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07/10/2017

Apple's tricky iOS 11 photo tech gets a helping hand

What the heck is HEIC? It's a whiz at compressing iPhone photos, but it brings some complications. New tools can help.

BY
STEPHEN SHANKLAND
OCTOBER 6, 2017 5:00 AM PDT
Apple's new phone software means your photos take up half the space they used to, and that's great. But it also can bring some complications.

Good news: New tools are emerging to help you avoid the hassles -- and to take better advantage of the change.

The new photo compression technology comes with the HEIC image format Apple built into iOS 11, the iPhone and iPad software that arrived in September. HEIC is a version of technology called HEIF -- High Efficiency Image Format -- that needs less storage space than the decades-old JPEG format. It throws other photography advancements into the bargain, too, to help with things like Apple's portrait mode.

The Half app lets you convert your iPhone's JPEGs into smaller HEIC files, then delete the JPEGs.
The Half app lets you convert your iPhone's JPEGs into smaller HEIC files, then delete the JPEGs.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
Apple was careful to add safeguards that prevent HEIC compatibility problems and to warn app developers to take similar precautions. For the most part, HEIC images are in effect an internal format that gets converted into JPEG when it's time to post a photo to Facebook or email it to your cousin.

The trouble comes when HEIC images leak out of their protective Apple confines, as, for example, when you're experimenting with the format. You can't display an HEIC image on incompatible devices like Windows laptops, Android phones or Macs that don't run the latest MacOS software. It's tough moving beyond file formats as entrenched and useful as JPEG -- but that's where the new utilities come into play.

HEIF and HEIC exemplify the pitfalls of progress in the computing industry. You often can't benefit from shiny new tech until it's widely adopted -- think of owning the first fax machine or a Mac with USB-C ports that don't work with old peripherals. But technology companies are scared to embrace a new technology until they're convinced wide adoption will happen.

That kind of chicken-and-egg problem has hurt other image standards, like Microsoft's JPEG XR and Google's WebP.

Smoothing the way
Happily, there are tools that make HEIC's arrival easier to manage, whether that's avoiding its pains or embracing its benefits.

Free online tools let you convert HEIC images into JPEG if you're stuck with one you can't handle. Vietnamese developer Tran Dang Khoa added an HEIC converter alongside many other conversion tools. And Beamr, maker of the JPEGmini software for optimizing photo and video file sizes, added its own online HEIC-to-JPEG converter that can handle up to 30 photos at a time. If you want to convert HEIC photos on your Windows or Mac PC, the free iMazing app can help you there.

These cropped-in views of a larger image show how HEIF, left, offers richer colors and fewer speckly artifacts near high-contrast borders compared to a JPEG of about the same size.
Enlarge Image
These cropped-in views of a larger image show how HEIF, left, offers richer colors and fewer speckly artifacts near high-contrast borders compared to a JPEG of about the same size.
Nokia
But what if you want to go the other way, shrinking your JPEGs into HEIC photos? For that, a $3 iOS app called Half for iOS devices can help. Half also sells a $5 version for Macs. The unrelated HEIF Utility gives Windows users a conversion option, too.

With Half, you tell the app which photos to shrink and it'll tell you how much smaller the HEIC version is and ask whether you want to delete the original JPEG. A batch mode to convert photos en masse is on the way, said developer Christina Statescu, as is a tool to shrink videos into HEIC's close relative, HEVC.

File-sync fixes
The obvious way HEIC photos could leak out is with file-sync apps like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive. Fortunately, the companies behind those tools have you covered.

Dropbox can automatically ingest your photos, but on iOS by default it converts HEIC files to JPEG. If you want to keep the HEIC images, open the Dropbox app, tap the "recents" tab at the bottom left, tap the settings gear icon on the upper right, tap "camera uploads" and change "save HEIC photos" to HEIC.

iMazing's converter can help if you're stuck with an HEIC image you need to change to JPEG.
iMazing's converter can help if you're stuck with an HEIC image you need to change to JPEG.
iMazing
Microsoft OneDrive also converts to JPEG. "This puts a user's photos in the most compatible format and will allow them to view their photos on OneDrive mobile apps, OneDrive.com, and in Windows 10," Microsoft said in a statement. If you don't like it, you can disable automatic conversion by opening settings, tapping on "advanced," then turning off the "Upload Most Compatible" feature.

