will mcnelis

We just launched a new website for Jay Edgerton and Yard Guys, a residential and commercial landscaping business in the Charleston area. Jay has been in the landscaping business for 16 years and brought Yard Guys to Charleston in 2006. Since then, he has built a very successful business. He has never had a web presence, though, and wanted a website both as an advertising tool to attract higher-end clientele and to keep in touch with residents in the neighborhoods he landscapes.

We collaborated with designer Amy Manucy to develop the site, and I am very pleased with the final look. Apart from the website design, Jay also contracted me to take photos of some of his landscape lighting projects as well as some of his other projects. Amy handled the rest of the advertising campaign as well, and I’m very pleased to have been a part of the project. Cheers!

On behalf of Bryan and I, I would like to thank our country’s veterans for their service in upholding our freedoms.  I would also like to thank the families of those who lost their lives serving our country.  We wouldn’t be here without you.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, I would like to offer a 10% discount on any of our services to all veterans returning from overseas. Welcome back.

Back in 2008, Maria Smith, a computer art teacher at Wando High School, contacted me and asked me to be the chairperson for her Career and Technology Education (CTE) council.  CTE is a program in the Charleston County School District where different schools specialize in different areas to teach students career skills as well as the three R’s.  Wando specializes in computers. Being an ex-Wando Warrior, I happily agreed to do it.

The first time I visited Wando (the new one, not the old one I went to waaaay back in ’93), I was blown away by the tech in the classrooms. Computer labs filled with iMacs, large format printers, graphics tablets, etc.  Maria herself has 20 years experience in the graphic design industry and is doing a great job passing her knowledge on to her students.

I visited Wando yesterday and spoke to her Beginning Photoshop, Advanced Photoshop, Animation/Flash, and Digital Art and Design classes about graphic design, web design, and being a small business owner. It was an awesome experience as the kids were great, and the CTE program is definitely working as a lot of the kids are interested in one aspect or another as a career. There were a bunch of questions about what schools they should be applying to as as well as what its like to be a small business owner. The kids definitely will have a leg up as they are using the same text books that they use at the Art Institute of Charleston.  You can check out some of their work here.

Thanks, Maria, for letting me speak at your classes, and good luck to the Wando class of ’11!

October 25, 2001, Microsoft released its latest and greatest operating system (OS) for desktop computers, Windows XP.  October 1, 2010, it’s still used by the vast majority of computers in the world. 60.03% of them to be exact (according to NetMarketShare.com).  Since the release of XP, Microsoft has released Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Vista was a flop (I’m sure there is someone who would argue that), but Windows 7 is proving itself to be a great OS. So why is a nine year old operating system still on top?

If I had to guess, I would say it’s that most people don’t see a reason to upgrade.  Their computer works, so why do they need something new? As old computers begin to die, people will upgrade by default when they buy a new computer. One of the most common questions I get, being a “computer guy” and all is, “my computer’s running slow, can you fix it?” Usually, viruses aside, the problem is that they have a 10 year old computer running an antiquated operating system and an outdated browser, but they want to view the modern internet and use modern software. If you want a faster computer, its probably time to upgrade your hardware.

The OS I use the most only has 2.72% market share (Mac OS X 10.6). It’s modern, though, and I’m fine with the low percentage. Incidentally, the only computer I have running Windows is a five year old Dell with XP. I use it to run one of my printers. It still works fine (minus IE6 of course), and I have no plans of upgrading. For the majority of Windows users, though, I do recommend upgrading at some point, at least because Internet Explorer 9 will not be supported in XP.

So, what operating system do you use? Still using XP?  Why?

Brian and I just launched a redesign of the website for Williams & Walsh Law Firm over the weekend. Williams & Walsh is a premier criminal defense and plaintiffs’ litigation law firm on James Island, SC owned by Lauren Williams and Abigail Walsh. They had an existing site that they were having a hard time getting updated, and it also wasn’t performing how they would like in the search engines.

Bryan and I used many of the design cues from the original site, but as far as allowing for easy updates, WordPress was definitely the go. We completely re-wrote the CSS for the site and added in some SEO goodness. Lauren and Abigail did a fantastic job writing their own content for the site. We’re still going to be tweaking the content and code to get it to where we want it to be in the search engine result pages and expect to see some progress in the next few months. In the meantime, check out the site here: www.WilliamsAndWalshLaw.com.

There has been a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) spreading around the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) world since Google unleashed it’s “instant” search upon us.  A lot of people feel that the fact that search results appear instantly has completely changed the SEO game.  Is this true?  In a word, no. According to Rand Fishkin’s (one of the leading authorities on SEO) post, Google Instant changes the SEO game less than the normal update to Google’s search algorithms.  In short, the SEO best practices from last month are still the best practices, so get out there and create some good content, get some good links, and let a professional take care of the rest.

We just launched Tina Hagen’s new real estate website this week.  Tina is a new agent with Carolina One, and has just moved from Malibu, CA to the Lowcountry.  In the ten years before moving to Charleston, Tina restored, refurbished and renovated nine residences and three apartment buildings in California. Prior to her real estate career, Tina was a clothing designer with her own line of women’s clothing in Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, and Macy’s.

Her website is using the new MLS Search feature from Robot Workshop and also employs the new CSS 3 rule, @font-face.  This allows us to use fonts other than the normal Verdana, Times, Arial, etc. in our designs and have them display properly in all modern browsers.  Other than the design aspect, the best thing is the SEO benefit from using text rather than images which the search engines can’t index.

Welcome to the Lowcountry, Tina!

At least that’s what Trefor Davies of the UK set out to prove. And succeeded. Davies is the chief technical officer of an internet service provider in the UK and set out with his carrier pigeons, Rory and Tref, in a publicity stunt to draw attention to the woefully slow rural internet access in the UK.

Rory and Tref had micro-SD memory cards loaded with video attached to them and then were sent on their way. Meanwhile, Davies began uploading the same video files to YouTube. The pigeons won by hours. Apparently the internet isn’t too bad over there as Davies immediately tweeted Rory and Tref’s triumphant return.

Funny thing, though, this isn’t the first time this stunt has been pulled. It’s already been done once in South Africa, again with a victory for the pigeon. I guess its time for me to kick my iMac, MacBook Pro, and several assorted Dells to the curb; build a coop; and buy some pigeons. It’s the wave of the future.

Check out the article here and Davies personal blog here.

Here’s one of Google’s promo videos for Google Instant with Bob Dylan.

If you’re a daily user of Google, you’ve probably noticed some pretty cool things on the google.com homepage in the past few days.  First, there were the “interactive bubbles” yesterday that would move away from your mouse and then reform the Google logo.  Then, this morning, there was the grey Google logo that would color itself in as you typed.  There was a bunch of speculation around the web of what the meaning of this was.  Apparently, it was to coincide with the launch of Google’s new innovative search, Google Instant. (more…)