In years past, the most difficult part was to try to explain to a client why one should not use IE6. You would be lucky to find a client who is somewhat technically sound and would listen to you. But most of the time, they don’t really know or care what “W3C standard compliance” means for them, or what a browser is, in the first place. Microsoft made a genius marketing decision by putting the word “Internet” in their browser name, and to most non-technical people “Internet Explorer” is Internet.

Most importantly, the clients cared that IE has been the most popular web browser, and thus could not be ignored. At the end of the day this just meant extra time and headache for web developers (some horror stories have people spending up to 30% of their development time on IE6 fixes and adjustments).

Google has recently announced that it is dropping support for the Internet Explorer 6 browser on March 13. If you visit youtube.com in the IE6 browser you will now see a big exclamation message in red: “Your browser will be unsupported soon. Please upgrade to a modern browser.”, along with links to a few browsers to upgrade to. This is following a previous announcement of Google Docs and other Apps dropping support for IE6 on March 1st.

In the recent years, since the release of IE7 and IE8 there has been a push from the internet community to at least make the public upgrade their Internet Explorer browsers (if not switch from IE altogether), which included even tricking the visitors to upgrade their browsers.

Over the last two years the usage of IE6 has been dwindling down. But it still consists of 10-20% of the web usage depending on which resource you trust. So recently the problem has been getting better, but once in a while you still run into a client who is using IE6 and it is usually not a pleasant discussion.

Since now the developers have upgraded, and test the site in IE8, most don’t even care about IE6 anymore, until they run into a client who is using one; at which point the discussion begins of why the client is seeing weird things, and then eventually leads to developers trying to convince the client to drop the IE6 requirement. Some, after having learned their lesson, are even putting ‘No IE6 support’ in the initial proposal, to insure that no extra time will be spent on it after the development is over.

One of the biggest users of IE6 (besides old people) are many company employees who do not have permissions to upgrade their browsers at their work. This is a job for their IT department, and often times an IT upgrade of any kind for a company means spending money. In this case one really needs to push the ‘non-security’ aspect of IE6 to an employee hoping that it will get to the top. After all, no company wants to deal with viruses or potential data leaks. There is a speculation that the most recent hacking of Google by Chinese Government came from the security vulnerability of IE6. Thus Google’s recent announcements to drop support for IE6, does not seem like a mere coincidence.

So how does YouTube’s dropping support for IE6 help you and your developers? Well for one, it should be easier for you to convince the clients (or your bosses) to forget about IE6 and upgrade, if they still use it. Google and many other huge websites dropping IE6 really makes it legitimate. Before, it was just your word against theirs. Now you can cite examples of other companies dropping IE6 with Google being the biggest of them all. Another good stat to share is to show them how the usage of IE6 has been decreasing over the recent years.

During these discussions it is also a good idea to mention that they should always try to upgrade their browsers (especially Internet Explorer) to newest versions to avoid being outdated. People usually upgrade the things in their daily lives often, such as cell phones, gadgets, and even cars. Why should a browser be any different. Educating them to stay away from Internet Explorer in general may also be a good idea. IE7 has some problems with CSS rendering, especially with CSS dropdown menus (although not as many problems as IE6). Also, the fact that none of the IE browsers support HTML5 or CSS3 functionalities, really makes out IE to be the big anchor holding back the innovation on the web. After all, developers cannot fully build websites with new HTML5 or CSS3, if IE doesn’t support them and people are still using IE.

The maximum size of a TIFF file is limited to 4 gigabytes…till now. .. The BigTIFF was designed as the next version to break the 4 gig boundary. Aperio, Medical imaging specialists, created the format and offered it into the public domain.

Aperio believes strongly in open standards and anticipates that with this enhancement, TIFF will continue to be the standard for storing and managing very large images such as digital slides,” stated Ole Eichhorn, chief technology officer for Aperio.

Aperio debuts this technology with the world’s first terapixel image of 225 pathology slides from a breast cancer sample.

Check out the image here.

(via c-net)

Everything from human vanity (the obvious dominating service), restoration of damaged photographs to age progression for police agencies and missing persons reports.

Yup Phojoe.com even did an age progression of Elvis (sans the drugs and junk food and maybe if Betty Ford was around).

Some clients ask for ex lovers or spouses to be removed from a photo…does anybody remember the fine people of Lacuna, Inc.? Cause that’s were we are heading…slowly.

This got me thinking…when will people use this digital photo retouching for their pets? Maybe some already do. Sending out holiday cards this season and want Fido or Mister Bo-Jangels to look extra regal and sleek or fluffy and soft…not shabby and well-normal.

So lets have fun here- lets push it even further and give em’ tattoo’s! I know- “What about the fur Pat?”, yeah lets just keep it silly and shave em’ or get the short haired ones. Lest keep it digital of course…

Here is a brief little Composite tutorial that can turn your favorite feline photo or canine Christmas card into a real eye opener for your friends and family.

You will need:
A picture of your pet
A picture of your weirdest friends tattoo or some strangers online
A stamp to send it to your family for the next holiday
…and a touch humor

Step 1. Set up all the photos you will be using in one document. I found several tattoos from or stock library and a cute (some would beg to differ) hairless Egyptian cat.

Step 2. Isolate the tattoos that will be composited onto the cat. This can be done by using the lasso tool or any other selection tool.

Step 3. Placement of the tattoos on the cat. This is when you see if you want “THUG LIFE” to go across the belly or the back.

Step 4. Transform and Distort the tats to the basic direction and angle of the body. By using Edit/Transform/Warp and choosing anything from Free Transform to Perspective you can manipulate the way the tat falls on the body.

Step 5. Blend. This is a bit tricky. You need the tat to look somewhat like it is on the body of the cat… Working with the Layer Palette Blending Modes try experimenting with the best setting. Darken works well, but can be too dark. Also adjusting the colors selectively will give you a more refined color scheme and fit in better with the tones of the cat.

Try not to make it to real…you don’t want your aunt the staunch animal rights activist to send PETA knocking at your door. Maybe add a little disclaimer at the bottom just to save everyone the hassle.

Happy retouching!

Last month, John Edwards announced his candidacy on YouTube. When Barack Obama announced that he was joining the race this weekend, his website was launched with a social network, My.BarackObama.com, which is displayed prominently on his website. Hillary Clinton has a MySpace page, and as of this writing, has 22,310 friends.

According to the Wall Street Journal, campaigns are practicing a relatively new phenomenon known as “blog outreach.” In some cases, ads are being purchased on political blogs. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is utilizing this strategy. Others are blogging in support of the candidates. John Edwards has used this extensively, as Robert Scoble acknowledges. John Edwards understands the role of social media in his campaign. In my experience within the blogs I read (that are not necessarily political in nature), this certainly appears to give Edwards an edge. Essentially, Edwards’s name in these apolitical social outlets can be likened to “brand awareness.” Visibility is important. Whereas traditional media is not as prominent for some, the online visibility could be a determining factor for a vote, giving off the awareness to heavy online users that the presidential hopefuls understand this new way of life.

The Internet is a great medium for these “future presidents” to advertise. However, there certainly will be a learning curve as individuals working on the campaigns resolve issues relating to campaign video software compatibility, hiring the wrong bloggers, and ignoring blogs that could be suitable advertising mediums.

Even despite these hurdles, candidates are understanding that an online presence is essential for the success of their campaigns. The 2008 campaign will definitely be an exciting ride.

The popular Performancing Firefox blog editing plugin is not being acquired, and will be spun off into a new brand.

This set off quite a bit of talk in the blogosphere especially due to Performancing’s close ties to ReviewMe (Patrick Gavin is a co-founder of both companies). Leading to comments like this:

Why would the parent company of ReviewMe sell a large blogging network to their rival PayPerPost? Seems like an idiot move.

This morning Performancing founder, Nick Wilson, made some short statements to lend a bit of clarity. First on Tony Hung’s blog:

I wont be staying on Tony. We’ll be moving our ad network and blog editor to new domains and rebranding them as seperate entities.

Then on Threadwatch (which Nick also started and later sold):

more news to follow but the short story is that i’ll be rebranding the partners ad network and the blog editor in the new year and have one more idea im working on (i say working on, i mean trying to work out who’ll fund it heh!)

Perhaps Nick’s own statement in his part of the 5 things meme is most telling as to why:

I have a very short attention span for projects. I get bored very easily and have found the only way to do anythng past a year, is to keep rolling out ’sub projects’ to keep my interest level up.

While I was typing this I see that Nick has also posted an update on his own blog where he reiterates the statements above and states:

We’re all very excited about the deal. It gives Metrics a chance to truly flourish, and the community an opportunity to grow and continue to discuss the business of blogging.

To Nick and the rest of Performancing best of luck and congrats. We all look forward to see what you do next!

Update : PayPerPost has issued a press release on their blog with some further details and one interesting proposition:

In the spirit of maximizing value for existing Performancing members, PayPerPost has created an ad opportunity at PayPerPost.com specifically for existing Performancing Metrics members to review the Performancing Metrics and Performancing Exchange platforms on their blogs and get paid for doing so.

The first thing that you will do when you read this list is say “This list isn’t just about search!” And you will be right. 2006 was a year that saw the definition of search expand. Search to me has become an all-encompassing word. Search is information. Search is media. Search is social interaction. Search is life.

MySpace, YouTube and Wikipedia made their way into the conversations of housewives in Indiana and CEOs on Wall Street. Google’s mantra of “Do No Evil” was questioned over and over. Microsoft and Ask begged to be noticed. Yahoo! just begged for the year to end and 2007 to arrive.

Successful marketers adapted to the ever-changing landscape and saw search as more than algorithms. They embraced social networks and looked to capitalize on their surging popularity. SEO’s cousin SMO was born.

2006 was an event-filled year to say the least..

101. Google offers domain registrations (12/14)

100. Ms. Dewey puts the sexy back in search

99. A proliferation of new, free tools led by SEO for Firefox, SEOmoz’s Page Strength Tool and Performancing for Bloggers

98. Google opens larger New York City office (10/3)

97. Stephen Colbert vs. Wikipedia (8/2)

96. Tom Brady vs. Yahoo! (12/7)

95. Google vs. Belgium Newspapers

94. Google Pack released (1/6) but Trillian is dumped (5/19)

93. Secret to getting billions of pages indexed in Google revealed (6/17)

92. Google Reader users can share their feeds (3/24)

91. Google Base Accepts Payments (2/27), and eBay Express follows

90. Google shows off new toys: Google Page Creator and Google Notebook

89. CarPhone Warehouse purchases AOL UK (10/11)

88. Google and Dell create personalized homepage (1/7)

87. Amazon launches their own CPC program ClickRiver Ads (11/5)

86. Yahoo & IBM team up on corporate search (12/13)

85. Adam Lasnik is hired by Google as Search Evangelist (5/12) which was predicted over a year ago

84. Yahoo! and Ask embark on huge traditional ad campaigns but still remain at 2 & 4 respectively in searchers

83. RH Donnelley buys Local Launch (9/7), MediaWhiz acquires Text Link Ads (11/7)

82. Lycos Teams with Ask for Ads (11/1)

81. DMOZ editor corruption exposed (publicly) (8/18)

80. Google Buys dMarc Radio Advertising (1/17), then launches Partnership Initiative with Newspapers (11/6) and Radio (11/7)

79. Yahoo partners with newspapers to offer job marketing content (11/20)

78. UTube sues YouTube (11/1) and then begins selling ringtone, poker and sex ads (12/13)

77. SEO is put down by Jason Calacanis, Ted Leonsis and Bill Pasternak/Kevin Lee – leading to some interesting contests and fact-based retorts about the Half-Truths of Talking Frogs

76. Web reaches 100,000,000 site milestone (11/1)

75. Start-ups score big names: Robert Scoble Leaves Microsoft for PodTech (6/10) and Tim Converse leaves Yahoo for Powerset (12/18)

74. Orkut’s Brazilian Popularity Soars (4/10)

73. The revolving door at SearchEngineWatch – Gary Price leaves SearchEngineWatch for Ask (2/9) and Barry Schwartz takes his place (2/9) but then leaves with Danny to Search Engine Land (11/20)

72. Corporate search engine personnel moves – Steve Berkowitz leaves Ask for MSN (4/22), Udi Manber Leaves Amazon for Google (2/8) and the Microsoft “Brain Drain” has Managers Leaving to Google (7/1)

71. Corporate moves in the SEO world – Todd Malicoat leaves WeBuildPages (3/30), Andy Beal leaves Fortune Interactive (8/4), Mike Grehan leaves MarketSmart (8/3) followed by Garrett French (10/30) and Jake Baillie Leaves TrueLocal (12/22)

