Subscribe to the WebWord.com Usability
Newsletter!
ISSUE #13
Date: Apr 01 1999 17:22:42 GMT
From: WebWord.com Usability Newsletter <WebWord-owner@listbot.com>
Subject: WebWord.com Newsletter #13
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WebWord.com Newsletter
"Usability & the Internet"
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List Owner
John S. Rhodes
John@WebWord.com
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April 1, 1999 Newsletter #13
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Table of Contents
1. Over 500 WebWord.com Newsletter Subscribers!
2. WebWord.com's Search Engine
3. The Failure of General User Feedback
4. Recommended Book: Creating Killer Web Sites
5. NetMedia'99 Conference
6. Accepting Advertisements in this Newsletter
7. Another Plug for LinkAlarm
8. Spamcop to the Rescue
9. Lawdawg and Free Stuff
10. Tidbits
11. What can you find at WebWord.com?
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ITEM #1
Over 500 WebWord.com Usability Newsletter Subscribers!
We reached a milestone a few days ago--there are now
well over 500 subscribers to this newsletter. Word
is spreading fast about WebWord.com and this
newsletter.
As promised...
I have removed another banner ad from my site. You
can see that "Credit Cards and Web Site Usability"
<http://webword.com/moving/creditcards.html>
no
longer has a bandwidth-eating advertisement. As the
number of subscribers climbs, I will remove more and
more banners.
A Small Request...
If you think your friends and colleagues would benefit
from WebWord.com, recommend it to them using this
simple form <http://webword.com/cgi-bin/birdcast.cgi>.
Or, tell them that they can easily subscribe by going
to this page <http://webword.listbot.com/>.
THANK YOU...
Your help and kind words are appreciated. I am doing
everything I can to help you create better Web sites.
A Final Note...
Your email address will NEVER be sold or used for
any purpose other than the distribution of the
WebWord.com Usability Newsletter. I respect and value
your desire for privacy.
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ITEM #2
WebWord.com's Search Engine
In response to your requests, I have added a search
engine mechanism to the WebWord.com site,
<http://webword.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi>.
I've been
testing it and it seems to work well enough.
Please give a try and let me know what you think.
Can you find what you want? Is it too slow? Send
me your thoughts <mailto:john@webword.com>.
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ITEM #3
The Failure of General User Feedback
I was recently asked to submit an interesting piece
of data to the March ITG (Internet Technical Group)
Newsletter. My basic finding is that users do not
provide Web owners with feedback. I'll be writing a
full article about this in the near future. For now,
see the data and my preliminary opinions:
http://www.sandia.gov/itg/newsletter/mar99/opinions_search.html
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ITEM #4
Recommended Book
CREATING KILLER WEB SITES, 2nd Edition
by David Siegel
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568304331/wedwordcom
Normally I would not recommend a design book to you.
This is because design books tend to be anti-usability.
This book is no different. Usability is not a
consideration. However there are many *great* ideas
in the book that can be used for the good of your
users. In many situations "eye candy" and good design
can make your Web site more usable. Just be careful!
Also, I want folks to realize that usability should
not be your *only* Web development concern. Your users
want a fast and usable Web site, but they also want
a site that looks good. Siegel's book can help you
learn the balance between cool design and usability.
(I picked this book based on your feedback. Thanks
for helping me make this decision.)
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ITEM #5
NetMedia'99 Conference
I've been invited to give a forum presentation at
the NetMedia'99 Conference at the City University
in London England. I'll be giving a presentation
entitled "Designing for Web Users: What Works, What
Doesn't" (Day One, Design Forum). If you are
interested in hearing me speak (!) or if you are
interested in how journalism and the media are being
impacted by the Web, visit the conference Web site:
<http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/netmedia/>
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ITEM #6
Accepting Advertisements in this Newsletter
I've been asked by several readers about advertising
in this newsletter. The answer is that I will accept
advertisements. However, they *must* be in line with
the general goals of this newsletter and the WebWord
site. For details, email me <mailto:john@webword.com>.
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ITEM #7
Another Plug for LinkAlarm
Web Developers:
A couple of months ago I interviewed George Bray of
LinkAlarm <http://webword.com/interviews/bray.html>
LinkAlarm is a service that checks your internal and
external links to make sure they are not broken. The
service is more than a simple link checker, however,
as George's expert interview indicates. You might be
surprised how many things can go wrong with your site!
I looked over my reports for WebWord.com recently and
realized that LinkAlarm has found over *78* errors in
the past two months. Without this service I'd have to
do link checking and error checking manually or wait
until I got feedback from you. The service is very
flexible. You can choose to have your site reviewed
daily, weekly, or monthly. You can choose to include
or exclude various pages. It is really a great way
to have your site checked for those nasty errors.
If you are interested in a free 2-month trial, go here
<http://www.linkalarm.com/testdrive/?967516844>.
This
is a great way to see if the LinkAlarm reports are
valuable to you, like they are for me. You can't
beat the price...the 2-month trial is FREE!
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ITEM #8
Spamcop to the Rescue
Are you sick and tired of spam? Give Spamcop a try!
<http://spamcop.net/>
This is an interesting free service I found. Simply
dump the offending spam into their filter and let
the magic begin. The filter parses the spam and tells
you where it really came from. It also tells you how
many other people have been hit by the spam. Finally,
and best of all, you can send an email from Spamcop to
the offender's ISP so that, in turn, the ISP can deal
with the offender (ISPs don't always know who is sending
spam). This is a very cool service, and I use it all
the time.
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ITEM #9
LAWDAWG and Free Stuff
Lawdawg is an interesting site about community law
enforcement issues <http://lawdawg.virtualave.net/>.
There is plenty of good information there, including
a newsletter. But that is why I'm not telling you
about the site.
Instead I want to point out that you can use free stuff
to host and manage a Web site. VirtualAve, Lawdawg's
hosting service, is free. The "cost" is a banner on
the top of every page. If you have limited resources,
if you want to "try out" ideas, or if you want to
get experience managing a site, this is a great way to
do it.
Second, there is a cool free Web site tracking tool that
can be found at the bottom of the Lawdawg home page. The
"eXTReMe tracking" tool provides very good information
to a Web site owner for free. You can view the site
statistics for Lawdawg by clicking on the image. You'll
see that there is a ton of tracking information available.
You can't beat the price, it's free!
Check out Lawdawg to see for yourself.
<http://lawdawg.virtualave.net/>
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ITEM #10
Tidbits
Thinking of using banner advertising on your site?
You might want to give Teknosurf a try. For "serious"
Webmasters only. These folks are very selective!
Thinking about how you might (effectively) promote
your Web site *offline*? Check out WebCards, which are
high quality postcards of your Web site. Be sure to
order your FREE samples while your there.
<http://www.printing.com/affiliate.asp?site=WebWord>
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ITEM #11
What can you find at WebWord.com?
Articles (Moving WebWord)
<http://webword.com/moving/>
Expert Interviews
<http://webword.com/interviews/>
Recommended Books
<http://webword.com/books/booksindex.html>
Recommended Web Sites
<http://webword.com/hotsites.html>
---- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #12 ------
(c)1998-99 by John S. Rhodes. All rights reserved.
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