First Drafts of Three Audio API Specifications Published

The Audio Working Group has published three First Public Working Drafts to provide an advanced audio API for the Web:

• the Web Audio API and MediaStream Processing API specifications each define a different approach to process and synthesize audio streams directly in script. These APIs can be used for interactive applications, games, 3D environments, musical applications, educational applications, and for the purposes of accessibility. They include the ability to synchronize, visualize, or enhance sound information when used in conjunction with graphics APIs.
• Audio Processing API introduces and compares two client-side APIs for processing and synthesizing real-time audio streams in the browser.

Read the blog post Sounding Out the Audio APIs for more information about the possibilities unlocked by an audio API, and learn more about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Drafts Updated for XHTML+RDFa 1.1 and RDFa Core 1.1

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of RDFa Core 1.1, a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The group also published an update to XHTML+RDFa 1.1, a Host Language for RDFa Core 1.1. This document is intended for authors who want to create XHTML Family documents that embed rich semantic markup. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Draft Published

The Provenance Working Group has published a Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. Provenance of information is crucial in deciding whether information is to be trusted, how it should be integrated with other diverse information sources, and how to give credit to its originators when reusing it. In an open and inclusive environment such as the Web, users find information that is often contradictory or questionable: provenance can help those users to make trust judgments. PROV-DM is a data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and activities involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

CSS 2D Transforms Updated

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS 2D Transforms. CSS 2D Transforms allows elements rendered by CSS to be transformed in two-dimensional space. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Media Fragments URI 1.0

The Media Fragments Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Media Fragments URI 1.0. Audio and video resources on the World Wide Web are currently treated as "foreign" objects, which can only be embedded using a plugin that is capable of decoding and interacting with the media resource. Specific media servers are generally required to provide for server-side features such as direct access to time offsets into a video without the need to retrieve the entire resource. Support for such media fragment access varies between different media formats and inhibits standard means of dealing with such content on the Web. This specification provides for a media-format independent, standard means of addressing media fragments on the Web using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). The Working Group also published today the first draft of a companion document, Protocol for Media Fragments 1.0 Resolution in HTTP, which describes various recipes for processing media fragments URI when used over the HTTP protocol. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Last Calls: Geolocation API Specification Level 2; DeviceOrientation Event

The Geolocation Working Group has published two Last Call Working Drafts: Geolocation API Specification Level 2 and DeviceOrientation Event Specification. The former defines a high-level interface to location information associated only with the device hosting the implementation, such as latitude and longitude. The API itself is agnostic of the underlying location information sources. Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs, as well as user input.

Content Security Policy Draft Published

The Web Application Security Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Content Security Policy. This document defines Content Security Policy, a mechanism web applications can use to mitigate the broad class of content injection vulnerabilities, such as cross-site scripting (XSS). Content Security Policy is a declarative policy that lets the authors (or server administrators) of a web application restrict from where the application can load resources. Learn more about the Security Activity.

Interest Group Note: Requirements for Home Networking Scenarios

The Web and TV Interest Group published an Interest Group Note of Requirements for Home Networking Scenarios. This document lists the design goals and requirements that potential W3C recommendations should support in order to enable access to services and content provided by home network devices on other devices, including the discovery and playback of content available to those devices, both from services such as traditional broadcast media and internet based services but also from the home network. Learn more about Web and TV.

W3C Announces First Draft of Standard for Online Privacy

To address rising concerns about privacy on the Web, W3C publishes today two first drafts for standards that allow users to express preferences about online tracking:

• Tracking Preference Expression (DNT), which defines mechanisms for users to express cross-site tracking preferences and for sites to indicate whether they honor these preferences.
• Tracking Compliance and Scope Specification, which defines the meaning of a "Do Not Track" preference and sets out practices for websites to comply with this preference.

These documents are the early work of a broad set of stakeholders in the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisers, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. W3C invites review of these early drafts, expected to become standards by mid-2012. Read the full press release and testimonials and learn more about Privacy.

W3Conf Developer Conference Next Week; Live Video Stream Available

W3C's first developer conference, W3Conf: Practical Standards for Web Professionals takes place next week, 15-16 November in Redmond, Washington. Registration is still open. For those who cannot attend in person, W3C will provide a live video stream of more than 25 presentations, on mobile development, layout, script libraries, graphics, security, and Web gaming, as well as a panel with representatives from most of the major browsers. No registration is required for the video stream. W3C would like to thank Microsoft for making this conference possible, and express our appreciation to Platinum Sponsor ATT, and Gold Sponsors Adobe and Nokia.

