It seems that, with no conscious effort at all, I have entered the number 10 spot on Yahoo! UK for the term "Web designer". (since posting this I have now moved up to the prestigious No. 5 spot)

Have a look at my portfolio to see what I can do...

This got me thinking about the way search engines spider web pages, because if you check the same thing on Google, I am miles away from the top spot.

If you have a website and want to compare and contrast your positionings, do a Search Engine Index Count following these instructions:

Google and Ask site:yourdomain.com yourdomain.com

FAST Search domain:www.yourdomain.com

AltaVista domain:www.yourdomain.com

Yahoo site:yourdomain.com or domain:yourdomain.com

MSN Search site:yourdomain.com

The BBC has recently launched the Beta version of their new homepage. Having studied their last redesign this template comes as a major disappointment...

To be fair the widgets are nice, always handy to customise your own areas and the opening and closing draggable sections are a nice touch, however designers have been using these for years and we have all seen it done a lot better elsewhere (facebook).


My initial impression, apart from the possible overuse of garish colours, was the size of the text. For a split second I thought I had accidentally slipped on a pair of magnifying glasses! Accessibility is always paramount for such a large scale public service site and it's good to see they are catching on to the web 2.0 style guidelines (large text) albeit a little too literally. The large amount of white space around the headers seems too spacious and ends up giving the site an impression of 'padding out the content'- ironic really for a site that is spilling over with quality resources.

Now the clock-well I am in two minds here. I like to know the time when I am working away on sites- checking my timesheets and planning out my projects. But to have a analogue clock as such a major part of the header seems almost pointless. When was the last time you were on a computer that didn't have the time somewhere on the screen!? Answers on a scroll please. Even the clock looks old fashioned. It's like I have stepped back into the 80's but with cooler gradients.

I guess I never expected anything too 'cutting edge' from the Beeb but I was expecting something that would set a benchmark for corporate design and one that would make all us tax payers proud!

Got any thoughts- let me know

I often use divs and background images on a constant basis to get a modern look and feel to a website. When doing so it is important to know the CSS shortcuts for the element background-position.There are two basic ways of writing this in your stylesheet, 1.with Keywords and 2. with Percentages or Lengths.

Keywords

• Horizontal keywords: left, center, right
• Vertical keywords: top, center, bottom

For example to place an image in the top right hand corner you would write the following:

• #header {background: url(/images/header.jpg) top right no-repeat;}

Percentages and lengths can also be used as a positioning technique. I would recommend using percentages over lengths due to varying screen resolutions. Percentages position the image relative to the element with which it is contained. When writing the code for this technique remember that the horizontal position is declared first.

Percentages and/or Lengths

• top left = left top = 0% 0%
• top = top center = center top = 50% 0%
• right top = top right = 100% 0%
• left = left center = center left = 0% 50%
• center = center center = 50% 50%
• right = right center = center right = 100% 50%
• bottom left = left bottom = 0% 100%
• bottom = bottom center = center bottom = 50% 100%
• bottom right = right bottom = 100% 100%

For example to place an image in the top right hand corner using percentages you would write the following:

• #header {background: url(/images/header.jpg) 100% 0% no-repeat;}

Note: If only the horizontal value is given, the vertical position will be 50%. Combinations of lengths and percentages are allowed, as are negative positions. For example, 100% -5px is permitted. However, percentages and lengths cannot be combined with keywords.

It's good news all round at the moment. Plexus Design has been featured on another two CSS Gallery websites. CSS Vault one of my favourite CSS Design Galleries has been kind enough to give me 5 stars for design work. Design Shack a web design showcase, CSS tutorials and web standards gallery has featured my site on their elite list. Still trying my hardest to get on to CSS Mania- the Best CSS Gallery, one which I look at on a daily basis for inspiration. Come on CSS Mania please show my work!