As World Cup fever takes hold we’ll all be glued to our TV screens as England play their hearts out and try and get through to the next round. But alas, if you’re not one of the lucky fans jetting off to South Africa or in the fortunate position to take the next four weeks off, then how do you keep up to date with the latest happenings in the world of football – the internet of course!

The internet has become our friend, our information source, and a shoulder to cry on. No matter what you need, or what you don’t, the internet will find it for you, and you don’t even have to have a pc anymore to do it – a phone will do!

We humans have evolved into information hungry beings that require instant knowledge about the latest news, heck, even a four year old can find their way to the CBeebies site to fulfil their need for the latest goings-on with Postman Pat!

No matter what industry you are in the one marketing tool that’s going to get your business noticed by your target market is a website. Any business that has a website instantly increases their audience two-fold, because a great web programmer won’t only get your site noticed by the market you were hoping for but those that you hadn’t even thought of.

Yes, the internet is here to stay, and thank goodness for that!

As a web designer and developer, I am constantly reminded that I wear two hats: 1) to design and build websites that can reach the widest audiences, appeal to the most people and deliver rich, interactive, exciting content; and 2) design and build sites that are cost effective, timely and maintainable.

It seems that for some time now those two objectives have been at logger-heads as cross-browser, cross-OS, backwards compatible, highly portable websites have required so many “hacks” , “patches”, “tweaks” and “tricks” to keep things in order that development time increased exponentially. The result being that clients had to take an objective view – spend more money achieving the last 10%, or save money and chop off a category of potential customers.

That dilemma came one step closer this week to being removed. And not before time. There have long been calls from web developers, technologists and end users to convince Microsoft to signal the end of the IE6 browser. The basis for this is in IE6’s complete disregard for web standards, topped with security and compatibility issues. Google’s recent debacle in China proved to them at least that IE6 had not just been an inconvenient side-track, but had actually led to irrevocable damage. Google pulled out of China, and after a brief investigation announced that support for IE6 in its enhanced applications was to be removed as a direct consequence.

Google pulling out of China is not a small headline… It’s not like saying the German’s are to stop eating sausage. China is the most populated country on Earth, and currently one of the largest untapped online resources. Google “giving up” on them is an historic headline. And it seems to me that Google’s announcement to drop IE6 should be seen as the direct aftermath of those events.

Time then, has come to remove your IE6 hacks, tear down your IE6 test machines, hang up your well-used crib sheet for IE6 cross-browser tricks. Isn’t it?

Well, there’s the rub… the purists out there (and in here too) still feel an obligation, a need, a moral duty, to keep providing support for any device/browser/age/config that exists. Isn’t that our job? Shouldn’t we still take the time to explain to clients why cross-browser/cross-everything-else support is still worthy of a few extra Pounds/Dollars/Renminbi?

Of course, some clients will still see the need, and will appreciate the dedication that a good web developer can demonstrate when seventy four different browser/OS combinations are showing pixel-perfect renditions of their new website. But I fear that those clients will become fewer and fewer, and as a business I must recognise the value that is placed on perfection. I will of course always offer full cross-browser support, and will continue to provide the best possible service to my clients. But I will argue just a little less when they say “just make it work for the majority”.

On the run up to Christmas online sales are expected to reach £6.8bn, a spending increase of £132 per person, according to Verdict Research.

With the busy lives we all lead and shopping days counting down, people are ditching the traditional Christmas shopping trip and are turning to the internet to purchase their festive delights.

In the age of the internet we have entered a new era in consumerism. More and more people are using the internet because it provides a wide variety of choice, it’s convenient and offers comparable prices. Having a website these days is the ‘norm’ and any business wanting to stay competitive would benefit from one.

Now is one of the best times to launch a website, as more people turn to the internet to see what bargains are to be had. Companies that already have a website would benefit from refreshing their site to make it stand out from competitors, or adding special promotions to help increase sales.

Although we are currently in a recession and many high street outlets have seen a decline in consumer spending, online sales look set to rise. So, whether it’s a new website or updating an existing one, any business would want to be part of the increased expenditure of Christmas shoppers.

With a luring price tag of £100 or even less why wouldn’t you build your own website? The price looks good, you can add some text, a few pictures and away you go – right?

While many businesses don’t require an all singing, all dancing website there are a few things to consider before diving in for the cheapest price going.

A website is often the first contact a business has with potential customers. It is a reflection of your company so you want it to look professional and stand out from your competitors.

A bespoke website from a reputable company will provide a professional, knowledgeable approach to your website, and offer advice and guidance so you get the most out of a very powerful marketing tool.

If you think of the cost of a full colour advert in a local paper then the cost of a website is negligible. For the price of a weekly paper advert any business can have a custom built, fully functional website that is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

While a DIY website may look appealing cost-wise, there are also additional costs that you may not be aware of, such as domain name registration and website hosting. A website design company will provide advice and guidance for these as well as the latest SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques to help the site rank higher in search engines.

At the end of the day, would you rather spend a few pounds on a template website that looks the same as many others, or invest in a custom designed and built website that makes you stand out from the crowd and offers visitors a great user experience?

Well, jQuery is now on to version 1.3 and it seems to just keep getting better. It has risen to stardom amazingly quickly, none more so than its bundling by Microsoft into its latest Visual Studio offering. This is a telling sign indeed. Microsoft have tried for years to counter the emergent open source market with various offerings of JScript, J#, J++, F#, and about 5 others that have since faded into obscurity. So why should Microsoft adopt this open source library now? Haven’t they got something up their sleeve this time? Well the simple reality is that jQuery is just too damn good. There’s simply no room left for another contender and to Microsoft’s (small) credit, they’ve rolled over. Now, if only they would do the same on browser standards…….