Freelance Web Development

I received a nice treat in the mail recently. A Happy-Winter-Solstice card from Google? Sorta. The envelope was somewhat big and said Congratulations on it. I would have tossed it if it was not from Google. I opened it and, lo and behold, it’s a window sticker stating I’m a Favorite Place on Google. How cool! And I’ve never even heard of that.

So I quickly stuck that bad boy sticker in my ‘office’ window. Keep in mind that I work from home. There was a board meeting the next morning, and the outcome was the sticker came down very shortly thereafter. I think it was up for maybe 8 hours at best that night. =)

What am I Favorite Place for? Why, “web development“, of course!

Apparently local businesses are supposed to put this sticker in their window. Then yuppies snap pics of the barcode with their cell toys to get instant information about the business. I donno… why not just go in and say hi?

Less than 1% of businesses get these. So I’m pretty psyched. The other board members are… bored members.

The list was determined based on the popularity of a business’ Local Business Center listing, as determined by how many times Google users looked for more information about a business, requested driving directions to get there, and more. Google users “decided” based on their actions, and we sent the decals.

Over 100,000 businesses were identified as Favorite Places, representing less than 1% of the 28 million U.S. businesses. We believe that our standards for selecting businesses are as selective or more selective than other companies which have run similar initiatives.

http://www.google.com/help/maps/favoriteplaces/business/faq.html

News, WebVeteran Favorite Place, Google, Search Engine Optimization, seo

In case you were watching me build a web2.0 website from scratch over time, here’s a little update.

Search engine friendly urls are now working. ex: http://2009.webveteran.com/about-freelance-web-development/home/

Ajax loading is 50% done. The main contents change so far (not page title or sidebar contents). To see it see it work, load the home page, then click on ‘Home’.

The Experiment ajax, cms, sef, seo

I had this crazy idea, and  I think I’m going to try it! I started to build a new website for myself… long overdo from almost three years ago. And I figured, ‘why not do so publicly?’ Sure it’s like dropping my drawers, but I’m confident although I know I am not the absolute best. But I think it would be interesting… at least, I think it would be to watch someone else do so.

The completed site will be/have:

• web2.0 layout and functionality
• coldFusion, ajax, scriptaculous, javascript sound
• custom cms with plugin architecture (I might open this up as well)
• seo + sef urls
• one page load navigation (ajax)

So without further wait, please visit 2009.webveteran.com to take part in the experiment. Comment and criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Keep in mind, this is a site entirely in development! What you will see occasionally:

• broken links
• broken content
• dummy text
• images as test text

Heck, you might even see a table or two (gasp). You’ll probably also see me change libraries every now and then (as was the case with the scroller). And of course there may be days without any progress whatsoever. Subscribe to this blog or my twitter account to keep updated!

[sigh] here we go…

News, The Experiment ajax, cms, ColdFusion, experiment, JavaScript, plugin, Scriptaculous, sef urls, seo, site building, web development