Sanders Media

I usually try to keep this space free of hot button topics. Here I like to discuss things that help you understand how the web works in a practical way. However, the more the web expands into our lives, the more these issues come to the forefront. I’ll touch on a couple.

One such hot button topic that has been bantered about is internet filtering. Certain sections of the US government, as well as a large portion of the telecommunications industry, want the ability to force an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to divulge our internet habits. They say this can help them root out terrorists, stop child pornography and stop sharing of copyrighted materials.

These seem like noble ideals, and they are in their simplest form. My fear, however, is there will be a compromise of our privacy. The right to privacy is a very American one, and a right we must defend rigorously. I fear the temptation to use this information in ways we can’t comprehend and wouldn’t approve of will be too great. I cannot condone large organizations (governments, corporations, etc.) with seemingly endless resources being able to spy on me.

Another big issue recently in the news is internet throttling. Internet throttling is the practice of slowing down the connection speeds of users taking up a lot of bandwidth. An example would be people who upload large amounts of video to the web.

The ISP’s call this practice reasonable network maintenance. They claim these users are slowing down connections for everyone else and are overloading the network. Whether or not this is true is up for debate. Comcast just received a stinging rebuke from the FCC for throttling users without their knowledge. Instead of stopping internet throttling altogether, they are now just being upfront about it.

This is a Pandora’s Box. Once we allow some content to be blocked or inhibited, where do we draw the line? Deregulation has put the power in fewer and fewer hands. The FCC rebuke aside, there has been very little in the form of accountability. The telecommunications industry is a very powerful lobby, and has large resources available to petition our government. We need checks and balances to make sure our rights and freedoms are observed.

Wherever you stand in the political realm, these are issues that have and will continue to affect you. I encourage you to contact your US and state representatives. Ask them where they stand on these issues, and if they plan to protect your privacy.

One thing you’ll see a lot of on most blogs is a badge or two. On the web, a badge refers to a graphic that is used to promote an issue or product. 

You’ll see two badges on this site. Each blog post has one that allows you to bookmark the entry at sites like Del.icio.us, Reddit, Technorati and others. There is another one on my About page that links to my LinkedIn profile. If you read my other two blogs, empireofgeek.com and jonathansanders.net, you’ll see me promoting the EFF, or Electronic Frontier Foundation, with web badges.

Web badges allow you to help promote things that are important to you. On the flip side, creating badges for customers to put on their sites is a great way to promote your brand. If people like your product, they will absolutely want to promote you. It is a very easy way to advertise, and it costs almost nothing. 

There used to be either really inexpensive or really expensive ways to add images to your website. On the expensive end, places like Adobe Stock Photos could cost over a hundred dollars for a small 4×6 photo. On the inexpensive end, you could take your own photos for free. 

For most small businesses, spending lots of money on single digital images simply isn’t cost effective. However, taking photos yourself presents its own challenges. If the photos you take aren’t good, they can make sure site look bad. 

In the last few years, several low cost stock photography sites have sprung up. These provide viable alternatives, and make your site look professional. One site I use is iStockPhoto. Small web optimized photos can cost as little as $1 to $2 dollars. They even have vector graphics and video to spice up your website. 

Use whichever service you want, but do consider adding stock photography to your site. It can really make a difference.

This is a great question. Many of my clients tell me they want a blog, but don’t really understand what it is, or why they want it. 

First, let me define the term “blog”. It is a place on a website that is continually updated with new, relevant content, and it often contains pictures, video, links, etc. An important aspect of a blog is “pinging”. This is what makes it a blog versus a static page. Pinging is where you link to a service that notifies the search engines that you have new content.

A website has many uses, but I’ll highlight two. One use is as a brochure. You directly lead people to the site, and you don’t rely on people to “find” you on Google. The second is just the opposite. You want people to find your site. You rely on leads from search engines for business.

This second use is where blogging may be very helpful. By maintaining a regularly updated blog, you are telling Google and Yahoo you have new fresh content. This drives up page ranking, and increases the leads you receive from search engines.

When telling your webmaster you want to setup a blog, make sure you understand exactly what you’re asking for. This will help you to know what you really want to accomplish.