Joomla! (Yes, the official name has an exclamation point) is a content management system that Blue Water Media has embraced and began using for several projects and websites. Joomla! allows our clients to make updates to their site as easily and without advanced knowledge of HTML or programming. Being the resident expert and Joomla! trainer here at Blue Water Media, I would like to discuss a few tips that will help you get the most out of your installation of Joomla!. Listed below are some of the most useful resources, tips, plugins, and some advice from my experience using the content management system.

The term “web 2.0” has become quite the buzzword in the web industry over the past couple years. Clients request it, bloggers discuss it, and, strangely enough, everyone seems to have a different idea of what “web 2.0” means. Because there’s different understandings of what “web 2.0” actually means, the ambiguity and confusion has led many to believe that “web 2.0” is dead. And in the same short breath, they claim that the dawn of “web 3.0” is upon us. I don’t think it’s fair to say that web 2.0 is dead. Web 2.0, in my mind, is a process – one that doesn’t end.

The term “Web 2.0” often refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.’ As defined by Wikipedia, itself a web 2.0 by-product.

When developing a website with substantial custom code I generally prefer to use an application framework instead of building everything from the ground up. Even other software developers might not be familiar with application frameworks, but those who have been programming for the web have at least come across mentions of CakePHP and Ruby on Rails. These exotic sounding terms are web application frameworks. Using a framework provides a number of compelling advantages.

What Is an Application Framework

An application framework is a programming environment which makes it easier for a developer to create a custom application. A framework provides both a pre-determined methodology and some powerful base functionality. Consider the difference between the task “create a vehicle to transport people and things” and the task “build a car given this frame, engine and transmission”. In the second case you have a more narrowly focused objective and a lot of the hard work has been done for you. With an application framework some of the most difficult parts of the programming task are largely done for you – how to create, update and delete items from the database, how to structure your application logic and how to handle templating and display.

While SEO principles such as keyword analysis, meta tag usage and link strategies are vital to attaining high search engine rankings, content continues to be king.  Search engines love to find new content on websites, and lots of it.  Therefore, site owners should make it a priority to continually add fresh, relevant content to their portals.

One approach that has been gaining steam among sites across various industries is the use of blogs.  A number of webmasters have learned to effectively use blogs to increase their search engine rankings by posting relevant articles with strategic keyword positioning in the titles and within the posts. If one has the resources, ideas and importantly, the time to blog consistently, it can bring very positive and measurable results.

For those who don’t have the time or the resources to maintain a blog, there are other ways to increase the amount of content on your site.

Several days ago, I received a newsletter from iStockphoto.com, which made me wonder about current browser trends.Here is the email:

Starting in 2010, iStock will begin phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6 or lower. Why? Other than PC World Magazine ranking it the 8th worst tech product of all time, here’s our top 5 reasons to upgrade:

1. Security continues to be an issue with this legacy browser. We want people browsing to be safe!
2. It’s slow. Too slow. It’s orders of magnitude slower than modern, efficient browsers.
3. It’s non-standards compliant. This means our developers have to develop an almost completely different version of iStock to run on it.
4. It doesn’t properly support cool new functionality that you are asking for, and we want to deliver.
5. Alternatives are free, fast and easy to download:
   • Internet Explorer 7
   • Internet Explorer 8 R.C. 1