Web

This is where you will find all the pages tagged Web.

Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs

You’d think that as a result of open-source development practices, blog architectures would be pretty close to perfection in areas like Web standards and maximum SEO impact.

You’d be wrong.

The Definitive Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs — Pearsonified Via Swissmiss.

A Google Package Challenges Microsoft

On Thursday, Google, the Internet search giant, will unveil a package of communications and productivity software aimed at businesses, which overwhelmingly rely on Microsoft products for those functions.

The package, called Google Apps, combines two sets of previously available software bundles. One included programs for e-mail, instant messaging, calendars and Web page creation; the other, called Docs and Spreadsheets, included programs to read and edit documents created with Microsoft Word and Excel, the mainstays of Microsoft Office, an $11 billion annual franchise.

Unlike Microsoft’s products, which reside on PCs and corporate networks, Google’s will be delivered as services accessible over the Internet, with Google storing the data. That will allow businesses to offload some of the cost of managing computers and productivity software.

A Google Package Challenges Microsoft - New York Times

Airlines Sharpen Sites for Web-Savvy Traveler

On the other hand, as noted here last week, there is the rapidly growing business-travel market of small companies, independent contactors and others who can’t negotiate volume discounts. According to Orbitz, which recently introduced a companion Web site called Road Warrior to serve this market, online “unmanaged” business travel spending is about $28 billion a year.

That is a pretty big pool of potential revenue. So with the rapid growth of small-business and independent employee travel, booking sites, including those run by airlines and hotels, are scrambling to redesign their Web sites to appeal to that Internet-savvy market.

Airlines Sharpen Sites for Web-Savvy Traveler - New York Times

Web Browsing on Mobile Phones - Characteristics of User Experience

Browsing the Web with a small mobile phone may sound absurd at first. The increasing importance of the Internet means, however, that a person should be able to access Web services even when not sitting in front of a computer. Since there are approximately three times more mobile phones than computers in the world, a mobile phone may provide the only way to access the Web for many people.

Technically, it has been possible to access the Internet on a mobile phone for several years already, but the mobile browsing experience has often been cumbersome for ordinary people. Understanding the user needs in different use contexts is the key to improving the user experience and thereby popularizing device independent access to Internet.

In her dissertation research, Virpi Roto has interviewed users of mobile browsers in several countries, and identified characteristics that help improve the mobile browsing user experience if taken into consideration. In addition to user and use context, all the system components should be taken into account: device, browser, network infrastructure, and web site. A partial outcome of the research is a visualization method called Minimap, which has gathered publicity as the first practical way to view Web pages on a mobile phone. The method has been used in Nokia S60 phones since 2006.

NRC - Web Browsing on Mobile Phones - Characteristics of User Experience