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WebDev Category – Posts relating to web development and programming with particular relation to Search Engine Optimisation.

Stop WordPress Overwriting Custom .htaccess Rules

Posted in: Blogs,WebDev by Richard Hearne on June 11, 2007

If I had a penny cent for every time I’ve had to re-upload my .htaccess file to this site….

If you suffer from Wordpress overwriting your custom .htaccess rules fret no more – the solution is deceptively simple.

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$65m, And Some Of The Worst Use Of Javascript Ever

Posted in: JavaScript,Standards,WebDev by Richard Hearne on February 27, 2007

Use Javascsript well and you get some of the best web-based applications like Gmail and Google Reader.

Use Javascript where you should really be using plain HTML? Well here’s a nice $65m example that teaches a good lesson.

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Google now Selling Domains

Posted in: Google,Search Engines,WebDev by Richard Hearne on December 15, 2006

Get your .COM domains from Google for $10 per year including private registration.

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Really Simple Guide to RSS

As the title suggests, this is A Really Simple Guide to RSS.

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Google Search for US Patents

Posted in: Google,Search Engines,WebDev by Richard Hearne on December 14, 2006

Google launches Patent Search for US patents using the familiar Book Search interface.

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eGovernment Accessibility Analysis

Posted in: Browsers,CSS,JavaScript,Standards,Usability,WebDev by Richard Hearne on December 10, 2006

A study into the Accessibility of major Government, Public and Political websites.

The full study is available for download from within this post.

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Moviestar.ie

Posted in: General,Marketing,Statistics,Usability,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 29, 2006

the Golden Spider was awarded to Moviestar.ie for its performance, as a functioning site in addition to design, innovation, content, navigation, technology, interactivity and ease of use.

Hmmm….

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Ireland.com Search Feature Broken

Posted in: General,Search Engines,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 27, 2006

How does ‘house price inflation’ become ‘hous price inflat’? Or ‘minister cowen’ become ‘minist cowen’?

Simple, just type them into the new Ireland.com search engine.

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Golden Spider Awards – The Results

Posted in: Browsers,CSS,Marketing,Standards,Usability,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 24, 2006

The entries this year were outstanding and testament to the strength of the Irish internet industry. These awards provide an important opportunity to recognise and showcase online excellence.

Mr. Cathal Magee, MD eircom

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When You Get Exposure Leverage It

Posted in: Marketing,Technology,Usability,WebDev by Richard Hearne on

What would you give for a free interview on national radio with Pat Kenny to pitch your latest product? As they say, you couldn’t pay for media like that. Not to mention that it’s free.

And let’s say the primary sale channel was your website – would you try to ensure that this cutting-edge product was heavily promoted on your site?

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Quick Fluffy Link :-)

Posted in: General,Search Engines,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 17, 2006

Yahoo! have launched a new updated version of their mapping technology and Ireland has ‘comprehensive’ coverage.

Pretty good so far :grin:

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If I Had Taken My Own Advice….

Posted in: Browsers,CSS,Standards,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 16, 2006

I wouldn’t have this to write about :D

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Did Tax-Payers Money Pay For This?

Posted in: General,Marketing,Standards,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 15, 2006

What you do with your private website is entirely up to you.

But what happens when it’s a public website we’re talking about?

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The Quick & Easy Guide to Better HTML

Posted in: Browsers,CSS,Standards,Statistics,Technology,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 12, 2006

We all want them. Visitors have a better experience. Searchers find what they’re looking for. Site owners enjoy more prosperity. And the Internet community have something to pour praise on. So what’s holding Ireland’s websites back?

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Golden Spider Awards – Are These Really Ireland’s Best Websites?

Posted in: CSS,JavaScript,Marketing,Standards,Statistics,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 6, 2006

The full results from the accessibility and standards compliance analysis of all websites short-listed for the 2006 Golden Spiders awards.

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Golden Spiders Analysis Notes

Posted in: CSS,JavaScript,Standards,Statistics,WebDev by Richard Hearne on

Notes to accompany my analysis.

