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This is Aayush the website administrator at WebMuch. I am being succumbed by a force I call college examination and will not be able to publish on WebMuch for a while. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of readers we’ve been getting, which is good enough for a start. I do not want to lose any readers at all, on a thought of which I am bringing in a fabulous web developer and a long time friend Atul, to replace me for a while. He has agreed to write for WebMuch for a very luscious deal, a deal that I will write for him when he is through with his project (currently under development). He will be posting at the same pace with at-least an article/week. He published his first article day before, and it is already the most viewed article on WebMuch. Check it out here

In other updates, I have included a resources link in the navigation bar. It will gather articles related to Web Design & Development from across the web and display them. Please check that out. I will keep including more feeds into it once I’m through with my exams.

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Thank You.

Google CDN stands for Google Content Distribution Network. It provides a loading architecture for the most popular, open source JavaScript libraries.

Why should I use Google’s CDN links?

Most of the websites I see, still host their JavaScript Library on their own server (Most, not all). Actually never have I ever seen any Web Development Blog hosting the library on their own server. They always use Google CDN, which is great because it has a number of advantages:

1. Google’s Content Distribution Network has libraries on their various servers across the world and if you use their CDN link, when a user’s browser resolves the URL, their browser will automatically download the file from the closest available server, which will be a much faster download than if you force a user to download the file from your host server in whichever country your website is hosted.
2. Google’s Content Distribution Network will save you a great deal of bandwidth if you have large traffic on your website and a limited bandwidth with your host.
3. There is a good chance that the Google hosted version of that library is already cached on the user’s browser cache, as lot of big websites and portals use Google’s CDN links including Google itself and Google’s servers instruct browsers to cache the file for one year if there are quite a few requests for the same hosted file.

How to use Google CDN?

Google’s CDN provides most of the popular, open source JavaScript Libraries with two ways of using each of them via the direct path in the <script/> tags and via The Google AJAX Libraries API.

To use the Google AJAX Libraries API we need to include the Google “jsapi” script:

<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>

The Google AJAX Libraries API provides a simple and powerful google.load() method which accepts two arguments, the first argument to google.load is the name of a library. The second argument is the version of the library:

<script>
google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");
google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1");
    google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){
        // use this instead of:
        /*
            $(document).ready(function(){  });
        */
    });
</script>

But to use this API, there is a different approach for the ready functions of all the libraries. For example, in the above code, we use google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){ }); instead of jQuery’s ready function. In-fact we use google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){ }); instead of all different library’s ready functions. This can be seen as a drawback or a good feature; I see it as a good feature as it gives me a single ready function for all libraries.

The second method to use Google’s CDN links is by the direct paths of the libraries in the <script/> tags

Below is a list of all the JavaScript Libraries Google CDN provides with the direct paths and google.load implementation:

jQuery

name: jquery
versions: 1.2.3, 1.2.6, 1.3.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.2
load request: google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("jquery", "1.3.2", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.js

jQuery UI

name: jqueryui
versions: 1.5.2, 1.5.3, 1.6, 1.7.0, 1.7.1
load request: google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.1/jquery-ui.min.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.1/jquery-ui.js
note: This library depends on jquery. Before loading this module, you must load jquery. e.g.:
        google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");
        google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1");

Prototype

name: prototype
versions: 1.6.0.2, 1.6.0.3
load request: google.load("prototype", "1.6.0.3");
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/prototype/1.6.0.3/prototype.js

script.aculo.us

name: scriptaculous
versions: 1.8.1, 1.8.2
load request: google.load("scriptaculous", "1.8.2");
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/scriptaculous/1.8.2/scriptaculous.js
note: This library depends on Prototype. Before loading this module, you must load Prototype. e.g.:
        google.load("prototype", "1.6");
        google.load("scriptaculous", "1.8.2");

MooTools

name: mootools
versions: 1.11, 1.2.1, 1.2.2
load request: google.load("mootools", "1.2.2");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("mootools", "1.2.2", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/mootools/1.2.2/mootools-yui-compressed.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/mootools/1.2.2/mootools.js

Dojo

name: dojo
versions: 1.1.1, 1.2.0, 1.2.3, 1.3.0, 1.3.1
load request: google.load("dojo", "1.3.1");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("dojo", "1.3.1", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/dojo/1.3.1/dojo/dojo.xd.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/dojo/1.3.1/dojo/dojo.xd.js.uncompressed.js

SWFObject

name: swfobject
versions: 2.1
load request: google.load("swfobject", "2.1");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("swfobject", "2.1", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.1/swfobject.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.1/swfobject_src.js

Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI)

name: yui
versions: 2.6.0, 2.7.0
load request: load request: google.load("yui", "2.7.0");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("yui", "2.7.0", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/yui/2.7.0/build/yuiloader/yuiloader-min.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/yui/2.7.0/build/yuiloader/yuiloader.js

Source: Google

Thanks for reading.

Even though I love Google, it somehow excites me when someone comes up with an all new product in search and says this is going to be the next big thing. Today, Microsoft unveiled its soon-to-launch search engine Bing which they say is more of a decision engine. It will become available over the next few days, and be fully launched by June 3rd. The internal codename for Bing is Kumo.

Personally, I am pretty bored with Google even though it’s a great search engine; I would love for someone to come out with a great looking search engine, which searches well too. Bing has at least made me happy with the amazing design and different background pictures feature and from what I saw and read Bing seems much more interactive than Google or any other search engine for that matter.