The PhotoSync app, which synchronizes photos across your devices and photo-sharing services like Flickr and 500px, also converts HEIC into JPEG.

Google Drive leaves HEIC files as HEIC, but the app now can view them on iOS and Android and through the drive.google.com website.

Apple settings
If you're running iOS 10 or earlier or have an older iPhone, you won't get an option to save HEIC images in the first place. But if you're using a newer phone, you can enable it through the iOS settings app. Scroll down to "Camera," tap "Formats" and pick "most compatible" for JPEG and "high efficiency" for HEIC.

Apple Photos also can be configured to convert HEIC into JPEGs. Tap "Photos" in the iOS settings app, find the "Transfer to Mac or PC" section, then choose "automatic."

Lightroom, the Adobe Systems software for cataloging and editing photos, now converts HEIC images into JPEGs when you import them. That's an important move since you can now run Lightroom on your phone and synchronize your library across phones, tablets, PCs and the web.

But what about supporting HEIC natively in Lightroom to benefit from the smaller files? Adobe isn't yet ready to say what it'll do. "We need to support workflows customers actually use. It's hard to say how this format will evolve," said Josh Haftel, who oversees Adobe's mobile Lightroom apps. "It's not a small feat to support it across a wide range of different platforms."

HEIF is in limbo right now. Apple's endorsement is a huge boost to its future, but it's not enough to guarantee success. Without built-in support from Windows, Android, and Adobe's widely used photo software, it looks like we'll have a healthy demand for HEIC conversion tools for years to come.

The Smartest Stuff: Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you, and the things around you, smarter.

16/09/2017

iPhone 8 versus iPhone X

Apple announced three new iPhones at its special event on 12 September 2017, the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the flag-ship iPhone X (pronounced iPhone Ten). If you are thinking about upgrading your phone, you are likely to be wondering which model will suit you best. Here we’ll look at the two phones that are most appropriate if you are not keen on the idea of a large handset.

The iPhone 8 and the iPhone X may appeal more than the larger iPhone 8 Plus for a number of reasons. Maybe you have small hands, or perhaps you would prefer a lighter phone that slipped neatly into your pocket, in that case these two iPhone models are smaller and lighter than the iPhone Plus models.

Alternatively, you may be excited by the new features of the iPhone X but wondering whether you really need to pay around £1,000, or if the iPhone 8 will give you the features you want the most.

You can read our previews of the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X here.

Size
As we said above, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X are both smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus (and other Plus models).

Here’s how the dimensions of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 compare:

The iPhone X measures 143.6mm by 70.9mm, and is 7.7m thick.
The iPhone 8 is 138.4mm by 67.3mm and is 7.3mm thick.
So, as you can see, the iPhone 8 is smaller and thinner, but only slightly. That’s difference of half a centimetre in height and even less than that in width. And as for that half a millimetre difference in depth, we don’t think it will really be noticeable.

So if your choice was going to be based on the size and shape of the iPhone then there is very little difference here.

When it comes to weight, the difference is greater, however.

The iPhone X weighs 174 grams.
The iPhone 8 weighs 148 grams.
So here the iPhone 8 wins - with a difference of 26 grams. Apparently a teaspoon of sugar is roughly equivalent to 4 grams, so that’s about 6-7 spoonfuls of sugar, enough for a very sweet cup of tea, but we doubt that it will weigh you down all that much.

So, if it’s a small iPhone you are looking for then there is not really a significant difference here. It’s certainly not worth disqualifying the iPhone X over a few millimetres in size, and with just 26 grams between them, the iPhone X is hardly going to feel hefty in comparison to the fractionally lighter iPhone 8.

If you really want a small iPhone then the iPhone SE is probably the one to consider. That iPhone measures 123.8mm by 58.6, is 7.6mm thick and weighs 113 grams. We’d recommend that you hold off buying one of them though as we expect Apple to update it next year, read: iPhone SE 2 release date.

Screen size
The iPhone X and iPhone 8 may be almost identical when it comes to size and weight but there is one very big difference: the size of the screen.

The iPhone X has a 5.8-inch Super Retina HD display.
The iPhone 8 has a 4.7-inch Retina HD display.
The iPhone X definitely has the bigger screen, however, it’s not necessarily as big as the diagonal measurement we quote above suggests.

