It’s that time of year, where most people have their holiday shopping done, and I haven’t even started. You can ask my wife, and she will tell you that I have no clue what to buy a woman for Christmas, but let me shop for a Geek, and I’m all over it. I’m lucky that my wife is a Geek Chick, and this list can also apply to her!

So, what do you buy that special Geek/Gadget freak for Christmas?

1. A Smartphone – This one is a really bad gift unless you know they really want the commitment. Sure, you’re paying the up-front costs, but you’re also sticking them with a monthly bill of $60 or more. may be a good idea to offer to pay for a few months of usage. There are tons of models out there, and it will all depend on the person you’re shopping for. The safe bet is an iPhone, as it has mass appeal, is simple to use, and is also an iPod, so you can skip my next gift idea. I would buy my wife an iPhone if I was to get her a phone as a gift. For the geek out there, I think an Android phone is the way to go! If the person is all about work, and has no idea what the internet is, then go with a Blackberry.

As a web developer who likes to study and focus on usability, readability, and overall user experience, it pains me to see what people insist on including on their websites. With web users now having the attention span of a goldfish, you have to be very careful, and very specific as to what you put up on your site.

Some people like the good old “let’s throw it all on the wall and see what sticks” approach, including their life stories, complete history, and in-depth essays on why you should choose them. That may have worked 10 years ago, but the times they are a changin’.

Here is my personal list of things that I don’t think belong on a website. Keep in mind that this is a general list, and there is sometimes a specific need for some of these things.

This fall, Microsoft made a pretty big move, and released its own Antivirus software called Microsoft Security Essentials. And believe it or not, it’s actually pretty good! I guess no one knows Windows vulnerabilities like Microsoft. The best part of this is that it’s completely free, and I’m sure the competitors, at $60 a pop, are a little taken aback by this.

Personally, I think the free part is great, but also a necessity for Microsoft. If you are going to make a product with holes in it, then you should work at plugging those holes. Not to mention the giant target on the Operating System’s back due to the amount of market share it has. Why make a virus that infects only a small percent of the population when so many people can be hit by a Windows virus. Although, for you Mac users, there are viruses out there, and as more people move to a Mac, it will only get worse. The scary part of this is that most Mac users have that “There is no such thing as a virus for US, so I don’t even need internet security!”.

As a web developer, part of my job is to test each and every website in multiple browsers. With so many browsers out there, that task is becoming more and more difficult. I generally test in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and the troublesome Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This is where it gets tricky. It seems that most people who use a browser other than IE tend to actually update their browser more than once every 5 years. This helps keep up with the momentum and progression of web technologies and techniques. This would be kind of like renting a Blue-Ray, slapping it into your VCR, and wondering why things aren’t working properly.

Tomorrow is your last day to pre-order Windows 7. If you are running Vista or XP, it’s about half off for the home version ($64). It’s definitely worth it if you’re sick of dealing with how slow and irritating Vista is. They have definitely improved on their last attempt, however, they really couldn’t get much worse.

Check out Best Buy, Future Shop, or your software dealer of choice to pre-order!

One thing to note is that they do recommend a clean install, which means that you will be starting from scratch. Although, sometimes cleaning up like that is a good thing.

What is SEO? It’s Search Engine Optimization. Now, I bet that’s as clear as mud.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about SEO lately, so I thought I would post something about the topic. SEO is a way to OPTIMIZE your site so that search engines can find it properly. Search engines send “robots” out, and if they actually like your site enough to list it where you want them to, they will. Now, the reason I highlighted the word optimize is because there are good and bad ways to do this.

When I think of optimize, I think of making improvements to a site, however, some people take it in a totally different direction and try to trick, or take advantage of the search engine robots that scour your site. This is what we call Black Hat SEO. The reason this is bad is that, let’s face it, none of us are as smart as the people at Google; they are constantly changing their algorithm to look for these types of things, and if they do spot any black hat techniques, your rank can drop dramatically.

So, my advice to you is to avoid anyone who claims that they will get you to the #1 spot on Google for a generic keyword or search. Unless that search is for your exact company name and location, there are no guarantees (and even that can be iffy!).

What you should look for:

1. Make sure your site is optimized on a basic level. There are certain things on a programming level that should be done in order to help your chances at getting ranked higher. Have someone take a look at your site, these things are very easy to spot. Most good web designers will automatically add these by habit.

2. Look for an honest firm to implement an SEO Plan. Again, there is no silver bullet here, and a good SEO plan will take time and tweaking in order to get any true, lasting results. The plan should be monitored, changed, and tested at regular intervals.

3. Pick a couple of terms to start with, and don’t shoot for the stars. A good SEO Plan will be able to help you raise your rank for your industry in your location, but may not be able to get too much traction as just a generic term. If I sold bikes, I highly doubt that I could rank #1 for a search for “Bikes” on Google. Not with all the bike manufacturers that take up the first three pages. However, if I was to focus on “Hamilton Bikes”, there is a much better chance.

4. Don’t rush. This will take time, and more importantly patience, but once you get there, it will all be worth it.

Hope that helped. If there are any questions, make them on this post, or email me at: brandon(at)kitestring(dot)ca.