Workshop Report: Third Workshop on Web and TV

W3C published the final report of the Third W3C Web and TV Workshop, hosted by Comcast Cable 19-20 September in Hollywood, California. Nearly 150 representatives from key stakeholders participated, including major browser vendors, content providers, video service providers, TV broadcasters, cable operators, and CE manufacturers. Participants in the Workshop focused on addressing gaps between the experiences, perspectives, and expectations of the entertainment industry and the Web community. In addition, the Web and TV Interest Group discussed the issues from the workshop during its first F2F meeting on September 21-22, and decided on next steps for each issue, e.g., submit functional gaps to Working Groups or create new Interest Group Task Forces. The conclusion is included in the group's September Report.

W3C Co-organizes Meeting on Domain Names and Persistence at IDCC11

On 8 December 2011 at the International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC), W3C is co-organizing with the Digital Curation Centre a workshop on Domain Names and Persistence, in Bristol, UK. The vulnerability of any digital material to unexpected or unintended changes in Internet domain name assignment, and hence to the outcome of domain name resolution, is widely recognised. The fact that domain names are not permanently assigned is regularly cited as one of the main reasons why http: URIs cannot be regarded as persistent identifiers over the long term. This workshop is intended to bring together interested parties to explore the dimensions of the problem and possible directions in which to look for solutions. Learn about related work by the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG).

SEO - backlinks - continue to be the most important ranking factor

Links from other sites to yours - also called backlinks - continue to be the most important ranking factor that search engines look at when deciding where to rank a web page in search results.  Also, links to a web page are the one and only factor contributing to the page's PageRank (not to be confused with your web page's rank in Google).

Backlinks are the most valuable - and perhaps least easy - way to improve your SEO.  But seriously, they're worth it.

You don't have direct control over over your backlinks the way you do over your title tags or other website content.  So how can you get these magical backlinks to help your SEO?

• First, create great content on your site that people would want to link to.
• Ask. Contact site owners personally - don't use an automated system or send the same email to everyone. Give people a good reason to link to you, like a blog post you think would help their visitors.
• Keep an eye out for sites that mention you without a link, or use not-so-valuable anchor text (like "click here" or your website name).  Then ask them nicely.
• Include your keywords and links in press releases, and submit them to press release sites. They'll be republished, complete with the links to your site.
• Tip: Make sure links you get are DoFollow (not NoFollow) and anchor text.
• If you haven't already, build a nice page for your site on AboutUs.org and ask us to make its links to your site DoFollow.

SEO Updates on keywords meta tag

Even though Google and other search engines do not use the keywords meta tag, many search engines,  still do.   keywords meta tag is a good location to include words that you want indexed where those same words are not included with your content.

Three examples for using the keywords meta tag are:

1. To include synonyms of words that are not included in the content of your page. People search on many variations of words and phrases. Sometimes it is hard to include all of the different variations of those words in the content of your page without making your page sound like a keywords page.

2. To place emphasis on certain words. It is not always easy to place your major keywords at the top of your page or in a <h1> tag. Your major keywords might not be introduced until the middle of your page. Using the keywords meta tag, you can add these keywords to inform the search engines that these words are important. Remember two important rules when using this tag: When emphasizing keywords, do not place the same keyword more than two times in the keywords meta tag. This could be considered keyword spamming and can reduce your ranking value. Also, do not place irrelevant keywords in your meta tag. Using irrelevant keywords could get your site band from many search engines.

3. Another use for the keywords meta tag is to add words from different languages. A multi-language site with one language as its default page might want to add words from other languages to attract people speaking languages that are different than the language of the default page.
  

First Draft of WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers Published

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group has published he First Public Working Draft of WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers. This document defines a set of APIs that enable video conferencing from within an Open Web Platform application. These APIs allow local media, including audio and video, to be requested from a platform, media to be sent over the network to another browser or device implementing the appropriate set of real-time protocols, and media received from another browser or device to be processed and displayed locally. This specification is being developed in conjunction with a protocol specification developed by the IETF RTCWEB group. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Launches Web Testing Activity

W3C announces the launch of a new Web Testing Activity. For years, W3C has been testing technologies independently in a variety of Working Groups. Each specification follows its own methods for testing the underlying technology and there has been minimal coordination between Working Groups on testing methods. Technologies such as HTML, CSS, and APIs must be tested in the same user agents, at times in combination. Therefore, as the number of technologies and the number of devices using them increase, it has become vital to quality on the Web that W3C take a broader view of testing. To this end, W3C has launched two groups. The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will produce technologies for use in testing, debugging, and troubleshooting of Web applications running in Web browsers. The Web Testing Interest Group will develop and deploy testing mechanisms and collateral materials for testing of Web technologies across different devices (desktops, mobile, TV, etc.).