One of the criticisms of the iPhone X is the fact that there is a notch taken out of the top of the screen. If we were being really pedantic, we’d re-measure the screen of the iPhone X from the base of that notch, because while there is some screen visible on either side of the notch, it’s not really going to be usable. We don't have the exact measurements of the notch, but we think it would probably reduce the diagonal measurement from 5.7-inch to something similar to the iPhone Plus’ 5.5-inch. When we get our hands on one we’ll let you know.

In addition to this, when used in portrait orientation, the width of the display on iPhone X matches the width of the 4.7in display of the iPhone 8. So it’s taller, but not wider. In other words, the iPhone X has a different aspect ratio to the iPhone 8. The iPhone x aspect ratio is something like 19:9 where the iPhone 8 is 16:9.

Content continues below

Developers have even gone as far as to suggest that because of the iPhone X’s swipe gesture indicator, the display actually has less vertical space than the display on the iPhone 8 when used in landscape mode.

Based on these measurements, it is plausible that despite the screen on the iPhone X being bigger than the iPhone 8, the difference isn’t going to be that noticeable in use. Until we can try the iPhone X out for ourselves we can’t confirm this though.

For that reason, we will hold off on our conclusion in this section other than to say, if you want a bigger screen, the iPhone X does have a bigger screen than the iPhone 8, but it appears that the difference is only in height, and part of that will be obscured by that annoying notch.

Screen quality
There is one other thing to say about the display on the iPhone X - it's an OLED screen that Apple is calling a Super Retina display.

The iPhone X display has a TrueTone, 2436x1125-pixel resolution at 458 ppi, with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
The iPhone 8 display offers a Retina Display 1334x750-pixel resolution at 326 ppi, and a 1400:1 contrast ratio.
The stats suggest that the quality of the iPhone X will be far superior to that of the iPhone 8, but until we are able to see the two side by side we won't be able to comment on how significant that is.

Incidentally, when Apple first started selling Retina Displays it explained that it had chosen the name Retina because that was the number of pixels that the eye could see. So based on Apple's own marketing, you might not be able to perceive more pixels per inch.

Camera
Both phones have a 12MP camera on the back but there are some key differences.

The iPhone X, like the iPhone 8 Plus, actually has two cameras on the back. That’s a ƒ/1.8 aperture wide-angle and ƒ/2.4 aperture telephoto camera, which combine to create the stunning portrait shots with the blurred background that those phones can take. The iPhone X (and Plus) has an optical zoom and can digital zoom up to 10x.

The iPhone 8 camera is also 12MP, but it is just the one camera with a ƒ/1.8 aperture, so it can’t take the fancy portrait shots, and it’s digital zoom goes to 5x.

We love the portrait shots we take with our iPhone 7 Plus so we’d recommend getting a phone with that capability. That said, it’s not an essential feature. You can still take amazing photos without having that mode switched on. If you take a lot of shots of people and would like to create the bokeh effect then we think you’d love this feature of the iPhone X. If you don’t know what the bokeh effect is we’d probably suggest you don’t really need it.

Tuning to the camera on the front of the iPhones. The selfie/FaceTime camera on the front of the iPhone X is different to that found on the iPhone 8.

On the iPhone 8 you will find a 7MP FaceTime HD camera with Retina Flash (the same as on the iPhone Plus) but on the iPhone X there is a 7MP TrueDepth front camera with Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting.

This TrueDepth camera is what makes Face ID possible - as we will explain below.

In terms of taking photos, the TrueDepth camera on the front of the iPhone X can take what Apple is calling Portrait Mode Selfies. In other words, the front facing camera can take photos with a sharp foreground and an artfully blurred background to create the same bokeh effect that the two cameras on the back of the iPhone X can achieve.

When it comes to the cameras the iPhone X is a clear winner. However, the camera in the iPhone 8 is still great, so, if you aren’t bothered by the addition of the Portrait Mode, and you don’t feel the need to take even better selfies, the iPhone 8 is more than adequate.

The missing Home Button
There is one huge difference between the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 and it may be the thing that turns you off the iPhone X altogether.

The trade off for getting the bigger screen on the iPhone 8 is the demise of the Home Button. Yes, the trademark Home Button, which was perhaps as part of a design of the iPhone as the click wheel was on the iPod, has gone.

