Showing posts with label tweetdeck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tweetdeck. Show all posts

How HTML5 Is Influencing Web App Development

// , , , , , , , , ,

The Future Web Series is supported by Elsevier‘s SciVerse Application Marketplace and Developer Network. The SciVerse applications platform enables developers to build apps based on trusted scientific content. Learn more.
Over the last 12 months, the momentum behind HTML5 has continued to build, with application developers, browser makers and hardware vendors fully embracing and supporting the web of the future. Consumers have started to embrace HTML5 as well, especially as more users understand the benefits and potential that HTML5 can mean for the future.
With Firefox 4, Google Chrome, IE 9, Safari 5 and Opera all offering better, more robust support for HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, we’re already seeing glimpses of what is possible and what the web of the future may look like.
Let’s look at some of the aspects of HTML5 that are already making their mark on web app development.

Better Typography and Custom Fonts



The Web Open Font Format, or WOFF, might technically be part of the HTML5 specification, but WOFF, SVG and the CSS3 @font-face specification are all commonly used additions to HTML5.
The adoption of web fonts, whether it’s using WOFF, services like Fonts.com, Typekit or the Google Web Font API is increasing at a rapid pace. This development gives content creators, brands and developers a way to better express and control the most important part of an app or website — the text — without having to rely on images or Flash implementations that don’t always work well for translated text or with search engines.
Since first highlighting this trend last year, the number of web apps that support custom fonts using Google, Typekit, Fonts.com or any number of other solutions has only increased. We expect this to continue, especially as adoption of the latest and greatest web browsers continues to grow.

Frameworks, Boilerplates and Toolkits



Last year, Paul Irish and Divya Manian introduced HTML5 Boilerplate to the world.
Over the last seven months, the project has exploded and grown in both scope and support. As we said last year, HTML5 Boilerplate is not a framework. Instead, it’s a template that can be modified by developers for their own use.
HTML5 Boilerplate 1.0 was released on March 21, 2011 with support for optimized build scripts, a custom boilerplate builder, and perhaps most excitingly for app developers — support for lighttpd, Google App Engine and NodeJS, as well as old favorites Apache, Nginx and IIS. The number of websites using HTML5 Boilerplate continues to grow and evolve.
Other companies like Sencha are also working to bring better and more evolved frameworks and toolkits to web app developers. The upcoming Sencha Ext JS 4 is a JavaScript framework optimized to support HTML5 and other web standards.

Examples in the Wild



When Google launched its Chrome Web Store last December, it was one of the best showcases of what HTML5 web apps could offer users.
Over the last few months, more apps have been added to the store and more companies have started to optimize or rewrite their web apps specifically with HTML5.
TweetDeck is one of the most popular Twitter clients on the desktop and is revered by users. Chrome TweetDeck (or ChromeDeck) was one of the big standouts last winter, and it continues to set a high standard for what users can expect from a web application. It’s also the most popular app in the Chrome Web Store.
Earlier this month, TweetDeck announced the limited beta for its TweetDeck Web product. Built using HTML5, TweetDeck Web takes the core of the TweetDeck Chrome app and applies it to other platforms and browsers. The goal is to make the TweetDeck experience browser- and device-agnostic, and it is part of TweetDeck’s broader strategy approaching mobile and desktop apps.
Creative web app company Aviary introduced Feather, its HTML5 Photo Editor, last year. Feather isn’t only a lightweight image editor with lots of cool effects. It can be seamlessly embedded into other web apps to give additional functionality to developers who don’t have time or money to create their own solutions.
In April, Aviary announced its plans to open up its Effects API to web and mobile developers. This will allow developers to easily add effects and filters, auto-correct photos and create thumbnails or quick crops without needing user interaction.

