Sunday, July 1. 2007
First impressions of the Compete API
The next tool I want to launch on the site is going to pool data from a number of sources. One of the data types I want to use is traffic data for a site. The leader in this field is Alexa but with their bias towards ranking webmaster sites disproportionately high I wanted something else. There are a few competitors in this field but with the recent launch of an API by compete they seemed to be the best place to start.
Accordingly I went to compete.com and started looking around for a link to their API documentation. After a couple of minutes without any success I gave up and just typed 'compete API' in google. Generally I like clean interfaces and here compete doesn't disappoint but when google provides better navigation of your content than than your own site does it's possible you've taken things a little too far.
Having found the developer section sign-up was a breeze with the only potential point of confusion coming when you receive the confirmation email from mashery and not compete. The compete API is being handled by mashery but this isn't mentioned anywhere on the site. It's a minor issue but could lead to confusion.
Having confirmed your email you are directed back to the Mashery site which, while very slick, contains zero info on the API. I'm sure in time user generated content is going to accumulate but for the moment it's a desert.
It's a Good Service . . .
I just like to complain. Despite the points raised above sign-up went smoothly and once you get back to the compete site you have all the info you need to interact with the API. The only thing really lacking is a selection of wrappers.
So Compete, what would you say about an exchange? Put a link in the footer of your main site to the developer area, mirror the documentation on the mashery site, or at least hyperlink the url I entered in the wiki (I couldn't figure out how - html and wiki syntax don't seem to work), and I'll put together a PHP wrapper for the API. What do you say?
Accordingly I went to compete.com and started looking around for a link to their API documentation. After a couple of minutes without any success I gave up and just typed 'compete API' in google. Generally I like clean interfaces and here compete doesn't disappoint but when google provides better navigation of your content than than your own site does it's possible you've taken things a little too far.
Having found the developer section sign-up was a breeze with the only potential point of confusion coming when you receive the confirmation email from mashery and not compete. The compete API is being handled by mashery but this isn't mentioned anywhere on the site. It's a minor issue but could lead to confusion.
Having confirmed your email you are directed back to the Mashery site which, while very slick, contains zero info on the API. I'm sure in time user generated content is going to accumulate but for the moment it's a desert.
It's a Good Service . . .
I just like to complain. Despite the points raised above sign-up went smoothly and once you get back to the compete site you have all the info you need to interact with the API. The only thing really lacking is a selection of wrappers.
So Compete, what would you say about an exchange? Put a link in the footer of your main site to the developer area, mirror the documentation on the mashery site, or at least hyperlink the url I entered in the wiki (I couldn't figure out how - html and wiki syntax don't seem to work), and I'll put together a PHP wrapper for the API. What do you say?
Wednesday, June 20. 2007
Release Early, Release Often - Yeah Right . . .
For a couple of weeks now I've been intending to release two new tools for this site. For one week they've been live on the site (though not linked to) and still I haven't mentioned them.
It could be said I'm procrastinating. This is a shame because as updates go this is even more significant than the dedicated pages for the scripts I've put together.
css/js compaction
The first tool is a port of the original js/css compaction tool and represents the penultimate migration of code from the old domain. All that is left now is the msn contacts web service which I currently have no plans to move across. This tool is basic and if you're working with several javascript or css files and making modifications frequently then there are probably better tools available. For the majority of people, who don't alter their javascript or css files very often and just want to save a little bandwidth or reduce their page loading times, then this tool could be ideal.
Check your spam status
The second tool is the most interesting and certainly required the most work. It's taking the ideas developed in these two posts about checking your rbl/spam status and automating the process to their logical conclusion. This second tool allows scheduled checking and automated updates of any change. At present it checks 75 real-time blacklists of varying degrees of importance. Furthermore it will check these lists up to once a week on your behalf.
