Business elsewhere on the 'Net.
11 September 2009
An overview of the mobile app market. If you want your app to be available on 60% of the mobile phones, you'll have to write six versions.
The solution to the problem is obvious: W3C Widgets.
Business, Mobile | Permalink
29 July 2009
Chris Heilmann unveils an online book that explains how to be a developer evangelist. Tons of good advice here. Read it if you're eager to talk about the stuff you're doing and want to convince other developers to use it.
Blogging, Business, Conferences, Education, Professionalism, Public speaking, Skillset | Permalink
18 February 2009
Interesting post about the future of web developers.
I strongly believe web developers are approaching some kind of crossroads of choice. [...] The ability to build great websites from scratch is going to be more and more irrelevant. Therefore [...] I think it's time to start thinking about what to do next. There are several options. There's still a whole lot of work to be done when it comes to web accessibility. While development tools, libraries, API's and SDK's have evolved immensely, web accessibility is still lagging behind pathetically. The old school web developer can definitely help here!
Good read all in all, although I'm not sure I agree with every single point.
Business | Permalink
11 February 2009
Paul Boag discusses the state of the corporate web and points out ten harsh truths. As he rightly says,
if you are reading this post you are probably already aware of these things
Nonetheless, such an overview article may always come in handy.
Business | Permalink
11 February 2008
Thomas discusses Microsoft's bid on Yahoo! and notes that the two company cultures are so far apart it's almost impossible to merge them. That's not an argument against a take-over, as far as business people are concerned, but it will be extremely important for Yahoo!'s employees.
If the take-over takes place, many of the best and brightest Yahooligans might decide to switch to another company. Which one will be best placed to receive them.
Google ... ?
Business | Permalink
25 October 2007
About enterprise software:
what is it about the world of enterprise software that routinely produces such inelegant user experiences?
Good question. I absolutely hate enterprise software, especially the parts that are supposed to maintain a website.
Business | Permalink
17 July 2007
Interesting article about corporate web standards; i.e. corporate web sites that are standards-aware in principle, but not-quite-perfect in practice.
Basically, the message is that in a corporate environment you can't yet produce perfectly standards-compliant websites, but that a not-quite-perfect site is light years better than old-fashioned tag soup. I fully agree; for the moment this is the best way to make corporations and web standards live together in harmony.
Working in a large company, there are likely to be a lot of little things that keep you from producing—and more importantly, maintaining—a picture-perfect standards-compliant website. It’s not just one big issue, but multiple factors that contribute to a greater whole, and it can be a bit intimidating when taken altogether.
The answer is to take baby steps. Stop and have a look at all the problems that prevent you from doing the work you want to do, then start figuring out which ones need to be fixed first.
Spot on.
Business, Professionalism, Standards/W3C | Permalink
4 July 2007
Zeldman continues his discussion of invisible web designers. Most of them don't work in a web division, because there are no web divisions.
Stop separating the members of your web team. Cease distributing them among various (often competitive) divisions led by people with limited web expertise. Let the coders, designers, writers, and others charged with creating and maintaining your web presence work together. Put them in a division that recognizes that your site is not a bastard of your brochures, nor a natural outgrowth of your group calendar. Let there be web divisions.
Now let's hope anyone is listening.
Business | Permalink
26 June 2007
Comparison of search engine popularity in several countries. Very interesting.
Since Dutch figures are absent, here are some according to Sigma Solutions:
Yahoo and Lycos score 0% (which probably means less than 0.5%).
Business | Permalink
12 June 2007
John Gruber on Jobs' keynote.
It’s not widely publicized, but those integrated search bars in web browser toolbars are revenue generators. When you do a Google search from Safari’s toolbar, Google pays Apple a portion of the ad revenue from the resulting page. (Ever notice the “client=safari” string in the URL query?)
My somewhat-informed understanding is that Apple is currently generating about $2 million per month from Safari’s Google integration. That’s $25 million per year. If Safari for Windows is even moderately successful, it’s easy to see how that might grow to $100 million per year or more.
This was exactly the information I needed to understand the deeper whys of Safari Windows.
Business, Safari | Permalink
30 May 2007
Stephen Hay comments on my recent ALA article. His main question is how to sell web standards to companies. First of all, you don't sell it to clients, you just do it. Selling it to large website creation companies is trickier, but basically my proposal is to make standards fashionable, after which they sell themselves (I hope).
Business, Society | Permalink
8 May 2007
John Gruber points to some technical aspects of the rumoured Microsoft take-over of Yahoo. Yahoo is a web company that works mostly with open source software. Would Microsoft rewrite all the Yahoo sites in MS technology?
Business | Permalink
Paul Boag continues his treatment of clients and how to deal with them.
Instead of the client issuing a normal invitation to tender (ITT) outlining all of the work that needs to be completed, they would instead issue an ITT for an initial consultancy stage. This mini project would help to define the scope of the actual development work.
Business | Permalink
27 April 2007
Zeldman rocks!
Question: If web design makes the new information age possible—if it creates new markets and new products, generates significant global cash flow, changes the way companies and non-profits interact with the public, and employs untold legions of specialists—why, until now, hasn’t anybody tried to find out more about it as an industry?
Hypothesis: No one has tried to measure web design because web design has been a hidden profession.
He follows up with a few examples. Zeldman is definitely on to something, and I hope he'll continue his investigations. I might even do the same thing on a smaller scale here in Holland, if certain plans I have work out.
Business, Professionalism | Permalink
Paul Boag continues to describe the client's jobs during a website creation project.
Business | Permalink
24 April 2007
Paul Boag on the role of the website owner in the production process. My position used to be "Clients are a necessry evil", but I'm slowly coming around to Paul's point of view of the site owner as an indispensable team member. Now we just have to make sure they understand their role and play it to the hilt.
Business | Permalink
15 April 2007
As it says. Useful advice for newbie freelancers. By now I've learned to avoid the worst breeds.
(Via Jonathan.)
Business | Permalink
25 March 2007
Zeldman on the right way and the wrong way to integrate small but succesful companies in large but static companies.
Business | Permalink
16 March 2007
Zeldman feels independent content is on the rise (again). I feel he's right, but have to make one remark. He says that a year ago everybody (ie. Yahoo, Google, Apple etc.) hired anyone with a nice blog, a SXSW panel, and an A List Apart article to their credit
. True, but that means they are independent content providers. Conclusion: it's not that new.
Web 1.0 is the new Web 2.0. Long live Web 3.0.
Come on Jeffrey, you can make this even more confusing!
Business | Permalink
18 January 2007
Perfect little history lesson. Netscape -> Yahoo -> Google -> Mozilla, and the circle is complete.
Business, History | Permalink
28 May 2006
John Gruber's interesting take on the Microsoft vs. Apple rivalry.
Business | Permalink
This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.
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