TMD - Gold Coast Web Development Blog

Australian YouTube Paid Search Unveiled

2009-11-04T09:06:00.000+10:00

Today YouTube, the video sharing giant, introduced a new Australian feature called the Promoted Video’s service; which promises to allow potential advertisers to target keywords that are related to their video in a bid to get YouTube users to click on them.

The Promoted Video’s service is said to work the same way as Google AdWords, with users of the service “bidding” on keywords, with that bid being subtracted from their budget every time their ad is clicked.

The Promoted Videos are said to be placed with two appearing at the top of a search result, and eight appearing down the side.

This new service YouTube has enabled for Australian users has greatly enhanced YouTube’s ability to help users reach their target audience in a cost effective and efficient way.

Facebook forces privacy review

2009-09-02T14:15:00.000+10:00

One of the internet’s largest social networking sites, Facebook, of which over 7.7 million Australians visit every month, is forcing all of their users to review their privacy settings.

The forced review is in the wake of a number of events that have called into question what Facebook intends to do with all of their users account data; the major incident causing this being an investigation by the Canadian Government’s Privacy commission.

The inquiry by the privacy commission resulted in several privacy violations; mostly to do with application developers’ "virtually unrestricted access to Facebook users' personal information."

According to Facebook, the features of the site that are set to see changes will be the explanations that users get as to why Facebook needs their information – for example, there’s no information given as to why the website needs to know your date of birth.

Applications will also be effected by these changes, instead of the simple “Allow” or “Cancel” choices you get when installing an application; there will be more detailed information that will specify exactly what information of yours the application will be accessing – and why.

The Canadian Privacy commission is happy with the proposed changes, and says that it will help protect Facebook user’s privacy globally. Facebook has said that the planned changes are to happen immediately, but won’t be completed for about a year.

Twitter to cash in on businesses

2009-08-31T12:21:00.000+10:00

The incredibly popular micro blogging service Twitter, which has been unable to yet turn a profit, is planning to generate income from Twitter by the end of the year; says Biz Stone, who is Twitter’s co-founder.

There are a few ways that Twitter can start turning a profit, and they all involve charging businesses that use Twitter.

One method that Mr Stone has proposed is simply charging a fee to their business users; while another way of making money from Twitter is charging businesses for an optional premium service, which lets them view more detailed information about Twitter users.

The news of Twitters planned monetisation was coupled with the news that location based features will be added to the service, which will let Twitter users see where “tweets” are being sent from; and allow businesses and people to track “tweets” coming from specific cities and neighbourhoods.

Is Rupert Shooting Himself in the Foot?

2009-08-31T11:36:00.005+10:00

Rupert Murdoch’s announcement that News Ltd will start charging consumers for online news is a bold strategy – but will it work? There is no doubting that the traditional media outlets are hurting, and they are hurting bad: profits falling, circulations falling and staff getting the chop. Things are so bad Fairfax Chief Executive Brian McCarthy has even floated the idea of holding talks with rivals News Ltd to “join forces” to charge for news online
(http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25975971-643,00.html).

The news organisations are partly to blame for this great calamity - years ago when the internet was in its infancy, the newspapers thought, hey! let’s start putting our content online for free, surely that would never affect our circulation.

So is charging users access to online news content the great saviour for the media outlets?

I think that there are three BIG problems that need to be solved here:

Users HATE paying for content that they can get for free elsewhere such as ABC Online.

As soon as they start charging for content, page impressions are going to fall, causing a drop in advertising.

When they start charging – will they still run advertisements?

So here are some of the solutions that I thought would be worth considering:

Offer a premium service for content, i.e. no ads, faster access, premium content such as video. The existing service stays, but with ads.

Data costs money, specifically if you are using a phone to access the site. Consider striking a deal with the major telco networks (such as Telstra), that will give paying users unlimited downloads from the news site. If you can convince users that they are already “paying” for accessing the site through download charges, and transfer this cost – the user won’t end up paying any more for it.

If they are still running a free service, consider some kind of user registration process (this may be basic). As part of this process, get some basic demographic details – details that will help advertisers target their audience more effectively (Facebook for example does this quite effectively). The current way banner advertising works is a very shotgun approach - advertisers can be charged more for less impressions if they know their ads are hitting their target audience.

This is BIG wakeup call for the rest of the media industry (especially the broadcast media) – so they should start making plans now, because the internet in 5-6 years is going to erode your market share.