BAD to Good: Demo shows web accessibility barriers fixed

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated the Before and After Demonstration (BAD). BAD shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of the same website with the accessibility barriers fixed. Read the call for review e-mail, learn about Accessibility, and visit the WAI home page.

Registration is coming to a close for SVG Open 2011

Registration is coming to a close for SVG Open 2011, which takes place 17-20 October 2011. W3C joins other sponsors to help with SVG Open 2011, the 9th international conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, which may now be used in all modern browsers. This year, Microsoft Corporation hosts the conference at their New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. SVG Open provides an opportunity for designers, developers and implementers to learn about SVG, and share ideas, experiences, products, and strategies. Members of the W3C SVG Working Group, including W3C Team member Doug Schepers, will be attending and presenting at the conference. The SVG Working Group will also brief attendees on recent developments around the SVG specification, including SVG2 and integration with CSS and HTML. The conference includes a day of workshops. Learn more about Graphics at W3C.

New Course on Game development in HTML5 and Open Web Technology

W3C is pleased to announce its newest online course dedicated to "Game Development in HTML5". Developed and taught by Michal Budzynski, who recently ran onGameStart, where W3C/OpenMedia explored standardization needs around games with the Web games community. This course will last 4 weeks from 31 Oct. to 27 Nov. 2011. Through this course, students will create browser based multiplayer games by using open Web technologies such as HTML5 Canvas, CSS Transitions, Timing control for script-based animations, Web Sockets and other JavaScript APIs. The full price of the course is €225 but we have a limited number of seats available at the early bird rate of €145, open until 22 October 2011. Register today!

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 Draft Published

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Fonts Module Level 3. This specification describes how font properties are specified and how font resources are loaded dynamically. Font resources may be local, installed on the system on which a user agent is running, or downloadable. For local font resources descriptive information can be obtained directly from the font resource. For downloadable font resources (sometimes referred to as web fonts), the descriptive information is included with the reference to the font resource. Families of fonts typically don't contain a single face for each possible variation of font properties. The CSS font selection mechanism describes how to match a given set of CSS font properties to a given font face. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Open Task Forces to Discuss Web Schemas, Data Formats

"provides a collection of schemas ... that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers." The launch raised two topics in particular that will now be the focus of new task forces within W3C's Semantic Web Interest Group; schema.org will participate in these discussions:

• Web Schemas Task Force, to be chaired by R.V. Guha (Google). This task force will focus on collaboration around vocabularies.
• HTML Data Task Force, to be chaired by Jeni Tennison. This task force will focus on the relationship between RDFa, microdata, and other approaches to structured data on the Web, including how people can combine data sources or translate from one syntax to another.

Anyone may participate in these task forces; for more information see the Semantic Web Interest Group home page. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Two New CSS Recommendations: Namespaces Module and Selectors Level 3; First Draft of Selectors Level 4

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group published two W3C Recommendations today: CSS Namespaces Module and Selectors Level 3. The first defines the syntax for using namespaces in CSS. The second defines the patterns that style sheet designers may use to match parts of a document; see the list of changes from CSS2 selectors. The Working Group also published the First Draft of Selectors Level 4, which introduces powerful new selectors. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Social Business Jam: Three-day Online Global Event

W3C announces today its first ever 3-day virtual event, the W3C Social Business Jam, 8-10 November. Participation is free and open to all. Participation in this Jam is intended for individuals and professionals working in businesses or the social business space. If you are passionate about leveraging social capabilities to improve business results or if you want to discuss your ideas on how social technologies offer business value beyond traditional social media approaches, then this Jam is the right place for you. The meeting should produce a better understanding of how businesses are using social technologies and the challenges they face integrating the technologies into their existing environments. We expect the conversation on social business to continue after the Jam in W3C Community or Business Groups. Learn more about the W3C Social Business Jam.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL-FO) 2.0 Updated

The XML Print and Page Layout Working Group has published an updated Woking Draft of Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL-FO) Version 2.0. XSL-FO is a powerful template-based language for formatting XML documents. This is the first draft that includes the existing specification as well as new work, although some new features from the previous draft are not yet included. Learn more about XML.