It's a simple tool but it's easy to use and should be a big time saver. Expect more of the same . . . soon.
p.s. - I already have some ideas for additional tools but if you are having trouble finding a tool you think will make your life simpler then get in touch as I may be interested in building it as a part of this site. Easiest way to contact me is via a comment. If you don't want it to be public just state you want it to remain private in the message.
It could be said I'm procrastinating. This is a shame because as updates go this is even more significant than the dedicated pages for the scripts I've put together.
css/js compaction
The first tool is a port of the original js/css compaction tool and represents the penultimate migration of code from the old domain. All that is left now is the msn contacts web service which I currently have no plans to move across. This tool is basic and if you're working with several javascript or css files and making modifications frequently then there are probably better tools available. For the majority of people, who don't alter their javascript or css files very often and just want to save a little bandwidth or reduce their page loading times, then this tool could be ideal.
Check your spam status
The second tool is the most interesting and certainly required the most work. It's taking the ideas developed in these two posts about checking your rbl/spam status and automating the process to their logical conclusion. This second tool allows scheduled checking and automated updates of any change. At present it checks 75 real-time blacklists of varying degrees of importance. Furthermore it will check these lists up to once a week on your behalf.
It's a simple tool but it's easy to use and should be a big time saver. Expect more of the same . . . soon.
p.s. - I already have some ideas for additional tools but if you are having trouble finding a tool you think will make your life simpler then get in touch as I may be interested in building it as a part of this site. Easiest way to contact me is via a comment. If you don't want it to be public just state you want it to remain private in the message.
Monday, June 4. 2007
Alternative for site tours
Back in March I posted about amberjack which allows you to create tours for your site. A couple of days ago Duncan Riley, over on techcrunch, highlighted another service. Demofuse also allows you to create site tours and has some nice features I didn't see with Amberjack.
The main advantage of demofuse is it allows you a lot more interaction with the page, highlighting sections, giving tips etc. Where I think it is weak is in moving around the site. This functionality just doesn't seem as smooth as with amberjack.
Beyond the functionality the main difference is that amberjack is a downloadable javascript library licensed under the LGPL and demofuse is a hosted service. There is no mention of a fee for using it but this is something to be aware about.
My personal preference would still be amberjack - I would prefer the control which a downloadable library allows and for my tastes the added functionality which demofuse offers would be better integrated more fully into the design of a site rather than being limited to a site tour. It's a tough call though and I can certainly see situations where demofuse would be the better option.
The main advantage of demofuse is it allows you a lot more interaction with the page, highlighting sections, giving tips etc. Where I think it is weak is in moving around the site. This functionality just doesn't seem as smooth as with amberjack.
Beyond the functionality the main difference is that amberjack is a downloadable javascript library licensed under the LGPL and demofuse is a hosted service. There is no mention of a fee for using it but this is something to be aware about.
My personal preference would still be amberjack - I would prefer the control which a downloadable library allows and for my tastes the added functionality which demofuse offers would be better integrated more fully into the design of a site rather than being limited to a site tour. It's a tough call though and I can certainly see situations where demofuse would be the better option.
Friday, May 25. 2007
The "I'm Alive" Entry
Things have been quiet around here in terms of entries so to keep things rolling here are a few interesting links I've discovered over the past few days . . .
Florian posted a comment over on the msn contact grab entry highlighting a warning error if you use the script in a PHP environment configured with safe_mode enabled. It's a good reminder to switch off error reporting (and switch to logging instead) in a production environment.
Blogsecurity posted a short article were they looked at the wordpress version being used on 50 blogs. They found that all but one of them were using vulnerable outdated versions. Personally I would have liked to see a larger sample size and some discussion about how the samples were picked but I highlight it here because of the followup posted by Vidyut Luther at phpcult.com. I've previously suggested that developers should be more aggressive in attempting to get users signed up to a mailing list highlighting critical updates but Vidyut takes it further and suggests that an application should go into "read only mode.. no new posts, no comments, until the user acknowledges the threat, and does something about it." I like it.
