Directeur commercial associé @ DoYouBuzz

Last week, we looked at one of the latest reports from the investment research firm CB Insights, tracking the top venture capital firms across the U.S. in terms of their deal activity. According to that report, over the past year the top 30 firms participated in 663 unique deals (almost a quarter of all deals) with amounting to almost $9 billion in investment.

CB Insights has broken down these deals further to examine the trends in terms of deal flow by sector, and no surprise, investment in Internet technologies led the pack, comprising 36% of the deals and 26% of the dollars the top VC firms invested. (Healthcare was the number 2 sector for both the deal numbers and deal size.)

Sponsor

Within the Internet sector, there are numerous sub-industries where VCs invested - monitoring, security, web development, video. But despite this diversity, four of these sub-industries dominated, accounting for 40% of the funding from VC firms: social; advertising, sales and marketing; e-commerce; and gaming. Social, advertising, and gaming were the top three sub-industries in terms of deal flow as well.

The end of Google Wave and rumors that the company is building a Facebook competitor has a lot of people talking about Google's need to get better at social. Fortune's article on Google's future growth last month, apart from highlighting absurdity a company becoming "too successful," speculates as to what Google will need to do in order to continue growing in the future. The article's authors dismiss Google Apps for Enterprise and move on to sexier fair, discussing what Google needs to do to be more "social." But it's clear that Google has big plans for the enterprise. First, of course, because Eric Schmidt has said so, but also because of the various steps the company is taking.

Sponsor

Why should Google focus on the enterprise instead of social networking sites? As pointed out by box.net's CEO Aaron Levie, enterprise IT spending dwarfs online advertising spending. The $79.4 billion budget for federal IT spending alone is more than three times the $24.2 billion spent on online advertising in 2009, making Google Apps for Government look like a very smart business venture.

But what besides Google's existing Apps project can you expect in the enterprise?

1. As Your Telecom and ISP

Google just got into unified communications by integrating Google Voice into Gmail. For right now this is seen as a consumer technology, but can we really expect that this won't be appealing to increasingly mobile, distributed businesses? Skype's enterprise VOIP solution just came out of beta, and Cisco is supposedly lusting after it. And remember Cisco's weird Android tablet? If Cisco doesn't get Skype, don't be surprised to see Google Call integrated into its own communications and collaboration software.

But it's not just voice - don't forget Google's and free wireless broadband offerings. These moves have been seen as measures to pressure existing telecoms to offer faster service - but it's important that Google owns a lot of fiber and has been pushing to open more wireless spectrum.

Oh, and they're also bringing the Internet to space.

What it means for the enterprise:

In a few years you might be considering a complete broadband/UC package offer from Google.

So far, Google's been targeting this tech at the consumer market. Even if it remains there for the time being it's significant - Forrester has suggested Google's enterprise growth will be driven in part by consumers. According to Forrester, 39% of information workers have used Google Docs to solve a problem or collaborate. Why wouldn't they use Google Voice/Calls as well?

Also, in an increasingly distributed, mobile enterprise, chances are a lot of your enterprise's data is flowing through your employees home Internet service - and in the future, that service could be provided by Google.

2. As Your ERP SaaS

Google's stated mission is "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." And Google's core competency is search, not social software. So applying its strengths to enterprise resource planning - which could benefit from social features, but would as enterprise data explodes benefit more from search and analytics - is a logical next step, especially if the company really wants to tackle the enterprise. It makes sense from a business standpoint too - the ERP market place is worth $21.4 billion according to Gartner. Jonathan Bradford and Ian Leader made the case that an accounting system was the next logical addition to Google Apps here at ReadWriteWeb a few years ago, but of course that would be just one part of an ERP suite.

Although it's conceivable Google would try to build something from the ground up, it makes more sense for them to acquire existing technology in this space. We've mentioned the idea that Google should buy Salesforce.com, which has grown from being just a CRM solution to a powerful enterprise cloud computing platform. There are clear advantages and disadvantages to such a move, and there are also plenty of other companies Google could acquire. Netsuite seems like an unlikely acquisition due to its close relationship to Oracle, but seems like a good fit. Netsuite has been promising Google Apps integration for months now, and there's still no set date as to when Netsuite will be in the Apps Marketplace. (It may be worth noting that MyERP.com and Salesorder.com already offer Google Apps integration through the Apps Marketplace - does anyone have any experience with these services?)

Google could also conceivably build its own ERP software based on one of the various open-source solutions available.

What it means for enterprise:

Google Apps may start looking a lot more attractive if it offers easy, out of the box ERP integration - especially for new enterprises or enterprises already planning to switch to a new ERP platform. It would also likely make Chrome OS more attractive as an enterprise option.

