• Already have a website but it needs an updated look?
• Do you want something fresh and new and Web 2.0 ready?
• Want to add a Blog, RSS newsfeed, CMS to your pre-existing site?
• Do you want the ability to update your website on your own?
• Do you want to increase your ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, we can help update your current website to a more professional look with all the bells and whistles.

Please visit our main site for more information: Impulse Web Solutions.

This is pretty cool – you can drag and drop the little human icon to a street and then a screenshot pops up. The screenshot allows you to do a 360 degree view of that street. The camera icon appears at locations with available street views.

Also, once you have the Street View open, you can click on the overlaid white arrows in the image and continue to go down the street within the street view, as if you were driving down the road yourself!

You can see it in action at this link

The official Google View page

The vid is pretty cheezy but it is a good demonstration:

I found out about these 3 sites where you can submit your site for free. Only the best looking ones make it so they are good for getting inspired and sparking your creativity.

http://www.screenalicious.com/
http://www.screenalicious.com/
http://www.cssheaven.com/

Saw this on Richard’s blog over at Akiramedia. I know I’ve needed this in the past – haven’t tried this technique yet though. If you get it to work please leave a comment on this post.

Link: Sticky Footer

We can integrate Paypal Express Checkout into your pre-existing shopping cart to give your site users another secure way of paying for their order. Express Checkout redirects the user to Paypal’s site where they can log in using their existing Paypal account and pay for the order using the money in their account. They are then redirected back to your site to complete the order.

Paypal also offers a Direct Payment option where Paypal processes credit card transactions behind the scenes. This option allows users to never leave your site while Paypal automatically charges their credit card and sends the funds to your Paypal account.

If you need help integrating these solutions into your existing shopping cart or would like for us to develop a shopping car system for you, please use our contact form to send us an email.

Link: Contact Form

I installed Google Maps on my own website today just to try it out. It’s fairly simple and Google provides a lot of examples on how to do it.

1. API Key

First you have to sign up for an API key – a Google account is required. This key can only be used per domain and has to be used in the Javascript code to verify ownership.

2. The “Hello, World” of Google Maps

Next, create a new file on your server and copy and paste this code into that page. Make sure to use your API key.

3. Test your page on your server.

Link: Google Maps API and Examples

If you don’t have time to figure it out I can install it for you for a minimal fee.

Here is a breakdown of the web design and development process so you know what to expect:

Communication
This is the most crucial step of the whole project and needs to be documented correctly before any work is done on the site. It is important for us to listen to you and your needs as a client. It is important for you to accurately communicate your goals for the website. Sometimes clients don’t always know what they want, so we often ask some questions to help begin effective dialogue.

Website Quote and Pricing
Once we know what you do and don’t want, we can provide you with an accurate quote on how much the project will cost. Once the site budget is approved and all documentation has been signed and approved, we require 50% of the site cost up front. Pricing a website is sort of like buying a car, the more bells and whistles you want the more the car will cost. Therefore, the more information about the project we have and know up front, the more accurate the quote will be.

Web Design
Your website design speaks volumes about your business. Think of your website as the billboard on the side of the internet highway as thousands of web surfers cruise the internet on a daily basis. Will they stop and take a look or keep going? The quality of your site will determine if they stay or go. Be sure you have taken a look at the past work of the web design firm you choose and that they can produce the kind of quality your site deserves.

Web Coding and Programming
If your site requires any PHP programming, this is done once the design has been approved. PHP is a dynamic programming language we use to do tasks such as email contact forms, application form processing, content management, e-commerce and database development.

Delivery
Once the site is complete and has been approved by the client, we are ready to ‘go live’ and put the site up on the web for all to see and explore. To make a site live, you will need a domain name and someone to host the website. We recommend GoDaddy.com for purchasing domain names and we provide hosting for $15/month. Read more about our web hosting plan.

And then….
Well, the site is done, but the relationship is not. Many clients like to do site upgrades in the future, like to purchase other services like search engine optimization or will need technical support. We often check in with clients on a monthly basis to make sure things are still running smoothly and to offer any support they may need.

I recently designed and developed a website for AValive/Triangle Visual Interactive and the owner of the site was getting frustrated with all the comment spam he was receiving. The website has several forms and people were either wasting their time, visiting the site and putting in junk, or the site was being hit by a spam bot. Spam bots crawl the internet looking for sign up forms, comment forms, blogs, etc., and put in junk data and submit them. Junk data is usually in the form of some advertisement for Viagra, Real Estate deals and porn.

So I did some research on the net to try and find out how to prevent comment spam. I’ve often signed up for things on the net and been required to type in a text field some numbers or letters that I see in an image.

Luckily, I came across a great site that described how to implement this Captcha image in like 10 minutes. It also shows you how to do an audio clip so that site users could listen to a recording and then they would type in what they hear.

To use this technique, you need at least PHP 4 compiled with GD 1 or 2 (Image Generation) and FreeType text support. It should work fine with Linux, Mac OS X or Windows based systems although you will need to change the default temporary file storage directory specified when using with Windows. PHP session support is also required. The audio CAPTCHA requires the Flite text to speech synthesis engine – more details on set up below.

Some other features of this technique:

• Multiple random TrueType fonts
• Character rotation
• Optional chararacter shadow support
• Optional site owner display text
• Random custom background images
• Font size selection
• Greyscale or colour lines and characters
• Character set selection
• Integration of validation function for checking the user entered code with the generated code

Hope this helps somone else.

Link: Instructions on how to install Captcha image