New Opera browser in the works

2009-08-26T15:58:00.000+10:00

The web browser Opera, which debuted in 1994 as a research project by a Norwegian telecom company, is set to release a new iteration of their popular browser: Opera 10 which is currently in the testing phase and is soon to be released.

Opera has some features that are unique to the browser, such as mouse gestures, which allow you to perform actions such as opening a new tab, by making a special movement with the mouse. Opera is also able to be controlled via voice commands.

There are also some new features that are to be implemented with Opera 10, with one of them being the much anticipated ‘Turbo’ mode, which is designed to speed up slow connections by compressing network traffic, a feature that could help many Australians still stuck on dialup internet.

From a web development perspective, Opera has always been a good choice for a browser, as it adheres strictly to the World Wide Web Consortium’s guidelines. Opera 10 promises to be even better, as it has many bug fixes, operates much faster than previous versions, and has many new web development tools.

Google unveils new search algorithm

2009-08-12T16:33:00.006+10:00

The web giant Google revealed its new search algorithm on Monday, which is a next-generation architecture called ‘Caffeine’.

Caffeine, which the team at Google have been silently slaving away on for months, promises to increase the search engines indexing speed, indexing size and accuracy; which should mean better results in the long term for Google searches.

There have been suggestions that this release is due to pressure from new competitors in the search engine industry, which Google has dominated in recent years.
However, Google has denied these claims saying that the upgrade has been in the works for months.

It is interesting to note that when we performed some searches here at Trent Moffatt Designs on Google’s test site; such as ‘Web Development Gold Coast’ and ‘Gold Coast Web’ we have had very different search engine results compared to what we get on the current search engine at Google.com.

There is currently a sandbox for the new algorithm, which can be viewed and tested at: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/.

Twitter DDoS

2009-08-10T15:32:00.000+10:00

Two days ago the social networking website, Twitter experienced a massive DDoS (denial of service) attack that took down the website and forced the millions of people that use the service unable to tweet.

A DDoS attack is a means of forcing a website down by delivering more traffic than they can handle, which disallows people who want to use the website for legitimate reasons to do so.
The DDoS attack that caused Twitter’s outage was traced back to a specific profile on Twitter; that of a Georgia supporter called ‘Cyxymu’, who was tweeting in support of Georgia in the Russia/Georgia conflict.

The attack was reportedly coming from computers around the globe, and not only hit Twitter but also other social networking websites such as Facebook and Livejournal, where ‘Cyxymu’ also had profiles, causing slowdown and issues.
Twitter is still battling the ongoing DDoS attack, which has led to them having to disable some parts of their API in defence, leaving some third party applications not working for the time being.

It is interesting to note that the profile has grown from 300 followers to about 3,000, a sign of the ‘Streisand effect’, which is where an attempt to censor or remove information from the web backfires and actually makes that information more exposed than it ever would have been if attempts to censor it had not have proceeded in the first place.

The Streisand effect was famously coined after singer Barbra Streisand sued Pictopia.com for $50 million in an attempt to get an aerial photo of her house removed from a freely viewable database of photos of the Californian coastline; which existed to document erosion of said coastline.
The court case backfired, and millions of people have now viewed the photo.

You can view the notorious Twitter profile here: http://twitter.com/cyxymu

Fastest rising searches for 09.

2009-07-29T15:30:00.002+10:00

Last year it was all about Heath, Barrack and iPhones, but Google released this week the top ten fastest rising search terms for 2009.

So the top ten are (drum roll):

Swine Flu (lets be alert but not alarmed about this one!)
Susan Boyle
Masterchef
Stimulus Package (I wonder what “other” results were returned?)
Wimbledon
Twitter
bing
one hd
afl fixture 2009
bruno

So why is this important?

From Google’s Blog:

Because people use Google to search for what's new and interesting, trends in search terms are a good reflection of what's been on everybody's minds so far this year.

Search volume trends can also be a glimpse of people’s response to a changing world around them, especially in light of the unprecedented global economic events. (According to research conducted by Monash's Australian Centre for Retail Studies, 50% of people research their purchases and decisions online before purchasing).

You can read more at Google’s Australia blog. Also its worth checking out Google Insights For Search, which allows you to track search terms and their popularity over the last 12 months.

Could Bing become Microsoft’s Search Saviour?

2009-07-28T18:41:00.003+10:00

It is no real secret that Live Search didn’t seem to live up to Microsoft’s expectations. Now with the recent launch of their Bing search engine it would appear that MS would like to rectify things. They have come out somewhat “guns blazing” with their not subtle pokes at Google in their recent campaign of American TV commercials, with the theme being “Search Overload”.

Watch one of the commercials here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIxfk3hS0uU

It seems that MS are really trying to brand themselves something here, titling Bing’s easy all-in-one style search as a “decision engine”.

Any seasoned web searcher knows that Google offers the same features as Bings, i.e. weather, movie times etc. and it doesn’t look like Google are too shaken by MS’s new search revamp. After all, as of last month (June 2009) Google still held almost 75% of US search engine share. http://www.flickr.com/photos/searchengineland/3704354971/

At the end of the day, it really is up to the users to decide, and the advertising that Microsoft is employing is sure to make regular users more aware of their search engine than ever.

While Google sometimes seems unstoppable, Bing just may win Microsoft back some of the Search Engine Market Share it seems to desire.

Australian Anthill no longer producing Print Version.

2009-07-24T16:34:00.002+10:00

It was interested to see today, that Australian Anthill Magazine (a magazine covering 'fast growth' business) has stopped producing its print version after 6 years, instead deciding to focus its attention on its online activities.

In a message to subscribers, founder James Tuckerman said:

This year, our evolution has continued, heavily influenced by the state of the economy and reader migration online – forcing us to question our identity and plans for the future.

Anthill has always prided itself on its ability to embrace change – we are advocates of change – despite the hardship, cynicism, criticism and just plain confusion that change causes. This is one of those occasions.

You read more at Mumbrella
Also check out Australia Anthill

Police raid “rave” after viewing on facebook

2009-07-20T16:28:00.001+10:00

Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook in recent years have grown at extraordinary rates, allowing millions of people to communicate. However, it’s not just the public that has caught on to this fad; riot police, arrived by helicopter, dressed in full suits of camouflaged body armour stormed Andrew Poole's 30th birthday party in the small village of Exeter, Devon in Britain it was advertised on Facebook as an ‘overnight’ event.

The police say that the reason for their intrusion was that the birthday event that Andrew had sent to his friends on Facebook – of which 17 people had confirmed, was posted as an overnight event which police somehow interpreted as a rave.

This then prompted the response the police cars, riot van and a helicopter.

Stories like this show just how powerful a tool social networking is, but it also is a warning to people on how the information that they provide to websites such as Facebook can be viewed by entities other than which you may have intended.

While this may be an extreme case, I suspect that this will not be the first time authorities will use social networking in order to try and reduce crime.

For more information on the story visit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200310/Police-raid-30th-birthday-barbecue-man-used-Facebook-invite-friends.html

Will the National Broadband network spell the end of Free to Air Television?

2009-06-01T19:21:00.002+10:00

Will the new national broadband network (NBN) spell the end of Free to Air TV and pay TV? David Braue from Zdnet seems to think so, and I tend to agree with him. To quote an old TV Ad, it may not happen overnight but it will happen.
More at Davids blog here

Treading carefully - Who you should accept as friends on facebook.

2009-05-28T15:45:00.007+10:00

Facebook is a great social networking tool - and offers many benefits such as sharing photos, keeping friends in the loop, inviting people to events and a lot more! However have you been selective in accepting "friends" or have you been accepting willy nilly every friend invitation?

If you haven't been selective (or at least making sure you know the people who you have accepted as a friend) - you could find yourself in the position of a women living in Switzerland. She has recently lost her job after her employers noticed she was updating her facebook profile (at home) when she had claimed to be too ill with a migraine to use a computer. She said the company had created a fictitious Facebook persona which become "friends" with her, allowing the company to monitor her online activity.

But the company says it followed a simple logic: that those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine.

So should you accept invitations from your clients, suppliers or employers (or even your employees!)? To be honest I am not overly sure if this is a great idea. If you're happy with the fact that a client, customer or supervisor / boss can take a look at what shananigans you got up to on the weekend then go ahead - but I know many people would feel uncomfortable about it.

And this just doesn't apply to Facebook either. Whatever you post online is accessible by everyone (including prospective new employers!).

Leslie Nassar, a former Telstra employee had a very public spat with his employer over his fake Stephen Conroy account on Twitter, and ended up leaving (or possibly fired) due to his comments.

I guess the moral to all of this is:

a. Be careful what you post
b. Consider who can access what you post.

