we have come this far. We have designed and developed many robust websites for our clients adding value to their business and helping them boost their revenue model. I must tell you that it feels really wonderful to be appreciated for your efforts and association with your clients. Indeed, a great deal of commitment & hard work has made us reach this milestone.

Developing and designing a website is akin to developing a business – both require comprehensive analysis, thorough planning, expertise in your field and execution of well-devised strategies. Let’s take a look what the basic components of developing a websites are:

- Clean Site Lay-out Design

- Choosing the Appropriate Web Technology For Your Website

- Browser Compatibility or Cross-platform Compatibility

- Good Resolution

- Search-engine friendly

- Fast Loading

Clean Site Lay-out Design

Forget about the clichéd maxim, “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”! If your website doesn’t have a clean lay-out design, rest assured to lose visitors big time. A lay-out design smeared with crimson color will hardly soothe the visitors’ eyes. Besides, you can’t expect your visitors to patiently put up with a lengthy webpage and click on the link that is placed literally at the rock bottom of a seemingly unfathomable webpage. If you know what I’m talking about, it is safe to dispense with any loud color, cluttered look and lengthy description of website content. After all, they say, “God lies in cleanliness”.

Choosing the Appropriate Web Technology For Your Website

You can use any programming language depending on your specific requirements. However, only a professional designer would tell you what difference they make when they are used in isolation. If you look ten years back, websites were being developed largely on html or dhtml. But as we know, php, .net and the like have changed the face of website development. They have made websites incredibly efficient, dynamic, feature rich and visitor-friendly.

Browser Compatibility or Cross-platform Compatibility

Interestingly, there are many webmasters who have been running their business for quite a few years but, they do not know that different browsers behave differently. There are sites that are compatible with Internet Explorer but not with Fireforx and vice versa. Though most people are using Internet Explorer around the world, you should develop your site on a platform so that it becomes compatible to almost all frequently used browsers.

Good Resolution

No matter how much effort you have put in to make the website look attractive, all will go in vain if you ignore the resolution part. The developer has to make sure that the site being developed does not lose its style or layout when being viewed on screens with different resolutions. It is always safe to use larger resolution while developing a website. Modern websites can be compatible with the resolutions screen like 1024 X 768, 800x600 with the help of cascading style sheet.

Search-engine friendly

Unless you are developing a website for social cause having no commercial objective in your mind, you should ensure that you have conformed to all the principles of search engine optimization. Visibility is the sole objective in online business. There is no point in making a good-looking website that is not visible to your prospective online buyers. For instance, many believe that using Java scrip hurts the SEO process. However, no one is asking you to make a complete sacrifice. You can always strike a healthy balance between satisfying the SEO criteria and making your site interactive and visually appealing.

Fast Loading

Do not test the patience of your visitors by offering them a website that takes forever to load on their computer browsers. By doing this you are doing a world of favor to your competitor and giving your visitors a very good reason to move on to the next link on the SERPs. Many websites have been found committing suicidal attempt of abusing Flash and Frames on their websites. Make sure your pages load faster than your visitors vanish out of sheer frustration.

Actually, it’s not so tough to design and develop a website. Neither is it tougher to make your business a success. All you need is expertise in your field to stay afloat in the sea of competitive marketing. No kidding – our expertise in web designing and web development has helped us sustained ourselves. We wouldn’t probably be here to celebrate the anniversary of our organization otherwise.

Maneet Puri

Web Developer India

Factors To Be Considered While Developing A Website

2007-10-31T15:41:00.000+05:30

Just picture this – your competitor is running the same business as you; both of you have your own website for your business promotion. However, your competitor is getting more customers than you!!! What does the competitor’s website have that you don’t? I know it must be intriguing to you especially if you are a newbie in the concept of website marketing. But, if you are an average user of internet then you would have come across sites that are less interesting to you than others even though all of them have the same theme, say, buying and selling of real estate property. Surely, there are some aspects that make a particular website stand apart from other websites.

Let’s have a look

Basically, there are two important facets of website development and designing. While the first one is business oriented, the second one is about making the website perfect from all technical and aesthetic aspects.

Conceptualizing A Website

I’m sure you will agree with me when I say that each business is conceptually different from others and, therefore, demands unique treatment. Hence, before you develop and design you website, spending some time to conceptualize it holds immense importance. Some aspects such as defining the nature of your business, identifying your target customers & markets, and chalking out a clear-cut site navigation structure build a robust foundation for your website.

