"Meh."  That was my reaction to Live Mesh, and that's probably just because I've been using Groove for the past 5 years and have enjoyed the wonderful benefits of file synchronization over multiple PCs through seamless integration with Windows Explorer.  If you haven't used Groove for project collaboration, you need to spend a few minutes checking into this product.  As I watched the video (see image on the right for directions), I had to ask myself...

OK, while the pictures are copying, I have to tell you a little story.  One of the byproducts of our ice storm was a plate full of candles that we let burn too long that had melted and spilled over the edge of the plate and down the mantle of our fireplace.  

Fast forward to last Sunday evening.  I see the plate of wax full of half burned candles and large pieces of wax that actually broke away from the stone and brick and I realize...

They say that time files when you're having fun, so I must have had a blast during February.  Somebody please let me know. 

Actually, it has been fun.  I've spent the better part of the month creating the foundation for some exciting features with metaPost (A module IT Crossing has created for use with DotNetNuke, an open source enterprise class CMS I've used with clients now for a couple of years.).  Yes, I laid down all of my books on leadership and hunkered down in my little cave (it's actually a nice office with a great view!) to work on increasing the fun and the ease of use one more notch for metaPost.

Here's a sample of my favorite new feature which synthesizes a small JavaScript library with metaPost to automatically add stunning visual effects to your images.  I just dragged and dropped these images from my digital camera into the page.  Well, OK, I did set the alt attribute to a nice short description of the image.  Go ahead!  Try it out!  Click on the first image and use your arrow keys to move around.  Then try to open more than one at a time!  Very fun, and this is all handled automatically by metaPost Professional Edition. 

Well, it's late here in the US, so I'll have to sign off for now.  For those of you who have used metaPost, notice that there is no footer in this post!  I can customize my footer with metaPost Professional Edition!  Don't worry, it will be released soon.

As Search Engine Optimization (SEO) becomes more and more important, web professionals are looking at ways to increase their Google juice, the much sought after increase in page rank that is achieved through a variety of means most of which are very simple to implement.  One such optimization, which many web developers have overlooked, is the importance of the format of the URL.

And one of the standards which strives to make excellent use of the conceptual meaning behind the URL is referred to as Representation State Transfer, or REST for short.  Basically with REST, which has morphed in meaning over the years, has grown to mean among web professionals the attempt to address resources on the web and deal with them as nouns rather than verbs.  Verbs are actions that can be performed on the nouns, and the two should be distinct.  It turns out that the World Wide Web provides a great foundation for this if only people would write their URLs in a RESTful format.  Most of what we do on the web makes use of the HTTP GET command, so many are not aware that there are actually other commands such as PUT, DELETE and POST.  Well, we use POST a lot too, come to think of it.  That's what we use behind the scenes when we fill out online forms or when we upload a picture.

So, what would a RESTful URL look like and what what a non-RESTful URL look like?  Great question.

Non-RESTful URL:

http://www.yourdomain.com/onlinestore/default.aspx?category=new_rel&get_mem_price=true&...

RESTful URL:

http://www.yourdomain.com/online-store/members/products/new-releases

The main idea behind REST is the focus on using URLs to identify resources, or nouns, basically things that we might want to see or perform some action on. 

Do you buy this?

No, not really.  In an ideal world, yes, but I'll still be using the QueryString in development, especially in situations where there is an integration between two parts of a system.  Yes, you could use cookies, but then your users can't just copy and paste URLs into an email that they send to their colleagues.  When I've worked with online stores for customers, this is always a concern.

So, no, my URLs won't please the REST purists.

But, I do want my URLs to help my clients drink deep of some fine fresh squeezed Google juice, so I will be paying attention to ways I can make my URLs more attractive to search engines and it turns out the RESTful URLs tend to lend themselves well to SEO.  So much so, that I would recommend adding this to the list of considerations when looking into a Content Management System (CMS) for your organization.  If your proposed CMS has stuff like this (WizardKey=f5da82f6-2140-4dea-8d9d-be112b16c3fd&WizardStep=93d4ee5a-70eb-4570-ae5d-fdbc6e3f43c2) in the QueryString, I would hazard a guess that this is not very meaningful information for search engines.

This was one of the things I liked about DotNetNuke (An ASP.NET-based, open source CMS) the first time I investigated it for use with a client about 3 years ago.  The DNN architects were early in realizing that QueryStrings were not helpful when trying to increase page rank.  However, one of the drawbacks to DotNetNuke (it's actaully a drawback to ASP.NET running on IIS 6 or lower and I've heard it's fixed in IIS 7) is that you can't have a URL without a file and a known file extension such as .aspx.  This means that the closest thing I can get to a RESTful URL is something like this:  http;//www.mydomain.com/products/chrome-bumpers.aspx.  That's closer, but still not quite to the completely RESTful form of http;//www.mydomain.com/products/chrome-bumpers. 

DotNetNuke Resources for SEO and Human Friend URLs

I stumbled upon this resource from Scott McCulluch last night.  I haven't used it yet, but it looks really helpful.

Also, here's a video I created showing an attempt I made to implement a RESTful URL in DNN using an ISAPI filter and some changes to the core.

OK, so I've started this conversation.  What do you think?  What technologies are you using to keep the Google juices flowing?

PS This is my first post to the blog using our new metaPost DotNetNuke module.  More on that to come.

I had a flash of inspiration this morning which forced me out of bed and to the computer where I routinely fire up my browser and head on over to netsol.com (Network Solutions) to perform a quick test.  I like their interface and figured that since they are the second largest domain registrar (After GoDaddy), my domain searches would be safe.  Just as I was about ready to hit enter to perform my search, I noticed a new section on the page.

Fascinated by the need for protective measures for my search through their interface, I decided to check this out.  It turns out that as of this past December (2007), Network Solutions implemented a new policy whereby each domain searched through their online domain lookup tool is purchased immediately.

Now, if you're still a Network Solutions customer this may not be a problem for you.  However, there are many who have found Network Solutions to be overpriced and have switched to other registrars who offer more value for almost one fourth of the price.  Those in this camp will be surprised to find that they are unable to purchase a domain with another registrar after performing a quick lookup using the intuitive NetSol domain lookup tool.  This process of front running will most likely create an even greater loss of business for Network Solutions, and it's dangerous, especially for anyone using their search, even if you're still a Network Solutions customer.

NetSol is touting this as a protective measure, but it's opened up a can of worms for the company.  As I did research this morning, I found that the fears I've had for years that my domain searches were available for others to see were closer to the mark than I realized.  Every time you perform a domain search, almost of any kind, your domain name is available for a variety of people to see.  In fact, your ISP and many of the domain registrars are selling this data to domain scalpers who are then able to abuse the 5 day domain tasting period by kiting the domain for indefinite periods of time.

Where do I stand on this?  Well, I won't be using NetSol to search for domains any more and I'm already 80% through with the proce