Widget Packaging and XML Configuration a Recommendation; three other Web Apps specifications published

The Web Applications Working Group published a W3C Recommendation today of Widget Packaging and XML Configuration. This specification standardizes a packaging format and metadata for a class of software known as widgets. Unlike traditional user interface widgets (e.g., buttons, input boxes, toolbars, etc.), widgets as specified in this document are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using technologies such as HTML and then packaged for distribution.
The Working Group also published today:

• a Working Draft of Widget URI scheme, which defines the widget URI scheme and rules for dereferencing a widget URI, which can be used to address resources inside a package.
• a Note of Requirement For Standardizing Widgets, which lists the design goals and requirements that specifications would need to address in order to standardize various aspects of widgets.
• a Last Call Working Draft of Web IDL, which can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. Last call comments welcome through 18 October 2011.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

New Online Course: HTML5 Audio and Video

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new W3C online course: HTML5 Audio and Video. Taught by Mark Boas, one of the HTML5 doctors, the course will last 5 weeks, from 17 October to 20 November 2011. Through this course students will learn how to use HTML5 media in Web pages and applications. The full price of the course is €225 but we have a limited number of seats available at the early bird rate of €145, available until 7 October 2011. Register today!

SEO-Link Building

Link building is anything you do to point hyperlinks back to your website from third party websites. These hyperlinks, or links for short, help to get traffic to your site, allow others to find your valuable site, create awareness for your website, adds credibility, and most importantly assists in having your site found by search engines such as Google. It should be noted that search engines also have other criteria that determine their results, but inbound links are often given the most weight.

·         Deciding objective for a link

·         Natural Link Building – Adding quality content or something that benefits the end user that they would want to link to

·         Submissions of your site to online directories.

·         Reviews – getting influential bloggers write about your site and your products.

·         Links from Friends & Partners – Ask people you know and work with to link to your site.

·         Drive new visitors to our portfolio of websites, using all Internet Marketing tactics

Shorten urls and SEO

People are spending hours and hours in front of Facebook, Twitter etc, so URL Shortener services are increasing day by day. Most of people have this question that whether these short URLs are SEO friendly or not


Usually shorten URLs will redirect to destination URLs. We need to find out whether these redirections are permanent (301) or temporary (302). We have few free tools on the web to check it. Yes, URL Shorten Services are using permanent 301 redirection which is search engine friendly.

SEO Factors for Instant Analysis

Following are the list of respective factors which needs to be analyzed for a quick review:

• Domain Extension
• Page Loading Time
• Page Rank
• Alexa Rank
• Google, Bing & Yahoo Indexed Pages and Back Links
• Domain Age

• Canonical Redirection
• Title & Meta Tags
• Header Tags
• Image Tags

• Xml sitemap
• Html sitemap
• Robots.txt

• Google analytics account
• Google webmaster tools account

W3C Organizes Workshop on Linked Enterprise Data Patterns

Linked Data technology offers huge potential for enterprise applications such as the integration and the management of data within and across enterprises. The distributed nature of Linked Data enables loose-coupling for data sharing within and between organizations. With Linked Data, enterprises have a unique opportunity to cooperate in their use of shared data without the costs of extensive coordination. W3C is organizing a Workshop on Linked Enterprise Data Patterns: Data-driven Applications on the Web for participants to discuss requirements, share solutions, and develop a healthy and scalable Linked Enterprise Data infrastructure. Anyone may participate; W3C membership is not required. All participants are required to submit a position paper by 25 October. Learn more about the Workshop and the Semantic Web.

W3C Invites Implementations of Progress Events

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Progress Events. The Progress Events specification defines an event interface that can be used for measuring progress; e.g., HTTP entity body transfers. This specification is primarily meant to be used by other specifications. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Inria to Host First W3C Office in France

To strengthen its relations with industry and research activities in France and Europe, W3C announces today the opening of a W3C Office in France, hosted by Inria (French National Computer Science Research Institute). To mark the launch, the Office is organizing a session on Open Data at the Open World Forum on 22 September in Paris, in cooperation with Inria and Paris City Hall. "Inria has a longstanding commitment to the development of free software and open standards," said Prof. Michel Cosnard, Inria Chairman and CEO. "We have supported W3C's mission since the inception of the Consortium in 1994, notably by hosting W3C's European branch". Read the full press release and learn more about the W3C Offices.

