Twitter has offices in San Francisco California and it started way back in 2006. It was basically a side project of a private company but in such a short time, it has grown to be one of the most popular short messaging services all over US and other countries.

Many people access important information through Twitter such as world news and friend updates. It all started when Jack Dorsey took an interest in finding out all the activities of his friends. He saw an opportunity in the simple concept he has visualized and so he consulted his colleagues. After that, a prototype was immediately built.

A San Francisco-based creative environment, Obvious, funded the initial operation of Twitter. It took about two weeks to finish the prototype and it was finished by March 2006. However, it was launched for public use last August 2006. Later on, as the service became extremely popular, the people behind the service founded Twitter Incorporated.

Other companies providing similar service are wondering why Twitter became a big hit. Well, the answer is quite simple. People want to stay connected at all times. Twitter accepts messages from the web, SMS, instant message, mobile web, and other API projects (third party); because of these good features, many people appreciated Twitter.

Online communication often poses the problem of information overload but through Twitter, this problem is solved. When someone sends a message via Twitter, an immediate response is not expected. Being ambient is one good quality of Twitter. Updates on your friends, relatives, and family are send to your web site, IM, or phone but it is up to you to deal with such information; you can either respond to the updates or just ignore them.

By receiving updates regularly, you can keep track of the activities of your friends and loved ones. There is no pressure on your part to respond to the updates. Users are also free to switch off the updates through the ‘settings’ on their account. They can also schedule when to receive updates, whose updates to receive, and the device where they can receive the updates. So you see, the information you receive from Twitter will depend on the settings of your account.

‘Ruby on Rails’ is the application framework being used by Twitter. This allows quick and easy work. Everyday, multiple changes and new features are deployed. The skeleton code framework of Rail allows add-ons to Twitter without any problem. Their engineering team use Macintosh computers except during testing. The user interface on their website was designed using Photoshop and Omnigraffle.

Twitter’s business model is still in its research phase. The users of Twitter will soon have a chance to generate revenue but they must wait until its implementation. Right now, Twitter is concentrating more in providing excellent service to their millions of users worldwide.

Twitter pays close attention to the behavior of their users and the feature requests being sent to them. They now have a mobile site due to extreme demand from users. Still, Twitter Incorporated sticks to their philosophy – to keep everything intuitive and simple. The feature requests of various users are carefully being studied by the Twitter team.

Soon, the company will be able to attract users from all over the world who possess the right attitude and class talent towards business.

Ok. I have been studying web design for a year now. Just now, more than ever, I am hearing about frameworks (mainly CakePHP). So I have a couple of questions to present to you.

1. What is a framework?
And when I say frameword, I mean CakePHP or other things that I keep hearing people say makes it simpler to use them. Please make it easy for me to understand.

2. Which is better, PHP framework, or Ruby on Rails?
I keep hearing about this Ruby on Rails stuff. I know for a fact it’s a resource hog (the sites I have went to that have used it are not the fastest of sites). Please just explain it more.

3. For someone who has been studying PHP for a couple of months and has a good understanding of it (everything except the automatic memorization of existing functions defined within PHP, and OOP), where would you suggest I go from here? Use PHP only? PHP with framework? Ruby on Rails (or something else)?

In India the web development Companies focus generally on software development, Information Technology Consultancy, Web design and development, Offshore Outsourcing, Business process outsourcing, Knowledge process outsourcing, Enterprise Resource Planning Development and Implementation, Multimedia and custom software applications.

Expansion in global business has lead to a volume increase in the services requirement. Marketing challenges of the export houses need effective inventory management with quality. Software development companies in India possess expertise in the development of inventory based application and ERP solutions to implement the same for cost reduction, quality increase and profitability.

Retail Industry today needs support in retaining customers and also in ensuring customers to repeat their business by staying competitive. Indian Software development companies have proven expertise and experience in development of transaction based web application and e-commerce sites and client server applications.

Manufacturing sector and services sector is a major hub in the global business arena. Production Planning, automation of order to cash and procure to pay cycles play a significant role in global competitiveness and focused quality service. Software development companies in India excel in services offered in the areas of application development and Enterprise Resource Planning, development and Implementation.

Wireless mobility and automation systems need handling of security issues with user friendly interface and faster access through latest technology adaptation. To stay in tune with the latest demand in product development, Indian Software development companies provide design and development of Embedded Systems, wireless product and application development for blue tooth, IRDA etc.

Software development companies in India work as extended arms as offshore units to leading organizations to provide 24 X 7 development and support activities, cost effective resource management and flexible skilled manpower availability.