Compete recently opened their API meaning we now have an alternative to paying for Alexa data which is more than a little questionable (Yet another post showing inconsistencies in the data).
Dave Thomas (via Travis Swicegood) highlighted the charity fund-raising efforts of RailsConf which apparently rasied $33k and suggests that we "see if we can make all industry conferences into fund raising events." Now I give monthly to several charities whose work I support (so don't think the worst of me) but I'm not a particular fan of this idea. Granted I would much rather receive a pile of crap than another burlap bag but I don't like the idea of being 'encouraged' to support the work of a charity I know nothing about.
Dave asks us to, "Imagine what could happen if a conference with 5,000 attendees raised just $20 per attendee. Then imagine $50, or $100. It starts to get serious." I'll ask you to imagine what these charities would be able to do with a regular stream of income they could rely on over the long term. Having said that I'll be wandering through the streets of Edinburgh wearing a bra in June in support of breast cancer support charities. If you think the cause is important then sponsorship would be welcome via justgiving. It's conceivable that this makes me something of a hypocrite.
There were going to be more links but as I've already written a small essay I'll stop for now. Incidentally, the reason for the lack of posts is that I've been working to move the js/css file compression/compaction tool I set up on the old domain over to this site as well as creating a totally new tool. Should be ready to go live soon.
Florian posted a comment over on the msn contact grab entry highlighting a warning error if you use the script in a PHP environment configured with safe_mode enabled. It's a good reminder to switch off error reporting (and switch to logging instead) in a production environment.
Blogsecurity posted a short article were they looked at the wordpress version being used on 50 blogs. They found that all but one of them were using vulnerable outdated versions. Personally I would have liked to see a larger sample size and some discussion about how the samples were picked but I highlight it here because of the followup posted by Vidyut Luther at phpcult.com. I've previously suggested that developers should be more aggressive in attempting to get users signed up to a mailing list highlighting critical updates but Vidyut takes it further and suggests that an application should go into "read only mode.. no new posts, no comments, until the user acknowledges the threat, and does something about it." I like it.
Compete recently opened their API meaning we now have an alternative to paying for Alexa data which is more than a little questionable (Yet another post showing inconsistencies in the data).
Dave Thomas (via Travis Swicegood) highlighted the charity fund-raising efforts of RailsConf which apparently rasied $33k and suggests that we "see if we can make all industry conferences into fund raising events." Now I give monthly to several charities whose work I support (so don't think the worst of me) but I'm not a particular fan of this idea. Granted I would much rather receive a pile of crap than another burlap bag but I don't like the idea of being 'encouraged' to support the work of a charity I know nothing about.
Dave asks us to, "Imagine what could happen if a conference with 5,000 attendees raised just $20 per attendee. Then imagine $50, or $100. It starts to get serious." I'll ask you to imagine what these charities would be able to do with a regular stream of income they could rely on over the long term. Having said that I'll be wandering through the streets of Edinburgh wearing a bra in June in support of breast cancer support charities. If you think the cause is important then sponsorship would be welcome via justgiving. It's conceivable that this makes me something of a hypocrite.
There were going to be more links but as I've already written a small essay I'll stop for now. Incidentally, the reason for the lack of posts is that I've been working to move the js/css file compression/compaction tool I set up on the old domain over to this site as well as creating a totally new tool. Should be ready to go live soon.
Monday, May 14. 2007
Issues surrounding 'meta' contacts grabber script resolved
Just before seven this morning Vishal Kothari got back to me about the issues I rasied on Saturday regarding the contact grabbing package he put together. After a short series of emails later all the issues I had raised had been resolved with the exception of licensing.
With a little time to spare this afternoon I explored the flumpcakes.co.uk site a little more deeply and discovered an email I hadn't spotted last year. An hour and a half later I had a reply from the original author expressing his willingness to release his original code under the GPL. This enabled me to release my code under the same license clearing up any problems with the 'meta' script.
All told, a reasonable part of a productive day.
