Learning How to make a Web Page?: October 2010

Question 1
How the internet got started and by whom:
"The concept of data communication - transmitting data between two different places, connected via some kind of electromagnetic medium, such as radio or an electrical wire - actually predates the introduction of the first computers. Such communication systems were typically limited to point to point communication between two end devices. Telegraph systems and telex machines can be considered early precursors of this kind of communication. The earlier computers used the technology available at the time to allow communication between the central processing unit and remote terminals. As the technology evolved new systems were devised to allow communication over longer distances (for terminals) or with higher speed (for interconnection of local devices) that were necessary for the mainframe computer model. Using these technologies it was possible to exchange data (such as files) between remote computers. However, the point to point communication model was limited, as it did not allow for direct communication between any two arbitrary systems; a physical link was necessary. The technology was also deemed as inherently unsafe for strategic and military use, because there were no alternative paths for the communication in case of an enemy attack.
As a response, several research programs started to explore and articulate principles of communications between physically separate systems, leading to the development of the packet switching model of digital networking. These research efforts included those of the laboratories of Vinton G. Cerf at Stanford University, Donald Davies (NPL), Paul Baran (RAND Corporation), and Leonard Kleinrock at MIT and at UCLA. The research led to the development of several packet-switched networking solutions in the late 1960s and 1970s, including ARPANET, Telenet, and the X.25 protocols. Additionally, public access and hobbyist networking systems grew in popularity, including unix-to-unix copy (UUCP) and FidoNet. They were however still disjointed separate networks, served only by limited gateways between networks. This led to the application of packet switching to develop a protocol for internetworking, where multiple different networks could be joined together into a super-framework of networks. By defining a simple common network system, the Internet Protocol Suite, the concept of the network could be separated from its physical implementation. This spread of internetworking began to form into the idea of a global network that would be called the Internet, based on standardized protocols officially implemented in 1982. Adoption and interconnection occurred quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the western world, and then began to penetrate into the rest of the world as it became the de-facto international standard for the global network. However, the disparity of growth between advanced nations and the third-world countries led to a digital divide that is still a concern today.
Following commercialization and introduction of privately run Internet service providers in the 1980s, and the Internet's expansion for popular use in the 1990s, the Internet has had a drastic impact on culture and commerce. This includes the rise of near instant communication by electronic mail (e-mail), text based discussion forums, and the World Wide Web. Investor speculation in new markets provided by these innovations would also lead to the inflation and subsequent collapse of the Dot-com bubble. But despite this, the Internet continues to grow, driven by commerce, greater amounts of online information and knowledge and social networking known as Web 2.0"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet)

Number of web pages online:
Nobody is in charge of the internet so nobody can exactly say. - but there are millions and billions.......and increasing every minute!
" According to the Netcraft Web Server Survey, as of December 2009 there are around 233,848,493 websites are available on world wide web. There has been an increase of 47 million hostnames and 7 million active websites over the last 12 months. In the month of December 2009 netcraft has received responses from 233,848,493 sites, which is an increase of 212000 since last month. This means that more than 2 lakh websites got added on internet in last one month. Netcraft is an Internet services company based in Bath, England. It provides web server and web hosting market-share analysis. However, the company is famous for its free anti-phishing toolbar for the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. (http://hottopicsonline.info/internet/how-many-websites-are-there)

Maintaining standards for publishing on the internet is done by:
World Wide Web Consortium, W3C.

The difference between Internet and Intranet.
There's one major distinction between an intranet and the Internet: The Internet is an open, public space, while an intranet is designed to be a private space. An intranet may be accessible from the Internet, but as a rule it's protected by a password and accessible only to employees or other authorized users.
From within a company, an intranet server may respond much more quickly than a typical Web site. This is because the public Internet is at the mercy of traffic spikes, server breakdowns and other problems that may slow the network. Within a company, however, users have much more bandwidth and network hardware may be more reliable. This makes it easier to serve high-bandwidth content, such as audio and video, over an intranet.
(http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-technology/639-1.html)

A Web server is:
A Web server is a computer program that delivers (serves) content, such as Web pages, using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), over the World Wide Web. The term Web server can also refer to the computer or virtual machine running the program. ...
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_server)

An ISP is:
A service which provides access to a remote computer system. This access connects your personal computer to the Internet. Also called 'Access Providers'. ISPs that you access by modem are often called 'dial-up services.
(www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/ollc_glossary.phtml)

A host is:
Web host is in the business of providing server space, Web services and file maintenance for Web sites controlled by individuals or companies that do not have their own Web servers.
(www.bewebmaster.com/50.php)

