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How have web technologies evolved with time?

The web is built on several technologies working together to produce the dynamic resource it has become. But what are these, and how did they come about?

The basic building block of the web is a markup language called HTML. This enables content to be presented to the user in a particular way using 'tags'. Without it the web simply couldn't function. HTML was introduced as an experimental technology in 1992, allowing web designers to build a page using text, images and a basic framework to share information to users browsing remotely from their computer.

Mosaic was the first browser to be released, and despite it being launched eons ago in web technology terms, it is still recognizable to a user of a web browser today. Opera and Internet Explorer soon followed, as did HTML2, an evolution of HTML. In a relatively short space of time HTML3 and HTML4 were introduced, and included significant input from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in order to ensure that competing interests from involved parties wouldn't compromise the technology.

HTML4 would become recognized as THE version of HTML for the next ten years because of this, the '4' was invariably dropped in favour of just 'HTML'.

Meanwhile, Javascript, Java and Flash were developed and launched to allow greater complexity in the design, animation, interactivity and functionality of websites. CSS was then introduced to separate the content of a webpage and its styling. Several other browsers followed, including Safari, Firefox and Chrome, and small updates were made in the guise of XML in the following 10 years but it wasn't until 2008 and the introduction of HTML5/CSS3 that HTML made a serious leap forward. HTML5 gave the designer and the user even more scope for dynamic, interactive client side content, running natively in the browser, Flash having been long since phased out due to its reliance on a third-party plugin.

Maddison Creative web design Newcastle were founded in 2009

Today, the main driver of technology change is the increasing number of devices that browsers use to access websites - mobile phones, tablets, touchscreen devices - all dictate how websites are built, replacing the once ubiquitous desktop browser.

How do I proactively promote my website online?

There are an ever increasing number of ways to promote your business online, some free and some have a cost, but when running a business it's important to explore every avenue. Methods of promoting your business for free include:

Website SEO Optimize your website so that it will readily be picked up by search Engines such as Google and Bing. This is by far the most effective way of promoting your business online, it is free and it has the largest reach...if done well!
Social Media Marketing Use your social channels and communities to push your business to your peers. You can include share and like buttons from most of the social media providers which removes any obstacles between a happy customer on your site and them recommending you to their peers. Many social media sites allow you to pull content from their sites and display said content on your site. This is a great way of keeping your customers abreast of updates in real-time, whilst also keeping your site content fresh.
Reciprocal links Get as many sites as you can to link to your site, this will not only drive traffic but it will also be recognized as a positive by search engines, boosting your ranking.

Paid for options include:

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising Create an ad that will appear at the top of a search engine results page or on an affiliates' website that you only pay for (a pre-agreed price) when a user is interested by your offering and clicks on your ad. No clicks, no cost.
Facebook ads & Twitter cards This is highly targetable, which means you can define exactly who you want to see your ads based on their interests, their location and a range of other criteria.
Email campaigns Email marketing technology is used by 82% of B2B and B2C companies. Can also be free, depending on your distribution method. Directly communicate with your client base or distribution list with a beautifully designed email. A wide range of reporting tools available, allowing you to see how your email (and different parts of your email) has performed. Can contain dynamic content, can be fully automated and can feature triggered elements.

With the increasing popularity of mobile devices, what are responsive websites and how is web design affected?

Two out of every three minutes spent online in the UK are users browsing on either a smartphone or a tablet. 13% of adults in the UK browse the internet exclusively using their smartphone, 2% more than browse exclusively on their desktop computer.

In the last two years tablet internet use grew by almost a third, and in the same two year period smartphone use grew by 78%, while desktop internet use has decreased.

The way people use smartphones to access the internet has revolutionized the way websites are built. Long gone are the days that companies were happy to have customers browse their full, desktop version of their site on their smartphone, causing users to zoom in and out of areas of the page that interested them, struggling to click on the tiny text links to navigate. If you're building a website for the modern internet user, the likelihood is that if they don't view your site exclusively on their mobile device, they'll at least check you out via their iPhone or Android phone before sitting down later at their computer to have a more in-depth look.

This is why most clients want a 'mobile-first' approach to their website, whereby you ensure that everything looks and behaves beautifully on a mobile device before considering a desktop version, and if something has to compromise, it certainly won't be the mobile site.

A 'responsive' website is one that adapts to the device it's being viewed on, whether that is a desktop computer, a mobile phone or a tablet. The content is then displayed in a way that is optimized for said device, improving user experience.

Websites and the web - what are their origins and how have they advanced?

The web is built on several technologies working together to produce the dynamic resource it has become. But what are these, and how did they come about?

HTML4 was to be the standard for around ten years, and its presence was lengthy enough that the '4' was almost universally deemed unneccessary and it was know simply as 'HTML'.

Flash, Java and Javascript were released, allowing website to feature more engaging and interactive content, and CSS came about to separate the styling of a website from its content. Chrome, Firefox and Safari were launched to give users greater options when choosing a browser software with which to browse the web. Incremental updates were made to HTML in the form of XML, but it wasn't until 2008 that HTML made a significant step forward with the release of HTML5 (and CSS3) gave the web designer a greater number of tools with which to build interactive, engaging, dynamic, immersive websites, which run client-side and which run natively in the latest generation of browsers without the need for any plugins.

2009 saw the launch of Maddison Creative Web Design Newcastle.

Currently, the primary driver of innovation change in the web industry is the advancement of mobile technology and the number of users who are choosing to consume web-data on-the-go using a handheld, touchscreen device. This has had a significant impact on who websites are designed and built.

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