There’s always been a lot of talk online about Internet Explorer 6, and more specifically the perils it brings to web designers.  It seems that when creating IE6, Microsoft decided it knew better than the W3C (the consortium who sets all web standards) and decided against following any rules, instead building a browser that renders code however it sees fit.

Since that day, developers have collected a vast array of tools to combat the problems that IE6 brings, from conditional CSS to javascript browser sniffers.  It still seems that any time a site looks perfect in Firefox, Opera, Safari or even IE7, there’s a developer in tears next to an old dev box displaying IE6.

Here’s a site we’re currently developing, and have not yet ‘hacked’ for IE6, as seen in IE6

Here’s the same site as rendered by Firefox

Notice the differences? Not just the obvious fact that the main image is in the wrong place, but the blue box around the bottom left section?  That’s because IE6 doesn’t support transparency in PNGs.

I’ve read a couple of articles lately discussing when we should set a cutoff for IE6.  After all, IE7 is here, and there’s a wealth of other browsers for users to choose from.  All are free, costing most users nothing to upgrade (unless they’re on a pre-XP operating system) and take a couple of minutes to download.

A lot of the arguments against dropping support for IE6 focus around the fact that the user doesn’t care.  The user couldn’t care less why something doesn’t look right, neither does the client most of the time.  In my opinion, it’s time to educate users that they should care.  The easiest way of doing this?  Drop IE6 support.  Every obsolete technology is depreciated at some point.  Analog television is approaching it’s switch off, no-one makes VHS tapes and it’s become increasingly difficult to find medieval weapons these days.  People accept these because they’re educated that there is something better available to replace them.

It should be easy to explain to a client that it’s worth them dropping IE6, just by showing them how much of our time they are paying for just for us to hack up our beautiful, standards compliant code to make it work on your Nan’s PC.

Here’s how I’d do it:  some kind of alert to users that use IE6 that is a clear and obvious call to action that their browsing experience IS being hindered by their choice of browser.  Direct them to a page explaing that things have moved on, showing them what they could be experiencing and giving them the options of what browser they should upgrade to.  Maybe even mention that if they’re on a pirated OS, they can go for an open source browser and not risk getting in trouble.  Educate them that it’s their stick in the mud attitude that is killing web developers souls.

DID YOU KNOW: these things are YOUNGER than IE6

iPods, The Boss’ Daughter, Facebook, Freeview, Jesus, Fashionable Cider, East Timor

Mondays article on Search Engine Optimisation by Jemima Kiss at the Guardian (link Jemima Kiss name to article here) was very informative particularly for the research stat on the battle of the Search Engines.)

With Google commanding a whopping 87.69% of searches is April shows pure dominance of the UK search market and all efforts by Yahoo and MSN to creep back in is simply not working. This stat actually is quite kind on the other search engines as it is a UK wide stat. I would suggest that the search market in the business districts of the UK like London where most PC’s Browsers default to Google may show search stats well over 90%.

The article stated that Google uses over 200 assesments in its ranking algorythm. So here is 3 of them which you can try and use to increase your positioning on Google. Firstly identify what search phrase you want to come top of Google for. Make sure that the phrase is not too generic ie. Go for a phrase with 3 words like we have “Search Marketing Agency” BTW We have recently changed this on our title but we have sufficient external link building now to support the top positions of this phrase. Then ensure that you put it into the title of the home page twice ie Search Marketing Agency :: Fingertap Media Specialist Organic Search Marketing Agency. Then also ensure that you have the phrase appear twice in the description of the page. If you can also add it as an H1 then wait a week or so and see what happens when google re caches the site.

Leave us a comment if any of you perform the test

Whilst managing one of our Facebook pages, it’s been revealed to me how important it is to constantly update the content on a page in order to keep people interested.  This is standard practice on the web, if you regularly update your content you will see users returning regularly to check out what’s new.  This is especially important on something like Facebook where users have no genuine reason to visit your page other than out of curiosity.

I can see a lot of brands treating Facebook as a sort of gallery, great to put in a snapshot of their company in the hope that people will see they’re in touch with their audience.

‘People use Facebook? Quick, get on Facebook!  Yeah, that’s right we’re on Facebook.  What do we do on Facebook? Erm,  we have to do stuff?’

In my opinion, the more successful brands on Facebook treat it more as a window into their company.  Their company is constantly working, changing, doing things, their Facebook page reflects that.  Each month they have new content for their page, details of current promotions, events they’re attending, campaigns they support, competitions they’ve won.  This constantly updating content gives users a reason to keep visiting their page, and a reason to become a fan, ensuring that these changes appear in their news feed.

