Linkswitch #60: Spec Requests, Productivity, WordPress Plugins

Google launched their Chrome Web Store last year to some well-received notice. But in reality, it serves only as a glorified directory for web apps accessible on any standards-compliant browser. And that isn’t necessarily a downer. In fact, with little intervention needed to work on Chrome, many web apps were immediately available via this store — including a bunch of awesome apps that can enhance anyone’s productivity.

I was called recently about a freelance job for a local corporate entity and met to speak with the marketing director. After a few days, I received an e-mail informing me I was one of six “finalists” for the assignment. The message contained a list of several advertising campaigns, a rebranding of the logo, signage and billboards. It said all finalists were to do these for a presentation in two weeks. My first thought was…not fit to be printed here.

Whether you’re a developer, a designer or just an entrepreneur, a professional website is nearly impossible to do business without. While most people spend endless amounts of time to get the design of the site just right, most people don’t even pay attention to what’s behind that design. Unfortunately no matter how awesome your website looks in the front-end, bad development can ruin your visitors’ experience and make them run away quicker than you can say “HTML5″.

Are you ready for it? It’s so simple that you may have been overlooking it for a long time. (I know I was.)

That doesn’t make it any less powerful.

Ok, here it is…

The semantic web has brought on a new generation of Internet technology. As designers and developers we work together to redefine the rules of the web, the number of open-source projects and third-party APIs continues to grow.

Plugins are a major part of why WordPress powers millions of blogs and websites around the world. The ability to extend WordPress to meet just about any need is a powerful motivator for choosing WordPress over other alternatives. Having written several plugins myself, I’ve come to learn many (but certainly not all) of the ins-and-outs of WordPress plugin development, and this article is a culmination of the things I think every WordPress plugin developer should know. Oh, and keep in mind everything you see here is compatible with WordPress 3.0+.

Textures can add a great deal of character and can help to complete a design. In some cases the texture may be a prominent part of the design, but what is more common right now is a subtle use of texture. Even subtle textures can have a big impact. In this post we’ll showcase 35 websites with exemplary use of textures.

I recently interviewed Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com and the author of the bestselling book, The Art of the Start. His latest masterpiece is called Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.

Today, we’re going to step away from the world of buttoned-up web apps and take a look at a truly unique app: Project Noah. It’s a cooperative science project that will motivate you to get away from your screen and spend more time in the great outdoors!