If you are starting from scratch, the first thing you’ll want to do is profile, and perhaps screen, these candidates to determine their appropriateness to the project. Give them a short survey which gathers some key metrics that may affect their relationship with your product. Such metrics might include:

• demographics (age, sex, income, etc.)
• webographics (connection speed, Web experience level, etc.)
• product relationship (usage levels of similar products, spending levels in the category, etc.)

The goal here is to get enough background info on participants to assess how important a particular type of feedback is to your business objectives. With information on respondent background handy, the task of sifting through feedback is greatly simplified when you know which comments come from core customers versus those users with minimal involvement in your category.

Let ‘Em at It!

Once you’ve selected the people who will be hacking on your site, raise the curtains and let them explore your newest pride and joy. Things at this stage will be fairly routine, and you’ll be doing the usual backend tweaking.

But here’s the twist: While most beta tests provide simple mailto: links to give users the opportunity to provide feedback as they surf, we recommend employing forms and a .cgi. Using a mini survey will allow you to quickly categorize the feedback being provided, route it for follow-up and, most importantly, give you an easy way to understand the type of user it came from.

Do this by augmenting your feedback form with some key metrics (typically gleaned from your profiling survey), which describe a user’s relationship to your product. For an investing site, for example, you might ask:

• How often do you trade stocks?
• How often do you visit investment-related websites?

These two questions allow you to quickly categorize the feedback as coming from a die-hard, a middle-weight or a dabbler.

An easy way of keeping the feedback mechanism in plain sight (and encourage usage) is to throw the whole thing into a frame set, with the feedback form in one constantly viewable frame, and the rest of the site in the other. If you’re worried about throwing off the look or usability of your site because of this temporary design change, you can always put a link to the feedback form in the header or footer of your page. Clicking on the feedback link can launch a new JavaScript window which contains the form.

If you aren’t quite ready to dive in and generate your own survey-conducting code, there are a lot of resources out there that can help you get started. Products like InsightExpress, Market Tool’s Zoomerang, and Catapult Systems’ Inquisite allow users to conduct online surveys with no technical knowledge whatsoever.

Reality Check

Even though collecting feedback through a structured Web form instead of a free-form e-mail greatly increases the quality of user responses, the data gathered should still be considered qualitative and subject to bias. Ever heard the term “silent majority?” The most outspoken or involved members of the beta testing group are likely to dominate the information flow, while less-involved or subdued visitors quietly go about their business using the site. So keep in mind that the views of loudmouths are not necessarily representative of the entire beta testing population.

In addition to the bug fixes, the best use for information at this stage is to identify issues to be quantified in the next phase of the beta testing program: the follow-up survey.

HTML (hypertext markup language) is the formatting language (or code) the Web is based on. An HTML document looks quite different from the Web page the browser shows; the Web page you see on your screen is the browser’s interpretation of an HTML document.

The images you see are called up by the HTML document, but they aren’t part of it – they’re separate documents. The browser reads the location of the images from the HTML code, then places them on the Web page alongside the text and other elements that are within the main document. Similarly, audio or movie files can be part of the set of documents that are called by an HTML file and assembled by the browser.

The browser cache is another important part of the picture: Because documents on the Web take time to download (as you may know all too well), browsers can store images temporarily in a cache on your hard drive to help you avoid having to download the same image more than once. This cache can and should be emptied at least once every four or five hours.

The ability to display and store Web pages is what makes a browser a browser, but, like with word-processing programs, there is more than one browser out there.

Why is there more than one Web browser? A little history might help here. Until a few years ago, the Internet dealt almost exclusively with text; then, in 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released Mosaic, the first graphical browser, and the World Wide Web began its explosive cycle of growth. The Web became so popular, one could argue, because people like to look at pictures, and the Mosaic browser allowed people to do just that.

The Mosaic browser made it possible to design documents containing images for display over the Internet, instead of simply putting a bunch of text on a server. The Web page was born.

The real action, however, didn’t begin until 1994, with the release of Netscape Navigator 1.1.

