On-Page Image Usage Analysis Tools

1. Juicy Studio Image Analyzer – is a handy online tool that will look at each image on a given page and evaluate the following parameters:

• image width / height;
• alternative text;
• An URL to an image long description.

2. Alt Text Checker – (by Durham University) will list alt text information next to each image found on the page

3. Page Size Extractor – will give you a quick idea of how the page images influence the page size and hence load time by giving:

• total number of on-page images;
• The largest image size;
• The total image size.

4. Web Developer Firefox: Toolbar offers an array of image analyzing tools:

• display alt attributes;
• display image dimensions;
• display image sizes;
• display image paths;
• find broken images;
• outline images missing alt attributes;
• hide images / background images;

5. Firefox Accessibility Extension offers a most useful feature summarizing all page images in the form of a handy table (the feature can found under “Text equivalents” => “List of images“). The table is extremely easy to use as (1) it highlights “the problematic” images and (2) it can be sorted by any of the following parameters:

• Image alt text;
• Image source link;
• Image width;
• Image height

Are You Prepared For An Online Crisis?

A recent survey conducted by Buzz Marketing, and sponsored by Marketing Profs and Trackur, shows that more than half of the B2B marketers polled aren’t adequately prepared for an online crisis.
Although the sample universe was small, it is an indication of what B2B marketers are thinking and doing.

* 60% say they have a good understanding of their current reputation
* 63% don’t have a blogging policy in place
* 53% place strategic importance on measuring and monitoring their reputation in 2008
* Only 42% have a strategic plan in place to manage their online reputation
* More than half (54%) are not monitoring traditional media using services like Burrells/Luce or Bacons
* 63% are monitoring social media and blogs with free online services
* Only 33% use a paid subscription service to monitor online content
* 54% say they are leveraging social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn
* 45% are monitoring their brand on these social networks
* 71% say they are not developing widgets that can be added to social sites

Google-Adobe Agreement for Flash files

Shockwave Flash files can be read and indexed now. The agreement between Google and Adobe in this regard is a noble effort to make the invisible flash file visible for the search engines. Using the “optimized Adobe Flash Player technology”, the search engines can now index rich internet applications of SWF file format. There is no need to change the otherwise attractive Flash content in order to make it suitable for the crawlers to read. There are more than 73 million Flash files on the web which will now be visible with the help of this new technology.

According to Google, the optimized Adobe Flash Player technology has the potential to cover all kinds of SWF files including buttons, menus for self-contained Flash websites. Some of the observers have speculated the linage of the new technology in Silverlight. Silverlight was created by Microsoft to have an edge over Flash.

Although Adobe has prepared this effective solution for Google and Yahoo, in order to make SWF content easily searchable the span of search services, the company is planning to share its Flash indexing technology with other search vendors too. By having solutions for other search engines, Adobe would be able to affirm its foothold in web search market as well.