#Google-Friendly Web Design

[brightsearchsolutions]

Choose Our Best Website Designing Service

[localseotampabay]

Navigating The New Terrain: Google's SEO Starter Guide Update 2024 - #AffordableSEO, #AI, #ContentMarketing, #DigitalMarketing, #Google, #LocalSEO, #LocalSEOTampa, #SearchEngine, #SEO, #SEOAgency, #SEOCompany, #SEOTips, #SmallBusiness, #Tampa, #WebMarketing, #WebsiteDesign - https://localseotampa.com/navigating-the-new-terrain-googles-seo-starter-guide-update-2024-202401/

New Post has been published on https://localseotampa.com/navigating-the-new-terrain-googles-seo-starter-guide-update-2024-202401/

Navigating The New Terrain: Google's SEO Starter Guide Update 2024

The Google SEO Starter Guide is a fundamental resource for anyone looking to understand and implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for their website. With the digital landscape continually evolving, staying updated with the latest SEO practices is crucial for maintaining visibility and relevance in search engine results. Recently, Google announced a major update to its SEO Starter Guide, which is set to bring significant changes to how SEO is approached in 2024 and beyond.

The Evolution of Google’s SEO Starter Guide

The original version of Google’s SEO Starter Guide was a comprehensive manual that provided website owners and webmasters with essential information on optimizing their sites for better search engine rankings. This guide covered a range of topics, from site structure and content creation to mobile optimization and analytics.

Key Features of the Original Guide

Site Structure and Navigation: Emphasized the importance of a well-organized website for both user experience and search engine crawling.

Content Quality: Stressed the need for original, valuable content tailored to the target audience.

Mobile Optimization: Addressed the growing importance of mobile-friendly websites.

Use of Keywords: Offered advice on using keywords effectively within the content.

Analytics and Monitoring: Guided on using tools like Google Analytics to track performance and user engagement.

Anticipated Changes in the 2024 Update

According to recent announcements, the updated Google SEO Starter Guide is set to introduce new best practices and remove outdated advice, reflecting the evolving nature of search engines and user behavior. Here are some expected changes:

Enhanced Focus on User Experience (UX): As search algorithms become more sophisticated, UX is likely to play a more central role in SEO. The update might provide in-depth insights on creating user-centric designs and content.

Increased Emphasis on Mobile-First Indexing: With mobile searches dominating, the updated guide will probably place more stress on mobile-first indexing, ensuring sites are optimized for mobile users first.

Greater Importance on Page Speed and Performance: Site speed and performance have become crucial ranking factors. The new guide may offer advanced tips on improving site speed and overall performance.

Content Relevance and Quality: Given the advancements in natural language processing, the guide is expected to delve deeper into creating content that’s not just keyword-rich but also contextually relevant and of high quality.

Voice Search Optimization: With the rise of voice-assisted devices, the updated guide might include strategies for optimizing content for voice search.

Data Privacy and Security: In light of increasing concerns over data privacy and security, the guide may incorporate best practices for maintaining site security and user privacy.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: The guide might touch upon the growing influence of AI and machine learning in SEO and how to adapt strategies accordingly.

Implications for Website Owners and SEO Professionals

The updated Google SEO Starter Guide will be more than just a manual; it will be a comprehensive roadmap to navigating the complexities of modern SEO. Website owners and SEO professionals must adapt strategies to align with these changes. Embracing a more holistic approach to SEO, focusing on user experience, and staying informed about the latest trends and technologies will be imperative for success in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Conclusion

For businesses in Tampa, Florida, looking to enhance their online presence, Local SEO Tampa offers a comprehensive suite of services tailored to your needs. As a leading provider in the area, they specialize in optimizing your local online footprint. From leveraging local directories and enhancing Google My Business listings to content optimization and profile management, they have a proven track record in driving conversions and boosting online visibility for Tampa-based businesses. Their approach combines the latest SEO strategies with a deep understanding of the local market, ensuring your business stands out in a competitive digital landscape. Discover how Local SEO Tampa can help your business thrive in the digital world by visiting their website.

Picture Credit: Freepik

[biz-branding]

[productiveandfree]

Why Mobile Optimization is Key to Enhancing Web Design and Business Results?

Are you maximizing your business potential in today’s world? A strong online presence is crucial for businesses of all sizes, and mobile optimization has emerged as a game-changer in web design and business performance. As a Top-rated web development company, we have witnessed firsthand how effectively optimizing for mobile can transform user experiences and drive significant improvements in business results.

In this blog, we will explore the essential role of mobile optimization and its profound impact on your business outcomes. From enhancing user experience to boosting SEO and increasing conversions, understanding the importance of mobile-friendly design is key to staying competitive in today’s ever-evolving digital marketplace.

The Mobile-First Era

As a San Francisco web design service, we feel this change in user behavior is significant because, in the past ten years, most users have started using mobile devices to access the internet.

More and more, websites are taking a "mobile-first" approach, meaning they’re designed for phone users first. Web design San Francisco experts know this is the smart move because, let's be honest, most of us are scrolling through websites on our phones anyway. Why not make that experience the best it can be?

As professional website developers, we implement mobile-friendly features in every project to make sure the websites of our clients load as expected on each device. We support and guide businesses to continue upholding mobile-first principles that ensure more user engagement and better performance in this highly mobile-dominated arena.

Enhancing User Experience through Mobile Optimization

Mobile optimization plays a very significant role in giving a rich user experience. As an Affordable web design agency, we focus on three key factors that enhance the mobile user experience. First, responsive design is the backbone of mobile optimization; it means your website will automatically adjust its layout according to the size of the screen of the device and present itself consistently and intuitively to users using smartphones and tablets. Speed is of great essence in the mobile world as users expect quick loading times and even a fraction of a second's delay may have consequences for lost business. To further quicken them up, we follow certain strategies such as image compression, code reduction, and AMP. Moreover, designing an environment that contains large clickable buttons and simple navigation menus is another prerequisite for a mobile-friendly approach. Combined, these elements create a positive mobile user experience to drive engagement and conversion.

Impact of Mobile Optimization on SEO and Visibility

Mobile optimization isn't just about improving user experience; it also greatly affects how search engines view and rank your website. As a responsive web design expert and professional web design services provider, we have seen how mobile optimization can really develop a site's visibility and reach organically. Since Google primarily uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking, mobile-optimized websites have a competitive advantage in search engine results pages. Furthermore, if Google Core Web Vitals-key metrics that measure load performance, interactivity, and visual stability are complied with, this will affect your ranking. For businesses targeting local markets, mobile optimization goes with strategies of local SEO; they enhance the ranking of "near me" searches, improve visibility in Google My Business listings, and increase overall local discoverability. These are the factors that the creative web development experts, take into consideration while optimizing for mobile to ensure your utmost visibility.

Boosting Mobile Conversions

A mobile-friendly website is just not about driving visitors; it's crucial to make them customers. As an E-commerce web development agency, we focus on crafting a non-interrupted mobile journey that drives conversions. Checkouts should be simplified, and any complicated process invites high cart abandonment rates. To improve this process, we recommend reducing the number of steps users must take to complete a purchase, offering guest checkout options, and using auto-fill forms whenever possible. The option of different payment methods caters to varied user preferences and is also a way of giving confidence in making payments. Popular options include credit cards/debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Wallet. Building confidence is paramount, as there are security concerns about mobile. Prominent security badges, easy-to-read return policies, and customer reviews/ratings significantly build trust. We have already applied these techniques in assisting many businesses here to improve their mobile conversion rates for the growth of their businesses.

Technical Aspects of Mobile Optimization

Behind every great mobile user experience are solid technical foundations. As the best web design firm, we pay close attention to these technical aspects to ensure optimal performance.

Image Optimization

Images often account for the majority of a webpage's file size. Optimizing images is crucial for faster load times.

Techniques:

●     Use formats like WebP for better compression.

●     Implement lazy loading for images.

●     Serve appropriately sized images for different devices.

Implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

AMP is an open-source framework designed to create fast-loading mobile web pages.

Benefits:

●     Strips unnecessary code to deliver content quickly.

●     Improves user retention and engagement.

Mobile-Friendly Pop-ups

While pop-ups can be effective for conversions, they need to be designed carefully for mobile users.

Best Practices:

●     Ensure pop-ups don't obstruct the main content on smaller screens.

●     Make it easy to close pop-ups on touch screens.

●     Use timing and triggers appropriately to avoid disrupting the user experience.

As responsive web design experts, we implement these technical optimizations to create fast, efficient, and user-friendly mobile websites.

Streamlining Content for Mobile Users

Presentation of content is different for mobile compared to desktop, so we make sure to create content that is mobile-friendly and encourages users to take action. We ensure scannable content through the use of brief headings and bullet points for shorter paragraphs. White space is also important. Because search is evolving with the prominence of voice searches, our optimization includes conversational keywords, targeting long-tail keywords, and relevance to local searches. AI-powered personalized content delivery further enables engagement through features such as personal product recommendations and behavior-driven suggestions. These strategies have in turn empowered us, as Creative web development experts, to create mobile experiences that are going to make a difference in driving users' and business results.

The Future of Mobile Optimization

As a top-rated web development company in, we're always looking ahead to emerging trends in mobile optimization. Here are some areas we believe will shape the future of mobile web design:

5G Technology: The rollout of 5G networks will enable even faster mobile experiences, raising user expectations for speed and performance.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs): These web applications that function like native apps are likely to become more prevalent, offering app-like experiences without the need for downloads.