Mosaic ship-jumper Marc Andreessen followed the successful model Mosaic had established when he released Netscape: Distribute the product for free on the Internet in order to establish a wide user-base. It worked like a charm. Netscape quickly eclipsed Mosaic and became the browser of choice, dominating the browser market to such an extent that – in the time-honored tradition of the Band-Aid and the Q-Tip – the name “Netscape” became synonymous with “browser.”

That kind of total market saturation couldn’t last long, though. Microsoft finally got hip to the potential of the Internet and set out – in its usual style – to outspend Netscape and build a better browser the following year. This game of catch-up has been very successful. The user base for Microsoft Internet Explorer continues to grow at a fast clip, largely due to the company’s strategy of bundling Explorer with Windows system software.

And then there’s America Online, the nation’s largest online service and the company that now owns Netscape. Much of AOL’s action takes place in its own online “environment,” available only to subscribers. But it, too, offers its members a Web browser.

When it comes to browsers, there’s lots to choose from, and they’re all cheap or even free (in fact, one may already be installed on your computer). So just pick one, and start browsing!

• Always read the user agreements aimed at both sellers and buyers. As mentioned before, many consumers have been burned by PayPal’s reportedly dodgy terms of service. As a general rule, steer clear of services that take rights away from your customers or from you. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use PayPal, it just means that you should read everything carefully, and you should encourage your customers to do the same. If your customers have a positive experience at every step of their dealings with you and your payment service, they are more likely to return.
• Be a stickler for security. While too much security steps can send potential customers packing, it’s wise to pick a payment system that’s going to clearly offer confidence to your customers. People who spend money on the Web like to see features like SSL, password protection, P3P statements, and privacy statements. Also, choosing a service with an established brand can help ease the security jitters your users may feel.
• You didn’t forget about taxes, did you?
• And how are you going to ship? FedEx? UPS? US Mail? Carrier pigeon? Just some other costs that need addressing.
• Beware of hidden special rules attached to some services. Some payment systems only allow one-time billing for security reasons. Some require customers to input excessive personal info that may not have anything to do with your product.
• Leave room to grow. If your product is generating gobs of press — or even hype — then do yourself a favor and pick a payment service that’s going to allow you to grow. Who knows, in a year, you may need to coordinate a database-driven shopping cart system with a warehouse full of inventory!
• Armed with this information, you’re more than ready to go forth and get what’s yours. I’m talking about money here! Money for your hard work, your hours spent away from loved ones, your time that could have been spent chasing squirrels or learning how to play the drums. You’ve got to start somewhere, so pick the right level of commitment and go for it. Don’t leave those customers waiting.

Having a website on which you can manage your own content, have automatic photo galleries and videos, have catalogs and even sell products online , manage blogs and forums, etc. . , can be a very complicated affair if you trust inexperienced.

We acquire , install, customize and manage these and other many more web applications , are made to measure or open source .

Our goal is to always think the advantages for you as a customer and your company because each system has its own echo in the market and is aimed at certain functions. custom web development will lead to a good end product worked with great professionalism.

Insights for the Invisible Web
A brief explanation of the invisible Web:

• Information in databases Can only be accessed by direct searches (searches from Within the site Itself), Which Prevents Finding it from search engines.
• White pages, electronic books, online journals, image files, newspaper archives, dictionary definitions and patents are examples of the file types found in databases. Changing or frequently updated information, like ticket prices and job listings, are Also part of the deep Web.
• Although ITS exact size is unknown, the deep Web is Believed to be 400-550 times larger surface Than the Web (the area accessible to search engines.)
  Finding One trick for databases with standard search engines is as simple as Adding the term “database” to your search query. Instead of “Buddhism,” try “database Buddhism.” By doing this, you are using the search engine to find a gateway to more information, Rather Than the information itself.
• Occasionally Online databases require users to pay for access to Their content. Schools and libraries subscribe to Various database services, so consult your librarian for a list of resources That They May make available to you. Otherwise, consider your research goals is to determine Whether paying Worthwhile.

