Archives For Browsers

Making your website “mobile responsive”

May 29, 2012 — 6 Comments

A rising trend in web design recently is building sites that are “responsive”.  This is a way of creating your site so that it looks good on any kind of screen, from a full desktop down to a smartphone.  The alternative, which thousands of sites use, is to create a separate “mobile version” for those visitors.  There can be some advantages to building a separate mobile version of your site, but a responsive design seems like it is a better solution in the majority of cases.

The biggest problem with special mobile versions of sites is determining when it should be used.  On a 3.7″ iPhone?  Sure.  How about a 4.6″ phone?  How about a 7″ tablet?  10″ tablet?  It gets quite messy.  Responsive sites will show as much information as they can reasonably fit on the screen, no matter what kind of device you are using.

Here’s a quick look at how it works (via a brighter web):

While converting an existing site to become responsive can be a significant challenge, it’s remarkably easy to build a new site that is responsive from day one — especially if you use WordPress.  I use StudioPress for many of the sites I build, and they’re rolling out more and more responsive themes as time goes on.  They already have 11 different responsive themes, including the one that this blog is using (“Focus“).  Simply install the theme, add your content, and it’ll automatically take care of optimizing the display of the site for every visitor.

You might also find that it increases your traffic.  Rob Cubbon recently shared some stats from his blog after making the switch to a responsive theme, and the increase was quite impressive.  I just switched the theme on this blog here yesterday, so it’ll be a little while before I can measure any kind of difference.  I’ll be sure to post again if I see similar results to Rob.

Another good resource for learning about responsive design comes to use from ReadWriteWeb, which has a great article about the process that the Boston Globe went through to make their site responsive.

Is your site responsive yet?  Do you plan to convert it over in the near future? Or do you think reponsiveness is simply a fad that will go away in a few years?

In Browsers, Mobile, Technology
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Firefox 4 released; much faster, some new features

March 22, 2011 — Leave a comment

While I’m still a big fan of Google Chrome, Firefox 4 came out today and has some nice improvements.

The first is speed.  Chrome still is a faster browser, but Firefox is now much closer behind.  If you’re a big fan of Firefox, you’ll notice quite an improvement in speed.

It also has some nifty features like “panorama”, shown here:

You can download Firefox 4 here.

What is your favorite browser?

In Browsers, Technology , ,
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Thoughts on the Google Chrome OS laptop

December 11, 2010 — 10 Comments

As many of you know, Google has been giving away thousands of free laptops to help promote and troubleshoot their upcoming “Chrome OS” operating system.  In a nutshell, the entire operating system is just a browser.  No files, no “desktop”, no real programs – just a browser.  It’s an ambitious move to say the least.

I’ve been a big fan of Google Chrome since day one.  It’s amazingly fast and stable, I use it as my primary browser on every computer, and I’ve mentioned it in various posts a number of times.  If you don’t currently use it on your PC/Mac, I highly recommend that you download it and try it out. That being said, I wasn’t sure how well it would function as an operating system.

To confuse things further, Google already has an excellent operating system — Android.  While it’s mostly just on phones right now, it’s beginning to show up on various laptops and tablets.  With that in place, where does Chrome OS fit in?  After playing with the laptop for a few days, I’m beginning to see the light.

The laptop is pretty cool to look at — rough black, with not a single sticker or logo anywhere on it.  The specs are very minimal, and virtually identical to my netbook; an Intel Atom processor, 2 GB of RAM, etc.  There is no hard drive in here either – just a 16GB solid state drive, similar to what you’d find in an iPad.  Since you can’t save anything to it, 16GB is more than enough.

Here’s a quick video that shows some of my thoughts on the device:

And here are a few more videos, both from Google.  This first one gives a rough overview of how it works and why you’d want a computer like this:

The last video is a fun look at why saving your data in the cloud can be so useful, as Google destroys a handful of laptops:

It’s not too late to apply to get your own, which you can do at this site. They’ve probably given most of them away by now, but it can’t hurt to apply. Good luck!

