Does my business really need a website?

When asked about such question I always answer: of course! Even if your business is not into selling products or services online, having a web site will not hurt. What most people don't realize is that the internet is always available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a month, get the picture?...it never sleeps!

Taking away online shopping services, let me list down a few features why your business will need one:

1. Provides 24 hours marketing tool. It can act as an online brochure, a catalog, a promotional media for an event or activity. Published it and its always there (Ok..that depends on the reliability of your web host provider). Plan and created properly, your website can reduce cost on your marketing budget. And as they say in business: a penny saved is a penny earned.
   
2. Widen the reach of your market. The internet knows no boundaries. Once its published, your web site can be seen and accessed around the world. Now, who wouldn't like that?
   
3. Promotes modern image of your company or business. A properly designed site can boost your corporate identity. In addition, placing information regarding your business' achievements, awards, or a link to a press release in your site can enhance your image as an industry leader in your field.
   
4. Enhances customer support. Aside from providing contact information, your site can place support information regarding a product or service. This can be an online manual, user guides, etc. It can contain a service bulletin board or forum where other users can interact and provide tips, reviews, etc.
   
5. It can gather contacts and build leads. Your site can also collect information about your visitors. You can ask for their email address or let them subscribe to an online newsletter where you can further market information regarding your products or services.

As you can see, having a web presence can surely benefit your business. However, having one doesn't necessarily translate to business success. You still have to work hard on many aspects to get it done. That's the way it is.

So does YOUR BUSINESS NEED a website?

New QED Website!

We are now at the beta stage of the New QED Website! A cleaner look and easier interface while maintaining the XHTML validity. Don't forget to send us a feedback if you have any suggestions.

Blogged with Flock

A Brief History of Time...err, I mean the World Wide Web

I met a former student of mine two weeks ago. During our small chat we talked about what it was like back when I was in college…well, that is almost two decades ago. The most significant thing I remember back then was we actually use the university library to research and do our studies…the internet, at least in the Philippines—is still in its infancy.

I actually first encountered the use of the world wide web back in 1994, when the web browser being used is Mosaic. The web then was mostly text based, few graphics and most of them are low resolutions if any. Connection speed was predominantly done using modem which means turtle slow connections. Multimedia and video streaming was unheard of.

The world wide web was created by sometime in the early 1990s by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau as an academic project to aid their physics research at CERN. Although during that time the internet already existed, the use of formatted text and hyperlinks on Web Pages made it more accessible and user friendly.

The Web was made more accessible to the public when the NSCA Mosaic hit the scene. It was created by Marc Andresssen who later founded Netscape Communications. Netscape then released Netscape Navigator and together with Microsoft Internet Explorer comprised one of the notable competition the software world has ever seen.

As it is the World Wide Web is a collection of web documents connected by what is called as hyperlinks. These documents are written in a special language called HTML (or Hyper Text Markup Language). However, as applications being used to share information in the internet becomes more complex, more and more publishing technologies becomes available: CSS, DHTML, JavaScript, XML, etc. These technologies enables web developers to create rich web documents and pages that enhance the surfing experience of users.

Today there are billions of pages comprising millions of websites available in the World Wide Web, and these numbers are still expected to increase every year--How's that for a science project?

Differentiating the World Wide Web and the Internet

In my field of work you’ll be amazed to know the number of people I have encountered that confused the internet with the World Wide Web. So I would like to post my share in an attempt to at least shed light to that confusion.


Internet

Plain and simple, the internet is the global connection (or network) of computers. It’s just a bunch of powerful computers located in different parts of the world connected by high speed networks. These computers either acts as servers or clients. This powerful computer commonly acts as Servers. While your computer (typically the one you use at home) is commonly called the client computer. Server computers “serve” to certain request of information from client computers. This is how the internet works—by passing around information from different computers.This global connection of computers we now call the INTERNET have many features:

1. E-mail or electronic mail.The exchange of written (well actually its digital) messages to different users around the world. Compared to snail mail (mail sent via the traditional postal service), e-mails are delivered almost instantly and is more cost effective.


2. File Sharing (File Transfer Protocol). FTP enables us to share digital or electronic file (these maybe software programs, videos, photos, etc.) to other users across the world via the UPLOAD or DOWNLOAD feature.


3. Discussion groups. This let users join in specific topical discussion who share common interest.


4. Published Information. These are published information linked with each other via hyperlinks. This is more commonly known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simply the Web.

The creation of the World Wide Web has significantly boosted the use of the internet. Actually, it’s the web that makes the use of the internet more exciting! I’ll discuss more about the Web in my next post.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Q.E.D.)!

It was supposed to mean "which was to be demonstrated" or its slang equivalent Quite Easily Done.

That's the name we gave to our newly formed, start up web design company...QED IT Solutions

However, it was nowhere close to being EASY...Believe me!

We started out as nine individuals dreaming of establishing our own business now we are down to five! The past months were spent brainstorming on how to go about the business, its mission and vision, strategy, marketing plan, etc. It was really taxing.

I thank God that at this time, were able to get our own office, personal computers without really cashing out on a big investment.

Also, we now have four clients!

The business horizon is looking good...but still not easy. Heck, it was not supposed to be easy...at least not for us...Quite Easily Done Solutions is what our clients WILL HAVE when they deal with us!