Skills and expertise of freelance designers

Skills and expertise of freelance designers

understanding

Title: The Skills and Expertise of Freelance Designers

Freelance designers are independent professionals who offer their design services on a contractual basis. They work across various industries such as graphic design, interior design, fashion design, web design, among others. While they may not be tied to any particular company or organization, the skills and expertise required for freelance designers are paramount and often surpass those provided within a structured corporate environment.

Firstly, one of the most critical skills that freelancers should possess is creativity. This skill is inherent to all forms of design as creativity breathes life into concepts and ideas. It makes designs visually appealing and engaging. Without creativity, it would be challenging for freelance designers to develop unique solutions that meet clients' expectations.

Secondly, technical skills are crucial for freelance designers. These professionals need to proficiently utilize different software tools related to their respective fields of design. For instance, graphic designers should master Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator while web designers must know how to use platforms like WordPress or JavaScript.

Another significant skill is communication. Freelance designers must effectively communicate with their clients throughout every stage of the project – from understanding requirements at the onset to presenting finished works towards completion. Good communication ensures that both parties have aligned expectations and can prevent unnecessary revisions or misunderstandings.

Additionally, time management plays an integral role in freelancing careers since these professionals often juggle multiple projects simultaneously. Thus, having excellent organizational abilities allows them to deliver high-quality work within stipulated timelines without compromising on their personal life balance.

Moreover, business acumen is necessary for freelance designers too because they are essentially running their own businesses. They need to understand how pricing structures work, manage finances efficiently and market themselves appropriately to attract new clients continually.

In terms of expertise, it's essential for freelance designers not only being experts in using certain software but also possessing extensive knowledge about industry trends and best practices in their field of specialization.

While there is no set formula for success, the combination of these skills and expertise can significantly enhance a freelance designer's career.

Skills and expertise of freelance designers - data loss

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They not only provide these professionals with competitive edge but also contribute to their overall growth as an independent entity within the design industry.



Skills and expertise of freelance designers - data loss

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In conclusion, the world of freelance designers is challenging yet rewarding.

Skills and expertise of freelance designers - understanding

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It requires a mix of technical know-how, creativity, communication prowess, time management abilities coupled with strong business acumen. These skills and expertise enable them to create compelling designs that meet clients' needs while achieving professional satisfaction in their craft. Freelance designers are indeed unique professionals who combine artistry with entrepreneurship – creating beauty while building businesses.

Web Design Agency

 

World Wide Web
Abbreviation WWW
Year started 1989; 36 years ago (1989) by Tim Berners-Lee
Organization
  • CERN (1989–1994)
  • W3C (1994–current)
A web page from Wikipedia displayed in Google Chrome

The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond IT specialists and hobbyists.[1] It allows documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet according to specific rules of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[2]

The Web was invented by English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while at CERN in 1989 and opened to the public in 1993. It was conceived as a "universal linked information system".[3][4][5] Documents and other media content are made available to the network through web servers and can be accessed by programs such as web browsers. Servers and resources on the World Wide Web are identified and located through character strings called uniform resource locators (URLs).

The original and still very common document type is a web page formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). This markup language supports plain text, images, embedded video and audio contents, and scripts (short programs) that implement complex user interaction. The HTML language also supports hyperlinks (embedded URLs) which provide immediate access to other web resources. Web navigation, or web surfing, is the common practice of following such hyperlinks across multiple websites. Web applications are web pages that function as application software. The information in the Web is transferred across the Internet using HTTP. Multiple web resources with a common theme and usually a common domain name make up a website. A single web server may provide multiple websites, while some websites, especially the most popular ones, may be provided by multiple servers. Website content is provided by a myriad of companies, organizations, government agencies, and individual users; and comprises an enormous amount of educational, entertainment, commercial, and government information.

The Web has become the world's dominant information systems platform.[6][7][8][9] It is the primary tool that billions of people worldwide use to interact with the Internet.[2]

History

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This NeXT Computer was used by Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and became the world's first Web server.

The Web was invented by English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN.[10][11] He was motivated by the problem of storing, updating, and finding documents and data files in that large and constantly changing organization, as well as distributing them to collaborators outside CERN. In his design, Berners-Lee dismissed the common tree structure approach, used for instance in the existing CERNDOC documentation system and in the Unix filesystem, as well as approaches that relied in tagging files with keywords, as in the VAX/NOTES system. Instead he adopted concepts he had put into practice with his private ENQUIRE system (1980) built at CERN. When he became aware of Ted Nelson's hypertext model (1965), in which documents can be linked in unconstrained ways through hyperlinks associated with "hot spots" embedded in the text, it helped to confirm the validity of his concept.[12][13]

The historic World Wide Web logo, designed by Robert Cailliau. Currently, there is no widely accepted logo in use for the WWW.

The model was later popularized by Apple's HyperCard system. Unlike Hypercard, Berners-Lee's new system from the outset was meant to support links between multiple databases on independent computers, and to allow simultaneous access by many users from any computer on the Internet. He also specified that the system should eventually handle other media besides text, such as graphics, speech, and video. Links could refer to mutable data files, or even fire up programs on their server computer. He also conceived "gateways" that would allow access through the new system to documents organized in other ways (such as traditional computer file systems or the Usenet). Finally, he insisted that the system should be decentralized, without any central control or coordination over the creation of links.[4][14][10][11]

Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to CERN in May 1989, without giving the system a name.[4] He got a working system implemented by the end of 1990, including a browser called WorldWideWeb (which became the name of the project and of the network) and an HTTP server running at CERN. As part of that development he defined the first version of the HTTP protocol, the basic URL syntax, and implicitly made HTML the primary document format.[15] The technology was released outside CERN to other research institutions starting in January 1991, and then to the whole Internet on 23 August 1991. The Web was a success at CERN, and began to spread to other scientific and academic institutions. Within the next two years, there were 50 websites created.[16][17]

CERN made the Web protocol and code available royalty free in 1993, enabling its widespread use.[18][19] After the NCSA released the Mosaic web browser later that year, the Web's popularity grew rapidly as thousands of websites sprang up in less than a year.[20][21] Mosaic was a graphical browser that could display inline images and submit forms that were processed by the HTTPd server.[22][23] Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark founded Netscape the following year and released the Navigator browser, which introduced Java and JavaScript to the Web. It quickly became the dominant browser. Netscape became a public company in 1995 which triggered a frenzy for the Web and started the dot-com bubble.[24] Microsoft responded by developing its own browser, Internet Explorer, starting the browser wars. By bundling it with Windows, it became the dominant browser for 14 years.[25]

Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which created XML in 1996 and recommended replacing HTML with stricter XHTML.[26] In the meantime, developers began exploiting an IE feature called XMLHttpRequest to make Ajax applications and launched the Web 2.0 revolution. Mozilla, Opera, and Apple rejected XHTML and created the WHATWG which developed HTML5.[27] In 2009, the W3C conceded and abandoned XHTML.[28] In 2019, it ceded control of the HTML specification to the WHATWG.[29]

The World Wide Web has been central to the development of the Information Age and is the primary tool billions of people use to interact on the Internet.[30][31][32][9]

Nomenclature

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Tim Berners-Lee states that World Wide Web is officially spelled as three separate words, each capitalised, with no intervening hyphens.[33] Nonetheless, it is often called simply the Web, and also often the web; see Capitalization of Internet for details. In Mandarin Chinese, World Wide Web is commonly translated via a phono-semantic matching to wàn wéi wǎng (万维网), which satisfies www and literally means "10,000-dimensional net", a translation that reflects the design concept and proliferation of the World Wide Web.

Use of the www prefix has been declining, especially when web applications sought to brand their domain names and make them easily pronounceable. As the mobile Web grew in popularity,[citation needed] services like Gmail.com, Outlook.com, Myspace.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com are most often mentioned without adding "www." (or, indeed, ".com") to the domain.[34]

In English, www is usually read as double-u double-u double-u.[35] Some users pronounce it dub-dub-dub, particularly in New Zealand.[36] Stephen Fry, in his "Podgrams" series of podcasts, pronounces it wuh wuh wuh.[37] The English writer Douglas Adams once quipped in The Independent on Sunday (1999): "The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for".[38]

Function

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The World Wide Web functions as an application layer protocol that is run "on top of" (figuratively) the Internet, helping to make it more functional. The advent of the Mosaic web browser helped to make the web much more usable, to include the display of images and moving images (GIFs).

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used without much distinction. However, the two terms do not mean the same thing. The Internet is a global system of computer networks interconnected through telecommunications and optical networking. In contrast, the World Wide Web is a global collection of documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URIs. Web resources are accessed using HTTP or HTTPS, which are application-level Internet protocols that use the Internet transport protocols.[2]

Viewing a web page on the World Wide Web normally begins either by typing the URL of the page into a web browser or by following a hyperlink to that page or resource. The web browser then initiates a series of background communication messages to fetch and display the requested page. In the 1990s, using a browser to view web pages—and to move from one web page to another through hyperlinks—came to be known as 'browsing,' 'web surfing' (after channel surfing), or 'navigating the Web'. Early studies of this new behaviour investigated user patterns in using web browsers. One study, for example, found five user patterns: exploratory surfing, window surfing, evolved surfing, bounded navigation and targeted navigation.[39]

The following example demonstrates the functioning of a web browser when accessing a page at the URL http://example.org/home.html. The browser resolves the server name of the URL (example.org) into an Internet Protocol address using the globally distributed Domain Name System (DNS). This lookup returns an IP address such as 203.0.113.4 or 2001:db8:2e::7334. The browser then requests the resource by sending an HTTP request across the Internet to the computer at that address. It requests service from a specific TCP port number that is well known for the HTTP service so that the receiving host can distinguish an HTTP request from other network protocols it may be servicing. HTTP normally uses port number 80 and for HTTPS it normally uses port number 443. The content of the HTTP request can be as simple as two lines of text:

GET /home.html HTTP/1.1
Host: example.org

The computer receiving the HTTP request delivers it to web server software listening for requests on port 80. If the web server can fulfil the request it sends an HTTP response back to the browser indicating success:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

followed by the content of the requested page. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) for a basic web page might look like this:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Example.org – The World Wide Web</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW and commonly known ...</p>
  </body>
</html>

The web browser parses the HTML and interprets the markup (<title>, <p> for paragraph, and such) that surrounds the words to format the text on the screen. Many web pages use HTML to reference the URLs of other resources such as images, other embedded media, scripts that affect page behaviour, and Cascading Style Sheets that affect page layout. The browser makes additional HTTP requests to the web server for these other Internet media types. As it receives their content from the web server, the browser progressively renders the page onto the screen as specified by its HTML and these additional resources.

HTML

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Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. With Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript, it forms a triad of cornerstone technologies for the World Wide Web.[40]

Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or from local storage and render the documents into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.

HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images and other objects such as interactive forms may be embedded into the rendered page. HTML provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items. HTML elements are delineated by tags, written using angle brackets. Tags such as <img /> and <input /> directly introduce content into the page. Other tags such as <p> surround and provide information about document text and may include other tags as sub-elements. Browsers do not display the HTML tags, but use them to interpret the content of the page.

HTML can embed programs written in a scripting language such as JavaScript, which affects the behaviour and content of web pages. Inclusion of CSS defines the look and layout of content. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), maintainer of both the HTML and the CSS standards, has encouraged the use of CSS over explicit presentational HTML since 1997.[41]

Linking

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Most web pages contain hyperlinks to other related pages and perhaps to downloadable files, source documents, definitions and other web resources. In the underlying HTML, a hyperlink looks like this: <a href="http://example.org/home.html">Example.org Homepage</a>.

Graphic representation of a minute fraction of the WWW, demonstrating hyperlinks

Such a collection of useful, related resources, interconnected via hypertext links is dubbed a web of information. Publication on the Internet created what Tim Berners-Lee first called the WorldWideWeb (in its original CamelCase, which was subsequently discarded) in November 1990.[42]

The hyperlink structure of the web is described by the webgraph: the nodes of the web graph correspond to the web pages (or URLs) the directed edges between them to the hyperlinks. Over time, many web resources pointed to by hyperlinks disappear, relocate, or are replaced with different content. This makes hyperlinks obsolete, a phenomenon referred to in some circles as link rot, and the hyperlinks affected by it are often called "dead" links. The ephemeral nature of the Web has prompted many efforts to archive websites. The Internet Archive, active since 1996, is the best known of such efforts.