Digital Ink Standard Enhances Device Integration

W3C announced a new standard for the exchange of "digital ink" on the Web. The Ink Markup Language (InkML) Recommendation can be used to store and exchange the output of an electronic pen or stylus as well as handwriting, gestures, sketches, music, and other notations. InkML is part of W3C's ongoing efforts to build One Web available from any device. A host of new applications are now possible thanks to this open standard, such as: pen-based text messaging; handwritten annotation of documents, photos, or other media; collaborative white boards; archiving of hand-written notes; and more efficient approaches to filling out forms. Read the press release and testimonials and learn more about the Web of Devices.

Last Call: R2RML and A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF

The RDB2RDF Working Group has published two Last Call Working Drafts for bringing relational database information to the Semantic Web: R2RML: RDB to RDF Mapping Language and A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF . The former describes R2RML, a language for expressing customized mappings from relational databases to RDF datasets. Such mappings provide the ability to view existing relational data in the RDF data model, expressed in a structure and target vocabulary of the mapping author's choice. The latter document defines a direct mapping from relational data to RDF. Comments are welcome through 1 November. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

SEO- Help on Google Places account

The first thing you're going to need is a Google Places account.  This is where you will set up and claim your business. It's like creating a listing in a directory, so it's pretty easy to do.  Here are 5 tips:

1.  Fill out the information as detailed as you can.
2.  Make sure the way you list your business on Google Places is exactly the same everywhere else you may have listed it.  Believe it or not, there is a difference between "84 NE Loop 410, Suite 325" and "84 North East Loop 410, Ste. 325".  These are called citations, and they need to be as consistent as possible.
3.  Add photos or video to the page if you have them.
4.  Make sure you select the industries that describe your website the best.  DO NOT just add keywords here - this is considered a spammy tactic, and is easily detectable.
5.  Have your customers review you on your places page, or other sites that Google may be picking up reviews from (yelp.com, yp.com, etc.)

Once you're done filling all of this out, you have the option to get a phone call, or get a postcard to make the listing live.
Still not showing up? You'll need to work on getting more "citations", or directory listings.  Citations are to a local listing what an inbound link is to an organic listing.  Secondly, you may need more customers to "vouch" for you and leave a review, but don't get spammy fake ones, because that can actually hurt you rather than help.

W3C Launches Work on “Do Not Track” Standards for the Web

CSS: The Missing Manual
CSS: The Definitive Guide
Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout


The World Wide Web Consortium announced a new standardization effort to improve user privacy on the Web. The Tracking Protection Working Group will create standards for "Do Not Track" technology by building consensus among a broad set of stakeholders, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisement networks, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. The Working Group, which first meets in two weeks, is charted to publish Do Not Track standards by mid-2012. The standards will let users express their tracking preferences and select which parties can track them online. Learn more about W3C's Privacy Activity and read the April 2011 Report from the W3C Workshop on Web Tracking and User Privacy, which was sponsored by Adobe, Yahoo!, Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft.

Learn JavaScript and Ajax with w3Schools

SEO - Improve Your Site Speed

 Search Engine Optimization Secrets: SEO for 2011 (Search Engine Optimization Kindle Bestseller)
SEO for 2011: Search Engine Optimization Secrets- Kindle Bestseller
Search Engine Optimization: SEO Secrets For 2011

Placing your style sheets (CSS) near the top and JavaScript near the bottom of the coding for each of your web pages can improve the perceived speed of your website for human visitors.

When someone directs a web browser to a web page, the browser starts from the top of the code and works its way down. The style sheets are one of the more important pieces for human viewers, because they determine how the site will look. After that, your website's actual content will load pretty quickly. It's as if the style sheets set out a framework, and then the content loads into that framework.

The JavaScript - or <script> tags - provide things like interactive features or actions that your viewer won't notice unless they perform an action on a web page. So allowing the JavaScript to load last means your visitors see everything on the page that's visual, even while the JavaScript is still loading. So your visitors see your page as loading faster than it really does.

Why does this matter? Because people are impatient. If a web page seems very slow, they're more likely to leave.

Want to know if your website has CSS or JavaScript in the wrong place? The AboutUs Site Report will warn you of any pages that need attention.
SEO Made Simple For 2011: Search Engine Optimization (Volume 1)


Many websites have some code whose purpose is to pull something from a service that's out of their control. For example, a website may use:

A "share" button from a service such as AddThis
An e-commerce shopping cart provided by another company
A widget that displays the company's recent tweets on Twitter

The code for Google Analytics can also slow your site down a bit, though the insights you'll gain from using analytics usually outweigh this slight disadvantage. I recommend that you take advantage of other speed improvements, and keep the analytics.