Terms like Online Marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and even Website MaintenanceHave come to mean many things in recent years.

Our Internet Marketing service is the strategies we use to improve your website ranking in search engines.

The maintenance of sites has more to do with updates, graphics and content from a single point of view. Learn more of what we offer for your website Maintenance.

Online Marketing (SEO)

Adjust your site to the functioning of the major search engines using design elements and content with strategic systems work.

The online marketing is summed up in doing what needs to search your site better rankings in Google search engine. It means working on the necessary changes in site design, application-specific tactics and strategies related to the content. As a result, more people really interested in their services and products, visit your site every month.

Why us?

Because you need …

• improve the ranking of your site (ranking)
• read more visitors information services (traffic)
• reach those who are genuinely interested in their products (target)

SEO requires a lot of time and hard work on consistent application of strategies, which have been previously studied, tested and learned. In fact, there are two types of customers who often hire our services: (1) Those sites never before have been marketed. (2) Sites that have undergone a preliminary but no results expected.

How do we organize our work?

SEO can be a complex process by which we divide it into different areas, each with activities and tasks to perform on your site:

Planning. Understanding your website and it must contain information equivalent to a high percentage of success in planning and implementing an effective SEO work.

Strategies. Various tactics are implemented, both onsite and off, taking into account web design, keywords, HTML code, importance of content, links, among others.

Optimization. Find gain the attention of people and search engines is part of the process.

Maintenance. The online marketing is a strategy that done once and then forgotten. It is a process that requires effort to keep what is working and working on what should be improved.

Ethics. Most people do understand that online marketing there are certain rules, but not all do them correctly. Many practitioners claim a bias towards Internet users, search engines, or their customers, and is common to the excuse of “at the expense of anything to” break some of these guidelines.

What to do from here?

You can:

• Get answers to some of the FAQs Online Marketing
• Review some advice when hiring an SEO company for your website.
• Learn more about the Code of Ethics on Search Engine Optimization

But above all, with all this information about Online Marketing and SEO, the following is that you contact us completing the appropriate form and one of our representatives will contact you and see details of your project.

No one is sure what prompted the modification
in the pronunciation of English vowels, but everyone agrees those changes had a
profound effect on the language. If you have read Chaucer’s original works, you
know that they are extremely difficult to interpret. But Shakespeare’s texts,
written less than 200 years later, are easy for modern-English speakers to
understand.

Scholars think the Great Vowel Shift began
with a change in just one vowel sound (although there is disagreement about
which one). After one pronunciation changed, so the theory goes, the
pronunciations of the others gradually shifted to maintain distinctions between
vowels. The transitions also generated new diphthongs, two-element speech sounds
that start with the tongue in one position and end with it in a different
position (as in the "ou" of "out").

Unfortunately, the Great Vowel Shift coincided
with the rise of the printing press in England. Just as new printing technology
was solidifying spelling, the pronunciation of the vowels was shifting around.
That contributes to the disjunct between spelling and pronunciation that we
suffer today.

Potters have a number of special terms for clay-specific processes. For example, the process of making slip, a mixture of clay and water used to both decorate and cement clay, is known as blunging. The verb blunge (meaning “to beat up and mix in water”) is itself a mix of blend plus plunge; the clay-based noun slip has an ancestor in the Old English word for “slime.”

Once slip is applied to pottery (either as decoration or to improve its surface texture) it is called engobe. That name comes from French, where the verb engober means “to cover with slip.” Another French borrowing potters use is malaxage, which means “knead” in French; in English it names the act of softening clay by moistening and working it.

The process of trimming off excess clay at the seams of cast and partly dried pottery ware is known as fettling, after the Middle English verb meaning “to shape or prepare.” The Latin lutum, meaning “mud” or “clay,” gave us the verb lute, which means “to fill a crevice in half-dry ceramic ware with wet clay.” If to lute is to seal, it makes sense that the term for “taking the clay from something” is unlute.

Don’t let your questions slip by; write us. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.

Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD’s including Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.

