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View Full Version : About to launch my site - Feedback please

arbor
02-26-2000, 06:42 PM
I am about to launch my following site and would appreciate any and all comment.

http://www.grandesearch.com

Please feel free to comment on loading time, content, layout and others.

Thanks in advance

p.s. I still can't properly get the DMOZ script running. I made necessary(I think) changes in Podvars.pm but it still does not work. Acutally linked the Arts section of Web Directory but only shows up "http 404 file not found" message. Would appreciate if someone could help.
Charles Capps
02-26-2000, 10:40 PM
I like the layout, but the download totaled to what appeared to be well over 100k, so you might want to see what you can do to reduce that...
sheila
02-27-2000, 11:45 AM
As far as getting the Dmoz script running, try going here:
http://searchenginediscussion.com/ubb/Forum51/HTML/000001.html

and asking for help.
arbor
02-27-2000, 01:49 PM
Thanks Sheila, I will do just that.
sheila
02-27-2000, 02:25 PM
I also noticed, that grohol.com has a support forum here:
http://psychcentral.com/forums/wwwthreads.pl?action=list&Board=software

Good luck!
di_bear
02-27-2000, 10:34 PM
Promote that puppy![nbsp][nbsp]:D

I like it!

However, (yes, there is always a however, but, etc.) it could load a little faster.[nbsp][nbsp]AND, if I were you, I'd center the body so the page is right smack dab in the middle of the screen.[nbsp][nbsp](That's just one of my personal things . . . I like centered pages.)

I didn't notice if you had one, but you may want to add a disclaimer stating that you have no affiliation with those search engines and directories, if it applies.

Di :)
[This message has been edited by di_bear (edited 02-27-00@10:39 pm)]
di_bear
02-27-2000, 10:37 PM
In addition . . .

On of my biggest rules that I always try to keep in mind is: think of the little guy.[nbsp][nbsp]The little guy being that person with the slightly older browser, a slow modem, a computer with little men in the harddrive planning a conspiracy against the user, etc.

Remember that a lot of surfers are impatient and WILL move on to another site if yours won't load fast enough - no matter what it contains.

Not saying that yours is slow.[nbsp][nbsp]I guess that's a general message for anyone.[nbsp][nbsp]I've seen too many professional web developers work too hard on the fancy and sacrifice what's really important.

Quick, simple, and informative - in a nutshell.

Di
Justin
02-27-2000, 10:55 PM
...a computer with little men in the harddrive planning a conspiracy against the user... ROFL!!! :)

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support
di_bear
02-27-2000, 11:04 PM
Hey![nbsp][nbsp]They exist! :P

Di ;)[nbsp]
arbor
02-27-2000, 11:25 PM
di bear... thanks... I think.

I would love to center the page but I am using a fixed width. Any idea on how to center the page using fixed pixel width?

Is it really that slow? I only have one mid size image on top and four small ones for the search box corners. Its hard to believe but each one of the corner images take up 27k. Meanwhile, I see banners five times the size eating up only 10K. I am using png image(using Macromedia Fireworks), would gif images eat up less memory?

Thanks again Sheila.
di_bear
02-27-2000, 11:36 PM
OK - going to your site . . .

[nbsp]. . . loading . . .

[nbsp]. . . loading . . .

[nbsp]. . . loaded!

No - I'm not having much of a problem loading it.[nbsp][nbsp]I just gave some general advice.[nbsp][nbsp]But to answer yer ? . . . I think a .gif would be quicker.[nbsp][nbsp]It depends.[nbsp][nbsp]Weird things happen.[nbsp][nbsp]It's hard to satisfy every computer system.

OK - Viewing your source . . .

[nbsp]. . . hold on . . .

[nbsp]. . . I'm reading it . . .

OK![nbsp][nbsp]I, myself, never use style sheets.[nbsp][nbsp]I just haven't gotten around to doing that, yet.[nbsp][nbsp]Try this:[nbsp][nbsp]put a <CENTER> tag just before your <BODY> tag, and a </CENTER> tag just after your bottom </BODY> tag.

Then look at it.[nbsp][nbsp]It SHOULD center the page.[nbsp][nbsp]If it works, let me know.[nbsp][nbsp]:)

Di
PaulKroll
02-28-2000, 01:11 AM
Um... that SHOULDN'T center the page, as BODY should only be nested within HTML. CENTER just after body/before the closing BODY tag will work, although you'll probably also want to add a DIV tag with ALIGN=&quot;CENTER&quot;. I wouldn't be surprised to see CENTER outside BODY work... on some browsers... but if it does, that's a bug, not a feature. :)

These are all, of course, deprecated: if your audience is able to deal with CSS, there are better solutions. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/present/graphics.html contains examples.
arbor
02-28-2000, 03:13 AM
Thanks both of you. I'll try both and post the result.

