Newsletter #131 Plug-in Web Applications

Created on Mar 25 2009 12:00AM

Feature Article

The growth of the Internet and the huge number of people online (nearly 1.6 billion) has led to a huge explosion in open source and low cost software. The sheer number of potential users has made it viable for Web application developers to sell their software at low cost in order to generate high volumes of sales. In many cases the cost of this software is zero.

There are various business models that can successfully support low cost offerings:

• Often the lower cost software has a number of features removed and customers are prompted to buy the higher value ‘premium’ product
• Free software often includes advertising which can be removed if an amount is paid
• The low cost will often only provide minimum support and no training and support can be paid for annually
• Once software is downloaded larger application developers can pitch their other products

What it means is that Website developers become integrators rather than code-writers as they match a customer’s requirements with what is available. It is far easier to integrate than build an application from scratch. A fairly standard Website could quite easily include the following:

1. Video stored on YouTube
2. A Google Map on the contact page
3. Online chat for customer support by PHP Live
4. An IP.Board online forum
5. Google Analytics Web statistics

All these applications can be either used for free or at low cost and can easily be integrated into most Websites. In fact all the applications mentioned can be hosted elsewhere so that none of the information needs to be stored on your site – only a few lines of code are required.

This has major benefits for you as a Website owner:

• The application will be far cheaper
• Applications are normally sophisticated and feature-rich as the software developer looks to attract users. Often the market for that type of software is quite mature and so many great features are standard
• Applications have often have undergone years of usage and upgrades so are less ‘buggy’ than custom software
• Many applications are built with open source software in mind so don’t require expensive software if you want to run it on your own server

The applications as described above also have major benefits for the customer/user as they should be more sophisticated and user interfaces more consistent with other applications on the Web. This mean better usability for your site visitors and potentially more successful actions taken by them.

Custom or bespoke applications will still be built of course, but as the availability of software continues to grow in depth and breadth, areas that were niche will become mainstream and will have applications available.

The use of plug-in Web applications makes sense for most modern Website developments, particularly in tough economic times.

Hot Tips

Newbies

How to create a strong password:

• Choose a word or phrase that has meaning for you - mywife
  
• Make one or two letters uppercase - mYwiFe
  
• Change one or two letters to be numbers - mYw1F5
  
• Insert one or two non-alphabetic characters at the start or end (or both) - mYw1F5!
  

Power Users

If you are like most Web power users you'll have usernames and passwords for a large number of sites and have the same or similar passwords for a high percentage of them. That's OK until someone decides to impersonate you and finds they can easily do so, across the Web. This is where a master password comes in - this password is used together with the site URL to generate you a unique password for each site.

If you're interested you might want to checkout LastPass Password Manager which comes as a plugin for all major browsers: https://lastpass.com/

Interesting Sites

Dopplr combines social networking with travel by allowing you to share your travel plans with friends and colleagues. It also lets you know if you’ll be in the same place at the same time as any of them. Users of the site make around 10 trips each a year, the top five destinations being London, New York, San Francisco, Paris and Berlin. http://www.dopplr.com/

InsiteFul Quotes

"If you want an honest opinion, ask a child. But if you want an honest look at his future, don't ask him what he wants. Watch what he goes after instead." Annette Hamilton, ZDNet AnchorDesk

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page of www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

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Best wishes

Alex Garden

Internet Strategy | Website Design | Website Promotion | Web Text Messaging | Email Newsletters | Online Sports Games | Content Management