The first retail laptops with Chrome OS loaded on them are expected next summer from Acer and Samsung.  I’ll certainly let you know as I hear more details about those.

In Browsers, Technology, Videos , , , ,
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Organize Your Digital Life 8 – Take advantage of the small breaks of time

December 16, 2009 — 3 Comments

This is the eighth in a series of posts in the Organize Your Digital Life series.

I’m finding one of the keys to being productive is to be able to take advantage of the small breaks of time during the day.  If you found yourself with 5 extra minutes, could you use them?  How about an extra 60 seconds?

Those small breaks of time can add up to quite a bit over the course of a day.  I have two main suggestions:

  • Be able to do a lot from your phone.
  • Keep things open on your computer.

:: Be able to accomplish a lot from your phone

I discussed this a bit in part one of the series (“get control of your email“), but it’s worth mentioning again; a good phone is worth far more than the initial expense.  During the day, many of your small breaks of time are found when you’re away from home.  Some examples:

  • Waiting for your child after school/dance/sports
  • Waiting to see the dentist/doctor
  • Waiting for food to arrive at a meal
  • Waiting in line for tickets/check-out

I’m sure you can think of many others, but that’s a start.  When I have extra time in one of those cases, I do one of the following on my phone:

  • Process some email.  I don’t usually convert any into tasks (I leave that for when I get home), but I can read, respond, archive, delete, etc.
  • Catch up on Google Reader.  I can knock some reading off my list, and “star” items for later if I need to read them more in-depth or write about them.
  • Read some Tweets or catch up on Facebook.  You can access Twitter and Facebook from almost any phone.  If those are important to you, then this gives you a chance to catch up.

Right now the iPhone is still your best bet, but some of the Android phones (like Verizon’s “Droid”) are catching up really quick.  Ultimately, any decent smartphone will do the job for you.

:: Keep things open on your computer

If you find yourself with a spare minute or two, you don’t want to waste a chunk of that time opening programs, logging in, etc.  If possible, leave those programs open all the time.  When you find a spare minute, your tools are right at your fingertips and you can get things done.

The problem with this is that leaving too much stuff open can slow down your computer and cause other issues.  I wrote a long post about this back in January, but here are some tips:

  • Leave it on. Don’t shut down every night.  Reboot once or twice a week to keep Windows fresh, though.
  • Use a fast browser. I use Google Chrome 90% of the time, and Firefox for most of the rest.  They use less memory and run much faster than Internet Explorer.
  • Clean up your computer. There are a lot of small (free!) things you can do to speed up your computer.  Here’s tips for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Mac.
  • Buy more memory. RAM is dirt cheap, simple to install and will make a huge difference.  At this point, you should have at least 2 gigs in your computer.  If not, go get more.  Not sure what you need?  Go to crucial.com and use the “scan my system” tool.  They’ll tell you exactly what you have, offer some choices, and they’ll sell it at a fair price.  I use them quite a bit.
  • Get a new computer. This is last on the list for a reason, but it’s worth mentioning.  If your computer is more than a few years old, you can get a new one that is much faster for $500 (or less).  It’s something to consider.

If you find yourself with a bit more time and you’re caught up on email/reader/etc, Chris Brogan has a list of things to do if you have an extra half hour.  It’s got some good tips to try to keep you ahead of the game.

What else do you do to take advantage of those small breaks of time?

This is the eighth in a series of posts in the Organize Your Digital Life series.

In Browsers, Facebook, Social Media, Technology, Twitter , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Get more frequent Google Chrome updates

September 16, 2008 — Leave a comment

Google has just released a very simple Windows tool that allows you to switch to the “dev” branch of updates for Chrome, rather than the standard “beta” branch.  You can download the tool here.

According to Google, automatic updates on the dev channel will occur every 1-2 weeks.

In Browsers , ,
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Firefox 3 alpha 2 released

September 5, 2008 — Leave a comment

It’s a great time to be a web user — the new browser wars are meaning more great features for all of us!  Firefox has been hard at work on version 3.1 for a while now, and they’ve just released the second alpha version of 3.1.  So what does it bring to the table?

