Firefox Web Developer Toolbar: Differences Between Versions 1.0.2 and 1.1.3

February 4, 2007 on 11:06 am | In Web Design | No Comments

If you are a web developer, you are no doubt using the indispensable Firefox Web Developer Toolbar by Chris Pederick. Some of the things this brilliant set of web page analysis tools enables you to do after loading a page are:

• View complete styling and structural information about any element on the page
• Change the HTML and view the results immediately
• Change the internal, external or embedded CSS and see the results immediately
• Resize the window to mimic other screen resolutions
• Validate your HTML code with the W3C validator

These are the functions we use on a daily basis during our web design exercises. There are about 75 more which we haven’t even got to yet!

Version 1.1.3 is just out. The most noticeable differences between this and the older version (1.0.2):

• The CSS or HTML editing panel is horizontal and below the target page. In 1.0.2 it was in a left sidebar, which changed the screen resolution of the target page.
• There is a search box for the CSS or HTML the toolbar shows. 1.0.2 did not have this.
• You can switch between CSS and HTML windows without closing one of them to see the other. The HTML and CSS windows reside on easily accessible tabs in the editing panel.
• When displaying element information, the information is click-locked and persists even if you subsequently scroll the page. 1.0.2 did not have this  feature.

1.0.2 was amazing and these features make it even better. My feeling about the new features was,”Jeez, these new thingies are exactly what I needed!”

Apparently Chris has been listening very carefully to user feedback. More power to you, dude!

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Technorati Tags: Web+Developer+Toolbar, Firefox, firefox-extensions, web+development, web+authoring, web+design

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Matt Cutts and Click Fraud: Read Now!!

February 3, 2007 on 4:25 pm | In PPC | No Comments

Bothered that your Google Adwords ads are getting fraudulent clicks?

The two most common kinds of fraudulent clicks occur on

(1) Google’s search page ads and

(2) ads on other web pages (i.e., the Google Content Network).

In type (1) a competitor or ill-wisher clicks over and over on your ad and you go broke paying Google click costs.

In type (2), a website owner has a deal with a click fraudster. The fraudster says something like, “I’ll have 5,000 different people click on the Google ad(s) on your website every week. When Google pays you at the end of the month, you give me a portion of the revenue.” You again go broke paying Google click costs.

The great Google spam-meister Matt Cutts describes in his blog various click fraud symptoms and specific remedies.

Some of the remedies make you look back on yourself; for instance: “Review your account to see if you’ve made recent changes to your daily budget, maximum CPCs, or ad distribution preferences. Making changes to any of these can increase your reach and change your conversion rate as new visitors may have different buying patterns.”

Not all of them are like this. For some symptoms, he advises contacting Google’s click fraud team and even links to a complaint form.

Matt’s post is very important. If you spend a large amount on Adwords each month, please read it!!

Technorati Tags: ppc, adwords, google+adwords, click+fraud

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