With the story complete it's time for the moral:
With a little time to spare this afternoon I explored the flumpcakes.co.uk site a little more deeply and discovered an email I hadn't spotted last year. An hour and a half later I had a reply from the original author expressing his willingness to release his original code under the GPL. This enabled me to release my code under the same license clearing up any problems with the 'meta' script.
All told, a reasonable part of a productive day.
With the story complete it's time for the moral:
- A lot can be achieved when you're open and willing to talk. With me questioning his licensing it would not have been surprising if Vishal had jumped on to the defensive. Instead he remained co-operative and we were able to resolve the issues quickly.
- It's important to include a copyright notice in each file. I hadn't done this and it gave Vishal reason to doubt whether I was really the author. It was easy enough to sort out but it's needless confusion.
- If you're not releasing your code under a specific license consider stating why not. As James, the guy behind flumpcakes.co.uk said, "Most people see[sic] to assume that when
source code is released if it doesn't come with a license then it's GPL." Attempt to anticipate the questions your users are likely to have and prevent the need for assumptions by answering those questions.
Saturday, May 12. 2007
MSN contact grab script included in 'meta' contact grabber
Via phpdeveloper.org I track the latest phpclasses releases and given my work on contact grabbing scripts I was interested to see that a new contact grabber script has been posted.
I haven't tried it yet but apparently it can connect to hotmail, yahoo, gmail, orkut, rediff and myspace. It is an impressive collection of scripts. It uses libgmailer to get the gmail contacts just like I chose to do.
It also uses a file called msn_contact_grab.class.php to get the hotmail contacts which rings some bells. Sure enough on closer inspection it's the file I created to fetch a MSN messenger contact list. Except it's outdated.
Generally speaking I wouldn't have a problem with the script being included in another project. In fact I would encourage it. In this instance though there are a few problems.
Inaccuracies: This package is being promoted as fetching hotmail contacts for which it presumably relies on my script. My script does not fetch hotmail contacts. It fetches MSN messenger contacts. Although frequently similar they are not the same.
Updates: When you're releasing third party scripts as part of your project updates are going to be slow to filter through. It's a shame that just days after the package was released it already needs updating.
Licensing: The whole package has been released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Given that the msn contact grabbing class has never been released under such terms is this licensing appropriate? I would argue that it isn't.
I spent quite a bit of time considering licensing when I first released the script. Rather than go with the GPL I decided to stick with simply 'free' to reflect the licensing of the original script from which my script was derived. I didn't feel it was appropriate to decide on a licence even though the script was now significantly different to the original version.
Contact: If the author of the new phpclasses package had made contact all the above problems could have been avoided. In fact I would probably have promoted the package here on the blog. It's good to talk.
These are all small things but I highlight them because each one could easily have been dealt with. I've now sent off an email and suspect that everything can be easily resolved. It's just a shame it has to be done after the fact.
Has anyone had similar experiences? How have you made improvements to prevent similar problems emerging? I think the first thing I need to do is make it easier for people to contact me. Secondly, I need to take another look at the licensing.
I haven't tried it yet but apparently it can connect to hotmail, yahoo, gmail, orkut, rediff and myspace. It is an impressive collection of scripts. It uses libgmailer to get the gmail contacts just like I chose to do.
It also uses a file called msn_contact_grab.class.php to get the hotmail contacts which rings some bells. Sure enough on closer inspection it's the file I created to fetch a MSN messenger contact list. Except it's outdated.
Generally speaking I wouldn't have a problem with the script being included in another project. In fact I would encourage it. In this instance though there are a few problems.
Inaccuracies: This package is being promoted as fetching hotmail contacts for which it presumably relies on my script. My script does not fetch hotmail contacts. It fetches MSN messenger contacts. Although frequently similar they are not the same.
Updates: When you're releasing third party scripts as part of your project updates are going to be slow to filter through. It's a shame that just days after the package was released it already needs updating.
