This is a running around the room post. Some may call it a recap or roundup. I call it a “brain dump” or Kim’s blog torture. Take your pick.
I Left Town
When I returned home Friday after being away for a business trip to meet with SiteLogic, I was met with people I know I used to live with, but they’d changed. It was like walking into another country. While my daughter had sounded like she missed me when we spoke by cell phone, when I got home, she hated me. All we did was fight, so I avoided her.
The husband was worse. He turned into alien man. The reason, as was finally explained to me later, after I was ready to turn around and get a hotel room somewhere, was that everyone FINALLY realized “all the stuff you do here”.
This is very nice, but to pounce on me like I’m the enemy? The husband turned into “drill sergeant” and barked orders like crazy to all three kids. If you dared to leave your sneakers in the kitchen, you risked certain death. His way of managing the loss of “wife” was to take control and over-task.
Now they understand why mom gets grumpy.
Somehow by Saturday the daughter turned into this angelic creature who basically didn’t leave my side all weekend. We did lots of stuff together. The boys were pretty much oblivious to everything, especially the eldest. I thanked him for being someone I still recognized when I got home. The youngest son had made this list of chores that they swore they needed to do from now on and forever more. Everything on the list says “Not mom!” after it, to remind them that it’s their responsibility and not mine to pick up 32 towels in their bathroom after the 3 kids use it.
Endings
All weekend the headlines from the search engine marketing industry were screaming about the “death of SEO”. I’ve decided that I must be a ghost, or this plane of existence I’m living in is completely invisible, because I haven’t seen any signs of death for search engines or the need for web sites to be indexed and ranked by them.
Things morph. They change. They improve with age, like a good wine or women after the age of 45. To send death threats to Mike Grehan for writing about Universal Search as if he alone has the power or inclination to kill SEO practices is insane. Makes me thankful I left the SEO industry because frankly, some of you are not safe to be around anymore.
Accessibility practices are another area that’s changing. Joe Dolson wrote about WCAG Samurai Errata. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) is the accessibility Bible, but like the Good Book, it’s open to interpretation. Which is why WCAG 2.0 is being met with Samurai warriors.
The WCAG Samurai Errata for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 contains guidelines that permit flexibility based on requirements. It’s a fascinating read for anyone who is following accessible web or Internet application design.
Your page will be deemed compliant even if a validator finds an error in the document if the validator itself is known to be in error on that specific topic.
Do not provide a sitemap or table of contents unless the site cannot be understood or navigated without it.
For search engine optimization, this may cause alarm. I’d like it to read:
Do not provide a sitemap or table of contents unless the site cannot be understood or navigated by users or search engines without it.
Cre8asiteforums has an in-depth discussion on what’s happening in The Wcag Samurai Errata (joe Clark), NOT The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
Over the weekend I added a new page to this blog called Accessibility Resources.
Have you heard that Ecommerce is Dead?
Jupiter Research, another market research firm, says the growth rate has peaked. It projects that overall online sales growth will slow to 9 percent a year by the end of the decade from as much as 25 percent in 2004.
The article speculates on reasons why this is happening. I bet you think I’ll say that persuasive design is the culprit. I’m a consumer too, however.
It takes just one big scare and ALL ecommerce pays the price. Consider the experience I heard last week in which someone made a purchase from a site that used the Google Shopping Cart. He chose to allow the transaction because he trusted Google. Several days later his credit card company hounded him with calls and alarms because his credit card was being used by someone else. He hadn’t used it since that online purchase and it was a card he doesn’t use often, so the credit card company instantly recognized a problem.
He blames the Google cart for not being secure and is unsure about shopping online in the future. It just takes one scare like that and everybody who sells online suffers.
Fun
My warm, funny, strong friend, Debra Mastaler, was interviewed by Liana Evans as part of Li’s Women of Internet Marketing series. If you missed it, Deb has run it on her blog in Mirror Mirror on the Wall. Liana has worked harder than anyone on promoting and honoring Women of Internet Marketing. The entire interview series is now available in PDF format from Liana’s site.
When people notice us, we get excited. Cre8asiteforums was the subject of an interview by Chris Dohman that was well received by staff and membership alike.
The Andy plays head games with The Aaron. Just helping out my buddies…
Speaking of links.
Not long ago I used the words “sexy women” in a blog post title. It is now the number one keyword phrase to this blog. It’s followed closely behind other top long running keywords that contain “Rachael Ray”, “orange pots”, “Daryn Kagan”, “Geico Cavemen” and “MsDewey”.
Nobody comes here because I write about anything important.
