I came, I saw, I conquered --Samachar.com homepage takeover ads

Original source: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Julius Caesar quotes (Roman general and statesman, 100-44 B.C.). Thinkexist.com

But the landing page of a website makes a visitor think, I came, I saw and I was... (visualize what you see, below)
See Samachar.com's landing (home page) as seen on 27th April, 2013--not sure if it is virus or design or whatever



A Cached copy of the Samachar on 25, April, 2013



On the same shelf:

Sify Technologies Launches iOS News App Samachar; Our Take

Don't visit samachar.com - WMF virus

Warning from Google regarding the Bombay Samachar Website--- I will not be sending any Parsi news from Bombay Samachar this weekend until this problem is resolved ---

Online link Scan finds no virus on 28th April, 2013:

Reviewing website: Best Practices

Here is a best practice approach in evaluating Website:

Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology ( WCAG-EM ) @ W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Draft 7 February 2013

Application of this Methodology
The methodology defined by this document is flexible to allow its implementation in different situations and contexts. It is not required to carry out any of the steps and activities defined by this methodology in any particular sequence. For proper application of this methodology, use all the following Methodology Requirements:

1: Define the Evaluation Scope
2: Explore the Target Website
3: Select a Representative Sample
4: Audit the Selected Sample
5: Report the Evaluation Findings

Results, reports, accessibility statements, and performance scores can only be claimed to be in accordance with this methodology when the evaluation carried out meets these Methodology Requirements.

See also Google's approach
See also: Other best practices, worth visualizing:

Visual Appeal

What or Personality

Where or Design & Layout

How or Reader Usability

Why or Functionality

Meeting browser / visitor expectations, Adapted from: graphic-design.com

When or Interactive Features (dynamic not static)

Which or Content (and context)

Why or Layout (and site plan),Adapted from: Yellow Bridge Interactive's Checklist

How to use the Website

 Website of the Month guidelines ACRL

2013 Annual Website Review Checklist (with metrics to measure web sights)

Website Title, Website URL, Category to which it belongs (using a self designed or Library of Congress categories)

Overall Rating:
5 star- This website is really good! It doesn't need any changes.
4 star- The website is good. I would only change a few things.
3 star- The website is okay. It could use some major changes.
2 star- The website is bad. It needs a lot of improvement to be good.
1 star- The website is awful. I will never visit it again.
Adapted from: Review A Website | SmartGirl Suggests

ForeSee Survey names best and worst websites

PS. This is not my review. Courtesy: TIMES OF INDIA and cuhea.com. Web Outperforms Mobile; Amazon, Avon, Apple Debut on Top of Retail Edition of ForeSee Mobile Satisfaction Index: ForeSee Results See more details:

Online shopping: Survey names best and worst websites

Amazon.com remained the best website for shopping online, while JC Penney suffered the largest drop in customer satisfaction of any major online retailer this holiday season, according to a survey released on Thursday. Flash sale sites Gilt.com and RueLaLa.com were among the worst performers in online shopping satisfaction this season, according to ForeSee's Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index. continue reading

Apple scores big bump in customer satisfaction

Review of a Website - A good example

Note: This review is not from my desktop.

This site has been removed: learn.senecac.on.ca/~mehedder/TCS301/Assignment1.html
Extract:
First Impression: I found this webpage to be very bright upon first look. There is some extreme detail, and the picture of the falls is as beautiful as in real life.
Navigation: The webpage was relatively easy to follow. Everything was broken down in categories so it was easy to manoeuvre your way through the site.
Current Information: The website was extremely up to date including upcoming events on dates from February onwards.
Problems Observed: The only problem that I found with this website is that it was completely in English. I know that the majority of people do speak English however, because Canada’s two National languages are French and English I think it should have the option for the site to be displayed in French.
Useful applications for customers: Some useful applications for customers that I noticed were links to tourism information (for where to eat, shop and stay), Transit information, event calendars, and a section called visitor’s favourites.
E-Commerce considerations: There are links on the website so clients can look at and select hotel packages and purchase online, so I would not change anything in this section.
Additional Comments: I was really impressed with the website’s ability to make myself able to find everything that I was looking for.
Improvements: Although the site was very interesting and helpful, it may have been a bit too busy, so I may have taken the clutter down one step by removing a few things from the front page and replacing them with links.
Rating: ***

Google Adsense Appears Anywhere, Anyhow

Thinking about competitive intelligence I have a moment's reflection. The question here is: How do businesses deal with competitors, and how they avoid each other? I found a search engine. In this context, isn't it against benchmarks of best practice in business management that Google Adsense should not be seen where Google is invisible. A competitor of Google, a less popular search engine, shows results from all other sources (READ AGAIN: it is minus Google) and has Google ads, the search engine is called Minus Google

And, about this new born minus-google, a news headlines says: Finnish blogger amputates Google from Google: A road map for regulators of the future, By Cade Metz in San Francisco


And, another question is: Why Does Google Allow Ads for AdSense Ready Websites?

Search for something like "work from home", "Internet jobs" or "make money online" on Google and you’ll see a flood of ads promising easy money through the AdSense program.
If you have ever tried AdSense on a site, you probably know how tough it is to make that first dollar but these ads, which are surprisingly served on the Google network itself, make things look so simple. Just order an "AdSense kit" for a few dollars and the money will start rolling in. continue reading: Digital Inspiration.

