Have you ever wondered what those crazy letters are? Or why you’re required to type them into the box?

CAPTCHA: What it stands for and where it came from:

The term CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart and was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University.

A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites or other applications against computer bots by generating and grading tests that humans can pass, but current computer programs cannot. For example, humans can read distorted text as it’s shown on the image, but current computer programs can’t.

In other words, the reason websites have CAPTCHA is spam!

If you have ever tried to register with a website or comment on a blog and been asked to enter some crazy letters that have been all jumbled up, you know how frustrating it can sometimes be to tell an L from a 1 or a J from an I. I know, I’ve been there and aslo get frustrated when miss it couple of times.

But let’s not to forget that the only reason we see CAPTCHAs is because of enormous amount of spam these days. So, next time you run up against one of those images and get a little frustrated trying to tell a Q from an O, just remember not to vent your frustration at the website. Focus it on the spammers, because they are the reason we have to stare at your screen almost every time we want to register at a new website.

Different types of CAPTACHA include (but are not limited to):

• Text recognition based (example: reCAPTCHA)
• Image recognition based (example: identiPIC)
• Social Authentication/ Friend Recognition (example: facebook CAPTCHA)
• Logic questions based (example: textCAPTCHA)
• User interaction (example: sliders type)
• Honeypot

Keep an eye out for my next post about how to determine the effectiveness of your CAPTCHA.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner, have you made the necessary changes to your e-commerce store in preparation for the sales?

Did you know that Black Friday started back in 1960s, and Cyber Monday only started in 2005? Since then, about 83% of consumers prefer to shop online than in crowded stores during the Thanksgiving weekend. On Thanksgiving Day, 2010, online sales were up 33% compared to sales in 2009, with AOV (Average Order Values) up by 14%.

Taking those numbers into account, I’d like to offer you some key tactics to help make your e-commerce site more successful, starting with Thanksgiving weekend.

1. Email. Don’t underestimate the power of Email. Start sending email campaigns as early as possible. In 2010, top retailers began their holiday campaigns in the middle of October.

Don’t forget to optimize your “Subject Line” by including Black Friday/Cyber Monday discounts: Shop Black Friday Specials – Save Up to 50%, or Cyber Monday savings + Free shipping.

2. Utilize PPC Advertising. Why? Because it works. Studies show that online revenue from PPC during 2010 holiday season grew almost 70%, and conversion rates (percent of clicks converted into sales) increased by 21%. But don’t spend all of your money on PPC, rather base keyword adjustments on shoppers’ mindsets. Also, adjust ad text on corresponding landing pages.

3. Increase AOV (Average Order Value) by offering Free Shipping on purchases over a certain amount.

Rewards Programs, Gift Cards and other Special Discounts- offer a percentage or dollar amount off on certain items or purchase price.

4. Decrease Bounce Rates. This can be done using following techniques:
- Announce any special offer on prime site real estate, like your homepage
- Highlight featured and popular products
- Decreasing load times of your Website by using CDN (Content Delivery Network)

5. Black Friday specific tip. On average, online shoppers begin shopping around 10am – I recommend holding back on email sends to be at the top of their inboxes.

6. Cyber Monday specific tip. 45 – 50% Cyber Monday purchases are made at work, so I highly recommend sending emails during standard business hours.

Make sure to have fun this weekend and take advantage of some of the great sales this weekend.

All of the best!

Have you ever asked yourself how do database servers work?

I know this is silly question for technical users, but I am sure not everyone knows the answer to this.

Let me start with the basic definition of a Database and Database Server. A database is a collection of information that  is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. A database server is a computer program that provides database services to other computer programs or computers using a client-server model. The term may also refer to a computer dedicated to running such a program.

Also, you should know that there are many different types of database server softwares. Some are open source (ie. MySQL, MongoDB, PostgresSQL) and some are commercial software (ie. MSSQL, Oracle).

Now that we know what the Database Server term means, lets explore the communication process of the client-server model.

The process is not that complicated. Imagine that some computer has contently running program that can understand some special language (SQL or Structured Query Language), but only listens someone specific (security measure) rather than everyone who tries to talk to it. Now when someone who is allowed to talk to Database Server sends it a command, the command will be processed and necessary data selected or updated from/to database storage and result send back to requester.

Different types of database servers use different data storage techniques (also called engines) and usually can utilize multiple engines at the same time depending on your needs. In most cases, all data is physically stored as files on the same computer where the database server is running, or on any remote storage.

So what is LAMP?