The removal of the Home Button means that Apple needed to make some changes to the iPhone interface. So if you were to buy an iPhone X you would have to learn a new way to navigate the interface. You may adapt to this quickly, or you may find yourself frustrated. It depends on how willing you are to embrace change, and how intuitive the new way of interfacing with the iPhone is. This is another thing we will have so suspend judgement on until we get a chance to play with it ourselves.

There is another change as a result of the missing Home Button. Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint recognition system for securing your phone so that only you could open it, and allowing you to pay for things using Apple Pay, has been replaced with Face ID.

Face ID v Touch ID
We feel a bit sad about the loss of Touch ID. We liked the simplicity of being able to unlock our phone just by touching the Home Button, and we enjoyed being able to use our iPhone to pay for things in shops. With Face ID you will unlock your phone by looking at it.

There is a lot of concern buzzing around the web about how reliable Face ID will be, how secure it will be, and how it will be implemented.

Apple’s demo on stage during the keynote did little to convince people of its reliability - with it appearing to fail (although Apple is now saying it wasn’t correctly set up rather than it failed to recognise the presenter).

In terms of whether anyone could hack into your phone using Face ID, Apple says that Face ID is more secure than Touch ID (as long as you don’t have an identical twin intent on reading your iMessages).

With the iPhone X not launching until November it will be a while before anyone gets to see how Face ID Will work in practice.

When we get to use Face ID we may be blown away by it. But for now we would say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Touch ID on the iPhone 8 - and we’d be inclined to say to Apple: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

Specs
Those are the main differences that will probably make the biggest difference to you. But there are a few more differences between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X in terms of specs.

There are also a few things that are identical as we will outline below.

Colour choices
iPhone X: Space Grey / Silver
iPhone 8: Gold / Silver / Space Grey
Capacity
iPhone X: 64GB / 256GB
iPhone 8: 64GB / 256GB
Water resistance
iPhone X: Rated IP67 under IEC standard 60529
iPhone 8: Rated IP67 under IEC standard 60529 (SAME)
Processor chip
iPhone X: A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture, M11 motion coprocessor
iPhone 8: A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture, M11 motion coprocessor (SAME)
Battery life
iPhone X: Lasts up to 2 hours longer than iPhone 7
iPhone 8: Lasts about the same as iPhone 7
Wireless charging
iPhone X Wireless charging (works with Qi chargers)
iPhone 8 Wireless charging (works with Qi chargers) (SAME)
We’ve skipped over wireless charging which is a new feature for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X. We aren’t convinced about how important a feature it is, but if it is something you are attracted to, it’s worth emphasising that the feature is available on both the iPhone 8 and iPhone X so it’s not a reason to choose one phone over the other.

Price
The iPhone 8 is available to preorder now here and costs £699 for the 64GB version and £849 for the 256GB version.

When it launches the iPhone X will cost £999 for the 64GB version and £1,149 for the 256GB version. Read about how to pre-order an iPhone X here.

That’s a £300 premium on the iPhone X when compared to the iPhone 8 and we have to admit we aren’t convinced that it is worth that mark up.

OUR VERDICT
There are a few features that the iPhone X has that we’d love, such as the Portrait Mode Selfies and the improved Portrait Mode on the rear camera. The bigger screen on the smaller handset sounds great, but we feel it’s a little spoiled by the notch and the fact that it’s not actually any wider than that on the iPhone 8.

In addition, the removal of the Home Button means that not only would we need to re-learn the interface, but we wouldn’t be able to use Touch ID any more. We find this very off putting, however, we are suspicious that it may just be something we have to learn to live with, because the likelihood is that future iPhones will adopt this edge-to-edge screen and Face ID.

Right now though, we'd say go ahead and buy the iPhone 8 and enjoy the Home Button while you still can.

Resource : macworld.

31/08/2017

21/08/2017

Intel Processors

Intel is very concerned that you may be using a five-year-old computer. The company claims there are at least 450 million computers still in service that are five or more years old.

So, one of the big selling points for the just-announced 8th generation of Core i-series CPUs is that these new chips are twice as fast as those found in five-year-old laptops. That's not too much of a stretch, as we've seen massive performance improvements over the last five years in laptops, desktops, hybrids and tablets.

