WebSavvy Updates Completed and Live

[WebSavvy]

The new updates, services, activities, and features for WebSavvy Directory have now been completed. We have several new features, new activities, new services (both free and paid), as well as a new layout and design.

The entire directory structure has been reorganized. Several new categories have been added, while some top level categories have been completely eliminated. We are again accepting new submissions. The add URL pages can be found by going to the category you wish to submit to, and following the add URL link in the footer. New Editor applications and Data Partner applications are now open again as well.

We've worked very hard on what we're presenting today and we hope all of you will enjoy it!

(1) New Activities:
I. Game Center: Featuring 43 Flash Games that can be played at WebSavvy.

( 8 ) New Features:

I. Status Search (http://www.websavvy.cc/status.php): Site owners can check the status of their submission by inserting their domain name root into the query box.

II. What's New (http://www.websavvy.cc/whats-new1.php): Lists all the new sites we've indexed for the month, and displays what category these sites were indexed in.

III. HelpDesk (http://www.websavvy.cc/helpdesk/): Provides an easy way to communicate with us regarding new submissions, new category suggestions, editor applications, partner applications, advertising, or anything else that may require our attention.

IV. Topics (http://www.websavvy.cc/Topics/): Features a completely searchable topical separation of the directory which provides a quick and easy way to locate all categories related to a specific subject.

V. New Search Features: News Search, Image Search, Audio Search, Video Search


(4) New Free Services:

I. We have a brand new eCard Center (http://www.websavvy.cc/eCards/) that contains more than 1,000 online greetings cards (membership is free).

II. We have a new service called Writer's Block, which is an article search (http://www.websavvy.cc/Articles.php) that covers Articles we've indexed, and other Articles written by our editors. The Articles are indexed and hosted on WebSavvy's server. Any web author may sign-up for Writer's Block (it's free) to submit their Articles, which will be carried in syndication on all of our Data Partner sites.

III. We have a new service called Spotlights, that will profile 6 sites every month. This is a free service provided by WebSavvy in an effort to help new Business get a leg up, and showcase noteworthy non-profits and charities. Three sites will profiled on the Profiles (http://www.websavvy.cc/Profiles/) page and three will be profiled on the WebLinks (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebLinks/) page.

IV. Each site in the directory now has a Profile (http://www.websavvy.cc/Profiles/) page which lists the on page meta title from the site's index page, and the first 550 characters of on page data as it's description. Links to that site's WebLinks page (see WebLinks outline below), the Directory category the site is listed in, and a snap shot of the site are also on the Profile page.


(6) New Paid Services:

I. We've implemented a WWW search that includes extra URLs from sites included in our directory database. Every site included into the directory has an extra 10 URLs maximum that are indexed and available through our WWW search.

These URLs are crawled and indexed by our bot, Savvybot (http://www.websavvy.cc/bot.php), which obeys robots.txt protocol as well as robots meta, and the new no follow tags (with regard to out of domain or in domain links).

Extra WebLinks may be purchased (up to 100 maximum beyond the standard 10 free). WebLinks will be carried in syndication on all of our Data Partner sites. Fee structure and further information can be found on the WebLinks (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebLinks.php) page.

II. We have a new service called WebReviews, which is a rapid review of a submitted site and takes place within a 24 hour period. This service requires a small one time only fee. Our program is set up a bit differently, whereas you don't pay anything until we've actually agreed to include your site.

If we've accepted your site, you will be sent an Invoice to pay for the review. Accepted sites will be live in the database following payment. Declined sites will not be Invoiced for payment. Fee structure and further information can be found on the WebReviews (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebReviews.php) page.

III. Our new service called WebSponsors will allow a site owner to be able promote his/her site to the top of the static category page that the site is indexed in, for a small one time only fee. Sites that are WebSponsor sites are denoted by a :cool: smilie Vs a beanie rating. Fee structure and further information can be found on the WebSponsors (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebSponsors.php) page.

IV. We have a new service called WebFeatures (like our old Featured Links on the index page) that will allow site owners to purchase an advertising textlink in any category that relates to their site's topic. WebFeatures will be carried in syndication on all of our Data Partner sites. Fee structure and further information can be found on the WebFeatures (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebFeatures.php) page.

V. Our new WebFeeds service offers Advertising in an XML/RSS based format. Advertisers submit the URI to their 3 or 5 Item XML/RSS Feed which lives on their server and it'll run in the WebSavvy category they've selected. WebFeeds will be carried in syndication on all of our Data Partner sites. Fee structure and further information can be found on the WebFeeds (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebFeeds.php) page.

VI. WebWords is our Text Ads Advertising Service. Text Ads appear on selected static pages within the Directory, and are keyword targeted in our WWW SERPs, Directory SERPs, Topic SERPs, and News SERPs. WebWords will be carried in syndication on all of our Data Partner sites. Fee structure and further information can be found on the WebWords (http://www.websavvy.cc/WebWords.php) page.