LAMP is an acronym for a stack of free or Opensource software (FOSS) where each letter represents the first letter of the software product. It stands for Linux (operating system), Apache (web server software), MySQL (database software) and PHP (sometimes Perl or Python used instead of PHP).

It’s quite interesting that the original authors of these programs did not design them all to work specifically with each other. However, the software combination has become very popular because it is free of cost, open-source and therefore, easily adaptable. With the growing use of LAMP, variations appeared for other combinations of operating system, web server, database, and software languages, but they all provide the same benefits as LAMP.

The key advantages of LAMP are:

1. Easy to code and maintain – spend less on programming and support and get your dynamically driven websites up and running in days or weeks (depending on level of complexity of course).

2. Easy to deploy – PHP is easy to deploy as files can be edited directly on the server and saved in the document root, versus Java Servlets that require the developer to compile the web application.

3. Inexpensive and ubiquitous hosting – save thousands on your web hosting costs.

Today LAMP has become a development standard. All software products that make up the LAMP stack are included by default in nearly all Linux (operating system) distributions, and together they make a powerful Web Application Platform.

Here at Intechnic we greatly utilize all power of LAMP for most our Web development needs- from simple Content Management System and E-Commerce Websites to more advanced ERP Solutions and other Custom Web Development solutions.

These kinds of statistics should make you think.  You should be asking yourself if your own Website is fully accessible and mobile user friendly, because the last thing you want to do is start losing your audience.

Here are some of the reasons that you should have a mobile version of your business Website:

1. Mobile users will surpass Desktop users

Within the next few years, there will be more smartphones than desktop computers. That means, more people will be accessing the Web on the go, instead of waiting until they can find a computer.

2.  Mobile marketing is profitable

It’s incredibly frustrating to load a Web page on a phone and not be able to see it properly. When that happens, chances are, your prospective customer clicks away from your site and you lose that customer for good.

People are also using mobile phones to make online purchases. If it’s difficult view your Website and/or navigate it, they’ll either give up, or go elsewhere to buy their products.

3. Google keeps a separate Index for mobile content

Yes, Google crawls and indexes mobile content separately, so you have a better chance of getting to the top of a search result quickly.

4. Stay ahead of your competitors

Most Website owners haven’t created a mobile version of their sites so it’s a good opportunity for you to get ahead of the game.

5. Continues access to information on your website

People are no longer searching for information online from their home or work computers.  Mobile Web Design enables people to access key information on the go, anytime and anywhere.

Are you convinced yet? Feel free to comment on this or ask questions if you need more reasons for creating a mobile version of your Website!

You may or may not familiar with VoIP, so what is VoIP exactly?

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and is a family of technologies and communication protocols mainly used for delivery of voice and data over the Internet. It can also be referred to as IP telephony or Internet telephony. Today, VoIP has very big impact on all sizes of Businesses simply because of the bandwidth efficiency and low costs that VoIP technology can provide. Businesses are migrating from traditional copper-wire telephone systems to VoIP systems to reduce their monthly phone costs. VoIP allows both voice and data communications to be run over a single network, which can significantly reduce infrastructure costs. Are you wondering how much you can save?  The answer is anywhere from 60% to 80% and sometime even more, particularly if you make a lot of international calls.

What kind of feature you can expect when you are switch to VoIP?

This is my favorite part – you have so much control and flexibility over telephone numbers, extensions and setup. Imagine you need to have a local telephone number in Europe (or almost any other country) and make sure it calls your main office and directed to a specific extension or group of extensions. Well, this is not only possible, but it would cost you somewhere from $5 – $20 without a need to open a local office or sign any contracts. Basically, I just scratched the surface and there is much more that can be done using VoIP.

Let’s talk about requirements for VoIP

1. Have a good Internet connection

With VoIP, your voice will be transmitted over IP – the Internet Protocol. The first thing you will need is a good Internet connection.

2. Choose the type of VoIP service

Subscription (Hosted solution) or own PBX system (your own equipment). This is purely a business decision to choose one or the other, there are pro’s and con’s to each. After trying a couple of Hosted services on the market, our company decided to setup our own PBX system.

3. Choose A VoIP service

Once you have chosen the type of VoIP service you need, select a service provider to subscribe with. This is necessary to be able to place and receive calls.

4. Get Your VoIP Equipment

The equipment you need for VoIP can be cheap or quite expensive depending on your needs. VoIP phones start from $50 to $500 and more.

5. Get a phone number

This number will then be used to make or receive calls. A burning issue for most people shifting from PSTN (copper-lines) to VoIP is the possibility of keeping their existing number. The answer is yes, it’s possible in most of the cases. Then you can buy more phone numbers in different locations.

