Ever since the word about it got out, ajax started to surface everywhere. From blog engines to content management systems, to general websites to everywhere (it seems). And most people still haven’t realized Ajax won’t cook you breakfast, it won’t save the world, and more importantly, it will not fix all your problems.

Ajax is good. Ajax allows you to process events without breaking the interaction chain with a page reload. However, the technology itself (it can’t be stressed enough) is based on old concepts, that have been around for ages. It is not your new flash, even though most people seem to believe it could be.

I can almost see every new so-called engineer and “web designer” pitching the idea of ajax to their potential new and excited clients: “ajax will make your webpage behave like a desktop application”. In fact, tell you what, why don’t you add “just like a mac” to the bullshit? Because deep down, you know what you’re talking about is fundamentally crap. Or at least, you should know that. (more…)

Today I took upon me the task of improving my personal homepage (a part of which you are actually visiting right now). While I’ve gone down this road a load of times, I had some very specific goals this time. To improve the looks while maintaining the simplicity and standards compliance. This is the result (If it looks weirder than it should, refresh. This is 2005 and browsers still suck).

Apart from being obviously a happier look, it also has a better structure, making it easier to find content (in fact, it’s about finding content that I’ll be writing about today on the second part of the 5 steps to a better blog series).

While I’ve already had some positive initial reactions, its never enough to read about other peoples opinions, so if even if you think it sucks let me know. There’s always room for improvement.

Tomorrow I’ll most likely take upon the effort of porting the weblog to this new layout - it hasn’t been done today because I’ll probably take the chance to add a couple of new and important features to it. Stay tuned, I’ll be posting a lot today.

If you’ve seen my extensive odeo review a few days ago, you were probably waiting for this moment. Odeo is starting to roll out invitations for the system to people who signed up for the mailing list, so if you did you’ll probably get yours soon.

Its nice to see new feeds being added, and what people have been listening to. Seems like my old favorite ITconversations is the most popular channel right now - which is no real surprise. It’ll be nice to keep up with the trends of the podcast listening market. Congratulations to the Evans, Noah and the rest of the odeo gang for the launch. Great job.

On a related note and as I mention on a post at Evan Plaths weblog, I’ve been thinking about ways to extend and use Odeo functionality to other applications if they release a web-service API for developers. There’s at least a couple of applications I can think off the top of my head that would be great to see developed.

Plus, everybody knows the trick to survival in the web2.0 is services, like I’ve mentioned several times before on this blog.

There’s a whole lot of blogs out there that provide valuable content to readers but don’t get enough attention. Is yours one of them? Sometimes, a few changes in the user experience is all it takes to get people to actually read what you have to say. These usability tips specifically for bloggers will help you make your current readers happier and most likely get you a few more in the process.

Why care? Isn’t usability boring?

Blogging is about getting your word out. You may be talking about cats, you may be talking thai about food, you may even be talking about quantum theory. What you really need more than anything if you’re a blogger is to get people reading what you have to say - because you believe they’ll benefit from it in some way. (more…)