3. As Part of Your Development Stack

According to Forrester, developers are Google's other enterprise "Trojan horses." Google has been courting developers with a range of resources:

• Go!


• Google Web Toolkit


• Google App Engine


• Google Code


• Its APIs

What it means for the enterprise:

Even if Google's voice and ISP moves never amount to much, and Google Apps just isn't for your organization, there's a lot of room for the company's technology to creep into your enterprise via the development stack.

Bonus: As Your Utility Company

Earlier this year Google go the right to buy and sell energy. Google says it has no intentions of getting into the business of selling to consumers (or, presumably, businesses). It seems unlikely, but if they see a viable revenue stream (and need growth to appease Wall Street), why wouldn't they go into the energy business?

What it means for enterprise:

You could, at least hypothetically, one day get your voice, Internet, electricity, operating system, messaging software, productivity and ERP software, development tools, and cloud hosting all from one place. At least accounts payable will simpler.

Freelancing is a tough life, no matter what your skills are. Writers, developers, and consultants all have to scout work, sell themselves, manage their own time and then shake down clients to collect their fees. Work is never steady and coffee keeps getting more expensive.

OneThing.com is a new directory for freelancers who want to advertise their talents and build a verifiable reputation. There are two things that are really cool about it.

Sponsor

The first cool thing is the strong visual interface. Most freelancer directories are text-dense (or just ugly). OneThing uses a Google Fast Flip-like interface to display profiles of freelancers with an avatar, short description and website screenshot. It basically packages your personality and your work and sells it in one blink.

Freelancers using OneThing can also sub-contract work to and from each other when there is a surplus or a dearth of business.

And for the other side, OneThing speaks to that old gripe - "it's hard to find good people." You can put up an ad for a gig on craigslist and get 400 responses. But it's going to take a lot of work to figure out which 95% of them are crap.

Contrast that with typing in search terms to display compact, visually compelling results at a time, which you can filter by location or "area of expertise." It's more like flipping through a stack of resumes on a spacious desk - except at a glance these packaged profiles reveal information about a person than a resume.

You can also see who has left a positive reference for the freelancer, and filter for "recommendations" from people you know or trust.

The Menlo Ventures-backed startup is now in private beta but it has about 17,000 profiles. It's got a few drawbacks - the emphasis on visual flipping makes the search results harder to refine, and profiles of freelancers without websites display a massive warning sign in a giant white box with the words, "Something cool coming soon."

It'll be interesting to see if this site catches on - the Internet's freelancers surely need it.

L'usage d'Internet tel qu'on le connaît est dépassé selon Chris Anderson, du magazine Wired. Est-il devenu fou ?

en lire plus

Internet… Nous y passons tous plusieurs heures par jour et les choses ont finalement bien évolué depuis l’époque du 56K. Ce que les nouvelles générations n’ont d’ailleurs pas connu, honte à elles ! Oui sauf que voilà, tout le monde ne connaît pas l’histoire du réseau des réseaux. Et afin d’y voir un peu plus clair, voici une infographie qui retrace tous les évènements marquants qui ont ponctué l’histoire d’internet.

Via

Infographie : l’histoire d’internet en une image est un article de la Fredzone. Si vous l'avez aimé, n'hésitez pas et rejoignez-nous sur notre page Facebook ou sur Twitter

ezMark is a jQuery Plugin that allows you to stylize Radio button and Checkbox easily. Its very small (minified version is ~1.5kb) compared to other similar scripts. It has been tested and works on all major browsers (IE 6/7/8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome) and it gracefully degrades.

To customize the default checkbox/radiobutton image, simply change the background image (checkbox-black.png/radio-black.png) and CSS (ez-checkbox/ez-radio) and (ez-checked/ez-selected) accordingly.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://www.itsalif.info/content/demo-ezmark-jquery-plugin/
License: MIT License

There are now e-books available on almost every aspect of design, from planning your business and managing your time, to designing web applications. This post highlights 10 of the best free e-books for designers, with selections available as PDFs or in HTML.

Whether they’re meant to inspire or educate, let us know if you can recommend any other free e-books aimed at designers in the comments below.

1. Taking Your Talent To The Web

This detailed, intelligent guide is a how-to on transitioning from print to web by Jeffrey Zeldman. It was written for print designers whose clients want websites, print art directors who’d like to move into full–time web and interaction design, homepage creators who are ready to turn pro, and professionals who seek to deepen their web skills and understanding.

Even though it was written in 2001, much of the advice about transitioning from print to the web still holds true, and print designers and art directors are still scrambling to move into web and interaction design.