60% of new twitter users don't come back.

2009-04-29T17:37:00.004+10:00

Apparently more than 60% of Twitter users have stopped using the service a month after joining, according to Nielsen Online research released on Tuesday.

"Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty. Or in other words, Twitter's audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month's users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 per cent". David Martin From Neilsen Online.

This may be related to the massive hype around twitter, and the rush of customers who are joining twitter without really understanding what it is all about or the benefits of using this service.

For those that don't know what Twitter is - its a free micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). For those users who are on Facebook - a good analogy would be updating your "status".

From a (business) perspective here are some good examples of using twitter

Get Feedback on your products, services or marketing campaign
Hire staff
Drive traffic to your website
Customer Notifications (telstra uses twitter for this)
Event Updates

Also from a personal perspective

Read news ("tweets" often contain links to other interesting material)
Make friends and influence people
Network with other like minded people.

Internet Explorer 8 kills older version.

2009-04-15T16:52:00.002+10:00

Microsoft has announced that from next week, it will begin deploying its Internet Explorer 8 browser to the majority of users via its Automatic Update.

The release of Internet Explorer 8 *should* make building standard compliant browsers a lot easier, so this move by Microsoft is being celebrated by Web Developers world wide (certainly this developer is very happy right now!)

Its a big plus for clients as well, as newer methodologies (resulting in better websites) can be used with more confidence.

You can read more at Zdnet

Winner of $4.7 Billion National Broadband Network to be announced.

2009-03-31T16:36:00.003+10:00

The Federal Government expects to announce the winner of its $4.7 billion National Broadband Network contract next week, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said today.
With Telstra excluded from the race, industry speculation has centered around the possible collapse of the tender process. Read more at zdNet

State of Gold Coast Web Development

2009-03-20T11:36:00.002+10:00

We just posted an interesting article on our site, regarding the State of Web Development on the Gold Coast. Hope you find it interesting!

Microsofts IE8 Incompatible List - 2400 sites (and counting!)

2009-02-24T20:53:00.004+10:00

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) promises to be the most standards compliant browser ever released by Microsoft. However its a catch 22. Web developers have always had to apply work arounds (or hacks) to their site to get them to display properly under previous versions of IE, however now that IE is closer to standard complaints, these sites are now not displaying (rendering) properly under the new IE8 (to be released later this year).

In effort to work around this issue, Microsoft has compiled a list of high traffic sites that aren't rendering properly (some of these include Microsoft portals such as Ninemsn) . Users will be able to download a compatibility list, that will force IE out of standards mode (hence will make the site render properly).

This tactic is going to ease the pain when IE8 is properly released, however there are going to be alot of sites out there that still aren't going to render properly.

This new browser is going to cause some pain, (especially to the web development community) but I think its a major step in the right direction and as more users adopt the new browser - the better the web will become!

Facebook Myspace removing death threats to Arsonist

2009-02-18T09:42:00.002+10:00

Facebook and MySpace today confirmed they were removing content about accused Victorian arsonist Brendan Sokaluk from their sites, following public requests from the Victorian Police.

Sokaluk is accused of starting the Churchill-Jerralang fires in Gippsland which killed at least 11 people and has been charged by police on several counts.

Sokaluks lawyer Julian McMahon commented "Facebook groups were ... showing my client's photo and calling for his torture and death," and "There have been ... threats made to one other family member at least that I'm aware of."

Read more at zdNet

Google Maps used to track Bushfires in Victoria

2009-02-12T09:05:00.002+10:00

Google Australia engineers have created a Flash map to keep track of the deadly bushfires ravaging south-eastern Australia and help reduce the traffic burden to official sites coordinating emergency services.
The fires, which have tragically claimed more than 100 lives, are being tracked in real time with information provided by the state of Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) via an RSS feed.
Read more at BuilderAU or check it out here

Google Earth Goes underwater!

2009-02-04T12:27:00.004+10:00

Google has just released Version 5 of its popular Google Earth Software.

Probably the coolest development of the software is that you now have the ability to view and interact with 3D maps of the ocean floor. This data has been collected from a variety sources, however the largest contributor was the US Navy (so no doubt its pretty up to date!).