The new site (www.wal-mart.com) promises to be less dazzling and more efficient, “less of a shot out of a cannon than an old-fashioned store remodeling,” says Jeanne Jackson, chief executive of Walmart.com, a joint venture of Wal-Mart and Accel Partners of Palo Alto, Calif.

“We are striving for simplicity. We have relentlessly focused on making it fast and making it easy,” Ms. Jackson says.

Wal-Mart’s entry into online retailing has been rocky. The Bentonville, Ark., retailing behemoth launched a bare-bones site in July 1996 and let it languish for the next three years as it waited for more customers to get online. The company began reworking the site last fall, in time for the holiday shopping season, but had trouble delivering items on time. In January, Wal-Mart unveiled a makeover, which boasted products from toilet paper to toothpaste, plus special features such as a travel center that sold airline tickets and hotel reservations.

But the new site debuted to disappointing reviews. It was criticized for being clumsy and hard to navigate.

Days after the site launched, Wal-Mart said it would join forces with Accel, a top Silicon Valley venture-capital firm, and it moved the operation to Northern California from Arkansas. In March, Walmart.com named Ms. Jackson, the former CEO of Gap Inc.’s Banana Republic division, to head the online retailing program.

This summer, the company bought some assets of HomeWareHouse.com, a defunct home-improvement site, to speed technological changes. Walmart.com has been shut down since Oct. 3, while the new site was built and tested.

The new site has about the same number of products as before — about 500,000 items. But gone are the consumable products such as toilet paper and Windex. Toys, sporting goods and electronics have been expanded. In place of the travel site, there is a direct link to Southwest Airlines Co., where tickets can be bought directly.

Eighty-three percent of the merchants who sell goods online say fraud is a problem, up from 75% who said so a year ago, according to a survey jointly conducted by CyberSource Corp., a vendor of software for online transactions, and Mindwave Research, an online research company. The survey polled 132 companies, including both corporations that sell exclusively over the Internet and those that sell goods online as well as at stores or through catalogs.

The survey also found that online purchases amount to 5% of all credit-card transactions, but amount to 50% of all fraud involving cards. “Online fraud continues to be a growing concern for merchants and they are taking it very seriously,” said William Donahoo, vice president of marketing at CyberSource.

The surveyors said that fraud rates, though growing, may soon peak. On average, the companies surveyed estimated that they lose 4% of their overall online revenue to credit-card fraud. That number is down from 5% a year earlier. A majority of corporations, 61%, said they are taking more precautions against fraud.

Fraud rates in new markets tend to level off after an initial spike. Credit-card association Visa USA, for example, says its internal data shows that 15 cents to 18 cents on every hundred dollars charged to Visa cards for mail order or telephone sales prove to be fraudulent. That number is down from the 25 cents to 30 cents of every hundred dollars spent in 1993, when mail-order and telephone sales were first catching on.

Internet purchases, along with phone or mail-order purchases, fall into a category called “card not present” transactions. Merchants bear the risk of fraud in these sales, and must absorb the cost of most claims.

But many merchants don’t realize they are liable for fraud in these transactions, the survey found. As many as 28% of those corporations surveyed either didn’t know who was responsible to absorb the costs or said that burden lies with the bank or credit-card company. But awareness is improving, the survey found. A year ago, 41% of merchants surveyed thought others were liable for bearing the costs of online fraud.

Banks, credit-card companies and merchants are taking steps to combat fraud. Visa USA, for example, announced this week a payer authentication service that will allow merchants to verify the user of the card during the checkout process. Cardholders who aren’t able to proffer a preregistered password during the checkout process won’t be able to complete the purchase.

Visa also has posted a series of merchant guidelines that spell out safe practices in storing credit-card and password information. Merchants who don’t comply with these guidelines by the first quarter of 2001 could face fines. The goal, according to a spokesman, is to “heighten consumer confidence” in online transactions.

CyberSource’s survey found that 52% of the merchants polled felt that customer concerns over online shopping would be eased simply by employing fraud-screening practices, and displaying the logos of such service providers on their Web sites.