the 200ok weblog

How would you find information if Google was down for a day? What if it was just gone?

"Google? Gone?" you say, "that's crazy talk, it's impossible!"

But it's not impossible. Google will only retain its market dominance until something better comes along. After that, it will be remembered but never used any more. Just ask Altavista, Lycos, or any other pre-Google search engine.

Now I don't for a moment wish bad things on Google, I just think people should be a little more aware of the fact they use Google without thinking. How else could "Google" become a verb?

Google has achieved ubiquity. Good for them! But is it good for us?

there can be...well lots, actually

Google is a brilliant general search engine, but it's not the only one out there. In fact, brute force searching isn't even the only way to look for information. In some cases, it's probably counter-productive.

Why counter productive? Well for a start people don't search widely. They just hit the first few results on Google and go with the first answer they find. Too bad if it's wrong, or there's relevant information that wasn't obvious from the first page of search results. So many people are getting bad information because they've developed bad search habits. Google's "I feel lucky" button probably didn't help!

You also have to consider that with systems like PageRank you're not necessarily getting accurate information. Millions of people linking to something doesn't mean that it's the best information, it just means it's popular.

You have to ask yourself, do I actually want the masses to filter information for me? What if I'd just prefer to know what my peers think? After all, I know and trust my peers (and their opinion).

trust and information retrieval

You do need to trust the people delivering search results and the people who influence those results. I don't actually know the people at Google so I have no real basis to trust them. I definitely don't know the masses of people whose links are indexed by the Googlebot. So, search in general does not score well on trust - I can only assume I can trust Google, which is a pretty thin level of trust for such a critical tool.

However, I do trust friends and colleagues... and the cool thing is that many of them use social bookmarking systems like del.ico.us and ma.gnolia. So I can actually search the links which they designate "Good Links". I can tap into the tribal hive mind.

besides that...

Besides questions of trust, accuracy or information gatekeeping... I just think people should ask the question: "why do I always use Google?".

I think that people should be reminded to question things, pure and simple. It's probably a hangover from my philosophy degree. Everyone should prove that they don't exist at least once ;)

I'm not saying you can't continue using Google - frankly I know we all will! But we should do so with the awareness that we are trusting a single pathway to information. We are putting all our eggs into the one proverbial basket.

a day without google

So why not try going a whole day without using Google. Where would you start?

• Maybe you know a search engine or two off the top of your head (no Googling for search engines, you at the back). Try Teoma, Ask, etc.
• Maybe you'd hit Technorati and search tagged info.
• Maybe you'd hit a major single resource like Wikipedia.
• Maybe you'd search Technorati and Wikipedia for search engines.
• Maybe you'd hit del.ico.us or ma.gnolia and go the social bookmarks method.
• Maybe you'd hit email, IM or Twitter and ask your friends for recommendations.
• Maybe some people would be really freaky and go to the library. Before the web, there were Libraries; before Google there were librarians...

We don't actually need Google. We're just really used to it. It's good at what it does, but it's not the only one nor is it the only way to access data. Every once in a while, we should try some of the other ways. It's not good to be totally reliant on a single source or pathway to information.

There's every chance that one day, Google will fall. One day, it might not even be there. Stranger things have happened.

Until then, we can gleefully google to our hearts' content... but we shouldn't do it out of ignorance.

It's CSS Naked day... basically a worldwide nudie run for websites! The idea is to show off the underlying structure of the page. This is what you see if you're, say, blind; using a mobile without CSS support; using a text browser or have CSS/images disabled; or if you're the Google bot.

For more info check out the Annual CSS Naked Day website.

User Generated Content (UGC) is a hot topic - it seems everyone wants it. A bit like everyone wanted Blogging. They weren't quite sure what it was but they were pretty much convinced that businesses should be Blogging, so they told their IT section to order in some Blogging.

Or something.

So anyway UGC is the new black (one of them anyway), which seems to translate to "comments" a lot of the time... but hey, that's a step forward in many cases. It all helps and paves the way for the next thing.

