Just stumbled upon this listing of 15 Unconventional Uses of WordPress in Action. WordPress really has grown to fill a larger pair of shoes then we originally thought!

The examples link to demonstrations of Wordpress in use for everything from a Twitter page to a Wiki to an e-commerce store. And while we’re on the subject of WordPress, here’s some trivia about the software:

• Version names come from famous jazz musicians.
• It was forked from an original project called ‘b2.’ The original b2 team also continued with a new project called ‘b2evolution.’ Though it is said to be in active development, its usage is a tiny niche and development seems stalled.
• In 2008, they released a WordPress app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
• Some controversy surrounded the themes directory in 2007. WordPress ditched themes that use sponsored links, and have since stressed that all themes have to be GPL licensed (the way Wordpress is itself).

Web designers, please brace yourself. You are about to click a link, which will hit you where it hurts. Be prepared to see a very unflattering version of your work when you visit If It Looks Corporate, Change It, Jeff Atwood’s latest hilarious rant about corporate website design culture.

Worth the price of admission alone was the link to Headset Hotties, a blog dedicated to cataloging all the stock-photos of models with wires growing out of their heads that appear to be mandatory on every e-commerce website.

Now, if we can get the image of that picture of the stock-photo five beaming serenely at the monitor out of our heads…

Loved this post at 37Signals asking “Do Americans have bad taste?” What, was that a question? Let us consider the things that America made popular:

• McDonalds – True, we all have our gross fast-food stands, but they started it.
• Walmart – Biggest retailer in the country, richest family in the world, cheapest, tackiest China-import junk you ever saw.
• Velveeta – No one had better ever criticize Vegemite again. At least Vegemite is organic.
• FOX News – Gah! The US government just came out denouncing FOX News as a wing of their Republican party, and everybody’s reaction is “Yeah, so?”
• Disneyland – Fake, cloying, saccharine, brutally capitalistic, and dumped in the middle of a slum.
• “Football” – At least that’s what they call it.
• NASCAR racing – When football is too intellectually demanding.
• Las Vegas – This, to them, is decadent and hedonistic.

We could go on, but let’s just say we stopped there. Know your market! And of course other countries have their downsides too, but Americans are number-one in tacky with a capital plastic lawn flamingo.

I was just browsing a post on the digital divide in the business world, by one of my favorite deep-thinking bloggers. It’s a long, thinky post, if you have the time. He starts with picking up a copy of USAToday delivered to his hotel room’s doorstep, and reflecting that what with browsing the news by RSS feed on his iPhone, reading a printed newspaper is almost charmingly quaint.

Then goes on to observe how in the business world today, there are definitely those who have progressed… and those who haven’t. He concludes: “There are those organizations holding on to the past, but they will be made irrelevant as we move further into the future and the divide grows. Being afraid is not an option.” Continue reading »

Ever since the advent of the Internet, the world has changed considerably.  Thus it can be said that the Internet is probably the greatest invention ever.  This is important to recognize, as most people are basing their whole lives on the concept of the Internet.  There are many people out there that take care of all of their business through the Internet and they don’t even leave their home for grocery shopping.  Although this may sound extreme to many people, in essence more and more people are using the Internet for their needs every day.

Hence, using a website to promote your business or to promote your agenda is a necessity nowadays.  It is very hard to think of a business or an organization that can continue to function without having some sort of Internet component to it.  More and more people expect to relate to companies or organizations through their website and this is absolutely a necessity in the instances of global entities.  In many cases, your customers can be on the other side of the world and your company headquarters can be thousands of miles away.  However, with the use of a professionally designed website, you can easily make sure that your correspondence takes place on the Internet and thus locations lose their meaning.

Continue reading »

It is indeed surprising that in spite of memory chip processing speeds growing in leaps and bounds, the web-based applications still take longer than expected time to load. Some the reasons being, heavy HTML documents, addition of content that no one really notices, excessive animation and video graphics.

When a user enters a website, the computer sends a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to download all components that make up a page. The parts include text scripts, images, multimedia elements like animation and video. The more the number of components, more is the number of requests and slower the rate of page load. One of the simple solutions is to minimize page components and in turn lower HTTP requests. Another method is to link up all components into a single HTTP request so as to load the page as a single time.

Continue reading »

If you are new to web designing, you should know that web designing is not about flashing images and loads of irrelevant material in varying fonts and colors. A website design with text swooping from all sides can actually distract your visitors. You need to keep your website design as simple as you can without losing sight of what you want your subscribers and online communities to see when they access your website.

Having said that, make sure that you use graphics in your website to spruce it up. You can add life to just about any website by adding images. Images play a major role in breaking the monotony of your text, though proper use of graphics is crucial. With graphics, you can greatly enhance the appeal of your web pages and thus impress your visitors. Outlined below are some quick web page design ideas to incorporate graphics effectively in your web design.

Continue reading »

A web page is a virtual product present in a virtual world known as the web. Describing a physical object like a car or even a large building can be quite easy compared to explaining all the features of a website. This fact will trow light on important effective communication is necessary for the development of an effective web page.

Web site development involves the client who requires a site, a developer who is well versed with the coding and other technical jargon that goes with it, and more often than not a content developer who deals with the artistic layout required for the website. Almost all of those involved are mostly who are capable of working independently when the task is clearly specified. But getting them work to work in a team for a product that is in itself quite dynamic is the key to a good website.
Continue reading »

A website, unlike regular advertising and communication tools, has an unlimited scope of attracting attention. The choice of the designs and content incorporated depends primarily on the target audience, purpose and requirement. It is not advisable to incorporate animation just because it is attractive, rather it should enhance the already available features and content. A thorough analysis of other methods of inducing interest must be thought of before thinking of animations. One has to decide on the value addition that an animation can give to the site. If it proves to be a distraction and takes away attention from the actual content it may be worth skipping.
Continue reading »

When you are using your website to reach out to your prospective customers, the website has to make a great impact. It is necessary that your website has an optimal loading time and overall performance, even for the slower Internet connections. If your website responds slowly to the visitor, there is bound to be a feeling of not getting enough, of what is expected. Now days with the advancements in the field, the speed on the Internet superhighway is expected to be substantial. When you develop your website, keep in mind that you have to work continuously and maintain the site to provide enhanced page performance.
Continue reading »