Many Indian IT companies extend outsourcing services with core expertise in Business to business, Business to customer, Banking, Finance, Real Estate domains and verticals like Insurance, Oil &gas, GIS etc.

Software development companies in India possess in depth core expertise in application development in .NET, Microsoft Technologies, Java based development, SAP, Oracle ERP and CRM solutions and various latest cutting edge technologies under different operating systems and platforms with options of multiple back end and database technologies. Development services are also offered in web application designing and redesigning, PHP, AJAX development, Ruby on Rails, content management solutions through Joomla and Drupal.

Thus it seems that Indian software developing companies had blocked disclosing their transaction wins especially behind the reaction rise a several years before against outsourcing.

For a wiki that is going to contain a high content volume, experience high traffic and intended for long-term use.

What’s the best wiki solution in terms of hosting, language basis (Java, PHP, Ruby..etc) and cost?

Also, should I consider the hosted wiki like wikicities or pay for a hosting server?

A Linux based hosting service can be appreciated if you have a true understanding about it. Linux is an open source operating system. There are no licensing fees for it. So, compared to windows, Linux is very cheap. Windows have software activation rights. A single copy of windows can be installed only on one computer. In the case of Linux once you have owned the software copy, you are free to install the software as many times as you wish on various computers.

On the other hand, Windows has a monolithic design, whereby it creates a sort of interdependence between the various parts of the server. A practical example can be seen in windows media player and Microsoft Internet explorer. In the case of Linux, it is known for its open source community development. Due to its group oriented approach method, Linux can easily oppose the monolithic based design concept by creating an operating system made up of parts that are freely independent of each other.

Linux and windows can successfully run popular web technologies such as HTML, CSS DHTML, XHTML, XML, JAVA Script, JAVA, CGI and Perl. They can also support Email, FTP, reporting and other basic features too. Also, both the operating systems (Linux and windows ) can do a good job when it comes to interfacing with Microsoft front page. Linux deals with open source development method, such as PHP nad RUBY on rails. Mostly, the Linux based databases use MYSQL. On the other hand, windows deal with ASP and other Microsoft proprietary applications such as Microsoft exchange. Window based databases mostly rely on MS SQL. When it comes to talking about the security risks involved on servers, one must be aware of the fact that one cannot ensure a 100 % risk free security service. I am saying this because even today there exist unskilled server administrators; people involved in brute force password crackers, unsecured PHP or ASP scripts etc.

In a windows based system, it becomes easy for hackers to compromise and entire server. The IIS web server is deeply interconnected with the core of the windows. Hence, if a security threat is found in the IIS web server, it could lead to compromising the entire windows server. That is why, external browsers such as Mozilla, Fire Fox are considered to be safer for a window PC than the integrated Microsoft Internet Explorer. Now in the case of a Linux security based system, there exists a large as well as an educated security team. However, one must also be aware of the fact that there exists a group of educated community of hackers too.

Linux is mainly used for database servers and Internet servers. Many companies prefer to use Linux on their servers as an alternative to other operating systems. Linux can be considered as a very efficient, multi-user multitasking operating system. Linux is popular on the internet as well as by many small companies. Linux is very stable and it uses the resources very efficiently. Linux is compatible with Microsoft windows, whereby it can support fully access to windows file system. Linux runs efficiently on your present hardware. Your older machines can also work on Linux.

In other words, your old hardware which might have discarded just because it was in adequate for the latest software upgrades can now be a valuable resource for your company. You can put your hardware back in service with Linux. Web hosting service based on Linux is easy and cheaper than windows hosting. It is a better choice over windows.

Another place where you can do some bird watching is in Rome, Georgia. With a total land area of 59,000 square miles, you will get to encounter one of perhaps 300 plus bird species that have made this place their home. Just to give you an idea of this state, Georgia is divided into 6 natural regions namely the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge province, the Ridge and Valley province, and the Appalachian Plateaus. Given that each is different from the other, it is no wonder that it can house a varied number of species.

Of the more than 300 species, 160 of them are permanent residents of this vast land. The others migrate here and these can often be seen during the winter. Along the coast, you will to see the Anhinga, Black Crowned Night Herons, Clapper Rails, Egrets, Least Bitterns and Wood Storks. Along the shore, you will see Dunlins, Common Snipes, Spotted Sandpipers, Sanderlings and Semipalmated Sandpipers.

In other parts of Georgia, you will encounter Black Vultures, Catbirds, Mourning Doves, Northern Mockingbirds, Northern Bobwhites and Turkey Vultures.