Facebook gives pages the option to add content through ‘Static FBML’ apps, allowing admins of the page to put any HTML or FBML (Facebook’s HTML subset) on a page.  This gives a far greater level of customisation on pages, and has allowed us to implement everything from high score tables for certain applications to mini stores on e-commerce brand pages.  By constantly rotating a selection of best selling products, users are presented with a purchasing opportunity before they even leave the comfort of their procrastination station.

Facebook being used by a business should be the same as Facebook being used by an individual.  The average user doesn’t set up a profile then abandon it, they interact with it, update it and use all it’s features.  Facebook could be a fantastic platform for businesses to interact with consumers on a two way basis, but users will be reluctant to open themselves up to interaction if they don’t expect a response, and will come away with a negative attitude if they ask questions and don’t receive a response.

I think in the future we could easily see brands using web services to relate further to their target demographic.  Starting from Facebook but moving towards services like Twitter, which is fantastic for sending out promotion information, regular blogging, flickr for photo content, the list of services is almost endless, and with aggregation services like Friend Feed pulling all of this content into one place, web marketing could start moving towards an area far more specific and interesting than the standard banner adverts.

During our time at south by south west we experienced a wide range of exciting experiences. One of the most memorable was captured on film for all the world to enjoy. Our last evening in Austin, and the sun was shining, while engaged in conversation with Steve Ganz (Principal Web Developer at LinkedIn) we were approached by a man claiming to be the only living Jewish Gansta rapper. After a brief conversation ‘Kosha Dillz’, was keen to showcase this raw talent and offered up a brief shout-out to some of the Fingertap crew if he could plug his up coming album, so what the hell… here is some gratuitous plugging!!

Well the Facebook Development Keynote is what we came for but in all honesty the interview was a bit waste of time. It was like watching someone famous getting chatted up by their biggest fan. (she has just wrote a book about him which she plugged on several occasions)I do feel for Sarah Lacey as it really did seem like she was committing career suicide as the crowd became more and more hostile and Mark Zuckerberg even at one point said to her that you do need to ask me some questions (at which point applause broke out for at least a minute). Once she realised the crowd had turned she declared “In true digg style I will open it up to the audience” and some decent questions started coming out.Such was the scale of the PR fallout that Facebook had another Q and A session at the The Pangaea where he answered a series of more questions of which the video will uploaded to later. Great news though the eccommerce platform is being built and will be available soon. We will upload the video footage of this in the coming days but for now we are off to the Great British Booze Up party.

Picture the scene. I am on the 0930 train from Norwich to London to give a presentation to the good and the great of the UK marketing world with less than 24 hours notice. To be fair, I knew we had a show to go to and that I would probably be required to say a few words, but in the true style of ‘Dangerous’ otherwise known as my business partner Paul Sheehy, he let me know at the last possible moment that I was to be the main speaker, and he was just there to rescue me if needed.

It’s true that for a moment I forgot the milk of human kindness and thought he must be getting his own back for all those times I took the rise out of him regarding the rugby. But like a good soldier, I did my duty and put together a script only to find that I had missed the target by pitching it wrong. So the night before I had to forgo the white wine chilling in the fridge and concentrate on the job in hand. At 2200 I got my head down safe in the knowledge that I had put together a reasonable presentation and that all would be well as long as I found time to learn what I had written before the hour.

Confidence was high as I pulled into the station, other than the fact that I found out Paul had not been able to download the slides I had sent him to look over. In the words of Homer, doh! (that’s Homer Simpson, not the poet in case of any confusion…)

Anywho, I got to the venue and sat down to listen to the speaker before our presentation. He just happened to be from Google and just happened to cover all the bits that we were going to do. Oh joy. Still, I thought, my rock is sitting across the way and he will make me feel so much better. He will say: ’Don’t worry Chris, all will be fine. This is in the bag.’ Instead I caught him sending a picture of the unforgiving-looking audience to his better half, with the caption relating to defecation!

Now confidence really was high!

Not to worry. The presentation was a good one and the team pulled it off. A senior marketing man from Google even described us as a quirky duo and congratulated us on our presentation. We left at that point… knowing when to quit is a gift!

Refreshed from a great night’s sleep and full of the joys of spring, I departed for the B2B Marketing Conference in London on Tuesday – an event that fingertap media were both sponsoring and presenting at. I had a growing sense of excitement knowing that my business had developed to the point that I was now able to speak in front of 160 of the UK’s top marketing managers about the benefits of using search marketing to increase their B2B businesses.

