Just released – my new probe blocker. Automatically block IP addresses of probes that are scanning your site, looking for vulnerabilities, spamming your forms, etc. Nasty robots are probing websites all the time, looking for security holes, hidden content, and forms that they can spam.

This software installs on your website and blocks any IP’s that hit specific traps that are set up. At this point those robots are banned from your site, and can do no more harm. If they come back from another IP, they will be blocked as soon as they hit a trap. You get emailed immediately when a trap is tripped.

See more here!

I remember the days (late 1990’s) when Netscape navigator ruled the web browser market, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was a joke. In a few short years, however, Microsoft dominated the market, wiping out Netscape, and taking over 90% of the browser share.

This domination continued even as new upstarts, like Opera, Safari (Mac) and Firefox entered the scene. However, users increasingly frustrated with Explorer, started testing out the alternatives. By 2007, when Google Chrome came on the scene, MS was steadily losing market share.

I noticed a shift over the years in development work as well. It used to be that anything I did “had to work / look right” on Internet Explorer. If it didn’t work so well on Firefox, or Safari, the client didn’t usually care. But over time, I noticed clients becoming more concerned about other browsers. In fact, now I have some clients who don’t care about IE, but focus on FF, Chrome, and Safari. Today I saw an article about this company (not a client) saved precious startup money by not supporting – IE – in any version.

So why the change? The fragmentation of the market really increased the need to standards compliance. This means that code should function and render the same on all browsers. For a long time, MS went their own way, forcing developers to deal with their implementation of javascript, html, and other web languages. They had the muscle to do it, because they owned the market. But now they are stuck – developers are increasingly frustrated with code that works everywhere but IE, and clients are starting to shrug their shoulders. Because IE’s market share is now in the minority down around 40%. With the rise of mobile browsers and devices, it’s more important that the site work across as many platforms as possible. It IE is the main / only outlier, so be it.

It’s interesting to see how the ground shifts over time – hopefully Microsoft will get in line with upcoming versions of IE – if not, they face going the way of Netscape, at least in the browser market.

In this post I want to point out some critical information that each website owner needs to have handy.  I work with a lot of websites, and often times I get a frantic email, or call from someone saying “my website is down – what do I do?”.  Now I’m happy to help out in those situations, but the fact their their first email/call was to me, is troubling.

Why?

For one, I’m not the hosting company – so all I can really do is contact them.  Second, I’m not checking my email / voicemail 24/7, so your message may sit for hours – meanwhile, nobody is working to fix your site.

So the correct course of action is – contact your hosting company.  BUT – then I get the question – who’s my hosting company?  And that is the real point to this post.

Here’s a list of information you need to have at your disposal when you own a website:

1. Domain Registrar – where is your domain registered  For example, GoDaddy.com is a huge registrar.  Many times your hosting provider is your registrar.  Make sure you have these items:

   -Website URL
   -Access information – username, password

2. Hosting Provider – where is your website hosted?  How do you access your accounts?  Make sure you have these items:

   -Control Panel URL – with login and password
   -FTP information (server, login, password)
   -Support phone number, email, ticketing system, etc.  Understand how it works!

3. Other account info – google login, facebook, etc.  Any logins that are essential for your business should be recorded somewhere together.  In the event that someone else needs to lookup this information, or in case you forget it.
4. Backups – make sure you backup your website on a regular basis – depending how often your site updates.  E-commerce and heavily updated sites should be backed up weekly, other sites maybe once a month.  What’s that you say?  Oh, your hosting provider includes backups with your plan?  Really?  Well, that may be so, and they may actually have backups, but are you willing to risk your business on that?  In the event of a worst case scenario, you want to have a way to recover your site.  Most user control panels have a way to backup your site and databases (cpanel and plesk).
5. Disaster recover plan – this goes hand in hand with the backups.  If your hosting provider shut down unexpectedly, what would you do?  Could you quickly get your site up and running somewhere else?  Having a plan and testing it is great for your peace of mind.  If you ever need to implement it, the time spent will be priceless.

It looks like the growing concerns over user privacy online are finally coming to a head.  The new proposed “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” has gained concessions from Google to add a “privacy” button to its browser.  Firefox already has this.  The button essentially signals advertisers not to track your movements (by turning off cookies for third party ads, I guess).

While this seems like a step in the right direction, the fact is that you still need to be careful about what you share online, and which sites you share it with.  There are many companies flying “under the radar” that collect and track your information.  Google and Facebook collect tremendous amounts of data, and this “Bill of Rights” won’t stop that.

For the average website owner, it’s important to safeguard any data you collect.  Only collect and store what you really need, especially when it comes to credit card information.  Even just one data-breach can destroy your reputation, and your entire business.

Here is some data from the Nielson group on smartphone penetration:

For The Young, Smartphones No Longer A Luxury Item

If you look at the 18-24 year old segment, 56% of those surveyed own a smartphone.  So, if we can extrapolate out, that is quite a wave of mobile traffic coming to your website.  Your customers may not be using mobile devices to access your sites today, but this indicates that things are changing fast.  Within the next 5 years, most websites will need to be designed for mobile, OR have a second site aimed at mobile users.

One thing I do think is that many sites can be adapted to display reasonably well on a mobile device.  So maybe that’s the play to make – otherwise you’ll be maintaining 2 sites, and compromising your content layout and structure.