Google has also partnered with National Geographic,the BBC and Cousteau’s Ocean World which provides additional info such global fishing crisis to footage of shipwrecks. Marine life census data and scientific expeditions amongst other things (our client the Marine Teachers Ass of Queensland is going to go bananas over this!).

launch of beadID

2009-01-28T07:43:00.003+10:00

We launched the beadID website last week, and we are (and they are) stoked it with it. It has some great functionality such as reviews, the usual eCommerce suite, and content management. I also really dig this site as it has the eCom feel, whilst still balancing visually.

A bit of a rundown:
beadID was brought about by two teachers who were frustrated at having to wear unattractive fabric lanyards to carry school ID passes, classroom keys, whistles and USBs.

Check out their stylish range (and website) at http://www.beadid.com.au/

Is it possible to make money online

2009-01-22T19:50:00.002+10:00

I was recently interviewed for Isitpossibletomakemoneyonline.com. You can listen to it here.
Check out some of the other offerings as well!

Welcome to 2009

2009-01-14T18:51:00.003+10:00

Well I hope everyone had a relaxing break over the chrissy holidays. Me? I just pretty much cruised around the Gold Coast with friends, drinking large quantities of the amber beverage!

What is planned for 2009 for Trent Moffatt Designs? Well we've got a new Content Management System on the way for starters (its very sexy), and a couple other exciting product offerings on their way.

Stay tuned!

Facebook used to track debtor

2008-12-16T13:02:00.002+10:00

It shows the age we live in : a Canberra lawyer who won the right to serve legal documents on two defendants via Facebook says courts around the country will follow his lead. Is there anything facebook cannot do? Read more at Ninemsn

Internet Filtering a Joke

2008-12-10T13:17:00.004+10:00

The Federal Government wants to introduce an ISP (Internet Service Provider) filter that will make it apparently "safer" for Australian family's to browse the internet. Sounds good in practice right? Well actually this plan has some serious technical, financial, ethical and legal problems.

Here is an interview with The leaders of three of Australia's largest internet service providers — Telstra Media's Justin Milne, iiNet's Michael Malone and Internode's Simon Hackett taken from Zdnet:

Latest Edition URL

2008-12-04T11:38:00.005+10:00

Hey all! We just released our 12th edition of our eNewsletter (URL). Wow its been going now for almost 2 years!!

In this edition we're talking about

Also a big plug for our our Clients: MyLookBook, they've been announced as one of the finalists in the Cleo Blogger of the Year Competition. You can also read Krista's (owner of MLB) thoughts on blogging here , or check out her blog here. Also don't forget to vote at Cleo's Blogger of the year here.

Well thats it for now - happy web developing!

It's been a while between drinks

2008-11-20T17:32:00.004+10:00

Yes I know we haven't updated our blog for a while.... Yours truly just got back from a trip to Europe enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes (i.e Oktoberfest). But it is nice to be back on the Gold Coast and back into web developing.

We've got the latest edition of URL (our eNewsletter) coming out next week (will post links on this blog), and we'll be talking about taking Online Payments, Silverlight, Whether websites should be a fixed width or not a fixed width amongst other things.

Something that is a big plus for one our Clients: mylookbook.com.au has just been announced as a finalist in the Cleo Magazine Next Top Blogger Competition! Just click on the link below and please vote if you think it deserves to win!!!

http://www.cleo.com.au/top_blogger_finalists.htm
Just click on the “Enter It” button at the bottom of all the Blogs.

This demonstrates that blogging not only helps get your message out via the web, but can also drive traffic thru other mediums such as print.

Go Mylookbook!

Speaking at PPM Conference on the Gold Coast

2008-08-20T19:54:00.000+10:00

I am speaking at the 2008 Principal's Property Management Focus Group next Monday held at Royal Pines resort on the Gold Coast. Basically covering stuff regarding web development, search engine marketing (and advertising) and taking general Q&A.

If you are interested in attending (if you are in Real Estate Property Management I would strongly advise you take a look at this) you can book via event organiser PPM at their website here.

An ODE to Jason

2008-08-19T18:49:00.004+10:00

One of our web developers has left us after being with us for 2 awesome years. So this is a big thank you Jason love : the coder of coders, the king of css, the integrator of Google. Jason was instrumental in pushing the web development team who built our new Content / Web Management Systems, and thru his constant nagging (joking!) this has evolved into a first rate product.

Jason is leaving the Gold Coast and moving back to Sydney and we wish him all the luck for his future endeavours.