I converted my PNG images to GIF and was shocked to discover that memory went down by 90%. The corner images went from 28K to 2.8K.

In principle this should speed up loading time. Hopefully, some of you could confirm this. Its hard to tell on my desktop even after cleaning up my temp-web file because it was never that slow on my desktop.
sheila
02-28-2000, 03:18 AM
The word &quot;faster&quot; doesn't begin to convey how much more quickly it loads.

Good job.
arbor
02-28-2000, 03:24 AM
Paul, you are right my man! I followed your instruction and it sure did center the page on both netscape4 and IE4.

Now if only those of you with big screen and high resolution like... di_bear would confirm this.
Charles Capps
02-28-2000, 04:35 AM
Oh, that's MUCH faster![nbsp][nbsp]And centered - 1152x864.

Normally PNGs will be smaller than GIF, assuming that the right program created them...
di_bear
02-28-2000, 07:06 AM
It shouldn't matter what resolution it is when centering.[nbsp][nbsp]If it's centered on one resolution, it should centered on another.[nbsp][nbsp]Resolution is, for the most part, HOW MUCH the monitor shows.[nbsp][nbsp]Like, right now, I'm at work using an old old monitor (the other one blew and we're waiting to get a new one) with low resolution and not very much of this page shows up on my screen.[nbsp][nbsp]Unfortunately, I can't change the resolution to increase my viewing area.

Regarding the body tags and the centering:[nbsp][nbsp]what I suggested does work and it's NOT a bug if it does.[nbsp][nbsp]However, you have to make extra special care that there aren't any little mistakes that would otherwise have minimal affects on the viewing.[nbsp][nbsp]It makes perfect sense and it is based on logic, which is what computer science is based on.[nbsp][nbsp]I don't use that technique in many of my newer pages because I use tables to format (I haven't yet begun messing with style sheets).

I'll have to make up an example later since I no longer have any of the web pages that I used to do this with (that I know of).

Have fun!

Sleep Deprived Di

Disclaimer: If none of the above made sense, give me a couple of days to catch up on my sleep so I can start speaking English once again.
di_bear
02-28-2000, 07:07 AM
P.S.[nbsp][nbsp]Putting the center tags &quot;between&quot; the body tags centers everything within the document, not the document itself. (Why didn't I just say that to begin with???)
Jacob Stetser
02-28-2000, 08:50 AM
If it works, (probably does in IE, at least), anything like <CENTER><BODY>....</BODY></CENTER> is invalid HTML and will probably break as browsers move forward.

What Paul was trying to say is that using <CENTER> outside of the <BODY> tags is invalid HTML and is not guaranteed to work. IE, unfortunately, fosters bad HTML by allowing people to be sloppy about how they code.

There are definite rules about how you should use HTML and everyone who is really serious about coding HTML should learn them. If they don't, those people will find themselves fighting an uphill battle as browser platforms diversify into handhelds, mobiles, specialized &quot;browser&quot; devices, and other places, where limited memory requirements literally require the device only to understand standard HTML - and not the Frontpage variant or other nonstandard variants.

Having said that, there is no difference other than standard use of HTML between <CENTER><BODY>.... and <BODY><CENTER>... You say the first centers the document and the second centers anything within the document.. Well, there's nothing outside the <BODY>, so you're not really centering anything! IE, for example, internally says &quot;Oops, this person made a mistake and put the center tags outside the body. I'm going to act like they're right inside the body and center everything in the body instead.&quot;

No, it's not a &quot;bug,&quot;... it's a feature. It's a feature that makes it easier for those who don't understand the rules of HTML to get by w/o too much trouble.
Drew
02-28-2000, 10:10 AM
Your png's may have been that big because you might have used your working file, rather than an exported png.[nbsp][nbsp]There's a difference in Fireworks.

_/ Drew /_
arbor
02-28-2000, 02:23 PM
Good point Drew. I did use the working PNG file as opposed to converting that into GIF and then exporting it.

It makes a lot more sense.
di_bear
03-03-2000, 10:01 PM
You guys need to watch what you say . . . I don't use IE except to double check how my pages look.[nbsp][nbsp]I use Netscape to test my pages.[nbsp][nbsp]<CENTER><BODY> . . . etc. has worked for me before.[nbsp][nbsp]Also, if people didn't mess around and figure out these stupid little things and build on to them, we wouldn't be where we are in the computer world today.

Anyway - to my point - arbor - I almost referred someone to your page the other day . . . keep up the good work.[nbsp][nbsp]With all the search engines out there, it is nice to have a place where you can go and just search them all at once.

Di