It's wise to check the speed of any external features on your site. If you aren't using a feature, or if it is of minimal value to your business and website, you should remove it.

Want to know if your website's pages are using a lot of JavaScript? The Site Report will warn you of any pages that reference more than 3 external JavaScript files.

SEO Made Simple (Second Edition): Strategies For Dominating The World's Largest Search Engine
The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice)

CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3 Draft Updated

CSS: The Missing Manual
CSS: The Definitive Guide
Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. This CSS Image Values and Replaced Content module has two parts: First, it defines the syntax for image values in CSS. Second, it defines properties used to control the interaction of replaced content and the CSS layout algorithms. These properties can affect the used image resolution for bitmaps, the replaced object's orientation, and whether and how to preserve the object's aspect ratio. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Last Call: Performance Timeline; User Timing

The Web Performance Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of Performance Timeline and User Timing. The former defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to navigation and elements. The latter defines an interface to help web developers measure the performance of their applications by giving them access to high precision timestamps. Comments are welcome through 22 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Learn JavaScript and Ajax with w3Schools

Three CSS Drafts Published; First Draft of Conditional Rules Module Level 3

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group published three drafts today:

• a First Public Working Draft of CSS Conditional Rules Module Level 3, which describes the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. This module contains the features of CSS for conditional processing of parts of style sheets, conditioned on capabilities of the processor or the document the style sheet is being applied to.
• a draft of CSS Text Level 3, which defines properties for text manipulation and specifies their processing model. It covers line breaking, justification and alignment, white space handling, text decoration and text transformation.
• a draft of CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3, which defines CSS features to support for various international writing modes, such as left-to-right (e.g. Latin or Indic), right-to-left (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic), bidirectional (e.g. mixed Latin and Arabic) and vertical (e.g. Asian scripts).

CSS: The Missing Manual
CSS: The Definitive Guide
Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (2nd Edition)

Last Call: CSS Speech Module

Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Speech Module. The CSS Speech module defines aural CSS properties that enable authors to declaratively control the rendering of documents via speech synthesis, and using optional audio cues. The feature set exposed by this specification is designed to match the model described by the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. Comments are welcome through 30 September. Learn more about the Style Activity.

CSS: The Missing Manual
CSS: The Definitive Guide
Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (2nd Edition)

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) is a W3C Recommendation

The SVG Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition). This specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Version 1.1, a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. The Second Edition incorporates a number of corrections that were published as errata against the First Edition, as well as numerous other changes that help make the specification more readable and unambiguous. The Changes appendix lists all of the changes that were made since the first Proposed Recommendation publication of the Second Edition. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

Learn HTML and CSS with w3Schools

Three Web Apps Specifications Advance to Proposed Recommendation

The Web Applications Working Group published three Proposed Recommendations :

• The 'view-mode' Media Feature, which defines a media feature to match the different visual presentation modes that can be applied to web applications and thereby apply different styling based on these different modes using CSS Media Queries.
• Widget Packaging and XML Configuration, which standardizes a packaging format and metadata for a class of software known as widgets. Unlike traditional user interface widgets (e.g., buttons, input boxes, toolbars, etc.), widgets as specified in this document are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using technologies such as HTML and then packaged for distribution.
• XML Digital Signatures for Widgets, which defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed. Authors and distributors can digitally sign a widget as a mechanism to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship. A user agent, or other validation system, can use a digital signature to verify the data integrity of the files within a widget package and to confirm the signing key(s).

Call for Review: CSS Namespaces Module Proposed Recommendation Published

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of CSS Namespaces Module. This CSS Namespaces module defines the syntax for using namespaces in CSS. It defines the @namespace rule for declaring the default namespace and binding namespaces to namespace prefixes, and it also defines a syntax that other specifications can adopt for using those prefixes in namespace-qualified names. Comments are welcome through 8 September. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of WOFF File Format 1.0

The WebFonts Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of WOFF File Format 1.0. This document specifies the WOFF font packaging format. This format was designed to provide lightweight, easy-to-implement compression of font data, suitable for use with CSS @font-face rules. Any properly licensed TrueType/OpenType/Open Font Format file can be packaged in WOFF format for Web use. User agents decode the WOFF file to restore the font data such that it will display identically to the input font. Learn more about the Fonts Activity.

CSSOM View Module Draft Published

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSSOM View Module. The APIs introduced by this specification provide authors with a way to inspect and manipulate the visual view of a document. This includes getting the position of element layout boxes, obtaining the width of the viewport through script, and also scrolling an element. Learn more about the Style Activity.

First Draft Published of Web Application Privacy Best Practices

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Web Application Privacy Best Practices. This document outlines good privacy practices for web applications, including those that might use device APIs.Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of W3C XML Schema Definition Language 1.1 (Parts 1 and 2)

The XML Schema Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation s XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes. The first document specifies the XML Schema Definition Language, which offers facilities for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML documents, including those which exploit the XML Namespace facility. The schema language, which is itself represented in an XML vocabulary and uses namespaces, substantially reconstructs and considerably extends the capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs). This specification depends on XML Schema Definition Language 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes, which defines facilities for defining datatypes to be used in XML Schemas as well as other XML specifications. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

User Agent Accesibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 Draft Published

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. The Working Group also published an updated Working Draft of Implementing UAAG 2.0. Read the invitation to review the UAAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

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Internationalization Checker Updated

The i18n checker is a free service from W3C that provides information about internationalization-related aspects of your HTML page and advice on creating markup that supports the multilingual Web. This latest release uses a new user interface and redesigned source code. It also adds a number of new tests, a file upload facility, and support for HTML5. This is still a 'pre-final' release and development continues. There are already plans to add further tests and features, to translate the user interface, to add support for XHTML5 and polyglot documents, to integrate with the W3C Unicorn checker, and to add various other features. At this stage we are particularly interested in receiving user feedback. Learn more about Web Internationalization.

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Optimizing Meta Data

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Secrets
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Title tags are the most critical Meta Tag and are the only tags that will influence SEO. Title tags have a direct effect on search engine relevancy and ranking. Make sure that your keywords appear in your Title tag.

1. Character Limits – 65 or less. Including spaces. Sorry folks, if you write more your title will end with a “…” Some cases you can have up to 70 characters but just play it safe and stick with 65.
2. Keywords and key phrases – Make titles page specific. Use longer key phrases where possible. The more relevant your title is to content the better your pages will  rank, and obviously higher rank = more traffic.
3. H1 tag – Repeat your title tag in your headline. This will help with relevancy and communicate clearly that the audience has landed on the correct page.

The description will appear underneath the title tag on the search engine results page. The keyword being searched will appear  bolded when contained in the description tag or title tag.

1. Character Limits – Google will only display up to 160 characters included spaces  when it comes to descriptions. Yahoo and MSN will display a little more (165 and up to 3 lines) but stick with 160 as a max.
2. Visibility and Click through rate – Remember to sell to the audience. Use the title and description to hook visitors. It’s like a great commercial.
3. Visitors are not stupid – Tell the truth. Visitors will leave if your title and description do not match your actual web content.
4. Universal Descriptions – Do not do it. If the site content targets multiple keywords it is better to leave the description tag blank. Search engines will pull the keywords from the sites content and display the content that surrounds those keywords. These keywords will be bolded. Bolded information will always improve visibility and click through rate. Use discretion when using the description tag.

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Search Engine Optimization For Dummies

Last Call: API for Media Resources 1.0

The Media Annotations Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of API for Media Resources 1.0. This specification defines an API to access metadata information related to media resources on the Web. The overall purpose is to provide developers with convenient access to metadata information stored in different metadata formats. The API provides means to access the set of metadata properties defined in the Ontology for Media Resources 1.0 specification. Comments are welcome through 07 August. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.


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XQuery from the Experts: A Guide to the W3C XML Query Language
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CSS Drafts Updated: CSSOM; CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published Working Drafts of CSSOM and CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. CSSOM defines APIs (including generic parsing and serialization rules) for Media Queries, Selectors, and CSS itself. The latter specification First, it defines the syntax for image values in CSS. It also defines properties used to control the interaction of replaced content and the CSS layout algorithms. These properties can affect the used image resolution for bitmaps, the replaced object's orientation, and whether and how to preserve the object's aspect ratio. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Last Call: Web IDL

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Web IDL. This document defines an interface definition language, Web IDL, that can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in Web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. How interfaces described with Web IDL correspond to constructs within ECMAScript and Java execution environments is also detailed in this document. It is expected that this document acts as a guide to implementors of already-published specifications, and that newly published specifications reference this document to ensure conforming implementations of interfaces are interoperable. Comments are welcome through 23 August. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Registration Opens for W3C Training on Mobile Web and Application Best Practices (starts September)

W3C is pleased to announce that registration is now open for a second edition of the "W3C Introduction to Mobile Web and Application Best Practices." The online course can be taken in any time zone and will last 8 weeks, from 5 September to 28 October 2011. Developed and taught by the W3C/MobiWebApp team, the course is based entirely on W3C standards, particularly the Mobile Web Best Practices and Mobile Web Application Best Practices, all designed to help make great Web content available to as wide an audience as possible. On successful completion, participants receives a W3C Certificate of Completion. The full price of the course is €195 but we have a limited number of places available at the early bird rate of €145. See full details of the course. To ensure your place on the course, please register now.

