Underground Web Designs Blog

I just found The Art of Nonconformity today, and though I haven’t explored the site extensively (yet) I can already see that it’s worth a post.

The site definitely is full of “unconventional ideas for remarkable people”. There are articles and ebooks on world travel, posts on changing the world (and world domination too), and even an article supporting “ass kicking”. Chris speaks his mind, doesn’t pull any punches, and actively questions things many people take for granted — his writing is exactly what you’d expect from a site with the title “The Art of Nonconformity”.

The site design is also very fresh, which drew me in immediately. A strong theme and unconventional layout make the site stand out from the HUGE number of blogs out there, and made me take a closer look. In fact, I really like how Chris has put products, signup boxes, latest posts, most popular posts, about the author, about the site, links to Twitter, links to media coverage, and much more all on the home page… without making anything seem crowded.

Like I said, I’ve just found this site myself, so I’ll be exploring it further over the next few days. Why don’t you join me? Just head over to The Art of Nonconformity, have a look around, and post your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear what you think!

Is your confidential business information secure? Kevin Mitnick might not think so.

I’ve recently been re-reading one of Kevin’s two books, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security. In The Art of Deception, Kevin talks about one of the most overlooked elements of any security system: the people who use it.

No matter how much technological security you may have, if the people who use the systems are not trained to recognize when they are being deceived a skilled social engineer can still easily infiltrate your company and steal anything he wishes… often without you even noticing that there’s been a security breach.

As an accomplished hacker and social engineer himself, Kevin Mitnick knows what he’s talking about. He’s broken into many companies and has used many of the techniques in the book time and time again (and done the jail time for it too!). Just by reading his book you’ll find yourself nodding as you realize that most of the stories he presents, though fiction, could just as well be real — with your business as the victim.

If you do any sort of business on the internet — even just buying something now and then — you should read Kevin’s books, especially The Art of Deception. The internet is now a huge part of our lives, and it pays to at least be aware of how computer hackers and social engineers think and work. Most of the attacks Kevin describes can be easily guarded against, but only if you know what to look out for.

 For those interested, both books can be found on Amazon.com:
The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers

Full Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. Should you decide to purchase any of the books mentioned by following a link in this article I will receive a small commission.

Adobe produces all kinds of great applications to help web developers, from Photoshop to Flash. However, they also offer several smaller apps that can be equally useful. My favorite of these is Kuler. Located at http://kuler.adobe.com, Adobe Kuler is a simple, free tool for creating and sharing color themes (groups of 5 colors that go together) easily.

To me kuler is invaluable whenever I’m starting a new project, as each color theme is named and tagged, and a quick search will usually bring up several color themes that could work well with the project I’m doing. Kuler also has a download feature (as long as you have logged in with a valid Adobe ID, something many designers will already have from registering any Adobe product). Downloaded kuler themes can be imported into Photoshop or Illustrator, allowing you to quickly reference them as you work.

Users can also create their own color themes in Kuler as well, so if you like playing with colors and seeing how they look together, why don’t you give it a try? When you’re done you can save your theme to the library for anyone to see, or make it private for your own personal use.

Kuler is certainly a simple program, not near as complicated as Photoshop or Dreamweaver, but it is still incredibly useful. Next time you find yourself stuck for what colors to use in your latest project, try a quick search on Kuler, the results will surprise you.

As promised in my post “The End of Twitter“, I’m going to talk a bit about what OpenID is, and how you can use it.

Open ID was designed because someone, somewhere, got tired of the bother and security hassles of signing up for yet another website or web service. I’m sure you know the feeling. You read an article or maybe even click an interesting add, and there in your face is the dreaded sign in box. Often times, if you’re not really interested you just click away. Making another account on another site just isn’t worth the bother. OpenID can make the whole process much simpler.

OpenID works by storing your information (username, password, full name, e-mail address etc) in one place, on one site (called an OpenID provider). If you want to log in to a different site that supports open ID, all you have to provide is your OpenID. The rest is handled automatically. The site you want to log in will check with your OpenID provider to see if you are authorized (and your open ID provider will ask you to log in with your password if you’re not). Then, if needed the site you’re logging in to can ask your OpenID provider for extra information, such as your name, e-mail address, etc and can pre-populate sign up fields with it! As you can imagine, this makes signing up for new sites a snap… just input your OpenID, confirm your information, and you’re done! The best part is that the site you just signed up for NEVER sees your password. All the authentication work is handled by your secure OpenID provider.

To use an OpenID, you first have to create it at an OpenID provider. I use myopenid.com because it is simple, direct, and powerful. I’ve tried several and MyOpenID has worked the best. To get started, just click on the big “Sign Up For An Open Id” button the myopenid.com home page.

As usual, you will be asked for a username (shorter and simpler the better), password, e-mail address. Once that information is filled out click “sign up” and your OpenID will be created. When picking your password, choose something that you can remember, but that is also secure (try to include capitals, numbers, and symbols if possible). This password will allow you access to many sites, so it pays to make sure it is a good one.