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Golden Spiders Take #4

Posted in: CSS,JavaScript,Standards,Statistics,WebDev by Richard Hearne on

Here are the results for those websites short-listed in categories 13 – 16.

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Golden Spiders Take #3

Posted in: CSS,JavaScript,Standards,Statistics,WebDev by Richard Hearne on

These results cover websites short-listed in categories 9 through 12.

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Golden Spiders Take #2

Posted in: CSS,JavaScript,Standards,Statistics,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 5, 2006

This is the second batch of results for the analysis of the Golden Spiders short-listed websites.

This sample includes the Best Web Design Agency category.

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Golden Spiders Take #1

Posted in: CSS,JavaScript,Standards,Statistics,WebDev by Richard Hearne on

The Golden Spiders are billed as Ireland’s ‘Oscars’ for the Internet industry. With over 100 websites nominated I decided to take a look at the accessibility and coding standards of each site.

Here’s the first batch of results.

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If You’re Going To Promote Your W3C Credentials…

Posted in: CSS,SEO,Standards,WebDev by Richard Hearne on November 2, 2006

Any web designer touting “compliant coding standards” as a USP should do just one thing before he does so – validate your own website first.

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Google Change Their Webmaster Guidelines

Posted in: Google,Search Engine Optimisation,Search Engines,SEO,WebDev by Richard Hearne on October 25, 2006

Google can now crawl and index URL’s containing an ‘&id’ parameter in their query string.

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Want Loyal Customers? Give Them What They Want How They Want It.

Posted in: General,Marketing,RSS,Technology,WebDev by Richard Hearne on October 23, 2006

Don’t you just love it when you can have it your own way? Getting things on your terms is the best way, isn’t it?

Well that’s the beauty of RSS – giving your readers the content they want when and how they want it benefits you and benefits your audience.

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Like To See The Organiser Of The Future?

Posted in: Marketing,Technology,WebDev by Richard Hearne on October 21, 2006

The biggest Internet companies on the globe are busy creating online services to organise our lives.

And then there’s a David that might just be the future. This could be serious…

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Is This The Future Of Blog Commenting?

Posted in: JavaScript,WebDev by Richard Hearne on October 9, 2006

Could this User Interface be the future of blog commenting?

Check out this innovative UI built on Yahoo’s User Interface Library.

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Dublin Coastal Development a LOT Slicker Than Funda.ie

Posted in: JavaScript,Marketing,Search Engine Optimisation,SEO,WebDev by Richard Hearne on September 29, 2006

Well this is definitely my last post about Dublin Coastal Development and Funda Ireland, whose website finally went live today without a bang.

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Another Distraction

Posted in: Google,JavaScript,WebDev by Richard Hearne on

I opened my RSS reader this morning to find that Google had completely renovated the place. And I’m not talking a lick of paint here.

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Gucci places faith in Scriptaculous over Flash

Posted in: JavaScript,WebDev by Richard Hearne on August 23, 2006

You may or may not have heard of Thomas Fuchs’ Script.aculo.us which is a Javascript effects library written on top of Sam Stephenson’s popular Prototype library.

Well the new Gucci site is built on top of these excellent Javascipt libraries and you may be interested in taking a look.

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IrishWebmasterForum.com

Posted in: General,Marketing,Search Engine Optimisation,WebDev by Richard Hearne on August 12, 2006

I frequent many webmaster and SE forums which are great places to keep in touch with and learn about the ever changing SEO world. While the largest and best known forums provide exceptional information, the biggest problem I have is getting information specific to the Irish web market. The work I do (which, yes I […]

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Check Website Layout in Multiple Browsers

Posted in: CSS,WebDev by Richard Hearne on July 26, 2006

One of the greatest difficulties in designing a website is achieving consistent layout results across browser-platform combos. If you want a nice service that lets you see your webpage across multiple browsers and platforms…

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How Not to do Hover Background Colors – Using CSS rather than JS Events

Posted in: CSS,WebDev by Richard Hearne on July 22, 2006

Following on from a funny thread over at Michele’s blog about SalesOnline.ie, I take look at how easy it is to change the look of an element when someone passes the mouse cursor over it.

A bit of a laugh as well!

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