2. Web Designer’s Success Guide

Web Designer’s Success Guide is the definitive resource for starting your own freelance web design business. Written by Kevin Airgid, a recognized designer who runs an interactive studio, the book offers step-by-step instructions on topics like transitioning from full-time to self-employment, marketing your freelance business, managing projects and pricing yourself appropriately.

3. Designing For The Web

A Practical Guide To Designing For The Web aims to teach core web development techniques based on the principles of graphic design. Written by recognized designer and author Mark Boulton, it is a stand-out amongst web design books with the right balance between practical and inspirational.

It features five sections: Getting Started, Research, Typography, Color and Layout. The focus is on learning graphic design theory, which you can then easily apply to your own designs.

4. Design Your Imagination

Design Your Imagination is a complete and comprehensive guide on website design for those new to the industry, although it may also prove helpful for experienced web designers as well. Almost every aspect of website design is exemplified in this e-book, which aims to help beginners hone their creativity.

This book features more than 28 chapters that deal with a broad array of subjects, from the history of web design through web design principles, planning, and more, all illustrated with practical examples.

5. Time Management For Creative People

Compiled from a series of posts published on Business of Design Online by writer and creativity coach Mark McGuinness, this is an easily digestible guide to help professionals in the creative sector maximize their time and productivity.

Subtitled “Manage the Mundane – Create the Extraordinary,” this book is designed to help you maintain your creative focus while dealing with your other commitments. It includes plenty of practical time management tips tailored specifically for creative types.

6. Getting Real

Getting Real is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophy of 37signals, a developer of web-based software used by over one million people and businesses in 70 countries. With short, value-packed chapters, this book is an excellent guide for building web-based applications in a smarter, faster and easier way.

7. The Woork Handbook

The Woork Handbook is focused around web design and programming and primarily deals with CSS, HTML, Ajax, web programming, Mootools, Scriptaculous and other topics about web design.

It is an excellent reference book on a range of subjects all drawn from a wealth of excellent articles published on Woork.

8. A Practical Guide To Web Typography

Robert Bringhurst’s book, The Elements of Typographic Style, is on many a designer’s bookshelf, and is considered to be a classic in the industry. The renowned typographer Hermann Zapf calls the book “a must for everybody in the graphic arts, and especially for those just entering the field.”

In order to allay some of the myths surrounding typography on the web, this book has been structured as a walk through Bringhurst’s working principles, explaining how to accomplish each using techniques available in HTML and CSS. Practicality is ever present with workarounds, alternatives and compromises for less able browsers.

9. Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design

This e-book is a practical guide with advice on how to improve your websites, software, hardware, and consumer products, all with an eye on accessibility and avoiding future snags. Written by Shawn Henry, an outreach coordinator who promotes web accessibility for people with disabilities, it’s a straightforward and engaging resource.

The book covers the basics of improving accessibility in design projects with tips for comfortable interaction, having accessibility in a user-centered design process, examples of accessibility in user group profiles, personas, scenarios and much more.

10. Web Style Guide

An in-depth resource that offers information and instruction related to several areas of web development, including interface design, information architecture and usability.

The book explains established design principles and illustrates how they apply to projects whose primary concerns are information design and efficient search and navigation.

Beginner and advanced designers will find this to be one of the most practical guides available.

More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:

- 12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started With Photoshop
- 40+ Web Design and Development Resources for Beginners
- 10 Free and Fun Twitter Bird Icons for your Website
- 11 Ways to Speed Up WordPress
- 10 Free Wireframing Tools for Designers

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, iamspartacus9

More About: accessibility, book, design, designers, developer, e-book, help, how to, List, Lists, resource, web design, Web Development

For more Dev & Design coverage:

• Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

At one time or another, we are all newbies. That’s right: you can deny it all you want, but not one of us got into this game with a full deck stacked in our favor. We entered as newbies, born fresh after the start screen loaded. However, unlike in a game, we are not immediately launched into a tutorial level to learn the ropes in this new world — what to avoid, how to progress, etc. And if we feel overwhelmed by our newbie status, we may not be able to find our way to the tutorials and guides that the community has put together to help us sort all of this out. So, feeling very alone in all this is easy.

Jumping in a new passion can be difficult and time-consuming at first. The support of the community can be extremely helpful in overcoming the learning curve and helping to find the right route for your career and your professional skills. Image credit.

But this is the great thing about being part of the online development community — that you are never truly alone. Your experience may be unique in its details, but it’s not generally, which is great because the community is very open to sharing its experiences and offering guidance to help newbies navigate the twists and turns we are sure to face as we continue down the developer’s path. In most cases, all you have to do to get some helpful advice is to venture into the social media neighborhoods and ask the community at large. At times, the answers just pour in.