Once in a while though you see something which just sets a different standard. A SXSW attendee - a user, in other words - decided that mere note-taking didn't cut it. So they sketched the speakers: Crazy Characters at SXSW | In The Garage | The nGen Works Blog.

Now that is what user-generated content should be like! Compelling, unusual and link-worthy. It reminds me of John Allsopp's WE05 remixes (admittedly calling John a WE05 'user' is pushing it a bit ;)).

Of course it's not exactly UGC if it's hosted on the user's own blog, rather it's meta content... but I like to point out cool moments of user engagement, even if just to remind us all to keep an open mind. The best ideas are probably things we won't even think of ourselves - the users can and will outdo us.

So if you want UGC as part of your product or business, look to the users for ideas on what form the UGC should take. You may suggest or set directions, but you shoudl be willing to accept direction as well.

Maybe the buzzword should be User Generated Concepts.

This is one for the "if you fix a problem, blog it" files.

I've been having a problem with a particular feature on a page I'm building at the moment. Basically I need to position a small div over the top of an image. The image can then change without needing to edit the content in the div.

To do it, I set the size of the container div then used absolute positioning to place the small div where I wanted it within those boundaries. To get it all to work the container is set to position: relative; and the small div is set to position: absolute; - something which is pretty common.

the problem

Screenshot 1: Desired result (and before scrolling in Opera 9).

Screenshot 2: After scrolling down and back in Opera, content disappears. The exact result varies; with other combinations of positioning the example div may also disappear immediately after the page loads (that is, it renders then disappears).

The problem occurs in Opera 9 on both PC and Mac. To see this in action, check out the example page.

the scenario

The large image and the red example div are enclosed in a container div. Initially, the container div was set to position: relative;; the red example div was set to position: absolute; and the large image had no specific setting.

the fix

To fix the problem in Opera, apply position: relative; to the large image as well. Some more testing is required to be sure, but I think the principle is to make sure there aren't any elements without explicitly handled positioning.

Again, see the example page for the real thing.

Update 2008.08.13: This bug does seem to be fixed in Opera 9.5x. Hurrah! :)

We've just finished a session at BarCamp Sydney. I rocked up to see an empty board, so I proposed To hack code, first hack people.... The idea is that often it's not the code that creates barriers to success, it's the people involved. Perhaps they're resisting, perhaps they're not engaging with the process or they simply can't express what they want to achieve with technology.

Here's my take on some points the group came up with...

• Don't hack code without a reason - find what the people want first, sort out the goals.
• Be open to being wrong - if you push your agenda, you may discover that there's a good reason not to go down a certain path. Don't be so engrossed in your own agenda that you become inflexible.
• If someone is resisting an idea or change, first understand why they are resisting. They may have an excellent reason, or they may simply be scared, or they may just need to understand the idea better.
• To hack code, you must be able to empathise with people
• Coders/geeks need to take their clients/users best interests to heart
• Make people feel safe. Build trust with them, build rapport, then start working. People are often afraid that they're paying for something that won't do what they want.
• Doctors need a good bedside manner, geeks need their own version - webside manner?
• It is our responsibility to make things work, not the user's responsibility.
• We must demystify technology - tell people what it will do, not how it's coded.
• Simplify, don't dumb down.
• Don't build for "everyone", build for your specific target market.
• Geeks... we cannot avoid people! Get over it!

The way you configure your primary browser effects the way you see the web. Using a suite of browsers during your test rounds is one thing, but it's not the same as using a particular browser and configuration on a daily basis.

To see what I mean, spend a day with Javascript and plugins disabled: it's amazing how many sites fail completely without them. While browsing with Javascript disabled all the time is a bit impractical, there are some things I do recommend to catch basic errors:

1. Set your system/browser's default background to something other than white
2. Disable plugins by default (enable them on demand)
3. Disable meta refresh

These three tips will catch a huge number of sites which make assumptions about browsers. The errors you catch with these settings aren't necessarily the end of the world, but they are a sort of litmus test for site build quality. Plus, many sites do in fact fail completely under these simple-sounding conditions.

non-white background

On a Windows PC (not sure about Macs), a web page with no explicitly stated background colour will be rendered with the Windows default background colour. Since the default Windows background is white, many developers forget to actually set the background when they want it to be white. However to reduce eye strain I set the Windows background to a light grey or off white, so I get to see which sites haven't set a background colour.

