Google has created a new image format called WebP, which is more efficient than most image formats such as jpegs and can allow a website to load faster and even allow the use of more images.

Google has provided a conversion tool, to convert jpgs and other formats into WebP format. This conversion tool can be installed on linux computers and will soon be available for Windows. What makes this format so especial is the fact that it provides a better compression than the JPEG format does and maintains good quality of the image. This will improve the user experience of a site by allowing a faster page load as well as lower bandwidth use.

Even though this format is still in its beginning stage, it will soon have support for its format in Google Chrome. WebP can become a very important part of the future of web development since it will provide faster load time of websites, which can improve a website’s SEO standing, since it’s one of the elements being considered for page rankings in Google.

Do you often make updates to your site and wish you could change the look and feel in the live site without making changes to the site files? Google Chrome provides helpful extensions that when combined, allow you to achieve great changes to the site.

Below are a list of some very useful extensions and how you can use them to perform changes.

IE tab:
This extension is a wonderful addition for developers to cross browser check the look of the site in IE browser without having to installing the actual browser. Chrome will change the current tab being viewed to an IE tab.

Eye Dropper:
The Eye dropper is an extension that allows you to obtain colors in Hex value from the current page being viewed. One of its features provides a history of the colors you have selected from a webpage; this is a great way to be able to reuse the color without having to use the eyedropper twice to know its value. The only restriction faced, was using the eyedropper on Google pages, since you are not allowed to retrieve any color from Google pages due to a Google Chrome policy.

Measure it:
This tool helps you get measurements in pixel width and height that can be very useful when making updates to a website. These changes can include changing the width of the entire website, an image or a container of contents, this being a table or a div.

Awesome Screenshot:
This extension allows you to save a page and perform a crop, add text, lines and circles that help you illustrate the changes you would like the page to have. This can be a very useful tool to communicate between clients & designers as well as developers & designers. The tool also provides a back function to undo any of the additions made to the page. You can then right click and save the image as jpg.

Stylebot:
This is an open source and a very user friendly tool, which allows you to change the styles of a website as well as remove content from the page. It allows the selection of tags and the ability to change their color, font size, location on the page as well as visibility. This is a tool that can come in handy when requested to make quick changes for review before implementing the actual change. 

When combining some of these tools together you can create a great and fast work environment when it comes to making style updates to sites as well and saving a jpeg of the changes with comments on each of the changes. These tools can also help show clients how a few changes can make their site load faster, as well as explain in detail changes that will help the site be more search engine friendly.

Are you interested in trying another tool to track your website analytics? There is a new free tool, currently in beta testing, that helps you track your visitors in real time. That tool is called seevolution.

The set up is pretty simple and involves a 3 step process. Firstly, an account is required and you can add up to 5 domains for free. Secondly you will need to add a snippet of code which is a javascript code that will help you track visually your website in real time and thirdly, you can start seeing the tracking being performed in the site by the use of a toolbar which is located transparently on the site you are using.

SeeVolution has many useful features to help you see the behavior of your visitors; they include an X-Ray feature that uses a heatmap technology, which allows you to track using an overlay layer of your site displaying the areas of the page with high/low user activity. Another feature is the Overlay Tool Bar, which focuses on site based data and user behavioral data. Seevolution also monitors the site for performance, up time and any malfunctions by providing alerts.

 
The service provided by Seevolution is not as detailed as Google Analytics or Mint, but it does provide a different view of how to see user behavior and a different perspective on how to view the analytics of your site by providing a toolbar within your site that allows you to track the information. The great thing about it is that you stay on your site, there is no going to a secondary site. I would recommend to use this tool as a secondary means of tracking analytics, since it does not provide as much information as you can obtain using Google Analytics or Mint.
 

Citation

http://www.seevolution.com