Licensing: The whole package has been released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Given that the msn contact grabbing class has never been released under such terms is this licensing appropriate? I would argue that it isn't.
I spent quite a bit of time considering licensing when I first released the script. Rather than go with the GPL I decided to stick with simply 'free' to reflect the licensing of the original script from which my script was derived. I didn't feel it was appropriate to decide on a licence even though the script was now significantly different to the original version.
Contact: If the author of the new phpclasses package had made contact all the above problems could have been avoided. In fact I would probably have promoted the package here on the blog. It's good to talk.
These are all small things but I highlight them because each one could easily have been dealt with. I've now sent off an email and suspect that everything can be easily resolved. It's just a shame it has to be done after the fact.
Has anyone had similar experiences? How have you made improvements to prevent similar problems emerging? I think the first thing I need to do is make it easier for people to contact me. Secondly, I need to take another look at the licensing.
Update to the MSN contact grabbing script
There have been a handful of people contact me recently stating that the MSNM contact fetching script doesn't work, or works poorly, with email addresses other than @hotmail.com. Addresses ending in @hotmail.co.uk, @hotmail.fr or none hotmail addresses were hanging and not returning results.
Obviously not good so after a disappointingly long wait I was able to devote some time to fixing the problem. Last weekend I was able to put something together which I think was going to work and sent it out to a few people to beta test.
Over the past few days I've been getting back responses (thanks to all those involved!) and for the most part the responses have been positive. It still isn't 100% but it's much better. The remaining problems are a result of taking someone else's code and twisting it to suit a new purpose. I would have been far better figuring out how it did what it did and then refactoring it to meet the new aims.
The new and improved script can be downloaded from the original thread or from the MSN contact grab page in the new scripts section.
The web service has been updated to reflect the changes.
Obviously not good so after a disappointingly long wait I was able to devote some time to fixing the problem. Last weekend I was able to put something together which I think was going to work and sent it out to a few people to beta test.
Over the past few days I've been getting back responses (thanks to all those involved!) and for the most part the responses have been positive. It still isn't 100% but it's much better. The remaining problems are a result of taking someone else's code and twisting it to suit a new purpose. I would have been far better figuring out how it did what it did and then refactoring it to meet the new aims.
The new and improved script can be downloaded from the original thread or from the MSN contact grab page in the new scripts section.
The web service has been updated to reflect the changes.
Sunday, May 6. 2007
Get your WWW sorted
As I write this http://staples.co.uk is reporting that it is down. There are probably quite a few people interested in shopping at one of their stores going elsewhere. If the site was actually down that would be fair enough. It isn't though. http://www.staples.co.uk works perfectly.
You quite often see 'server not found' warnings when visiting a site without www., for example my university, but to get through to the site and have it tell you the site is down is even worse. It demonstrates that whoever manages the server knows what they are doing but carelessly hasn't set things up correctly.
It doesn't matter which way round you have things but all traffic to www. should be redirected to the www free version or vice versa.
There are three main reasons why this is important:
- All your visitors actually reach your site
- No duplicate content issues in the search engines (this is assuming that both versions of the site actually work)
- Strengthens search engine positions by concentrating all incoming links on one site.
All it takes is a couple of lines in a .htaccess file if you're on an Apache server
%{HTTP_HOST} ^www.domain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
It's not difficult so please sort this out.
You quite often see 'server not found' warnings when visiting a site without www., for example my university, but to get through to the site and have it tell you the site is down is even worse. It demonstrates that whoever manages the server knows what they are doing but carelessly hasn't set things up correctly.
It doesn't matter which way round you have things but all traffic to www. should be redirected to the www free version or vice versa.
There are three main reasons why this is important:
- All your visitors actually reach your site
- No duplicate content issues in the search engines (this is assuming that both versions of the site actually work)
- Strengthens search engine positions by concentrating all incoming links on one site.
