The Future of Web Design: Google First Websites

In the near future your website may have to be Android first, Chrome first, Google first. Maybe even Google Phone first. Apple, Microsoft, and others are doing little to change this. Unfortunately the problem is caused by consumers, who buy a phone, turn it on, and Google becomes their god. And they leave it that way. We've created the thing that controls us and irritates us.

Their demands and expectations of massive news websites, sports sites, shopping sites, and others are increasingly affecting small businesses. Many of the things they expect of those sites don't make sense for small business sites. A website for Fox News and a website for Sally's Bakery are about as different as night and day, but Google sees no difference. They've either stopped caring or the web is becoming too hard for their gen-whatever employees to figure out. Either way, your website needs to stand up to some absurd expectations you probably aren't aware of.

Google figures your website should use HTTPS/TLS (a brilliant technology but pointless for most small businesses), AMP and content delivery networks (a great idea for powerhouse ecommerce sites like Amazon and Ebay, but nearly useless for small local businesses), and possibly PWA (making websites behave like apps, blending components of both).

They require certain coding practices and page flow (specific placement of elements, above-the-fold content, ads, etc.), special treatment of links to your website from other places on the internet, it must pass their mobile friendly test, PageSpeed test, and abide by their quality guidelines. And of course you should be using Search Console and Google Analytics.

They expect your site to use the latest coding techniques, even if it means your site won't work for a large number of people because their phones or browsers don't have the latest updates. Getting the latest updates isn't always a smart thing to do, there are often valid concerns around security and bugs. And some users simply can't get the latest updates for a variety of reasons. Too bad for them.

The future is yet to come, so we'll see how far things continue on this path before a change happens. I think a fundamentally new way of looking at the web is on the horizon, at least from a search point of view.

This post is an epilogue to my article about The Evolution of Websites on SGDM.

Software Security Design Flaws

An IEEE report notes that "the security of many systems is breached due to design flaws" rather than a particular coding mistake or unique bug.

Read the report here (pdf).

The recent bug bounty trend reflects the common approach of picking things apart to find mistakes and bugs, whereas the IEEE wants to identify and improve poor design practices. By uncovering the top security flaws found in software, developers can learn to write better code and spend less time fixing security problems after the fact.

Changing accepted practices around software design sounds like a goal that's a bit big, even if it is warranted. Things typically roll out as soon as they work, not as soon as they're safe. Security is someone else's problem, unless you make security products. Will this attitude ever change?

Here are the top software security flaws they identified:

- Assuming trust
- Weak authentication
- Authorizing before authenticating
- Processing control instructions from untrusted sources (and keeping data and control instructions together)
- Failing to explicitly validate data
- Failing to identify and protect sensitive data
- Using cryptography incorrectly
- Failing to consider user experience; prioritizing security over the needs of the user
- Increasing the attack surface by using external components
- Using static security implementations instead of flexible ones

Security Researcher Discusses Cyber Arms Race

Cyber security researcher Mikko Hypponen talks about the cyber arms race at the Next Web conference, May 2016. He talks about a few specific recent events, among other things.

EXIF Data and Unique Content

Only two groups of people ever used of Google+ in the early days: insider fan boys and professional photographers. Sort of a strange combination.

The fan boys were there because they'd already been invited into beta testing long before public release, and photographers began joining because they discovered uploaded photos retained all their exif data and thought that was a big deal.

Most websites at the time would reduce the size of uploaded images through some manner of shrinking, compressing, and stripping out exif data. This made things much faster and made sense because computer screens couldn't display anywhere near the resolution of real photographs and exif data was of no use to anyone.

But for professionals wishing to share and appreciate photos taken by themselves and others, exif data is part of a photograph. It helps explain what's being seen in ways the rest of us don't get. Google just wanted to keep more details about everyone's pictures, but photographers found tremendous value in this feature.

The most important thing exif data does is identify an image as truly unique. Original content, so to speak. Likewise, it helps identify stock images used on thousands of websites, content that clearly isn't unique to any of those sites.

Because of this I believe Google will continue using exif data as a way to identify unique content for some time. This is one reason Second Glance Digital Media is happy to provide photography services for clients (locally of course), and encourages the use of original photos throughout your website and blog.

The Real Second Glance Digital Media

There is only one Second Glance Digital Media. However, several scammers and liars are using similar names to rip off unsuspecting victims like you.

These people have stolen my identity instead of using an original business name. They do NOT have my decades of experience and success, be warned! (Some are terribly out of date, using unsafe and unsupported Flash (one of a cyber criminal's easiest ways into your computer), and building websites that aren't even mobile-friendly.)

These names were chosen to trick you into giving money to identity thieves. People using these names do NOT represent Second Glance Digital Media in any way:

- Second Glance Media
- Second Glance Design
- Second Glance Web Design
- Second Glance Website Design
- Second Glance Websites

Clients and prospects refer to my business in a variety of ways, sometimes using a combination of terms like those above. That's fine, but remember there is only one true Second Glance Digital Media, so be sure you're actually talking to me!

Some Common Webmaster Mistakes

Note that this video is from 2013, although I doubt much would change if it were answered now in 2016. Same philosophy, different implementation.

The One-Page Business Website

One page websites are strange creatures. There may not be any navigation. There may not be any off-site calls. There is likely nothing to pre-fetch or pre-render. It limits your options in terms of linking, but it also focuses value on a single page. It gives Google only one chance to accurately interpret what you do.

Just to clarify, on one hand we have the "infinitely scrolling pieces of crap", a page with lots of sections and different topics thrown together as a substitute for a logically structured website, and on the other hand we have small pages about one topic which are very simple.

For some businesses, one page works. Before they moved to another city, I had a client that ranked number one with a single-page website for years, in an industry that had some large, elaborate, expensive websites.

Once again one page wins the day. ABC Muskoka, an auto body repair shop, is a small business easily represented on one page. People know what auto body repair is. They know what rust repair is. They probably typed those exact words into Google. All they want is two things: an address and phone number. Everything else is bonus content to help them appreciate the high-quality work done at the shop, which is easily shown on one page. In a case like this, extra pages would be pointless, there would be nothing to gain.

A New Generation of Values and Beliefs

Society is largely shaped by twenty-somethings, and it's been twenty-something years since the internet became a part of our homes, schools, and businesses. As they enter the workplace and marketplace I believe it will begin to shape a new society faster than we expect.

As twenty-somethings enter the world as adults, they bring with them their values, beliefs, knowledge, and other aspects of themselves. I believe this generation has very different ideas about the world, people, identity, and work than generations prior. Not strange or crazy ideas, just bigger leaps beyond their parents than we've experienced up until now.

They've done things in ways that never existed. They've socialized differently. Interacted with their schoolmates differently. Experienced movies and music differently. Seen and heard things at a much younger age than before. Seen and heard an astonishing amount of stuff without any parental knowledge. Seen and heard more in general than any kids before them.

The first generation to have been raised in an entirely digital and connected world is now entering the workplace and marketplace. It will be interesting to see how their values and beliefs become expressed in the world around us.