Lester Chan’s GaMerZ has announced that he has unleashed the first wave of updates for 11 of his WordPress plugins. These include:

• WP-EMail 2.30
• WP-PageNavi 2.30
• WP-PluginsUsed 1.30
• WP-Polls 2.30
• WP-PostRatings 1.30
• WP-Print 2.30
• WP-RelativeDate 1.30
• WP-ServerInfo 1.30
• WP-Sticky 1.30
• WP-Stats 2.30
• WP-Useronline 2.30

The remaining four plugins, WP-Ban, WP-DBManager, WP-DownloadManager, and WP-PostViews will be updated in wave two. Lester has stated that all of these plugins should work in WordPress 2.5 only and they have not been tested in any version below 2.5. Also worthy of note is that the folder path of some of the plugins have been fixed. Previously, the path was nested in another folder which generated a ton of hate mail for Lester because it broke automatic updates. Now that the path has been fixed, the automatic plugin upgrade feature should work correctly.

*Note* I updated my GaMerZ plugins today on my personal blog through the plugin upgrader in 2.5 and all of them were upgraded successfully.

Lester has been developing plugins for WordPress for quite some time now. We have praised Lester’s work at various occasions and we use many of his plugins actively on this site (including the post rating system you see below). He is a meticulous coder, provides extensive documentation, download options and demos and even provides his own support forums. Please be patient with his server, it takes a while to load the linked page but the downloads are mirrored, so they should be quick.

On my own blog, I’m using at least seven of his plugins. If you are using one or more of Lester’s plugins, let us know in the comments.

One Column Themes

R3volution Continued

R3colution Continued is a one column theme. Clicking on the menu image will show you a hidden content area which you can manage using a widget provided in the theme admin section.

Two Column Themes

KeeSheep

KeeSheep is a two column widget-ready theme which is made up of bright orange colors. The theme makes good use of rounded corners throughout the theme.

Elegance

Elegance is a two column widget-ready theme with light colors. It comes with the PSD source files to edit graphics. There’s a cool ajax text loader at the top and other effects.

True Colours

True Colours is a two column fixed-width, widget-ready theme which makes use of sea-blue and green colors.

Corporate

Corporate is a two column widget ready theme. The theme uses a flash based plugin to rotate header images. The rest of theme is simple and uses basic colors. [EDIT] Removed due to copyright complaints.

YG Desire

YG Desire is a 2 column widget-ready themes. Theme uses deep background colors but the content area is plain white for maximum readability.

 Taken From http://weblogtoolscollection.com

Ajax start pages are easy-to-use, customizable webpages, allowing you to keep up with the latest news and add interactive content. You can add new RSS feeds and widgets, and move your content around the page. In some ways start pages are the successors to the portals of the 90’s. They have yet to break into the mainstream, however the promotion of iGoogle and the presence of MyYahoo are facilitating the transition. Let’s explore some of the top players - and also some you may not have been aware of.

For in-depth analysis on start pages, check out Read/WriteWeb’s The Future of Personalized Start Pages and Business Models For Start Pages.

Netvibes

Netvibes is one of the leaders in the space. The interface is not only clean, but also very well thought-out. Usability seemed to be a big factor when designing the experience - and it shows. In March they released their Coriander Edition - a “super personalized homepage, including a “Netvibes Reader” with multimedia capabilities and new “instant sharing” capabilities.

Pageflakes

Pageflakes is another leading start page. I am a big fan of the initial 3 step set-up process and the high level of customization. It’s a very nice overall service. In July Pageflakes announced their latest version, code-named Blizzard. It introduces social networking functionality, themes, a slick Ajax UI, and more.

Protopage

Protopage is very cool. It may not be quite as practical as the front runners, but the ’sticky note’ type interface gets big points. Though the messaging is scattered, the drag-and-drop is wonderfully smooth.

iGoogle

iGoogle is probably the most simple of all the offerings. It is Google’s first big kick at AJAX start pages. The offering is extremely basic and lacks any clutter. See a full review here: iGoogle: The Epitome of Google Personalization

MyYahoo

MyYahoo is clearly tailored for the average Internet user. Messaging and instructions are clear and concise. Having said that, the interface is rather bland and functionality is limited. However, this is soon to change - as in March Yahoo announced a new beta My Yahoo with web 2.0 features. The beta My Yahoo has a fresh new design and some neat interactive features (using ajax of course!). It also aims to make personalization simpler.