All it takes is a couple of lines in a .htaccess file if you're on an Apache server
%{HTTP_HOST} ^www.domain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
It's not difficult so please sort this out.
Monday, April 30. 2007
Future of Web Design conference
After mentioning in January the FOWD Conference which took place a few days ago on the 18th April it's safe to assume from the lack of coverage on the blog that I was sadly unable to attend.
All is not lost though as presentations and MP3s of the various presentations are now available on the official website. If you were unable to attend why not take a look?
All is not lost though as presentations and MP3s of the various presentations are now available on the official website. If you were unable to attend why not take a look?
Sunday, April 29. 2007
New milestone reached: 20k spam comments
Since July last year (10 months) this blog has received over 20,000 spam comments. It's an interesting statistic but fairly meaningless. Far more important is what happened to them all.
From those 20,000 spam comments I've only actually seen 2. A simple combination of Akismet and the blogg.de blacklist have caught all the rest. That's a 99.99% success rate. For the 1-2 minutes of work it took to install and configure the spam protector plugin for serendipity I find that really very impressive.
Although these tools prevent spam creating a visible impact it still remains a problem. So many spam comments are going to use up a fair amount of bandwidth. Also, things are only getting worse. On average I've received 2,000 spam comments a month but I've received 1,000 in the past week alone. The pace is increasing.
I've discussed Bad Behaviour before but I've never felt that I personally need it. I think it is getting towards the point where I need to take another look.
From those 20,000 spam comments I've only actually seen 2. A simple combination of Akismet and the blogg.de blacklist have caught all the rest. That's a 99.99% success rate. For the 1-2 minutes of work it took to install and configure the spam protector plugin for serendipity I find that really very impressive.
Although these tools prevent spam creating a visible impact it still remains a problem. So many spam comments are going to use up a fair amount of bandwidth. Also, things are only getting worse. On average I've received 2,000 spam comments a month but I've received 1,000 in the past week alone. The pace is increasing.
I've discussed Bad Behaviour before but I've never felt that I personally need it. I think it is getting towards the point where I need to take another look.
Sunday, April 22. 2007
Moving site to new server
As some of you have already noticed over the past day comments have been disabled. During this time the site has been moved to a new server. This should allow me to better handle the growth of the site.
The move seems to have been relatively pain free but if you spot any problems or anything you think is a bug please let me know in the comments of this post.
The move seems to have been relatively pain free but if you spot any problems or anything you think is a bug please let me know in the comments of this post.
Thursday, April 19. 2007
eBay Acquires StumbleUpon
The big news of the day appears to be eBay acquiring StumbleUpon. A fair question is to ask why. To me it doesn't really make sense. Om Malik at GigaOM has an interesting take though
I haven't used Skype so I couldn't comment on whether this would be a workable strategy but I do know that I have never used StumbleUpon for search. If I want to search for something I generally use google. If I want to kill 5 minutes I use the StumbleUpon toolbar.
If eBay genuinely was looking to get into the search business then this deal doesn't really make sense to me. Especially with technorati flaunting its statistical finery.
The second part of this news story is the response of google. Supposedly a potential suitor for StumbleUpon until very recently google has released a new feature for the Google Toolbar, on the same day as the acquisition, which closely resembles the StumbleUpon functionality.
With Microsoft complaining about Google acquiring DoubleClick and demanding an anti-trust investigationafter presumably being priced out of the running itself and now the response of Google to the acquisition of StumbleUpon does anyone else feel that the big players have abandoned the idea of innovation and decided just to squabble amongst themselves? Their conduct seems to be increasingly petty.
By marrying the [StumbleUpon] toolbar to Skype client, eBay can do an end run around Google’s dominance of the search business. A simple search box inside Skype client is all it would take.
I haven't used Skype so I couldn't comment on whether this would be a workable strategy but I do know that I have never used StumbleUpon for search. If I want to search for something I generally use google. If I want to kill 5 minutes I use the StumbleUpon toolbar.
