To Add Blackrock Networks, Inc. as a manager to your Google+ Page please follow the instructions below.
Step 1:
From the drop down menu on the right select the page you want us to manager. If you don’t see this make sure to scroll all the way to the top of the page.
Click > Mangers
Step 2:
Click > Add Manager
Step 3:
Enter our email address and click > Invite
So you would think that if Google is trying to get more people to use their Social Network service called Google+ they would make it easy for people and business to promote their pages via easy to remember URL’s. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn do it. So why not Google+? I can’t answer the why but I can help with the process of getting ready for the day they allow all users to get a Vanity URL.
Right Now Google’s official line is: “Your Google+ page must already have a meaningful number of followers.” What that magic # is is also a mystery but it is safe to assume that 5 or 10 does not qualify. If we get info that there is a magic # we will update the article. Some lucky brands were part of a beta roll-out that Google determined could have their own Vanity URL. They are below. If you aren’t one on the lucky few here are some steps to follow to get you ready.
Step 1: Get your Google+ page verified.
Google+ verification confirms the identity of the business and places an official check mark at the top of your Google+ page. At the time of the post business that do not have a physical location can not get a verified Google+ page. They will need to opt for displaying their physical address. Follow the instructions below to submit your business to become verified.
Part A: You need to have a link to your website in the “About” section of your Google+ Page.
Part B: Add Code Snippet
Next add the code required to your website so Google can verify you own the site. Contact your web developer if you need help adding the code to your website. http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1708844
Step 2:Request Verification at http://support.google.com/plus/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=page_verification&rd=1
Step 3:
Wait for an email verification that your Google+ Page has been verified. It will usually say something like:
“Dear User,
Congratulations! Your page is now verified.
Please note that any changes to the name of your page will result in a loss of your verified status.
Sincerely,
Google+ Support Team”
Step 4: Last but not least, check your Google+ page frequently.
If Google decides that you have met their criteria one day you may see a link that says “claim your URL”. Once you do, click this, and you will be one of the luck few to get a Vanity URL from Google.
Lately this question has been coming up a little more often from clients. I don’t know if recently it has become easier for people to accidentally zoom in on their browser window or perhaps people are clicking on the zoom control some mouse’s now have; but either way here is how to get your browser back to where you want it.
For Mozilla Firefox:
You can either select Ctrl + 0 while the browser window is open or follow the instructions below.
Go to View > Zoom > Reset
For Internet Explorer
You can either select Ctrl + 0 while the browser window is open or follow the instructions below.
Go to View > Zoom > 100%
Periodically people have to setup their email accounts again, either because they get a new computer or have to reinstall software. Sometimes it is just an update installed on an exchange server. Either way sometimes some settings may need to be reset.
One of the most common questions we get is, “Where did my address book go? “. Usually people can see their contacts, but with an exchange server sometimes the default address book when you click “To” shows no contacts. By default the Exchange Global Address Book is the first source of contacts.
In order to resolve this you just need to change the default address book in Outlook 2010.
2. Select Address Book from the ribbon menu
3. The Address Book window opens
4. Select the Tools Menu
5. Select Options
6. Choose Start with contact folders
7. Click OK
From now on when you click the “To” button your default address list will be the outlook contacts folder.
reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that protects your site against spam, malicious registrations and other forms of attacks where computers try to disguise themselves as a human; a CAPTCHA is a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Human Apart. reCAPTCHA comes can be added to your blog, forum, registration form, etc.
In addition to protecting your site, reCAPTCHA also helps us digitize old books and newspapers. Learn More at http://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore
Fight Spam and Save Shakespeare
Please note, these are common/standard theme options of our templates. Your particular template may include different options panels with different names and functionality. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
The most common widgets used in the templates are listed below
Download: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/
Description: For page navigation.
Download: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/
Description: Contact form for contact page.
Please note, these are the most used plugins of our templates. Your particular template may include different plugins with different names and functionality. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
The following widgets are also used in the theme:
Displays recent comments in a more convenient format. The given widget includes the following options:
Displays popular posts. The following options are displayed:
Displays recent posts, you can also display custom posts. The Widget is used for the slideshow because of Cycle plugin in its structure. The given widget contains the following options:
Displays recent posts. You can also show custom posts of certain categories and add a read more link. The given Wdiget contains tge following options:
An advanced text widget with a whole lot of extra fields. The given Widget contains the following fields:
The multifunctional widget used to display different post types including the blog posts, as well as the functionality of settings display. The given widget contains the following options:
This is the Widget that allows linkage to your social network accounts. The widget contains the following options:
This is the Widget that displays latest twitts from your twitter account. The widget contains the following options:
This is the Widget that displays photos from your flickr gallery. The widget contains the following options:
Please note, these are standard and the most used widgets of our templates. Your particular template may include different widgets with different names and functionality. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
Then please click the button for the shortcodes.
Please select the shortcode you want to insert.
There are following shortcodes available:
Please note, these are standard and the most used shortcodes of our templates. Your particular template may include different shortcodes with different names and functionality. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
Portfolio pages can be created with the help of page templates
Note: Please do not post any content to the editor field if you use one of the pages templates.
Please note, portfolio page templates and portfolio custom post type may have different names, e.g.: Gallery, Services, Project etc.
Review the following link for more info on adding categories: http://codex.wordpress.org/Manage_Categories_SubPanel
Review the following link for more info about post formats: http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Formats
Slides are essentially custom post types http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types#Custom_Types. which means that they are different from common posts, such as blog posts, portfolio posts etc. That allows us to manage the content of the site really easy.
The following slider runs on Nivo Slider.
Please note, your template may use another slider plugin. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
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<h2>Integrate.</h2><p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consec tetuer adipiscing elit.</p><a href="#" class="button">Read More</a> |
Portfolio items are essentially custom post types http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types#Custom_Types. which means that they are different from common posts, such as blog posts, portfolio posts etc. That allows us to manage the content of the site really easy.
Please note, these are the most used custom posts types of our templates. Your particular template may include different posts types with different names and appearance. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
Please note, these are the most used page templates of our templates. Your particular template may include different page templates with different names. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
Please note, these are the most used sidebar positions of our templates. Your particular template may include different sidebar positions with different names. Please refer to your template documentation for the most accurate information.
Updated:
Is responsive design really the way to go? Would you be better having a separate mobile website? Its all about return on investment.
Although I love the idea of responsive design, and find it very rewarding when it all comes together I must say I agree with many of the things that Jakob has written in his post.
The most important thing that has come up very little when people talk about separate versus responsive is about the cost involved. From a business perspectives, and lets face it is business’ that put most mobile sites online, that should be the first question.
At Blackrock Networks, Inc. our hearts and prayers go out to all the families whose lives have been touched by the events in Boston on Monday.
The other night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert opened the show with a tribute to Boston.
Many people ask why we don’t continue to support older web browsers when it comes to email or website development. The answer is simple. You can’t live in the past forever.
Our webmail is supported in the following browsers, but even the list below can be challenging when you have multiple tool-bars and plugins installed. These all can effect how your email and websites run within the browser.
As newer technologies become available that allow us to develop sites for mobile, or add fancy slide shows without the use of flash there will always be older technologies that just don’t know what to do with the new code. In these cases we make calculated decisions based on whether the time and cost associated with building for multiple platforms and versions of browsers makes sense, or does prompting users to upgrade become a better alternative.
For Website development we use the latest industry standards for browser support. The Compatibility View feature in Internet Explorer is not supported.
We make our best effort given our clients budget to support older browsers to a certain degree, such as Internet Explorer 8. Often the best way to deal with issues arising from older browsers is to tell the browser to disable the feature, such as shadow borders and opt for a solid outline. Of course, given enough resources and time we can try to account for every nuance of a browser, however many of our clients do not have the budget associated with firms such as Amazon, Microsoft or CNN so instead we make calculated decisions and compromises to get the best value for our clients.
This is not a new idea, it has been going on since computers began. The difference now is it more obvious to the average users because the speed of changes in technology happens so quickly. Only a year ago Facebook allowed pages without SSL and now that is no longer possible. You now require SSL for any custom pages.
An example of some other site standards are at: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/56161/which-browsers-are-officially-supported-and-what-else-do-i-need
We are not the only company either, Microsoft will be ending support for Windows XP in the upcoming year. Salesforce.com does not support older web browsers for most of their system functionality. Even if a company can support multiple browsers the support might be feature specific such as Adobe lists.
There have been reports that drop-down menus on some website aren’t working with Windows 8. The issue in not Windows 8 per say, but with the version of Internet Explorer 10 that it ships with. To fix this, open up Internet Explorer from the desktop. Go to the menu bar, click > Tools > Compatibility > View Settings. Add the website you have having problems with to that list and then click close. This should bring the drop-down menu back. Now it is time to contact us to bring your website up to speed with the latest browsers so your users don’t have to do this.