The last time something like this happened was when Ex-Google Employees and more came out with Cuil, A search engine which claimed to be three times as big as Google with over 120 billion pages indexed in its database. But with the overload on their server within a few hours after they went live and an average search Cuil didn’t turn out as expected.

This time it is Microsoft, It’s a biggie with an all new search engine with a lot of features. Even though Cuil has led me to not expect too much, I still can’t wait for Bing to go live, I’m still extremely psyched about it.

Following are the features of Bing: (Source: Microsoft)

• Home Page: Because you may not always know about the range of content a search engine can find for you, the Bing home page includes a beautiful new image daily, information hotspots embedded in that image, and clear links for starting your searches for video, news, shopping, travel, images or maps.
• Autosuggest: Bing examines what you are typing in the search box and will automatically suggest similar terms or common refinements related to the term you are typing. For example, when searching for “California,” you will see common related searches, including “California DMV,” “California lottery” and “California ski report.”
• Best Match: The Bing Best Match feature is designed to make finding relevant information easier by cutting down the number of clicks and getting you to your final destination faster. Best Match results include customer service numbers for retail sites, the ability to track a package right from the search page, deep links to common pages within the site and much more.
• Document Preview: Nearly one-quarter of searches result in rapid click back, when you realize that the search result was not what you were looking for. Document Preview lets you hover over a search result to see a preview of the site’s content, which helps you determine whether the site is likely to contain the information you’re looking for — before you click.
• Instant Answers: Bing provides Instant Answers that immediately return highly relevant direct answers in response to a specific search. For example, entering a flight number will return the most recent flight information and display it prominently in the results, saving the hassle of going to a separate page. Other Instant Answers on Bing include stock prices, local weather, sports scores and more.

• Explore Pane: Located on the left side of the screen, the Explore Pane lets you easily filter search results. Features in the Explore Pane include categorized search results called Quick Tabs, links to related searches and past searches in Session History. The Explore Pane also can be used in the local, travel and shopping experience for powerful refinement of your search results.
• Quick Tabs: Half of all searches are eventually refined to find more specific results. Quick Tabs anticipate your intent when searching and offers easy access to some of the most common refinements for a given search. For example, when searching for a favorite musician, Quick Tabs let you filter results by albums, biography, videos and images. These tabs change dynamically based on the search term. Searches for a certain city name yield Quick Tabs for tours, travel and images; searches for a car model generate categories on reviews, accessories and videos.
• Related Searches: When searching for a specific result, our research has shown that people also like to expand their search to explore related topics. After making an initial search, Related Searches provides a list of related search terms, helping you easily expand a search to find more great results.
• Session History: Nearly half of all searches are a repeat of a previous search. Session History provides easy access to searches from your current search session so that you don’t need to initiate a new query to get back to an earlier result.
• Video Search: Bing video search helps make finding, previewing and watching videos easier. Bing indexes content from video sites across the Web and our own index of full-length television shows. It also includes filtering tools to narrow a search to make it easier for you to find the exact video you’re looking for.
• Image Search: Bing image search includes infinite scroll, which lets you easily browse image results without clicking to a new page. Bing also has powerful filtering tools for images to make it easier to find just the right image.

• News Search: Bing news search lets you search the latest news from across the Web and receive news alerts.
• Bing Maps: Bing Maps lets you easily find, discover, plan and share location information, including maps and directions and engaging bird’s-eye, 3-D and aerial imagery.
• Shopping: Bing combines many of the shopping features available across the Web into one intuitive and easy-to-use experience. In addition to providing many product search refinement tools, Bing also scans the Web for user and expert reviews, organizes them by product attribute, and then ranks the sentiment in the reviews as either positive or negative. This enables you to filter quickly through lots of information to inform a purchase decision.
• Travel: Bing Travel analyzes billions of pieces of airfare and hotel data to offer you flight Price Predictors and hotel Rate Indicators. Based on science, not marketing, Bing Travel enables you to make smart, well-informed decisions when planning a trip, every time.
• Local: Today’s search engines don’t always help people make informed decisions about the quality of a restaurant or the best way to contact a local mechanic. Bing presents relevant content including user reviews aggregated from local content sites, hours of operation for local businesses, one-click directions, maps and traffic reports.
• Health: Bing helps people find health information online. While there is no substitute for the expertise of a trained physician, Bing provides you with easy access to medical information from nine trusted resources to help you make more informed decisions about personal care.

Availability

Bing will be available worldwide. However, specific feature availability will differ according to markets.

Thanks for reading.

Welcome to the community link feed. Here you can submit links with their descriptions to Web Development Tutorials, Tips, Techniques, etc. Once you’ve submitted the link it’ll come to me for approval, which once approved will then appear in the sidebar of the website until it’s in the latest 10. You can find all the user uploaded links at the Community Link Post.

You can add things like:

• Links to Tutorials
• Links to Articles
• Links to Download Resources
• Links to Online Showcases

You can submit your link by using the form below or by clicking the “Submit a Link” button in the sidebar.

Welcome to WebMuch.com. My name is Aayush Shastri (to know more about me, go to the about page). I will be posting weekly tutorials, tip & techniques related to web development including:

• HTML and CSS
• JavaScript & Ajax (Mostly using jQuery)
• PHP & MySQL Development
• WordPress
• Web Standards, etc

You can send your feedback to us using the Contact Form on the contact page, you can also give your feedback on the comments of this post. I’d love to know what you think of the site. I will be starting with a tutorial series on building a complete website. It’ll probably take three – four posts to complete. In the next post i will be starting with the introduction of the post and will be completing the header.

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Thanks for Reading