The Future is Bright

I firmly believe that we will continue to see the worlds of web applications and desktop apps converge. It’s already happened with email, chat and social communication — the next step is to make it viable for data processing, multimedia and, ultimately, web development itself.
HTML5 is going to play a big role in enabling web developers do more with pure web apps, without needing to rely on third-party plugins or extensions. As browsers become better attuned and optimized for the evolving HTML standard, the opportunities will only increase.
Series Supported by Elsevier


The Future Web Series is supported by Elsevier‘s SciVerse Application Marketplace and Developer Network. In 2010, prominent science publisher Elsevier launched SciVerse to provide developers with access to ample research data so they can build apps on top of trusted scientific content. SciVerse also sponsors "Apps for Science," a $35,000 developer challenge to accelerate science. Learn more.

More Dev and Design Resources from Mashable:

- 8 Powerful & Inexpensive Desktop Design Apps
- Why Everyone Is Talking About Node
- How JavaScript & HTML5 Are Remaking the Web
- 8 Essential Developer Apps for Multiple Platforms
- 8 Essential Web Typography Resources
HTML5 Logo by W3C
More About:
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Share: 

How A Few Tweets Led to a 370% Increase In My Traffic

// , , , 0
Follow me on Twitter logoImage via WikipediaThe other night, I found out author/marketer Chris Brogan was in town. I am a big fan of his and his book Trust Agents, so I wanted to go meet him. I'm not going to go through all of the details of the tweet exchange—you can read about how I wound up not meeting him after all on my blog.

Photo by Aidan Jones, licensed under Creative Commons
However, as a result of trying to meet him, I had a conversation with him via Twitter. So, I wrote up a post about what I learned from not meeting him, and I put his name in the title when I tweeted it out to my followers. Chris was notified, and he retweeted it to his followers, with the tag, "Very nice story."
That doesn't sound that interesting, does it? I mean, Chris doesn't know me, has really never met me, and it was one tweet. But by putting his stamp of approval on it, Chris was publicly inviting people to read my article—and he has over 177,000 followers. In a matter of minutes, I had an influx of traffic (see the screenshot below). These are by no means numbers to write home about, but when you average 50-60 visitors a day, 185 sure is a big jump—especially in the span of a couple of hours!

The "Brogan Effect"—An hourly breakdown of traffic that day
It never would have happened if I had decided to go meet Chris but didn't tell him about it. I had to break the ice with him first and give it a shot. Through that, I got on his radar, and that's how my post was tweeted out to his followers.
It also taught me a few very important lessons about networking:
  1. Don't be afraid to introduce yourself to the big dogs. Chris Brogan, in the small interaction I've had with him, seems to be a pretty genuinely nice guy, and my post only brought more people who told me the same thing about him. Twitter has such a low barrier to entry that it gives you the opportunity to connect with just about anybody who’s there, and most of them are just normal people.
  2. You have to be genuine. If I had gone into this interaction with Chris and was purely motivated by the thought, "Hey, maybe I can score some free traffic to my blog," he would have sniffed that out pretty quickly. He wouldn't want anything to do with me—and he'd be right. Sometimes you have to catch it, and remind yourself of the motivation for your actions. The rest of it will take care of itself. Just focus on building the relationship. That was the opportunity I saw when I found out Chris was in town.
  3. Be proactive in your efforts. One of my favorite stories of networking is my friend Jacob Sokol's adventure of taking author and well-known entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk to a New York Jets football game. He reached out to Gary proactively and regularly to get noticed—and on Gary's terms. Sometimes it will feel like a throwaway; I tweeted Chris that I was heading downtown to see him just on a whim in case he checked his Twitter feed while he was out. I never thought he would reply, let alone do any of this. But that happened because I took action.
  4. Don't ask for anything. This goes along with being genuine. I did not ask Chris to tweet my post. I did hope he would read it, but I didn't ask him to read it. I merely let him know it was there. It's the same thing I did when I got 19 other people to share their small achievements with me: I told them, "Here it is, it's done, read it if you want, and thank you." Most of them took it upon themselves to share it with their followers. Instead of asking for something, work hard to make what you are doing to be noticeable and different. Let your sincerity show through, and that's what motivates people to share your stuff—not because you asked, but because they want to.
As a result, I have new readers and a few new followers on Twitter—and I never even met the guy.
Have you had any experiences like this, where a small contact led to a traffic burst for your blog? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Share: