Also notable is how Google is communicating this feature to users; in lieu of mentioning OpenID, Google is using the phrase “Sign in with a Google Account.” This is similar to Yahoo’s messaging, “Sign In with a Yahoo! ID.” The choice is likely influenced by the Yahoo! OpenID Usability Research, which concluded that users do not understand OpenID, but do support using trusted providers such as Yahoo! for authentication.

I hope some day soon Google will work out those remaining issues with indexing external resources (e.g. HTML, XML, and SWF files). I’d also like to see better support for web pages loading Flash files via JavaScript. According to Google, Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript.

Typically when I create a graphic with multiple visual states I use a single sprite with the sliding door technique. Yahoo simplifies the process by creating only one graphic for all sprites. When new graphics are added to the site, they can be appended to the bottom of the existing master sprite graphic without interfering with existing x-y reference points.

The issue stems from how Flash is referenced within a web page. Traditionally Flash was detected by HTML using either <embed> or <object> tags, however both tags have accessibility and plug-in detection issues, and <embed> is invalid XHTML. These methods can cause some browsers and screen readers to misinterpret or entirely ignore your Flash content.

My favorite solution to this problem has been Bobby van der Sluis’ Unobtrusive Flash Object (UFO), but it was recently deprecated and replaced by Geoff Stearns’ SWFObject 2.0. Like UFO, SWFObject is a DOM script that detects the Flash plug-in and embeds Flash objects. It’s JavaScript API provides an amazing and complete toolset for embedding SWF files and retrieving Flash Player-related information. It has its roots in the web standards community and is designed to support W3C standards-compliant, accessible and search engine friendly web design. The handy JavaScript detection determines whether Flash content or alternative content should be shown and avoids outdated Flash plug-ins break Flash content. The example below illustrates how simple it is to detecting Flash and add alternative content.

It’s always a ton of fun to get a bunch of geeks, designers and Type-As together to collaborate. I haven’t selected any sessions yet, but these look like keepers:

• 10 Things We’ve Learned at 37signals
• Accessible Rich Media
• Creating Findable Rich Media Content
• What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones
• GTD for Startups: Getting Things Done in the Real World
• Specialization vs. Doing it All
• Working Over the Web: Managing Distributed Staffs
• Mobile 2.0: Why the Third Screen is Taking Center Stage

Some of my favorite moments from last year’s interactive conference include Brian Fling’s Everything you Always Wanted to Know About the Mobile Web and Worldchanging 2.0 with Alex Nikolai Steffen.

I’m still committed to Firefox, but I’ll give Safari an occasional spin. When it has the same plugin capability as Firefox I will gladly reconsider. If you are considering a switch today, here are five reasons to make the change:

1. It’s available for the PC. Wow; I should have seen that coming. It makes perfect sense considering that millions of iPhones will be connecting to PCs in the next few months.
2. It’s super fast. Safari loads pages up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.0.
3. Private browsing. Flip a switch and Safari will not retain any of your Google searches, cookies, history of downloads or pages viewed, or form information.
4. Font smoothing. Great for designers, really bad for readability and usability. Fortunately smoothing can turned off through the panel at Edit > Preferences > Appearance.
5. Windows Media support. Are publishers still using this format? It’s comforting that Apple is at least playing fairly.

Tantek Çelik (Chief Technologist at Technorati) moderated The Growth and Evolution of Microformats. Microformats are a set of simple, open data formats that standardize the meaning of HTML content. Examples of content that can be used with Microformats include people, organizations, events, addresses and more. Many sites including Google, Upcoming, and Flickr are using microformats, and both Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8 will have built-in microformat readers. Until then, microformats can be read through the Operator and Tails Firefox extensions.

Formatting Your Data

Let’s use my contact information as an example where we will use the hCard format (a microformat that represents people, companies, organizations, and places). On my contact page, I posted my name and contact information. If this information is relevant to a user, they may copy it—line by line—to a contact list in Outlook, iCal, or a mobile device. By adding an hCard, this process is automated. The code looks like this:

The result can be formatted in HTML like this:

Your contact information can also be formatted as a downloadable hCard
through the Technorati Contacts Feed Service.

This looks nice, but what good does it do? Aside from exporting the data to desktop applications, mobile phone browsers visiting this site can place a call to me directly from my microformatted content.

Additional Resources

Check out the Dreamweaver microformat extension and microformats.org help creating your own microformats.