One thing I detest more than anything else online is when I have to decipher squiggly lines and distorted words to verify that I am indeed a human being.

Yes, captcha not only drives me crazy because I never seem to get it right the first time, but it waste my time.

In fact, the inventor of captcha, Carnegie Melon professor Luis Von Ahn, says during a recent interview on PBS Nova that it wastes around 10 seconds per person . He further estimates this is around 500,000 hours of human time every day. Well, he has found a way to make use of these valuable manhours. reCaptcha!

reCaptcha is an effort to use everyone who enters captcha as a typist in the internet book digitization project. One of the problems of digitizing old books written before 1900 occurs during the scanning process. Many of these old books can't be deciphered by current OCR technology because the fonts used in old books are unrecognizable.  Further compounding the problem is language variations and words that are no longer used today. Computers simply don't understand these words.

Von Ahn has combined the human ability to decipher these words with captcha programs in order to digitize old books, and he estimates this massive workforce "unknowingly" involved can translate 125-150 books per day...word by word.

This is an amazing undertaking that has made me have a change of heart about captcha. Yes, I still can never seem to get captcha right the first time, but now I know it's not only fighting merciless spammers, but it's helping to preserve ancient books for future generations and that I'm actually doing something that will benefit humanity centuries from now. Weird enough, but I'm actually looking forward to the next time I get to enter captcha.
 

Little Rock, Arkansas web design firm, 1011 Web Solutions, announces the launch of a new website for The Toggery.  The new online store offers stylish baby, girl and boy clothes that are unique and high quality.  In addition, The Toggery offers school uniform programs for schools across Arkansas and the country plus they have a great line of children shoes, accessories, books and toys.

For over 60 years The Toggery has offered Arkansas parents and schools both performance and style for their children's clothing at great prices and with a 100% product satisfaction guarantee.  Now the most honored children's boutique in Little Rock is opening their online doors to bring the customer service that has kept them in business since 1948 to online parents and schools everywhere.

Web services provided by 1011 Web for The Toggery include custom web design and development, ecommerce, online marketing and website hosting. 

Little Rock, Arkansas web design firm, 1011 Web Solutions, announces the launch of a new website for Mountain Valley Spring Water.  The new site offers simplier and more targeted navigation and showcases the company and product's high quality, commitment to the environment and where you can find healthy bottled spring water that meets your needs.

Since 1871, Mountain Valley has been America's premium bottled spring water and a badge of pride for Arkansas.  No other bottled water has the taste and quality of their natural spring water, proven by the fact they have twice received awards for the best-tasting water in the world.  In addition to offering healthy bottled water, Mountain Valley also is a leader in using recycled packaging and creating sustainable, environmental friendly operations throughout their production and distribution processes.

Web services provided by 1011 Web for Mountain Valley Spring Water include custom web design and development, online marketing and website hosting.

The word on the street is that Microsoft’s new and rebranded search engine, Bing, wants to be a decision engine that serves up websites based more on quality content and information that people can use.

Right off, the first benefit of Bing that I see is that it can be used as a verb. It’s easier to “Bing” a question than “live” or “MSN” a question. This may make it easier to say, but I doubt Bing will ride a wave of popularity based on its name the way Google has.

Some SEO folks are expecting a shake-up of sorts, and perhaps there will be some over time. Bing is making a valiant effort to help people organize search results into categories rather than bouncing in and out of random search results in Google. Other search engines may follow suit, although Google Universal Search already categorizes local businesses, images, and videos and has been doing this for some time now.

Personally, I think nothing has really changed in the world of web development.  As a web design company, we are still focused on one thing and one thing only. Your bottom line!  We strive to build websites that answer your visitor’s questions and provoke them to buy something or contact you for more information.

Search engine rankings make a huge impact on your bottom line. But it’s not like MSN controls a huge portion of the search space now, and I doubt people will readily break their Google habit anytime soon. Google is still where it is at. If changes are to come in SEO, they will be slow.

My SEO recommendations haven’t changed for Bing. Focus on quality content writing and don’t bother trying to game the system to rank higher. Of course there are complicated rules that all search engines want you to follow. All search engines have the same goal, retrieve quality content for people looking for answers.

If you have questions, we can help you better understand these search engine rules, and help you write compelling content that pleases your website visitors as well as improve your search engines.

Do I own my website?  That's a simple question often overlooked by business owners regarding their web design and development.  Despite its simplicity, getting an answer can be like trying to pin down a politician on a sensitive topic.  

The grayness primarily stems from how many web companies make a profit.  The traditional "software" approach is build a system once then sell it over and over again.  Typically with this scenario you "rent" your website through a license but do not "own" it.  There are pieces they still may let you have, such as the content you write.  However, like any landlord, stop paying your rent and see what happens.

As a business owner your online presence (which includes your domain name, website, content, images, code, traffic, reputation, etc) are an asset to your company.  If the company ever sold, these are things that would add to the purchase price and the better they are the more they add.  Having someone else control these pieces and being locked into a relationship that you will forever pay or lose what you have is a liability.

How can you tell if you own your online presence or not?  Hopefully you have something more than a handshake that spells it out and protects you.  If not, simply ask whoever handles your website to tell you what would happen if you ever moved.  If they turn politician and can't give you a simple straight answer then it may be time to do some soul searching.  Building a house on land you don't own may not be the best proposition for your business.