70. Florida spammer is fined $11 billion dollars

69. Google launches Book Search (8/30)

68. Google acquires Writely (3/6) and then JotSpot (10/31)

67. Microsoft launches Live Spaces social network (8/3)

66. Yahoo! launches new Video site (5/31)

65. Microsoft announces plans for July 2008 transitioning out of Bill Gates (6/15)

64. Google Sitemaps becomes Webmaster Central (8/8)

63. Conde Nast acquires Reddit

62. Wal-Mart (10/9) and Sony (12/12) learn that the blogosphere is very transparent

61. Google acquires Measure Map blog analytics software (2/15)

60. Microsoft acquires web analytics firm DeepMetrix (5/3)

59. Google opens Online Video Store (1/7)

58. Tracking Memes – led by Techmeme, Tailrank & Megite

57. Though Shall Not Google – Google is declared a verb (7/6) but Google doesn’t like it (12/26)

56. Yahoo acquires Bix.com (11/16)

55. Google announces Google Checkout (6/29), competes with eBay-owned Paypal (7/6)

54. Yahoo settles click fraud suit (6/28)

53. Google launches Docs & Spreadsheets (10/10)

52. Sponsored blog posting services ReviewMe, PayPerPost & Blogvertise make a splash and lead to the FTC ‘encouraging’ disclosures from bloggers (12/20)

51. Google agrees to censor results in China (1/24)

50. Microsoft Small Business Directory stops accepting new submissions (11/15)

49. Australia suggests that permission be granted to index web pages (11/2)

48. Google Bombing as a political tactic (7/19)

47. Foreign search engines threaten Google’s international presence: Baidu in China and Japan (12/4), Quaero in France and Theseus in Germany (12/21)

46. Wikipedia founder announces plans to launch search engine (12/23)

45. Google launches Google Trends (5/10)

44. Google News Comes out of Beta (1/23)

43. Netscape launches Digg-like site (6/14), Jason Calacanis lures users with money (7/18) but leaves Netscape shortly thereafter (11/17) for a position at Sequoia Capital (12/5)

42. Yahoo and eBay join to fight the Google and Microsoft giants (5/26)

41. Yahoo launches Search Builder (8/7)

40. Google CSE (Custom Search Engine) announced (10/23)

39. Google begins notifying webmasters of penalties (4/26)

38. Socially-governed video search sites launched: StumbleVideo (12/13), Digg (12/18), Megite (12/26), and Tailrank (12/26)

37. Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 7 (10/18) and Mozilla launches Firefox 2 (10/24)

36. Yahoo focuses on integrating social components in brand websites (12/1)

35. Time Magazine names YOU ‘Person of the Year‘

34. AskCity Launches (12/4)

33. The rise of Internet Celebrities: LonelyGirl15, Christine Dolce, and Ze Frank proving that sometimes you don’t have to even be real to be famous online

32. Microsoft signs ad deal with Facebook (8/23) but perhaps the bigger story is the non-acquisition of Facebook by Yahoo! (9/21)

31. The Arbitrage Debate Rages

30. KinderStart sues Google over PageRank and traffic (3/18) but the lawsuit is dismissed (7/13)

29. Google will not give in to the DOJ’s search request out of privacy concerns (2/18) but the DOJ says it is not a privacy issue (2/27). Google is forced to give up data (3/14), but not all of it (3/17)

28. AOL leaks user search data (8/7) leading us to AOL Searcher No. 4417749 (8/9)

27. 90% of all email now spam

26. Microsoft launches adCenter and drops Yahoo! Search Marketing ads (5/4)

25. Social networks are the most searched for terms of the year on Google, followed by wikis and video, together totaling 60% of the Top 10 (12/18)

24. MySpace auctions off search business (6/14) and Google wins the auction – resulting in a 3-year $1-billion dollar deal (8/7)

23. Widgets take off – led by YouTube and MyBlogLog

22. AOL goes free (8/2) and begins to focus on SEO (11/3)

21. Google shuts down Answers (11/28) while Yahoo! integrates their own Answers into the SERPs (a rare up moment in Yahoo’s year)

20. Yahoo announces Panama Search Advertising System (4/6), which is delayed and results in profit dips for Yahoo but it then launches in October (10/19)

19. Google tops $500 a share (11/21)

18. Local search continues to gain momentum (9/28)

17. Click fraud findings are addressed (7/21) and online giants join the fight (8/4) but does click fraud threaten the foundation of online ads? (10/21)