It really is quite astonishing how many sites don't actually set their white backgrounds! There are some very popular sites (by large companies) and even a couple of A list bloggers who have forgotten this one.

While it's not the worst error out there, it can certainly be a problem if a user has a black system background and you've got black text. I know someone who has grey on black as their system default; and they regularly have to highlight websites just to read them.

I think Firefox has started overriding the system background and inserting white as a default, but that's not really a solution.

To change your Windows background: click Start → Settings → Control Panel → Display → Appearance → Advanced. Click on the diagram or select Window from the Item dropdown. Change that item's colour and apply the change.

[If someone knows the MacOS equivalent to change the default background in web browsers, feel free to comment or let me know :)]

disable plugins

You should regularly browse with plugins disabled. It's interesting to see how many sites use flash for critical content yet have no fallback at all. Many all-Flash sites don't even have a warning message telling you to install Flash - they just load as a blank screen.

I use Opera and go a bit further, disabling animated graphics and Java. It's trivially simple to switch them back on a for a site, so why not. With Opera's site preferences I can enable plugins for those few sites where I do want the plugins to work (eg. YouTube). To toggle these settings, use the Quick Preferences menu to disable plugins then use Edit Site Preferences to enable them for chosen sites.

I'm not sure if Firefox can disable plugins once they are installed, however there are various extensions (eg. Flashblock) which can disable Flash. It's buried in IE as well but to be honest I don't recommend using IE as your daily browser anyway - it encourages complacency, since you don't notice all the sites out there that don't work in anything other than IE.

disable meta refresh

Meta refresh is particularly problematic for users with screen readers, since the uncontrolled refreshes create confusing and unpredictable experiences. For this and many other reasons, browsers are now making it a lot easier to block meta refreshes.

The thing is, many sites use these to forward the user from one page to another - but they don't include a manual, clickable link. Many people assumed that browsers would never be able to switch off refreshes I guess!

To disable meta refresh:

• Opera: browse to opera:config#UserPrefs|ClientRefresh, then deselect the option and restart Opera.
• Firefox: you can wait for version three, or install the Web Developer's Toolbar and click Disable → Disable Meta Redirects.
• In Internet Explorer: go to Tools → Internet options → Security tab → Custom Level button → Miscellaneous category → set "Allow META REFRESH" to Disable.

[Feel free to comment if you know instructions for other browsers.]

...and that's it

These tips should help remind you to provide fallback content if you're using plugins, scripts or modifying standard page load behaviour in any way. If nothing else, it should remind you that white backgrounds don't magically happen :)

Web 2.0 is suffering, friends. There is a tragic shortage of desperately needed "e"s. Through bad planning and massive overuse of "e-" as a prefix, Web 2.0 has had to make do without the letter e and simply contract their names.

You've seen them on the street, with names like Flickr, Zoomr, Tumblr, Frappr, Talkr, Soonr, Rel8r... the list goes on.

Let's not be fooled here, Web 1.0 is to blame for this problem. Web 1.0 used "e" like there was an unlimited supply, with no thought for sustainability or future generations' need for e. The term "email" was an innocuous and relatively logical start, but sadly it was followed by eCommerce, eBook, eCard, eZines, eBusiness and even eEducation. Thankfully "cyber" can be synthesised cleanly in lab conditions and - despite heavy use - web 1.0 did not plunder natural stock for future generations.

But there is hope. Some applications have overcome great challenges and used e for its intended purpose. Feedburner and Twitter are two services which managed to conserve enough e to avoid the terrible fate of unnecessary contraction.

You can help. Sponsor a web 2.0 startup today and spare as much e as you can. Together, we can save the web.