About Web Development by Activo » Web-based User Interfaces http://www.activoinc.com/blog Web Development in a Web 2.0 World Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:16:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Google is on a diet! http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/01/google-is-on-a-diet/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/01/google-is-on-a-diet/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:56:26 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=146 It seems like the search giant is going through some housekeeping: laying off 3,000 employees and shutting down over ten of its services. We know from our clients that the first thing in slow times is to shut down the advertisement dollars. I guess, easy to setup and easy to stop, all it takes is a click of a button.

Well, we are seeing the result. Here is a shortlist of the services that Google just stopped offering:

1. Lively – used to be a virtual world kind of like second life. No more.

2. Google Answers – similar to Yahoo Answers. No mas.

3. SearchMash – non Google branded experimental search for design purposes. Gone with the dinosaurs.

4. Page Creator – a simple way to create a simpleton website. Caput.

5. GDrive – allow online storage on Google servers. Negative.

6. Browser Sync – extension for FireFox to synch your browser settings across computers. Belly up.

7. Hello – online photo sharing integrated with Picasa. Dead.

8. SMS – send SMS to a phone from online. Departed.

9. Click to call – was used inside Google Maps. Extinct.

10. Send to phone extension – FireFox extension. Vanished.

11. Related Links – relating links between sites. Defunct.

Now, this is not to say that Google is no longer the search giant. I only suspect that this is a focus shift and we will eventually see many more useful tools and systems come out of Mountain View, CA. Google is still one of the biggest think tanks in the world and did I mention the largest cloud computing network?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/01/google-is-on-a-diet/feed/ 0 jQuery Emerges as Most Popular Javascript Library for Web Development http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/11/03/jquery-emerges-as-most-popular-javascript-library-for-web-development/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/11/03/jquery-emerges-as-most-popular-javascript-library-for-web-development/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:01:50 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=111 It seems to be official: jQuery is gaining ground faster than any other JavaScript Library. There may be many reasons but I like to think that jQuery is leading the pack due to its simplicity and relatively small size. Here is what Google Trends is showing us:

Top Reasons for jQuery’s ground gaining:

  • Simplicity.
  • Small in size: only 15K for latest production release after its minified and gzipped.
  • Extendable: pretty big plugin library. Currently showing hundreds of plugins.
  • CSS3 Compliant and one of the first JS Library to use CSS selectors.
  • Handles AJAX very well while avoiding code bloating.
  • Major adoption by ASP.NET developers and teaming up with ASP.NET’s team for improved integration

jQuery Resources:

Other Javascript Libraries:

All these Javascript frameworks provide the basic idea of single developer resource for cross browser and cross platform JavaScript development. Additionally, all make AJAX a little bit easier:

If you know of any additional interesting jQuery Resources, drop me a line. Thanks!

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/11/03/jquery-emerges-as-most-popular-javascript-library-for-web-development/feed/ 2 First Google Chrome Screenshots http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/09/03/first-google-chrome-screenshots/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/09/03/first-google-chrome-screenshots/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:26:12 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=40 Google Chrome is new (still in beta) and I went a head and installed it on one of our VMs. It seems like a lot of the functionality from the popular Firefox extension ‘FireBug’ is built in. Here are the screen shots:

Google Chrome Screenshot 1: Main Page

Google Chrome Screenshot 1: Main Page

Google Chrome Screenshot 2: Search right from the address bar

Google Chrome Screenshot 2: Search right from the address bar

Google Chrome Screenshot 3: Browsing History

Google Chrome Screenshot 3: Browsing History

Google Chrome Screenshot 4: Incognito Browsing

Google Chrome Screenshot 4: Incognito Browsing

Google Chrome Screenshot 5: Right Clicking a Link Uses Google Gears

Google Chrome Screenshot 5: Right Clicking a Link Uses Google Gears

Google Chrome Screenshot 6: Inspecting Page Elements a-la Firebug

Google Chrome Screenshot 6: Inspecting Page Elements a-la Firebug

Google Chrome Screenshot 7: View Source

Google Chrome Screenshot 7: View Source

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/09/03/first-google-chrome-screenshots/feed/ 2 Inspiring Commentary Article on Web Design Practices http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/08/27/inspiring-commentary-article-on-web-design-practices/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/08/27/inspiring-commentary-article-on-web-design-practices/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:24:39 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=36 Written by Kimberly Elam, Web Design by Design made me think twice before running to draft the next web site design with our designer. This same minimalistic approach of almost too little but just enough to make a clear point approach is great because it begs for more. As Kimberly puts it, the user remains hungry for more information. And guess what they will probably do? call or email for more information!

This article highlites the a similar line of thought for successful web firms: they target what their clients need not what they can do with technology or design. Hence this comes to remind us that websites, in any aspect: design or web development, are here to serve the business. A website is just a tool not the goal.

This comes accross with our line of though at Activo: each one of our proposals begin with what are the goals in this project. In other words, what will we achieve by the following web development project?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/08/27/inspiring-commentary-article-on-web-design-practices/feed/ 0 Free Open Source ICO File Format for Photoshop http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/03/25/free-open-source-ico-file-format-for-photoshop/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/03/25/free-open-source-ico-file-format-for-photoshop/#comments Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:25:48 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/03/25/free-open-source-ico-file-format-for-photoshop/ Once in a blue moon, a web developer will need to format or re-work the favicon for the website they are working on. What are the alternatives? Download a shareware from download.com. Any of those applications will need installation. Most people start complaining within a month or even a week if they haven’t purchased a license. I always try to avoid such ad-hoc installations, because you never know what else you might be installing on your machine. In other words, it’s not safe or stable.
open source file format plugin for Photoshop
A nice, free, and open source alternative is the open source file format plugin for Photoshop. This little plug-in works on Mac, PC, and even VISTA platforms. It supports Photoshop versions up to CS2. If you have Photoshop installed on your machine, all you have to do is download the zip, and copy the plugin (1 file) into the right folder. On my laptop the path to the folder was:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Plug-Ins\File Formats

Reopen your Photoshop and you are done! drag and drop the ico file or save your image as (use “Save As…”) and choose the ICO file format.

If editing icons were a bit easier than playing with pixels. On a side note, what happened to the transparency with icons? That’s a question for another day..

Most Commected Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/03/25/free-open-source-ico-file-format-for-photoshop/feed/ 0