Developing and Designing

Now that you have conceptualized it properly, it’s time go ahead with the developing and designing part. Keep the following technical aspects in mind while developing and designing the website.

Technical Aspects

When it comes to the technical aspects, there are quite a few factors that you need to consider while designing to make it visitor-friendly. They are as follow:

- Clean Site Lay-out Design

- Choosing the Appropriate Web Technology For You Website

- Browser Compatibility or Cross-platform Compatibility

- Good Resolution

- Search-engine friendly

- Fast Loading

Keep on reading our subsequent posts to know more about these aspects in detail.

Maneet Puri

Web Developer India

Have A Website, Run All The Way To The Bank

2007-10-30T17:59:00.000+05:30

It is really difficult to imagine a world without internet today!!! I would say there would be very few people who do not know about this amazing innovation, which has affected all the aspects of human life may it be gathering information, finding a provider or promoting a business!

Why some businessmen grow faster than others? Because, they use latest technology and methods that really work to reach the bigger scope of potential customers. It’s true that there are very few people who do not take internet seriously and think it is for the birds, this is because of there shallow knowledge about the potential of internet and how it can revolutionize their business.

Well, you might think, “How a website can have so critically impact on the growth of a business? History stands testimony to many businessmen who didn’t have the foggiest idea of internet, but they still made a millions!!!” I agree with your logic; however, in pre-internet era the competition was relatively far too less and the use of technology was also not very predominant in businesses. Today, a customer may get ambushed every second by the marketing buzz and media hype for a new product or service being launched in the market. Let’s face it - you will fall behind the competition if you are not deploying innovative business technologies that your competitors are using.

If you are an ambitious businessman, but think deploying a website would be a waste of money, then probably you aren’t aware of its benefits. However, before we talk about its benefits, knowing what a website is would be of great help.

What Is A Website and Why Do I Need It?

Website refers to a globally accessible space where you can showcase your products and services for your prospective customers. You can use this space to reach buyers who might be interested in your products & services, talk about the nature of your business, products and services you offer, and much more. In today’s world, with every household having access to computer and internet entire world has become your platform for promoting your business if you have your website. Hence, if you do not have a website you are definitely missing out on potential customers.

You will be amazed to know how a website can change the face of your business. Here it goes:

It offers you an avenue to reach the global market.
It makes your business visible to your prospective buyers
It gives you more space to promote your business at less cost
It enables your customers to communicate with more efficiently, which fortifies your relationship with your buyers.
It makes your business stay open 24/7, 365 days a year.
It offers professional face to your business
It saves you a lot of money you spend on the many traditional off-line marketing costs such as yellow pages, news paper, magazines, leaflets and brochures.

In a nutshell, a website facilitates the growth of your business in a cost-effective manner and increases the scope to expand globally without spending a fortune. Thus it would be right to say that “It gets you more by spending less”.

In the forthcoming posts, we will be talking about various aspects of developing and designing a website. So keep coming back to us!!!

Maneet Puri

Web Developer India

Introduction

2007-10-26T16:37:00.000+05:30

Day Robinson Services (‘DRS’) is an emerging name in the fields of Software, KPO and BPO. It would be nothing short of an understatement, if we say we are just another company existing only to do business and earn ourselves a few bucks and a luxurious life!!! Rather, we are an outcome of extreme passion towards learning newer web technologies and sharing them with others for their growth and development in the web world. Money is only incidental – what really pump our adrenaline are our success in helping our clients implement newer technological discoveries in their process and see them grow gradually. Through this blog we strive to address various aspects of having the web presence of your business.

However, for the purpose of introduction, we would add that DRS specialize primarily in three verticals such as Web Design & Development, KPO & BPO Solutions and Event Production. We are located globally with our base in the UKNew Delhi also. A blend of talent and experience, our professionals have delighted our customers time and again. We are well known amongst our clients for our response, commitment, co-ordination, transparency and delivery. and

On behalf of this blog, we attempt to share with you our success and technical knowledge that we have built over years. Similarly, we would be glad to learn new ideas and concepts on web applications that could be useful for us and the rest who visit this blog with an inquisitive bent of mind. Keep on reading our posts which could change the way you perceive web application and technologies.
enjoy learning!

Maneet Puri
Web Design India