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Good news to Flash-crazy Webmasters:  Google now indexes Web content found inside Adobe Flash® files! Until recently, search engines’ crawlers were not able to "see" Flash content — text inside Flash movies, Flash menu links, etc. Ergo, Web sites built with Flash did very poorly in search engine rankings. Well, that’s about to change now.

Ever since Macromedia rolled out their awesome vector-based animation platform, Flash has provided the Web designer with a way to wow their clients. Web sites that contained Flash movies became some of the best-looking online presences. But the problem was, Web sites built entirely with Flash — no matter how beautifully-crafted it was — were not searchable. For a huge number of Internet users, if a site is not indexed by Google or Yahoo!, it doesn’t exist.

So, for Web developers, it has always been a balancing act between content and design. But this might soon change.

With the improvements to its core technology introduced by Adobe, Flash content is now visible to search engines. Web site owners can now expect to see their Flash sites appearing on SERPs. This is probably one of the best news I’ve heard coming out this year (to you, too, if you were a Web developer).

So far, only Google has implemented SWF searchability. Yahoo!, on the other hand, seems to be saying that they still have to work out some kinks before they can index Flash content… Here’s the FAQ from Adobe.

The question is:  When will Adobe implement search-engine friendly URLs for Flash content?

Search engine indexing is one thing, but that’s not all of it. For a Flash-heavy Web site to be properly ranked by Google, for instance, incoming links to deeper content will have to be made possible. Let’s say I have a site created and deployed entirely in Flash. Let’s assume that the site has sections and sub-sections, and sub-sections contained articles. What if one of my avid readers wanted to link directly to a particular article?

Linking to the top-level address is all well and good, but deeper links are also valuable to enhancing a site’s search engine ranking. So, I hope Adobe is working on this as well.

More and more, people are moving towards technologies that afford the user mobility and portability. The most shining example of this behavior is our proclivity for cellular phones. Not to mention, iPods, PSPs, laptops, etc.

People are now using their mobile gadgets for entertainment, business, work, leisure — practically in many aspects of their lives. I believe it’s come to a point where we probably won’t survive without our electronic devices.

Notice that pattern of dots and squares on this post? (There’s also another one on the sidebar.) It’s a two-dimensional barcode, which contains the URL of one of my blogs. If your mobile phone has a built-in barcode reader, scan the image and see what it contains.

If you don’t have a barcode reader, you can point your phone’s browser to http://reader.kaywa.com and download the free software. Many camera phones by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are supported.

What can we use 2D barcodes for?

The most obvious is for inventory purposes. As with one-dimensional barcodes that commercial establishments use to keep track of their merchandise, 2D barcodes can also be deployed for the same requirements. What makes the latter much better is their data capacity. The barcode you see on this page is called a Qr code, and it can store up to 250 characters of information. And, readers are now readily available.

This opens up a whole range of applications for 2D barcodes.

In Japan, magazine publishers use Qr codes to store their issues’ tables of contents, or promotional texts. The machine-readable code is displayed on the cover page so that users can scan it with their mobile phones and, without having to browse the magazine, find out what’s inside.

Here’s a scenario. Let’s say you have a company newsletter that you distribute publicly. You could print a 2D barcode on the front page and it would contain your company’s website address, a brief marketing blurb, and even your business phone number.

You could also have a 2D barcode printed on your business card. Mobile phones that are able to read barcodes can also save barcode-embedded telephone numbers (and other contact details) into their address books.

Generating barcodes is a cinch, too. Do a search for “2D barcode generator” on Google, and you’ll get a good number of links. Here’s one: http://qrcode.kaywa.com.

Do you see the possibilities now?

If you want to keep up with new trends in the market, keep in mind that in the Information Age, data portability is the key to success. If you allow your information to be available on the go (i.e., mobile and portable), you’re on the right track.

Probably the hottest news abuzz this year is the looming merger — some say hostile takeover — between Microsoft and Yahoo. Earlier, it was about the resistance on the part of Yahoo to capitulate to the software giant. Lately, the focus has shifted to Redmond and the perceived motive behind their bid to acquire the second largest search engine.

Very recently, two analysts from Gartner, a research services firm, asserted that Microsoft is now on shaky ground due to the state of Windows Vista, which they described as “collapsing”. The analysts, Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald, practically assessed the latest version of the Windows OS as a failure due to disappointingly low market acceptance. According to a rival firm, Forrester Research, by the end of 2007, only a little more than 6% of enterprise-level PC users had migrated to Vista.

The main reason cited for the poor sales performance is the lack of understanding among general users of what makes Vista so much better than Windows XP. And for those who do know, many of them are turned off by the resource-hungriness of Vista. Also, it’s reported that most of those who have adopted the latest OS were users of the nearly-extinct Windows 2000; apparently, Windows XP users (like me) are staying put.

Gartner is now widely quoted as saying that Microsoft is in an “untenable” situation. It predicts that Microsoft Corp. could be in financial straits by 2011 due to a presumed thinning of the latter’s market base. The firm further forecasts that a large number of technology users will be shifting to “OS-agnostic applications” (computer programs not dependent on what operating system is installed), thereby adversely affecting another area that has been dominated by Microsoft: office productivity suites. A prime analogy would be Google Apps, which competes with Microsoft Office.

The Google Apps suite — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendar, email, and even more to come — is deployed over the Web, and so is made available to anyone for free, regardless of what’s making his or her computer run. Increased acceptance of such systems could very well erode Microsoft’s revenues from MS Office, reportedly $16 billion in 2007 (including Exchange Server, which allows Office applications to be deployed across the Internet, among other things).