Continuing Global Conversation on Key Issues in Web & TV Convergence: Third Workshop on Web and TV Scheduled

W3C announces the third in a series of Workshops on the Web and TV. The Third W3C Web and TV Workshop takes place in Hollywood, California, USA, 19-20 September 2011, hosted by Comcast Cable. In the previous two workshops (Tokyo Workshop and Berlin Workshop), participants identified opportunities for convergence of Web and TV infrastructure and began identifying technical challenges. This third workshop will continue these efforts, with a particular focus on the needs of content creators and distributors. Additionally, there will be an opportunity to discuss and debate some of the initial requirements arising in the Web and TV Interest Group that began its work in February 2011. Anyone may participate in this Workshop; a Position Paper is required from a presenter while a Statement of Interest is required from an observer. Both Position Papers and Statements of Interest are due 15 August 2011. Please see the Call for Participation for further details.

Joint Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development Report Available

W3C together with the Web Foundation today published the report from the W3C/Web Foundation Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in June. The large and diverse group representing more than 30 different nationalities had engaging discussions on voice-based services for underprivileged communities, mobile entrepreneurship and data collection tools. The results of these discussions, as well as the actions identified will be investigated by the W3C Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group and the Web Foundation.
W3C and the Web Foundation thanks the participants and appreciates the support of the Workshop sponsors: Spider (Gold Sponsor), Twaweza (Gold Sponsor) and Comviva (silver sponsor).

First Draft of XML Encryption 1.1 CipherReference Processing using 2.0 Transforms Specification Published

The XML Security Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of "XML Encryption 1.1 CipherReference Processing using 2.0 Transforms" specification. This specification brings the benefits of the XML Signature 2.0 transform processing model to XML Encryption, reducing the attack surface and simplifying the processing model. Related 2.0 specifications are in Last Call, including XML Signature 2.0, Canonical XML 2.0 and the XML Signature Streaming Profile of XPath 1.0. The XML Security WG also has 1.1 specifications in Candidate Recommendation, including XML Signature 1.1, XML Encryption 1.1, XML Signature Properties, and XML Security Generic Hybrid Ciphers.
To address patent disclosures related to the XML Signature 1.1 and 2.0 and XML Encryption 1.1 specifications, W3C has chartered a Patent Advisory Group that is in progress. Learn more about W3C's Security Activity.

Ontology for Media Resources 1.0 is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

The Media Annotations Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. This document defines the Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. The term "Ontology" is used in its broadest possible definition: a core vocabulary. The intent of this vocabulary is to bridge the different descriptions of media resources, and provide a core set of descriptive properties. This document defines a core set of metadata properties for media resources, along with their mappings to elements from a set of existing metadata formats. Besides that, the document presents a Semantic Web compatible implementation of the abstract ontology using RDF/OWL. The document is mostly targeted towards media resources available on the Web, as opposed to media resources that are only accessible in local repositories. See the group's Media Ontology Test Suite. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0 is a W3C Recomendation

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. The Call Control Extensible Markup Language (CCXML) provides declarative markup to describe telephony call control. CCXML can be used in conjunction with a dialog system such as VoiceXML. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

VoiceXML 2.0 Developer's Guide : Building Professional Voice-enabled Applications with JSP, ASP & Coldfusion

Working with Time Zones Published as an updated Working Group Note

The Internationalization (I18N) Core Working Group has published an updated version of Working with Time Zones as a Working Group Note. Date and time values can be complex and the relationship between computer and human timekeeping systems can lead to problems. The working group has updated this version to contain more comprehensive guidelines and best practices for working with time and time zones in applications and document formats. Use cases are provided to help choose an approach that ensures that geographically distributed applications work well. This document also aims to provide a basic understanding and vocabulary for talking about time and time handling in software. Learn more about the Internationalization Activity.

XQuery from the Experts: A Guide to the W3C XML Query Language
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