Inbox

Inbox is a portal with an AJAX start page wrapper. As is the case with Yahoo, this offering will most likely appeal to regular folks, as it is easy-to-use. Advanced users may skip over it, as it lacks in the functionality department.

Eskobo

Eskobo ressembles a Netvibes clone, but there are slight differences. The service provdes a nice, clean page, but does not include anything revolutionary or particulary interesting.

ItsAStart

ItsAStart is a generic, two-column AJAX start page. There is nothing overly flashy or extraordinary about the service. In fact, I found that it offered the least attractive interface.

Favoor

Favoor is a beautifully designed start page, but it lacks in two key areas. Firstly, there is a mandatory registration process. Secondly, there is no default content once you finally access the page. Once these two obstacles can be eliminated, I think the site may have a chance at competing with the big boys.

24eyes

24eyes immediately engages the reader with a page full of news content. However, this can be somewhat daunting, as my eyes got lost! Perhaps I need 24 eyes to truly enjoy the experience to the utmost extent.

Conclusion

The need for a start page is undeniable. The ability to personalize and customize your own space saves time and hassle. A drag-and-drop interface is extremely easy and intuitive for newcomers to the feed aggregation concept. Adoption is simply dependent upon further education. One key question still remains however - where is the revenue model? Though these mini-portals are able to attract millions of users, monetization is needed for long term survival.

There are many other AJAX start pages available on the net. We have only chosen to list 10 of them and we’re not claiming this to be a ‘top ten’ list. Please feel free to add others in the comment section below. Also, let us know which is your favorite.

TAKEN FROM www.readwriteweb.com

In this article, I’ve pieced together 30 excellent CSS techniques and examples that showcases the capabilities and robustness of CSS. You’ll see a variety of techniques such as image galleries, drop shadows, scalable buttons, menus, and more - all using only CSS and HTML.

Clicking on the title will direct you to the documentation/tutorial, while clicking on the accompanying image will direct you to the demo page if it’s separate from the documentation.

1. Hoverbox Image Gallery

A pure css-based gallery; hovering over an image enlarges it.

2. Advanced CSS Menu

A creative and complex navigation scheme.

3. Sliding Photograph Galleries

An accordion effect; hovering over an image expands it.

4. Lightbox Slides

Part of an article entitled “Supercharge your image borders” showcasing how you can use CSS styles to make images look more interesting.

5. Drop shadow on an image

Aan image effect demo and discussion based on a A List Apart article entitled, “CSS Drop shadows“.

6. Cross Browser Multi-Page Photograph Gallery

Hovering over the tabs changes the category, while hovering over an image enlarges it.

7. CSS Photo Zoom

Uses a single image and adjustment of the background-position attribute.

8. CSS gallery layout—smells like a table

Mimics a table layout, but uses lists. The gallery is also fluid width.

9. Sticky Footer

A static footer with very little XHTML required.

10. whatever: hover

A navigation menu that mimics Window’s Start menu.

11. CSS-Only Accordion Effect

An accordion effect using div’s and :hover; the accordion effect can be vertical or horizontal.

12. Scalable CSS Buttons Using PNG and Background Colors

A technique that addresses vertical scaling, the use of many images, and lack of a hover effect.

13. Pushbutton Links

links that are styled to look like buttons without using images.

14. Scrollable Table with Fixed Header

The table’s captions stay put which is excellent for long tables.

15. Content Overlay with CSS

When you hover over the image, the container div is shown with more text.

16. A CSS styled table version 2

A beautifully styled, table with semantic mark-up - uses a background image.

17. PNG Overlay

Another way to add flare to images (rounds the corners and adds a border and drop shadow).

18. Showing Hyperlink Cues with CSS

Simple tutorial on adding icons to different types of links.