AI and Machine Learning: These technologies will play a larger role in personalizing mobile experiences and optimizing performance in real time.

Augmented Reality (AR) Integration: As AR technology improves, we expect to see more websites incorporating AR features for enhanced mobile experiences.

Voice User Interfaces: With the growing popularity of voice assistants, optimizing for voice interactions will become increasingly important.

Staying ahead of these trends is crucial for businesses aiming to maintain a competitive edge in the mobile landscape.

Conclusion

Mobile optimization is critical to businesses in today's digital world because it enhances user experience, amplifies SEO, and provokes conversions. Being one of the most affordable web design agencies based in, we have seen how favoring mobile users has drastically changed businesses from all walks of life. While focusing on mobile optimization, you are not only in step with trends but also securing your digital presence for enduring success.

Keep in mind that mobile optimization is a process, not a product. Technology and user behaviors continue to change with every passing day. The refinement of your mobile strategy must be ongoing. One option is to ensure that your company stays ahead of the curve by partnering with a professional web design service. Is it time for you to step up your mobile game? Contact us now to discover how we can optimize your website for success!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is mobile optimization and why is it important?

Mobile optimization ensures websites work well on mobile devices, improving user experience and search rankings.

Why is it important to optimize the website and content for mobile users?

Optimizing websites for mobile users ensures better user experience, higher engagement, and improved search rankings as most traffic comes from mobile devices.

Why is it important to optimize design for the Web?

Optimizing web design is essential for improving user experience and boosting engagement.

Share in the comments below: Questions go here

[coralangelartisan]

The Unbeatable Value of Responsive Websites: Boosting Your Online Presence!

Responsive design is a no brainer if you want the best experience on your website. It ensures that visitors on smartphones, tablets, and desktops engage with your content. Of course there are other factors in web design, but having a responsive website is a smart move.

[maryellencarter]

YouTube Downloads through VLC: Step by Step

[EDIT: I've been receiving reports for some time now that this method no longer works. I suspect something about the switch to YouTube Music as a separate app, and/or YouTube's ongoing attempts to force Chrome use, broke the compatibility with the Github version of youtube.luac -- I haven't managed to look into whether there's an updated working version out there yet. Sorry!]

So this guide to easily downloading off YouTube is super helpful, but there's enough important information hidden in the reblogs that (with the permission of OP @queriesntheories ) I'm doing a more step-by-step version.

Please note: these downloads will be in YouTube quality. My test video download is coming through at 360p, even though the video I'm starting from is set to 720p. They're legible, but they won't look great on a TV. For high visual quality, you'll want to seek out other methods.

This guide is written for Windows 10, since that's what I can test on. It's been tested on Firefox, Chrome, and Edge (which is a Chromium browser, so the method should work in other Chromium browsers too). So far, I haven't tracked down a way to use this download method on mobile.

BASIC KNOWLEDGE:

I'll try to make this pretty beginner-friendly, but I am going to assume that you know how to right-click, double-click, navigate right-click menus, click-and-drag, use keyboard shortcuts that are given to you (for example, how to use Ctrl+A), and get the URL for any YouTube video you want to download.

You'll also need to download and install one or more programs off the internet using .exe files, if you don't have these programs already. Please make sure you know how to use your firewall and antivirus to keep your computer safe, and google any names you don't recognize before allowing permission for each file. You can also hover your mouse over each link in this post to make sure it goes where I'm saying it will go.

YOU WILL NEED:

A computer where you have admin permissions. This is usually a computer you own or have the main login on. Sadly, a shared computer like the ones at universities and libraries will not work for this.

Enough space on your computer to install the programs listed below, if you don't have them already, and some space to save your downloaded files to. The files are pretty small because of the low video quality.

A simple text editing program. Notepad is the one that usually comes with Windows. If it lets you change fonts, it's too fancy. A notepad designed specifically to edit program code without messing it up is Notepad++, which you can download here.

A web browser. I use Firefox, which you can get here. Chrome or other Chrome-based browsers should also work. I haven't tested in Safari.

An Internet connection fast enough to load YouTube. A little buffering is fine. The downloads will happen much faster than streaming the entire video, unless your internet is very slow.

VLC Media Player, which you can get here. It's a free player for music and videos, available on Windows, Android, and iOS, and it can play almost any format of video or audio file that exists. We'll be using it for one of the central steps in this process.

If you want just the audio from a YouTube video, you'll need to download the video and then use a different program to copy the audio into its own file. At the end of this post, I'll have instructions for that, using a free sound editor called Audacity.

SETUP TO DOWNLOAD:

The first time you do this, you'll need to set VLC up so it can do what you want. This is where we need Notepad and admin permissions. You shouldn't need to repeat this process unless you're reinstalling VLC.

If VLC is open, close it.

