Daily Links
Escher lizard paving-stones
GeckoStone makes tesselated paving stones that look like Escher's interlocking lizards. - boing boingDaily Links
Safari 4 Tops 11 Million Downloads in First Three Days
Apple today announced that the final version of its Safari 4 browser, officially launched Monday after the company's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address, has been downloaded over 11 million times in the first three days of release. - mac rumorsIt took him a long time to find images he liked
Here's a new wrinkle in the ongoing battle with people that inline other people's images: I stole your images, put them back or I will call a lawyer. - kottkeIs the Twitpocalypse nigh?
The time at which the number of tweets sent passes the 2,147,483,647 mark, which is the maximum value of a 32-bit signed integer. - cnetREMINDER: Red River Ex Grand Opening Today
There are rumours floating around that Gate Admission is free on opening day, I don’t think this is true. - access winnipegPost to Twitter from Flickr (the official way)
After watching other photo hosts create simple tools for Twitter users to post pictures, Flickr has finally wised up and pushed out its own solution. - cnetDaily Links
Clever Interactive Forms
Magnetism Studios is offering a selection of droll, stylish interactive forms, useful for a wide variety of everyday situations (apologies, invitations, unsolicited feedback, airing of grievances, etc.) - boing boingDaily Links
Six Useful Tips for Web Designers and Developers
I can’t claim these tips as my own, though my web accessibility hero Bim Egan (of the RNIB) recently gave me a few simple tips regarding alt tags and screen readers. - James FentonDungeons and Dragons Online going free-to-play this summer
Turbine’s MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online will become a free-to-play MMO in North America this summer when a free “digital upgrade” is offered to every player. - DestructoidFrench court savages "three-strikes" law, tosses it out
France's groundbreaking "three strikes" law that would disconnect repeat Internet file-swappers has been overturned by the country's Constitutional Council. "Innocent until proven guilty" still means something in France. - Ars TechnicaA Deep Breath
Rands writes another brilliant article about how to manage humans. If you are managing a team, or part of a team, take 20 minutes and read this one from top to bottom.Indexing the Web
Still awesome after all these years, A List Apart delivers an excellent reminder about indexing your databases. Timely as we are rolling out more and more CakePHP apps these days.WOOD
This has to be one of the most brilliantly animated videos I have seen in ... well ... a long time. The song is pretty good too. Enjoy.Daily Links
Bye bye Microsoft Points?
Quotes attributed to Microsoft's Scott Austin state that the new Games On Demand service will eschew MS Points in favor of sensible retail prices. - DestructoidMichael Geist explains Canada's screwed-up Internet to the Canadian Senate
JF sez, "Canadian law professor Michael Geist recently appeared before a Canadian Senate committee for a no-holds-barred testimony on the sorry state of Canadian broadband and wireless. The opening statement is a must-read as is the full transcript as Senators from across the country begin to realize just how bad the current situation is."Web Standards Solutions, Special Edition
It’s been a long five years since it was orginally published, but last month month a new Web Standards Solutions, Special Edition was released by Friends of ED. - SimplebitsThe seven types of book store patron
What's interesting about the list is that none of the types sound like the ideal book store customer. - KottkeMusic Catch 2
I enjoyed this game way more than I thought I would...it's likely my love of games where you tidy up. - KottkeSafari 4 final: no top tabs, performance updates for 10.6
Apple has released the final version of Safari 4. With it, the company has delivered a number of subtle changes from the earlier betas and told us what to expect out of Safari when Snow Leopard ships in September. - Ars TechnicaFacebook Offers Vanity URLs for User Profiles and Pages
Starting this weekend, Facebook is letting each user pick a real name to identify the URL of their profile. - webmonkeyFuturama is Back For 26 More Episodes [Futurama]
After four movies (most of which we covered here), Comedy Central decides that they want more of Futurama and renewed them for TWENTY SIX new episodes starting 2010. - gizmodoDaily Links
Migrating a Database Table for use with the CakePHP Sluggable Behavior
We're always playing around with better, smarter ways to set CakePHP URLs, this might come in handy!How to maintain a Difference Engine
Here's a set of instructions for operating and maintaining the replica of Charles Babbage's mechanical computer - the storied difference engine - built and displayed in 1991 at London's Science Museum to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Babbage.High stakes repo
If there isn't already, there will likely be a movie based on Popovich's exploits released someday. - kottkeSafari 4 Has Been Released
If you use a Mac or a PC, get it now. It is by far the best browser on the market.Daily Links
Tweeting too Hard
Where self-important tweets get the recognition they deserve.Quick survey on OS X 10.5.7 bug triggers
Fellow Mac users, let’s see if we can isolate the triggers of the OS X 10.5.7 blues. - Jeffery ZeldmanStand-Alone W3C HTML Validator Application for Mac OS X
Nice little app for those days when building offline is happening, or preferred.Crayon Rings
What better way to teach your tots fashion sense and art at the same time than with these beauts? - NeatoramaDaily Links
The Beatles: Rock Band
Holy cow. This is an amazing animation for the opening cinematic on the upcoming Beatles for Rockband. Side note - I will be purchasing.Louise Bridge Closed on Saturday June 6
The bridge will be having its annual inspection and routine maintenance. The sidewalk will remain open for pedestrian crossing.Daily Links
Secret Hidden Room Under a Pier
Someplace in Sweden, a couple of guys built their own room under a public pier. Pretty cool escape pod if you ask me.Google gives hints for better ad placements
Here are Visual Lizard, we build websites. We build great websites with tons of information on them. Events in Winnipeg. Music in Winnipeg. Moose Hockey and more. We love getting to the point where we can launch a work in progress live for everyone else to enjoy.
But what do you do when your website is launched?
One idea is to get your website into Google’s AdWords program and start building traffic. The kind of traffic that is looking for your product, service or organization. The good kind of traffic.
Recently Google has posted a blog article about leveraging their AdWords program even during tough economic times. Here are a few of their points that we think are really well made:
1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.
Consumers care about prices more than ever, especially on day-to-day purchases. When someone searches on a particular product, you know they’re interested; by using your ad to tell them that you’ve got the highest quality and the best price, you’re more likely to earn their click. Update your ad text to focus on low prices, good values, and timely promotions.
This may seem obvious, but it bears repeating. Focus on low cost and areas where you can maximize savings. Good advice for any economic climate.
3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.
Ads perform best when their ad text reflects the ad group’s keywords; this makes ads more relevant to their intended audience. Make sure that both the text and the keywords in each ad group focus on a specific topic or product. For instance, an ad group about "tennis sneakers" will generally perform better than a broader ad group about "sneakers."
This is solid advice for anyone getting started with AdWords regardless of their budget or the state of the economy. Focus again is key.
5. Make it easy for customers to buy.
Since people are spending more time comparing products and services online, make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for and buy from your site. Use the best Destination URL to send visitors directly to the page about the product or service promoted in your ad.
We build websites and while this seems like something everyone should be thinking about anyway, our experience shows that people seldom actually consider their URLs. Whether it is their domain name or product catalog. URLs fall somewhere on the development list at or around the very bottom. Never send people to the homepage of your site unless they can complete a purchase directly from it.
For the complete article visit the Google AdWords blog..
If you have questions on how Visual Lizard can assist you in driving more traffic to your site please use our contact form.