Happy 2016

WebmasterWorld celebrates the new year.

via planetweb

Windows 10 disk encryption keys are automatically uploaded to Microsoft

Handing your keys to a company like Microsoft fundamentally changes the security properties of a disk encryption system

via planetweb

Dealing with Difficult Workshop Attendees

Microsoft Says Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) Adware To Be Blocked

Microsoft wants to bring control from MiTM attacks back to the user control, and developers have until March 31, 2016 to comply.

via planetweb

Report: Google Building New Mobile Messaging Chatbot Service With AI

Reports indicate Google is working on a new mobile messenger service which may use AI chatbot technology.

via planetweb

The Perfect Storm in Digital Law

This week's sponsor: World IA Day

Join the fine folks at World IA Day on Feb 20, 2016 to celebrate advancing the practice of information architecture.

via planetweb

Facebook Officially Replaces Adobe Flash With HTML5 For Videos

Facebook officially moves away from Flash to HTML5.

via planetweb

Juniper Discovers VPN Decryption Code: Patch Your Systems Now

Patch your system now!

via planetweb

Mark Llobrera · Professional Amateurs: Write What You Know (Now)

Google Changes "Web" to "All" in Verticals on SERPs

WebmasterWorld Members discuss whether there greater significance in Google dropping "Web" in favor of "All" on its SERPs pages.

via planetweb

Google Takes Steps Over Digital Certificate Security

According to Symantec it doesn't believe its customers of secure sites will be impacted by this removal.

via planetweb

This week's sponsor: Padded Spaces

Relax smarter with your devices—wherever you are—with lap desks and bedside caddies from our sponsor, Padded Spaces.

via planetweb

Interaction Is an Enhancement

2016: Emerging Trends on Search; what are your predictions?

WebmasterWorld members discuss emerging trends in search, and their predictions for 2016 and beyond.

via planetweb

Microsoft will let you keep your free OneDrive space after all

More than 70,000 users took to Microsoft�s site to voice their displeasure, and their complaints didn�t go unheard. But you have to visit a special link to claim your storage.

via planetweb

Twitter Tests Promoted Tweets for Logged Out Users

This potentially opens up millions of additional viewers of promoted tweets.

via planetweb

Selecting Effective Workshop Tasks

Yahoo Calls Off Alibaba Sale, and Will Separate Operating Business

Yahoo's board clarifies position over Alibaba stake, and will separate operating businesses.

via planetweb

Google Updates and SERP Changes - Dec 2015

WebmasterWorld's monthly look at Google's SERPs changes.

via planetweb

This week's sponsor: Liquid Web

Speed up your Wordpress sites with managed hosting and round the clock support from our sponsor, LiquidWeb.

via planetweb

Design, White Lies & Ethics

Updated Disavow File by Mistake: Traffic Jumps

WebmasterWorld Members discuss what happened when a disavow file was updates in error and traffic seemed to have jumped. Was this traffic increase just a coincidence with a Google update, or something else?

via planetweb

Mozilla To Stop Advertising in Firefox Through "Tiles" Experiment

Mozilla has said it'll cease the advertising through the Firefox "Tiles" and will focus on content discovery.

via planetweb

Microsoft Makes Edge's JavaScript Engine, "Chakra," Open Source

Microsoft has said it is to make Microsoft Edge browser JavaScript core components open source.

via planetweb

Google Confirms New Penguin Algo Will Not Update Until 2016

According to reports, Google will not be updating the Penguin algorithm until 2016.

via planetweb

Adobe to Kill Off Flash Professional

Adobe says it will kill off Flash Professional and support Flash within "Adobe Animate CC" which is more focussed towards HTML5.

via planetweb

Rachel Andrew on the Business of Web Dev: It’s the People They Know

I was never supposed to be doing the job that I do. Via a series of fortunate events and chance encounters, I’ve built a career in an industry I that love and that still interests me today.

When I was at school, the web didn’t exist. Like many web folk of my age I stumbled into my career of the past 19 years accidentally. I might never have discovered this career had a PC World salesperson not upsold me to a computer on interest-free credit. It was 1996, and my aim was to get a word processor so I could take in typing work while pregnant and taking care of my baby. The computer enabled me to earn money typing while it opened up for me this new world of the web. My journey from new computer owner to web developer is a story for another day, but that salesperson will never know what he started by making his targets that day!

It was by chance that I came to have access to the web at all, and I might have remained someone who liked to play around with computers, who built websites for fun, had it not been for people who asked me to build websites for them.

My first paid work as a web developer came via friends of friends who needed websites. I would talk about the things I had been teaching myself. I had my own site online and a couple of sites I had volunteered to build for charities I was involved with. One by one, little jobs arrived, always because someone had mentioned to a friend of mine that they needed a website. All the things I learned building those small sites—learning Perl to add functionality, learning Linux so I could install a web server locally—enabled me to find a full-time job, and then leave again to set up on my own.

My husband and business partner Drew McLellan has similar stories. The first website he was paid to create came about while volunteering at the local amateur dramatics society. He met someone who was setting up a new business and needed a website. He was someone who she trusted who built websites.

I asked some fellow freelancers if anyone else had these stories of chance, or of the unusual ways we find work or contacts who are instrumental in our business success. Andrew Areoff had already written up a tale that spanned over 40 years, documenting how a man from Rhodesia is connected to the success of his business and that of his best client. Harry Llewelyn of Neat in Somerset, UK, told me how he made a friend in the USA via posting photography on Flickr. While staying with this friend he was introduced to another friend—a web designer who ultimately outsourced front-end work to Harry, bringing enough regular work for him to make the leap into full-time self-employment.

Jonathan Rawlins of Pixel Pixel Ltd had a story of how a Christmas Eve flood at home resulted in a painter and decorator being in the house while he was working from home. They chatted and Jonathan explained what he did, and discussed setting up a simple site for the decorator’s business. The site for the decorating business never materialized, but the two stayed in touch. Around two years later the decorator got back in touch about an idea for a much larger project. Jonathan is now working on this project in stages—helping to grow the application as the business grows.

Another freelancer had a lovely story of how a project he was working on with a friend failed due to the friend having personal issues and needing to get his life back on track. Despite the failed project, he supported his friend, who then introduced him to another contact. That contact has become a great client, and also brought interesting new possibilities.

There are common themes in all of these stories of chance and opportunity. They show that it is always worth talking about what it is that you do, even if the person you are speaking with doesn’t look like an obvious fit as a client. You then need to be ready to follow up leads that come from an unusual source. Even more than that, opportunity often comes to those who are willing to give freely. That giving might be in terms of your skills as a designer or developer, but might be in doing something else entirely. It might even be in terms of being supportive of a business partner or client when things don’t work out.

One thing I know for sure is that the more generous I am with my time and my knowledge, the more good fortune seems to come my way. This isn’t due to any mysterious karma at play, but simply that people talk to one another. As one of my contributors to this piece wisely pointed out, “it’s not the people you know, it’s the people they know!”

via planetweb

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Gives $45 Billion Shares to Next Generation

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are to give away 99pct of their Facebook shares to the future of the young...

via planetweb

Planning and Organizing Workshops