In your computer's file system (File Explorer on Windows), go to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist

If you're not familiar with File Explorer, you'll start by clicking where the left side shows (C:). Then in the big main window, you'll double-click each folder that you see in the file path, in order - so in this case, when you're in C: you need to look for Program Files. (There will be two of them. You want the one without the x86 at the end.) Then inside Program Files you're looking for VideoLAN, and so forth through the whole path.

Once you're inside the "playlist" folder, you'll see a lot of files ending in .luac - they're in alphabetical order. The one you want to edit is youtube.luac which is probably at the bottom.

You can't edit youtube.luac while it's in this folder. Click and drag it out of the playlist folder to somewhere else you can find it - your desktop, for instance. Your computer will ask for admin permission to move the file. Click the "Continue" button with the blue and yellow shield.

Now that the file is moved, double-click on it. The Microsoft Store will want you to search for a program to open the .luac file type with. Don't go to the Microsoft Store, just click on the blue "More apps" below that option, and you'll get a list that should include your notepad program. Click on it and click OK.

The file that opens up will be absolutely full of gibberish-looking code. That's fine. Use Ctrl+A to select everything inside the file, then Backspace or Delete to delete it. Don't close the file yet.

In your web browser, go to https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/share/lua/playlist/youtube.lua

Click in the part of the Github page that has a bunch of mostly blue code in it. Use Ctrl+A to select all of that code, Ctrl+C to copy it, then come back into your empty youtube.luac file and use Ctrl+P to paste the whole chunk of code into the file.

Save the youtube.luac file (Ctrl+S or File > Save in the upper left corner of the notepad program), then close the notepad program.

Drag youtube.luac back into the folder it came from. The computer will ask for admin permission again. Give it permission.

Now you can close Github and Notepad. You're ready to start downloading!

HOW TO DOWNLOAD:

First, get your YouTube link. It should look something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123DEF45 If it's longer, you can delete any extra stuff after that first set of letters and numbers, but you don't have to.

Now open VLC. Go to Media > Open Network Stream and paste your YouTube link into the box that comes up. Click Play. Wait until the video starts to play, then you can pause it if you want so it's not distracting you during the next part.

(If nothing happens, you probably forgot to put youtube.luac back. coughs)

In VLC, go to Tools > Codec Information. At the bottom of the pop-up box you'll see a long string of gibberish in a box labeled Location. Click in the Location box. It won't look like it clicked properly, but when you press Ctrl+A, it should select all. Use Ctrl+C to copy it.

In your web browser, paste the entire string of gibberish and hit Enter. Your same YouTube video should come up, but without any of the YouTube interface around it. This is where the video actually lives on YouTube's servers. YouTube really, really doesn't like to show this address to humans, which is why we needed VLC to be like "hi I'm just a little video player" and get it for us.

Because, if you're looking at the place where the video actually lives, you can just right-click-download it, and YouTube can't stop you.

Right-click on your video. Choose "Save Video As". Choose where to save it to - I use my computer's built-in Music or Videos folders.

Give it a name other than "videoplayback" so you can tell it apart from your other downloads.

The "Save As Type" dropdown under the Name field will probably default to MP4. This is a good versatile video format that most video players can read. If you need a different format, you can convert the download later. (That's a whole other post topic.)

Click Save, and your video will start downloading! It may take a few minutes to fully download, depending on your video length and internet speed. Once the download finishes, congratulations! You have successfully downloaded a YouTube video!

If you'd like to convert your video into a (usually smaller) audio file, so you can put it on a music player, it's time to install and set up Audacity.

INSTALLING AUDACITY (first time setup for audio file conversion):

You can get Audacity here. If you're following along on Windows 10, choose the "64-bit installer (recommended)". Run the installer, but don't open Audacity at the end, or if it does open, close it again.

On that same Audacity download page, scroll down past the installers to the "Additional resources". You'll see a box with a "Link to FFmpeg library". This is where you'll get the add-on program that will let Audacity open your downloaded YouTube video, so you can tell it to make an audio-only file. The link will take you to this page on the Audacity support wiki, which will always have the most up-to-date information on how to install the file you need here.

From that wiki page, follow the link to the actual FFmpeg library. If you're not using an adblocker, be careful not to click on any of the ads showing you download buttons. The link you want is bold blue text under "FFmpeg Installer for Audacity 3.2 and later", and looks something like this: "FFmpeg_5.0.0_for_Audacity_on_Windows_x86.exe". Download and install it. Without this, Audacity won't be able to open MP4 files downloaded from YouTube.

CONVERTING TO AUDIO:

Make sure you know where to find your downloaded MP4 video file. This file won't go away when you "convert" it - you'll just be copying the audio into a different file.

Open up Audacity.

Go to File > Open and choose your video file.

You'll get one of those soundwave file displays you see in recording booths and so forth. Audacity is a good solid choice if you want to teach yourself to edit soundwave files, but that's not what we're here for right now.

Go to File > Export Audio. The File Name will populate to match the video's filename, but you can edit it if you want.

Click the Browse button next to the Folder box, and choose where to save your new audio file to. I use my computer's Music folder.

You can click on the Format dropdown and choose an audio file type. If you're not sure which one you want, MP3 is the most common and versatile.

If you'd like your music player to know the artist, album, and so forth for your audio track, you can edit that later in File Manager, or you can put the information in with the Edit Metadata button here. You can leave any of the slots blank, for instance if you don't have a track number because it's a YouTube video.

Once everything is set up, click Export, and your new audio file will be created. Go forth and listen!

[genuinenoprize]

Tumblr is always talking about being broke and user accounts keep disappearing, Twitter is collapsing under the world's silliest rebrand, Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram, and more) are bleeding money over a failed attempt to pivot to VR, Amazon (owners of Amazon Prime Video, Twitch.tv, and more) have a union now and Google (owner of Youtube, Gmail, the Chrome browser and more) was recently ruled as a monopoly. Social media and internet culture is reaching the end of an era.

If that has you worrying about how you'll keep in touch with your loved ones and fans, if you're thinking about making your own site, if you want a place to speak privately without worrying what advertisers and governments think: PierMesh is for you

@utopicwork is making the tools for a new Web Mesh Network, where data is sent over the radio instead of through the tubes. PierMesh is a vision of a new internet by and for the people. Practical design and huge number of innovative software inventions allow this new network to be environmentally friendly, operated only on affordable hardware, free to use, and available equally no matter what kind of area you're in.

She's just one trans woman. Disabled, unemployed and pouring all of the energy she has into working hard every day on this. We can't coast by on good vibes and fumes forever: please take a look, tell your friends and help if you can

[edda-grenade]

✨ ✨ ✨ COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!! ✨ ✨ ✨

i'm offering portrait commissions!

lineart 60 $ / 57 €

color 85 $ / 81 €

HOW TO GET ONE

fill out the google form (please have references ready!)

you'll get an email to confirm

i'll send a paypal invoice for the full price

once paid, i start drawing!

you'll get a sketch stage update + can request minor changes

you get the finished commission (watermarked, web-friendly JPG + full-size PNG file without watermark)

i'm allotting about 2 weeks for the turnaround time.

if you'd like more examples of the kinds of characters i can draw, check out my art tag

if you have any questions, feel free to dm me!

(i also have a ko-fi if you'd like to support me financially, but can't/don't want to get a commission. in any case, reblogs are deeply appreciated <3)

ToS under the cut:

Terms of Service

I may reject the commission for any reason.

You may not use these commissions for commercial purposes (merch design, resale, NFTs, etc) or as training data for generative AI. You may not redistribute these commissions without attribution and link back to edda-grenade.tumblr.com.

Commissions are digital; no shipping is required. The client receives 1 watermarked, web-friendly JPG, and 1 full-size PNG file.

Payment is to be made in full and up-front through Paypal invoice. Work on the commission begins once the invoice is paid.

Clients may request small (!) changes after the sketch stage.

If I am unable to complete the commission for whatever reason, the client will receive a file with the work completed up to that point. From the money that has been paid by the client, I will deduct what covers the work that I have already done, and return the rest.

[shannonmanorart]

TWST Process!

So I got a comment this morning asking if my Ignihyde piece was a Memoji---a thing I immediately had to google to even know what that means lol I'm not mad, no shade to OP but it really threw me for loop to be asked if my art is a customizable avatar.

I know this blog is mostly my fun little sketches or side projects but I am a professional artist! Even if this is a silly little side project to keep my brain from falling it the abyss, it's still my art I drew with my own hands and it's important to me for people to know that!

Process breakdowns below the cut! it's not very detailed but figured i'd be fun to show a peak behind the curtain!

First things first! I do all of these in Proceate on my iPad! These are very casual and just for me to have fun--I'm very burnt out after my associate art direction job on Hit Monkey so I'm just trying to give myself a tiny piece of joy so I can get myself back to drawing my web comic and merch for cons/my store.

I draw each dorm in their own file just to keep things from getting too cluttered. The group shots I do separately in another file. So I'll finish them, flatten them and paste them into another file to size them up together/add backgrounds/effects. I included screenshots to show the breakdown of the original drawings along with the group shot. Nothing too fancy. Also forgive all the unnamed layers x_x I am usually incredibly organized but typing on my iPad annoys me so I tend to not name Procreate layers. You can see where I thought about it by naming ONE layer.