We're looking forward to your feedback! (Thanks :))

[Dave Hawley]

Deb, your add URL link bugs out with "The page cannot be displayed".

[Dave Hawley]

Ignore me, my second attempt worked!

[WebSavvy]

OK, let me go have a look. It was fine a moment ago.

[WebSavvy]

Dave, what category was it in?

[WebSavvy]

LOL. OK. :)

[Dave Hawley]

When I use the Submit URL page I enter:

http://www.
in the "http://www. OR http://" TextBox
and
ozgrid.com/
in the "domain.com OR sub.domain.com" TextBox

On clicking the Continue button I get told

"Suffix cannot be left blank.
You must enter a suffix: (e.g., /folder/page.html, or /page.html or /).""

???

[WebSavvy]

Look above the boxes. The last box needs either a trailing slash / or supply a file name.

Example:
first box: http://www.
second box: domain.com
third box: /

I will probably have to put in an example for people because I wasn't sure if they'd get that or not?

:)

[Dave Hawley]

Why so ambivalent and different?

[Dave Hawley]

Deb, what's the diff between "Title" and "Title Text"?

[WebSavvy]

Not sure what you mean, Dave.

All I meant is, the way it's designed the text slides a bit too far one way, and I wasn't sure anyone would notice it without an example for them.

The form is set up the way it is for several reasons. There's lots of backend stuff that's really too complicated to explain, but ... I made it as easy as I could. :)

Hopefully, people will like the new stuff.

[WebSavvy]

title text is in blue
title is in green

Example:

<a href="http://domain.com/" title="title text is the yellow highlight box over a hyperlink just like alt text for images">Title</a>

[Dave Hawley]

Arh, so it's the Title attribute of an "a" link. That could be made clearer I think.

[WebSavvy]

Yep. I'll be doing that later today. :)

[Dave Hawley]

Cool bananas :) I have submitted my site, now I expect to instantly shoot up to number 1 on all major SE's for all targeted serch terms. If not, I will be demanding a refund :D

[WebSavvy]

LOL. What currency? Air, or Monopoly? :lol:

[ihelpyou]

I have not had a chance to view things real good yet, but check all the links in your post as some of them are blank. :)

Very good! Finally open! :D

[WebSavvy]

Yeah, I mistyped the URI for the What's New page. Just corrected it in my post. We've added about 700 new sites just this month already.

[srikanthsh]

Just my 2c Deb. Though it is clear what are WebFeatures and WebWords after observing the home page, I would expect a brief description along with a graphic under each service in the services screen.

[grungee]

To become a websponsor, do I need to have my website reviewed and added to the category first?

One small comment I found it hard to find the fee details and then the link to them was not really highlighted

Cheers Tony

[WebSavvy]

Originally posted by srikanthsh
Just my 2c Deb. Though it is clear what are WebFeatures and WebWords after observing the home page, I would expect a brief description along with a graphic under each service in the services screen.
Sri, those will be added today. :)

[WebSavvy]

To become a websponsor, do I need to have my website reviewed and added to the category first?
Yes. In order to have your site promoted within the category, it has to be in the directory first. :)
One small comment I found it hard to find the fee details and then the link to them was not really highlighted.
There'll be a graphic there today that shows the hyperlink under the column to where the services are.

Seeing we have so many categories, and services, it was the easiest way to set things up -- having the link from the area lead to the service page.

I might put a yellow highlight background on the link in CSS, too. Maybe that'll also help. :)

[JohnC]

HI Deb,

Looks Great !!

I may be overlooking it, but is there a place to suggest a sub-category? Under Real Estate, I cant seem to find a place to submit a Property Listing site.

[WebSavvy]

Hi John,

Thanks. :)

Right now, you can suggest a new category through HelpDesk. Just select that from the subject menu.

I'm going to be adding a little thing to the add url forms today for submitting a category suggestion.

We had it in there before but people kept suggesting the same category they were submitting to, so we took it out.

I'm going to add a question mark graphic for "help" next to each field in the forms. This way it explains format, and will also provide a suggestion field for new catgeory suggestions.

[DisVallHear]

Deb,

Looks great! I haven't had a lot of time to look it over and see all of your new stuff, but will look again later.

Stan

[WebSavvy]

OK, things should be a bit easier to understand now.

On the submission forms (add url pages) there's a little help icon next to each field that when clicked will open a small popup window to explain the information needed for the field and the format expected.

On the advertise page, the hyperlinked words to the individual service pages have been changed to "Information and Pricing"

On the individual service pages, graphics have been added, and also the price list has been pulled into the page as well.

When seeking to advertise in any specific area now, the advertise link in the footer leads to the advertising order page for that area (just like our category add url pages are in each specific category).

If anyone has any other little things they'd like to point out or suggest that might make things easier for site owners and for our users, please feel free to make the suggestions.

:)

[loki]

great work deb and good luck. if you ever do languages you can count on me for spanish.

FYI

the first two subs i did would not let me paste http://www.

it pasted as http://www U(no fullstop) and would not allow an 11th character

on my 3rd sub it would allow the missing .

