BlueprintCSS by Google

Google has come up with a prettty handy tool…

Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your CSS development time. It gives you a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing.

Features:

• An easily customizable grid
• Sensible typography
• Relative font-sizes everywhere
• A typographic baseline
• An extendable plugin system
• Perfected CSS reset
• A stylesheet for printing
• Powerful scripts for customizing your layout
• No bloat of any kind

To read more click here

Google SiteMap (Gasp! I had no idea)

Browsing through some web design articles and I randomly came across this one, posted on Web2.0
I came across some other neat articles written by Web2.0so I added them to my RRS.

Personally, I really like the idea of adding a google map, since my business is home run and also because I would like to go up there in Google ranking (who doesn’t). However, I’m not so keen on people knowing where I live etc…regardless its still a great read for those who don’t mind sharing their address.

Creating a Google SiteMap For Your Work At Home Business Web Page

Search engine traffic is the best traffic You can get for your online Business. So if you are running a Home Based Business with an Online Presence why wouldn’t you do everything possible to gain a Top Search Engine Ranking. One of the Simplest things you can do is Create a Google Site map.

Does Creating a Google Site Map Get you a Higher Google Ranking? Probably not by itself?

Does Creating a Google Site Map and Telling Google About it get your Work at Home Business Web Page Indexed Faster?

Google Visited My Home Based Business Web Page the Same Day I Uploaded my Site Map. I have to believe anything you can do make it easier for Google to Index you will help your Online Business get a Google Ranking. Of Course you need to follow other Google rules regarding content and Back Links

Using the free tools detailed in the 4 steps that follow, you can have a Google Sitemap in less then 10 Minutes and you do not need to know XML.

Step 1 Create a Google Site map Account

The First thing you need to do is create a Google sitemap account. This is as Simple as going to the following websites clicking on create an Account and then just filling in a form (https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login)

Step 2 Create Your Site map

You do not need to know XML to create a Google Sitempap. Not with this free web based tool. Simply go to the below web site type in your domain and it will automatically spider your site and create a Google Site Map for you. http://www.sitemapspal.com/

Step 3 Upload your Site map to Your Web Page

Once you have created an XML Sitemap using the free tool in Step 2 you would just upload it to your web page either by FTP or by using the Cpanel from your Web Host.

Step 4 Add Your SiteMap to Google

The last step in this process is to tell Google about your Sitemap. You simply Log In to your Google site map account and add the URL of you Site Map. Be sure and check back a few hours later to make sure it uploaded correctly. https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

Now be sure and repeat the above 4 Steps whenever you change your website.

Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001, When he built his first Sales organization of over 100,000 Members.

Fundamentals for a good website

A website is like having a business card. Only difference is it’s online, with a lot more information than a business card and no expensive printing involved(yay to that).

Websites are very important in todays marketing strategies. Before getting your business card, people ‘google’ for a website (atleast, thats what I know when I am looking up a new restaurant or someone’s choice recommendations). Your online presence (website) is the first impression you make on potential clients. What kind of impression are you making online?

The following text on what makes a good site, is ofcourse, my opinion and is not written in stone (its been tried and true in my experience).

1. When designing a site, first comes the site map. After this, comes the design (GUI). Design the site keeping in mind one day or the next hour you might have to make some changes or additions to it. Your webpage should consist of the header(with logo), content and footer (somewhere in there should be your navigational buttons).

2. Most people are very visual and like to look at images. Have a good balance between text and images (I strongly recommend hiring a photographer for ‘your’ own shots or open up a stock image account online). If thats still not an option, use colour, just don’t be tacky about it.

3. Once you have text and images which is the meat of the site, make sure you have a good enough whitespace. You need whitespace or some of it so the reader or viewer’s eye isn’t jumping all over the screen.

4. Flash is really nice. My first website was done all flash. I am a fan of it. However, lets not have a million moving things on the website, you might think it’s ‘cool’ but it might just be too distracting and take away from the content on your site. Personally, when I see a lot of moving elements on a site, I think to myself, the company must not be confident about their product and need fancy things to keep the viewers interested.

If you MUST have moving elements or music, minimize as much as you can, otherwise just walk away from it.

5. Make your site accessible. Try some ‘meta-tags‘. Can’t hurt to get yourself some google adwords or those facebook ads. Heck couldn’t hurt to start a blog, visit other blogs and make sure to participate in comments and leave a link to your site.

The Google ‘g’

Over the past month or so, I noticed the lowercase ‘g’ appearing as google’s new favicon. It reminded me of my orange lowercase ‘g’ favicon, with a slight font change…Ofcourse now theres no way to prove I came up with it first and maybe people will be reminded of the google ‘g’ when they see mine and think, ‘hmmmm she must’ve gotten this idea from google’. Anyways, below is an article on the google ‘g’, that I came across on Freelanceuk.

Google uses its ‘g’ for design

Google can be tight-lipped when it comes to talking about its technology so it is refreshing that it does more to undo its secretive ways when it comes to design.

Its users may have spotted that the small icon in their browser next to the URL – known as a favicon – has undergone a nip and tuck, it’s first in fact in over eight years.

The blue lower-case ‘g’ of ‘Google’ has emerged because the company wants its icons to scale better to new platforms like Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices.

Google web designer Michael Lopez said Google has unveiled not just a new favicon, but also a whole new set of logo-based icons that hang together as a unified set.

Over 300 permutations were tried, some of which Google has released, in a “rigorous” design process that was “much harder than we thought at first.”

The process had to be creative because, as Lopez admitted, “we don’t really have a symbol that means Google,” making the Google logo and the letters within the main inspiration.

“We wanted something distinctive and noticeable,” he wrote in a blog post, co-authored by Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products & user experience.

“So we aimed toward transparency or semi-transparency, so the image would have a more distinctive noticeable shape than just a block.

“We wanted something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn’t date itself.”

From the permutations released, it’s clear the ‘block’ design fails to clearly convey the Google brand, as does a single coloured ‘G’ even when a lower case ‘o’ is added.

In fact, observers say the latter approach comes close to resembling the ubiquitous ‘Go’ box seen at the side of any search tab, and forms the name of Web-based and offline companies.

However, there’s no guarantee that the current favicon will be Google’s definitive one, as the company is calling for other doodles which optimise its brand on mobile devices.

“By no means is the one you’re seeing our favicon final; it was a first step to a more unified set of icons,” Lopez said.

“We really value feedback from users and want to hear your ideas that we may have missed. If you have your own notions about the Google favicon, please send them to use. We’ll do our best to work them in, and maybe your idea will be the one that people see billions of times per day.”