Here is the timelapse for The Ignihyde boys! You'll notice I keep Ace+Deuce in the file--I use them as a base reference for the stylization. I stylize everyone a bit differently but I try to maintain some consistency. I also reuse some bits of their palette as a piece of that consistency. You can also see me go 'oh yeah Ortho's hip thing goes all the way around so we should see it behind him........oh no. nvm that looks bad.' lol

What was most important for me to sell with these two was the difference of their personalities. I was aiming for that 'Someone will die' 'of fun!!' vibe haha So I wanted Idia very compact and to himself while Ortho is energetic and friendly. I also wanted to bring some design elements of Hades face to Idia's face. His bangs cover it up but I gave him a long nose that starts right from his brow the way they stylize them in the movie. I also gave them more color to their skintone but kept Idia more ashen/desaturated--I liked the idea of him looking kinda grey to match Hades instead of just pale.

Here's the non-default brushes I use--Jingsketch brushes are available here and the free comic brushes I got from Di Brushes. I'm usually a default brush kinda person but Procreate's default textured stuff wasn't really doing it for me anymore. I really like using stuff that looks more like pencil or pastel. I've also been addicted to adding noise a lot to my pieces. I know that's not the most original thing in the world but idk, it looks cool. My group shots always get a layer of noise.

But yeah, that's it! These are purposely kept pretty simple so I can knock each one out in about two hours or so. More detailed dorm outfits obviously take longer--I hand drew all the patterns on the Pomefiore kids like a mad man. Every time I erased the edges, I went 'I should probably copy and paste this' and then never did. I love making things harder for myself lmao

See y'all in Diasomnia! (I also have plans to draw my MC and Grim so Diasomnia won't be goodbye~)

[brightsearchsolutions]

Choose Our Best Website Designing Service

Are you ready to make a bold digital statement and captivate your audience with a website that not only looks stunning but also drives results? Look no further! At Bright Search Solutions, we specialize in crafting visually appealing and strategically designed website, offering top-tier Website Designing Services that elevate your brand and user experience

[songbird-at-the-fireside-chat]

Browsing the World Wide Web

Browsing the World Wide Web

One of my favorite passions is creating/finding ways to navigate the web that are healthy, authentic, and fun! Here are some resources I use to guide my internet usage. Some language has been slightly adapted for tone and accessibility. For more in-depth reading, follow the links! (taken with permission from https://yair.garden/browsing). Shared Ideals

MelonKing has an excellent list of shared ideals which I try to keep in mind as I browse the web. It's a great starting point!

Creativity is First: We see the ability to design, decorate, and graffiti digital spaces as essential and powerful.

The Internet is Fun: We want the Web to be a playground that's free to explore and enjoy.

Corporations are Boring: We are tired of the monetization, data abuse, and endless breaches of trust in corporate culture.

The Web is Friendly: We believe the Web should be friendly and supportive; caring is a radical act.

Right to Repair: We value the freedom to make, break, and repair our stuff - tinkering is a form of debate and protest.

One World Wide Web: We want free open knowledge and global connectivity, without paywalls, bubbles, or borders.

Chaotic Effort: We believe that value comes from the time and effort put into projects they love for no reason other than love.

No to Web3: In many (but not all) situations, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, unfairly trained AIs, and buzzword tech are unwelcome and uncool.

Manifesto for a New Web

The YesterWeb is an organization seeking to progressively transform internet culture and beyond. After two years, they created three core commitments and three social behavior guidelines to benefit everyone.

A commitment to social responsibility and partisanship.

A commitment to collective well-being and personal growth.

A commitment to rehumanizing social relations and reversing social alienation.

50 additional manifestos can be found here Social Etiquette

Engage in good faith.

Engage in constructive conflict.

Be mindful of participating in a shared, public space.

Why say no to Web 3.0?

One of the shared ideas of our community of web surfers is to push back against "Web 3.0". Here's why:

It's driven by predatory marketing tactics.

It requires complex technological and financial knowledge to fully understand.

It is actively harming the environment.

It caters to early adopters and whales.

It profits off artificial scarcity.

Investors are banking on Web3, and they really don't want to be wrong.

Personalized Web Surfing Guide

Make your web surfing personal and adventurous, away from corporate influences. Here's a simple guide for a unique browsing experience.

Configure your browser

Remove Ads and Clean up Privacy:

Ublock Origin for removing ads

ClearURLs for removing tracking elements from URLs

SponsorBlock for skipping sponsorships on YouTube

Make it a Safer Space:

ShinigamiEyes for highlighting transphobic/anti-LGBTQ sites

TriggerRemover for removing trigger-inducing content from pages

Clean up UI for Beauty and Minimalism:

CleanerReads for a muted Goodreads experience

Minimal; for a minimal and less attention-grabbing internet

Bonuses for a Cool Experience:

Library Extension: Check book availability at local libraries

Translate Web Pages: Translate pages in real-time

Return YouTube Dislike: Bring back the YouTube dislike feature

How to Browse and Surf the Web

Explore Beyond Corporate Sites: While the internet is vast, the majority of users only see a small fraction dominated by large corporate sites. These sites often prioritize shock value and extreme content, overshadowing the richness of the wider web. Explore alternative avenues to discover the internet's diversity.