WWW prefix

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Many hostnames used for the World Wide Web begin with www because of the long-standing practice of naming Internet hosts according to the services they provide. The hostname of a web server is often www, in the same way that it may be ftp for an FTP server, and news or nntp for a Usenet news server. These hostnames appear as Domain Name System (DNS) or subdomain names, as in www.example.com. The use of www is not required by any technical or policy standard and many websites do not use it; the first web server was nxoc01.cern.ch.[43] According to Paolo Palazzi, who worked at CERN along with Tim Berners-Lee, the popular use of www as subdomain was accidental; the World Wide Web project page was intended to be published at www.cern.ch while info.cern.ch was intended to be the CERN home page; however the DNS records were never switched, and the practice of prepending www to an institution's website domain name was subsequently copied.[44][better source needed] Many established websites still use the prefix, or they employ other subdomain names such as www2, secure or en for special purposes. Many such web servers are set up so that both the main domain name (e.g., example.com) and the www subdomain (e.g., www.example.com) refer to the same site; others require one form or the other, or they may map to different web sites. The use of a subdomain name is useful for load balancing incoming web traffic by creating a CNAME record that points to a cluster of web servers. Since, currently[as of?], only a subdomain can be used in a CNAME, the same result cannot be achieved by using the bare domain root.[45][dubiousdiscuss]

When a user submits an incomplete domain name to a web browser in its address bar input field, some web browsers automatically try adding the prefix "www" to the beginning of it and possibly ".com", ".org" and ".net" at the end, depending on what might be missing. For example, entering "microsoft" may be transformed to http://www.microsoft.com/ and "openoffice" to http://www.openoffice.org. This feature started appearing in early versions of Firefox, when it still had the working title 'Firebird' in early 2003, from an earlier practice in browsers such as Lynx.[46] [unreliable source?] It is reported that Microsoft was granted a US patent for the same idea in 2008, but only for mobile devices.[47]

Scheme specifiers

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The scheme specifiers http:// and https:// at the start of a web URI refer to Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP Secure, respectively. They specify the communication protocol to use for the request and response. The HTTP protocol is fundamental to the operation of the World Wide Web, and the added encryption layer in HTTPS is essential when browsers send or retrieve confidential data, such as passwords or banking information. Web browsers usually automatically prepend http:// to user-entered URIs, if omitted.

Pages

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A screenshot of the home page of Wikimedia Commons

A web page (also written as webpage) is a document that is suitable for the World Wide Web and web browsers. A web browser displays a web page on a monitor or mobile device.

The term web page usually refers to what is visible, but may also refer to the contents of the computer file itself, which is usually a text file containing hypertext written in HTML or a comparable markup language. Typical web pages provide hypertext for browsing to other web pages via hyperlinks, often referred to as links. Web browsers will frequently have to access multiple web resource elements, such as reading style sheets, scripts, and images, while presenting each web page.

On a network, a web browser can retrieve a web page from a remote web server. The web server may restrict access to a private network such as a corporate intranet. The web browser uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make such requests to the web server.

A static web page is delivered exactly as stored, as web content in the web server's file system. In contrast, a dynamic web page is generated by a web application, usually driven by server-side software. Dynamic web pages are used when each user may require completely different information, for example, bank websites, web email etc.

Static page

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A static web page (sometimes called a flat page/stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user exactly as stored, in contrast to dynamic web pages which are generated by a web application.

Consequently, a static web page displays the same information for all users, from all contexts, subject to modern capabilities of a web server to negotiate content-type or language of the document where such versions are available and the server is configured to do so.

Dynamic pages

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Dynamic web page: example of server-side scripting (PHP and MySQL)

A server-side dynamic web page is a web page whose construction is controlled by an application server processing server-side scripts. In server-side scripting, parameters determine how the assembly of every new web page proceeds, including the setting up of more client-side processing.

A client-side dynamic web page processes the web page using JavaScript running in the browser. JavaScript programs can interact with the document via Document Object Model, or DOM, to query page state and alter it. The same client-side techniques can then dynamically update or change the DOM in the same way.

A dynamic web page is then reloaded by the user or by a computer program to change some variable content. The updating information could come from the server, or from changes made to that page's DOM. This may or may not truncate the browsing history or create a saved version to go back to, but a dynamic web page update using Ajax technologies will neither create a page to go back to nor truncate the web browsing history forward of the displayed page. Using Ajax technologies the end user gets one dynamic page managed as a single page in the web browser while the actual web content rendered on that page can vary. The Ajax engine sits only on the browser requesting parts of its DOM, the DOM, for its client, from an application server.

Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is the umbrella term for technologies and methods used to create web pages that are not static web pages, though it has fallen out of common use since the popularization of AJAX, a term which is now itself rarely used.[citation needed] Client-side-scripting, server-side scripting, or a combination of these make for the dynamic web experience in a browser.

JavaScript is a scripting language that was initially developed in 1995 by Brendan Eich, then of Netscape, for use within web pages.[48] The standardised version is ECMAScript.[48] To make web pages more interactive, some web applications also use JavaScript techniques such as Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript and XML). Client-side script is delivered with the page that can make additional HTTP requests to the server, either in response to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, or based on elapsed time. The server's responses are used to modify the current page rather than creating a new page with each response, so the server needs only to provide limited, incremental information. Multiple Ajax requests can be handled at the same time, and users can interact with the page while data is retrieved. Web pages may also regularly poll the server to check whether new information is available.[49]

Website

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The usap.gov website

A website[50] is a collection of related web resources including web pages, multimedia content, typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com, and amazon.com.

A website may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by referencing a uniform resource locator (URL) that identifies the site.

Websites can have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a personal website, a corporate website for a company, a government website, an organization website, etc. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, ranging from entertainment and social networking to providing news and education. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web, while private websites, such as a company's website for its employees, are typically a part of an intranet.

Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites, are documents, typically composed in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). They may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors. Web pages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the user. The user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal.

Hyperlinking between web pages conveys to the reader the site structure and guides the navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page containing a directory of the site web content. Some websites require user registration or subscription to access content. Examples of subscription websites include many business sites, news websites, academic journal websites, gaming websites, file-sharing websites, message boards, web-based email, social networking websites, websites providing real-time price quotations for different types of markets, as well as sites providing various other services. End users can access websites on a range of devices, including desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones and smart TVs.

Browser

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A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is a software user agent for accessing information on the World Wide Web. To connect to a website's server and display its pages, a user needs to have a web browser program. This is the program that the user runs to download, format, and display a web page on the user's computer.

In addition to allowing users to find, display, and move between web pages, a web browser will usually have features like keeping bookmarks, recording history, managing cookies (see below), and home pages and may have facilities for recording passwords for logging into websites.

The most popular browsers are Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox.

Server

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The inside and front of a Dell PowerEdge web server, a computer designed for rack mounting

A Web server is server software, or hardware dedicated to running said software, that can satisfy World Wide Web client requests. A web server can, in general, contain one or more websites. A web server processes incoming network requests over HTTP and several other related protocols.

The primary function of a web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to clients.[51] The communication between client and server takes place using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Pages delivered are most frequently HTML documents, which may include images, style sheets and scripts in addition to the text content.

Multiple web servers may be used for a high traffic website; here, Dell servers are installed together to be used for the Wikimedia Foundation.

A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiates communication by making a request for a specific resource using HTTP and the server responds with the content of that resource or an error message if unable to do so. The resource is typically a real file on the server's secondary storage, but this is not necessarily the case and depends on how the webserver is implemented.

While the primary function is to serve content, full implementation of HTTP also includes ways of receiving content from clients. This feature is used for submitting web forms, including uploading of files.

Many generic web servers also support server-side scripting using Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), or other scripting languages. This means that the behaviour of the webserver can be scripted in separate files, while the actual server software remains unchanged. Usually, this function is used to generate HTML documents dynamically ("on-the-fly") as opposed to returning static documents. The former is primarily used for retrieving or modifying information from databases. The latter is typically much faster and more easily cached but cannot deliver dynamic content.

Web servers can also frequently be found embedded in devices such as printers, routers, webcams and serving only a local network. The web server may then be used as a part of a system for monitoring or administering the device in question. This usually means that no additional software has to be installed on the client computer since only a web browser is required (which now is included with most operating systems).

Optical Networking

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Optical networking is a sophisticated infrastructure that utilizes optical fiber to transmit data over long distances, connecting countries, cities, and even private residences. The technology uses optical microsystems like tunable lasers, filters, attenuators, switches, and wavelength-selective switches to manage and operate these networks.[52][53]

The large quantity of optical fiber installed throughout the world at the end of the twentieth century set the foundation of the Internet as it’s used today. The information highway relies heavily on optical networking, a method of sending messages encoded in light to relay information in various telecommunication networks.[54]

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was one of the first iterations of the Internet, created in collaboration with universities and researchers 1969.[55][56][57][58] However, access to the ARPANET was limited to researchers, and in 1985, the National Science Foundation founded the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), a program that provided supercomputer access to researchers.[58]

Limited public access to the Internet led to pressure from consumers and corporations to privatize the network. In 1993, the US passed the National Information Infrastructure Act, which dictated that the National Science Foundation must hand over control of the optical capabilities to commercial operators.[59][60]

The privatization of the Internet and the release of the World Wide Web to the public in 1993 led to an increased demand for Internet capabilities. This spurred developers to seek solutions to reduce the time and cost of laying new fiber and increase the amount of information that can be sent on a single fiber, in order to meet the growing needs of the public.[61][62][63][64]

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An HTTP cookie (also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie, or simply cookie) is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user's computer by the user's web browser while the user is browsing. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user's browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past). They can also be used to remember arbitrary pieces of information that the user previously entered into form fields such as names, addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers.

Cookies perform essential functions in the modern web. Perhaps most importantly, authentication cookies are the most common method used by web servers to know whether the user is logged in or not, and which account they are logged in with. Without such a mechanism, the site would not know whether to send a page containing sensitive information or require the user to authenticate themselves by logging in. The security of an authentication cookie generally depends on the security of the issuing website and the user's web browser, and on whether the cookie data is encrypted. Security vulnerabilities may allow a cookie's data to be read by a hacker, used to gain access to user data, or used to gain access (with the user's credentials) to the website to which the cookie belongs (see cross-site scripting and cross-site request forgery for examples).[65]

Tracking cookies, and especially third-party tracking cookies, are commonly used as ways to compile long-term records of individuals' browsing histories – a potential privacy concern that prompted European[66] and U.S. lawmakers to take action in 2011.[67][68] European law requires that all websites targeting European Union member states gain "informed consent" from users before storing non-essential cookies on their device.

Google Project Zero researcher Jann Horn describes ways cookies can be read by intermediaries, like Wi-Fi hotspot providers. When in such circumstances, he recommends using the browser in private browsing mode (widely known as Incognito mode in Google Chrome).[69]

Search engine

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The results of a search for the term "lunar eclipse" in a web-based image search engine

A web search engine or Internet search engine is a software system that is designed to carry out web search (Internet search), which means to search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a web search query. The search results are generally presented in a line of results, often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a mix of web pages, images, videos, infographics, articles, research papers, and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike web directories, which are maintained only by human editors, search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. Internet content that is not capable of being searched by a web search engine is generally described as the deep web.

Deep web

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Deep web diagram
Deep web vs surface web
Surface Web & Deep Web

The deep web,[70] invisible web,[71] or hidden web[72] are parts of the World Wide Web whose contents are not indexed by standard web search engines. The opposite term to the deep web is the surface web, which is accessible to anyone using the Internet.[73] Computer scientist Michael K. Bergman is credited with coining the term deep web in 2001 as a search indexing term.[74]

The content of the deep web is hidden behind HTTP forms,[75][76] and includes many very common uses such as web mail, online banking, and services that users must pay for, and which is protected by a paywall, such as video on demand, some online magazines and newspapers, among others.

The content of the deep web can be located and accessed by a direct URL or IP address and may require a password or other security access past the public website page.

Caching

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A web cache is a server computer located either on the public Internet or within an enterprise that stores recently accessed web pages to improve response time for users when the same content is requested within a certain time after the original request. Most web browsers also implement a browser cache by writing recently obtained data to a local data storage device. HTTP requests by a browser may ask only for data that has changed since the last access. Web pages and resources may contain expiration information to control caching to secure sensitive data, such as in online banking, or to facilitate frequently updated sites, such as news media. Even sites with highly dynamic content may permit basic resources to be refreshed only occasionally. Web site designers find it worthwhile to collate resources such as CSS data and JavaScript into a few site-wide files so that they can be cached efficiently. Enterprise firewalls often cache Web resources requested by one user for the benefit of many users. Some search engines store cached content of frequently accessed websites.

Security

[edit]

For criminals, the Web has become a venue to spread malware and engage in a range of cybercrime, including (but not limited to) identity theft, fraud, espionage, and intelligence gathering.[77] Web-based vulnerabilities now outnumber traditional computer security concerns,[78][79] and as measured by Google, about one in ten web pages may contain malicious code.[80] Most web-based attacks take place on legitimate websites, and most, as measured by Sophos, are hosted in the United States, China and Russia.[81] The most common of all malware threats is SQL injection attacks against websites.[82] Through HTML and URIs, the Web was vulnerable to attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS) that came with the introduction of JavaScript[83] and were exacerbated to some degree by Web 2.0 and Ajax web design that favours the use of scripts.[84] In one 2007 estimate, 70% of all websites are open to XSS attacks on their users.[85] Phishing is another common threat to the Web. In February 2013, RSA (the security division of EMC) estimated the global losses from phishing at $1.5 billion in 2012.[86] Two of the well-known phishing methods are Covert Redirect and Open Redirect.

