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Business
Microsoft Announces Major Vulnerability in All IE Browsers
December 28, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Microsoft announced a major vulnerability in all versions of the popular Internet Explorer (IE) web browsers that makes it possible for malicious websites to hijack a visitor's computer. Microsoft said that it did not believe that any serious criminals were either using or previously w...
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Customer Retention
The PEC Review: Ethnio Helps Understand Customers
December 27, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Successful online retailers are often customer-focused service companies rather than just purveyors of products. Put another way, many successful retailers are successful not just because of the products they offer or the effectiveness of their marketing, but rather because they do a g...
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Design & Dev Tools
New Chrome Update Includes Native 3D Graphics; Nifty Human-Body Tool
December 21, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Google has released a new updated version of its popular Chrome web browser that supports the WebGL extension to HTML5, making it possible to render 3D graphics in a web browser without the use of a plug-in. Google's inclusion of WebGL in Chrome helps the browser catch up to Firefox an...
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Business
The PEC Review: Fonality VOIP for Small Business
December 20, 2010 • Armando Roggio
The telephone, like it or not, is an integral part of every business — whether you're speaking with suppliers about shipments, having a teleconference with your web developer, or following up on a customer service question. I am not a big fan of telephones — except for the mobile ones ...
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Design & Development
Prepare for the Mobile Commerce Surge
December 16, 2010 • Armando Roggio
In the past year, mobile commerce has doubled in volume and by 2015 consumers could be spending nearly $24 billion per year from Internet-enabled mobile devices in the U.S. alone. The mobile commerce market must be taken seriously, explained TRUSTe's director of mobile products Janet J...
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Business
Internet Explorer 9 to Include Tracking Protection, Content Blocking
December 14, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Microsoft announced that its forthcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 9 web browser will include an opt-in anti-tracking feature that will block third-party content, and even prevent programs like Google Analytics from working. This is on the heels of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rep...
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Photography & Video
The PEC Review: Aviary’s Embeddable HTML5 Photo Editor
December 13, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Online merchants should never forget that their core business is selling products. But it can be an effective marketing tactic to offer other services to potential customers. Examples of offering more than just products abound. They include things like the how-to articles, blogs, enter...
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Business
Opera Mail Brings a Feature-Rich Mail Client to Your Browser
December 7, 2010 • Armando Roggio
The free Opera web browser includes a built-in and feature-rich email client that lets you surf the web, subscribe to feeds, and manage your email from a single platform. There are a number of excellent email clients available, including Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Mac OS X Mail, and...
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Business
The PEC Review: Slash the Web with Blekko Search
December 6, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Internet users conduct billions of web searches every month. In fact, comScore reported that Americans alone queried Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other search engines some 18.6 billion times in October 2010. What's more, the number of searches is growing. comScore reports that Americans ...
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Platforms & Apps
Opera 11 Launches Tab Stacking
November 29, 2010 • Armando Roggio
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Platforms & Apps
The PEC Review: Yahoo! Clues, for Trend Tracking
November 29, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Yahoo! has released a new trend-tracking tool that identifies what users looked for before and after a particular search term and estimates those users' annual incomes, potentially providing online retailers with good customer intelligence. Search marketing, whether via pay-per-click (...
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Platforms & Apps
The PEC Review: Yahoo! Meme for Microblogging, Sharing
November 22, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Social media marketing is proving to be an effective way to engage customers and improve sales for online stores. The social media landscape is, at least for the moment, dominated by two major services, Facebook and Twitter. But there are many other services that offer the possibility ...
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Platforms & Apps
RockMelt, The Next Social Browser?
November 19, 2010 • Armando Roggio
RockMelt is a new web browser that integrates with Facebook so that every page can be quickly shared and every post from a friend discovered. RockMelt is built using Chromium, which is the open-source web browser project that underlies Chrome; so it performs almost as well as the speed...
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Social Media
New Firefox Extension: Social Marketing While You Browse
November 16, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Mozilla Labs Messaging Group has released a new Firefox extension that makes it simpler to share content from around the web on Facebook and Twitter. Social media marketing seeks to make new or more loyal customers by engaging with them, not just pushing products. Usually, social marke...
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Platforms & Apps
The PEC Review: Wufoo Online Form Builder
November 15, 2010 • Armando Roggio
In the Internet age, consumers encounter web forms with regularity. There are registration forms, login forms, contact forms, customer service forms, survey forms, content submission forms, package tracking forms, or checkout forms on just about every website. Web forms are, as such, o...