19. Simple Rounded Corner CSS Boxes

Uses only one image and very few lines of code and mark-up.

20. Sitemap Celebration

Tree-like navigation using nested lists, great for sitemap pages.

21. Easy cross-browser transparency

Opacity technique without the use of JavaScript (but at the cost of using non-valid XHTML code).

22. Curved corners 2

Fluid width and height divs with rounded corners.

23. Creating a graph using percentage background images

List items <li> styled into bar graphs.

24. CSS Bar Graphs: Examples

3 bar graph examples - “Basic CSS Bar Graph”, “Complex CSS Bar Graph”, and “Vertical CSS Bar Graph” using div’s and definition list tags.

25. Animated Rollover Arrow

The arrow follows along the entire width of the navigation bar smoothly, without the use of JavaScript or animated gif’s.

26. A CSS-based Form Template

Showcases an accessible web form.

27. CSS Image Text Wrap

Using empty spacer div’s, the page’s text mimics a wrapping effect around the background image.

28. Before your very eyes - a fade-in image

A demo using opacity and a single image that gradually fades in to cover the text.

29. Pure CSS Pop-ups

A pop-up technique that works even in IE 5 Mac.

30. CSS Gradient Text Effect

Uses background image overlays, and empty span tag, and position: absolute to create a gradient effect on text.

Special Thanks & taken from http://sixrevisions.com

Flickr, Yahoo’s photo sharing service, has rolled out a new website dedicated to Flickr’s popular API tools. The new site, Code.Flickr, offers developers a place to review API information, discuss tools in the forums and of course rant about the future of Flickr development.

There’s also a new development blog and a public SVN repository for Flickr’s open source efforts, like the cross-platform Uploadr tool which is built on Mozilla’s XULRunner.

To date the Flickr API offers 109 methods for developers looking to build tools based on the photo sharing site. And build they have; there are thousands of Flickr tools out there, offering everything from simple widgets to embed photos on your blog, to full-fledge desktop editing and uploading apps.

It would nice if Code.Flickr offered some way to search through all the various applications and API tools, but, at least for now, that’s not part of the site (there’s still the featured section on the main Flickr Services page, which offers links to the more popular third-party apps).

However, even if it’s missing a third-party tool search, the Code.Flickr still has plenty of juicy info for aspiring Flickr API developers. If you’ve been having trouble with Flickr’s API, the company says that the new development blog will be offering tutorials on the various API methods. If there’s a particular area that confuses you, post your request in this thread so the development bloggers can help you out.

The new Flickr Code site is a great resource for developers and it provides a nice single source for anyone looking to get started using the API.

[via the Flickr Blog]
Special thanks to wired.com

Easily turn wordpress into an e-commerce solution. As someone who has used WP-ecommerce in the past, this was a lot easier!

Picture by: destinetics
Here’s a collection of 115 social bookmark and news sites ranked by PageRank, number of links and value of each site.

We used dnScoop to gather the data for all these sites. This is what the dnScoop data is based on:

Page Rank- Google PageRank

Inbound Links- The total number of pages that contain links to www.sitename.com

Site Value Report - This value is calculated based on several factors shown above, including: Links, Traffic (Alexa), age of the domain, site category, domain keyword popularity, and overall occurrences of the domain name on the web.

The list was based on this social bookmarking list . We added a few more sites, such as, Shoutwire.com, Plime.com and PixelGroovy.com.

The dollar value of the sites are a bit misleading (is Simpy.com really worth $302,332,960 more than Digg?), but this list should hopefully provide you with some data on social news and bookmark that you haven’t seen before. If anybody knows of any better online tools to roughly estimate the value a site then leave a link in the comments section and we’ll update this list over the next few weeks and compare the data.

