Welcome to the Escape Blog

There is much talk of this thing called web 2.0. As with many new ‘web
terms’ (or jargon) that get introduced, this one is also causing a bit of
confusion.

We have a web 2.0 whitepaper that may shed some light.

In an effort to “better organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible”, Google has launched its new search product, Accessible Search.

The system is geared to prioritise search results that are more easily usable by visually impaired people (2m in the UK alone - RNIB).

“Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents that is most relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step further by helping you find the most accessible pages in that result set”

A system like this should be redundant, but the truth is there are far more inaccessible websites out there than accessible ones. This will change.  The laws are becoming stricter and web developers are becoming better at building sites that comply (W3C WCAG). This will take time, but until then tools like this will greatly improve the browsing experience for literally millions of user’s world wide.

It will be interesting to see what knock-on effects are caused by Accessible Search. Now that there is a greater Search Engine Optimisation angle to exploit will we see acceleration in building accessible sites? Who knows? One thing is for sure, Google has built a truly useful tool here and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Check out Google’s Accessible Search here.

You can read more about what makes an accessible website here.

As we concentrate on which keywords to use on our web pages, it’s worth knowing that more and more people are using longer search phrases. Latest research from One Stat shows that three really is the magic number although it does differ from country to country.

We all want powerful web pages that attract traffic. The question for you is, are yours?

Our brand new web
page analyzer will tell you.

Just type in a web
address and the analyzer will break down the structure and content of the page
and assess the build quality and content quality from an accessibility, usability
and search engine point of view.

You can give it a go
here:

http://www.the-escape.co.uk/tools/pageanalyzer

So you need a domain name? Back in the very early days this was quite easy.

Then as ‘cyber squatters‘ ran through the dictionary and snapped all the good domain names up, it became that little bit harder to find the one you want.

A lot of companies settled for the wrong name. Many settled for adding ltd on the end (mycompanyltd.co.uk), or buying secondary domain names, such as .net, .uk.com, .org, which were not as descriptive as they could have been. Another ‘fad’, was the acronym - wtff. All this leaves your potential customer guessing how to find you.

In an age where we all want to be found by the mighty search engines - a good name is a real commodity essential.

This Marketing Experiment Post seems to back up some of the same trends that we are seeing.

Most people now search for Web sites using a descriptive word or
phrase, or else are introduced to a site by a friend or colleague who
emails the URL. So, domains don’t need to be short and snappy the way
they had to be in the earliest days of the Web.

So, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go for a more descriptive, or localised domain name. The World may be your oyster on the web, but your pearl is the specific offering you have - whether that be location, or specific service offering.

Of course, it is imperative that you do the research on the words
you see your service as being, and what you clients may think it should
be, eg. custom vs. bespoke - you don’t want to have the same problem.

Remember, it’s not the length that counts - is the ease with which your domain name can be remembered.

Growth of Internet marketing continues, as reported by the Retail Bulletin, with 30% of companies reporting
an increase to budgets against a 6% of those reporting a decrease for
the second quarter of this year.

The report found that the proportion of companies allocating more
than 10% of spend to Internet marketing rose to a record high of over
17%, while the proportion of companies allocating no spend to Internet
budgets fell to a record low of 11%.

Seth Godin is saying something all us commercial designers would like love to say in the design world. The thing is, when you are a best selling author, you can get away with it.

How to live happily with a great designer (or Design Company).

Favourite is number eight:

You don’t know a lot about accounting so you don’t backseat drive your
accountant. You hired a great designer, please don’t backseat drive
here, either.

This other post also made me howl with laughter.

For all you wordsmiths out there.

Three Minds points me to a great Thesauras tool - The Visual Thesauras.

You can try it and then the cost is less than $20 a year.

Thanks Jason for this link to the BBC story of Kyle Madonald who traded up from A Red Paper Clip to a House

It took Kyle exactly a year of 14 internet trades to move from the paper clip to a house on Main Street in the tiny town of Kipling in Saskatchewan province

Read more about Kyle’s exploits here.

Ever see a font (typeface) and not know what it is called.

Cool tool found by Dan that can tell you what a font is based on an image or screen shot of it.

Saves hours, believe me!