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Design & Dev Tools
The PEC Review: Google Docs
November 8, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Managing a small-to-midsized retail business often includes tracking, updating, and storing a lot of information. Spreadsheets filled with vendor pricing, co-op advertising submission forms, project documents, wireframes for a website redevelopment,
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Keyword Research
Supercharge Your Opera, Firefox Web Searches with Search-Preference Keywords
November 5, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Every major web browser allows users to conduct a web search directly from its address bar. But Opera and Firefox take this convenient shortcut a step further, allowing folks to search several different sites or engines directly from a single spot. For professionals who work on the Int...
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Platforms & Apps
Become an Opera Power User in 3 Steps
November 2, 2010 • Armando Roggio
The Opera browser offers one of the most innovative user experiences available. Clearly the browser is a trendsetter. It was the first to introduce tabs, the first to maximize the page-viewing area and minimize controls, and it continues to include new features and new ways for users t...
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Photography & Video
The PEC Review: Wondershare Video Converter
November 1, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Video is one of the most potent ways to market and sell products online. In fact, some merchants have reported increases in conversions rates of 20 percent or more when they ...
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Platforms & Apps
The PEC Review: Use Jira for Bug Tracking, Project Management
October 25, 2010 • Armando Roggio
As ecommerce businesses grow from entrepreneurial startups to mid-sized retailers, they can become much more complex to manage. As a startup, the operation was likely managed by one or two people. Fixing website glitches was pretty straightforward. You saw something wrong. You fixed it...
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Platforms & Apps
Managing Pop-Ups in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome
October 22, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Ecommerce professionals spend many hours each day online. They monitor their businesses, check email, market products, post to social media sites, watch the competition, or otherwise do any one of a hundred business-related activities. Into the midst of this online experience come pop-ups — ads, forms, controls, whatever.
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Business
Internet Explorer 9: Managing Cookies and Cache
October 19, 2010 • Armando Roggio
From managing cookies to clearing your browser cache, there are essential tasks that every web surfer needs to know. Think of it this way. Many professionals and entrepreneurs use a web browser like Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) to access web-based email, conduct research, or even...
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Analytics & Data
The PEC Review: Website Grader, for Benchmarking Your Ecommerce Site
October 18, 2010 • Armando Roggio
A successful ecommerce business is an dynamic blend of products, pricing, operations management, customer service, marketing, and web technology. And an ecommerce entrepreneur or manager must monitor each and every ...
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Platforms & Apps
8 Keyboard Shortcuts for Internet Explorer 9
October 12, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 is a modern, fast, and efficient web browser that will speed up the web for its users. But, if you really want to get the most out of this new and vastly improved web browser, you've got to take advantage of keyboard shortcuts. Every browser has keyboar...
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Social Media
The PEC Review: The ‘New’ Twitter
October 11, 2010 • Armando Roggio
For nearly a month, microblogging powerhouse Twitter has been rolling out a new user interface aimed at making the service the "best way to discover what's new in your world." Twitter is already one of the most popular social media sites with more than 165 million registered users, acc...
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Platforms & Apps
5 Essential Firefox Add-ons
October 5, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Mozilla's Firefox web browser helped pioneer the concept of browser add-ons and extensions, making custom web surfing experiences and tools possible. The Firefox Add-on directory includes more than 13,000 browser extensions. According to Mozilla, the browser's various add-ons have be...
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Photography & Video
The PEC Review: Canon Vixia HF R10 Camcorder for Product Videos, More
October 4, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Product videos, how-to demonstration, and entertainment marketing are just three examples of how ecommerce marketers are using the Internet's broadcasting power to engage customers. Examples of each sort of video are abundant. Magellan's Travel Supplies and Swimwear Boutique use profes...
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User Experience
9 Mouse Gestures For the Opera Browser
September 28, 2010 • Armando Roggio
The Opera web browser allows web surfers to use quick, predetermined mouse movements to complete many common browsing tasks, such as going back to a previous page, opening new tabs, or reloading a page. Once users become familiar with these mouse gestures, they can surf the web potenti...
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Platforms & Apps
The PEC Review: Libsyn for Video, Audio Podcasting
September 27, 2010 • Armando Roggio
From product or how-to videos to expert audio podcasts, many online merchants use multimedia to help sell products and engage customers. Examples of ecommerce companies using video and audio abound, but they include REI and Maker SHED. Yet, both of these examples are from relatively ...
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Analytics & Data
Performance Metrics for Ecommerce, Part Three
September 20, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Social marketing has emerged as one of the best ways to connect with consumers online. And tracking how well your business's social media marketing is performing has become a vital measurement of ecommerce marketing measurement. Yet with so many metrics and statistics to follow, it can...