CANVAS: Canvas vs Flash

As you all know canvas is a new HTML element which can be used to draw graphics using scripting (usually JavaScript) and not only draw graphs but also make photo compositions or do animations. An example of these animations can be this fun demo that normal mapping and phong shading in JavaScript using Canvas and where your mouse cursor becomes the torch or light source that dynamically lights up a 3D object!!. Also new 3D Javascript have appeared as for example Copperlicht.

Canvas is getting more and more popular and more than one voice are saying "Is Canvas going to replace Flash??". My answer is no, Flash is much more than Canvas and flex is getting as a great framework!!. But at any case here are a comparison between Canvas VS Flash. Canvas/JavaScript is better than Flash

• The most obvious is the deliverable size: Smaller code base and the compiled SWF file clocks in at 111k compared to the minified Canvas version at just 25k!
• Flash do not work good in all platforms, for example Linux.
• No need to Compile.
• Inspectable/debuggable via browser.
• Better cursor handling and the is no need to focus to receive keyboard events.

Where Canvas/JavaScript is worse than Flash:

• Have to handle clipping and redraw manually (SVG does better here too)
• Font support is not embedded.
• Access to DB is better managed by Flash.
• No built-in multiline text wrap.
• No HTML fragment rendering.

And what about Apple??, ..if the Ipad is not supporting flash, ..would that be a better chance for Canvas to gain more territory to Flash/Flex??. Let's wait a year and we will see!!. Flash is sexier than Canvas, ..but as soon as summer gets here and freckles appear in Canvas Face then i will stay with Canvas, ..I just love Freckles!!.

JS Frameworks: Javascript Frameworks speed Comparison

It is being said a lot in the web about which is the fastest JS framework and although JQuery have been working a lot in this issue in latest versions, without no doubt Dojo is still the fastest JS Framework and Mootools and Jquery continue running for second place!!. Take a look at this comparisons:

Freakzion

1. Dojo
2. Jquery or Mootools??
   
3. Prototype

SlickSpeed

1. Dojo
2. Jquery
3. Mootools
4. Prototype
5. Yui

TaskSpeed

1. Qooxdo
2. Dojo
3. Mootools
4. YUI
5. Jquery
6. Prototype

Qooxdoo appears the faster in one comparison although unfortunatly when getting into more complex operations it gets sloooooower

Of course at any case this may not your best concern, at least not the only issue, to choose a Javascript Framework!!. One very important factor to me is how sexy and attractive the API is as well as the flexibility to build everything with the behaviour i expect to!!. Other factors as

• A great community supporting the solution who will help evolving it as well as providing quick troubleshooting and many best practices.
• Documentation. Not only a good API Documentation but alsoWikis, Blogs, Forums.
• Great Developers!! behind the JS library Core!!.
• A mature solutions, ....no fixes every single moment!!.
• Extensions, Components, Widgets, plugins ...call it as you desire but we all know how aswesome is to get a list of apps to integrate directly into our project easily!!

JQUERY: New version 1.4.2, ..speeding UP!!

A new version is here!!, download it at Jquery homepage or as usual you can upgrade your projects just linking at google code with google.load("jquery", "1.4.2");.

Among the updates included in this new version I must mention the new methods .delegate() and .undelegate() which complements the already existing .live() and .die(). At any case if you want to know all the new stuff related to the API just sneak out at Query API Reference.

What I really like about this new version, ....speeeeeeeed!!. This results will comeup soon at TaskSpeed. It is 3 times faster than Jquery more used version (v1.3.2).

These are the elements that most significant changes in speed have be aplied to, that is the elements which have been more optimized in this new version:

• .bind() and .unbind() functions
• .empty(), .remove() and .html() Proccess
• Inserting of a simple node in the document.
• $("body") call.

SEO: Improve your Speed with WebPageTest

...2 days ago I posted about the factor to better your SEO strategy, Page Load Speed, and how google is going to add it to its pagerank algorithm, ...so let's get our website fast!!. WebPageTest can help you in this task with tips as:

• Cached Elements. Turn your dynamic pages into static pages thanks to cache!!.
• The use of a CDN (Cache Delivery Network). ...A system of computers containing copies of data, placed at various points in a network so as to maximize bandwidth for access to the data from clients throughout the network.
• Use CSS and JS. Unify your styles and functions in external files, ..and do not forget to minimize your js files.
• Compress your images and text.
• etc., etc....