More potentially interesting is Intel's claim of up to a 40-percent improvement over the current 7th-gen Core i-series CPUs, which many PC makers have only recently rolled out across their product lines. Intel called it a "once in a decade" performance jump in a briefing for reporters.

Kaby Lake, refreshed

Each new generation of Intel CPUs generally goes by a code name, but the 8th-gen chips will likely be split across (at least) two. These first 8th-gen chips, which Intel says are "designed specifically for thin and light premium notebooks and 2-in-1s," keep the Kaby Lake code name from the 7th gen, although these are referred to as Kaby Lake R, for "refresh."

8th-gen-intel-core-i7-badge
Intel
This includes 15-watt U-series Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The biggest on-paper change for the low-voltage CPUs is a jump to a quad-core design from a dual-core one, which should make for better multitasking.

The initial 8th-gen CPUs are:

1.9GHz Core i7-8650U
1.8GHz Core i7-8550U
1.7GHz Core i5-8350U
1.6GHz Core i5-8250U
Future 8th-gen chips may be part of the already revealed code name series called Coffee Lake. These will use the same 14nm (nanometer) process as the previous generation, which is a measure of the transistors used in fabricating semiconductors. An expected jump to smaller 10nm parts isn't expected until 2018, although Intel has dropped a number of hints about future plans, and they may be part of this 8th generation as well.

Intel expects desktop-class CPUs by the end of 2017, and further new chips for laptops in early 2018, so you'll have to wait for then for more information on both the very low-power side, like Core M and Core i3 CPUs, and the very high-end side, like the upcoming Core i9 CPUs.

The future is 4K

With the same code name and same 14nm process, you may be asking, what's new and exciting here? Intel points to the following as reasons you should want an 8th-gen CPU in your next laptop:

Up to 10 hours of 4K UHD local video playback
Editing photos or creating a slideshow is up to 48 percent faster on 8th Gen than 7th gen
Editing video footage is now up to 14.7x faster
New Windows Mixed Reality headsets will support some content even with only the standard built-in integrated graphics
"Intel Precise Touch Technology" will make Windows Ink app response better when using a stylus
The integrated graphics can support up to three 4K external displays at once
Intel Online Connect, also coming to older-gen chips, will enable two-factor security, using your laptop itself as one of the factors
8th-gen-intel-core-u-series-front
Intel/John Schulz
Intel is pushing the 8th-gen chips as well suited for the growth of viewing, shooting and editing of 4K and 360-degree video. Support for the upcoming wave of mixed-reality headsets in especially interesting, as Acer, Lenovo, HP and others all have similar headsets coming soon. But, the supported content without a dedicated Nvidia or AMD graphics card will probably be limited to simple things like 360 video.

Not getting an upgrade in this wave are the built-in graphics, although Intel is renaming the HD 620 graphics to UHD 620 (UHD often refers to 4K content). Also generally unchanged are battery life estimates. Rather than a boost to battery life, Intel says all this new 8th-gen power won't come with battery life "compromises."

acer-nitro-5-spin-display-mode-left-facing-win10
Acer's new 8th-gen gaming hybrid, the Nitro Spin 5.
Acer
Intel says at least 145 PCs with 8th gen CPUs are in the works, with about 80 expected by this holiday season. Many of those early 8th-gen laptops may be announced at the annual IFA show happening in Germany later this month, but at least one is being announced immediately.

Acer says it is introducing a new convertible gaming laptop, the Nitro Spin 5. It will combine an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 and Nvidia GeForce 1050 graphics card with a 15.6-inch display and 360-degree hinge. The Nitro Spin 5 will be available in October.

24/06/2017

Happy Eid for everyone

20/06/2017

Happy Ramazan from https://www.GoxSoft.com

We wish Allah Accept from us All good things we do.

Proud to be GoxSoft.com

14/05/2017

Rebuilding Your Website? Design Tips and SEO Savers

Building a new website You’ve looked around at your competitors and their shiny new websites make yours look a bit dated. Maybe it’s a bit cluttered, doesn’t work well on mobile devices, or just needs more features. All perfectly good reasons to speak to a graphic designer/web developer about an upgrade.

But wait. Just like your business, your existing website has earned an online reputation, or ‘ranking’ over time. And just like the years that you have spent building your business, your online presence is just as hard won, yet can also be lost or damaged, when launching a new website. It can take months, or even years, to regain lost ground.