Search engines from the 90's

2008-08-07T10:53:00.003+10:00

Do you remember the days when Altavista, Lycos and Yahoo were the sites to go to find information online? This is back in the days before Google, and I was mostly accessing the internet from School or at home using Dialup (we were on a $40 / month plan - and that got us 20 hours of internet per month! - great value back then! Also there was like two suppliers of Internet on the Gold Coast back then as well).

Take a trip thru time, and suss the gallery on Zdnet featuring screen grabs from the most popular search engines (suss Google's logo!) back then.

No Macs for eTax

2008-07-30T17:22:00.006+10:00

If your wanting to lodge this years tax return online using the Australian Tax Office (ATO) eTax software and you're on Mac, forget it. Actually correction if you're on ANY other platform bar windows forget it.

I find in a day of Web 2.0 apps / AJAX technologies, that the ATO still distributes an executable program that only runs on Windows. They rub a bit of salt in the wound by telling Mac Users that the software does run Mac, but only under Virtual PC (thank you captain obvious).

Now I am not one of these Mac Nuts (who line outside Apple Stores for days on end), but seriously Mac Users are important demographic who simply cannot be ignored.

Besides wouldn't an online tool be so much better (and easier to deploy)? Users are so more familar using web based technologies (cheers to Facebook, mySpace, Internet Banking, Booking Flights / Accommodation .. and the list goes on).

I think that although a web deployed version of eTax would be a complex challenge, and isn't something that could be rolled out overnight - it would deliver real benefits to the ATO as well as its users.

Meet the QR Code.

2008-07-23T16:04:00.010+10:00

You are seriously going to see the explosion of these things over the next couple of Years - they are called QR codes and they are coming to an advertisement near you!

QR Codes are a really funky way for Mobile Phone users to quickly get information (such as a web page address) into their mobile phone from a physical medium i.e a print advertisment, business card or banner advert (such as in a bus shelter).

How does this work?

A mobile phone user takes a picture of your QR Code (let's say that you've placed in your Advertisement) using their phone camera. The mobile phone recognises this as a QR Code and translates it into a piece of information (i.e a web address like: http://www.tmdesigns.com.au/).

Example of how this could work

Let's say Seaworld (a tourism attraction on the Gold Coast), runs advertisments in a number of bus shelters along the Gold Coast Highway. In this advertisement they could offer a discount of say $10. To redeem this voucher the mobile phone user has to "scan" the QR Code using their camera phone.

Now let's say Seaworld's Agency is really clever ... and they recommend that Seaworld has different QR Codes for each bus shelter. From this, Seaworld could quickly track which bus shelters are working the best! (Tracking is tops!).

A bit of history

Originally developed in 1994 for use with tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing it has now expanded and is becoming a popular method of inputing information into a Mobile Phone. You can think of a QR Code as a barcode. Wiki has a tonne of information on this here.

Got Questions?

Give me a buzz here

Standards compliance with IE8 - will this web developer's Utopian paradise ever be realised?

2008-07-17T17:42:00.005+10:00

I got an email from Microsoft the other day regarding Internet Explorer 8 which is about to be released in August. Now I know not a lot of people are not the biggest fan of Microsoft, however I *think* they have finally done something intelligent in regards to this web browser.

They have *apparently* have released it in a "default rending mode" which will make "real improvements in standards compliance" (note the quote, unquote). They've also bundled it up with some other cool features.

Microsoft adds "IE8 will address many pain points especially for developers and designers helping them drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere” and freeing up more time to innovate vs modify content for different browsers.".

Truly I am praying to the internet gods that this browser will finally solve the issues with web development.

Hello World - it's web development news live from the Gold Coast!

2008-07-11T16:01:00.007+10:00

Hello World!

I've decided to start my first blog posting to pay homage to the age old tradition of all those who start programming in a new language (even tho blogging really isn't programming) with the famous "hello world" message.

For those who are not familiar with this - Hello World is usually the first thing a programmer learns when learning a new language (they write a program that writes "hello world" on the screen).

OK enough with the Geek talk.

What's with this blog? Well there are a number of reasons I am writing this blog:

1. To win friends and influence people
2. To create an opportunity share knowledge about web development

Over the next few months, I will be posting (hopefully once every couple days) stuff about web development, things happening in the Gold Coast (that may or not be relevant to Web Development), and what I got up to down the pub last weekend.

Who am I:

I am the head of development for a small web development company on the Gold Coast called Trent Moffatt Designs. For those that aren't aware what we are about, basically we build custom websites that do cool things online.

Well thats about it for now, hope to see you back here soon!

Enjoy!