Having arrived at the venue half way through an earlier presentation, all of a sudden my confidence drained out of me. I was completely struck by fear and sent my wife a MMS photo message of the auditorium entitled, “Oh shit I’m bricking it.”

But fear turned to relative calm once the presentation began, and suddenly it felt as though everything was going to plan. A number of nodding heads in the audience definitely helped calm my nerves and I felt a sudden sense of ease. The notes went out the window as the confidence grew and I even started interrupting Chris, who was our main speaker, to add my two pennies. I didn’t feel bad about the interruptions though, as I’m sure Chris appreciated the breather to gather his thoughts.

All in all, it was a day to be proud of in the history of fingertap media and I sincerely hope that we can generate some clients from it. I’ve got no doubt that we left our mark on the day, and am really looking forward to sponsoring next year’s event as well.

One of the important things to remember when developing for platforms such as that that Facebook provides is that, whilst it reaches millions of new users, it is still in Beta.

This whole Beta thing is constantly being reminded to developers every time something goes wrong, but it has had a slightly strange effect this week, with many developers reporting their user count (the number of Facebook users that have added their application) rocketing up by the thousands. One developer was even showing more users than Facebook itself!

As I see it, there are 2 types of Facebook developer, both of which rely quite heavily on these statistics.

1) The Entrepreneurial Developer

These make up the vast majority of developers (at least of those who post on the developer forums) and are generally the guys who come up with an idea, build an app and then sell it at it’s peak. Without the DAU (Daily active users) and Users stats, these guys would really struggle to shift their apps, as most app valuations are based on these figures.

2) The Corporate Developer

I would place myself in this bracket, as a developer who’s primary objective is to increase awareness of a brand through an application. Whilst most entrepenurial apps are branded with banner ads, mine are branded through the applications’ core, and designed with the brand in mind. The users’ statistics are equally as important to me as they are a way of justifying the money a client has spent on my time.

Whilst I am not of the persuasion that Facebook should have perfected the platform before releasing it, I do think that it’s important for there to be more feedback from the Facebook team when things like this do go wrong. This has been discussed on the forum for 3 days now and still seems to have had no official response.

The SXSW INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL celebrates the creativity and passion behind the coolest new media technologies. In addition to panel sessions that cover everything from web design to bootstrapping to social networks, attendees make new business connections at the three-day Trade Show & Exhibition. The newest element of the event is ScreenBurn, which adds specific gaming industry programming as well as a two-day Arcade to the mix.

yes, yes… and we’re going! yay!

Half the company will be flying out to attend what is classically referred to as the world cup of media in these modern times, we are hoping to gain new insite into current and future technologies to further develop our busniness and improve and end service to you the client.

Heres just a few of the seminars we plan to attend:

• Social Marketing Strategies Metrics, Where Are They?
• Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting! (Annalee Newitz)
• The Suxorz: The Worst Ten Social Media Ad Campaigns of 2007
• Top Ten Lessons Learned in E-Commerce
• What Teens Want Online
• Designing A Coherent Social Strategy (Charlene LI)
• Harness the Power of Social Networking on Your Intranet
• Logos: Why They’re Irrelevant and Can Actually Hurt Your Business (Bryan Zmijewski)
• Online Advertising
• The Science of Designing Interactions
• Building Portable Social Networks
• Pimp My Non Profit — Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology
• Social Networking and Your Brand
• True Stories from Social Media Sites
• Content Management System Roundup

As if to prove my point, I just came across this evidence that Facebook users really are starting to backlash against applications that force invitations. Alongside the rapidly growing groups (like this one), this research pretty much proves what was already pretty clear, that users don’t want to have to pimp their friends to an application just in order to use it.

If a developer makes a decent application that I think my friends will be interested in then sure, I’ll invite them. Forcing viral growth by telling me I have to invite 20 friends before doing anything works in completely the opposite way, as the polls show, in that 61% of users will uninstall the app rather than invite friends. It’s a pity my friends aren’t in that 61%.

Forced invites also applies to those applications that you can happily use without inviting people, until they present you with a ’skip free’ invitation page. For the more computer savvy user it’s a basic case of navigate away from the page, but amongst Facebook’s population of millions there are plenty of people who may not understand that this is not something Facebook is forcing you to do, but something an application developer is trying to force you to do.

Facebook - please stop forced invites!

via Saunderslog.com