If eBay genuinely was looking to get into the search business then this deal doesn't really make sense to me. Especially with technorati flaunting its statistical finery.
The second part of this news story is the response of google. Supposedly a potential suitor for StumbleUpon until very recently google has released a new feature for the Google Toolbar, on the same day as the acquisition, which closely resembles the StumbleUpon functionality.
With Microsoft complaining about Google acquiring DoubleClick and demanding an anti-trust investigation
Monday, April 16. 2007
Programming community on bumpzee
I've been meaning to post about this since Cal Evans talked about the dzone site on the Zend Developer Zone. Whereas dzone already has the participation of developers in languages other than PHP and is looking for PHP developers I'm in somewhat of the opposite situation.
Firstly some background. Bumpzee is a site where people with similar interests can congregate in communities to share blog posts, 'bump' them up digg-style, comment, start discussions and generally network with other people sharing their interests. I joined the site a little while ago when there were only about 4 communities established. Since then the site developers have been working hard to make the site better to the point where users are now able to establish their own communities.
There wasn't anywhere to share my interest in programming and so I set up a new community. I've not really been involved with any language but PHP for over a year now and even then it was a relatively obscure language in academia which isn't that well know for active blogging so the community has a distinct PHP bias at the moment.
To fully live up to the name I'm looking to more fairly represent a variety of different languages and interests. As such, if you regularly blog about programming, or even if you don't but want to read some of the best posts as voted for by the community, then head on over to the programming community on bumpzee.
Firstly some background. Bumpzee is a site where people with similar interests can congregate in communities to share blog posts, 'bump' them up digg-style, comment, start discussions and generally network with other people sharing their interests. I joined the site a little while ago when there were only about 4 communities established. Since then the site developers have been working hard to make the site better to the point where users are now able to establish their own communities.
There wasn't anywhere to share my interest in programming and so I set up a new community. I've not really been involved with any language but PHP for over a year now and even then it was a relatively obscure language in academia which isn't that well know for active blogging so the community has a distinct PHP bias at the moment.
To fully live up to the name I'm looking to more fairly represent a variety of different languages and interests. As such, if you regularly blog about programming, or even if you don't but want to read some of the best posts as voted for by the community, then head on over to the programming community on bumpzee.
Friday, April 13. 2007
Templating Day
With an article on the Smarty templating system over at PHPBuilder.com and an article on the Template IT PEAR package on the Sitepoint blog today seems to be the day to discuss templating systems.
Not being one to miss a band wagon I thought I would jump on as well.
Continue reading "Templating Day"
Not being one to miss a band wagon I thought I would jump on as well.
Continue reading "Templating Day"
Saturday, April 7. 2007
Popuri.us : Stats aggregation for any site
I came across popuri.us a while ago and have been holding off posting about it for a while because it seemed a little unstable after being highlighted by TechCrunch.
It reminds me a lot of the page strength tool at seomoz. The metrics reported aren't all the same and you don't get an overall score with popuri.us as you do with seomoz but it is another very good tool for gathering info on a url.
Integrating popularity ranks other than Alexa is a good move for popuri.us. Alexa is known to be biased towards the webmaster type crowd so looking at other such metrics is probably a good move. For sites with an rss feed it also fetches the number of bloglines subscribers. It would be nice to see data being collected from a few other online feed readers but overall this is a really nice tool. It has certainly earned a place in my bookmarks.
It reminds me a lot of the page strength tool at seomoz. The metrics reported aren't all the same and you don't get an overall score with popuri.us as you do with seomoz but it is another very good tool for gathering info on a url.
Integrating popularity ranks other than Alexa is a good move for popuri.us. Alexa is known to be biased towards the webmaster type crowd so looking at other such metrics is probably a good move. For sites with an rss feed it also fetches the number of bloglines subscribers. It would be nice to see data being collected from a few other online feed readers but overall this is a really nice tool. It has certainly earned a place in my bookmarks.