Proposed solutions vary. Large security companies like McAfee already design governance and compliance suites to meet post-9/11 regulations,[87] and some, like Finjan Holdings have recommended active real-time inspection of programming code and all content regardless of its source.[77] Some have argued that for enterprises to see Web security as a business opportunity rather than a cost centre,[88] while others call for "ubiquitous, always-on digital rights management" enforced in the infrastructure to replace the hundreds of companies that secure data and networks.[89] Jonathan Zittrain has said users sharing responsibility for computing safety is far preferable to locking down the Internet.[90]

Privacy

[edit]

Every time a client requests a web page, the server can identify the request's IP address. Web servers usually log IP addresses in a log file. Also, unless set not to do so, most web browsers record requested web pages in a viewable history feature, and usually cache much of the content locally. Unless the server-browser communication uses HTTPS encryption, web requests and responses travel in plain text across the Internet and can be viewed, recorded, and cached by intermediate systems. Another way to hide personally identifiable information is by using a virtual private network. A VPN encrypts traffic between the client and VPN server, and masks the original IP address, lowering the chance of user identification.

When a web page asks for, and the user supplies, personally identifiable information—such as their real name, address, e-mail address, etc. web-based entities can associate current web traffic with that individual. If the website uses HTTP cookies, username, and password authentication, or other tracking techniques, it can relate other web visits, before and after, to the identifiable information provided. In this way, a web-based organization can develop and build a profile of the individual people who use its site or sites. It may be able to build a record for an individual that includes information about their leisure activities, their shopping interests, their profession, and other aspects of their demographic profile. These profiles are of potential interest to marketers, advertisers, and others. Depending on the website's terms and conditions and the local laws that apply information from these profiles may be sold, shared, or passed to other organizations without the user being informed. For many ordinary people, this means little more than some unexpected emails in their inbox or some uncannily relevant advertising on a future web page. For others, it can mean that time spent indulging an unusual interest can result in a deluge of further targeted marketing that may be unwelcome. Law enforcement, counterterrorism, and espionage agencies can also identify, target, and track individuals based on their interests or proclivities on the Web.

Social networking sites usually try to get users to use their real names, interests, and locations, rather than pseudonyms, as their executives believe that this makes the social networking experience more engaging for users. On the other hand, uploaded photographs or unguarded statements can be identified to an individual, who may regret this exposure. Employers, schools, parents, and other relatives may be influenced by aspects of social networking profiles, such as text posts or digital photos, that the posting individual did not intend for these audiences. Online bullies may make use of personal information to harass or stalk users. Modern social networking websites allow fine-grained control of the privacy settings for each posting, but these can be complex and not easy to find or use, especially for beginners.[91] Photographs and videos posted onto websites have caused particular problems, as they can add a person's face to an online profile. With modern and potential facial recognition technology, it may then be possible to relate that face with other, previously anonymous, images, events, and scenarios that have been imaged elsewhere. Due to image caching, mirroring, and copying, it is difficult to remove an image from the World Wide Web.

Standards

[edit]

Web standards include many interdependent standards and specifications, some of which govern aspects of the Internet, not just the World Wide Web. Even when not web-focused, such standards directly or indirectly affect the development and administration of websites and web services. Considerations include the interoperability, accessibility and usability of web pages and web sites.

Web standards, in the broader sense, consist of the following:

Web standards are not fixed sets of rules but are constantly evolving sets of finalized technical specifications of web technologies.[98] Web standards are developed by standards organizations—groups of interested and often competing parties chartered with the task of standardization—not technologies developed and declared to be a standard by a single individual or company. It is crucial to distinguish those specifications that are under development from the ones that already reached the final development status (in the case of W3C specifications, the highest maturity level).

Accessibility

[edit]

There are methods for accessing the Web in alternative mediums and formats to facilitate use by individuals with disabilities. These disabilities may be visual, auditory, physical, speech-related, cognitive, neurological, or some combination. Accessibility features also help people with temporary disabilities, like a broken arm, or ageing users as their abilities change.[99] The Web is receiving information as well as providing information and interacting with society. The World Wide Web Consortium claims that it is essential that the Web be accessible, so it can provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities.[100] Tim Berners-Lee once noted, "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."[99] Many countries regulate web accessibility as a requirement for websites.[101] International co-operation in the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative led to simple guidelines that web content authors as well as software developers can use to make the Web accessible to persons who may or may not be using assistive technology.[99][102]

Internationalisation

[edit]
A global map of the Web Index for countries in 2014

The W3C Internationalisation Activity assures that web technology works in all languages, scripts, and cultures.[103] Beginning in 2004 or 2005, Unicode gained ground and eventually in December 2007 surpassed both ASCII and Western European as the Web's most frequently used character map.[104] Originally RFC 3986 allowed resources to be identified by URI in a subset of US-ASCII.

RFC 3987 allows more characters—any character in the Universal Character Set—and now a resource can be identified by IRI in any language.[105]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
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Further reading

[edit]
  • Berners-Lee, Tim; Bray, Tim; Connolly, Dan; Cotton, Paul; Fielding, Roy; Jeckle, Mario; Lilley, Chris; Mendelsohn, Noah; Orchard, David; Walsh, Norman; Williams, Stuart (15 December 2004). "Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One". W3C. Version 20041215.
  • Berners-Lee, Tim (August 1996). "The World Wide Web: Past, Present and Future". W3C.
  • Brügger, Niels, ed, Web25: Histories from the first 25 years of the World Wide Web (Peter Lang, 2017).
  • Fielding, R.; Gettys, J.; Mogul, J.; Frystyk, H.; Masinter, L.; Leach, P.; Berners-Lee, T. (June 1999). "Hypertext Transfer Protocol – HTTP/1.1". Request For Comments 2616. Information Sciences Institute.
  • Niels Brügger, ed. Web History (2010) 362 pages; Historical perspective on the World Wide Web, including issues of culture, content, and preservation.
  • Polo, Luciano (2003). "World Wide Web Technology Architecture: A Conceptual Analysis". New Devices.
  • Skau, H.O. (March 1990). "The World Wide Web and Health Information". New Devices.
[edit]

 

 

An annotated example of a domain name

In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.

Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. Domain names are organized in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The first-level set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, info, net, edu, and org, and the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Below these top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are typically open for reservation by end-users who wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, create other publicly accessible Internet resources or run websites, such as "wikipedia.org". The registration of a second- or third-level domain name is usually administered by a domain name registrar who sell its services to the public.

A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is a domain name that is completely specified with all labels in the hierarchy of the DNS, having no parts omitted. Traditionally a FQDN ends in a dot (.) to denote the top of the DNS tree.[1] Labels in the Domain Name System are case-insensitive, and may therefore be written in any desired capitalization method, but most commonly domain names are written in lowercase in technical contexts.[2] A hostname is a domain name that has at least one associated IP address.

Purpose

[edit]

Domain names serve to identify Internet resources, such as computers, networks, and services, with a text-based label that is easier to memorize than the numerical addresses used in the Internet protocols. A domain name may represent entire collections of such resources or individual instances. Individual Internet host computers use domain names as host identifiers, also called hostnames. The term hostname is also used for the leaf labels in the domain name system, usually without further subordinate domain name space. Hostnames appear as a component in Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such as websites (e.g., en.wikipedia.org).

Domain names are also used as simple identification labels to indicate ownership or control of a resource. Such examples are the realm identifiers used in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the Domain Keys used to verify DNS domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

An important function of domain names is to provide easily recognizable and memorizable names to numerically addressed Internet resources. This abstraction allows any resource to be moved to a different physical location in the address topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet. Such a move usually requires changing the IP address of a resource and the corresponding translation of this IP address to and from its domain name.

Domain names are used to establish a unique identity. Organizations can choose a domain name that corresponds to their name, helping Internet users to reach them easily.

A generic domain is a name that defines a general category, rather than a specific or personal instance, for example, the name of an industry, rather than a company name. Some examples of generic names are books.com, music.com, and travel.info. Companies have created brands based on generic names, and such generic domain names may be valuable.[3]

Domain names are often simply referred to as domains and domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain owners, although domain name registration with a registrar does not confer any legal ownership of the domain name, only an exclusive right of use for a particular duration of time. The use of domain names in commerce may subject them to trademark law.

History

[edit]

The practice of using a simple memorable abstraction of a host's numerical address on a computer network dates back to the ARPANET era, before the advent of today's commercial Internet. In the early network, each computer on the network retrieved the hosts file (host.txt) from a computer at SRI (now SRI International),[4][5] which mapped computer hostnames to numerical addresses. The rapid growth of the network made it impossible to maintain a centrally organized hostname registry and in 1983 the Domain Name System was introduced on the ARPANET and published by the Internet Engineering Task Force as RFC 882 and RFC 883.

The following table shows the first five .com domains with the dates of their registration:[6]

 
Domain name Registration date
symbolics.com 15 March 1985
bbn.com 24 April 1985
think.com 24 May 1985
mcc.com 11 July 1985
dec.com 30 September 1985

and the first five .edu domains:[7]

 
Domain name Registration date
berkeley.edu 24 April 1985
cmu.edu 24 April 1985
purdue.edu 24 April 1985
rice.edu 24 April 1985
ucla.edu 24 April 1985

Domain name space

[edit]
The hierarchical domain name system, organized into zones, each served by domain name servers

Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the top-level development and architecture of the Internet domain name space. It authorizes domain name registrars, through which domain names may be registered and reassigned.

The hierarchy of labels in a fully qualified domain name

The domain name space consists of a tree of domain names. Each node in the tree holds information associated with the domain name. The tree sub-divides into zones beginning at the DNS root zone.

Domain name syntax

[edit]

A domain name consists of one or more parts, technically called labels, that are conventionally concatenated, and delimited by dots, such as example.com.

  • The right-most label conveys the top-level domain; for example, the domain name www.example.com belongs to the top-level domain com.
  • The hierarchy of domains descends from the right to the left label in the name; each label to the left specifies a subdivision, or subdomain of the domain to the right. For example: the label example specifies a node example.com as a subdomain of the com domain, and www is a label to create www.example.com, a subdomain of example.com. Each label may contain from 1 to 63 octets. The empty label is reserved for the root node and when fully qualified is expressed as the empty label terminated by a dot. The full domain name may not exceed a total length of 253 ASCII characters in its textual representation.[8]
  • A hostname is a domain name that has at least one associated IP address. For example, the domain names www.example.com and example.com are also hostnames, whereas the com domain is not. However, other top-level domains, particularly country code top-level domains, may indeed have an IP address, and if so, they are also hostnames.
  • Hostnames impose restrictions on the characters allowed in the corresponding domain name. A valid hostname is also a valid domain name, but a valid domain name may not necessarily be valid as a hostname.

Top-level domains

[edit]

When the Domain Name System was devised in the 1980s, the domain name space was divided into two main groups of domains.[9] The country code top-level domains (ccTLD) were primarily based on the two-character territory codes of ISO-3166 country abbreviations. In addition, a group of seven generic top-level domains (gTLD) was implemented which represented a set of categories of names and multi-organizations.[10] These were the domains gov, edu, com, mil, org, net, and int. These two types of top-level domains (TLDs) are the highest level of domain names of the Internet. Top-level domains form the DNS root zone of the hierarchical Domain Name System. Every domain name ends with a top-level domain label.

During the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to create additional generic top-level domains. As of October 2009, 21 generic top-level domains and 250 two-letter country-code top-level domains existed.[11] In addition, the ARPA domain serves technical purposes in the infrastructure of the Domain Name System.

During the 32nd International Public ICANN Meeting in Paris in 2008,[12] ICANN started a new process of TLD naming policy to take a "significant step forward on the introduction of new generic top-level domains." This program envisions the availability of many new or already proposed domains, as well as a new application and implementation process.[13] Observers believed that the new rules could result in hundreds of new top-level domains to be registered.[14] In 2012, the program commenced, and received 1930 applications.[15] By 2016, the milestone of 1000 live gTLD was reached.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains an annotated list of top-level domains in the DNS root zone database.[16]

For special purposes, such as network testing, documentation, and other applications, IANA also reserves a set of special-use domain names.[17] This list contains domain names such as example, local, localhost, and test. Other top-level domain names containing trade marks are registered for corporate use. Cases include brands such as BMW, Google, and Canon.[18]

Second-level and lower level domains

[edit]

Below the top-level domains in the domain name hierarchy are the second-level domain (SLD) names. These are the names directly to the left of .com, .net, and the other top-level domains. As an example, in the domain example.co.uk, co is the second-level domain.

Next are third-level domains, which are written immediately to the left of a second-level domain. There can be fourth- and fifth-level domains, and so on, with virtually no limitation. Each label is separated by a full stop (dot). An example of an operational domain name with four levels of domain labels is sos.state.oh.us. 'sos' is said to be a sub-domain of 'state.oh.us', and 'state' a sub-domain of 'oh.us', etc. In general, subdomains are domains subordinate to their parent domain. An example of very deep levels of subdomain ordering are the IPv6 reverse resolution DNS zones, e.g., 1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.ip6.arpa, which is the reverse DNS resolution domain name for the IP address of a loopback interface, or the localhost name.

Second-level (or lower-level, depending on the established parent hierarchy) domain names are often created based on the name of a company (e.g., bbc.co.uk), product or service (e.g. hotmail.com). Below these levels, the next domain name component has been used to designate a particular host server. Therefore, ftp.example.com might be an FTP server, www.example.com would be a World Wide Web server, and mail.example.com could be an email server, each intended to perform only the implied function. Modern technology allows multiple physical servers with either different (cf. load balancing) or even identical addresses (cf. anycast) to serve a single hostname or domain name, or multiple domain names to be served by a single computer. The latter is very popular in Web hosting service centers, where service providers host the websites of many organizations on just a few servers.

The hierarchical DNS labels or components of domain names are separated in a fully qualified name by the full stop (dot, .).

Internationalized domain names

[edit]

The character set allowed in the Domain Name System is based on ASCII and does not allow the representation of names and words of many languages in their native scripts or alphabets. ICANN approved the Internationalized domain name (IDNA) system, which maps Unicode strings used in application user interfaces into the valid DNS character set by an encoding called Punycode. For example, københavn.eu is mapped to xn--kbenhavn-54a.eu. Many registries have adopted IDNA.

Domain name registration

[edit]

History

[edit]

The first commercial Internet domain name, in the TLD com, was registered on 15 March 1985 in the name symbolics.com by Symbolics Inc., a computer systems firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

By 1992, fewer than 15,000 com domains had been registered.

In the first quarter of 2015, 294 million domain names had been registered.[19] A large fraction of them are in the com TLD, which as of December 21, 2014, had 115.6 million domain names,[20] including 11.9 million online business and e-commerce sites, 4.3 million entertainment sites, 3.1 million finance related sites, and 1.8 million sports sites.[21] As of July 15, 2012, the com TLD had more registrations than all of the ccTLDs combined.[22]

As of December 31, 2023, 359.8 million domain names had been registered.[23]

Administration

[edit]

The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars, which are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by an administrative organization operating a registry. A registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLD it administers. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the WHOIS protocol.

Registries and registrars usually charge an annual fee for the service of delegating a domain name to a user and providing a default set of name servers. Often, this transaction is termed a sale or lease of the domain name, and the registrant may sometimes be called an "owner", but no such legal relationship is actually associated with the transaction, only the exclusive right to use the domain name. More correctly, authorized users are known as "registrants" or as "domain holders".

ICANN publishes the complete list of TLD registries and domain name registrars. Registrant information associated with domain names is maintained in an online database accessible with the WHOIS protocol. For most of the 250 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), the domain registries maintain the WHOIS (Registrant, name servers, expiration dates, etc.) information.

Some domain name registries, often called network information centers (NIC), also function as registrars to end-users. The major generic top-level domain registries, such as for the com, net, org, info domains and others, use a registry-registrar model consisting of hundreds of domain name registrars (see lists at ICANN[24] or VeriSign).[25] In this method of management, the registry only manages the domain name database and the relationship with the registrars. The registrants (users of a domain name) are customers of the registrar, in some cases through additional layers of resellers.

There are also a few other alternative DNS root providers that try to compete or complement ICANN's role of domain name administration, however, most of them failed to receive wide recognition, and thus domain names offered by those alternative roots cannot be used universally on most other internet-connecting machines without additional dedicated configurations.

Technical requirements and process

[edit]

In the process of registering a domain name and maintaining authority over the new name space created, registrars use several key pieces of information connected with a domain:

  • Administrative contact. A registrant usually designates an administrative contact to manage the domain name. The administrative contact usually has the highest level of control over a domain. Management functions delegated to the administrative contacts may include management of all business information, such as name of record, postal address, and contact information of the official registrant of the domain and the obligation to conform to the requirements of the domain registry in order to retain the right to use a domain name. Furthermore, the administrative contact installs additional contact information for technical and billing functions.
  • Technical contact. The technical contact manages the name servers of a domain name. The functions of a technical contact include assuring conformance of the configurations of the domain name with the requirements of the domain registry, maintaining the domain zone records, and providing continuous functionality of the name servers (that leads to the accessibility of the domain name).
  • Billing contact. The party responsible for receiving billing invoices from the domain name registrar and paying applicable fees.
  • Name servers. Most registrars provide two or more name servers as part of the registration service. However, a registrant may specify its own authoritative name servers to host a domain's resource records. The registrar's policies govern the number of servers and the type of server information required. Some providers require a hostname and the corresponding IP address or just the hostname, which must be resolvable either in the new domain, or exist elsewhere. Based on traditional requirements (RFC 1034), typically a minimum of two servers is required.

A domain name consists of one or more labels, each of which is formed from the set of ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens (a–z, A–Z, 0–9, -), but not starting or ending with a hyphen. The labels are case-insensitive; for example, 'label' is equivalent to 'Label' or 'LABEL'. In the textual representation of a domain name, the labels are separated by a full stop (period).

Business models

[edit]

Domain names are often seen in analogy to real estate in that domain names are foundations on which a website can be built, and the highest quality domain names, like sought-after real estate, tend to carry significant value, usually due to their online brand-building potential, use in advertising, search engine optimization, and many other criteria.

A few companies have offered low-cost, below-cost or even free domain registration with a variety of models adopted to recoup the costs to the provider. These usually require that domains be hosted on their website within a framework or portal that includes advertising wrapped around the domain holder's content, revenue from which allows the provider to recoup the costs. Domain registrations were free of charge when the DNS was new. A domain holder may provide an infinite number of subdomains in their domain. For example, the owner of example.org could provide subdomains such as foo.example.org and foo.bar.example.org to interested parties.

Many desirable domain names are already assigned and users must search for other acceptable names, using Web-based search features, or WHOIS and dig operating system tools. Many registrars have implemented domain name suggestion tools which search domain name databases and suggest available alternative domain names related to keywords provided by the user.

Resale of domain names

[edit]

The business of resale of registered domain names is known as the domain aftermarket. Various factors influence the perceived value or market value of a domain name. Most of the high-prize domain sales are carried out privately.[26] Also, it is called confidential domain acquiring or anonymous domain acquiring.[27]

Domain name confusion

[edit]

Intercapping is often used to emphasize the meaning of a domain name, because DNS names are not case-sensitive. Some names may be misinterpreted in certain uses of capitalization. For example: Who Represents, a database of artists and agents, chose whorepresents.com,[28] which can be misread. In such situations, the proper meaning may be clarified by placement of hyphens when registering a domain name. For instance, Experts Exchange, a programmers' discussion site, used expertsexchange.com, but changed its domain name to experts-exchange.com.[29]

Uses in website hosting

[edit]

The domain name is a component of a uniform resource locator (URL) used to access websites, for example:

  • URL: http://www.example.net/index.html
  • Top-level domain: net
  • Second-level domain: example
  • Hostname: www

A domain name may point to multiple IP addresses to provide server redundancy for the services offered, a feature that is used to manage the traffic of large, popular websites.

Web hosting services, on the other hand, run servers that are typically assigned only one or a few addresses while serving websites for many domains, a technique referred to as virtual web hosting. Such IP address overloading requires that each request identifies the domain name being referenced, for instance by using the HTTP request header field Host:, or Server Name Indication.

Abuse and regulation

[edit]

Critics often claim abuse of administrative power over domain names. Particularly noteworthy was the VeriSign Site Finder system which redirected all unregistered .com and .net domains to a VeriSign webpage. For example, at a public meeting with VeriSign to air technical concerns about Site Finder,[30] numerous people, active in the IETF and other technical bodies, explained how they were surprised by VeriSign's changing the fundamental behavior of a major component of Internet infrastructure, not having obtained the customary consensus. Site Finder, at first, assumed every Internet query was for a website, and it monetized queries for incorrect domain names, taking the user to VeriSign's search site. Other applications, such as many implementations of email, treat a lack of response to a domain name query as an indication that the domain does not exist, and that the message can be treated as undeliverable. The original VeriSign implementation broke this assumption for mail, because it would always resolve an erroneous domain name to that of Site Finder. While VeriSign later changed Site Finder's behaviour with regard to email, there was still widespread protest about VeriSign's action being more in its financial interest than in the interest of the Internet infrastructure component for which VeriSign was the steward.

Despite widespread criticism, VeriSign only reluctantly removed it after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) threatened to revoke its contract to administer the root name servers. ICANN published the extensive set of letters exchanged, committee reports, and ICANN decisions.[31]

There is also significant disquiet regarding the United States Government's political influence over ICANN. This was a significant issue in the attempt to create a .xxx top-level domain and sparked greater interest in alternative DNS roots that would be beyond the control of any single country.[32]

Additionally, there are numerous accusations of domain name front running, whereby registrars, when given whois queries, automatically register the domain name for themselves. Network Solutions has been accused of this.[33]

Truth in Domain Names Act

[edit]

In the United States, the Truth in Domain Names Act of 2003, in combination with the PROTECT Act of 2003, forbids the use of a misleading domain name with the intention of attracting Internet users into visiting Internet pornography sites.

The Truth in Domain Names Act follows the more general Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act passed in 1999 aimed at preventing typosquatting and deceptive use of names and trademarks in domain names.

Seizures

[edit]

In the early 21st century, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) pursued the seizure of domain names, based on the legal theory that domain names constitute property used to engage in criminal activity, and thus are subject to forfeiture. For example, in the seizure of the domain name of a gambling website, the DOJ referenced 18 U.S.C. § 981 and 18 U.S.C. § 1955(d).[34][1] In 2013 the US government seized Liberty Reserve, citing 18 U.S.C. § 982(a)(1).[35]

The U.S. Congress passed the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act in 2010. Consumer Electronics Association vice president Michael Petricone was worried that seizure was a blunt instrument that could harm legitimate businesses.[36][37] After a joint operation on February 15, 2011, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security claimed to have seized ten domains of websites involved in advertising and distributing child pornography, but also mistakenly seized the domain name of a large DNS provider, temporarily replacing 84,000 websites with seizure notices.[38]

In the United Kingdom, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has been attempting to seize domain names from registrars without court orders.[39]

Suspensions

[edit]

PIPCU and other UK law enforcement organisations make domain suspension requests to Nominet which they process on the basis of breach of terms and conditions. Around 16,000 domains are suspended annually, and about 80% of the requests originate from PIPCU.[40]

Property rights

[edit]

Because of the economic value it represents, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the exclusive right to a domain name is protected as property under article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.[41]

IDN variants

[edit]

ICANN Business Constituency (BC) has spent decades trying to make IDN variants work at the second level, and in the last several years at the top level. Domain name variants are domain names recognized in different character encodings, like a single domain presented in traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. It is an Internationalization and localization problem. Under Domain Name Variants, the different encodings of the domain name (in simplified and traditional Chinese) would resolve to the same host.[42][43]

According to John Levine, an expert on Internet related topics, "Unfortunately, variants don't work. The problem isn't putting them in the DNS, it's that once they're in the DNS, they don't work anywhere else."[42]

Fictitious domain name

[edit]

A fictitious domain name is a domain name used in a work of fiction or popular culture to refer to a domain that does not actually exist, often with invalid or unofficial top-level domains such as ".web", a usage exactly analogous to the dummy 555 telephone number prefix used in film and other media. The canonical fictitious domain name is "example.com", specifically set aside by IANA in RFC 2606 for such use, along with the .example TLD.

Domain names used in works of fiction have often been registered in the DNS, either by their creators or by cybersquatters attempting to profit from it. This phenomenon prompted NBC to purchase the domain name Hornymanatee.com after talk-show host Conan O'Brien spoke the name while ad-libbing on his show. O'Brien subsequently created a website based on the concept and used it as a running gag on the show.[44] Companies whose works have used fictitious domain names have also employed firms such as MarkMonitor to park fictional domain names in order to prevent misuse by third parties.[45]

Misspelled domain names

[edit]

Misspelled domain names, also known as typosquatting or URL hijacking, are domain names that are intentionally or unintentionally misspelled versions of popular or well-known domain names. The goal of misspelled domain names is to capitalize on internet users who accidentally type in a misspelled domain name, and are then redirected to a different website.

Misspelled domain names are often used for malicious purposes, such as phishing scams or distributing malware. In some cases, the owners of misspelled domain names may also attempt to sell the domain names to the owners of the legitimate domain names, or to individuals or organizations who are interested in capitalizing on the traffic generated by internet users who accidentally type in the misspelled domain names.

To avoid being caught by a misspelled domain name, internet users should be careful to type in domain names correctly, and should avoid clicking on links that appear suspicious or unfamiliar. Additionally, individuals and organizations who own popular or well-known domain names should consider registering common misspellings of their domain names in order to prevent others from using them for malicious purposes.

Domain name spoofing

[edit]

The term Domain name spoofing (or simply though less accurately, Domain spoofing) is used generically to describe one or more of a class of phishing attacks that depend on falsifying or misrepresenting an internet domain name.[46][47] These are designed to persuade unsuspecting users into visiting a web site other than that intended, or opening an email that is not in reality from the address shown (or apparently shown).[48] Although website and email spoofing attacks are more widely known, any service that relies on domain name resolution may be compromised.

