Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

12/28/10

Our Digital Crossroads Over the past few years, we’ve seen a shift from what we know as your typical computer. A few years ago (heck all the way back to the Apple II), computers, more or less, took the same form; A monitor, CPU, with a mouse and keyboard. Recently, with the onslaught of touch screen smartphones, we’ve seen a

12/20/10

I was at church this Sunday and received a good reminder. Let me take a step back, this was the weekend when the little people come up from little people church to big people church and sing a few Christmas songs. So here comes the first group, 4-7 years old, I believe. The girls have on their new tights and

12/09/10

Having duplicated content within search engines is a very common problem that is often overlooked. You would think having duplicated content will be good for your search rankings, although that is not the case as it may be not useful to the end-user. www-vs-non-www (Problem) Search engines recognize your www.your-domain.com and your-domain.com as two separate websites. You may not be

11/22/10

When I was a kid, I loved watching the The Road Runner Show cartoon on TV after school.  Yes, it was a little violent. Yes, it was a lot predictable. And no, it really wasn’t very funny.  But what I liked about the show was the Coyote’s creativity.  What imagination! I mean really, this dude had some creative chutzpah!  He came

10/26/10

Early this past September I read a post from one of my favorite marketing dudes, Chris Brogan. This message has stayed with me and continues to resonate. The post was written on a Sunday and talked about taking 20 minutes (on Sundays) to connect with friends and family. I remember my first thought being “20 minutes, really? Is that all

10/18/10

With the recent release of Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 beta you are now able to see the work that has gone into a browser that has not seen much forward development in meeting web standards or rendering speeds compared to its rivals (Opera, Firefox, & Google Chrome). Microsoft has even launched BeautyOfTheWeb.com website showcasing the new features and abilities. One

10/14/10

Earlier this year, the University of Maryland researched social media efforts being made by small businesses. In early 2010, about 25% of small businesses said they were using social media. The most recent survey from Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland points to a stall in the number of small businesses that

10/13/10

You’ve probably seen them. Tucked in the lower corner of a magazine ad, on the back of a business card, on a bus sign or even on the entire side of a building. It’s an increasing trend in advertising that some say is a fad, and some say the next great new way to promote. What are QR Codes? QR

10/11/10

The first movie I can recall seeing in a theatre was the 1971 James Bond 007 film, Diamonds Are Forever.  Yes, at the tender age of six, I became a fan of James Bond movies.   I was too young at the time to appreciate James for his prowess, his daring, his panache.  What I loved about Bond films were the

09/20/10

South Bend, Ind. – Force 5, South Bend, Ind., announces the addition of William “Butch” Whitmire as Vice President of Client Development. Whitmire’s responsibilities include building long-term relationships with, and developing and implementing marketing strategies for prospective clients. Whitmire has over 22 years of sales, management, marketing and leadership experience in planning, communicating and executing marketing initiatives and creative projects.

09/20/10

There has been a lot of activity in the browser market over the past few months. The most recent step forward is Microsoft’s release of Internet Explorer (IE) 9. Microsoft is touting improvements with IEs handling of web standards, graphics, and JavaScript. JavaScript has become the de-facto standard for web designers of dynamic and highly interactive websites. Since so many

09/16/10

What are Response Headers? Response headers is data that gets sent from the server to the browser. The data can include date & time, content type (ex: text/html, text/javascript), and server information (ex: Microsoft-IIS/7.0). Why is it important to hide them? Security. At the most basic level it will not broadcast what operating system the web server is and which