The test will be conducted from the location specified and you will be provided a waterfall of your page load performance as well as a comparison against an optimization checklist.

How to use it??, ..as I always say an Image is worth better than 1000 words, in this case a video by David Artz.

SEO: You better boost your website load time!!..

Recently I have been asked if search engines take into consideration the speed load of a page, and that remained me about something I read some months ago.

Google is going to add a new factor into its famous algorithm, this new ranking factor has to do with how fast a site or page loads!!. You may think "Ohhhh, shxt, my website is on a slow service provider!!". Well, time for a change, either to look for a faster provider or for your provider to improve its infraestructure and communications.

Is speed that relevant for a search criteria relevance??. Google’s co-founders want searching to be real fast, an they say "as if you are flipping through a magazine", and that is why they want to include load speed into the Algorithm. Actually Google is thinking in more important issues:

• Adworks will index page faster if the load speed is better, which will turn into more pages indexed...
• Who is building a superfast broad-band access??....

But who better than Google's SEO expert Matt to explain us about this new Factor??



At any case, in my opinion, this is a great news for internet consumers and surfers, because many providers will speed up its communications!!, ..run forrest run!!!

NEWS: Picnik Adquired by Google

Everytime we have used picasa at our desktop, we have had the ability to manipulate, edit your pics, crop them, resize them..., but why do we need to download picassa at our PC when google likes to have everything on the cloud???, even within its new operating system...

That is probably why Google has adquired Picnik!!, ...hmmm, I bet my house on that :)

Google has announced that no changes will be aplied in short term to picnik, but most surely we will see a new picassaweb called just picasa and picnik totally integrated with it!!. Actually Picnik is more powerfull that picasa in image, pics manipulation.

Picnik is the third company bought by google this year, after Aardvark and reMail...., It is obvious there crisis period is over, although i may ask ..has Google ever be in a crisis??, ...even when Microsoft is kicking up and hard with bing streetview, ot "touchable" windows 7??.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: Opensocial by Google

Do you like to use apps at facebook??, have you ever though about programming a widget or app similar to those??, ..what about if you could program a widget which can be used not only in facebook but also in Linkedin, Friendster, XING, Sonico??, do you realize the commercial power behind these widgets? ....hmmmm, if all your answers are a "YES" then that means you want to use OpenSocial.

What is Opensocial??. Well google uses some sentences to define it:

• "OpenSocial enables apps, containers, and other clients to collaborate and move the social web forward."
• "OpenSocial helps these sites share their social data with the web. Applications that use the OpenSocial APIs can be embedded within a social network itself, or access a site's social data from anywhere on the web."

But translated to our "freak" language, I could say that Opensocial is a API, or set of APIs, to build social applications across multiple Social Networks, or other Websites, which can be shared and interact with existing online communities and with the ability to access a social network’s friends and update feeds.

For example, imagine that you have a surf clothing store and build a social widget which will send the coolest surf pictures uploaded for any subscribed user to the rest of subscribers, obviously with the logo of your enterprise on all the pics, and send a "wanna join" message to subscriber's friends in Facebook. Do you get an image of the commercial possibilities of this widget???.

Now imagine subscriber's friends at:

• Hi5
• MySpace
• Linkedin
• XING
• Orkut
• QuePasa
• FanBox
• .........
• .........

And much more Containers, which is the name used by google to define any social network or webiste. And yes, the code is the same!!!, just change the container ;).

Web Marketing no longer is limited to your corporate site, Internet is no longer static, is no longer just html, or just emails, ...internet is dinamic, updated with million of messages every second, and your bussiness may be in those messages, you bussiness should go "social"!!, and Opensocial will be a must to build this kind of widgets.

Opensocial is now in version v0.9, so as you can imagine is in early stages, but a nice API is already ready to be used. Actually check out the "world of apps" which already use openSocial. Will your app join this world soon????