Once you’ve created your account and logged in for the first time to MyOpenID, you can start making your life easier by adding some extra information to your account. First, in the right hand menu bar, click “My Account” and then “Authentication Settings”. Here you can set up several advanced security measures to ensure that you and only you can access your OpenID. You can even have the site telephone you for authorization to sign in!

Next, click on the “Registration Personas” link. This page allows you to provide basic information about yourself (name, e-mail, avatar, etc) to sites that ask for it. As mentioned above, this can make signing up for new websites or web services a snap! It’s even possible to create different personas, if you want to provide different information to different types of sites.

The last page that’s worth taking a look at is the “Visited Sites” page. This page tracks which sites you’ve used your OpenID to access, which Persona they are using, and whether or not your should be asked to approve each and every time you want to access the site (usually this can be left on always approve).

Now it’s time to test things out! A great place to try out your new OpenID is right here on this blog. Just head down to the bottom of this post and leave a comment. Instead of filling in your name and e-mail, just put YourOpenIdUserName.myopenid.com in the Website box. You will be re-directed to OpenID briefly while it asks whether you want to authorize UndergroundWebDesign to access your information, and if you authorize it, you will automatically be directed back to this blog, where you’ll see your comment added.

Unfortunately, many sites do not yet support OpenID fully, but the number that do is growing quite quickly. You can help encourage more sites to support OpenID by getting an OpenID and using it everywhere you can. If you have your own Wordpress blog, you can get the OpenID plugin to allow yourself and others to log in to your site or leave comments using OpenID.

The internet is still developing at a very rapid pace, and one of the things that needs re-thinking is how we log-in and sign-up to the hundreds of new websites and web-services out there. OpenID is an answer to this problem that works and works well. If you’re fed up with all the hassle of siginig up on yet another site, why don’t you give it a try?

P.S. Merry Christmas!

Dr. Peter Drucker said “What Gets Measured Gets Managed”, and this is nowhere more true than online. If you have any sort of a website and don’t have analytical software installed, you are missing a tremendous opportunity. How can you improve your website if you don’t know when (or even if!) people are visiting? How can you remove the bad and improve the good when you don’t even know what parts of your site people like best?

When it comes to your website, you are not a reliable resource for determining what is and isn’t working! You may like a specific page, post, or image, but that doesn’t mean everyone who sees your site will. In fact, chances are they wont! The only way to know for sure how visitors see your site is to get the information from them directly, and the easiest way to do this is through web analytics software.

I’m not going to get into the debate about which analytics software to use (there are many), I’m just going to recommend one: Google Analytics. I recommend Google Analytics for 2 reasons: Number 1: It’s free. All you need is a Google account, and chances are good you already have that. If you don’t, getting one is free. Number 2: it works. Google Analytics tracks lots of data, likely more than you’ll ever need, and it makes it quite easy to spot the trends. Setting up Google Analytics is easy too, just head over to www.google.com/analytics and follow the instructions to get an account and set up your website.

Google Analytics works by having you place one small snippet of code on each page of your website. This snippet then automatically collects information such as how many people visit your site, where they come from (search engines, other sites, or direct), how long they stay on your site, how many pages they visit, and much more.

After Google Analytics has been installed on your site for a week or so begin to look at the statistics it shows. Two of the most useful metrics are right on the Dashboard (home screen) by default: the “Traffic Sources Overview” and the “Content Overview”.

The Traffic Sources Overview box provides you with a breakdown of how people are finding your site. Are they mostly coming to it directly (through bookmarks or by typing in your URL), or are they coming via Search Engines, or from links on other sites? Now you know! Clicking the “view reports” link at the bottom of the graph. This page will show you even more details. Here you can find which search engines and even which keywords send you the most traffic, which sites are linking to you (and how many people follow the links, and much more.

The other important metric is the “Content Overview” box on the Analytics dashboard. This box shows a list of the pages on your site that are getting the most traffic, as well as by how much. This makes it easy to see if there is one or two pages that generate the most interest on your site. Knowing what you’re doing right is the first step to improving any website!

The important thing to realize about Google Analytics is that it offers a tremendous amount of information… I’ve only talked about two of it’s many reporting features. As great as this variety is, it can also lead to “Paralysis by Analysis” if you’re not careful. Don’t spend so much time looking at the statistics and analyzing every last detail that you fail to improve and add to your site. No matter how much information you have, if you do not act on it then that data is worthless.

What does the internet mean?

A quick google search will turn up several definitions, all along the same lines: 

Internet: A global network; an interconnection of large and small networks around the world.

Now, that may be what the internet is but that’s not what the internet means. When you think of the internet, do you think of a network of computers that spans the entire world? That may be part of it, but that’s definitely not all the internet is. The internet means much more than just a global network. The internet means easy, immediate access to anything. It means communicating with friends and family around the world in the blink of an eye. It means ordering what I want in 5 minutes from my office chair, and either downloading it right away or having it delivered a few days later.

