Effective in-site search, good navigation, and clear, well-constructed content are the most important usability issues for disabled internet users.

User Vision surveyed 208 internet users throughout the UK with impairments which affect the way they use the internet, comprising the visually impaired/blind, hearing impaired/deaf, physically disabled, and those with dyslexia/learning difficulties.

Clarity of content (straightforward language and a clear, simple layout) was regarded by 88% as "very important". Good navigation (65%)and the use of meaningful and clear hyperlinks (63%) was also regarded as very important.

ALT tags was only regarded as ‘very important’ by a third of respondents and surprisingly, among the visually impaired users, 25% found ALT tags not important at all.

» Disabled web users rank their usability priorities

Technorati introduced "the next small thing in search": The Technorati Mini. It's a fun little popup window that refreshes your favorite search every minute, so you can stay up to date while going about your web surfing as usual.

» Technorati Mini

Tim Manners at Reveries has released survey results on how marketers monitor and use blogs.

Some results:

61.8% of respondents say they do not monitor blogs

Those who do, monitor on an ad hoc basis

45% have yet to suffer a blog attack

Nearly 40% say blog marketing has strong potential

Most respondents are behaving and are not trying to subvert bloggers

» Blog Attack

This is nice list - the seven deadly blogging sins:
1. Using Free Blog Hosting Services
2. Ignoring the Basic Principles of Good Web Site Design and Usability
3. Being the Jack Of All Trades
4. Not Posting Regularly
5. Publishing Badly Written Posts
6. Spamming and Stealing
7. Failing to Establish a Personality

» The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging

Google just launched Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is the new version of its Urchin analytics service and will be free to advertisers in its AdWords program.
» Google Analytics

In May 2005 Mark Fletcher (Bloglines) said his company would launch a new blog search engine this summer.

Nothing happened during the summer, but I think Bloglines is ready to launch their new blog search engine. I saw a Bloglines crawler/bot visiting my Feedburner-feed and it isn't a normal Bloglines-subscriber. The crawler/bot is shown next to the other bots (Yahoo, Google Blogsearch, Technorati etc.).



It's a guess, but you'll never know....

Google AdSense is now offering $100 bonus for referrals who reach $100 in earnings.

With our new referrals feature, you can increase your revenue while increasing your users’ awareness of useful products and services. By adding a referral button to your site, you can direct users to sign up for AdSense and monetize their web content, or to download Firefox with Google Toolbar and improve their web browsing experience.

While your users learn more, you can earn more — US $100 for every new AdSense publisher who earns $100 and up to $1 for every new Firefox user.

If you also want to earn money with your website, just click the Google AdSense-banner on the right.

A growing number of American CEO's rate blogs high as employee communication tools, according to a study conducted by PRWeek and Burson-Marsteller.

59 percent of CEOs surveyed said they find 'blogs useful for internal communications and 47 percent see them as tools for communication with external audiences.

Other key findings:

Of the 131 CEOs surveyed, 7 percent are actually blogging

About 18 percent of these CEOs say they plan to host a company blog over the next two years

"Most CEOs are still in a wait-and-see mode when it comes to blogs, mainly due to time limitations and concerns about what they can say publicly," Leslie Gaines-Ross, a research officer at Burson-Marsteller, said in a statement. "Even though there is greater awareness of the power of blogs today, CEOs may feel that employees expect them to be spending their time running the business."

» Study: CEOs find blogs useful

OneStat.com reported that Mozilla's browsers have a total global usage share of 11,51 percent. The total usage share of Mozilla increased 2.82 percent since April 2005. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the global browser market with a global usage share of 85,45 percent which is 1.18 percent less as at the end of April.

» Mozilla's browsers global usage share is still growing according to OneStat.com

De European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) runs an european weblog survey

EUROBLOG 2006, the first pan-European survey of this kind, will provide a comprehensive overview of who is using blogs and for what purpose. Run by EUPRERA, the European Public Relations Education and Research Association, a community of leading researchers from universities and institutions from more than 30 countries, it will both inform academic debate and present tangible, practical findings that will be of great value to Public Relations practitioners across Europe.

If you work in public relations or communications complete the online survey, it shouldn't take more than five minutes.

» EUROBLOG 2006 Survey

An article in the Financial Times about blogs "Who’s afraid of the big, bad blog?"

To blog, or not to blog? That is the question vexing marketing managers and public relations executives as they struggle to get to grips with the soaring popularity of weblogs, the online journals that are redefining the way millions of people around the world get news and entertainment on the internet.

For companies, the rising importance of blogging as a communications tool presents a difficult dilemma.

On the one hand, avoiding the blogosphere altogether seems a bad idea. Kryptonite, a maker of bicycle locks, was caught flat-footed last year when an enterprising blogger discovered he could pick his expensive Kryptonite lock with the end of a plastic pen. Kryptonite’s lack of a significant blog of its own meant it had no efficient way to respond to the original blogger’s claim. A video exposing the lock’s vulnerability soon spread into the mainstream media.

On the other hand, companies that wish to engage with the blogosphere face an intractable credibility problem. Bloggers are an anti-establishment lot, and messages from big business are automatically suspect. In bloggers’ eyes, most companies’ attempts to insert themselves into online conversation come across as ham-fisted at best, and disingenuous at worst.

» Who’s afraid of the big, bad blog?

57% of American teenagers have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations.

About 21 million or 87% of those ages 12-17 use the internet, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The results highlight that this is a generation comfortable with content-creating technology. Teens are eager to share their thoughts, experiences, and creations with the wider internet population.

Some key findings:

33% of online teens share their own creative content online, such as artwork, photos, stories or videos.

32% say that they have created or worked on webpages or blogs for others, including groups they belong to, friends or school assignments.

22% report keeping their own personal webpage.

19% of online teens keep a blog, and 38% of online teens read blogs.

19% of internet-using teens say they remix content they find online into their own artistic creations.

» 57% of Teen Internet Users Create, Remix or Share Content Online