Google announced that it is dropping the Supplement Index Label. I wish that they would leave the Supplemental Index Label so you can tell if Google has indeed placed a page into the Supplemental Index. Without being able to quickly determine what pages are in the Main vs Supplemental Index, you will no longer be able to tell that Google is not given any Page Rank, which means does not think very highly of the page. I support transparency and I think Google is once again moving away from providing data to search engine marketers and the web sites they represent.

You can read more at:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/supplemental-goes-mainstream.html

Dynamic web content management is a system which simplifies and provides greater automation to the process of generating, updating, and editing web content. Both free and paid dynamic web content management systems are available to be used by website administrators. The included features vary from one such system to the next.

One dynamic management system, called XOOPS, is PHP-based and recommended by its creators for operating blog, community-based, and other types of websites. According to xoops.org, it can be freely used, modified, and distributed. It requires a web server with PHP capability and a MySQL database to run (most non-free web hosting providers offer these features). XOOPS includes modules for news (or a blog), a file download area, a forum, and links, as well as the capability to integrate new modules created by individual website designers. It also makes it easier to maintain a database of users and communicate with them.

An example of a paid dynamic web content management system is LogicWeb CMS. According to logicmountain.com, which developed it, the system includes an easy-to-use page editor, a feature which keeps a record of all changes which have been made to each page, a news module (includes scheduling features to make a news article automatically appear at a specific time and date), features for easily operating a mailing list, and other capabilities. They include the system with their web design service, or will sell it separately and integrate it with an existing website.

Many free web hosting or “web tools” services (such as Bravenet.com or CGIspy.com) offer some of the same sort of modules, like mailing lists, message boards, graphical page editing, and link pages. These are free and easy to install; however, they usually display advertising, take users to pages on their websites, have fewer features, and offer less customization. Another option is to manually code a dynamic content management system, which enables the greatest customization and flexibility, but is much more time-consuming than either of the above-mentioned methods.

A dynamic web content management system simplifies the process of operating a frequently-updated website, especially if the website’s owner is not familiar with HTML, and eliminates the need to manually program or maintain such features as e-mail lists or link pages. The ability to frequently update information, send e-mail newsletters, and offer changing interactive features (like message forums) can greatly increase repeat visitors to a website.

Here is an interesting question when it comes to a web site project: Are you trying to hit a single or home run?

My son is 8 years old and loves to play baseball in front of our house or down at the park. He was a pretty decent hitter until he knocked one about 250 feet into left field…by accident. The smile on his face as he rounded first base and the ball sailed past the left fieder was priceless. Little did he know, as he was sliding into 3rd base, that he was beginning a terrible slump that would last his entire summer season as he tried to re-connect to deep left field one more time. He went from being the best hitter on the team to striking out with bases loaded in a one run playoff lose. Needless to say, he was dissapointed. The problem..he was trying to crush the ball!

There are times to swing for the fences, but there are times when just getting on base will do. When starting a project, I like to know if it is a ‘home run’ or ’singles’ project, here are a few questions to consider:

What is the timeline of the project?
Single - Will typically last 1 - 3 months
Home Run - Will continue into the future, often over 1 year

What is the relationship between the problem and the solution?
Single - Identify the problem and find an acceptable solution
Home Run - Identity the cause of the problem and replace or eliminate it

How was the solution developed?
Singles - Gathered feedback from customers to identify new features
Home Runs - Evaluated multiple industry solutions to identify industry opportunity

Other characteristics
Singles - Easy to document, outcome is understood, organization is comfortable
Home Run - Hard to explain, uncertain outcome, organization is anxious

I am sure there are all kinds of ways to figure this out, the purpose of these questions is to make sure I am reading the situation right and making the right call. When the time is right, swing for the fences! When you just need to get on base, don’t strikeout!

There’s of course an updated user interface; the toolbar has been cleaned up a bit, and now resides at the top of the pages. You can also drag’n’drop items from one page to another. The search functionality of Backpack has been improved as well, granting you the ability to search across all your Backpage pages. New page dividers help keep your items and files better organized, and you can label each page divider as well. There’s also multiple photo galleries per page as well as RSS for shared pages, so everyone can be updated within the group.

Google will start allowing the underscore as a word separator in their search engine algorithm, making life much easier for Wordpress (and Movable  Type) users.

In a speech delivered at WordCamp 2007, an event dedicated to WordPress users and developers, Matt Cutts spoke at a much attended session and shared these remarks:

 One key development that Matt shared with the audience was that underscores in URLs are now (or at least very soon to be) treated as word separators by Google. That’s great news, because it historically hasn’t been that way. Back in 2005, Matt stated that Google did not view underscores in URLs as word separators.

This change makes sense for Google as it will make Google Blogsearch even more effective.  On other notes, he stated that ?= querystring values won’t hurt a url, but a site should not have more than a few = signs in the url.

Another interesting comment is that a blog needs to have multiple authors to get into Google News.  The mood was light, Matt Cutts appeared to be in a good mood and several blog writers mentioned their surprise at how funny Matt Cutts is.

Funny or not, his session provided several new items about the Google Algorithm and showed once again that Google will continue to optimize it algorithm with the goal of delivering the best results to its loyal users.