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

Why library websites don’t win awards

NB. Posted with permission from the author: Laura Solomon






On the same shelf:

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: ***

Blog Reviews - Success With Languages

About the Site:
Success With Languages is an educational site. The subject of the site is about the childhood experiences with language, thought and society (some may call this Socio/Psycho-linguistics, some others prefer to name it as: Comparative Linguistics).

"This blog aims to help language learners in any level the owner of the weblog is a trilingual parent who has lived and worked with more than 4 languages for more than 40 years. She shares her journey from the eyes of the child and how using simple childhood methods, to live with languages."

How much is the traffic, one word: terrific:

APPEARANCE (layout, colour, positioning and style)
Overall Appearance = 9
Layout = 9
Color Scheme/Theme = 9.5
Headings/Font = 8
Ease Of Navigation = 8
Loading Time = 9

CONTENT (text and images and context)
Quality = 9
Quantity = 10
Spelling/Grammar = 9
Content Interest = 8.5
Theme Continuity = 9
Use Of Pictures/Video = 8.5

MISCELLANEOUS
Reader Interaction = 9.5
Incentive To Return = 8.5
Active Links = 9.5
Accessibility = 9
TOTAL = 143/160
[e-metrics / benchmarks courtesy: jennij]

Recommendation:

Technical: Generate a site map (they say it is good for search engine optimisation), or a detailed menu or cloud to visualize what is all hidden in layers and pages.

In short, the site is focused, updates quite often, encourages readers to be loyal and return for another glance / round trip. The site needs some cleanup to be able to navigate freely.

The content is well written, with no communication errors, whatsoever. The posts have a catchy heading. The design may need some alteration in order to display a distinction between: a) internal and external links, and b) commercial ads from professional content--some say ads are OK so long as they are not a barrier to your site's goal (see the other side). Overall the site is simply impressive and reveals the authors passion to be the best in this field!

On the same shelf:

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

A Universal / Global Search Engine Remains an Elusive Target

Terminology, with a uniform and consistent meaning of any word, where is it???? 'Universal search' for instance, as a key word means different to different people, so also for the geeks. Ideally speaking, universal / global search, refers to searching deep, searching far, and searching wide--i.e., searching all databases, all formats, and all possible corners. A single company that declares has an audacious plan to organize everything we know is, Google. How complex and how difficult, semantically, it is to organize everything we know, is now a common sense--ORGANIZE in order to identify, store, retrieve, administer, and facilitate the use of local, remote, and networked databases.

Mighty Google (the world's most popular Internet search engine) does not display a uniform, consistent and systematic approach (in all domains that it owns). See an example of search results (number of search results look alike, but see the preferences for text, videos, Sponsored Links / ads, etc.) in google.co. in / google.ca / google.co.uk / google.com--additionally, each site has much more (to add whatever you like): Images Maps News Shopping Gmail more ▼. [Note: To avoid any error in search results, the above sample does not use the alternate button: pages from the ...]

And, this pattern is precisely revealed by Randall Stross, in Planet Google:

"Not only did Google fail to give consistent attention to products after they had been released, it also neglected work on bringing its disparate collections of new types of information--such as books, scholarly journals, maps, videos--together so that a single search could rummage through all of its new information silos, in addition to its database of Web pages.
Users could, of course, go to the various Google sites and do separate searches, but the sites had been developed separately, in haste, before Google could figure out how to make all of them accessible in a single search..."
"Between 2001 and 2006, several Google engineers briefly took on universal search as a project. But they lost interest before making progress." (p. 182). "In May 2007, Google was ready to announce a limited version of Universal Search.
The search results that users now saw were changed only subtly--only a few non-Web items were added to the first page of search results...." (p. 183).

Some other quotes on Universal / Global approaches:

"Universal Search is still one of those buzz words that keeps coming up within the world of search. By now, many of you probably know that Universal Search refers to search results that blend videos, images, news, local listings and more. Each of the major search engines are taking a stab at their own interpretation of Universal Search. From an online marketing perspective, Universal Search presents many new opportunities to explore and learn what works best in each platform for a site..." continue reading: Ask universal search • Google universal search • MSN universal search • universal search • Yahoo universal search

"Just so I'm clear, I don't care if Google automatically skews the results on google.co.uk even if I do NOT change to see "pages from the UK."
I'm in the UK. I know most people will automatically be redirected to co.uk, and many won't change to .com. I also know many will benefit from having the results be skewed, since they won't do it themselves.
But if I tune into Google.com, that's where I find it strange to have the skewing happen anyway. As far as I'm concerned, Google.com is the international channel that many people all tune into from various locations. Having it broadcast different results is inconsistent, I feel. But that's my take, of course" @ What Do You Hate About Google? - Search Engine Watch Forums

See also:

Google Universal Search vs Yahoo and Microsoft Live - Part 1 » SEO ...

Whaddya Call It? All-a-do-about terminology management   

Google in Jeopardy: What If IBM’s Watson Dethroned the King of Search?  By Vasant Dhar, 10.05.13 Wired Opinion

eMetrics or Web-Metrics or Webometrics - A new book for Library & Information Professionals

Web-metrics or Web analytics as a term is yet to get a standard and acceptable name (aka. Webometrics, Webmetrics, emetrics, etc.). Interentingly, Library of Congress prefers for a book on e-metrics a subject heading, such as: Web usage mining.

The other subject headings for a book on e-metrics are:

• Digital libraries --Collection development --Statistical methods.
• Electronic information resources --Use studies.

I am reading, now, E-metrics for Library and Information Professionals: How to Use Data for Managing and Evaluating Electronic Resource Collections ~ Andrew C. White

My 2 cents: This is an excellent book, easy to read, thematically organized, and focused exclusively on developing metrics for library's electronic resources. Those who were used to user-studies, traditional library use-studies, library performance measurements, and quantitative methods, so on and so forth will find in this book great help to move forward (and thereby get to know some newer ways of looking at numbers and use behavior of the digital citizens). Highly recommend to any librarian / techie / information professional and interested in virtual library collections, Web Analytics, library management, etc.

On the same shelf: Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives

see here: Cyber Worship: Website Evaluation - Questionnaire and Survey Results 314-324.

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