Types

[edit]

There are a number of better-known types of domain spoofing:

The typosquatter's URL will usually be one of five kinds, all similar to the victim site address:
  • A common misspelling, or foreign language spelling, of the intended site
  • A misspelling based on a typographical error
  • A plural of a singular domain name
  • A different top-level domain: (i.e. .com instead of .org)
  • An abuse of the Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) (.cm, .co, or .om instead of .com)
  • IDN homograph attack. This type of attack depends on registering a domain name that is similar to the 'target' domain, differing from it only because its spelling includes one or more characters that come from a different alphabet but look the same to the naked eye. For example, the Cyrillic, Latin, and Greek alphabets each have their own letter A, each of which has its own binary code point. Turkish has a dotless letter i (ı) that may not be perceived as different from the ASCII letter i. Most web browsers warn of 'mixed alphabet' domain names,[50][51][52][53] Other services, such as email applications, may not provide the same protection. Reputable top level domain and country code domain registrars will not accept applications to register a deceptive name but this policy cannot be presumed to be infallible.
  • DNS spoofing – Cyberattack using corrupt DNS data
  • Website spoofing – Creating a website, as a hoax, with the intention of misleading readers
  • Email spoofing – Creating email spam or phishing messages with a forged sender identity or address

Risk mitigation

[edit]

Legitimate technologies that may be subverted

[edit]
  • URL redirection – Technique for making a Web page available under more than one URL address
  • Domain fronting – Technique for Internet censorship circumvention

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Stevens, W. Richard (1994). TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols. Vol. 1 (1 ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 9780201633467.
  2. ^ Arends, R.; Austein, R.; Larson, M.; Massey, D.; Rose, S. (2005). RFC 4034 – Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions (Technical report). IEFT. doi:10.17487/RFC4034. Archived from the original on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2015-07-05.
  3. ^ Low, Jerry. "Why are generic domains so expensive?". TheRealJerryLow.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  4. ^ RFC 3467, Role of the Domain Name System (DNS), J.C. Klensin, J. Klensin (February 2003)
  5. ^ Cricket Liu, Paul Albitz (2006). DNS and BIND (5th ed.). O'Reilly. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2011-09-05. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  6. ^ "The first ever 20 domain names registered". ComputerWeekly.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  7. ^ Rooksby, Jacob H. (2015). "Defining Domain: Higher Education's Battles for Cyberspace". Brooklyn Law Review. 80 (3): 857–942. Archived from the original on 2018-11-07. Retrieved 2015-10-27. at p. 869
  8. ^ Mockapetris, P. (November 1987). "Domain names - Implementation and specification (RFC 1035)". IETF Datatracker. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  9. ^ "Introduction to Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)". Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Archived from the original on 2009-06-15. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  10. ^ RFC 920, Domain Requirements, J. Postel, J. Reynolds, The Internet Society (October 1984)
  11. ^ "New gTLD Program" Archived 2011-11-25 at the Wayback Machine, ICANN, October 2009
  12. ^ "32nd International Public ICANN Meeting". ICANN. 2008-06-22. Archived from the original on 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  13. ^ "New gTLS Program". ICANN. Archived from the original on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
  14. ^ ICANN Board Approves Sweeping Overhaul of Top-level Domains Archived 2009-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, CircleID, 26 June 2008.
  15. ^ "About the Program - ICANN New gTLDs". ICANN. Archived from the original on 2016-11-03. Retrieved 2016-11-09.
  16. ^ "Root Zone Database". IANA. Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  17. ^ Cheshire, S.; Krochmal, M. (February 2013). "RFC6761 - Special-Use Domain Names". Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC6761. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  18. ^ "Executive Summary - dot brand observatory". observatory.domains. Archived from the original on 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2016-11-09.
  19. ^ Internet Grows to 294 Million Domain Names in the First Quarter of 2015 Archived 2017-12-20 at the Wayback Machine, Jun 30, 2015.
  20. ^ "Thirty years of .COM domains - and the numbers are up". Geekzone. Mar 13, 2015. Archived from the original on April 7, 2016. Retrieved Mar 25, 2016.
  21. ^ Evangelista, Benny. 2010. "25 years of .com names." San Francisco Chronicle. March 15, p. 1
  22. ^ "Domain domination: The com TLD larger than all ccTLDs combined". Royal.pingdom.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-23. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
  23. ^ "DNIB Quarterly Report Q4 2023". Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  24. ^ "ICANN-Accredited Registrars". ICANN. Archived from the original on 2019-05-19. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
  25. ^ "Choose A Top Domain Registrar Of Your Choice Using Our Search Tool". Verisign. Archived from the original on 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2015-08-10.
  26. ^ Arif, Sengoren (1 October 2024). "Confidentially domain acquiring".
  27. ^ "Anonymous Domain Ownership". Conference: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). 1 October 2024.
  28. ^ Courtney, Curzi (14 October 2014). "WhoRepresents helps brands connect with celebrity influencers". DM News. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  29. ^ Ki, Mae Heussner (2 June 2010). "'Slurls': Most Outrageous Website URLs". ABC News. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  30. ^ McCullagh, Declan (2003-10-03). "VeriSign fends off critics at ICANN confab". CNET News. Archived from the original on January 4, 2013. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
  31. ^ "Verisign's Wildcard Service Deployment". ICANN. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
  32. ^ Mueller, M (March 2004). Ruling the Root. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-63298-5.
  33. ^ Slashdot.org Archived 2010-02-17 at the Wayback Machine, NSI Registers Every Domain Checked
  34. ^ FBI / DOJ (15 April 2011). "Warning". Archived from the original on 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  35. ^ Dia, Miaz (4 February 2010). "website laten maken". Kmowebdiensten. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  36. ^ Gabriel, Jeffrey (18 June 2020). "Past Congressional Attempts to Combat Online Copyright Infringement". Saw. Archived from the original on 2020-06-20. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  37. ^ Jerome, Sarah (6 April 2011). "Tech industry wary of domain name seizures". The Hill. Archived from the original on 2011-04-10. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  38. ^ "U.S. Government Shuts Down 84,000 Websites, 'By Mistake'". Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2012-12-16.
  39. ^ Jeftovic, Mark (8 October 2013). "Whatever Happened to "Due Process" ?". Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  40. ^ Tackling online criminal activity Archived 2017-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, 1 November 2016 – 31 October 2017, Nominet
  41. ^ ECHR 18 September 2007, no. 25379/04, 21688/05, 21722/05, 21770/05, Paeffgen v Germany.
  42. ^ a b Levine, John R. (April 21, 2019). "Domain Name Variants Still Won't Work". Archived from the original on July 29, 2020. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  43. ^ "Comment on ICANN Recommendations for Managing IDN Variant Top-Level Domains" (PDF). ICANN. April 21, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  44. ^ "So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet Archived 2017-01-23 at the Wayback Machine", The New York Times, December 12, 2006. Retrieved April 12, 2008.
  45. ^ Allemann, Andrew (2019-11-05). "Part of MarkMonitor sold to OpSec Security". Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
  46. ^ "Canadian banks hit by two-year domain name spoofing scam". Finextra. 9 January 2020. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  47. ^ "Domain spoofing". Barracuda Networks. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  48. ^ Tara Seals (August 6, 2019). "Mass Spoofing Campaign Abuses Walmart Brand". threatpost. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  49. ^ "Example Screenshots of Strider URL Tracer With Typo-Patrol". Microsoft Research. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008.
  50. ^ "Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in Google Chrome". chromium.googlesource.com. Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  51. ^ "Upcoming update with IDN homograph phishing fix - Blog". Opera Security. 2017-04-21. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
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[edit]

 

 

User Friendly
"Press any key"
Author(s) J. D. Frazer, a.k.a. "Illiad"
Website www.userfriendly.org
Current status/schedule Completed
Launch date November 17, 1997 (1997-11-17)[# 1]
End date November 21, 2010 (2010-11-21)
Genre(s) Technology and geek humor

User Friendly was a webcomic written by J. D. Frazer, also known by his pen name Illiad. Starting in 1997, the strip was one of the earliest webcomics to make its creator a living. The comic is set in a fictional internet service provider and draws humor from dealing with clueless users and geeky subjects. The comic ran seven days a week until 2009, when updates became sporadic, and since 2010 it had been in re-runs only. The webcomic was shut down in late February 2022, after an announcement from Frazer.[1]

Premise

[edit]

User Friendly is set inside a fictional ISP, Columbia Internet.[2] According to reviewer Eric Burns, the strip is set in a world where "[u]sers were dumbasses who asked about cupholders that slid out of their computers, marketing executives were perverse and stupid and deserved humiliation, bosses were clueless and often naively cruel, and I.T. workers were somewhat shortsighted and misguided, but the last bastion of human reason... Every time we see Greg working, it's to deal with yet another annoying, self-important clueless user who hasn't gotten his brain around the digital world".[3] Although mostly gag-a-day, the comic often had ongoing running arcs and occasionally continuing character through-lines.

Cast

[edit]

A.J. Garrett

[edit]

A.J., Illiad's alter ego,[4] represents "the creative guy" in the strip, maintaining and designing websites. As a web designer, he's uncomfortably crammed in that tiny crevice between the techies and the marketing people. This means he's not disliked by anyone, but they all look at him funny from time to time. A.J. is shy and sensitive, loves most computer games and nifty art, and has a big-brother relationship with the Dust Puppy. A.J. is terrified of grues and attempts to avoid them.[# 2] He was released from the company on two separate occasions but returned shortly thereafter.

In the strip as of September 16, 2005, he and Miranda (another character) are dating. They also have previously dated, but split up over a misunderstanding.

The Chief

[edit]

The Chief is Columbia Internet's CEO. He is the leader of the techies and salespeople.

Illiad based the character on a former boss, saying, "The Chief is based on my business mentor. He was the vice president that I reported to back in the day. The Chief, like my mentor, is tall (!) and thin and sports a bushy ring around a bald crown, plus a very thick moustache." The Chief bears a superficial resemblance to the Pointy-Haired Boss of Dilbert fame. However, Illiad says that The Chief was not inspired by the Dilbert character.[# 3] His personality is very different from the PHB, as well: he manages in the laissez-faire style, as opposed to the Marketing-based, micro-managing stance of the PHB. He has encouraged the office to standardise on Linux (much to Stef's chagrin).[# 4]

Dust Puppy

[edit]

Born in a server from a combination of dust, lint, and quantum events, the Dust Puppy looks similar to a ball of dust and lint, with eyes, feet and an occasional big toothy smile. He was briefly absent from the strip after accidentally being blown with compressed air while sleeping inside a dusty server.

Although the Dust Puppy is very innocent and unworldly, he plays a superb game of Quake. He also created an artificial intelligence named Erwin, with whom he has been known to do occasional song performances (or filks).

Dust Puppy is liked by most of the other characters, with the exceptions of Stef and the Dust Puppy's evil nemesis, the Crud Puppy.

First appearance December 3, 1997.[# 5]

Crud Puppy

[edit]

Crud Puppy (Lord Ignatius Crud)[# 6] is the evil twin, born from the crud in Stef's keyboard; he is the nemesis of the Dust Puppy and sometimes takes the role of "bad guy" in the series. Examples include being the attorney/legal advisor of both Microsoft and then AOL or controlling a "Thing" suit in the Antarctic. He is most often seen in later strips in an Armani suit, usually sitting at the local bar with Cthulhu. The Crud Puppy first appeared in the strip on February 24, 1998.[# 7]

Erwin

[edit]

Erwin first appeared in the January 25, 1998 strip. Erwin is a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) created overnight during experimentation in artificial intelligence by the Dust Puppy, who was feeling kind of bored. Erwin is written in COBOL[# 8] because Dust Puppy "lost a bet".[# 9] Erwin passes the Turing test with flying colours, and has a dry sense of humour. He is an expert on any subject that is covered on the World Wide Web, such as Elvis sightings and alien conspiracies. Erwin is rather self-centered, and he is fond of mischievous pranks.

Originally, Erwin occupied the classic "monitor and keyboard" type computer with an x86 computer architecture, but was later given such residences as an iMac, a Palm III, a Coleco Adam on Mir, a Furby, a nuclear weapon guidance system, an SGI O2, a Hewlett-Packard Calculator (with reverse Polish notation, which meant that Erwin talked like Yoda for weeks afterward), a Lego Mindstorms construction, a Tamagotchi, a Segway, an IBM PC 5150, a Timber Wolf-class BattleMech,[# 10] and an Internet-equipped toilet (with Dust Puppy being the toilet brush), as a punishment for insulting Hastur.

Greg Flemming

[edit]

Greg is in charge of Technical Support in the strip. In other words, he's the guy that customers whine to when something goes wrong, which drives him nuts. He blows off steam by playing visceral games and doing bad things to the salespeople. He's not a bad sort, but his grip on his sanity hovers somewhere between weak and non-existent, and he once worked for Microsoft Quality Assurance.

Mike Floyd

[edit]

Mike is the System Administrator of the strip and is responsible for the smooth running of the network at the office. He's bright but prone to fits of anxiety. His worst nightmare is being locked in a room with a sweaty Windows 95 programmer and no hacking weapons in sight.[5] He loves hot ramen straight out of a styrofoam cup.