Gartner then proceeded to explore the notion that this is what’s inducing Microsoft to get its hands on Yahoo: to finally capture, and capitalize on, the Internet-ads history (and potential) of the first search engine to gain worldwide attention.

True, virtually every Web venture is targeting Internet advertising as a source of huge revenue. Even Google is in the bandwagon (if it’s not, in fact, the horse). Microsoft, however, has remained staunchly a software publisher and provider, and has ruled over this landscape for a couple of generations. Therefore, isn’t it rather a stretch to assume that this particular Goliath will just keel over and die?

The points made by Gartner are worth looking over. But, in my opinion, MS Office and Windows (perhaps not Vista but the keenly-anticipated Windows 7) are here to stay for longer than anyone might care to imagine.

So, why does Microsoft want to have Yahoo!? At this point, it’s still anybody’s best guess. My take on this is: isn’t it but natural for a business to proceed into further territory?

WHICH BROWSER DO you use when you surf the ‘Net? Chances are, it’s Internet Explorer, because most of us use Windows, and this browser comes bundled with Microsoft’s operating system. Here’s a breakdown of browser usage all over the world (Jan.-Feb.2008 figures. Source: TechCrunch):

Internet Explorer (“IE”) is now on version 7. And I must say––without prejudice against the other browsers––it’s a huge improvement over its previous release. But there’s a problem here: too many people are still using Interne Explorer 6 (“IE6”). If you take a look at the table above, more than a fifth of Internet users around the world are still stuck at version 6.

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Sharing large files is easy nowadays due to the advent of P2P software like LimeWire, Morpheus, Ares etc, and file-sharing websites like Rapidshare, Megaupload, and others. However, most of these softwares or sites require waiting time and download before you can download another file. This becomes a dilemma with split downloads like movie clips, e-book downloads, and other large divided files (i.e. part 1, part 2, etc). You can only avoid waiting time and download limits by paying as premium user.

Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and other free e-mail service has attachment size limits (usually 5 MB). This attachment size is applicable only for documents, but not when sending large files as attachments like video clips, audio files, high resolution images, etc.

Pando is a great free P2P software that lets you share large files in blog posts, instant messengers and e-mail.

Send large e-mail attachments. Pando allows you to send up to 1GB of e-mail attachments through your free e-mail account.

Share files with your readers and friends without the annoying waiting time and download limit. Pando also lets you share big files with your friends in IM clients and websites/blogs.
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One of the things that sets large corporations apart from the rest is the attention they pay to their customers. Plus: the tools with which they accomplish this. Up until recently, only such companies could afford sophisticated — and expensive — systems that enable them to keep track of customer relations.

In the Internet Age, consumers are now vastly varied and have access to a world of information regarding products and services. So much so that industry-strength software is necessary for a business to be on top of what its customers currently want. In the cutthroat world of sales (actually selling stuff) and marketing (generating leads for future sales), dispensing with the necessary tools would be tantamount to suicide. (more…)

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In a previous post, I talked about the entry and acceptance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems among Davao companies. This is a boon to the city’s industries and the local economy, because it is one sure sign of our local companies’ coming of age.

However, is this a threat to local software developers? Yes and no.

For one, there are still many companies who won’t shell out the P1.5 million cash price on an entry-level ERP system. So these companies remain the bread and butter of local I.T. companies. (more…)

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In the last few years, industry watchers have seen the increased adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems — especially from SAP, Oracle and Microsoft — by Davao-based companies. And I’m not referring to multinational companies, but to homegrown, medium-sized corporations that software providers call their “mid-market”.

In the past, Davao companies relied on either internally-developed systems (making use of off-the-shelf software products), or systems created by third-party providers in the city. Smaller operations entrusted their internal data processing requirements to freelance programmers — even today.

But with the increasing trend of globalization, and the shrinking of the international marketplace, Filipinos have begun to realize the need for more robust and sophisticated software systems. Such systems would have to address management’s demand for up-to-the-minute information, which the latter needs for making informed decisions. (more…)

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In the electronic world, Filipinos are known for spending an inordinate amount of time on computer games, mobile phones (SMS, MMS, ring tones, what have you), YouTube, and other newfangled digital stuff. I guess it’s due to our penchant for communication, for keeping in touch, but especially for letting our friends and family know what we’re up to.

The perfect answer to the Filipino’s thirst for multimedia solutions might just be this new service that I found on the Web: AVS4YOU. Basically, it’s a set of software that lets you create and manage digital video & audio, as well as do multimedia processing.

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I am just like most IT professionals in the Philippines today: I make use of both Open Source and proprietary software. I have Windows XP running on my desktop, and I make use of MS Office applications. At the same time, I deploy Web applications built with PHP onto Apache-run servers. I love the productivity that Microsoft programs afford me; and at the same time I bask in the power of open-source when I delve into PHP and MySQL. The freedom (and responsibility!) that I have when coding for open-source platforms is exhilarating.

But I categorically do not support the current form of the FOSS bill, otherwise known as the Free / Open Source Software Act.

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"Due to the security fixes, we strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to these latest releases," Mozilla said in a post on its development site.

"This update resolves the location.hostname vulnerability and other security and stability issues," Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla, said in a statement.

Is it due to age that I’m talking about “memory” in two consecutive blog posts? No, it’s my long experience in Internet-delivered virus infections, hard disk crashes, what have you…. I’m sure everyone who’s been online long enough can relate to this.

In an effort to protect my data from harm, I’ve gone through several solutions: from freeware to shareware to expensive software, all in an effort to prevent malware. Now, just how do you evaluate anti-virus software?

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