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Around 2001 I started a web site called tedmasterweb.com. It was my professional face on the web with “articles” I’d written and software I’d produced available for download. Some of the software was quite popular and garnered me a PageRank 5 for the site as recently as October 2006.

In the first half of 2007 I decided to try an experiment. Being a partner in Clevernet, it seemed logical to merge the resources on my personal site with those on clevernet.biz. Since merging the content could have been a time-consuming task, I decided to make my entire personal site a subdirectory of clevernet.biz: Basically, tedmasterweb.com would become clevernet.biz/tedmasterweb/.

Tedmasterweb.com had a PageRank of 5 prior to the move. Concerned that such a massive change could eliminate my PageRank, I followed Matt Cutt’s guidelines on moving a domain using a 301 redirect so that search engines (Google) would know that the content had moved, permanently, to a new location (and in this case, a new domain). I had also read other articles regarding 301 redirects and tried to follow their advice as well. I have since discovered a similar, but more concrete, 301 redirect experiment. The primary difference, though, between all of these experiments and suggestions is that I am not just moving content to a new domain, but also to a subdirectory, which may have been my downfall.

Today, several months later, it would seem that my PageRank of 5 for tedmasterweb.com has been completely lost. Just issuing an appropriate redirect, in my case, was not enough to maintain it. I suspect that if I could get all the people linking to resources on the old page to update their links to point to the new location I would regain some, or all, of my PageRank, minus the penalty for not updating the content regularly and for the links being somewhat old. As soon as I post this article, I’m going to go after those old links. My guess is my PageRank will suddenly improve.

Bottom Line: migrating a domain with a decent page rank to a subdirectory of another domain is a bad idea and in the end, inbound links really are key to a high PageRank.

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We’ve been setting up a new email server at Clevernet for the past few weeks. While researching issues related to mail not arriving at the intended destination, I ran across this sweet nugget: “Net 81.44.0.0/16 is UCEPROTECT-Level2 listed because of 551 abusers. Your ISP TELEFONICA-DATA-ESPANA Internet Access Network of TDE/AS3352 has to fix this. See: http://www.uceprotect.net/rblcheck.php?ipr=81.44.255.25“

Basically, what this means is, our static IP happens to be in a block of addresses known for sending massive amounts of spam and try as we may, there is nothing (or little) we can do to get our IP unblocked (get a clean reputation).

Telefónica, the formerly state-run telecommunications monopoly here in Spain, controls probably 90% of all Spanish internet traffic. I tried calling their office this morning to ask them about this issue but when I dialed the toll-free number, 1004, I got the dreaded “all circuits are busy” error and when I dialed again 30 minutes later, I got a busy signal. I would have gone to their office in person, except for the fact that they don’t have a customer relations facility in the Canary Islands. I can clearly recall major frustration when Ma Bell was first broken up, but:

  • the customer service number was never busy (but you did have to wait on hold for hours)
  • you NEVER got a “all circuits busy” error – after all, what kind of trust does such an experience generate in potential and existing customers?
  • Ma Bell had an office in every major city, and probably most minor cities too

I hate sounding like a whining expat, but I think most Spaniards (including those that actually work for Telefónica) would agree that Telefónica really sucks and if given even the smallest opportunity to bail, they would. If you want another opinion on just how dreadful Telefónica is, get a load of this story.

If the competition weren’t so expensive, I’d work with them more often (in fact, this site is hosted on the EasyNet network). At least they get some priority treatment as resellers of Telefónica connectivity, and that does filter down.

In all fairness, there are many factors contributing to the problem stated above. The biggest is the thousands and thousands of customers running cracked versions of Windows with no, or completely outdated, anti-virus software and hard drives full of infected versions of commercial software and pr0n downloaded via eMule. The situation reminds me a little of life in the states in the early 90s, but with one significant difference: the viruses of this decade are 1000 times more complex than anything we encountered back in the day, and trying to explain to novice users what the solution is (are) is a difficult task. One has to wonder just how out of hand it will be when developing nations suddenly find themselves in possession of a critical mass of this technology, but lacking the knowledge required to keep it under control. I guess the fun never ends…

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Una jueza certificó una demanda de tipo “class action” contra la empresa Target (una tienda como los grandes almacenes pero a bajo coste). La demanda acusa a Target de “violar las leyes federales y estatales que prohiben la discriminación contra los discapacitados”. Me imagino que se refieren a que no se puede usar la tienda online de Target (y posiblemente otras partes de su web) con un lector de pantallas.

Hablando un día con Fer, nos pusimos de acuerdo en que es posible hacer webs accesibles sin incurrir gastos adicionales si uno se lo plantea nada más empezar el proyecto. Sin embargo, tanto en las islas como en el resto de España, me parece que lo que más importa es como se ve la web, no lo que hay detrás (y luego dicen que nosotros los estadounidenses somos superficiales 😉 ja ja – es broma!). Intento, siempre que pueda, que mis clientes se fijen en el éxito del proyecto a largo plazo. ¿Cuál es el éxito de una web que cae demandada por no haber tenido en cuenta cosas tan básicas como la accesibilidad?

Leí hace poco que Apple rehizo el código que está detrás de su tienda. Según dicen, la tienda es más accesible que nunca, y mirando el código fuente, me lo creo. En la actualidad aquí en Clevernet colaboramos en el desarrollo de una aplicación web tipo “red social” para Emotion Memories en Mesa, Arizona, USA. Siendo yo uno de los desarrolladores con más experiencia, ruego a los demás desarrolladores del equipo que desarrollen teniendo en cuenta la accesibilidad y siguiendo el modelo de “progressive enhancement” precisamente para que no inhibamos el acceso a nadie, que tengan JavaScript habilitado o no.

Sé que no está de moda prescindir de AJAX, pero al final de cada mes nuestra empresa sigue adelante y parece que va a seguir así durante muchos años (toco madera) así que creo que estamos haciendo algo bien.