Miranda Cornielle

[edit]

Miranda is a trained systems technologist, an experienced UNIX sysadmin, and very, very female. Her technical abilities unnerve the other techs, but her obvious physical charms compel them to stare at her, except for Pitr, who is convinced she is evil. Although she has few character flaws, she does express sadistic tendencies, especially towards marketers and lusers. Miranda finds Dust Puppy adorable.

She and A.J. are dating as of September 16, 2005, although she was previously frustrated by his inability to express himself and his love for her. This comes after years of missed opportunities and misunderstandings, such as when A.J. poured his feelings into an email and Miranda mistook it for the ILOVEYOU email worm and deleted it unread.[6]

Pitr Dubovich

[edit]

Pitr is the administrator of the Columbia Internet server and a self-proclaimed Linux guru. He suddenly began to speak with a fake Slavic accent as part of his program to "Become an Evil Genius." He has almost succeeded in taking over the planet several times. His sworn enemy is Sid, who seems to outdo him at every turn. Pitr's achievements include: making the world's (second) strongest coffee, merging Coca-Cola, Pepsi into Pitr-Cola and making Columbia Internet millions with a nuclear weapon purchased from Russia, and the infamous Vigor text editor. He briefly worked for Google, nearly succeeding in world domination, but was released from there and returned to Columbia Internet. Despite his vast efforts to become the ultimate evil character, his lack of illheartedness prevents him from reaching such achievement.

Sid Dabster

[edit]

Sid is the oldest of the geeks and very knowledgeable. His advanced age gives him the upper hand against Pitr, whom he has outdone on several occasions, including in a coffee-brewing competition and in a round of Jeopardy! that he hacked in his own favor. Unlike Pitr, he has no ambitions for world domination per se, but he is a friend of Hastur and Cthulhu (based on the H. P. Lovecraft Mythos characters). He was hired in September 2000 and he had formerly worked for Hewlett-Packard, with ten years' experience[# 11] It is his habit, unlike the other techs, to dress to a somewhat professional degree; when he first came to work, Smiling Man, the head accountant, expressed shock at the fact that Sid was wearing his usual blue business suit.[# 12] He is also a fan of old technology, having grown up in the age of TECO, PDP-6es, the original VT100, FORTRAN, IBM 3270 and the IBM 5150; one could, except for the decent taste in clothing, categorise him as a Real Programmer. He was once a cannabis smoker,[# 13] as contrasted with the rest of the technological staff, who prefer caffeine (Greg in the form of cola, Miranda in the form of espresso). This had the unfortunate effect of causing lung cancer and he was treated by an oncologist.[# 14] He has since recovered from the cancer and was told he has another 20 years or so to live.

Pearl Dabster

[edit]

Sid Dabster's beautiful daughter. The character appeared for the first time in the strip of Aug. 30, 2001.[# 15] Pearl is often seen getting the better of the boys. She is the antagonist of Miranda, and occasionally the object of Pitr's affections, much to the chagrin of Sid. Some people (both in strip and in the real world) wrongly assume that the character was named after the scripting language PERL. While this may be the true intention of the author, in the script timeline, is shown to be an error based on wordplay.[# 16]

Smiling Man

[edit]

The Smiling Man is the company comptroller. He is in charge of accounts, finances, and expenditures. He smiles all day for no reason. This in itself is enough to terrify most normal human beings (even via phone). However, the Dust Puppy, the "Evilphish", a delirious Stef, and a consultant in a purple suit have managed to get him to stop smiling first. His favourite wallpaper is a large, complex, and utterly meaningless spreadsheet.

Stef Murky

[edit]

Stef is the strip's Corporate Sales Manager. He runs most of the marketing efforts within the firm, often selling things before they exist. He is a stereotypical marketer, with an enormous ego and a condescending attitude toward the techies; they detest him and frequently retaliate with pranks. He sucks at Quake, even once managing to die at the startup screen in Quake III Arena;[# 17] in addition, he manages to die by falling into lava in any game that contains it, including games where it is normally impossible to step in said lava.[# 18] Although he admires Microsoft and frequently defends their marketing tactics, infuriating the techies, he has a real problem with Microsoft salesmen, probably because they make much more money than he does. His attitude towards women is decidedly chauvinist; he lusts after Miranda who will not have anything to do with him. Stef is definitely gormless, as demonstrated on January 14, 2005.[# 19]

Production

[edit]

In a 2008 article, reviewer Eric Burns said that as best he could tell, Frazer had produced strips seven days a week, without missing an update for, at that time, almost 11 years.[3] Frazer would draw several days' worth of comics in advance, but the Sunday comic – based on current events and in color – was always drawn for immediate release and did not relate to the regular storyline.[citation needed]

The website for User Friendly included other features such as Link of the Day and Iambe Intimate & Interactive, a weekly editorial written under the pseudonym "Iambe".[7]

In late 1999, User Friendly and Sluggy Freelance swapped a character (A.J. and Torg).[citation needed]

The strip and Loki Software teamed up for player skin and custom level contest for Quake III Arena in 2000.[8] A Flash cartoon based on the series was also produced.[9][10]

Author

[edit]

J. D. Frazer was born in 1969.[11] He began his career in law enforcement and served as a corrections officer,[12] hoping eventually to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but he changed his mind, leaving law enforcement to pursue more creative endeavours.[13] He worked as a game designer, production manager, art director, project manager, Web services manager, writer, creative director, and cartoonist.[14] As of 2014 he lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[5]

Creation

[edit]

Frazer started writing User Friendly in 1997.[2] According to Frazer, he started cartooning at age 12. He had tried to get into cartooning through syndicates with a strip called Dust Puppies, but it was rejected by six syndicates. Later, while working at an ISP, he drew some cartoons which his co-workers enjoyed. He then drew a month's worth of cartoons and posted them online. After that, he quit his job and then worked on the comic.[15]

Success

[edit]

Writer Xavier Xerxes said that in the very early days of webcomics, Frazer was probably one of the bigger success stories and was one of the first to make a living from a webcomic.[16] Eric Burns attributed initial success of the comic to the makeup of the early internet, saying, "In 1997, a disproportionate number of internet users... were in the I.T. Industry. When User Friendly began gathering momentum, there wasn't just little to nothing like it on the web -- it appealed and spoke to a much larger percentage of the internet reading audience than mainstream society would support outside of that filter.... in the waning years of the 20th Century, it was a safe bet that if someone had an internet connection in the first place, they'd find User Friendly funny."[3]

On April Fools' Day 1999, the site appeared to be shut down permanently after a third party sued.[17][18] In future years, the April 1st cartoon referenced back to the disruption that was caused.[19][20]

In a 2001 interview, Frazer said that he was not handling fame well, and pretended not to be famous in order to keep his life normal. He said that his income came from sponsorship, advertising, and sales of printed collections.[15] These compilations have been published by O'Reilly Media.[21]

Since 2000, User Friendly had been published in a variety of newspapers, including The National Post in Canada and the Linux Journal magazine.[22]

Ideas

[edit]

In a 2001 interview, Frazer estimated that about 40% of strip ideas came from reader submissions, and occasionally he would get submissions that he would use "unmodified".[23] He also said that he educated himself on the operating system BSD in order to make informed jokes about it.[15]

In 2009, Frazer was found to be copying punchlines found in the MetaFilter community. After one poster found a comment on MetaFilter that was similar to a User Friendly comic, users searched and found several other examples.[24] Initially, Frazer posted on MetaFilter saying "I get a flurry of submissions and one-liners every week, and I haven't checked many of them at all, because I rarely had to in the past" but later admitted that he had taken quotes directly from the site.[25][24] On his website, Frazer said, "I offered no attribution or asked for permission [for these punchlines], over the last couple of years I've infringed on the expression of ideas of some (who I think are) clever people. Plagiarized. My hypocrisy seems to know no bounds, as an infamous gunman was once heard saying. I sincerely apologize to my readers and to the original authors. I offer no excuses and accept full blame and responsibility. As a result, I'll be modifying the cartoons in question. No, it won't happen again. Yes, I've immersed myself in mild acid."[26]

While published books still contain at least one cartoon with a punchline taken from MetaFilter, Frazer has removed these cartoons from the website, or updated them to quote and credit the source of the punchlines, and fans searched through the archives to ensure that none of the other punchlines have been plagiarized.[27]

Suspension

[edit]

The strip went on hiatus from June 1, 2009[# 20] to August 2009 for personal reasons.[# 21] In this period, previous strips were re-posted.

A second hiatus lasted from December 1, 2009 until August 1, 2010, again for personal reasons. New cartoons, supplied by the community as part of a competition, started to appear as of August 2, 2010.[# 22]

From November 1, 2010 through November 21, 2010, Illiad published a special "Remembrance Day story arc", and stated that it is "vague and at this point random" what will happen to the strip afterwards, that "going daily again is highly unlikely", but that "there are still many stories that I want to tell through UF, over time".[# 23] Since then, previous comics have been re-posted on a daily basis.

After the de facto stop of publishing new content, three one-off comics commemoration special occasions were published:

On 24 February 2022, Illiad announced that the website would be shut down soon, "at the end of this month. If not, it won't be much later than that."[28]

At approximately midnight PST on the evening of 28 February 2022, the website was shut down.

Reviews

[edit]

User Friendly has received mixed reviews over the years.

In a 2008 review, Eric Burns of Websnark called it a "damned good comic strip", but felt it had several problems. Burns felt that the strip had not evolved in several years, saying "his strip is exactly the same today as it was in 1998... the same characters, the same humor, the same punchlines, the same punching bags as before." Burns said that characters learn no lessons, and that "[i]f Frazer uses copy and paste to put his characters in, he's been using the same clip art for the entire 21st century." Burns also criticised the stereotypical depiction of idiotic computer users as outdated. But fundamentally, Burns found the strip funny, saying anyone who had worked IT would likely find it funny, and even those who had not will find something in it amusing. Burns felt that some criticism of User Friendly came from seeing it as general webcomic, rather than one targeted at a specific audience of old-school IT geeks, and he considered that the targeted approach was a good business model.[3]

Writer T Campbell declared JD Frazer's work as "ow[ing] a heavy debt to [Scott] Adams, but his 'nerdcore' was a purer sort: the jokes were often for nerds ONLY-- NO NON-TECHIES ALLOWD [sic]." He continued "He wasn't the first webtoonist to target his audience so precisely, but he was the first to do it on a daily schedule, and that kind of single-minded dedication is something most techies could appreciate. User Friendly set the tone for nerdcore strips to follow."[29] Time magazine called User Friendly "a strip in the wry, verbal vein of Doonesbury...the humor is a combination of pop culture references and inside jokes straight outta the IT department."[30] The strip was among the most notable of a wave of similar strips, including Help Desk by Christopher B. Wright,[31] General Protection Fault by Jeffrey T. Darlington,[32] The PC Weenies by Krishna Sadasivam,[33] Geek & Poke by Oliver Widder,[34] Working Daze by John Zakour, and The Joy of Tech by Liza Schmalcel and Bruce Evans.