If you’re in business and have a website, how does your website match with this “instant gratification” definition of the internet? Are you helping people find what they want, when they want it? Or are you trying to sell them something they don’t want? Does it take them a long time to find what you sell — or worse yet, to buy it once they’ve found it? Do you even know what your customers want?

In order to be successful online, you have to understand how people see the internet and work with them. Help them find the information they want quickly, easily, and simply. Make your product available to the people who are looking for it, but don’t annoy those who don’t. Interact, communicate, and listen.

What definition of the internet does your website follow? Are you still looking to reach everybody? Or do you provide exactly what a small niche is looking for?

The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet. –William Gibson

As someone who makes the online world his business, I can tell you that that quote is just as true now as it was when science fiction writer William Gibson uttered it many years ago. The internet is evolving every day, and the future is indeed friendly.

What is that future? The web of the future is all about openness and a single, unified user experience. In many ways the science fiction writers have had it right all along. As an increasing number of our everyday devices gain internal computers, the lines between the internet and the desktop, and indeed even the online world and the offline world, are beginning to blur.

The web is rapidly moving from something we use, to something we’re part of. Blackberys, iPhones, and PDA’s allow us to bring our internet connection with us as never before. Cell phones keep us connected to co-workers while at home, at work, and on the road. And the internet allows us to buy our cloths, plan our vacations, and communicate with others from wherever we are, whenever we feel like it. Lately, such products as Adobe AIR and Yahoo Searchmonkey promise to bring the web even closer to us, by putting it on the desktops of our computers and making it easier than ever to find the information we seek. Likewise, projects like OpenID, OAuth and others are working tirelessly to help us manage our increasingly digital identities.

As the web moves closer and closer to the dreams of science fiction writers the world over, how will your business adapt? Is your website ready? The evolving internet is all about continual interaction. There are no longer any lines between locations or between devices. The internet IS. Is your business ready to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity? Success on the new internet will go to those who are avaialble whenever and wherever their customers may look for them. It will go to those who can offer a complete and total experience that transcends the online world and encompases digital information, interaction, and physical products.

Apple is already doing this. Their computers, iPods, and now the iPhone all continue the unique, easy to use experience that the Apple website, software, and Apple Stores provide.

The next generation is growing up constantly connected to the internet. What are you doing to unify your products, services, and brand into one simple to use yet powerful experience that will make an impression on them?

If you have a small business and don’t have a squidoo lens, you’re missing out on website traffic and recognition. What the heck is squidoo? I’ll let them explain that. 

The important thing to realize is that squidoo is an easy way to interact with your audiance in a very “Web 2.0″ way. Squidoo lets you publish information on your area of expertise and include pictures, links, RSS feeds from relevant blogs (possibly your own?), polls, etc. You can let your guests rank different links for usefulness, and include a guest-book to get their feedback. 

It’s fun, and it really is incredibly easy. What have you got to loose? Take an hour or so and build your first lens. Then share it with everybody. It definitely won’t HURT your business.

And while you’re at it, check out mine: http://www.squidoo.com/modxforsmallbusiness

Today Yahoo! announced that their developer platform “SearchMonkey” is open to developers. SearchMonkey allows developers to write applications that will provide users with custom search results based on RDF data.

Put simply, RDF is a way of communicating data about your website or business in a way that computers understand. This can be anything from who maintains your website and when it was last updated to your store address and hours, to movie reviews. This is your chance to provide searchers with extra data about your site.

It’s true that Yahoo isn’t Google, and that only people searching Yahoo! using these customized applications will be able to see your data, BUT this is still a tremendous opportunity. Yahoo may be the first big player to start paying attention to RDF data in a big way, but it is far from the last. Google is exploring RDF data too through it’s Google Base program.

If you want to jump ahead in the next generation of search results, this is your chance. Usually search engines don’t put the content of the search results in the hands of developers, but now they have. If you don’t take advantage of it, be sure your competitors will!

If you want to make use of RDF data to describe your business but don’t know where to start, please contact us about creating an RDF profile or application for your site that is compatible with the new Yahoo! SearchMonkey. 

In the old days of the web, every web page was pretty much the same. Flash animations, scripting, and even graphics were few and far between because of bandwidth and technology limits. Now, all that’s changed. Internet speeds just keep getting faster, and graphics, flash, and internet applications are becoming more and more widespread.

In fact, so much has changed that a simple HTML website just isn’t competitive anymore. People expect a site that’s updated regularly and often, that has maps, a search bar, and cool interactive menu.

If you’re selling something, they expect to be able to check out quickly and easily, with the site doing everything possible to make it easier for them. Users expect user reviews, ratings, and “people who bought this product also bought” listings for each product.

If you write a blog or an information site, people expect to be able to comment or leave some sort of feedback on the information you provide.

The days when a simple HTML web page was enough are gone. Is your website still in the dark ages?