2006 January

_Jan 27 06

My article for the Create column in the February issue of Macworld, “Take command of color,” is available online. You’ll find several simple, useful tips for working with OS X’s Colors panel, along with some recommendations for color resources on the Web.

_Take Command of Color in OS X

_Jan 25 06

_Robert Ellis_Money_1 Comment

If you’re trying to drive traffic to your site, you know the value of monitoring your site’s search engine rankings, but the task can be time consuming. UrlTrends provides insight into the most important trends at a glance. Enter a Url and UrlTrends displays your Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, and link popularity trends (the number […]

_Site Trend Reports From UrlTrends

_Jan 17 06

_Robert Ellis_Design_2 Comments

A new study published in the journalBehavior and Information Technology shows that it takes a scant twentieth of a second for Web surfers to make a decision about a site. These judgments, made in a fraction of a second, matched those opinions formed after prolonged examination. More importantly, due to “halo effect,” these first impressions […]

_How Long Does it Take to Make a First Impression on the Web?

_Jan 09 06

_Robert Ellis_Textpattern_No Comments

In the hopes of filling a gap in the Textpattern community (most available Textpattern templates have been ports from other popular systems), TextPlates.com is now the site of a Textpattern Template Competition. Designed by erraticwisdom, an excellent source of several fine Textpattern template ports, the competition offers a wealth of prices, including a 30GB iPod […]

_The Textpattern Template Competition

_Jan 07 06

_Robert Ellis_Etc._37 Comments

Though still in beta, Newsvine is becoming one of my favorite destinations for news. Described as a news “collective,” Newsvine aggregates news from traditional news sources (like the Associated Press and CNN) and enables discussion through commenting and live chat.
But what really makes Newsvine unique is the option to contribute to the news, either […]

_Newsvine: Read, Discuss, or Write the News

_Jan 06 06

_Robert Ellis_Webjockey_No Comments

Since I’ve been working on redesigning the site, I’ve been stumbling on a number of useful tools. The Web Page Analyzer from WebSiteOptimization.com helps you test your Web site speed and offers suggestions to improve performance. Analysis and recommendations cover a number of factors that influence load times, such as HTML, number and size of […]

_Optimize Your Site With the Web Page Analyzer

_Jan 06 06

_Robert Ellis_Design_No Comments

ExplodingBoy, aka Christopher Ware, is at it again. He’s already released some great free icons. Now he’s offering up 14 free vertical CSS menus. Get ‘em here.
You’ll also find a set of free horizontal CSS menus by ExplodingBoy here and another set here.
And here are some more CSS menus, these from Ian Main of Visual […]

_January 2006