Comic writer and artist Joe Zabel said that User Friendly "may be one of the earliest webcomics manifestation of the use of templates... renderings of the characters that are cut and pasted directly into the comic strip... I think the main significance of User Friendly is that in 1997 it was really, really crude in every respect. Horrible artwork, terrible storyline, zilch characterization, and extremely dull, obvious jokes. And yet it was a smash hit! I think this demonstrates that the public will embrace just about anything if it's free and the circumstances are right. And it indicates that new internet users of the time were really hungry, downright starving, for entertainment.... his current work [speaking in 2005] is comparatively slick and professional. But I suspect that his early work had enormous influence, because it encouraged thousands of people with few skills and little talent to jump into the webcomics field." Zabel also credited User Friendly's success in part to its "series mascot", Dust Puppy, saying that "the popular gag-a-day cartoons almost always have some kind of mascot."[29]

The webcomic Penny Arcade produced a strip in 1999 just to criticise Frazer, saying "people will pass up steak once a week for crap every day."[35] They also criticized the commercialism of the enterprise.[36] By contrast, CNET included it on 2007 a list of "sidesplitting tech comics",[33] Mashable included it in a 2009 list of the 20 best webcomics[2] and Polygon listed it as one of the most influential webcomics of all time in 2018.[37] It has also been noted by FromDev,[38] Brainz,[39] RiskOptics,[40] DondeQ2,[41] and Pingdom.[31] CBR.com concluded the comic had aged poorly in a 2023 rundown.[42]

Lawrence I. Charters appreciated the nature of the titles used for the published books.[43] Francis Glassborow cited the specificity of the humour,[44] which also lead Retro Activity to find the strip "difficult to recommend" along with the limited art style.[45] Mike Kaltschnee also mentioned the weakness of the art, but was impressed at Illiad maintaining publication of a strip every day.[46] "Webcomics: The Influence and Continuation of the Comix Revolution" described how the strip represented the counter-cultural aspects of the open-source software movement.[47] Dustin Puryear observed how the strip represents the conflicts between the computer literate and newer less informed users.[48] Christine Moellenberndt wrote about the online community spawned around the comic strip.[49]

In 2007, User Friendly was part of an exhibit at The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art called Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics.[50]

Bibliography

[edit]

Several cartoon compilations have been published:

  • User Friendly, v1.0, Plan Nine Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-929462-39-5 (collects earlier strips)
  • User Friendly, O'Reilly, 1999, ISBN 1-56592-673-0 January 25, 1998 Archived July 5, 2013, at archive.todayDecember 25, 1998 (misses out December 20 Archived November 13, 2005, at the Wayback Machine and probably some others)
  • Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell, O'Reilly, 2000, ISBN 1-56592-861-X January 3, 1999December 11, 1999
  • The Root of All Evil, O'Reilly, 2001, ISBN 0-596-00193-2 January 1, 2000December 31, 2000
  • Even Grues Get Full, O'Reilly, 2003, ISBN 0-596-00566-0 January 1, 2001November 17, 2001
  • User Friendly – Die Deutsche Dialekt-Ausgabe (translation to several German dialects) ISBN 3-89721-380-X
  • Ten Years of UserFriendly.Org, Manning Dec 2008, ISBN 978-1-935182-12-2 a 1000-page hardback collection of every script with some comments by the author.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "UserFriendly Strip Comments". February 26, 2022. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c P. Aune, Sean (March 3, 2009). "20 of the Best Web Comics". Mashable. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Burns, Eric (May 2008). "Eric: State of the (Web)Cartoonist: J.D. "Illiad" Frazer". Websnark. Archived from the original on June 1, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  4. ^ Frazer, J. D. (March 2002). User Friendly v1.0. Plan Nine Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 1-929462-39-5.
  5. ^ a b Illiad. "UF Cartoon Archive - Character Gallery - Mike". www.userfriendly.org.
  6. ^ Illiad. "UserFriendly Strip Comments". ars.userfriendly.org.
  7. ^ Iambe Intimate & Interactive site page, http://www.userfriendly.org/community/iambe/
  8. ^ Gasperson, Tina (September 21, 2000). "Loki and Userfriendly sponsor Quake III skins contest". Linux.com. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  9. ^ Smith, JT (September 18, 2000). "VFS Live to stream interview with Illiad and WebDi". Linux.com. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  10. ^ "User Friendly Animation Episode 1 - Play Online on Flash Museum 🕹️". Flash Museum. April 16, 2024.
  11. ^ Illiad (2006). Money for content and your clicks for free : turning web sites, blogs, and podcasts into cash. Indianapolis: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-74753-6. OCLC 64089426.
  12. ^ Frazer, J. D. (September 28, 2006). "What job/career have you had that you wouldn't recommend to anyone?". User Friendly. Retrieved September 29, 2006.
  13. ^ Brown, Janelle (October 27, 1999). "Cartoon for coders". Salon. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
  14. ^ "Even Grues Get Full - tech humor book review". www.kickstartnews.com. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  15. ^ a b c Coleman, Chris (February 9, 2001). "An Interview With Illiad". ONLamp. Archived from the original on January 5, 2002. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
  16. ^ Xerxes, Xaviar (January 2007). "Biggie Panda: Old Skool Webcomics". COMIXtalk. Archived from the original on September 2, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
  17. ^ Whitinger, Dave (April 1, 1999). "Segfault.org and UserFriendly.org get shut down". Linux Today. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  18. ^ Whitinger, Dave (April 1, 1999). "April Fools!". Linux Today. Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  19. ^ April 1, 2000 Cartoon, https://web.archive.org/web/20220225214636/http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20000401
  20. ^ April 1, 2004 Cartoon, https://web.archive.org/web/20220226103320/http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040401
  21. ^ "O'Reilly Releases "The Root of All Evil"--Latest Exploits of User Friendly's Dust Puppy & Gang". O'Reilly Media. September 4, 2001. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  22. ^ Lucas, Josh (September 1, 1999). "Dilbert Killer". Wired. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  23. ^ Brown, Janelle (October 27, 1999). "Cartoon for coders". Salon.com. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  24. ^ a b Social Pressure Can Solve The 'Copying' Problem Even Without Copyright, Techdirt, February 23, 2009.
  25. ^ "Wha Wha Wibble". metatalk.metafilter.com. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Frazer, J.D. (February 23, 2009). "[Illiad] BEYOND THE PALE AND AN APOLOGY". User Friendly. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  27. ^ Frazer, J.D. (March 13, 2009). "[Illiad] FIXED, AND WILL CONTINUE FIXING". User Friendly. Archived from the original on June 21, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  28. ^ "HEADS UP: We're Going Dark", Illiad, 2022-02-24
  29. ^ a b Zabel, Joseph ‘Joe’; et al. (September 30, 2005). "The Artistic History of Webcomics: A Webcomics Examiner Roundtable". The Webcomics Examiner. Archived from the original on November 24, 2005. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
  30. ^ Worthy (November 22, 2022). "User Friendly". Everything2. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  31. ^ a b SolarWinds Worldwide (January 16, 2009). "7 tech comics that will put a big smile on your face". Pingdom. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  32. ^ ""User Friendly" and "GPF" Creators on Comics and Operating Systems". Linux Today. November 8, 2005. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  33. ^ a b Dolcourt, Jessica (September 10, 2007). "Sidesplitting tech comics". CNET. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  34. ^ Francis, Carol (June 17, 2013). "The Best Entertaining Online Web Tech Comics". oneextrapixel. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  35. ^ Holkins, Jerry; Mike, Krahulik (April 7, 1999). "Illiad: Not Funny". Penny Arcade. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  36. ^ dragoon (August 20, 2000). "User Friendly Media". Everything2. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  37. ^ Jensen, K. Thor (November 27, 2018). "The most influential webcomics of all time". Polygon. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  38. ^ Dubey, Sarikaz (May 14, 2014). "Awesome Geek Comics Websites". FromDev. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  39. ^ "20 Funny Web Comics You'd Love To Read". Brainz. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  40. ^ Riskoptics (March 3, 2017). "6 InfoSec Cartoons & Webcomics to Brighten a Gloomy Week". RiskOptics. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  41. ^ "Quake Funny Pages: >Byte Me_, Dilbert, Penny Arcade and User Friendly". DondeQ2. November 14, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  42. ^ Trinos, Angelo Delos (August 8, 2023). "10 Great Webcomics That Aged Poorly". CBR.com. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
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Story notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (November 17, 1997), "Cartoon with Strip Comments", UserFriendly.
  2. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 17, 2002), "Strip Comments", UserFriendly.
  3. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (July 18, 2006), "Strip Comments", UserFriendly.
  4. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 8, 1998), User Friendly (cartoon).
  5. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (December 3, 1997), "Dust Puppy's first appearance", User Friendly (cartoon), archived from the original on January 1, 2015, retrieved February 13, 2012
  6. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (September 15, 2005), "Nag strip", User Friendly.
  7. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (April 5, 1998), "Anatomy of a Crud Puppy", User Friendly (cartoon).
  8. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 18, 2000), User Friendly (cartoon), archived from the original on September 26, 2017, retrieved August 20, 2011.
  9. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 19, 2000), User Friendly (cartoon), archived from the original on November 27, 2002, retrieved August 29, 2011.
  10. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 4, 2001), User Friendly (cartoon).
  11. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (September 26, 2000), User Friendly (cartoon).
  12. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (September 27, 2000), User Friendly (cartoon).
  13. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (May 7, 2001), User friendly (cartoon), archived from the original on December 17, 2002, retrieved August 28, 2009.
  14. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 14, 2009), User Friendly (cartoon).
  15. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (August 30, 2001), User Friendly (cartoon).
  16. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (August 31, 2001), User Friendly (cartoon).
  17. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (March 17, 2000), User Friendly (cartoon), archived from the original on July 11, 2002, retrieved February 25, 2008.
  18. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 14, 2006), User Friendly (cartoon), archived from the original on May 5, 2019, retrieved November 13, 2008.
  19. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (January 14, 2005), "Strip Comments", User Friendly (UserFriendly).
  20. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (June 1, 2009), User Friendly.
  21. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’, "June & July", User Friendly (re-runs), archived from the original on May 14, 2019, retrieved June 1, 2009.
  22. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (August 2, 2010), User Friendly.
  23. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’, "Remembrance Day Story Arc & Other Matters", User Friendly.
  24. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (March 19, 2011), User Friendly.
  25. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (October 9, 2011), User Friendly.
  26. ^ Frazer, JD ‘Illiad’ (January 1, 2012), User Friendly.
[edit]

 

