Rapid Web News

HTML 5 introduces several new tags which focus of defining the content of a page in a machine readable fashion.

In today’s websites, if a computer program attempts to pick out a particular part of a page, such as the main article, the sidebar or the top navigation, it would have difficulty. This is because every website structures its HTML differently, and most modern websites use <p>, <div> and <span> tags to surround their content. These tags generally define style. The new HTML 5 tags define content.

Defining content makes websites easier to parse by computer programs. This could benefit accessibility readers for the blind and allow content aggregating systems and ‘mash-up’ websites to easily parse, link to and cite your articles.

Here is a list of some of the HTML 5 tags that define content.

• <article> – Defines a main article on a page. Can include cite (citation) and pubdate (publishing date) attributes.
• <details> – States content details for a specific section. Can include an open attribute defining whether or not the details within are visible to the end-user.
• <figcaption> – States the caption for a figure as defined by the figure tag.
• <figure> – Usually used to group a set of elements.
• <footer> – Footer layout element. This is used to contain the footer content of the page, usually contains the website name, author and copyright information.
• <header> – Header layout element. This tag is designed to contain the top header of a document, usually showing the website logo, page and/or company title and subtitle.
• <hgroup> – A tag used to group together heading tags such as <h1>, <h2>, <h3> and so on.
• <keygen> – A key generation tag which defines a generated (encryption) key that can be associated with a HTML form.
• <meter> – The <meter> tag contains content which is deemed to be a measurement of some sort.
• <nav> – The <nav> tags stands for navigation and is designed to surround navigation links, such as those present in a sidebar bar or navigational header/footer.
• <summary> – The <summary> tag defines the title of a <details> element.
• <time> – This tags contains content which is a statement or measurement of time and/or date/time.

More information about HTML 5 tags is available from W3Schools. See the HTML 5 Tag Reference for more details on these tags and the other new tags in HTML 5.

Valentine’s Day is one of 2010′s first large shopping day and should hopefully be a great boom for online e-commerce websites trying to promote their Valentine’s Day gift products.

Lovers will, as always, be celebrating their love and buying one another romantic gifts from a variety of places, hoping to once again win another part of their significant other’s heart.

In turns out that, according to a research company who has performed several survey’s leading up to this year’s Valentine’s day, the average consumer will spend approximately 103 USD (66.01 GBP) on tranditional Valentine’s gifts this year. This includes greetings cards, day’s out, flowers, jewelry and of course Valentine’s day chocolate. This is apparently, an increase of only 0.50 USD (0.32 GBP) from last year.

Strangely, although the increase in overall spending on Valentine’s day has not increased substantially, more and more lovers will be purchasing their Valentine’s day gifts online at various e-commerce websites. According the the Head of Research at Shop.org, online e-commerce shoppers are anticipated to spend approximately 68.81 USD (44.10 GBP) more than those shopping offline. That’s 171.81 USD (110.11 GBP) from potential e-commerce shoppers this Valentine’s day, rather than the lower 103 USD (66.01 GBP) expected from offline Valentine’s gift shoppers.

“o-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,
And dupp’d the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.”

– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5

If you’d like to discuss how you’re e-commerce website will deal with and make the most of Valentine’s day, or  any other large national holiday, please feel free to contact us.

However, if you want some more general e-commerce information, or are thinking about setting up a new e-commerce website, we have some great e-commerce related information on our dedicated e-commerce information pages.

PCI refers to the Payment Card Industry.

PCI compliance, in this context, refers to complying with the PCI Data Security Standard.

Essentially, the PCI Data Security Standard is a worldwide security standard for information which was assembled by the PCI Security Standards Council. This standard requires a minimum level of security on servers and is designed to assist companies and organisation that deal with debit and/or credit card payments, in an attempt to reduce fraud.

PCI compliance applies to all entities which deal with information of card holders, either via the processing, holding or passing on of cardholder information. The PCI Data Security Standard (or DSS) requires the following of the network(s) and/or server(s) on which the cardholder information is sent through or stored.

• A firewall configuration must be installed and maintained to protect cardholder details.
• Default vendor access codes and passwords must not be used.
• Card holder data must be protected and encrypted when sent over open, public networks.
• Anti-virus software should be used and kept up to date on systems that are commonly vulnerable to malware.
• Developed systems and software should be  secure and ensure said security is maintained.
• Access to cardholder data should be restricted.
• All access to network resources and cardholder data should be tracked and monitored.
• Security systems and processes should be regularly tested.
• A policy that addresses information security should be maintained.

PCI compliance also reference wireless networks and their use, monitoring and security incident responses. Due to the inherent issues of transferring data wirelessly, PCI compliance requires at least quarterly security checks of any wireless networks in use and sets a minimum security standard for said wireless networks.

If you require any advice regarding e-commerce or wish to find out more information about PCI compliance specifically, be sure visit the recommended links below or feel free to contact us.

• VISA Global List of PCI DSS Validated Service Providers
• PCI Security Standards Council
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard