The web is a vast landscape and in this months newsletter we explore a handful of fun and occasionally useful points of interest. At times, ecommerce, online marketing, researching and online information can overshadow all the wonderful distractions to be found on the net.

The Internet is an interactive medium, so unlike your TV it is entertainment that engages and quite literally involves the viewer. This list we have assembled is only a small sample of web projects which have taken such concepts well out of the box and really express that interactive element. While these seem to be great time wasters, the genius behind it is the possibility of a large return on investment though advertising.

	Make Your Own Warning Label Online Make your own custom warning label easily by choosing an image and type in your own message.		JacksonPollock’s Original Design Use this application to express your creativity while making a pretty cool mess. Using your mouse to splatter paint has never been so fun, enjoyable or creative!
	Pop Bubble Wrap Online Remember all those times that your mom and dad told you to stop popping that bubble wrap? Now you can pop it to your heart’s content. The “manic mode” lets you go crazy to your hearts content.		Subservent Chicken The Subservent Chicken, brought to you by Burger King, is a man in a chicken suit, standing in the middle of a room. Input a suggestion and wait while then chicken will do what you say. Let your imagination wonder while laughing at the chicken.
	Obamicon.Me The Presidential election is over but everyone still wants to express themselves just like Obama. Make your own “Obamicon”, inspired by Shepard Fairey’s iconic poster.		aM Laboratory aM Labroatory is a wave-map that can be triggered by each square. Selecting squares makes and changes the tune heard. Turn up your volume and make some sweet music.
	Falling Sand Game Falling Sand Game is a simulator game in which the user places particles inside the screen to watch the types of elements react with each other creating many possible scenarios. You have never had so much fun playing with fire, water, salt, oil and sand!		Sprout Builder Sprout Builder is a visual solution that allows creative professionals to easily create branded, rich-media content and widgets. Sprout Builder can help you produce and launch a branded social media campaign.
	ChaCha Simply text or call in your question from your mobile phone as if you were talking to a smart friend and ChaCha will send you the answer. It’s that easy!		Kuler A designers dream, Adobe Kuler generates color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you’re creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes.

Do you have a favorite site that helps you sit back, relax and pass the time? Send us your favorite time wasters on the Internet and we will post it in our blog section in the coming weeks.

In short, Microsoft says of its new search engine, “Bing is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.”

Great! But will it be able to grind away at the 65-70% market share Google currently keeps? Ironically, looks as though Microsoft will try and do it the old-fashioned way – a massive advertising campaign.

Google is to search engines as Kleenex is to tissue. A brand embedded deep into the minds of most Internet users and Microsoft has a significant uphill battle in front of them to try and change the habits in this mainly Google-Only society.

The word is that Microsoft plans to spend $80 to $100 million in online, TV, radio and print, according to AdvertisingAge. If nothing else, the computer giant is doing its part in keeping ad agencies and traditional media alive with this beast of a campaign. But their sole mission is to convince the public that there’s a new alternative to the search engines of today.

This is a perfect example of giving consumers something they don’t even realize they need or want. If you ask the typical Internet searcher, chances are they won’t complain much about what Google and Yahoo have to offer – it’s likely they don’t know enough about today’s search engines to realize some of their shortcomings. That’s what Microsoft hopes to expose with their monstrous ad campaign – simply, that searching online can be better and here’s how:

• When shopping for products on Bing, the search engine will reveal product reviews, specs and pricing on the search page. It may also include a unique feature called “Bing cashback” – which will reward the searcher with a cash back guarantee if they click through and make the purchase.
• Searching for a health issue? Bing will give a quick summary of any ailment you may be searching for. Think of it as a small drop down box that lets you quickly read about the injury, sickness or disease that you’re searching for. (From a website owner perspective, I’d like the searcher to get the info from my site, not straight from Bing)
• The Travel search feature is pretty cool since it displays the best deals on the web in a single view. This could become Bing’s most popular feature. It also includes a simple sidebar in the left column that offers related information and links to your destination city. And Bing even includes a search bar for your airline and flight number that displays your flight status.
•  The local search info that Bing displays is very similar to that of Google and Yahoo. It may be more of a different structure and organized look that Microsoft was attempting in this department. There are some helpful reviews included if you’re searching for a new restaurant and they claim that Bing offers better directions that its competitors.
• If you’re searching for new or used cars, the automotive-type search results give you a quick glance at price, mpg, safety ratings and reviews along with photos and videos of the car you’re searching for.

All in all, Bing may have a few new bright spots and early indications are that it’s done a nice job in accurate search results and easy-to-use features, but the question remains – will it be enough to pull people away from Google?

Has this email shown up in your inbox before:

“Dear yourwebsite.com,
I recently came across your website and noticed that it was difficult to find on the search engines. We’d like to offer our SEO services to you. Please reply.”

Yes, it’s obviously a spammer but not too far from what many “SEO companies” and “SEM providers” try to use to convince potential clients to go with them for their search engine marketing and optimization needs. All too often business owners and marketing execs are sold on one-size-fits-all packages or outrageously priced consulting deals. The language is way too technical and hard to understand and a lot of these so-called SEO experts deal in scare tactics and sleazy methods. It adds up to giving the industry a bad image and putting businesses at risk of being banned from the top search engines.

We take a very different approach at lifeBLUE Media in that we will first speak your language before ours. You’re probably not expecting us to be experts in your field and more likely wanting us to listen to what you’re needing and trying to accomplish. Most SEOs are trying to sell services that aren’t understood, needed, or wanted - instead of listening, educating and helping the client before presenting the ideas.

Simply put, website and search engine marketing is very new to most business people and they don’t quite understand the opportunities that exist. It can absolutely be a new revenue stream for their business that they didn’t realize was possible. A search engine marketer’s job is to learn about the business and its customers then unlock all the ways that can bring in new sales and customers – while building an important and long-term partnership.

Too many SEOs stay close to their own kind and don’t leave the comfort zone to learn about new clients and different industries. SEO and SEM conferences and seminars are filled with, you guessed it SEOs. Yet, these same SEOs should be attending Oil & Gas conventions, or financial planning seminars, or fashion tradeshows – to learn about the challenges their potential clients are facing.

Like the aforementioned spam email that might find it’s way into your inbox, so too will the “Guaranteed Top Ranking” email or package that you might be offered. Don’t bite on that bait - nothing is guaranteed in the SEO world when it comes to getting ranked in the search engines. Instead, SEO companies should guarantee customer service, transparency in what they are providing their clients and, most importantly, a value to the business or company they are working for. For mutual long-term success, it’s best that the SEO companies deliver more value than the client expects. That should be the guarantee.

It’s true, there’s so much more…

For most, Firefox is just another web browser. As long as it allows you to surf the web, play online games, search for a local salon and check your email, who cares what it’s called. It’s yet another browser to add to the list of browser icons already on our desktop. And what’s the difference in the blue “e” with a Saturn-like ring around it, the compass thing, and the earthly fox anyway? Who knows and who cares, right?

Well for a web developer, these browsers are much more of a big deal to us than to our parents or neighbors. Not only does the abundance of browsers provide chaos in our everyday lives when it comes to getting our sites to look great in all of them equally, but there are also some other features that differ them as well. And as a web developer, I can speak for all of us when saying that we all “choose sides” and tend to favor one over the others. I personally think that Firefox should take over the world and leave all the others to be forgotten. But I don’t own the internets, therefore won’t be implementing this any time soon.

Among all other elements that are important when designing and developing websites, such as, making sure it looks right, all the code is doing what it’s supposed to, and images are showing properly, Firefox also opens up many doors for web developers in our constant struggle of having some assistance every once in a while. In addition to being the greatest and most compatible, user-friendly browser out there, Firefox also offers several “add-ons” to help us along the way. They are free, easy to download and use, and right at your finger-tips, if you just only knew they existed.

Here is my fave-5 personal recommendations to use as a good starting point in your addiction with Firefox add-ons:

	Web Developer Tools – A must have for web developers, this adds a toolbar to your browser that gives you such options as editing CSS, testing forms, resizing your window to different resolutions, and a slue of others. You will become reliable on the tools this add-on has to offer.
	MeasureIt – A nifty ruler to get pixel width and height of elements on a webpage. See a blank area on the page that needs an image? Use this handy tool to see how much real estate you have to work with to crop your image just the right size to fit. This tool can also be used to see how much space you have when working with columned layouts.
	Safari View & IE View – I’m grouping this as one because they serve the same purpose. Although we, as developers, would love to just have to test in one browser, we can’t forget about the others. With these tools, all you have to do is right click the webpage you are currently on and it will open the same page in another browser. Simple as that!
	ColorZilla – Wondering what color that site is using, or needing to match up colors with a design? Use this color picker to rollover a websites colors and get the RGB values, and hexadecimals. No more print screening and taking into Photoshop, you can get what you need directly from your browser.
	CSS Validator – Can’t quite pinpoint a problem? This add-on will validate any page you’re on using the W3C CSS Validator. Stop spending hours trying to figure out what’s wrong with your code, when in less than 5 seconds you can receive a list of fixes to be made. Now that’s convenient!

This is only a select few of my everday-use add-ons, out of the bazillions that Firefox actually has to offer. Whether you’re a web developer or not, the endless amounts of Firefox add-ons will have something for everyone.