by: Linda Ziemba
1. LiveLOOK Never Writes to the Disk
LiveLOOK is an instant live help program that works solely from the browser - other programs must access a computer’s hard drive to show the screen of that computer.
Lots of other systems say they have no download, but that is not the same thing. For a web conference participant to join conferences and have the ability to show their screen in other systems, they temporarily download software written to the disk which erases itself after the conference ends.
LiveLOOK has no such requirement. The disk is never accessed.
2. Users Don’t Bypass Firewalls or Anti-malware Appliances
LiveLOOK Co Browsing and Screen Sharing are web-based services are designed to instantly establish visual sessions with no downloads or security warning pop-ups beyond the Java certificate ownership.
Most viruses, Trojans, BOTs and other harmful programs infect a system by getting into a computer’s hard drive. As a result, firewalls and other internet security programs are designed to prevent access to a hard drive especially, initiating warnings of potential threats and prompts asking for permission to continue. Security programs typically classify hard drive access attempts as “Riskware: Hidden Install” or “Invader”.
LiveLOOK runs over standard Internet ports 80/443 so IT networking and security teams do not have to open any non-standard ports that can potentially expose the organization to other non-web conferencing related malicious traffic.
3. Sessions are Conducted on Encrypted Servers
Sessions are established via a main server and then transferred immediately to grid servers utilizing 256-bit encryption.
4. Compliance-related Sensitive Information Can Be Masked
Companies deploying Co Browsing into Customer Contact Center environments can mask fields in their applications that contain sensitive information like social security or credit card numbers. The customer sees the data clearly, but the data in the secure fields is hidden via color masking so the Customer Service Representative is unable to view the data.
LiveLOOK is Hosted by Three Tier 4 Data Centers.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
How to Choose a Content Management System
by: Collyn Floyd
Content Management Systems (CMS) are a dime a dozen. In fact, if all you want to do is add, edit, and delete web content, you can probably find a basic CMS for free. A truly great and useful CMS, however, should give you powerful Search Engine Optimization tools that allow you to optimize your own page data, be web standards compliant, and be customizable based on your business's needs. In short, it should give you a whole arsenal of tools so you can achieve measurable results on your website.
Why a Search Engine-Friendly CMS?
Dynamic content (the kind of content generated from a CMS) and the search engines have had a long, rocky relationship. That's because when a typical CMS generates dynamic content, it creates long URLs with variables that the search engines may have difficulty interpreting. In some cases, the search engines flat-out ignore these URLs. Although the search engines are getting better at "digesting" dynamic content, you could have pages (sometimes hundreds of them) not being indexed by the search engines.
Unlike a basic CMS, however, a search engine-friendly CMS is able to generate dynamic content that is easily crawled by the search engines and easily understood by your users. Here's why that's important:
First, it allows your site to be indexed by the search engines. That's because it generates URLs that are readable, not a bunch of nonsense. This is great for the user because the URL will actually make sense to them, making the URL easier to remember and share. As a result, this helps the search engines reach their ultimate goal, which is creating the best possible user experience.
A search engine-friendly CMS will generate URLs that looks like this:
http://www.company.com/products/cowboy-boots
Instead of long, messy URLs like this:
http://www.company.com/products/display_product.jsp? prodline=BrandA+MT%2FR&brandID=01_ COMPANY&mrktarea=Cowboy+Boots&size=Z481%3G66Q27&style=MNR&style=1847& length=25&shipping=31
Second, it allows you to optimize your website for the search engines, giving you control over page titles, alt-text and meta-data, thereby the opportunity to gain greater visibility in the search engine results.
Finally, it eliminates the issue of duplicate content within the CMS. If you have the same product, for instance, posted in different areas of your site, a search-friendly CMS will create one URL for that piece of content, removing any fears of having the same content with multiple URLs (another no-no with the search engines, as well as for usability reasons).
Make it User-Friendly, Too
If a CMS isn't totally simple and user-friendly, then it's hardly of any use to you. And if it doesn't generate user-friendly content, then that creates frustrations for your customers.
An SEO-friendly CMS should comply with the web standards established by the W3C, a board that puts emphasis on high levels of usability and accessibility, both on the user side and behind the scenes. You should be able to control all the little details like navigation, link text and short URLs, just to name a few.
Don't Forget About Customization
If you try to fit your business into a pre-packaged solution, you're bound to run into trouble. Just like your business isn't exactly like anyone else's, your web needs aren't going to be like anyone else's either.
Maybe you need a CMS that ties into legacy networks and systems, or integrates with your QuickBooks or MAS Accounting Software. Perhaps you need a password-protected administrative area for business partners, or custom reporting (i.e., how many times a form was submitted). A custom CMS can be shaped and molded easily to accommodate these features.
