Archive for March, 2009
Social networking sites - targets for hackers?
Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace will likely be the next big targets for hackers, according to the predictions of two internet security firms.
Sunnyvale, California internet security firm Fortinet on Thursday said hackers could use Facebook widgets — the small programs written by third-party providers — to distribute malicious software to unsuspecting users of the social networking website.
“It could be a game, a ‘comparison tool,’ or a favourite books list,” wrote Richard Stiennon, Fortinet’s chief marketing officer and security expert.
Fortinet is the second security firm to warn that social networking websites could be the next big arena for malicious software. Santa Clara, California-based McAfee Inc.’s Avert Labs came out with its own top 10 threat list two weeks ago and also put so-called “web 2.0″ social networking sites at the top of its list.
“Compromises and malware at Salesforce.com, Monster.com and MySpace, among others, represent a new trend in attacking online applications and social networking sites,” the company said on Nov. 16.
“Attackers are using web 2.0 sites as a way to distribute malware and are data mining the web, looking for information people share to give their attacks more authenticity. McAfee Avert Labs expects a large increase in this activity in 2008.”
Social networking sites — where users post profiles of themselves and share information with other users — will become a target because they have exploded in popularity the last two years, the companies said. MySpace, owned by News Corp., has about 110 million users worldwide, while Facebook now claims 55 million active users.
The two companies differed on many of their other predicted threats to consumers, with Fortinet warning of potential hacks to U.S. government agencies and to game consoles — like the Nintendo Wii — that connect to the internet.
McAfee suggested hackers were likely to create malicious software to target instant messaging services, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony services and online gaming sites.
Internet Explorer 8: More secure, private, and reliable
InPrivate Browsing
When checking e-mail at an Internet café or shopping for a gift on a family PC, you don’t want to leave any trace of specific web browsing activity. InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer 8 helps prevent your browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser, leaving no evidence of your browsing or search history.
You can start InPrivate Browsing by opening a new tab and selecting Browse with InPrivate or selecting it from the Safety button on the top right corner of the browser window. Once you complete this action, Internet Explorer 8 will launch a new browser session that won’t record any information, including searches or webpage visits. To end your InPrivate Browsing session, simply close the browser window.
InPrivate Filtering
Today websites increasingly pull content in from multiple sources, providing tremendous value to consumer and sites alike. Users are often not aware that some content, images, ads and analytics are being provided from third party websites or that these websites have the ability to potentially track their behavior across multiple websites. InPrivate Filtering provides users an added level of control and choice about the information that third party websites can potentially use to track browsing activity.
InPrivate Filtering is off by default and must be enabled on a per-session basis. To use this feature, select InPrivate Filtering from the Safety menu. To access and manage different filtering options for Internet Explorer 8, select InPrivate Filtering Settings from the Safety menu. To end your InPrivate Browsing session, simply close the browser window.
Note: Because InPrivate Filtering is designed to watch for and block only third-party content that appears with a high frequency across sites you visit, no content is blocked until such levels are detected, nor is any such content blocked which is served directly by the site you are visiting. Depending on your web browsing activity and sites visited, the amount of time it can take before such content is automatically blocked can vary widely. However, at any time, you can customize which third-party content is blocked or allowed in the InPrivate Filtering Settings option from the Safety menu.
Enhanced delete browsing history
Now when deleting browsing history, you can choose to preserve cookies and temporary Internet files for sites in your Favorites folder. This helps to protect your information and privacy while preserving your data on your trusted favorite sites. Your preferences and cookies are preserved, helping you to get to your trusted sites faster with greater confidence.
You can download Internet Explorer 8 free here: http://www.microsoft.com/canada/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx
User Friendly Web Site Development
Posted by admin in Vancouver SEO on March 13th, 2009
Web Design for Business
Some web developers often concentrate on the design and technology of a website more than the actual usability of the site. Out of all the aspects of web development, making a website user friendly should be high up on the list of priority as no one is going to stick around very long on your site it they find it difficult to use.
In our day and age a lot of businesses are now opting to operate online. The key to a successful online business is a good website but your site needs to be developed with your user in mind as oppose to what you think looks best. So how do you go about doing this?
Recognize your website users.
Well firstly you need to take into consideration all of the different types of users that you will attract. For example some of your target market may merely want to browse the pages of your site with little action; they may just be using it as a research reference. For these visitors you need high quality content because remember, with a user friendly site these people will keep coming back, meaning there is a high chance they will become customers.
Another example of your target market is the people who will take some sort of action; they may purchase a product or service off you but to be able to do this your site needs to be developed with your user in mind so they can find what they are looking for and complete their transaction without any complications.
How to develop your website the user friendly way.
There are many aspects that website development should include, such as a focus on your content, which is one of the most important parts of your website. It should be easy to navigate, making finding information easy and it should be consistent, meaning it should follow best practices and web standards.
As I have just mentioned, content is one of the most important aspects when it comes to user friendly web development. Not only should this content be well written and informative but you should also put some thought into how you want the content to be divided up and the overall structure of your site.
Questions such as; will there be a large amount of web pages or just a select few? And can you split your content into logical sections? Need to be answered. To answer these questions you need to think about the content itself and who is going to be looking at it. For example if your content is about healthy living you should split this into several sections to make it more user friendly. So you could write a basic introduction on your home page and then separate sections on diet, exercise, stress management etc. This enables your user to go directly to the topic they want to know the most about without having to search through your site.
Good navigation is also vital with your website, regardless of what line of business you are in. The pages on your site need to link so if you click away from the home page there needs to be a link back to the home page so your user can easily browse through all of the pages of your site without getting lost and frustrated. Without a good navigation where all of your pages link together you will more than likely lose potential customers to your competitors as Internet users want a fast and simple service that won’t inconvenience them, which brings me nicely onto my next point; page loading time!
Internet users are more likely to do business with websites that are fast; fact! So to keep your pages user friendly, keep that page size fewer than 32k.
There is so much that you need to keep in mind when it comes to developing your website in a user friendly way; some more of the main points are as follows:
- Put some thought and effort into the font, text size and structure of your site. Your text size should be around 10pt but defiantly not any smaller! To accompany this you need a good readable web font; the ones that are most recommended are Verdana, Arial and Times New Roman.
- Use header tags, i.e. H1 and H2. By using HTML coding such as this it breaks up chunks of text and adds emphasis. Keep paragraphs short and to the point and use dark text on light backgrounds.
- Avoid elements such as pop-ups, movement and sound, especially when it can’t be turned off immediately.
- Use good standard web coding with CSS (cascading style sheets). This ensures your site is cross browser friendly and renders properly in all browsers.
Developing your website to be user friendly gives you the best chance possible of being successful with your online business. So when you are developing your website make sure you keep the above in mind as you are guaranteed to not only attract more visitors to your site but to keep them there as well.
Please contact us for Vancouver Web Design and Internet Marketing Vancouver
Web site Design and Social media
Posted by admin in Vancouver SEO on March 13th, 2009
Social media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies that is intended to facilitate communications, influence and interaction with peers and with public audiences, typically via the Internet and mobile communications networks.
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“Internet Marketing” as the name implies, is nothing but more than a marketing technique in which products and services are marketed through the most efficient and easily reachable medium, the internet. There many marketing trends and techniques used these days but not all of them are effective and result-oriented. Even the best of these trends will soon become outdated. It is important then, to always keep an eye on the changing behavior of the internet market and to change your internet marketing trends accordingly.