Mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013, according to a new forecast by research firm Gartner.

That’s an even more aggressive outlook than Morgan Stanley’s projection that the mobile Web will outstrip the desktop Web in five years.
Gartner estimates the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will surpass 1.82 billion units by 2013, eclipsing the total of 1.78 billion PCs by then.

But the firm warns that many sites still are not optimized for the mobile Web, even though cell users expect to make fewer clicks on their phones than on a PC. To successfully expand into mobile, publishers will have to reformat sites from the small form-factor of handheld devices.

This is why one of my goals this year is to learn how to program the iPhone.

At the Web 2.0 Summit, Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker did a presentation of the economic and technology trends she’s been following. Her presentation this year spent a lot of time looking at mobile trends. Mobile, apparently, is the next “computer cycle” (think Mainframe, Mini, PC, Internet).

It’s time to learn some new skills, and it looks like learning how to program the iPhone is what I need to do.

There are moves, however to kill off IE6 once and for all. A recent article in IEEE Spectrum, “We Come to Bury IE6,” makes the case that companies are holding back their scientists and engineers from getting full value from the Web by forcing them to use outdated Web browsers. They also point out that running IE6 can actually be a security risk because it’s the browser that hackers love to hack.

The article also links to the website, IE6 No More. This website includes code that developers can use to alert users that they’re using an out-of-date browser. It also includes a page that discusses why corporations should upgrade.

Enough’s enough. Let’s move on.

The number of Indian PHP developers has been growing at a large pace in the last few years, when compared to other countries. A few years ago, India was just one of the top ten countries with more PHP developers. Now India is number 2 and is almost surpassing United States, which is still number 1.

This article presents a reflection about why this growth happened just in the latest years, as well what it means for the PHP world.

Using the first approach, you could get something wildly creative, but the risk is that you get something that’s completely off-base, too. Using the second approach you’re more likely to get something that you can use, but it takes a lot of work on your part to give the freelancer the direction he or she needs.

The worst-case is when the freelancer is put in a situation somewhere between the two. That is, he or she is not given much direction yet expected to produce something that pleases the client. This rarely happens because the client doesn’t really know what he wants until he sees what you’ve produced.

That’s why I always try to work with a client before taking on a project to define the project as much as possible. If we can do that upfront, then both of us will be happy when the project is complete.

Just as you wouldn’t move your business into a “bricks and mortar” building without budgeting for building maintenance, you shouldn’t start your business website without a budget for maintenance. An improperly maintained website can be just as much of a millstone around your business’s neck as a poorly maintained building.

Dynamic Businesses Demand Dynamic Websites
If you expect your business to grow, you should also expect your website to grow. For example, if you add new products or services to your portfolio, you’re going to have to add those to your website. And, if you’re selling products via the Internet, you must be able to quickly add new products and delete slow sellers from your online catalog.

Other content should also be dynamic. Nothing turns off users more than website content that hasn’t changed for months and is woefully out of date. One way to keep your site’s content fresh is to blog about your company’s products and services and about industry issues. Blog early and often, though, or don’t blog at all.

A dynamic website will also continually add features to attract new customers and enhance the loyalty of existing customers. For example, in addition to a section describing your company’s products and services, you may want to add a section containing videos of your product in action. You may not need this feature initially, but make sure that your website design can accomodate this feature down the road.

Software Always Needs Upgrading
Developers of popular Web software, such as WordPress or Joomla, are continually releasing new versions. These new versions add new features and plug security holes, and if you use this software, you need to upgrade regularly. You may not need to install every new version that comes out, but you will need to do it every 12 – 18 months.

This is also true if your website has custom applications. For example, if you run a website for a membership organization, your website might include a member directory. As the organization grows, you may want to add fields to that directory or use that directory in different ways. It’s important that the site be designed so that the directory can be upgraded easily when needed or desired.

So, What’s a Business to Do?
If your business is big enough, you can probably afford a full-time Web developer to keep your site’s software up to date and add new features. To keep content fresh, you can hire a staff writer or find someone in Marketing with the appropriate skills.

If your business is small, though, you may not have these resources. If you find yourself in this situation, consider hiring freelancers to do these jobs.

When hiring a freelance writer to keep your website content up to date, look for one that has experience writing about your industry. You can find them by reading industry trade magazines or going to websites such as FreelanceSuccess.Com that have searchable writers’ directories.

When hiring a Web developer to maintain your website’s “infrastructure,” look for one with experience with the technology upon which your website is built. For example, if your website was programmed in PHP and uses a MySQL database, you probably want to hire a developer with that kind of experience and not a developer whose only experience is with Active Server Pages and the Access database.

Also look for a developer who is already maintaining websites. For many developers, maintenance is not something they enjoy, and if that’s the case, they may not do a good job for you. If you can find a developer with lots of experience with maintenance, chances are that he or she enjoys this kind of work, meaning that you’ll be more satisfied with the work.

Website maintenance is a necessity, not a luxury. A poorly-maintained website will turn away customers, but just a well-maintained building can attract new customers and welcome existing customers, so can a well-maintained website.

As a result of this discussion, however, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and start using frameworks. The one I chose was CodeIgniter. According to one message, “It’s lightweight, robust, and has very good documentation.”

Some of the others mentioned include:

• CakePHP
• PHPMVC
• Symfony

There are even more on PHP Frameworks.

To test CodeIgniter, I developed a small application to collect and display the fortunes from fortune cookies. This was a rewrite of an app that I wrote several years ago without a framework.

Even with having to learn the framework, this took me only about four or five hours from start to finish. While I don’t recall how long it took me to do the first time, my guess is that it probably took about the same amount of time. So, if you subtract the amount of time it took to learn about CodeIgniter, then the development time was shorter using the framework.

Using the framework also enabled me to think differently about the application. Using the framework, you have to think in terms of model, view, and controller (MVC). This kind of thinking allows you to segregate these functions instead of lumping them all into one big page. For example, when developing a view, you only have to worry about how to display the data, not how to generate it. That’s the job of the controller.

I’m sure that there are some “gotchas” that I haven’t encountered in this simple application, but overall I think using frameworks is the way to go. You can be I’ll be using CodeIgniter for my next development project if it’s appropriate.

From fivesecondtest.com:

“Conducting a five second test allows you to find out which elements of your user interface are the most prominent. You do this by asking users to recall elements they saw after looking at your interface for five seconds.

To create a test all you need to do is upload an image of the interface you’re testing, enter your email address, and your name. A link to run your test is generated for you that you can share with friends and colleagues.

All submissions made by your test users are then emailed to the address you provided.”

• focus on content and code,
• participate and network,
• build your word of mouth and viral marketing,
• create press and write articles, and
• sync up with search engines and online tools.

In my humble opinion, marketing your website is probably even more important than a site’s design or functionality. What good is having a fancy website if no one visits?

Google’s implementation of Universal Search has changed the whole search landscape and settled the often debated SEO issue of whether the use of ALT text and keywords in image file names have any effect on rankings. In two words – they do.

There are a bunch of other good tips, too.