Let's Recap
A search engine-friendly, customizable CMS has all kinds of features that make it a better choice than a basic CMS. Here's a checklist of what it should do:
* Follow web standards guidelines (W3C)
* Generate short, clean URLs
* Separate keywords in the URL with hyphens (the search engines recognize hyphens as the only means to separate words in a URL)
* Generate URLs that are useful to both site users and the search engines
* Allow dynamic generation of all meta data based on individual page content
* Give you the ability to hand optimize meta data on each page
* Eliminate any fears of duplicate content (i.e., only 1 URL for each piece of content or unique product)
* Allow navigation that doesn't require cookies, letting the search engines index deeper into your site
* Store the Session ID in a cookie, not the URL
* Give you the ability to control navigation, site architecture and link text
* Dynamically build a site map, as well as an XML site map that includes all content automatically
If you want control over your site, but also the ability for it do well in the search engines and grow with your business, then do yourself and your business a huge favor: take a pass on the CMS freebies and invest in a flexible, search engine-friendly custom CMS that will help you to generate long-lasting results.
Content Management Systems (CMS) are a dime a dozen. In fact, if all you want to do is add, edit, and delete web content, you can probably find a basic CMS for free. A truly great and useful CMS, however, should give you powerful Search Engine Optimization tools that allow you to optimize your own page data, be web standards compliant, and be customizable based on your business's needs. In short, it should give you a whole arsenal of tools so you can achieve measurable results on your website.
Why a Search Engine-Friendly CMS?
Dynamic content (the kind of content generated from a CMS) and the search engines have had a long, rocky relationship. That's because when a typical CMS generates dynamic content, it creates long URLs with variables that the search engines may have difficulty interpreting. In some cases, the search engines flat-out ignore these URLs. Although the search engines are getting better at "digesting" dynamic content, you could have pages (sometimes hundreds of them) not being indexed by the search engines.
Unlike a basic CMS, however, a search engine-friendly CMS is able to generate dynamic content that is easily crawled by the search engines and easily understood by your users. Here's why that's important:
First, it allows your site to be indexed by the search engines. That's because it generates URLs that are readable, not a bunch of nonsense. This is great for the user because the URL will actually make sense to them, making the URL easier to remember and share. As a result, this helps the search engines reach their ultimate goal, which is creating the best possible user experience.
A search engine-friendly CMS will generate URLs that looks like this:
http://www.company.com/products/cowboy-boots
Instead of long, messy URLs like this:
http://www.company.com/products/display_product.jsp? prodline=BrandA+MT%2FR&brandID=01_ COMPANY&mrktarea=Cowboy+Boots&size=Z481%3G66Q27&style=MNR&style=1847& length=25&shipping=31
Second, it allows you to optimize your website for the search engines, giving you control over page titles, alt-text and meta-data, thereby the opportunity to gain greater visibility in the search engine results.
Finally, it eliminates the issue of duplicate content within the CMS. If you have the same product, for instance, posted in different areas of your site, a search-friendly CMS will create one URL for that piece of content, removing any fears of having the same content with multiple URLs (another no-no with the search engines, as well as for usability reasons).
Make it User-Friendly, Too
If a CMS isn't totally simple and user-friendly, then it's hardly of any use to you. And if it doesn't generate user-friendly content, then that creates frustrations for your customers.
An SEO-friendly CMS should comply with the web standards established by the W3C, a board that puts emphasis on high levels of usability and accessibility, both on the user side and behind the scenes. You should be able to control all the little details like navigation, link text and short URLs, just to name a few.
Don't Forget About Customization
If you try to fit your business into a pre-packaged solution, you're bound to run into trouble. Just like your business isn't exactly like anyone else's, your web needs aren't going to be like anyone else's either.
Maybe you need a CMS that ties into legacy networks and systems, or integrates with your QuickBooks or MAS Accounting Software. Perhaps you need a password-protected administrative area for business partners, or custom reporting (i.e., how many times a form was submitted). A custom CMS can be shaped and molded easily to accommodate these features.
Let's Recap
A search engine-friendly, customizable CMS has all kinds of features that make it a better choice than a basic CMS. Here's a checklist of what it should do:
* Follow web standards guidelines (W3C)
* Generate short, clean URLs
* Separate keywords in the URL with hyphens (the search engines recognize hyphens as the only means to separate words in a URL)
* Generate URLs that are useful to both site users and the search engines
* Allow dynamic generation of all meta data based on individual page content
* Give you the ability to hand optimize meta data on each page
* Eliminate any fears of duplicate content (i.e., only 1 URL for each piece of content or unique product)
* Allow navigation that doesn't require cookies, letting the search engines index deeper into your site
* Store the Session ID in a cookie, not the URL
* Give you the ability to control navigation, site architecture and link text
* Dynamically build a site map, as well as an XML site map that includes all content automatically
If you want control over your site, but also the ability for it do well in the search engines and grow with your business, then do yourself and your business a huge favor: take a pass on the CMS freebies and invest in a flexible, search engine-friendly custom CMS that will help you to generate long-lasting results.
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