Search Engines: Avoid corporate search engines like Google. Instead, consider using alternatives like Kagi, which focuses on privacy and doesn't sell your data. While it costs around $10/month, Kagi offers a diverse mix of web content, making it a worthwhile investment for varied search results. Other niche or non-commercial search engines can also provide unique content. While they may not be sustainable for daily use, they're great for discovering new sites. Find them here.

Webrings: Webrings are collections of websites united by a common theme or topic. They offer a unique way to explore sites created by real people, spanning a wide range of interests. Here are some of my favorite webrings:

Hotline Webring

Retro Webring

Low Tech Webring

Geek Webring

Soft Heart Clinic Mental Health Circle ...and here are some list of webring databases to explore!

Curated List of 64 Webrings

Neocities Webrings

Curated List of Active Webrings

Comprehensive List of 210 Webrings

Cliques/Fanlistings Web Cliques/Cliques are groups which you can join usually if you fulfill a certain task such as choosing an animal or listing your astrological sign. Fanlistings do the same for fans of various topics! You can then be linked on the clique's/fan group's site for further website discovery! Here are some web clique directories:

Project Clique

Cliqued

Fanlistings Network

5. Link Directories

Many sites have smaller link directories of buttons where you can find sites that they are "mutuals" (both creators follow each other) and "friends/neighbors" — sites they follow. It's a great way to build community. There are also larger link directories of sites which someone finds cool, and it's a great way to intentionally explore the web. Here are some of my favorites:

SadGrl Links

Melonland Surf Club

Neocities Sites

Onio.Cafe

Though there are many more! 6. Random Site Generators

Finally, there are random site generators which allow you to randomly stumble upon websites. While not very practical, they are a lot of fun and offer a unique way to discover new corners of the web.

A list can be found here

What now?

The next question you have is probably how can you become an active member/contribute in this world of the underground web? I unfortunately don't have the energy to write a guide right now but it will come soon! In broad strokes, consider making a site on Neocities. If you do make a site, remember to include a robots.txt file to get AI and bots out of there and don't forget to rate your site so we can know who it's for. If you'd like to transition off social media I recommend an RSS Reader such as the one at 32bit.cafe or on Fraidycat (guide on this to come soon as well!). For your twitter-fix you can always post a status at Status Cafe and your mood at imood. There is a whole world out there full of passionate and friendly people who are ready to reclaim the web. Excited to see you there!

[tragedynoir]

— server exclusive: FINDER + [ link ]

a free, semi-mobile friendly google doc template completely made in tables that is inspired by web searches! it features space for a blurb on your muse (or rp info!), a q&a type section, and seven external links that you can add or remove as you see fit. large amounts of writing and additional photos will simply overflow to the next pages but should not break any design elements. this template also comes in a pageless version that would imitate the infinite scrolling of webpages and help you easily fit in large amounts information without worrying about how it would split across pages! to access the template, join my discord server (in the link above or in source) and find it under the new releases channel. I hope this template is useful to you!

feel free to edit as you please, but please do not remove the credit, resell, redistribute or claim as yours whether wholesale, in part, or modified.

if you like my work, please reblog to share this resource as it really motivates me to create more free resources! ♡ if you'd like to support me further, you may also tip me at my ko-fi jar and gain access to an additional supporter-exclusive template (see: "special delivery"). thank you so much!

[shinelikethunder]

Hello there! I hope you don’t mind me just dropping into your asks like this, but by all means def feel free to just delete this if so, it is kind of a weird ask.

This is the anon from the computer blog asking about a private laptop for collage! After doing (a small amount of) research into Linux, one thing that’s super confusing to me, is… how does one know which distro to use? You mentioned in the replies of the post that you use Ubuntu Linux, which seems to be one of the more popular ones. Would you recommend — and if so, why? Is it good for privacy, do you think? The best? Does the user need to have a good deal of experience with computers to keep it running? (I’ve never used a laptop before but I don’t mind trying to learn stuff)

Also this is an EXTREMELY stupid question my apologies, but how….. exactly do you put Linux on a laptop? OP from my ask said to buy a laptop with no OS but is that something you can do? I’d think so, since 0P works with computer and stuff as their job, but Reddit says that it’s not really possible and that you should just “buy like a Windows laptop and scrap the software”??? Is that… correct? How did you install Linux on your laptop — did y ou have to remove software off it or did you, as OP says, manage to find a laptop with no OS?