The state bird of Georgia is the Brown Thrasher. You won’t miss it because this usually sings while you might see Ruby Throated Hummingbirds in the garden as they enjoy being around flowers and feeders.

Other birds that you can see here are the Acadian Flycatchers, Barred Owls, Belted Kingfishers, Blue Gray Gnatcatchers, Horned Larks and Sedge Wrens. Don’t forget that there are numerous species of vireos, sparrows and warblers that have been reported as well as American Robins, Blue Jays, Eastern Meadowlarks, Fish Crows and Northern Cardinals.

Founded as a non-profit nature preserve and education center in 1986, Birdsong is dedicated to preserving and maintaining its lands in a manner that is most beneficial to wildlife, and to fostering in the public a greater understanding and appreciation of nature.

Not far from Rome, Georgia is the 565 acre center called the Birdsong Nature Center that is also host to a lot of bird species. This is mid way between Thomasville, GA and Tallahassee, Fl so don’t confine yourself to just one area and go out and explore the nearby areas.

If you go to greater Atlanta, you can visit the Cochran Shoals unit of the Chattahoochee River. There are over 60 species of birds here especially during the spring and fall migration.

Those who want to go hiking can travel to the Kennesaw Mountains. There are over 20 species of birds up there mostly warblers. While you are there, you can go the visitor’s center and get a bird checklist as well as ask if there have been any rare bird sightings.

Along Georgia’s southern coastal region is the Colonial Coast Birding Trail. There are over 300 species of birds that have been seen here so it is really a treat to see so many all in one place.

You can also call Georgia’s Ornithological Society to be informed of rare birds. This is updated on a weekly basis given that Georgia is host to many migratory species.

Hobbyists will surely have a lot of fun doing some bird watching in Rome, Georgia. Try to spend two days or more here so you don’t have to rush seeing the various sites.

I already know HTML, CSS, JAVA, and basic PHP.

This article is a follow-up to my last entry about search engine optimization (or SEO), which you can find here on Articlesbase. While the first article provided a broad overview of what SEO is and how it can help you market your business, this one is meant to provide a more detailed outline of how the process works and some of the tasks you should perform in order to optimize a site. My intended audience for this article is web design firms and marketing companies who are looking to break into the world of SEO, but need a primer to help them get started.



Getting Started



There is one key piece of information to keep in mind throughout the entire optimization process, and it can be said like this: Search engines have one goal, and that is to return the most relevant results for any given search query. SEO is essentially the process of ensuring that those search engines understand that your site or your client’s site is, in fact, a good, relevant result for certain queries. For example, if you or your client owns a coffee shop in Philadelphia, then their website is absolutely a relevant result for the query “Philadelphia coffee shops”. However, the search engine algorithms can’t determine the relevance of a given page on their own if the site isn’t properly optimized. Let’s take a look at the key steps that are involved in optimizing a site, thus allowing the search engines to realize, “oh! This is a very relevant result for the query I was given”.



Choosing Your Primary Keywords and Phrases



Choosing the primary keywords and phrases which you will be optimizing for is one of the most important pieces of SEO. You need to find what I call a “middleground” keyword - something that’s not so broad that it’s useless to optimize for, but not so specific that no one is searching for it.



Consider a client who asks you to optimize for the phrase “real estate”. With very few exceptions, this is a perfect example of a keyword that is simply too broad to be worthwhile. Anyone searching for “real estate” will immediately realize that they need to refine their search beyond such a broad term. For example - are they looking to buy real estate, sell it, invest in it, or find a real estate agent? And are they looking for commercial properties or residential properties? To buy or to rent?



It should be immediately clear that optimizing for such a broad term is almost always a wasted effort. Not only because the optimization process itself will be excessively difficult, but because, more than likely, the traffic generated will not result in any sales ( “conversions”).



Now, let’s assume your client is ABC Real Estate in Bala Cynwd, PA, and they are residential real estate agents specializing in the Philadelphia market. They might ask you to optimize for “ABC Real Estate Bala Cynwd”. This is an example of a keyword that’s incredibly simple to optimize for (I probably wouldn’t even call it “optimization” since there is only one ABC Real Estate in Bala Cynwd, pretty much guaranteeing you the #1 result), but this keyword is almost useless for driving new traffic to the site. People searching for the company name already know about the company and probably know what the company does. You want to drive traffic from people who are searching for a product or service the company offers, even when the potential customer doesn’t know about the company yet.



“Homes for sale in Philadelphia” is a keyword to think about in this instance. We know from this query that the person performing the search is looking for homes for sale in Philadelphia. Our client is prepared to provide not only home search capability, but real estate agents who are willing to help the searcher in their quest for a new home. This is the kind of traffic you want to drive to the site. You should choose 2-3 similar keyword phrases to serve as the primary search goals. It’s important to note that your site will not be locked into appearing for only those phrases, if you perform the optimization correctly. Now, let’s take a look at how you actually go about doing that.



