Phil Bradley's weblog

Registering Domain names

I've been informed of 123 Domain Names which is a resource that can be used to register domain names. It's very straightforward to use - just type in what you want to register and see what it comes up with. The most impressive thing however is the sheer number of alternative options you're given. All of the obvious choices, such as .com, .co.uk, but also ones such as .plc.uk, European domains such as .gr, .no, .pl and some international options.

If you're looking to register a domain, then this is a good resource to take a look at. Thanks Adrian!

'Most websites' failing disabled

'Most websites' failing disabled according to a report from a company called Nomensa as reported by the BBC via the link. 97% of the 100 websites tested in 5 different countries failed testing. The Prime Minister's site was one of the 3 to achieve minimum standards. The key shortfalls are:

• 98% did not follow industry web standards for programming code
• 97% did not allow people to resize pages
• 93% failed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphics
• 89% offered poor page navigation
• 87% used pop-ups, causing problems for those using screen magnification
• 78% used colours with poor contrast, making it difficult for those with colour blindness
• 73% used JavaScript for important functionality.

It's an interesting news story and worth reading.

PCNames Domain Search

Link: PCNames Domain Search. Absolutely top resource to check to see if domain names are available. It doesn't include .uk or .eu, which would make it really useful, but it has the key top level domains. I've raved about it in a lot of detail in the SearchEngineWatch blog.

Widgetbox

Link: Widgetbox › Directory of web widgets for WordPress, TypePad, MySpace and other blogs and web pages. is a directory of widgets that can be used on a variety of weblogs and webpages for free. Sections on blogs, communication, fun, interests, information and more. Great to quickly bump up the interest value, and a bit different to the Google gadgets offering.

Website spelling errors

Link: 10 most often misspelled words on websites. Fun little article on the top ten most misspelled words found on websites. They are:

1. Independent
2. Accommodation
3. Definitely
4. Receive
5. Opportunities
6. Their
7. Occurred
8. Information
9. Official
10. Activities

(The above are the correct versions I hasten to add!)

Visual PageRank View

Link: Visual PageRank View. If you want to see the Google Page Rank for pages, but don't have or can't get the toolbar, use this little utility. Just plug in the URL that you want and it will come back with a little image of the page rank next to all your links. Useful if you want to keep up to date with such things.

School Resource

Link: SCHOOPY - Classroom Organizer, School Homepages, Useful Resources & Fun Games. This looks as though it would be useful for schools and school librarians. It's a resource that allows teachers to make homepages, classroom resources, fun games and so on. It's American, so I don't know if it would work for UK schools, but if anyone tries it out, please let me know.

UsabilityExchange :: Welcome

Link: UsabilityExchange
Following on from my previous post, perhaps government departments should be using this service. It's an excellent 'why didn't I think of that' idea - the Usability exchange employs people with various disabilities to test out websites. Obviously it's a commercial service (starting at about £300) but surely for a government site, or a big commercial site, it's a cost worth paying?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Government sites fail web tests

Link: BBC NEWS | Technology | Government sites fail web tests. According to a report from Southampton University, 61% of government websites contain HTML errors  that cause problems for people with disabilities. A similar number do not comply with guidelines created to improve web access either. Major errors are apparently contrast between background and text, site navigation and use of colours. There's a classic comment from a Cabinet Office spokesman: One difficulty is that many authoring tools do not generate compliant HTML and make it difficult to edit the coding  Well in that case - change the tools!

Silicon Cloud 12 Ways to Irritate Your Visitors

Link: Silicon Cloud 12 Ways to Irritate Your Visitors. Nice amusing article on what not to do with web design. Follow the link to see the comments on the 12 ways, which are:

• Pop-ups
• Pop-unders
• Banning right clicks
• Playing music
• Fixed screen widths
• Slow loading tables
• Unnecessary questions
• Splash pages
• Grabbing the browser
• Obscure plug-ins
• IE only pages
• Dark backgrounds

It would have been even better with examples of pages, but it's still worth a read.