HTML is:
HyperText Markup Language, a computer "language" used to define the appearance and functions of websites and their pages. When talking of websites, HTML is often referred to as "code" or "source code." Superset elaborations of such code include XHTML, XML, etc.
(www.writerswebsiteplanner.com/resources/glossary.html)

CSS is:
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. This is a document format which provides a set of style rules which can then be incorporated in an XHTML or HTML document. It is a means to separate web content from formatting and presentation information.
(www.joedolson.com/glossary.php)

Question 2
'The top ten best hosting' say these are Australia's best hosts:
(http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/aug?gclid=CM6MoZmqn6QCF0mbwodnzKG4Q)
____________________

or

'Web Hosting Geeks' say the top ten Australian hosts are:

Independent reviews of the best web hosting providers. Cheap professional web hosting services under $10 a month; all webhosting plans include at least one free domain name registration and 30 day money back guarantee.

Rank Web Hosting Provider Features Bonus Features Hosting Review
1 Inmotion
Business Web Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $5.95 Free Domain Name,
Choice of Data Centers,
Top Technical Support Inmotion Review
Host Rating: 98%
Review Inmotion

2 iPage
Trusted Web Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $3.50 Host Unlimited Domains,
Anytime Moneyback,
$400 of FREE Extras iPage Review
Host Rating: 97%
Review iPage

3 WebHostingHub
Best Personal Web Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $3.95 Free Domain Name,
Host Unlimited Domains,
24/7/365 U.S. Support WebHostingHub Review
Host Rating: 97%
Review WebHostingHub

4 WebHostingPad
Cheap Reliable Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $1.99 Free Domain Forever,
Host Unlimited Domains,
$100 Marketing Bonus WebHostingPad Review
Host Rating: 96%
Review WebHostingPad

5 JustHost
Editor's Choice Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $3.45 Free Domain Forever,
Host Unlimited Domains,
$100 Marketing Bonus JustHost Review
Host Rating: 95%
Review JustHost

6 FatCow
Cheap Business Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $3.67 Free Domain Forever,
Host Unlimited Domains,
$75 Marketing Bonus FatCow Review
Host Rating: 95%
Review FatCow

7 GreenGeeks
300% Green Web Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $4.95 Free Domain Name,
Host Unlimited Domains,
FREE Site Builder GreenGeeks Review
Host Rating: 95%
Review GreenGeeks

8 Bluehost
Unlimited Web Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $6.95 Free Domain Forever,
Host Unlimited Domains,
$75 Marketing Bonus Bluehost Review
Host Rating: 94%
Review Bluehost

9 Hostmonster
Cheap Unix Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $6.95 Free Domain Forever,
Host Unlimited Domains,
$75 Marketing Bonus Hostmonster Review
Host Rating: 93%
Review Hostmonster

10 GoDaddy
Largest Web Hosting Space: Unlimited
Traffic: Unlimited
Price: $12.74 Free Domain Name,
Host Unlimited Domains,
Free SSL Certificate GoDaddy Review
Host Rating: 92%
Review GoDaddy

Editor's notice: Web hosting providers ranked by the best price-value ratio. Host reliability, uptime, key features, bonus features, customer support, past and current user feedbacks, user-friendliness and hosting awards have been taken into account as well.
(http://webpostinggeeks.com/)
___________________________________

Web Hosting Yes' says top 10 US hosts are:
(http://webhostingsyes.com/)

Question 3
Advantage of hosting overseas:
US hosting is cheaper for Australians than local hosting and cheaper again in UK
better customer support service in some other countries
legal advantages like tax evasion??

Advantage of hosting ISP:
upload is much faster
transfer of images much faster
easy, fast and cheap phone access to host
local search engines favours locally hosted sites when organizing search results

Question 4

This is a bad domain name because: it's too long to remember and type again right and not easy for search engines to locate first.

Question 5
Useful tips on choosing a domain name:
1. Keep it short and make it the same as your business name and all advertising, so it is easy to remember
2. Register as .com because it's what people think of first, but register .net, .org etc. as well to eliminate possible misdirection away from you
3.Don’t pay Large Amounts of money it is not necessary
4. Register Your Domain NOW to give yourself more chance of getting what you want
5. Also Register similar names and miss spelling of your name to optimism results from search engines

Question 6
See if my name is available:
'humanityinsanity.com' and ' insanityofhumanity.com' have both gone.
I am working on what I might want instead??

Search for my domain name registration cost:
$30 or $100.40 for 5 years or many more options - I am searching a free one????

Other peoples opinion of my name:
general consensus was that I am insane - so not much productive help there - I will ask some more informed peoples opinion when I have thought of something new?