So here’s a collection of design and SEO considerations for website upgrades:

Keep the Homepage simple – not easy to do, especially when you have alot to say, or products to sell. Most of your visitors will arrive at the Homepage; you want to stimulate visitors without bombarding them with too many messages. Some of the biggest names with thousands of products do this very successfully – check out John Lewis for an inspirational example.
You still need text on the Homepage – unless you are in the John Lewis league, you will need to say precisely who you are and what you do in at least 250 characters or so.
Phone number, location and opening hours – This information needs to be in text rather than as an image, so that search engines can index and serve it according to the approximate location from where a search was made. With the huge take-up of mobile browsing, this is essential. An interactive map helps too, easily sourced from Google Maps.
Redirect all high traffic pages – Google likes busy pages, and ranks them accordingly. Assuming you are keeping the same domain name (eg mybusineesswebsite.co.uk), redirect your busiest pages to their new versions (unless the url is the same). In other words, you are saying to search engines ‘for this, see this, it’s the same thing, just in a different place.’ Don’t just redirect multiple pages to the homepage, as Google et al take a dim view of that indeed. If you are contemplating a domain name change, see my note at the bottom of this article.
Site navigation and architecture – when someone arrives at your site, they want to find what they want – quickly. Like humans, search engines don’t like ploughing through six navigation levels to get to specific information. Brief your designer that you’d really like visitors to get anywhere from the homepage in three clicks maximum.
Get a prominent Search box above the fold – if people just want to find what they want, they can use this. Make sure it works. Get to know where to find out what people searched for within your Analytics. Results from your search box can be catalysts for new business opportunities, seriously.
Make sure your content is unique and written for humans, not search engines. Duplicate or plagiarized content from other online sources is a no-no. Be assured that Google’s algorithms will spot this and your site could be downgraded as a result, however much you have paid for your shiny new website. Transfer unique content, especially expert articles and blog posts from the old site, as it all counts.
Give every page a purpose – the more specific the content on a page the more likely it is to be found in its own right as a landing page. The more landing pages you have the better your chances of attracting visitors. Ensure that each page is correctly labelled with specific Title and Description tags and that the relevant keywords are included in the page copy (but don’t overdo it, ‘keyword stuffing’ is bad, bad, bad).
Get a call to action on every page. What action do you want your visitors to take? Give them every opportunity to sign up for information, download a brochure, pick up the phone or make a purchase, by ensuring that every page has an obvious place to go for the next step.
Tag your images correctly – search engines can’t see images, so they rely on the text descriptions to categorize them. Precisely describing an image in the ‘Alt’ tag text is worth the effort, I promise you, not least because images in Google’s image search results carry a link to the page source.
Size images correctly. Images for the web need to be at lower resolution than print for fast page loading times, especially on mobile networks. Google also takes account of site speed within its ranking algorithm. Image resolution should be 72dots per inch; an average file size of around 100kb for all but the largest images is a good benchmark.
Have a custom ‘404’ page. There will always be times when a page is not found. They could come from links, old search engine results, or mis-typing of a url by the user. Don’t lose that visitor with a dull and unhelpful ‘Error 404, page not found’ message. After all, usually they haven’t done anything wrong and have followed a link that was interesting to them.
Build your Audience. Invite email signups, with a simple, strong benefit, from an obvious position. A small incentive can achieve surprising results. It is a fact that only a small percentage of visitors will take your desired action on their first visit, so encouraging them to come back increases your chances of them doing what you want, sooner.
Include genuine current trust signals and social interactions. There are a huge variety of trust signals that can be employed; business testimonials, trade associations, subscriptions to codes of practice, payment security, customer care charters etc all help to instill confidence, particularly in new visitors. Social interactions and blog posts show that there are real people behind your virtual shop window.

Changing Domain Name

Think carefully about changing your domain name. Use your Analytics data to look for what your customers call you. From your Google Analytics account, go to Traffic Sources>Search>Organic to see what people put into Google to arrive at your site. Do most visitors abbreviate your business name, or find you through a brand you sell? There might be an opportunity to capitalize on that, or avoid inappropriate re-branding.

If you are sure about changing your domain name, then it will be worth your while taking a look at Ben Wood’s detailed article on Switching Domains.