Site	PR	Inbound Links	$ Value
www.slashdot.org	9	28,018,962	$25,787,200
del.icio.us	8	370,943,962	$521,172,000
www.technorati.com	8	148,233,993	$276,243,000
www.digg.com	8	137,000,000	$215,992,000
www.reddit.com	8	132,924,191	$178,934,400
www.stumbleupon.com	8	59,888,074	$39,723,400
www.connotea.org	8	3,272,642	$11,241,440
www.furl.net	7	99,028,154	$188,853,100
www.newsvine.com	7	49,881,588	$35,890,400
www.blinklist.com	7	47,039,214	N/A
www.folkd.com	7	13,766,114	N/A
www.squidoo.com	7	7,171,958	$13,336,150
www.citeulike.org	7	3,694,298	$11,226,880
www.kinja.com	7	2,593,905	$9,965,880
www.propeller.com	7	2,503,342	$13,613,600
www.spurl.net	6	34,419,253	$32,200,000
www.simpy.com	6	23,405,771	$518,324,960
www.mister-wong.com	6	9,672,510	$10,667,840
www.rawsugar.com	6	7,481,362	$14,925,880
www.diigo.com	6	6,095,828	$11,243,680
www.linkagogo.com	6	3,987,085	N/A
www.corank.com	6	1,536,589	$4,281,340
www.care2.com/news	6	808,351	$2,237,900
www.backflip.com	6	733,144	$2,463,550
www.spotback.com	6	315,219	$459,980
www.kaboodle.com	6	309,115	$3,691,950
www.shoutwire.com	6	284,654	$216,910
www.sphinn.com	6	270,738	$100,000
www.searchles.com	6	261,216	$197,160
www.bibsonomy.org	6	141,521	$2,305,350
www.clipclip.org	6	59,146	$75,210
www.sitebar.org	6	15,661	$245,204
www.taggly.com	5	998,006	N/A
www.buddymarks.com	5	890,014	$3,090,150
www.mylinkvault.com	5	559,084	N/A
www.stylehive.com	5	547,675	$1,377,760
www.hyperlinkomatic.com	5	505,338	$1,457,890
www.plime.com	5	448,091	$474,360,000
www.lilisto.com	5	363,661	$529,000
www.sk-rt.com	5	322,076	$442,900
www.markaboo.com	5	238,271	$227,900
www.xilinus.com	5	57,701	$38,160
www.startaid.com	5	49,341	N/A
www.uvouch.com	5	34,057	$424,020,140
www.thoof.com	5	30,719	$20,600
www.myhq.com	5	27,015	$29,536
www.mybookmarks.com	5	25,443	$29,468
www.hanzoweb.com	5	12,618	$17,222
www.favoor.com	5	11,756	$6,322
www.socialdanger.com	5	7,095	$1,600
www.murl.com	5	6,017	$8,236
www.mobleo.net	5	739	$1,039
www.plugim.com	4	588,860	$1,313,340
www.zurpy.com	4	192,408	$111,180
www.tagfacts.com	4	169,135	$120,772
www.oyax.com	4	112,111	$115,000
www.lifelogger.com	4	99,808	$107,744
www.complore.com	4	93,751	$74,200
www.connectedy.com	4	59,588	N/A
www.sitejot.com	4	55,414	N/A
www.pixelgroovy.com	4	41,778	$19,080
www.cloudytags.com	4	41,654	$29,664
www.blurpalicious.com	4	27,567	$12,900
www.dropjack.com	4	27,251	$13,100
www.bookmark-manager.com	4	18,872	$7,434
www.myvmarks.com	4	17,084	$6,650
www.contentpop.com	4	13,188	$16,274
www.bmaccess.net	4	11,959	$5,600
www.memfrag.com	4	10,564	$5,668
www.bookmarktracker.com	4	10,518	$8,618
www.mysitevote.com	4	9,218	$6,500
www.freelink.org	4	8,427	N/A
www.urlex.info	4	3,962	$2,507
www.rambhai.com	4	2,926	N/A
www.easybm.com	4	2,236	N/A
www.zlitt.com	4	2,236	$3,193
www.chipmark.com	4	2,196	$1,792
www.thinkpocket.com	4	1,914	$848
www.mywebdesktop.net	4	1,329	$368
www.philoi.com	4	1,097	$1,397
www.bookkit.com	4	1,049	N/A
www.bookmax.net	4	874	N/A
www.votelists.com	4	399	$339
www.whitelinks.com	4	269	N/A
www.tedigo.net	4	135	$458
www.mixx.com	3	559,683	$1,854,160
www.marktd.com	3	43,855	$56,180
www.tagza.com	3	35,627	$7,500
www.wirefan.com	3	17,204	$27,772
www.blogbookmark.com	3	11,934	$11,124
www.bukmark.net	3	8,545	$1,620
www.getboo.com	3	7,742	$42,728
www.fungow.com	3	4,553	N/A
www.syncone.net	3	4,026	$25,070
www.linksnarf.com	3	3,893	$1,120
www.ez4u.net	3	1,030	N/A
www.listerlister.com	3	633	$5,702
www.xlmark.com	2	15,012	$5,974
www.totalpad.com	2	4,693	$510
www.barksbookmarks.com	2	2,786	$11,766
www.memotoo.com	2	2,382	N/A
www.blipoo.com	2	598	$100
www.bookmarkall.com	2	371	$694
www.yattle.com	2	127	$1,081
www.wetogether.info	1	911	$515
www.vuju.com	1	284	$145
www.newsweight.com	1	67	$42
www.voteboat.com	1	41	$10
www.freezilla.co.uk	1	38	$21
www.faves.com	0	50,781	$38,720
www.socialogs.com	0	50,090	$18,500
www.i89.us	0	28,192	$11,872
www.crowdfound.com	0	1,516	$3,050
www.quickieclick.com	0	9	$650
ma.gnolia.com	N/A	N/A	N/A