Question 7
The difference between .com.au and .com and which is better:
"Basically, a .com.au domain name identifies you as an Australian business. This has a number of advantages if you are targetting Australian Internet users.
Probably the most important effect a .com.au domain has is that some search engines filter their results according to where the searcher lives. For example, if you conduct a search on Google, it is clever enough to work out where you are. And when it knows that you live in Australia, it will often make the assumption that you will be more interested in Australian websites, and so it may place Australian websites higher up the search results than international ones.
This isn't always the case, but over time you will find that depending on your product, .com.au domains may rank higher in Australia than international domain names. This is important if your market is solely in Australia.
What if your market is global? Then a .com may be more appropriate for you. For example, our domain name is a .com domain, because we can and do provide our services worldwide, even though we are an Australian business based in Australia. We want to be recognised as a global Internet business and so we chose the .com domain.
Having said that, there is no reason why you can't have both. It is certainly possible to purchase both the .com and the .com.au versions of your domain name and have them both point to the same website. Don't go overboard though. If you purchase too many domain names and have them all providing the same content, this can be seen by many search engines as "spamming", and could possibly penalise you as a result.
What about the price difference? There used to be a very big price difference between .com. and .com.au domain names, but in recent years the .com.au domains have dropped significantly in price, so that the difference is no longer so great. Using our prices as an example, a .com domain will cost you $20 per year. A .com.au domain will cost you $25 per year (.com.au domains can only be purchased for 2 year periods, so the cost will actually be $50 for 2 years, plus GST).
So the price is no longer a huge issue, and if you are trading in Australia it makes sense to get the .com.au domain name so that you are recognised as an Australian business and get the benefits of it within Australia's search engine market."
(http://domains.southwestecommerce.net.au)

Question 8
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_Engine_Optimiser)

Strategies I would use on my site:
1.make a website title tag that has good visibility
2. good html structure that says everything I want to say without images or animations
3.good header tags for each page that describe content quickly
4.learn how to use robots.txt file to help direct spiders to the important information easily
5.test my web site with as many different browsers as possible

Question 9
Web site usability is: the ease by which a web site can be used
(www.philipclintmarketingservices.co.uk/glossary.html)

Quality components are:
1. Most users do not scroll so have all important information on screen size
2. Blue is the best color for links because it is most commonly used thus easily identified
3. White space improves comprehension
4. Labels work best above the field as we are use to the format from reading books
5. Most users are blind to advertising so don't let make your page look like an ad
(http://smachingmagazine.com/2009/09/24/10-useful-usability-findings-and-quidelines/

Question 10

Example of usable web site and why:
(http://www.nick-cave.com/)
you do not have to scroll down page to see what the site is about
white space improving comprehension is substituted by grey here providing the same result
all labels, links and menus are clearly marked in uniform style - easily recognized
this site is not all about advertising it is an information site

Example of unusable web site and why:
(http://www.anglefire.com/super/badwebs/main.htm)

This is named the worst website but they have still included some good usability??
- important information is on screen size
- blue color used for links and easily identified
- labels are above the field
- doesn't look like an add
the very worst problems with this page are:
- the constant flashing colour confusion
- the disgusting audio

Question 11
Accessibility is: Ease of use and ability to use the web-site - by as many users as possible (www.philipclintmarketingservices.co.uk/glossary.html)

Tips to make my web site accessible
1.follow official guide lines of WCAG
2.use standard code - XHTML or CSS
3.test everything thoroughly and regularly

Popular screen-reader solutions (software)
1.Jaws 6
2.Connect Out Loud 2
3.Lynx

FREE solutions that test website's accessibility
1.Cynthia Says
2.WAVE
3.WebXact

Name for the quality standards set by the US Government to ensure websites are accessible to everyone and that you have to apply for in your website to be eligible for US Govt. web contract:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by World Wide Web Consortium

Note: the link to MS Word doc (Sydney 2000 Olympics) in this assignment is broken.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
chris's comments after submitting
As for the hosting options I use bluehost/ justhost & lunarpages
for US based. All pretty good. Locally I use iinet for http://www.lsfaustralia.org.au
http://www.seat.org.au
and their hosting is fast. Transferring files up there is 10x
quicker than using US host. But it's 50% more expensive.
as for testing your site using as many different browsers as possible:
http://browsershots.org/
Nick Cave online; do they really need the "online" label in the title?
As for your URL, make it as short as you can. Make it memorable.
The US Govt. standard is missing hint: it starts with "Section ..."
re-submit your answer here then move on,
...................................................
last question resubmitted: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d)
and passed.

Learning How to make a Web Page?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Final Entry

Module 6 Activity 2 Making my own web page

Module 6 Activity 3 Making web page

module 6 Learning Activity 1 research Web

Module 6 - Assesment Activity 1