Site Structure



The first thing to look at when tasked with optimizing a site is the structure of the site itself - the HTML code, the URL/link structure, and the title and meta tags. If the site doesn’t exist yet, but you will need it to be optimized once it’s built, this section still very much applies, so read on.



Navigation



One of the most common problems I see with poorly-optimized sites is a navigation system that is effectively invisible to search engines. Oftentimes, the main navigation was created with javascript or flash, and no alternative sitemap or links are provided. While search engines such as Google are getting much better at identifying links embedded in javascript and flash, it is still a much better idea to provide a plain HTML/CSS based navigation system. You can do this without sacrificing any of the javascript or flash functionality or changing the user experience at all, so there is no reason not to do it. If your navigation is javascript based, make sure you are using a “pure CSS” menuing system, meaning that you can code your navigation as if it were a normal

or based menu, but the script will transform these tags into javascript-powered dropdown menus. Some of the menuing systems we use at Context are: Superfish, OpenCube, and SmartMenu. If your navigation is flash based, you can use a dynamic flash publishing script (see swfobject) that will transparently replace the HTML-based navigation with your flash element. In both of these cases, the search engines will see the original HTML and CSS based navigation elements, which are much easier to traverse and index than their javascript or flash-based counterparts.



A Note about flash based sites

If your site is done completely in flash, you may want to re-think your design, instead using flash for a header, footer, and/or borders, but leaving the main content as HTML and CSS. Otherwise, I recommend essentially building two full versions of the site - one in HTML and one in Flash. As I mentioned above, search engines are becoming much more effective at indexing flash pages, but you are still doing yourself a disservice in terms of SEO if your site is 100% flash based. Also, completely flash driven sites can often degrade user experience, but that’s a topic for another article.

URL Structure

Now let’s talk about URLs. Search engines like very clean URLs, the kind you see at the top of this (or any Wordpress-based) blog. Even if your site is driven by dynamic content, you will want to rewrite your URLs to look like static pages. For example, rather than having /product-view.php?fromcat=5&id=32, you will want a url that looks more like /products/32/this-is-the-product-name.html. Not only is the actual URL part of what search engines look at when determine what a page might be about (which is why we include the product name), they also have a much easier time indexing static URLs as opposed to complicated dynamic URLs with a string of variables at the end. There are many ways to accomplish the rewriting, and it’s usually not very difficult. The easiest way is to use Apache’s mod_rewrite module, which lets you transparently redirect one URL to another, while the visitor only sees the original. If you are using ASP.net on IIS, there is an excellent rewrite module for IIS6, and IIS7 has built-in rewriting capabilities. Finally, development frameworks such as Fuse for PHP or Ruby on Rails have extensive “routing” functionality which allows very fine grained control over the URL structure.

Title and Meta Tags

The and description tags are very important in SEO. These tags are your first chance to explain to a search engine what your site is all about, and you should follow some guidelines when generating these tags:



The title and meta description tags should include your primary keywords and phrases, but only once. Don’t repeat “Philadelphia coffee shop” five times in the title tag, because the search engines will penalize the site for keyword stuffing.

While there are no strict rules on length, the title tag should be no longer 60-80 characters, the meta tag around 200 maximum.

The title and meta tags need to be different for every page. Even if the title or meta description tags for some pages don’t actually include your primary search phrases (and they don’t have to), they should be clear and relevant to every individual page.



Content

It is a common SEO adage that “content is king”, and although the SEO process has gotten a bit more complex over the years, it is still largely true.

Your site should contain as much useful, unique content as possible. Simply plastering bits of text all over the site won’t do you much good, but the best thing you can do to optimize a site is to provide high quality content that people actually want to see or read. Developing such content can be tricky, but here are some basic guidelines:



Every page should have at least two paragraphs of relevant content. There are some exceptions here because some pages simply don’t require any text, but you should try to work in as much high quality, relevant (remember: HIGH QUALITY and RELEVANT) textual content as possible.

Don’t rely exclusively on bulleted lists. Bulleted lists are fine and won’t hurt your positioning, but they should be augmented by rich prose, since larger bodies of text will net you the most gains in terms of SEO.

Include your targeted search keywords and phrases in the content, but don’t “stuff” keywords by repeating them more times than is reasonable. There is a balancing act to be performed here, but as a general rule, I try not to include the same keyword or phrase more than once per two paragraphs. There are plenty of exceptions, however, so it’s something that you have to develop a knack for after some trial and error.