16. Google says click fraud worries are overblown (8/9) despite the $90 million click fraud settlement (7/28) and Google’s claim that their click fraud rate is less than 2% (12/11)

15. Microsoft introduces new search engine (3/8) and then redirects search.msn.com to Live.com (9/14)

14. MySpace traffic tops Yahoo’s in November (12/19)

13. The Butler is Dead – AskJeeves rebrands itself to Ask.com (2/20)

12. Link Baiting and what Paris Hilton can teach us

11. Two Words – Quality Score

10. nofollow concerns (7/7) leads to some high profile sites changing their no-follow policies

9. Digg updates their algorithm (9/8), changes their look (12/18) and bans lots of legit sites in the process (12/21)

8. Google’s ‘minus thirty’ penalty

7. Congress bans Internet gambling (10/2)

6. The Peanut Butter Manifesto (11/18) and Yahoo reorganizing its operations (12/5)

5. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft support Universal Sitemaps Standard (11/16)

4. Google rolls out BigDaddy (1/4)

3. Social Media Optimization and its dark side

2. Danny Sullivan leaves Search Engine Watch (8/29) launches Search Engine Land (12/11) and the Search Marketing Expo conference and Search Marketing Now webcasts (12/5)

And the biggest story of the year? Well I was going to pull a Time Magazine and say that you were the biggest story of the year but I changed my mind in about two seconds flat on that. So unless you are Chad Hurley or Steve Chen – you’ll have to wait until 2007…

1. Google Buys YouTube for $1.65 Billion (10/9)

A big thanks to Tamar and Patrick for their contributions to this list.

Having used the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) search on a religious basis in the past, there’s a lot of promise for Google’s more user-friendly results. I’d keep an eye on this and see how Google plans to expand their coverage over time in the future.

With this new feature, the newspaper is acknowledging the strength and power of social networking communities. The NYTimes is broadening its readership to individuals who may not necessarily read news websites directly or even touch traditional newspapers. In an interview with the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the new functionality is a strategic move on the part of the New York Times to “tap a tech-savvy audience that is accustomed to commenting on and sharing news stories.”

The New York Times, whose site does not allow free-flowing conversation and lengthy comments directly within, is moving the discussion of their articles elsewhere. It is encouraging and facilitating communication among a new crowd. The New York Times realizes that by reaching out to another community, they are getting exposure. They care what you say.

And finally, they are encouraging you to say it.

Last month, the Internet hit the 100 million website milestone. With the ease and cheap price of domain name registration, this growth spurt is not going to be stopping anytime soon.

Here is the Netcraft data from August 1995 through December 2006:

So why don’t you have a website yet?!

According to Robin Li, Baidu’s Chief Executive, the company has been studying the Japanese market for approximately six months. In an article with the Wall Street Journal, Li says:

“We carefully studied the Japanese market. It’s primarily dominated by two players we are very familiar with. We think we can do better.”

Baidu is already faring well in China. Alexa rates it as the most visited site in China, while Yahoo is #6 and Google’s English site is #8. (Google’s Chinese site is ranked lower.)

And so Google, which apparently had plans to use the Chinese search market to its benefit, fell behind. Sixty-two percent of Chinese users prefer Baidu, according to a study released by the China Internet Network Information Center, which is 15 points up from 2005. On the other hand, Google fell 25 points.

Baidu undoubtedly has an edge over Google and Yahoo in the Asia-Pacific market. Even though the Japanese written language is based on the same character set as the Chinese language, Baidu has marketed its engine on a nationalistic premise. According to David Greising, who covered the battle for the Chicago Tribune, a recent advertising campaign emphasized that Google is a foreigner with “suspicious ambitions.”

Baidu’s none-too-subtle use of nationalism was on display in a recent online advertising campaign. It didn’t slam Google by name, but it featured a group of villagers accosting a foreign couple. “You don’t understand us, you don’t understand us,” one village elder scolded the outsiders. In a country with an ingrained distrust of outsiders, the message resonated.

Despite Google’s claims that it is not clear who will win the Asia-Pacific market yet, and especially not Japan, the preference of users points to Baidu. It will be interesting to see how Baidu’s entrance into the Japanese market will affect user search choice and if Google and Yahoo will prevail.