Again, feel free to ignore if you don’t wanna put in the time/effort to reply to this, I absolutely don’t mind — it’s a lot of stuff I’m asking and you didn’t invite it all, so ofc feel free to delete the ask if you’d like!

ha, you've zeroed in on one of the big reasons Linux is kind of a contrarian choice for me to recommend: the wild proliferation of distros, many of them hideously complex to work with. luckily, the fact that most of them are niche offshoots created by and for overly-technical nerds makes the choice easier: you don't want those. you want one of the largest, best-supported, most popular ones, with a reputation for being beginner-friendly. the two biggies are Ubuntu and Linux Mint; i'd recommend focusing your research there.

this isn't JUST a popularity-contest thing: the more people use it, the more likely you are to find answers if you're having trouble or plugging a weird error message into google, and the greater the variety of software you'll find packaged for easy install in that distro. some combination of professional and broad-based community support means you'll find better documentation and tutorials, glitches will be rarer and get fixed faster, and the OS is less likely to be finicky about what hardware it'll play nice with. the newbie-friendly ones are designed to be a breeze to install and to not require technical fiddling to run them for everyday tasks like web browsing, document editing, media viewing, file management, and such.

info on installation, privacy, personal endorsement, etc under the cut. tl;dr: most computers can make you a magic Linux-installing USB stick, most Linuces are blessedly not part of the problem on privacy, Ubuntu i can firsthand recommend but Mint is probably also good.

almost all Linux distros can be assumed to be better for privacy than Windows or MacOS, because they are working from a baseline of Not Being One Of The Things Spying On You; some are managed by corporations (Ubuntu is one of them), but even those corporations have to cater to a notoriously cantankerous userbase, so most phoning-home with usage data tends to be easy to turn off and sponsored bullshit kept minimally intrusive. the one big exception i know of is Google's bastard stepchild ChromeOS, which you really don't want to be using, for a wide variety of reasons. do NOT let someone talk you into installing fucking Qubes or something on claims that it's the "most private" or "most secure" OS; that's total user-unfriendly overkill unless you have like a nation-state spy agency or something targeting you, specifically.

how to install Linux is also not a dumb question! back in the day, if you wanted to, say, upgrade a desktop computer from Windows 95 to Windows 98, you'd receive a physical CD-ROM disc whose contents were formatted to tell the computer "hey, i'm not a music CD or a random pile of backup data or a piece of software for the OS to run, i want you to run me as the OS next time you boot up," and then that startup version would walk you through the install.

nowadays almost anyone with a computer can create a USB stick that'll do the same thing: you download an Ubuntu installer and a program that can perform that kind of formatting, plug in the USB stick, tell the program to put the installer on it and make it bootable, and then once it's done, plug the USB stick into the computer you want to Linuxify and turn it on.

Ubuntu has an excellent tutorial for every step of the install process, and an option to do a temporary test install so you can poke around and see how you like it without pulling the trigger irreversibly: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop

having a way to create a bootable USB stick is one reason to just get a Windows computer and then let the Linux installer nuke everything (which i think is the most common workflow), but in a pinch you can also create the USB on a borrowed/shared computer and uninstall the formatter program when you're done. i don't have strong opinions on what kind of laptop to get, except "if you do go for Linux, be sure to research in advance whether the distro is known to play nice with your hardware." i'm partial to ThinkPads but that's just, like, my opinion, man. lots of distros' installers also make it dead simple to create a dual-boot setup where you can pick between Windows and Linux at every startup, which is useful if you know you might have to use Windows-only software for school or something. keep in mind, though, that this creates two little fiefdoms whose files and hard-disk space aren't shared at all, and it is not a beginner-friendly task to go in later and change how much storage each OS has access to.

i've been using the distro i'm most familiar with as my go-to example throughout, but i don't really have a strong opinion on Ubuntu vs Mint, simply because i haven't played around with Mint enough to form one. Ubuntu i'll happily recommend as a beginner-friendly version of Linux that's reasonably private by default. (i think there's like one install step where Canonical offers paid options, telemetry, connecting online accounts, etc, and then respects your "fuck off" and doesn't bug you about it again.) by reputation, Mint has a friendlier UI, especially for people who are used to Windows, and its built-in app library/"store" is slicker but offers a slightly more limited ecosystem of point-and-click installs.

(unlike Apple and Google, there are zero standard Linux distros that give a shit if you manually install software from outside the app store, it's just a notoriously finicky process that could take two clicks or could have you tearing your hair out at 3am. worth trying if the need arises, but not worth stressing over if you can't get it to work.)

basic software starter-pack recommendations for any laptop (all available on Windows and Mac too): Firefox with the uBlock Origin and container tab add-ons, VLC media player, LibreOffice for document editing. the closest thing to a dealbreaking pain in the ass about Linux these days (imo) is that all the image and video editing software i know of is kinda janky in some way, so if that's non-negotiable you may have to dual-boot... GIMP is the godawfully-clunky-but-powerful Photoshop knockoff, and i've heard decent things about Pinta as a mid-weight image editor roughly equivalent to Paint.net for Windows.

[rankcraftseo]

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