Browser Trends: Chrome is Winning

It's been growing in popularity faster than Mozilla's Firefox and has now become the world's second favorite browser. *

Personally, it's become my favorite except for the fact that there's only a light version of Firebug (which I use a lot for development). So I end up using two browsers — Firefox for development and Chrome for everything else.

* Browser Trends December 2011: Chrome Becomes the World’s Second Favorite Browser
* StatCounter.com

What do CNN, Lollapalooza and Volkswagen all have in common?

They all use WordPress. What started as an open source blogging tool and publishing platform is quickly becoming the tool of choice for Content Management Systems used for everything from the coffee shop on the corner to major news outlets. Not to mention Katy Perry and Jay-Z.

As it turns out, here at e! we are on the cutting edge. We've been busy creating custom web solutions using WordPress for clients for the past few years. Check out our lastest project for Plymouth Housing Group's Seattle Dances. It's even optimized for mobile devices!

Contact us to find out how we can help you build your business through the Web.

Leave it to Apple to create the coolest projector yet

Image: Patently Apple

Just the other day, the e! team was discussing ways to capitalize on new technology to improve our presentations. Like many of our clients, we still rely on traditional means -- projectors or LCD monitors powered by a laptop -- but we want to use a handheld device, like an iPad, to wirelessly run the show. This conversation spun off a flurry of research within our office that will undoubtedly help us improve our presentations.

But that was last week. Yesterday, a patent was uncovered that gave us a glimpse into what Apple has planned for our future. It appears that they're integrating a projector into their iPhones and iPads, which is great, but not really newsworthy since other devices are already doing that.

The headline to this story is that the projection will recognize gestures. Not the device, but the projection. You could interact with your projections by enlarging an area of an image or moving elements. Basically, whatever you could do on your touch device would be possible on the projected image.

This advancement could help us improve the quality of our presentations, but it could also enable us to collaborate in a more meaningful way. Our brainstorming or critique sessions could take on a whole new life if multiple people could interact with the projected digital elements.

Now to hope that Apple develops the technology quickly.

If you want more details about the Apple patent and the projector technology, check out Wired.com's coverage of the story.

Own Your Own Piece of the Internet for Only $185,000

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (that's ICANN to you), just voted to extend the possibilities for domain extensions to absolutely anything – provided you can pony up the cash and prove that you have a legitimate claim to the name.

To avoid any confusion, what we're talking about is the part of an internet address after the dot. For example, .com, .gov, .uk, or any of the 22 suffixes that appear in a URL. Now a company is free to put their own stamp on their address and, assumably, sells domains with that extension. Cannon, Unicef and Paris (the city, not the heiress) have already expressed their intentions to purchase their own names.

To avoid the hijacking that happened in the '90's, they’ve implemented a policy of reviewing every application to make sure the organization has a legitimate business plan and a legal claim to the dot name. If more than one company wants the same name, it will go to auction where the highest bidder wins. Any Joe-off-the-street cannot purchase a dot name unless he provides business details, which is meant to stop people from hoarding names for resale.

This is pretty exciting news for anyone who's ever tried to find a decent domain name. Websites are so important to a business' livelihood that it's not an uncommon practice to wait to commit to a new business name, until you've seen what domains are available. This has led to some pretty crazy names. Luckily, alternate dot names have been gaining acceptance which should help us move away from creating unintelligible business names, just to secure an unused dot com.

The Move to Alternate Domains

The website Good is an example of this move. Their URL– good.is –says more about their mission statement than any other address could. The premise of their business is spreading the word about acts of goodness throughout the world, especially in sustainability, human rights and culture. Their domain is their mission: Good Is.... The website itself answer the end of the sentence.

Here are few other examples that add meaning to the domain name:

• Connect.me: a service that manages all of your social media.
• Aquent.us: more relevant because they have offices in other countries. The .us moniker is becoming very popular.
• CentralCoop.coop: too bad for them someone already owns central.coop because it would be even better without the redundancy.

Not only do alternate domains provide a way to bring more meaning to your web address, it helps that there isn't as much competition so acquiring a concise and appropriate name is easier.

The Google Effect

In the end, it probably doesn't even matter what your domain name is. Browsers have become more like cell phones in that there's almost no reason to remember a URL anymore. Between the auto-fill in the address bar, the integrated search bar and the advanced bookmarking capabilities of modern browsers, it's possible to find anything you want without ever knowing the address. More than ever, the domain name is less important than communicating relevant information about your company, so the audience can Google you when it's convenient for them.

The question is: if the name you want is not available as a dot com, is it better for you to select an alternate dot name or pick a dot com that is too long, or doesn't really describe your business? There's no one-size-fits-all answer, but the more options we have, the more likely it is that you'll find something that works for you. Or hey, if you've got an extra $185K lying around, you might want to spring for your very own dot name. Now wouldn't that be fun?

Apple Introduces New Connection Port for Faster Transfers

snipped from wired.com

Apple on Thursday refreshed the MacBook family with faster processors, more-powerful graphic cards and, most notably, a new connection port called Thunderbolt.

Ranging from 13 to 17 inches in screen size, the notebooks ship with the brand-new Thunderbolt connectivity standard that Apple co-developed with Intel.

Thunderbolt can transfer up to 10 Gbps, which is theoretically 12 times faster than the previous FireWire 800 connectivity standard. This is usually where you’d connect an external accessory such as a hard drive.

Apple has historically been nimble with pushing new connectivity standards. Apple created the FireWire connectivity standard before it became widely adopted in the PC industry.

Read the full article at wired.com or get technical with Intel's description Thunderbolt.

Image courtesy of Intel.