Frequently Asked Questions

The cost of our web design services depends on several factors such as the complexity of the site, special features needed, time frame etc. Therefore we dont have standard pricing but we can provide an estimate once we understand your requirements better.
Some of the top-rated web design agencies in Sydney include G Squared, Digital Garden, The Website Marketing Group (TWMG), and Magicdust.
These companies are known for their innovative designs, customised services catering to various industries, efficient project management and execution, high client satisfaction rates and positive reviews.
These agencies typically cater to a wide range of clients from different sectors including retail, finance, hospitality, technology among others. They offer services to both small businesses and larger corporate entities.
You can visit their websites directly for more information on their services. Most have contact forms where you can detail your needs or provide your contact details for them to get back to you. Alternatively, some also provide direct email addresses or phone numbers you can use to initiate communication.
The cost of web design services in Sydney can vary greatly depending on the complexity and size of the project. On average, it ranges from AUD$2,000 to AUD$10,000 for small to medium-sized businesses.
Yes, there are ongoing costs involved in maintaining a website such as hosting fees, domain name renewal, software updates, content changes and security measures that can range between AUD$50 to AUD$200 per month based on your service provider and plan.
Yes, many web designers in Sydney offer package deals which include both designing the website and providing ongoing maintenance services. These packages often prove more economical over time than individual services.
You should consider factors like experience, portfolio quality, client reviews/testimonials, pricing transparency and post-completion support when choosing a reliable web design agency. Its also recommended to have an initial consultation to ensure they understand your business needs and expectations.
Most Sydney web design companies provide services such as website design and development, mobile app development, eCommerce solutions, UX/UI design, search engine optimization (SEO), digital marketing strategies, content management systems (CMS), web hosting and maintenance.
Yes. Many Sydney-based web design companies offer tailored website designs to meet the specific needs and brand identity of each business or individual.
These companies use various strategies like keyword research & optimization, creating high-quality content, ensuring fast loading speed, making websites mobile-friendly, and implementing meta tags & descriptions to make sure that the websites they build perform well on search engines.
Absolutely. Numerous Sydney web design firms specialize in developing eCommerce websites with features like shopping carts, secure payment gateways, product catalogue management etc.
Most Sydney web design firms provide ongoing technical support that includes site maintenance for bug fixes or updates as well as potential future redesigns. They may also provide analytics reports to help understand user behavior on your site.
Website developers in Sydney typically offer an array of services including custom web design, web development, eCommerce solutions, digital marketing strategies, SEO optimization, and mobile app development. They can also provide regular site maintenance and user experience testing.
The cost of hiring a website developer in Sydney can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the project. A simple website could cost around $2,000-$5,000 AUD while more complex sites will be considerably more expensive. Its best to get a quote directly from the web design company for accurate pricing.
The timeline for developing a new site depends on several factors including complexity of the design, number of pages, custom features required etc. Generally it could take anywhere between 4-12 weeks to build a functional and visually pleasing website. However, this timeline is flexible based on client needs and feedback.
Creative web design involves more than just coding and layout. Its about combining aesthetic elements with functionality to create an engaging, interactive, and user-friendly website.
A creative website not only looks good but also provides an immersive experience for users. This can increase engagement, improve brand perception, and make your business stand out from competition.
Yes, weve worked on several projects where we were able to showcase our creativity. Wed be happy to share our portfolio with you to give you a better understanding of what we can do.
The process starts with understanding your goals and target audience. Then we brainstorm and come up with unique ideas that align with these goals, followed by wireframing, prototyping, testing and finally launching the site.
The cost will depend on many factors such as complexity of the design, number of pages needed, special features required etc. We will discuss all these details to provide an accurate quote before starting any work.
You should consider factors such as the agencys portfolio, customer reviews, cost of service, and their understanding of your industry. Its also crucial to ensure they are local to Sydney if face-to-face meetings are important to you.
The price can vary depending on the complexity of the design and functionality required. On average, small businesses might expect to pay anywhere from $2,000 - $10,000 AUD.
Typically, designing and launching a basic website takes around 6-8 weeks. However, more complex sites may require several months.
Yes, many web design agencies also offer SEO services. It is beneficial to hire an agency that understands SEO best practices as this will help your site rank higher on search engines.
A professionally designed website helps establish credibility with customers and sets you apart from competitors. It can also improve user experience which can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.
Affordable web design in Sydney typically involves services that provide good value for money, including responsive design, SEO optimization, and ongoing support without the high costs associated with large agencies.
The cost of affordable web design can vary significantly depending on the complexity of your website. However, it generally ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Yes, many affordable web designers are highly skilled professionals who are capable of creating high-quality and visually appealing websites. The key is to find a designer or agency that provides great value for their pricing.
Yes, there are numerous reputable and reliable companies offering affordable web designs services such as Five by Five, Magicdust and Webcoda. Its essential to research reviews and portfolios before making a decision.
A well-designed website should be scalable and adaptable with your business growth. Before hiring a designer or agency, ensure they have plans for potential future adjustments or expansions needed for your site.
Responsive web design is an approach to designing websites so that they look and function well on various devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. It involves using flexible layouts, images and CSS media queries.
With an increasing number of people accessing the internet via mobile devices, having a website that works well on these devices is critical. If your website doesnt display properly or isnt user-friendly on mobile devices, you could lose potential customers. Additionally, Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher in search results.
You can research online to find agencies specializing in responsive web design in Sydney. Look at their portfolios to see examples of their work. Check reviews and testimonials from past clients. Also consider meeting with several agencies before making your final decision.
Custom web design involves creating a website from scratch, tailored to the specific needs and preferences of a business or individual. Its not based on templates or pre-set layouts, but designed uniquely to reflect your brand identity.
Custom web designs offer more flexibility in terms of layout and functionality. They can better represent your brand and help you stand out from competitors. Although initially more expensive than template-based designs, they are easier to update and scale with your business over time.
Absolutely! A reputable Sydney-based web designer would always welcome client input during every stage of the process from initial concepts, revisions up until the final product.
The cost can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the site, features needed, and ongoing maintenance requirements. However, on average, custom websites could range anywhere between $2000 - $10,000 AUD or higher. Always check with your chosen agency for an accurate quote.
Architect web design in Sydney often reflects the citys modern yet timeless aesthetic, combining functionality with an appealing visual layout. It usually incorporates elements that represent Sydneys architectural landscape.
Some leading firms offering architect web design services include G Squared, WebFX, and Magicdust. Each has a strong reputation for creating effective and visually pleasing websites for architecture firms.
The cost can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the project, but generally, it can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Most agencies will provide a quote after discussing specific needs and requirements.
The timeline for completing an architect website design can vary based on several factors such as complexity of the project, size of the website and responsiveness of client feedback. Generally speaking, a basic website could take anywhere from few weeks to a couple of months.
The cost varies based on different factors such as complexity of design, number of pages needed, special features required etc. After discussing your specific needs, we can provide you with a detailed quote.
Weve worked with numerous landscaping companies in Sydney and understand the specific needs and aesthetics that appeal to their target audience.
Our team employs innovative design strategies tailored to your unique brand, ensuring that your site not only looks great but performs well too. We will focus on showcasing your services, previous work, and customer testimonials to make sure it stands out.
We offer various maintenance packages which include regular updates or changes you want to implement. Additionally, we believe in empowering our clients; hence we create user-friendly interfaces that allow minor changes without needing extensive technical knowledge.
Absolutely! We integrate SEO strategies into our web design process to enhance visibility on search engines like Google. This includes keyword optimization, mobile-friendly design, fast loading times and quality content creation.
Key features to include would be a portfolio of past projects, detailed descriptions of services offered, customer testimonials, an easy-to-use contact form, and clear, visible branding.
SEO can be optimized by using relevant keywords such as Pergola Builders Sydney, Patio Construction Sydney, etc., providing quality content on the site that provides value to readers, and ensuring that the website is mobile-friendly.
A visually appealing website could feature high-quality images of previous work, use colors that complement the companys brand image, have an uncluttered layout with clear navigation menus, and incorporate modern design elements.
The contact information should be clearly visible on every page preferably at the top or bottom. It can also have its own dedicated Contact Us page with details like phone number, email address, physical address (if applicable), operating hours and possibly an embedded map location.
The content should include detailed services pages explaining what kind of work they do (pergolas versus patios), about us page highlighting their experience and expertise in the field. Additionally blog posts or articles giving tips on maintaining or choosing designs for patios or pergolas could add extra value.
When designing your tradies website, consider various elements such as the user interface and experience, mobile compatibility, SEO optimization for local searches (like Tradies in Sydney), easy navigation, fast loading speed and clear call-to-action buttons. It is also essential that your site includes detailed service descriptions and contact information.
A professional web designer understands the specific strategies needed to optimize your website for search engines, enhance its performance and make it visually appealing. They can ensure your website is designed with SEO best practices which will increase visibility online. Also, they can implement features such as an online booking system or quote request form which would streamline customer interaction.
A professionally designed website helps establish credibility and trust among potential clients. It serves as a digital storefront where customers can learn more about services offered. With the competitive nature of the trades industry in Sydney, having a well-designed, functional and user-friendly website gives you an edge over competitors who may not be as digitally savvy.
We have extensive experience designing websites across various industries, including home painting services. We understand the specific requirements and marketplace of such businesses, ensuring we create a site that is both functional and appealing to your target audience.
By prioritizing customized design, SEO optimization, user-friendly interface and incorporating unique features specific to your business needs, we ensure your website not only stands out but also ranks high on search engine results.
Our priority is to meet our clients satisfaction. Therefore, we incorporate constant communication throughout the project development process where clients can give input on content and design. We provide recommendations but ultimately respect and implement client decisions.
Absolutely! Our web designing service includes comprehensive SEO strategies that are specifically tailored toward attracting more local traffic from Sydney residents looking for home painting services.
The time frame can depend on many factors including complexity of design, any special features required etc., however generally speaking it can take anywhere between 6-8 weeks to develop a fully functioning website.
Some of the top-rated web design companies in Sydney include G Squared, Digital Garden, and Magicdust.
These web designers typically offer a range of services including website design & development, eCommerce solutions, digital marketing strategies, SEO optimization, social media management and content creation.
The cost can vary greatly depending on the scope and complexity of the project. For a simple website design, prices may start around $1000 AUD while more complex projects could easily reach over $10,000 AUD. Its best to contact each company directly for a specific quote based on your needs.
You can find professional web designers in Sydney through various online platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, or LinkedIn. Also, local networking events or business directories can be useful.
Yes, there are numerous well-regarded agencies such as Digital Garden, G Squared and Magicdust offering web design services in Sydney.
When hiring a web designer or agency, consider their portfolio to assess if they match your style preference, their reviews and testimonials for credibility check, pricing structure for budget compatibility and whether they offer post-launch website support/maintenance.
The cost of hiring a web designer can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the project. On average though, you might expect to pay anywhere between AUD $2,000 - $5,000 for basic website designs from freelancers whereas established agencies may charge higher rates starting from AUD $10,000 upwards.
The cost can vary greatly depending on several factors including the complexity of the project, the designers experience and skills, and their location. In Sydney, an average project could range anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 AUD.
Both methods are common. Some freelancers charge by the hour which can range from $50 to $200 AUD per hour depending on their level of expertise. Others prefer to charge a flat rate per project which takes into account all aspects of the work involved.
Yes, most freelancers are open to negotiation as long as it reflects fair compensation for their time and effort. However, remember that lower prices may also mean compromises on quality or timeliness.
There may be additional costs such as hosting fees, domain registration, content creation (if not provided), SEO services etc. Its important to clarify these aspects before starting a project to avoid unexpected expenses later.
A freelance web designer in Sydney should have a strong understanding of graphic design, user experience (UX), user interface (UI) design, HTML/CSS coding, JavaScript, and SEO. They should also be familiar with web design tools like Adobe Creative Suite and WordPress.
Its extremely important. With the increasing use of smartphones and tablets to browse the internet, having a website that is mobile responsive can significantly improve user experience and engagement.
Yes, being able to work with various CMS platforms such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal is crucial as these systems are commonly used for website creation and management. This gives clients more control over their websites once the project is complete.
Very relevant. A good freelancer doesnt just create visually appealing websites; they also need to ensure that those sites are optimized for search engines. An understanding of SEO best practices can significantly enhance the visibility of a clients website on Google.
Successful freelancers require excellent written and verbal communication skills. They need to understand their client’s needs and expectations clearly and translate those into an effective visual solution. Good communication also helps when explaining technical aspects to non-technical clients.
Some of the latest trends include Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Artificial Intelligence and Bots, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Single Page Applications (SPA), and API-first design.
AI is being used for creating intelligent chatbots for customer service, improving user experience through personalized content, predictive analytics, and automating routine tasks.
AMP helps to improve the performance of mobile web pages, making them load faster. This improves user engagement and contributes to higher search engine rankings.
SPAs provide a smoother user experience by eliminating the need for page reloads. They are becoming popular for building responsive websites and mobile applications.
API-first design means building your application based on the API, ensuring that all applications using this API have a consistent experience. It allows developers to work on multiple platforms simultaneously, increasing efficiency and coherence.
The latest web design trends have a significant impact on local businesses in Sydney. It influences how they present themselves online, their customer engagement and ultimately their sales.
Responsive web design plays a crucial role as it ensures that websites function seamlessly across all devices. That increases accessibility for customers, which can lead to higher traffic and potentially more sales for local businesses.
Advancements in SEO practices greatly increase the visibility of local businesses online. By optimizing website content, using relevant keywords and improving site speed, these businesses can rank higher on search engine results thereby reaching a wider audience.
Yes, having an updated and professional website design significantly influences consumer trust. A well-designed website signifies that the business is credible, modern, and cares about its consumers experience.
Incorporating e-commerce features can indeed boost sales for SMEs. This allows them to sell products directly from their websites, making shopping easier for customers while also expanding the potential market beyond just Sydney.
Sydney-based web designers use Local SEO by optimizing a websites content, keywords, and backlinks so it appears at the top of search results within its specific geographic area. They also ensure the business is listed on Google My Business and other local directories to increase visibility.
Local SEO is crucial as it helps businesses reach prospective customers in their vicinity. It increases online visibility and organic traffic from users searching within that location. This can be particularly beneficial for businesses serving a specific area like Sydney.
Techniques utilized include creating locally relevant content, using local keywords, ensuring the site is mobile-friendly, improving page loading speed, having consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) across all platforms, and getting positive reviews on Google My Business.
Yes. While they specialize in optimizing websites for local searches in Sydney, these skills are transferable. A competent web designer can adapt their strategy to optimize a website for any geographical location based on the clients needs.
Website optimization services involve various strategies to improve a websites performance, accessibility, and visibility. These can include improving site speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, optimizing for search engines (SEO), enhancing user experience (UX), and more.
Website optimization makes your site more visible on search engines like Google which means more traffic and potential customers. It also improves user experience which can lead to higher conversion rates. Whether youre targeting audiences in Sydney or globally, an optimized website can significantly enhance your online presence.
There are many reputable companies providing web design and optimization services in Sydney such as Webski Solutions, Magicdust, G Squared & Whitehat Agency etc. The choice depends on your specific needs, budget and business goals. Always look for a service provider with good reviews, proven results and excellent customer service.
Website optimization is crucial for several reasons. It improves the sites speed, usability, and accessibility, thus enhancing user experience. Moreover, optimized websites rank higher on search engine results which increases visibility and attracts more potential customers.
Website optimization significantly enhances your websites performance by reducing loading times, ensuring it displays correctly across various devices (desktops, mobiles, tablets), and making it easier for search engines to understand your content.
Key elements include responsive design (ensuring the site looks good on all devices), improving site speed (by optimizing images and code), SEO-friendly URLs and meta tags, as well as creating quality content that includes relevant keywords.
Web Design Sydney provides comprehensive services including SEO audits to identify areas of improvement, optimizing HTML codes for faster loading times, creating responsive designs for better mobile viewing experience, developing SEO-friendly URLs and meta tags to improve ranking on search engines like Google. They also offer content creation with targeted keywords that can draw more traffic to your site.
The firms generally offer services such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), website speed optimization, conversion rate optimization and content optimization among others.
These services can improve your websites visibility on search engines like Google, enhance user experience by improving loading speed and navigability, and increase the likelihood of visitors becoming customers through strategic content placement and design.
It would be best to contact each firm directly for this information. Most established firms will have portfolios or case studies demonstrating their past work that they can share with you.
Optimization can significantly improve the speed and responsiveness of a website. It involves reducing file sizes, minimizing code, optimizing images, using efficient loading techniques such as lazy loading and implementing proper caching strategies. These all contribute to faster page load times which provides a better user experience.
Website performance is crucial in any location including Sydney because it directly impacts user experience and SEO rankings. A well-optimized website will load quickly, keep visitors engaged longer and rank higher on search engine result pages leading to increased visibility and potentially more business opportunities.
Some common techniques include minifying CSS, JS, and HTML files; compressing images without losing quality; leveraging browser caching; minimizing HTTP requests by combining files; using content delivery networks (CDNs) to deliver resources faster to users based on their geographical location; utilizing GZIP compression for smaller file size during transfer; enabling deferred JavaScript loading.
Optimizing a website doesnt necessarily mean compromising on its aesthetics or functionality. Instead, its about making smart choices regarding file types, sizes, coding techniques etc., that enhance both appearance and performance. For instance, you can use SVGs instead of bitmap images where appropriate as they scale better while maintaining a smaller file size.