 

  • The “video element” of HTML 5, which allows for some cool use of video on a site (manipulate with JavaScript, translucent draggable videos, etc) without using Flash.
  • Web worker threads, that allow complex JavaScript to run in the background and not disrupt the speed of the page you’re on.
  • The highly-touted new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine isn’t yet ready, so it’s not enabled in this release.
  • Dragging tabs between windows no longer results in a page refresh.
The next few months will be interesting for Firefox and Chrome.  Most of these new features (other than the video element) are things that need to catch up to Chrome.  On the flip side, Chomes next big release will likely have a lot of features to try to catch up to Firefox (plug-ins, for one).  By the time they both catch up with each other, we should be looking at two amazing browsers!
In Browsers , , , , , , ,
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Chrome now listed as a browser type in Google Analytics

September 4, 2008 — 1 Comment

As of today, Google Analytics is now showing “Chrome” as a browser type in Google Analytics.  Visits from Chrome users over the last few days will be retroactively updated to show their use of Chrome over the next few days.

We’re showing Chrome usage at over 10% on this blog for the last three days, but webmaster/SEO blogs would certainly be skewed a bit high for something like that.  It’ll be very interesting to see what the numbers look like in a few weeks.

What percent of visitors on your blog are using Chrome?

In Analytics, Browsers , ,
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Chrome is now available!

September 2, 2008 — 1 Comment

Google’s new web browser, Chrome, is now available to download.  You can read our previous information about the browser, which explain some of the new features.

I’ve only been using it for a few minutes, but I can sum it up in one word: fast.  This thing flies!  I’m sure some glitches and/or shortcomings will emerge, but so far, so good.  Go get it!

In Browsers , ,
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Google's new "Chrome" browser to be launched tomorrow

September 1, 2008 — 2 Comments

Google has accidentally leaked a comic strip that talks about “Chrome”, their new web browser.  Google has confirmed that a browser is coming, and will be lauched tomorrow (Tuesday).  So what’s the scoop on the new browser?  Here’s what we know so far (from TechCrunch and Google Blogoscoped):

  • Windows only.  Mac and Linux support coming soon.
  • It’s open source, based on Webkit.
  • It will support Google Gears.
  • It will be running a new JavaScript VM called “V8″, which will supposedly be MUCH faster than what we’re seeing with current browsers.
  • Tabs will look much different.  Rather than being at the top of the content, they will be at the top of the entire window.
  • It will have an “omnibox”, similar to Firefox’s “awesome bar”, with autocomplete and similar things.
  • The default home page will look a lot like Opera 9, with thumbnails of your favorite sites.
  • Each tab will live in its own “sandbox”, and each will have its own process.  Not only will this help the browser to run more quickly, but if a tab crashes it won’t take down the entire browser.
  • It will have a task manager to help you determine how much memory is being used by each tab and by each plugin.
  • You can open a new tab as an “incognito” window that doesn’t record anything you do there, which is very similar to a similar feature introduced in Internet Explorer 8 beta 2.
  • Chrome will maintain a list of phishing and malware sites to help protect you.  Site owners will get notification if they’re added to the list, to help fix false positives.

All in all, it sounds pretty slick.  Personally, speed and stability are my main concerns with a browser and both of those have improved greatly with Firefox 3.  If Chrome can take it even further, great!

We’ll find out tomorrow…

In Browsers , , , , , , ,
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Firefox 3 finally gets the Google Toolbar

June 16, 2008 — 3 Comments

For those of you that love the Google Toolbar, but have been missing it with Firefox 3, your wait is over!

http://www.google.com/toolbar

I figured we’d see it updated this week, since the public release of Firefox 3 is scheduled for tomorrow.  I also expect we’ll see an update to the Google Earth plug-in very soon, since it still doesn’t work on Firefox 3 yet.  For that matter, there are a lot of plug-ins that still don’t work on FF3.  How many will get updates this week?

In Browsers , , , , ,
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