I wrote a blog article last year about online allegations that were being made against Yelp. Recently I read an article in the Huff Post that reported that:

“Two law firms, Beck & Lee from Miami and The Weston Firm in San Diego, have filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court alleging unfair business practices by local business review and rating website operator Yelp.”

Read the full article from TechCrunch.com

Sometimes clients see things in a certain way in their browsers that I’m unable to see. Often the fastest way to clear up the confusion, is for them to send me a screenshot. Send a screenshot of something on the web is easy to do once you know the steps.

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I often have people contact me who are in various stages of breaking up with their current web designers. Sometimes the termination is friendly, sometimes it’s not. Here’s what you should know BEFORE you attempt to fire, or otherwise end your working relationship with your web designer.

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I was contacted recently by WebHostingSearch.com and asked if I would be interviewed about my hosting company. Loving DreamHost.com like I do, I said “of course!” and you can go here to read my interview  on DreamHost, my favorite hosting company.

A client sent me a link to this article on Slate.com that gave a fairly scathing review of one of the common open source content management applications called Drupal. While I’ve never used Drupal, after reading this article, I don’t think I ever will.

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For the past month or so, I’ve been able to use live chat to communicate with the folks at DreamHost.com, my web hosting company. While their support ticket system has been excellent, they’ve now improved their support system by adding a live chat feature for some of their customers. I’ve used it several times, and didn’t want to write about it until they officially announced it – and today, they did!

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An iframe, is an HTML element that gives you a window through which you can view another website. But sometimes, you want to show just a particular piece of that other website. I thought this was  impossible to do, until today, when I found an article that told me how to do it.

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This blog article is a personal one, and since I don’t have a personal blog, I’m writing it here, in the hopes that some of my readers are in Washington state and don’t know about Ref 71 that’s on this November’s ballot. For those of you outside Washington state who enjoy reading my blog, I’d appreciate you considering making a donation to help this referendum pass, as it directly impacts my family.

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I have an iPhone and I love it. But recently I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease which means I need to avoid any foods that have gluten (wheat, rye, barley). It’s tricky and very time consuming to navigate a grocery store now, with all of the hidden sources of gluten in processed foods. Did you know that “brown rice syrup” can contain wheat? But a company called MidLifeCrisisApps.com has come out with an iPhone app that makes my life much easier: Is That Gluten Free?

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As part of the process of giving folks a cost range for their website projects, they often mention that they want a newsletter. I wanted to review the different approaches that can be taken when trying to integrate a newsletter into a small business website.

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On all the websites I develop, I recommend that clients add a contact “form” to make it easier for prospective customers to contact them. My own experience seemed to indicate that folks are more likely to fill out a contact form that’s embedded in a website page, rather than clicking on an email address link that opens their mail application. I decided to actually gather some real data, and post the results to my blog – so here it is.

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Every once in a while, I run into an issue and get ready to bang my head on my desk. But today, just before I did that, I Googled a problem I was having and was so very delighted with the solution I found, I wanted to give them a link with thanks. Read the rest of this entry »

I had a prospective client ask me the following question: “Should I trademark my domain name?”. I had no idea. But I knew who to ask: my local Seattle trademark attorney, Jefferson Coulter.

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I ran into an issue the other day with one of the browsers that I use to check websites I develop. I had installed Internet Explorer 6 (yes, my web stats shows that 8% of my visitors use IE 6) and it stopped working. On this particular operating system, I hadn’t installed another web browser. So I was stuck. I needed to reinstall IE6, but without a working browser to download it again, I was faced with the icky task of reinstalling the entire operating system. But then I found a solution.

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How safe is it to store private and sensitive information in an online database?

Well, I’m no security expert, not by a longshot.

But I wanted to share a recent experience with a prospective client who was using an online database to store some of his business information and hopefully it might help you avoid some very unpleasant consequences. In this case, no harm was done and the sensitive information was destroyed – but it could have been much, much worse.

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I love Google. Let me count the ways. Google directs over 200 visitors to my website every single day – my small business relies on Google to bring me new clients. I also use Google for my own online searches. I also utilize Google Maps on my iPhone to help me when I’m lost or looking for a business. But as I caught up with my blog reading after returning from the Inauguration, I found another reason to love Google: Google has signed an amicus brief in support of the several legal cases that challenge the recent California Prop 8.

You can read the whole Google blog article entitled “Supporting Equality” here. Here’s what they said:

“In September of last year, Google announced its opposition to California’s Proposition 8. While the campaign was emotionally charged and difficult for both sides, in the wake of the election many were concerned with the impact Proposition 8 could have on the personal lives of people they work with every day, and on California’s ability to attract and retain a diverse mix of employees from around the world.

That’s why we’ve signed an amicus brief (PDF file) in support of several cases currently challenging Proposition 8 in the California Supreme Court. Denying employees basic rights isn’t right, and it isn’t good for businesses. We are committed to preserving fundamental rights for every one of the people who work hard to make Google a success.

Please join us in continuing to fight for equality for all Californians.”

Posted by Kent Walker, General Counsel

Ok, so maybe I’m all excited about the next 4 years  after just returning from the inauguration and filled with visions of liberty and the pursuit of  happiness – generally my posts aren’t too political, but this news about Google was too good to pass up. Go Google!

You may have read my previous article published in January 5, 2009 about Google Map Spam – Multiple Listings By The Same Company. I noticed that in my fabulous traffic tracking tool (Web-Stat) that I had several visits to this particular blog article from Google in Mountain View California. I hoped that maybe, just maybe, Google was reading my blog article and would fix this particular issue. I thought, no, I was just having delusions of grandeur.  I just checked my listing, and it’s now moved up to #1 for “website design seattle” and the two duplicate listing are gone!

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During this winter’s  holiday break, I decided to try and make my home based web design business green. My hosting company, DreamHost, was green, so how hard could this be?

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If you have a small business website and you don’t know who owns your domain name – find out pronto. If you don’t know how to find out who owns it, keep reading.

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Many folks don’t know who is hosting their website. Here’s how I find out. Read the rest of this entry »