What was hot in IT world 2008

The last week of the year is the best time to resume everything that happened in the tech world during the year. So, let’s look at some statistics represented as flash charts to learn what was at the top this year.

Top websites 2008

What are the most popular places of the Web world? The most popular websites according to Alexa ranking and their daily reach (% of global internet users who visit the sites):

Top search engines 2008

Search is an integral part of the Web. Search engines are the integral parts of our life. What search engines were used the most this year?

Top web browsers 2008

Thing which opens the Web for us is a web-browser. Which is the most popular this year?

Top software 2008

Top software of this year is evidently various anti-virus programs. What else was in greatest demand this year?

Top PC games 2008

Of course, computer world can’t be imagined without games. Leaders of this year among the PC games are below:

That’s how computer world lived this year.

All flash charts are created and published with Animated Chart software.

Merry Christmas to all!

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Best Christmas Flash games

I have such a pre-Christmas mood today that I don't want to think about serious things. That's why I've decided to write about such not serious yet 'flashy' stuffs as online flash games. And according to the season, these will be Christmas flash games. So, here is a list of my favorite Christmas games. Enjoy playing!

Penguin Rush



Nice winter-styled racing game with good graphics. Race, dive, rush and win!

Santa Balls 3D



Matching game - swap Christmas balls by clicking them to form a row or column of three or more same-colored balls.

Arctic Antics



Christmas arcade-style game. To help animals to get to the pool is not so easy as it seems - the diving board is very slippery!

Snow Line



Amazing logic game. Draw the snow line so that Santa can collect all the presents and get to the finish.

Snowflake Designer



Eternal Christmas fun - making paper snowflakes. But who needs paper when we have Flash? ;)

Attack of the Sprouts



A little dumb yet funny game where you have to defend your Christmas dinner from the attacking sprouts. Train your reaction!

Thin Ice



Interesting game - smth. about sports, smth. about arcade. Your aim is to cut holes to trap monsters into the water. It's not as easy as it seems. Also, I like the old-fashioned design - great to remember the childhood :)

Santa's Apprentice



Rather addictive skill game where you help Santa bounce from house to house and deliver presents to the nice children which live in green houses.

Santa's Workshop



I like this game for its nice design and true Christmas spirit. Nevertheless, it's rather easy. So, if it's too easy for you, offer your kids to play it - they'll be pleased!

Frost Bite 2



Winter-styled platform game. Aim is to climb to the top of the mountain. So, if your winter holidays aren't the trip to the mountain resort, enjoy climbing at least in this game :)

Merry Christmas and happy playing!

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Flash MP3 Players features comparison

Today I want to offer you a research on flash mp3 players for publishing to website. Actually, I did this research for myself when I needed to make a flash audio player for website. But I decided to share the results with the readers of my blog.

So, I've tested four flash sound players
for website: Aleo FlashMP3 Player Builder, Fun SoundPlayer Maker, Flash WAmp, and SWiSH Jukebox. I've picked them up from the list of flash music players at download.com. I've examined the following parameters:

- available player skins,

- available formats of result player file,

- availability of "button" player configuration (ON\OFF only),

- possibility of voice recording,

- availability of using audio stream (e.g. online radio),

- skin customization (what parameters of flash player design can be customized),

- playback control (what options of tracks playback user can define).

That's the results of my mini-research in short. I don't want to determine a leader – everyone has its own needs and has to choose software that would meet them the best. As you know from my previous posts, my choice was Fun SoundPlayer Maker – this flash player creator is perfect for me. I hope my table will help you to choose your perfect flash mp3 player. Try them now and choose the best! :)

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Top 3 ways to SEO Flash

In spite of the fact that Flash websites is less SEO and browser friendly than usual HTML sites, more and more people want to use Flash elements for their websites. Why? The main reason is that flash animation, menus and buttons are visually appealing and help to attract visitors' attention. Your visitors and customers want not only good content, they also want it to be in a nice "wrapper". And flash is exactly this wrapper. Developers like Flash because it allows to place more content in a less space without spoiling page structure, it's perfect for presenting multimedia content and can be easily combined with such technologies as MySQL, XML, PHP, etc. Besides, flash is not so unSEOable as it's often believed to be. Here are the top 3 ways to make flash content seo-friendly.

1. Using CSS element DIV with the content which can be accessed and indexed by search engines along with using JavaScript SWFObject to detect user's (or browser's) ability to handle Flash. It allows both search engine bots and users without Flash plug-in to view non-flash content, while users with Flash player installed will see enhanced Flash content. This method let you kill two birds with one stone. You'll have no problem both with search engines, and with users who can't (or just don't want to) see flash content – they'll still get full accessibility and functionality. Non-flash content within DIV can contain everything you're able to add to usual HTML page, including links, text, images, etc.
   
2. Creating an alternative HTML version of the pure Flash sites. Maybe, this'll add you work, but this also will give you better rankings and visibility. As well as with DIV element, creating an alternative HTML content will ensure that your site will be indexed by search engine spiders and viewed even by people without Flash player plug-in, while other visitors will see its Flash version. The best way is still to create each page as HTML with installed Flash movie, even though this won't have a smoothness of all-Flash sites.
   
3. Using SWFAddress for deep linking. This smart developer tool creates virtual URLs for Flash websites that enables visitors to bookmark certain pages, send links via e-mail or IM, use browser history and back/forward/reload buttons. Also, this helps you with search engines as they can find specific content on a website. To learn details, read SWFAddress blog.
   

Also, don't forget basic SEO techniques like META tags and title tag, building inbound links, etc. and I hope your rankings will as high as you dream :)

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