Posted by randfish  

E-commerce has, for the most part, evolved far beyond the late 1990’s cliches of hair-wrenching, sanity-shattering slogs through yet another “clever” designer’s take on how shopping on the web should be. Standards prevailed, usability won out, and we’re now free to spend our collective $107 billion (Census.gov e-commerce stats) per annum.

That said… It can still get better. Online shopping is in, if not infancy, at least a toddler stage. The advances that brought us here have made the process simpler and easier than ever, but some sites still haven’t caught on.

Since I’ve been doing an inordinate amount of online shopping recently (thanks to the theft last weekend and my upcoming lengthy trip to China), I feel uniquely qualified to share a few e-commerce site design tips - 17 tips, actually. Enjoy.
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#1 - Tell Me Where I Am
Whenever a user is navigating inside a store with more than 1 sub-level of navigation, it’s critical to show them where in the site structure they are. This should be accomplished with headlines, sub-headers (when necessary) and breadcrumbs (e.g. Home > Category > Sub-cat > Product).

#2 - Let Me Remove Narrowing Options
When a user starts to “narrow” their navigation inside a particular category (in this case by selecting the designer “Ted Baker”), it’s only right to allow them to remove those navigation selections rather than forcing the use of repetitive “back button” clicks.

#3 - Allow Me to Sort Every Which Way
The standards are “Price - low to high,” “Price - high to low,” “Popularity,” aka “Best Selling,” “Featured,” “User Rating” (or “Editor Rating” if you don’t have users rate products), and “New” or “Latest.” You can eliminate “Featured” if you’ve got nothing to push, but all the other sorting options must exist (assuming it’s possible to do so).

#4 - Show Me the Products
Unless you’ve got more than 200 products total in a sub-category, it’s only right to offer the user the option of seeing every product on one page. Broadband has rendered the load time argument nearly irrelevant and I personally (along with Mystery Guest) can’t stand sites lacking the feature.

#5 - Refining Options Bring Joy
If you can provide the user with a useful refinement option, you’ve made their experience better. In the instance of sizing, this is particularly important, as users loathe finding that “perfect” piece of apparel, only to discover you don’t carry it in their size.

#6 - The More Specifics, the Better
Rule #6 is so worthwhile, I’m repeating it. Actually, #7 serves to illustrate a substantive difference between refining your browsing in a section (as #6 shows) vs. navigating to a new sub-category. Offering the latter as an option where relevant and valuable (and when the number of items warrants it) is a wise decision.