Your home page is the holy grail of content for your site. Every single website only gets one home page, so the content there is weighed very heavily by search engines. Make sure your home page content is of a decent length (at least 2 paragraphs), contains your primary keywords and phrases (gracefully - don’t keyword stuff), and is well written and relevant.

Include as much content on as many different pages as you can. Remember, though: high quality and relevant. Don’t create pages for the sake of having more pages - think about information that will be relevant to your potential customers and provide it through your website. For example, if you are optimizing for a coffee shop in Philadelphia, a page dedicated to how to identify &choose the best coffee beans might be a great resource. Oftentimes, you will be surprised and unable to predict some of the keywords and phrases that drive people to your site, but these relevant “landing pages” ensure that you can pick up good traffic that you weren’t necessarily expecting.



Inbound Link Building

Another essential piece of the SEO puzzle is getting other sites to link back to yours. There are several ways to do this, but also some pitfalls to avoid.



Directory submission - this is the process of simply adding your site to online directories that list and link to external sites. There are a few important things to remember when submitting your site to directories, however:



There are a lot of good free directories that do not require a reciprocal link. Don’t get caught up paying for every submission (though there are some directories that are worth paying for).

Make sure that the directory itself is in good standing with Google. You will want to check its Page Rank (Google’s 1/10 score of the importance of a site). The easiest way to check page rank is to install the Google Toolbar



Make sure the directory links directly to your site and doesn’t first go to a tracking page. If the link is not direct, it is essentially useless.

Try to find directories that allow you to specify the anchor text - the text that people will be clicking on to get to your site. Make the anchor text one of your primary keyword phrases, e.g. the words “Philadelphia coffee shop” should link to philacoffeeshopsite.com.





Press release distribution - Your client should have press releases that outline the current happenings at their company. These should be posted as text (instead of or in addition to PDF) format both on the website, but also on aggregate press release sites that allow you to submit your own press release. You should also include links back to your site directly in the press release

Social Networking &web 2.0 - There are many sites available that allow you to post your own business profiles on the web. Hotfrog and Merchantcircle are good examples of such sites, and I recommend adding a listing there for any site you are optimizing. Additionally, if you have interesting, relevant content to share with the public, consider posting it to aggregate sites such as Digg



Conclusion

Hopefully this article provided insight into the SEO process, and can act as a “getting started” primer for companies who are looking to expand their services offerings. I do not recommend that business owners attempt to optimize their own site, because you will not get the results you expect, and your time is better spent running the business. Hire a competent SEO company instead, and work with them to position your site for ideal keywords and phrases.

There are a variety of tools in the marketplace for developing databases for websites - some of which include PHP/MySQL, Microsoft Visual Web Developer, Ruby, Python, etc., etc. I am looking for something that is powerful yet easy to use. I am most comfortable with PHP/MySQL, but am curious of front-end tools that may or may not use PHP/MySQL on the back-end. What are your suggestions?

Ruby on rails is largely gaining grounds in the web development world, due to its ‘instant-web development’ concept. In absolute synergy with times, the ROR developers have been consistently gaining extra edge over other developers, given the optimal utilization of its single, yet highly effective speedy web development strategy. The embrace of this winning feature leads to a Win-Win situation for the clients and the company alike.

Ruby on Rail is a free web application framework, which intends to increase the speed and straightforwardness with which database-driven web sites can be created and offers skeleton code frameworks from the outset. Often shortened to Rails, or ROR, Ruby On Rails is an project written in the Ruby programming language and applications using the Rails framework are developed using the Rails framework are developed using the Model-View-Controller Design Pattern.

Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern. From the Ajax in the view, to the request and response in the controller, to the domain model wrapping the database, Rails gives you a pure-Ruby development environment. To go live, all you need to add is a database and a web server.

The fundamental Ruby on Rails Web Development includes

The fundamental Ruby on Rails principles includes Convention over Configuration (CoC) and Don’t repeat yourself (DRY).

“Don’t repeat yourself” means that information is located in a single unambiguous place For example, using Active Record, the developer does not need to specify database column names in class definitions. Instead, Ruby can retrieve this information from the database.

“Convention over Configuration” means a developer only needs to specify unconventional aspects of the application. For example, if there’s a class Sale in the model, the corresponding table in the database is called sales by default. It is only if one deviates from this convention, such as calling the table “products sold” that one needs to write code regarding these names.

Because of these strict defaults, Rails is often referred to as “opinionated software”, which has been a point of contention for many critics of Rails