20 Free Ebooks and Whitepapers for Better Web Design

"It seems like every other page online is about…designing pages online. But, this is one of those topics which you might want to tackle through a comprehensive resource, like a book, especially if you’re a beginner. Here are 20 ebooks and whitepapers covering that very subject."

http://mashable.com/2008/03/12/ebooks-web-design/

How to size text using ems

"If the world were an ideal place, we’d all use pixels. But it’s not, we have the broken browser to contend with. IE/Win will not allow readers to resize text that has been sized in pixels. Like it or not, your readers will want to resize text at some point. Perhaps they are short-sighted, doing a presentation, using a ridiculously high resolution laptop or simply have tired eyes. So unless you know (not think) your audience won’t be using IE/Win or will never wish to resize their text then pixels are not yet a viable solution."

http://clagnut.com/blog/348/

40 Unusual websites that you should bookmark

"If you’re a long time makeuseof reader, at one point or another you may have seen several of these websites before. We have covered lots of lists and round-ups but this one is quite different: it lists undiscovered webservices that are original, rather unique, unusual, useful, free, and must-be bookmarked type."

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/40-unusual-websites-you-should-bookmark/

25 Ways To Improve Your Site In 5 Minutes

"The tips I’ve come up with would take me about 5 minutes to complete on websites I’ve built. Everyone builds sites differently so times may vary. "

http://fadtastic.net/2008/02/12/25-ways-to-improve-your-site-in-5-minutes/

Shrink Multiple Links to One URL with LinkBunch

"Link-shrinking services like TinyURL are great for sending long links, but sometimes you might want to share a list of sites with a contact over Twitter, IM, or even cell phone text. LinkBunch, a free link consolidation service, enables just that kind of URL sharing. Head to LinkBunch, type or paste in your addresses one per line, and you'll get a LinkBunch URL that points to a fast-loading page with all your links on it, as well as a meta-link that opens them all."

http://lifehacker.com/356412/shrink-multiple-links-to-one-url-with-linkbunch

Example: http://linkbun.ch/o5

Anyclient

"AnyClient is a web based service designed to provide users with a file transfer client that requires no installation, is multi-platform and can connect to servers using various protocols including FTP, FTPS, SFTP and WebDAV. AnyClient may also be downloaded and run locally. See Download section for available installers."

http://www.anyclient.com/applet.html

Find Lost Web Pages

"There's nothing more frustrating than searching for a page, finding what looks like a promising result, and then clicking though only to discover that the page is gone. Unfortunately it happens all the time. Servers get jammed, pages are removed, some servers move and some servers are simply no longer maintained. But what happens you want to find a page that's vanished?"

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Find_Lost_Web_Pages

You Get Signal - Web Tools

http://www.yougetsignal.com/

Bitty Browser

"Keep your visitors, share your blog. Bitty is the little browser that goes on any Web page, it's like Picture-in-Picture for the Web. Use Bitty to display your choice of Web site, RSS feed, podcast, or OPML file. Or, just use Bitty as a built-in search box. When your visitors browse and search within Bitty, they remain on your site."

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/bitty

Evaluating Web Content

"his guide offers tips for evaluating the quality of content on the Web. In recent years, the Web has become a rich environment of Web pages, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, free research services, media types and more. It can be a challenge to figure out which content to trust. This guide will help you to identify the type of site you are visiting and to evaluate its content."

http://library.albany.edu/usered/eval/evalweb/

Xanadu & Hypertext

"The main idea of project Xanadu was a networked system that would store and index all of the world's literature and other forms of public and private information. One would access it through a system called hypertext - a "non-sequential" pattern of branches going in different directions, based on association.(Xanadu: Ted Nelson's Vision) Through this definition, Bush's influence on Nelson is evident. Nelson also included other visions within Xanadu: a system that would automatically bill a user for the delivery of copyrighted material, and thus reward the author; a historical record of each document, so a user could view changes made to it over time; a graphics console for the everyday user that included a keyboard and a pointing tool; and a unique way of linking documents, called a Parallel Textface.(Nyce & Kahn, 252)"

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mattkaz/history/hypertext.html

Htaccess Editor

Easily create htaccess files online

http://www.htaccesseditor.com/en.shtml

Seonik

"SEONIK is a tool that helps you to convert dynamic URLs into SEO Friendly looking html URLs. SEONIK URLs automatically redirect to destinations that you choose. Also SEONIK has special algorithm that give you ability to know the best suitable keywords for your web page."

http://seonik.com/

LinkBlip - Send someone a link and get notified when they click it

"LinkBlip is very simple: it's a way to monitor when someone has clicked a link you sent them. Have you ever sent someone an email and never heard back? If you send them a LinkBlip URL, you'll automatically be notified by email when they click on it."

Example: http://lburl.com/00vqn

XML in 10 points

"XML, XLink, Namespace, DTD, Schema, CSS, XHTML ... If you are new to XML, it may be hard to know where to begin. This summary in 10 points attempts to capture enough of the basic concepts to enable a beginner to see the forest through the trees. And if you are giving a presentation on XML, why not start with these 10 points?"

http://www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points.html

Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability

"Users scan lists by moving their eyes rapidly down the left edge. Menu items that are right-aligned make scanning more difficult."

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/navigation-menu-alignment.html

529 Computing Tips

"There's a ton of information in your computer's user manual, but it's also hundreds of pages long. To become a real power user, you could read through the entire thing, memorizing the details on each page. Or you could turn to PC Magazine.
For this very special feature, we'll boil down that manual's hundreds of pages into hundreds of tips—529, to be precise—carefully organized into nearly three dozen categories. This should take the hard work out of being an expert!"

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a%253D226324,00.asp

Update Scanner

"A firefox extension to monitor web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don't provide Atom or RSS feeds."

http://updatescanner.mozdev.org/en/index.html

Zac Browser for Autistic Children

"Kid-friendly software company PeopleCD announced today the launch of Zac, a new browser designed specifically for children with autism and related disorders such as Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), and PDD-NOS. The company says the app is the first of its kind."

http://www.appscout.com/2008/04/zac_browser_for_autistic_child.php

Usability Glossary: Alphabetical Index

http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/index_terms.txl

Example: 2-second rule

"A loose principle that a user should not need to wait more than 2 seconds for certain types of system response, such as application-switching and application launch time. The choice of 2 seconds is somewhat arbitrary, but a reasonable order of magnitude. "

Diigo - Highlight and Share the Web

"Diigo is a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community"

http://www.diigo.com/index

tinydb.org - store some tiny data in a tiny url

"tinydb.org's goals are:



1. Provide a simple API for writing and reading small chunks of data from anywhere.
2. Serve as a platform upon which twitter applications and javascript widgets can be written.
3. Circumvent crossdomain.xml in interesting and creative ways."

http://tinydb.org/

Examle: http://darkwing.inarow.net/tinydb/

The 101 most useful websites

"There are tens of millions of sites to visit. [...], here are the only ones you actually need."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/03/30/sv_101websites.xml

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site

"A webmaster's work is never done. What may have worked a few years ago when could be outdated today, so it's important to constantly improve your Web site. However, a massive overhaul is just too much work to undertake at one time. Instead, tackle these quick fixes over time, and you'll be able to improve your Web site with minimal pain."

http://www.insidecrm.com/features/101-web-site-fixes-031808/

Church Info - an open source church database created with PHP & MySQL

"ChurchInfo is a free church database program to help churches track members, families, groups, pledges and payments. Our feature set is comparable to expensive church management software packages. Our users are supported by an open-source community of people who volunteer their time and energy to make this technology available to all churches."

http://www.churchdb.org/

Website Tools - Instant Test

"Test the performance and availability of your website from 11 locations around the world."

http://www.dotcom-monitor.com/task_instant_test.aspx

Colorblind Web Page Filter

http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

MyIPneighbors

Reverse IP Domain Check

http://www.myipneighbors.com/

Who is hosting this?

"Who Is Hosting This is a tool that enables you to find out who is hosting any web site. Simply type in any domain name, and you'll get a link to the company that's hosting this particular domain. It's that simple! Check out the FAQ and our blog for more info."

http://whoishostingthis.com/

The Scrutinizer - Web Tools

Web tools

http://www.scrutinizethis.com/

Statsaholic - Website traffic comparisons on steroids

"Statsaholic blends website traffic graphs with a lightweight ajax-enhanced interface to satisfy hard-core traffic chart junkies – aka Statsaholics."

http://www.statsaholic.com/