#7 - Tell Me What it Costs & What I’m Saving
Some product category pages shows items without the detail users are craving. It’s particularly important for discount sites (anything off MSRP helps conversions) to show pricing, but nearly every website can benefit from providing an extra bit of detail before the click to the product page. Tell them materials, give a tiny description or list the sizes/colors/options you have in stock.
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#8 - Keep the Search Bar in Easy Reach
When a search has been performed, don’t just show the search and the results, do like the engines and make the search bar front and center, while maintaining the user’s query in the box for potential modification.

#9 - Give Me Search Refinement Options
If you have an advanced searching system, or can allow users to select prices, options, colors, sizes, models, etc, do it. Your bottom line will thank you - users often rate “search” as the most frustrating part of many e-commerce sites (apologies for not having the study to cite here).

#10 - Get as Close As You Can Get (while staying relevant)
In the example above, eBay has done a masterful job showing which queries would have produced results. This advanced technique should be a wake-up call to others.
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#11 - Share the Critical “Fit” Information
Many products are designed to “fit” certain criteria, whether it’s a laptop (in this case) or a human body (with clothes) or another piece of equipment (when compatibility matters). In every instance of potential matches, show the critical information in the product details. I can’t tell you how many laptop bag sites I browsed before finding this one that actually showed which laptop sizes it was intended for.

#12 - Tell Me If You’ve Got It
There are still sites out there that let you click “add to cart” or even “checkout” before discovering the awful truth - no more of your SKU in stock. It’s the kind of experience that will lead you to permanently switch e-tailers.

#13 - You Can Never Have Too Many Photos
Since you don’t get to see the item in real life, photos, reviews, videos and even fancy, 3D interfaces (where appropriate) are invaluable to helping the user feel like they’ve “experienced” the product prior to purchase. One photo, from one angle, sent by the manufacturer to every online store doesn’t cut it. Go above and beyond the call of visual duty and conversions will skyrocket - links might, too.
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#14 - Let Me See Delivery Options
There is a certain subset of users that has to see the delivery options before they start shopping. Older generations often fit this stereotype, but those baby boomers still have a lot of online spending years to go, so don’t ignore them. It’s best to make the link obvious in the permanent navigation (it’s most customarily at the bottom of each page).

# 15 - If You Won’t Send it To Me, Tell Me Who Will
In the example, Ted Baker is refusing to sell me the $200 dress shoes I want, but what’s worse is that he won’t tell me who will ship them to his old colony. I ended up finding them on Amazon.com, eventually, but Ted’s losing out on his commission with them by not providing the link (and if I wasn’t so dedicated to the brand, he’d probably lose the sale, too).
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#16 - Reassure Me With Email
I panicked earlier tonight when I realized the replacement laptop I ordered may not have been shipped quickly enough to arrive in time for my trip to China (and no one wants to spend 28 hours on planes without a lappy). Luckily, Dell’s order confirmation proved that I’d chosen wisely. Replicate this experience for your own customers, rather than leaving them in the dark (or, worse, crowding up your customer service dept. with e-mails that could have been answered in an automated fashion).

#17 - Give All the Order Details ASAP
When you send out order confirmations, make sure to include all of the product details to re-assure the buyer that they’ve selected properly. If I accidentally ordered the size 9 instead of size 8, I want to be able to fix it before the package arrives.

Hopefully, these techniques will find their way to your e-commerce sites, and when they don’t, you’ll grab the project manager and point them to this blog post. Together, we’ll make the Internet an even better place to shop.

Taken From http://www.seomoz.org

Many people are deciding to take the plunge and leaving the relative security of their job and take up a career as a freelance designer these days. Its a brave step and you will need all the good help and advice you can get. Today TutorialBlog rounds up the best online resources to help you on your way …

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Freelance Switch - Massively useful site for freelancers, I couldnt pick out one or more articles to list here - just read the lot and make sure you subscribe to their feed

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Wake up later - 10 absolute “Nos!” for freelancers

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Garett Dimon - Steps to Becoming a Freelance Web Developer

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Andy Budd - 7 Habits of a Highly Successful Freelance Web Designer

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Mashable - Freelancers’ Toolbox - 30+ Online Freelance Resources