[loki]

great work deb and good luck. if you ever do languages you can count on me for spanish.

FYI

the first two subs i did would not let me paste http://www.

it pasted as http://www U(no fullstop) and would not allow an 11th character

on my 3rd sub it would allow the missing .

using firefox 1.0.4

[WebSavvy]

OK, loki. I'll look into it. It's the first I've heard this reported to me. Thanks for the heads up.

[WebSavvy]

OK, loki. I've raised the character count in the first box from maxLength=11 to maxLength=12.

This should eliminate the problem with that. Maybe there was a "whitespace" in the field, as you were copying and pasting.

MyISAM is notorious for including the whitespace when fields are copied and pasted.

I have a subroutine that runs at the end of the submission to strip all whitespace from the fields, anyway. ;)

[grungee]

This is not critical but when you click on the the javascript next to Online and it shows you how many users there are the graphic of that pop up does not display.

When I click on Web Directory Services in http://www.websavvy.cc/Images.php just under the menu bar on the left hand side it said /root_path/
(not sure if thats supposed to be there)

Thought you might like to know.

[WebSavvy]

Thank, Tony. Fixed now. Just a missing EOF; at the end of the previous line in the @include file.

The graphic not showing up is minor -- and due to the fact I haven't uploaded the new small one yet as I'm making some other code changes currently.

This will be fixed in a few days -- I'm going to be out of town on a personal emergency.

[grungee]

Originally posted by savvy1
Thank, Tony. Fixed now. Just a missing EOF; at the end of the previous line in the @include file.

The graphic not showing up is minor -- and due to the fact I haven't uploaded the new small one yet as I'm making some other code changes currently.

This will be fixed in a few days -- I'm going to be out of town on a personal emergency.

I am sorry to hear about the emergency I hope everything is alright.

Just on a side note I am not sure if this is a bug or it doesn't matter, but I like to see what other people are viewing when on your site and one of them took me to this page now while I couldn't actually see any data and you would know better than me, should I be seeing that page without putting in an order for a webreview?

Also when I put a search in for "kitchen" and then click on Articles, I get nothing not a link to go back just a blank page, should there be a link? or something saying no article found?

[WebSavvy]

I had made changes in code to a few files and uploaded them. The files had all been uploaded when my connection became lost and I didn't realize that the article search hadn't fully uploaded.

It's been sent back up again and is working just fine.

No, you would not be able to see any data on any order pages as all you can see are the locations (URLs) of where other site users are.

I have taken whois online off of all of the order pages as it really served no use there.

[cbp]

I have just tried multiple times with different browsers to submit a site to:
Web Directory » Health & Medicine » Diseases & Disorders » Musculoskeletal Diseases
And keep getting access denied after entering correct Authentication Code - got the same thing from categories that the site no belong in.

[WebSavvy]

You have to access the add url pages from the www version of the site in order for authenticate to allow you access to submit. If you enter the add url via the non-www version authenticate will produce an access denied error.

This is set up specifically this way to prevent auto-bots.

[cbp]

Still getting "Access Denied"

[WebSavvy]

Try clearing your cache file and cookies and then enter the add url page from:
http://www.websavvy.cc/Health-and-Medicine/Diseases-and-Disorders/Musculoskeletal-Diseases/add.php

[WebSavvy]

I just entered it myself -- and was able to get authenticated w/o any problems.

[cbp]

I went to page above and cleared cache and still got access denied. Can IP be blocked?

[cbp]

Problem solved - its this computer.

Just submitted via wife's computer!!!

I do not know what the problem is - there is one forum that I can not register at from this computer but its ok on the wifes????? (I can register at many others, but not one in particular, no matter what I do)

[WebSavvy]

No, we don't have any IP addresses blocked. Sometimes your ISP will continue to show you their cached version of the page from your previous visit if it has not been longer than 4 hours.

Some of the editors had access problems when we updated the servers and were assigned new IP addresses.

Clear your cache file, cookies, and History file for today. Then log out of your system and reboot.

Once rebooted all old ISP cache files should be purged from the system.

Then attempt access again in approximately 2 hours in order to allow yourself enough time for your ISP to show you the correct page.

There shouldn't continue to be access problems after that as long as you enter the add url page via the www version of the site and enter the correct turning code.

[WebSavvy]

OK. LOL! :)

Well, at least you were able to submit now.

Sometimes the type of firewall you have on the computer will play games with forms that use Authenticate also.

I know my AOL browser has times when it won't obey at all and then I load up FF -- which ALWAYS works. ;)

[kneelsit]

Just submitted via wife's computer!!!

Yeah, sorry CBP I would suggest using your wife's computer each time you want to submit or edit - Deb has special cookies set up to favour the ladies over the gents. so there !! :D :D

[kneelsit]

Congratulations Deb on all the great work.
:smart:
Now that I am back from China I will get back to the practice room and put in some time.

[WebSavvy]

LOL. OK, Greg. :)

How was China? Did the business there go as well as expected?