6. Set up your VoIP

Depending on your VoIP service (Hosted or local PBX) you would need to spend less or more time to setup. In either case it’s not that complex and can be done by 3rd party technicians.

Ajax is s a technique (actually, several techniques,) for creating fast and dynamic web pages using existing web standards. Ajax includes:

XMLHttpRequest object (to exchange data asynchronously with a server)
JavaScript/DOM (to display/interact with the information)
CSS (to style the data)
XML (often used as the format for transferring data)

Basically, here is how it works -  When using a Web-based application, a user must enter information to be submitted to a server, and wait for the page to refresh or redirect the response from the server.  With Ajax, server requests are made in the background, and information is returned without any waiting on the part of the user.  If you’re not a web guru, you can think of this kind of like filling out a form – you enter the data, submit it and have results presented to you without any page refreshes. While all this might sounds as win-win situation there are several drawbacks of using Ajax versus regular HTML pages:

• Pages dynamically created using successive Ajax requests do not automatically register themselves with the browser’s history engine, so clicking the browser’s “back” button may not return the browser to an earlier state.
• Because most Web Crawlers do not execute JavaScript code, AJAX pages can’t properly accessed and indexed in Search Engines.
• It’s difficult to bookmark a particular Ajax page since it’s dynamically loaded.

As you can see there are quite a few implications with utilizing Ajax across all pages on the website. That being said, I would recommend Ajax technique for specific needs, such as pages that require Data entry and processing (Registrations & Subscriptions,) Auto-Completer, Instant Editing, Dynamic Navigation Menus or Instant Data Validation.

The definition of bandwidth is quite simple – Bandwidth is a volume of data or information, which is transferred per unit of time. This might sound pretty geeky, so I’ll explain this in more detail with a real life example:

Let’s assume that your home page is the first page served to your visitor, has a file size of 100 KBytes, where 25 KBytes for the actual HTML page and 75 KBytes for images included on that page (ie. backgrounds, buttons, logo, photos and others). Now let’s assume that your site gets 10,000 visitors per month, and the average visitor views 3 pages of your site, also 100 KBytes each.

Based on those numbers, your website would serve:
100 KBytes x 3 Pages x 10,000 visitors = 3,000,000 KBytes or 3,000 MBytes or 3 GBytes of data transfer per month.

Assuming all this traffic was evenly distributed, then the hosting server your website is located on, would be distributing 3 GBytes per month, or about 12 KBytes per second.

Now, when we know how to calculate the actual bandwidth, it’s also good idea to add a redundancy factor to make sure website won’t go over the limits, if you got more traffic than anticipated.

Bandwidth needed = Average Page Views × Average Page Size × Average Daily Visitors × Number of days in a month (30) × Redundant Factor

• Average Page Views: The average page viewed per visitors

• Average Page Size: The average size of your web page.

• Average Daily Visitors: The total number of monthly visitors/30

• Redundant Factor: A safety factor ranging from 1.5 – 2

At some point you can ask yourself – how many pages does your website consist of? This is especially important for dynamically driven websites based on content management and other modern web technologies. They allow you have a virtually unlimited amount of content. The bottom line is that you may have a few pages, but they could be filled with bandwidth, chewing graphics or large audio or video files.

Once you have your bandwidth figures, you can then decide which plan you should sign up for. It’s recommended that you don’t pick a cheap web hosting package, because you can’t afford to compromise the performance of your website for few bucks.

If you happen to come across a hosting company that offers “Unlimited Bandwidth” as one of its services, I strongly recommended to take a good look at its “Terms of Service” or “Acceptable Use Policy” section.

So let’s pretend that our website is starting to slow down and what took a split second to load before takes twice or more time now. Would should you do? Well, at first I recommend to make sure that website is programmed well and uses allocated resources efficiently. Then it would make sense to put more “stuff” in your server (if you have one of course – smile) to boost the processing power. What to add and how much it costs I’ll definitely cover in a different topic. If we got this far that means we already have an extremely powerful server and
still barely keeping the head above the water. This is when it’s time to start thinking about Load Balancing environment to make our website fly again.

So what’s a definition of Load Balancing? It’s a technique to spread work between two or more computers, networks or other resources in order to get optimal resource utilization, maximize throughput and at the same time minimize a response time.  Sounds a bit complex, right? It also means that you running a successful website which probably drives you a lot of healthy traffic and it might be a good time start thinking about putting it in Load Balanced environment!