That is what we found when we went out on Twitter and on Facebook recently to poll our followers and fans. We asked “What is the single best tip from your experience that you would give to newbie developers?” This article is the result of all of the amazing responses we have received. Before we go any further, we would like to thank those who took the time to answer our query and who offered so much great advice to all the newbies out there in the development arena. As usual, the advice also serves as a nice refresher to all those seasoned veterans who have been in the game for a while.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #2 is Successful Freelancing for Web Designers, 260 pages for just $9,90.]

Never Stop Learning

This answer, which we received repeatedly, is by far one of the best pieces of advice for newbies in the development field: never stop learning. This truly is one to keep in mind as you tread through this new world, because working in a field as dynamic and fluid as development, you can quickly fall behind if you do not actively strive to stay ahead of the curve. Without somewhat of a dedicated effort on your part, your progress could stall, and your skills and work could stagnate.

Once again, the online community and so many others have your back in this respect. So many wonderful books, blogs and other accessible resources are teeming with knowledge, just waiting to be absorbed and passed on. So, read. Implement and practice what you have learned. As noted in the replies below, trial and error is a fantastic method of self-teaching. You might even go so far as to schedule some kind of weekly assignment for yourself, to always keep your skill set growing.

• Start with examples and muddle around with them. Change every line of code to see what it does. Then learn why those things work.
• Be a sponge. Don’t let pride get in the way of learning from others.
• Never stop learning.
• Read. Oh god, read so many books on the subject that force you to practice things over and over again.
• Learn how to learn for yourself.
• Never think you’ve learned it all.
• Don’t pretend you know all. Blogs and forums are your best teacher.
• Read the docs. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Test. Learn.
• Don’t copy and paste. Learn.
• Always have a project on the go. It makes sure you keep learning.
• Learn by putting as much as possible into practice.
• Always learn more. You should never be 100% content, and always strive to constantly improve your skills.
• Never stop developing their skills.

Take Criticism Constructively

… No matter how it is given. This is another important piece of advice that is both vital to learn and extremely difficult for some to do — especially because the anonymity of the Internet seems to give so many license to forget one half of the constructive criticism coin; they instead berate and belittle through their comments and their assessments of the developer’s talent. But no matter how harshly they come at you, find a way to distill the essence of their statements to see if you can gain anything from them. If they have no merit, let them go.

One thing to always remember, as pointed out in the advice below: never take criticism of your work personally — especially given that in this field we are never supposed to stop learning. We should always welcome feedback from others in the community that helps us improve. It is simply a means of keeping our skills sharp. Inviting open criticism allows others to help open our eyes to new approaches and even problems we are entrenched in. Also, thinking of it as feedback and not as “criticism” might soften the blow for you. After all, who doesn’t love feedback.

• Be open to feedback as everything changes.
• Learn to love criticism.
• Test in every browser/OS config you can. And don’t take criticism of your work personally.

Be Patient

Here is another major tip to hold onto: be patient. If you can master this one, then you will have saved yourself many sleepless nights and hair-pulling-induced headaches along your journey to greatness as a developer. Remember that these skills do not develop overnight, no matter how much we wish they would. This journey is just that, a journey — not a direct flight to the final destination. Getting to where you want to be will take time.

Take your time. Don’t rush through the learning process too quickly, or you will likely burn out and get frustrated. Take the slow route, making sure you completely grasp one area before moving on to the next. If you hurry, chances are something important will slip past you. And as you work with others in the community, be patient with those both behind and ahead of you on the learning curve.

• Have patience… a lot of patience. And if you have to get IE6 to work, start a pot of tea or something to calm yourself. :P
• Have patience: with yourself, others and especially the code. :)
• Take all the time you need to learn the basics. They are fundamental.
• Prepare for frustration.
• No matter how stupid what your client just said was, think before you reply.

Comment Your Code

Another pearl we found in the plethora of replies is a wonderful coder’s mantra (or at least it should be): comment your code. Comments are a powerful aid to new developers for many reasons, the main one being that learning through repetition is a fantastic way to make information stick. If you constantly comment on why you used a particular bit of code or how another bit works, then each time you return to it, you will be further cementing it in your brain.

Also, comments can provide just as much benefit to others who will be interacting with your code. Remember, it is not always about you. Comments are a way for others to learn from your work, just as you have learned from the code of those who came before you (if in fact they did think to leave comments). If you work with other developers on a project, this is an easy way to keep each other informed on why someone coded their part the way they did. It demonstrates professionalism, too, so keep up the comments.

• Thoroughly comment your code! It will help infinitely in the long run.
• Always use detailed comments. At some point, someone else will look at your code. Do them a favor and comment like mad.
• When commenting: describe why not just how.

Be A Helpful Member Of The Community

This next bit of advice ranks quite high for many developers, not just because of its obvious benefits but because of the reward one feels from doing it: be a helpful member of the development community. It could prove to be an invaluable asset in your arsenal, not only because the lines of communication that you open will create great learning opportunities, but because you are building lasting relationships that you can call upon later when you find yourself in need of assistance.

Those of us who have gradually moved through the ranks have especially relied on these resourceful posts and helpful guidance to make the most of our skills and code. We should really stay active in the community and give back when and where we can. Paying it forward for all of those who have paved the way for us is not only an obligation; we really should want to help this community of ours thrive and grow. Reaching out through social media outlets, blogs, forums and more can really improve one’s skill set and viability.

• Get involved in the design and Web community as quickly as possible.
• Peer code reviews!
• Set aside time to help other developers. It could be in online forums. It really helps you reflect on what you know and don’t know.

Learn The Business

Learn all aspects of the business side of the industry, especially if you are freelancing. We got a few responses about this. And it makes sense. If you want any kind of sustainability in your career, then having a solid grasp of the business side of things is important.

Knowing how the business operates and what clients generally expect will prepare you well for a freelance career… and will also keep you from being taken advantage of. If you learn the general pay scale and expectations of players in the field (including those of clients and other developers), then you’ll be well prepared to set your own rates and expectations. It also teaches you how to handle paperwork, which can be cumbersome and potentially overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with this side of the business.

• You can only make so much money coding. Learn the business.
• Quadruple your hourly estimate.
• Make a careful and detailed estimate. Now triple it. You’re probably close to the truth.
• Your estimates will suck for a long time, so be as conservative as you can, and offer discounts on overage.
• IE6 is a bitch!
• Choose your clients wisely. Bad clients end up costing you time and money.

If You Don’t Love It, Leave It

Some other words of wisdom that were passed along can be summed up like this: if you don’t love it, then this is not the right work for you. Developing is more than a job; it is a career — beyond that, even a way of life. Coding changes the way you see and interact with the world around you. It challenges you every day with something new to conquer or sort out. The hours seem to keep piling up, and your brain becomes harder and harder to switch off, continuing to solve problems long after you have bidden it to rest.

This holds especially true for freelancer developers. As a freelancer, you are so much more than the person behind the code: you are the person behind it all. This is where your love of code comes into play ten-fold. Passion goes a long way in development. True passion for what you do comes only from loving it. You can’t fake it, either. A lack of passion not only will reflect in your work but will impede your progress.

• If it is just a job for you and you do not look forward to breaking nights, find another job.
• Love what you do, and remember those who taught you.

Make Time For Yourself

Another bit of advice to keep you sane as you grow is to make time for yourself. The best way to do this is to keep some sort of side project going. There are many reasons to do this, your sanity being the main one. Staring at code for hours on end takes its toll, especially if your code is failing and a solution escapes you. One way to fight off this madness is to have something to work on that lets you unplug.

A side project gives you an outlet to recharge and sustain your interest in the field you have devoted yourself to. Make no mistake: this is a time-consuming career path, and without a side project to keep you engaged, you will quickly burn out. The work that once enthralled you will lose its appeal, and the passion that got you to where you are will fade. A side project also ensures that you constantly learn. You can choose projects that challenge you in ways that you don’t find in work for clients.

• Keep sane with a side project of your own.
• Work on a real project every day, even just a personal one.

Believe In And Be Yourself

Another powerful bit of advice offered by the collective that we polled was to always believe in and be yourself. Given people’s tendency to aim for the throat when “critiquing,” these words of wisdom are especially potent. Allowing negative words and disparaging character assessments to lower your opinion of yourself and your abilities will deflate your momentum.

Always be true to your personal voice. Don’t compromise it while finding your way. You want to carve out a truly individual path, and that includes your voice, too. So, don’t try to imitate others who have found success. As noted below, never try to be someone else, because that never works the way you hope. Being inspired by others is fine, but don’t lose your identity and voice in the process.

• Believe in your qualities. Never try to be somebody else. Life is too short for that.
• Don’t quit! Hang on! Everything will work out fine.

A Few More Words Of Wisdom

Below are other responses that we couldn’t just leave hanging in the Twitterverse:

• Try everything yourself before asking someone else (trial and error to the max).
• Find your niche and focus on it until you are an expert.
• You could probably code it well, but there is a fair chance that there is a time-saving jQuery solution.
• Think of the visitor who is trying to find out something. They need to understand what’s going on, not just be impressed.
• Some bridges just have to be burned.
• Web developer? Practice sleeping less.
• Don’t scoff at new ways of doing things because you don’t initially get them, nor should you embrace them without honest evaluation.
• Stay informed about the direction of the Web. There’s a lot to learn, and along the way you’ll pick up skills.
• Google before you ask.
• RTFM!
• Use source control. After that, comment your code.
• Never write anything but standards-compliant code: faster, more reliable, and you won’t have to fix it when new browsers come out.
• Regression test.
• Do not fall in love with the code you write.
• Put functionality first. Beauty comes in second place.
• Don’t be cocky.
• Focus on one subject at a time. Start with CSS.
• “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
• Learn to write and format your own code cleanly and in as few characters as possible.
• Run away from clients with red flags.
• Take the most pride in your team’s code, not your own. Don’t complain when people edit your code. Enjoy how it improves.
• All the stuff you say about all the old code you read, someone will say about your code in 10 years. So, knock it off. :)
• Stay organized. It’s the key to success.
• It’s never a hardware problem.
• Logical, step-by-step thinking will solve any problem you encounter. No doubt about it.
• Find a good IDE (like Aptana).
• Appreciate the design in front of you, and design in general.
• You don’t fully understand something until you can explain it succinctly to someone else. So, learn → do → teach.

Other Resources and Related Posts

Below are a few more articles and resources to help the newb start off on the right foot, armed and ready. If you have some time, we recommend checking them out.

• The ALA Primer: A Guide for New Readers
• The ALA Primer Part Two: Resources For Beginners
• What Is The Last Thing You Do Before You Launch A Website?
• Dealing With Clients Who Refuse To Pay
• How To Identify and Deal With Different Types Of Clients
• How To Successfully Educate Your Clients On Web Development

(al)

© Robert Bowen for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: advice, community, newbies

Depuis son lancement, le portail national France.fr a beaucoup fait parler de lui, mais rarement en bien. Après un lancement désastreux et une indisponibilité de plus d’un mois, voilà qu’un autre scandale est en train d’éclater. Car en effet, selon le Canard Enchainé, il semblerait que la facture du projet se monte à 4 millions d’euros. Quand on sait que le gouvernement lui-même avait affirmé que le montant du marché n’était « que » de 1.610.519 euros, on se dit que l’histoire risque de faire très très mal…

Comme chacun le sait, c’est le société Mode d’emploi qui a remporté le marché public et qui a donc été chargé de la conception et de la réalisation du portail de la France. Le tout pour un montant officiel de 1.610.519 euros. Étaient compris dans ce prix la création graphique et le développement du site, bien sûr, mais aussi l’animation (?!), la traduction en 5 langues et les contenus éditoriaux. Une somme colossale, bien sûr, qui a eu d’autant plus d’impact que la conjoncture économique de la France n’est pas au beau fixe.

Mais cela pourrait être encore bien pire qu’on le pensait. Selon le Canard Enchainé, la société Mode d’emploi aurait émis une facture de 1.242.000 d’euros hors taxes pour l’exercice 2010 mais aurait en plus ajouté à cela deux autres factures d’un moment de 755.000 euros hors taxes pour les exercices 2011 et 2012.

Et ce n’est pas tout. La charte graphique livrée par Mode d’emploi n’ayant pas satisfait le Service d’information du gouvernement, le responsable de ce dernier aurait en plus confié la direction artistique du projet au designer Ora-ïto pour 100.000 euros hors taxes. Rappelons que sous ce nom exotique se cache en réalité un designer français né à Marseille, fils du joaillier Pascal Morabito et neveu de l’architecte Yves Bayard. Même si ce dernier n’a malheureusement jamais terminé son cursus de designer, il a eu l’insigne honneur de travailler pour de grandes marques telles que la bière Heineken (Source : Wikipedia).

S’ajoute à la note la réalisation d’un logo facturé 28.500 euros par la société Euro RSCG. Cette dernière a déjà beaucoup fait parler d’elle lors de la refonte du site de l’ANPE. Refonte qui avait coûté à l’époque 2.4 millions d’euros et qui comprenait un logo ressemblant fortement à celui du fabricant de luminaires Reggiani (source : Wikipedia).

D’autres prestations sont naturellement venues gonfler la douloureuse. On peut ainsi citer la seconde version du site prévue pour le mois de novembre, le changement d’hébergeur, la résolution des différents bogues et diverses autres choses. Le tout pour un total estimé par le Canard Enchainé à 4 millions d’euros. Sur ces 4 millions, 3 millions auraient été donc consacrés à la conception graphique de France.fr.

Notons que ces informations sont à prendre avec prudence. Toutefois, si les informations avancées par le Canard Enchainé sont fondées, alors nul doute que les graphistes et développeurs freelance devraient peut-être gonfler un peu leurs tarifs. Après tout, c’est la crise pour tout le monde, non ?

Note : L’absence de liens pointant vers France.fr est voulu.

Via

France.fr, une facture de 4 millions d’euros ? est un article de la Fredzone. Si vous l'avez aimé, n'hésitez pas et rejoignez-nous sur notre page Facebook ou sur Twitter

Selon Eric Schmidt, PDG de Google, nous serons un jour amenés à changer d'identité pour effacer nos traces sur le Web.

en lire plus

Posted by Dr. Pete

Some of you know that I spend a lot of time behind the scenes here on Pro Q&A. One of the challenges of Q&A is that we often have to tackle complex problems in a very short amount of time – we might have 10-15 minutes to solve an issue like "Why isn't my page showing up on Google?" with no access to internal data, server-side code, etc.

Of course, I'd never suggest you try to solve your own SEO problems in just 10 minutes, but it's amazing what you can do when you're forced to really make your time count. I'd like to share my 10-minute (give or take) process for solving one common SEO problem – finding a "missing" page. You can actually apply it to a number of problems, including:

• Finding out why a page isn't getting indexed
• Discovering why a page isn't ranking
• Determining if a page has been penalized
• Spotting duplicate content problems

I'll break the 10 minutes down, minute by minute (give or take). The mini-clock on each item shows you the elapsed time, for real-time drama.

 0:00-0:30 – Confirm the site is indexed

Always start at the beginning – is your page really missing? Although it sometimes gets a bad rap for accuracy (mainly, the total page counts), Google's site: command is still the best tool for the job. It's great for deep dives, since you can combine it with keyword searches, "keyword" searches (exact match), and other operators (intitle:, inurl:, etc.). Of course, the most basic format is just:

For this particular job, always use the root domain. You never know when Google is indexing multiple sub-domains (or the wrong sub-domain), and that information could come in handy later. Of course, for now you just want to see that Google knows you exist.

 0:30-1:00 – Confirm the page is not indexed

Assuming Google knows your site exists, it's time to check the specific page in question. You can enter a full path behind the site: command or use a combination of site: and inurl:

If the page doesn't seem to be on Google's radar, narrow down the problem by testing out just "/folder" and see if anything on the same level is being indexed. If the page isn't being indexed at all, you can skip the next step.

 1:00-1:30 – Confirm the page is not ranking

If the page is being indexed but you can't seem to find it in the SERPs, pull out a snippet of the TITLE tag and do an exact-match search (in quotes) on Google. If you still can't find it, combine a site:example.com with your page TITLE or a portion of it. If the page is indexed but not ranking, you can probably skip the next couple of steps (jump to the 4:00 mark).

 1:30-2:00 – Check for bad Robots.txt

For now, let's assume your site is being partially indexed, but the page in question is missing from the index. Although bad Robots.txt files are, thankfully, getting rarer, it's still worth taking a quick peek to make sure you're not accidentally blocking search bots. Luckily, the file is almost always at:

http://www.example.com/robots.txt

What you're looking for is source code that looks something like this:

It could either be a directive blocking all user agents, or just one, like Googlebot. Likewise, check for any directives that disallow the specific folder or page in question.

 2:00-2:30 – Check for META Noindex

Another accidental blocking problem can occur with a bad META Noindex directive. In the header of the HTML source code (between <head> and </head>), you're looking for something like this:

Although it might seem odd for someone to block a page they clearly want indexed, bad META tags and Rel=Canonical (see below) can easily be created by a bad CMS set-up.

 2:30-3:00 – Check for bad Rel=Canonical

This one's a bit trickier. The Rel=Canonical tag is, by itself, often a good thing, helping to effectively canonicalize pages and remove duplicate content. The tag itself looks like this:

The problem comes when you canonicalize too narrowly. Let's say for example, that every page on your site had a canonical tag with the URL "www.example.com" – Google would take that as an instruction to collapse your entire search index down to just ONE page.

Why would you do this? You probably wouldn't, on purpose, but it's easy for a bad CMS or plug-in to go wrong. Even if it's not sitewide, it's easy to canonicalize too narrowly and knock out important pages. This is a problem that seems to be on the rise.

 3:00-4:00 – Check for bad header/redirects

In some cases, a page may be returning a bad header, error code (404, for example) or poorly structured redirect (301/302) that's preventing proper indexation. You'll need a header checker for this – there are plenty of free ones online (try HTTP Web-Sniffer). You're looking for a "200 OK" status code. If you receive a string of redirects, a 404, or any error code (4xx or 5xx series), you could have a problem. If you get a redirect (301 or 302), you're sending the "missing" page to another page. Turns out, it's not really missing at all.

 4:00-5:00 – Check for cross-site duplication

There are basically two potential buckets of duplicate content – duplicate pages within your site and duplicates between sites. The latter may happen due to sharing content with your own properties, legally repurposing contents (like an affiliate marketer might do), or flat-out scraping. The problem is that, once Google detects these duplicates, it's probably going to pick one and ignore the rest.

If you suspect that content from your "missing" page has been either taken from another site or taken by another site, grab a unique-sounding sentence, and Google it with quotes (to do an exact match). If another site pops up, your page may have been flagged as a duplicate.

 5:00-7:00 – Check for internal duplication

Internal duplication usually happens when Google crawls multiple URL variations for the same page, such as CGI parameters in the URL. If Google reaches the same page by two URL paths, it sees two separate pages, and one of them is probably going to get ignored. Sometimes, that's fine, but other times, Google ignores the wrong one.

For internal duplication, use a focused site: query with some unique title keywords from the page (again, in quotes), either stand-alone or using intitle:. URL-driven duplicates naturally have duplicate titles and META data, so the page title is one of the easiest places to find it. If you see either the same page pop up multiple times with different URLs, or one or two pages followed by this:

...then it's entirely possible that your missing page was filtered out due to internal duplication.

 7:00-8:00 – Review anchor text quality

These last two are a bit tougher and more subjective, but I want to give a few quick tips for where to start if you suspect a page-specific penalty or devaluation. One pretty easy to spot problem is when you have a pattern of suspicious anchor text – usually, an uncommon keyword combination that dominates your inbound links. This could come from a very aggressive (and often low-quality) link-building campaign or from something like a widget that's dominating your link profile.

Open Site Explorer allows you to pretty easily look at your anchor text in broad strokes. Just enter your URL, click on Anchor Text Distributions (the 4th tab), and select Phrases:

What you're looking for is a pattern of unnatural repetition. Some repetition is fine – you're naturally going to have anchor text to your domain name keywords and your exact brand name, for example. Let's say, though, that 70% of our links pointing back to SEOmoz had the anchor text "Danny Dover Is Awesome." That would be unnatural. If Google thinks this is a sign of manipulative link building, you may see that target page penalized.

 8:00-10:00 – Review link profile quality

Link profile quality can be very subjective, and it's not a task that you can do justice to in two minutes, but if you do have a penalty in play, it's sometimes easy to spot some shady links quickly. Again, I'm going to use Open Site Explorer, and I'm going to select the following options: Followed + 301, External Pages Only, All Pages on The Root Domain:

You can export the links to Excel if you want to (great for deep analysis), but for now, just spot-check. If there's something fishy on the first couple of pages, odds are pretty good that the weaker links are a mess. Click through to a few pages, looking out for issues such as:

• Suspicious anchor text (irrelevant, spammy, etc.)
• Sites with wildly irrelevant topics
• Links embedded in an obviously paid or exchanged block
• Links that are part of a multi-link page footer
• Advertising links that are followed (and shouldn't be)

Also, look for any over-reliance on one kind of low-quality link (blog comments, article marketing, etc.). Although a full link-profile analysis can take hours, it's often surprisingly easy to spot spammy link-building in just a few minutes. If you can spot it that fast, chances are pretty good that Google can, too.

(10:00) – Time's Up

Ten minutes may not seem like much (it may have taken you that long just to read this post), but once you put a process in place, you can learn a lot about a site in just a few minutes. Of course, finding a problem and solving it are two entirely different things, but I hope this at least gives you the beginning of a process to try out yourself and refine for your own SEO issues.

Do you like this post? Yes No

Des cartes pour réfléchir. Le site de la BBC a dévelopé un bel instrument, qui permet de refaire la carte du monde en transplantant certains monuments ou événements dans d'autres parties du monde. Pour les imaginer différemment, pour prendre conscience de leur ampleur.

La Grande Muraille de Chine parait bien à la mesure de la Chine, avec ses 6 700 Km. Mais si elle avait été construite en Europe, à partir de Paris, qu'en serait-il ? La carte ci-dessous vous donne la réponse. Spectaculaire.

en lire plus