Based on data collected by Compuware’s benchmarks division, Google Chrome is the fastest web browser in the “real world” of desktop users. The data, collected over a one-month time frame, captured the results of 1.86 billion individual measurements on over 200 websites.

In the chart below, Google Chrome 12 has the fastest page load time (in blue) of 3.433 seconds. While, Safari 4 has the slowest load time of 6.149 seconds. The chart also shows perceived render times (in green) of browsers, which is the amount of time it takes for the visible portion of the page to load in the browser. Firefox 5 has the best perceived render time (in green) of 2.18 seconds, while Chrome comes in second at 2.374 seconds.

I personally use Firefox most of the time due to the number of Add-ons I have installed on my machine, but after reading this article I might have to make the switch to Google Chrome.

Here is the link to the full article found on LinkedIn, if you wish to read further.

Google+ is the latest social networking tool launched by Google end of last month. It’s extremely popular, already having over 10 million users despite being in ‘field-trial’ mode. If you are one of the lucky few who managed to score an invite for Google+ but don’t have a lot of friends yet, read below to see how to invite your Facebook friends. Even though Facebook has been trying very hard to stop users from making the switch over to Google+, there are a couple of ways left to export your friends list. Below is one of the ways you can export your friends  from Facebook and import them into Google+. This method works for now, but it may not work for long if Facebook decides to block this too.

1. First create a Yahoo Mail account, if you don’t already have one.
2. Log into your Yahoo account and click on “Contacts” tab.
3. Click “Import contacts” and select Facebook from the list.
4. Log into Facebook if it prompts you and authorize Yahoo to import your contacts.
5. Once you start the import, it could take a few minutes depending on how many contacts you have.
6. Next, log into Google+, and click “View and edit” link right below your circles.
7. Click “Find and invite” link on the top and click on Yahoo.
8. Login to Yahoo and authorize Google+ to import your contacts.
9. Wait a few minutes for Google+ to import all your contacts than you can add them to your circle. However, it seems like Google+ has some issues with importing contacts from Yahoo. This step did not work for me, but I know it works for most people. If it didn’t work for you, read the steps below to try an alternate method.

Alternate method

1. Go back to the Contacts tab in Yahoo Mail, click on “Tools” dropdown and select “Export”
2. Click on “Export” next to “Yahoo! CSV”, follow the steps and click export.
3. After a few seconds, you will be prompted to save a file. Save it somewhere on the Desktop, you will need it in the steps below.
4. Open your Gmail account, and click on the “Contacts” link on the left.
5. Click on “More actions” to open the dropdown and click on “Import”
6. Browse and select the csv file you just saved in step 3 above. And Click Import
7. Wait for the list to be imported into Gmail than go back to Google+.
8. Refresh the “Find and Invite” tab and all your friends should show up and you can now add them to your circle.

Let me know in the comments if this didn’t work for you.

Cascade Server CMS has built in tools, called Connectors. These connectors allow Cascade Server to connect directly to 3rd-party applications. Currently, there are two Connectors available to choose from, WordPress and Twitter. Once a Connector is setup correctly, any page you publish using Cascade can automatically be posted to your twitter or blog. This can reduce the hassle if you manage your Twitter, WordPress blog, and website content separately. Both of the Connectors are easy to setup.

To setup a new WordPress Connector:

1. Navigate to Connectors in the Site Administration area
2. Click “Create Connector“
3. Choose “WordPress” as the Connector type
4. Click “Submit“
5. Fill in the WordPress Connector’s name, parent folder, and URL (pointing to the WordPress instance to be used)
6. Fill in the Username and Password for your WordPress account.
7. Fill in the Content Type (under “Content Types” tab). Note: Each Content Type determines which Page Configuration is published to the WordPress post.  The Content Type also maps Metadata fields to Categories and Tags for the post
8. Click “Submit” to save your WordPress Connector.
9. You need to verify that the connection with WordPress is successful. Click on the “View” tab, and click the “Verify” link.

To setup a new Twitter Connector:

1. Navigate to Connectors in the Site Administration area
2. Click “Create Connector”
3. Choose “Twitter” as the Connector type
4. Click “Submit”
5. Fill in the Twitter Connector’s name, parent container, destination (The Destination to which a Page must be published in order for a tweet to be generated)
6. Fill in the Content Type (under “Content Types” tab).
7. Under “Parameters” tab, fill in the Hashtags (eg. #BeaconBlog) or Prefix that will be published with each tweet.
8. Click “Submit” and save your Twitter Connector
9. Click on “Click here to allow and Verify again.”
10. A new window will open up, type your Username and Password and click “Allow”.
11. Close that window, and go back to your Cascade Server Connector window. Click “Verify” again and it will be all set.
12. You need to verify that the connection with Twitter is successful. Click on the “View” tab, and click the “Verify” link.

If you need further help, check out Hannon Hill’s Knowledge Base at: http://www.hannonhill.com/kb/Connectors/ OR leave a comment below.

While developing a new website recently, I noticed the top navigation drop down menu was being hidden behind the flash video on the homepage. I didn’t notice the issue at first since it was working fine in Firefox but when I tried to test the site in Internet Explorer, I discovered the bug. I figured it might have been an issue with the z-index. But after messing with the z-index for a while, I realized that wasn’t the problem. So I turned to Google for the answer and sure enough after a few minutes of searching and reading forums I found the answer. The fix was fairly simple, all I needed to do was add an additional parameter to my flash object. By adding the following line, the bug was fixed in all browsers:

“Wmode sets the Window Mode property of the Flash movie for transparency, layering, and positioning in the browser”. Here are the three possible values for wmode.

• window - movie plays in its own rectangular window on a web page.
• opaque - the movie hides everything on the page behind it.
• transparent - the background of the HTML page shows through all transparent portions of the movie. This option can slow animation performance.

Check out Adobe’s website for more details on Flash OBJECT and EMBED tag attributes.

Have you ever wondered how your current website looks on a mobile phone browser? Well, the chances are it won’t look pretty unless, you designed the site to work on mobile phones. In order to see what it would look like, you can pull it up on any cellphone  or you can go to Opera Mini Simulator. There are also other emulators on the web similar to Opera Mini that can show you how a site will look on a mobile browser.

Here is a screenshot of a page that’s optimized for mobile phone browsers (notice how the text is readable without zooming in):

Here is the same page but without any optimization:

Which one would you prefer?

If you still aren’t convinced that you need a mobile site, here are a few reasons that might help:

• There are around 4.6 billion cell phone users worldwide
• 1 out of 5 Americans access the web from their mobile phones each day
• “$1.6 billion purchased from mobile devices in 2009″
• “Mobile advertising spending will surpass $6.5 billion in 2012”

Don’t wait any longer and start creating a mobile-friendly site today.

If you have read any previous Beacon blogs than I am sure you know what a CMS is and what it’s used for. In case you haven’t read any other blogs, a CMS or Content Management System is an application that allows any user to update content on a given website easily. It doesn’t require any technical knowledge of programming languages such as HTML or CSS. Here at Beacon, we use Cascade Server CMS for the majority of our clients’ websites along with our own website.

I have used a few Content Management Systems (CMS) in the past before I started working with Beacon. These range from free open-source systems to custom-built systems created for a specific client. I can honestly say I prefer Cascade Server out of the bunch. Cascade Server has a lot of features that most of the other CMS’s lack. Below are some of the features that I really like about Cascade:

• Personalized Dashboard – you can customize the home screen for each user based on their preference.
• Work Flow Management – with multiple users updating content on the website, you can make sure that the only content you (admin) approve of will be able to show up on the live web.
• Version Control – have you ever accidentally made a change to a document and saved it only to find out you can’t undo it anymore? With Version Control, you no longer have to worry about that, it will let you revert back to an older version of the document/file in the CMS.
• Recycle Bin – if any user accidentally deletes a file or an entire folder from the site. With the addition of the Recycle Bin, they can undo the delete file/folder.
• Site Preview – you can preview each page or the site inside Cascade before publishing it out to the web.
• Spell Checker/Link Checker – before you save a page, the spell checker can automatically check for spelling errors. Also the link checker will check for any broken links before the page is saved.
• WYSIWYG Editor – (What You See Is What You Get) Editor is included in most CMSs but Cascade differs from a few. In Cascade, you can copy content from Microsoft Word and bring it in Cascade with original formatted (bold, italics, underline, etc.) content.
• Multi-site Management – if you have multiple sites, you can manage them all through one instance of Cascade. It even allows sharing files/templates between sites.
• Technical Support – most open-source CMSs don’t have tech support instead you have to post on a forum and wait for another user like you to post a possible solution. With Cascade, you get tech support from their knowledgeable staff that will resolve your issue.

There are a lot more features that are in Cascade that I haven’t listed here. Check out their website for a whole list of all their features at www.hannonhill.com. On their main site, you will also find a small list of their clients that currently use Cascade Server, including NC State University (Go Woflpack!). If NC State uses Cascade Server for their site, than you know it must be good.

To learn more about Cascade Server, please contact Beacon.