See also: The Google-Yahoo! agreement and the future of internet advertising hearing before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, July 15, 2008.

  Any clue, or at least a response to this reflection?

How would you rate this situation that lets web visitors decide layoff

PS. As an independent market researcher and not paid by any to do so, I would highly appreciate your opinion on this technique:



In news today:
Ad agency lets web visitors decide layoff
Dec 21, 2008 04:30 AM

Susan Pigg LIVING REPORTER @ The Toronto Star
"A Brussels advertising agency has come up with a novel, new-age solution to the economic downturn – a social layoff site of sorts where you can help decide, with a click, which of its eight employees should be laid off come January.
"Take your courage in one hand and your mouse in the other," says the ironically named company, So Nice, which has created a website that's the online equivalent of The Apprentice – minus the limo rides and the rich rewards." continue reading

See also what comments are @ The Toronto Star +++ Snopes.com

NB. Thanks to BPWebNews for the polldady's lead

Txtng: The Gr8 Db8

Today's find, is a book that is saying 'text messaging demystified.' Read the following and you will get a glimpse of this message: The Myths of Texting Posted by Kent Anderson

"Text messages continue to impress and confound (a recent use for announcing a vice-presidential pick is a good example). Today, texting has evolved (thank to Twitter and others) into networked microblogging.
A new book by David Crystal entitled “txtng: the gr8 db8” brings data and a healthy dose of reality to the subject.
For instance, I was surprised to learn that in 2006 text services generated $70 billion in revenues, 3 times the total box office for all Hollywood studios that year." continue reading

Researchers offer new way to avoid bogus websites

By Jordan Robertson, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Intercepting Internet traffic, and spying on the communication between two computers, is a gold mine for hackers. Now Carnegie Mellon University researchers hope software they've built will make it harder for criminals to hit that jackpot.

The software, a free download for use with latest version of the Firefox Web browser, creates an additional way for people to verify whether the site they're trying to visit is authentic. continue reading @ USATODAY.com

see also: Mememoir: The Radical Scientific Wiki Engine

About Link Evaluator at OCLC's Openly Informatics

Info courtesy: Stephen Francoeur @ Digital Reference, Firefox extensions I can't live without

• Link Evaluator [OCLC - Openly Informatics]

see also:

• LinkChecker 0.6.1 @ Kevin A. Freitas

• Review: Web Link Validator, @ webreference.com By Lee Underwood

• Link Checker :: Webmaster Toolkit

• Watch videos @ YouTube: Link Builder Program Evaluating The Quality of a Link - Part 1 Evaluating The Quality of a Link - Part 2

Creating a Website that Works

PS. I have seen a lot of stuff on how to start and how to do defense driving. The following article is, nevertheless, one of the best and most precise.

Five Easy Steps to Starting Your Web Page

From Jennifer Kyrnin,
Your Guide to Web Design / HTML.

Ideas for Content On Your Site

If you are just starting out on the HTML trail, there are several steps you can take to create your first Web page. Keep in mind that this is not a tutorial, but it will help you get started with your Web page.

1. Discover the theme or content of your site.
2. Determine what type of tools you will use to create your pages.
3. Learn HTML or your editing software
4. Find a place to put your page.
5. Let people know about your site.... click here, for the highly illustrated article
   

NB. If the above this sounds too much, go fly and sign up for a blog with blogger or wordpress and you will find much of this is easy to learn as you get set go.

see also:

• 5 Things You Should Avoid in web design

• What they didn't tell you about blogging

• 25 Basic Styles of Blogging

• 5 Reasons to Update Your Blog

• Hyderabadiz Bloggers Carnival - final call

• Hamara Blog sab se bindas

Top 25 Nursing Blogs (By the Numbers) - Webmetrics revisited

PS. Web metrics (or Web analytics) applied to blogosphere is attracting the interest of many quantitative and qualitative visualizers. Here is one such by Rod @ Informaticopia:

"The Nursing Online Education Database has recently published their collection of the Top 25 Nursing Blogs

I think the piece highlights some difficult methodological challenges in assessing the "reach" of various web 2.0 technologies.

In ranking the top nurse blogs, their goal was to show — using objective data from reliable third-parties — which blogs are the most popular, according to visitor traffic and site backlinks. To this end, we used data for these four metrics to calculate the rankings: ... continue reading

See also:

• Web Analytics @ information visualization Blog
• CRITIQUE MY BLOG!
• Visualizing Traffic At My Blog Via Mapping The Pathways
• Visualizing Comments on Blogs

Energy-saving Google black screen version - Blackle

Due to a demand from energy conscious users, Google have created a new black screen version of their site called Blackle on www.blackle.com. If everybody used it instead of the white version, it is estimated that 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.

See also:

Blackle.com: Energy Saving Screen.....Bahhhhhhhhh!!!!

In the spirit of this, CableOrganizer has taken to some additional testing methodologies with regard to the internet. Some of these have some very real world ecological implications. On this occassion, we've taken to getting to the real story behind Blackle.com.

Microsoft surface,Flickr and Blackle

Best Practices in Book Marketing

Interesting insight and Web sight of authors to promote books: