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I'm not a professional photographer. Occasionally I will take a "Flukey" shot but most of the time the lighting is too dark or I jiggled the camera whilst clicking. For my sites, I need photos that are spot on and for that purpose, I resort to royalty-free photos. Royalty free photos are used with permission of the copyright owner therefore avoiding legal problems.

My favourite site is www.istockphoto.com but for those operating on a limited budget (ie looking for freebies), you can't go past stock.xchnge. You need to register which is free but the large collection of photos is first class.

Another place to look is flickr.com Look for photos published under the Creative Commons banner, read the fine print carefully and you can pick great pics for nothing.

Web Designers are also on the look for free fonts and icons. A great place for these to be found is Smashing Magazine. There is constantly changing content on this great site and always a help of freebies to be found.

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Anyone who has a connection to the internet must have surely checked this one out. Going live early in August, Google Street View has allowed Australian residents to look at their houses from the street. Wow, what an exciting technology..... NOT.

More like a waste of time.

Privacy advocates are going berserk over Street View - "You can see people's doors are open" - I seriousIy think that some people don't know that the picture is not live. It was taken months ago by a bunch of excitement-deprived sad cases who had nothing better to do than drive around in cars with fancy roof mounted cameras.

I love Google and I think the two guys behind it, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are geniuses for what they are doing with their company. However I would much rather see Google head in another direction.

I would love to see Google in direct competition with Microsoft. I have no doubts that Google could create a stable and functional operating system that is fully compatitle with current software (unlike Linux which needs WINE). Furthermore, if the system was offered for free with built-in search functions, I would not mind a bit.

Street View is a gimic of which we will quickly get bored - a Google operating system would a revolution in computing circles and Microsoft's monopoly would be finally broken.

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Anyone who has a connection to the internet must have surely checked this one out. Going live early in August, Google Street View has allowed Australian residents to look at their houses from the street. Wow, what an exciting technology..... NOT.

More like a waste of time.

Privacy advocates are going berserk over Street View - "You can see people's doors are open" - I seriousIy think that some people don't know that the picture is not live. It was taken months ago by a bunch of excitement-deprived sad cases who had nothing better to do than drive around in cars with fancy roof mounted cameras.

I love Google and I think the two guys behind it, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are geniuses for what they are doing with their company. However I would much rather see Google head in another direction.

I would love to see Google in direct competition with Microsoft. I have no doubts that Google could create a stable and functional operating system that is fully compatitle with current software (unlike Linux which needs WINE). Furthermore, if the system was offered for free with built-in search functions, I would not mind a bit.

Street View is a gimic of which we will quickly get bored - a Google operating system would a revolution in computing circles and Microsoft's monopoly would be finally broken.

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With the contact form on this website, I recieve a lot of emails saying "can you quote a website design for me?". This is fine and I always say yes. The next step is where it gets a little bit harder.

After recieving an email for a quote, I usually contact the potential client and offer a "mock-up" of a design as part of the quote. Most are happy to hear that however when I ask "What sort of site are you aiming for?", its like throwing a curveball.

Here's some items you may wish to consider before briefing a web designer:-

• What is the purpose of the site?
• Are the any sites that you like?
• Who are the competition (if any)?
• Who are the target audience?
• What feel do want the site to have?

I find that if clients have "scoped" out sites that they like, then I can instantly get an idea of what image they are trying to portray with their own site.

Be sure to tell your web designer exactly what you are thinking, after all - its your business and your site.
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With the internet inventing new catch-phrases every 15 seconds, its easy to allow this one to slip you by. But depending on who you talk to, Web 2.0 could be the next messiah. But do you really need it?

It depends on what you want to offer. Web 2.0 websites have all types of visitor interaction - forums, maps, user loaded content, interchangeable styles and all manner of other "snazzy" things.

Rusty Mango Design clients generally want informative websites that act as points of contact for their business or organisation. If they require a location map, I generally add Google Maps which allows visitors to zoom in/out on a location.

I can add other Web 2.0 additions to RMD sites however I am rarely asked to. Why? Because they aren't needed. Sometimes in a web design, less is more and I address this with my clients - if you don't required a forum/web cam/font changer on your site, why have one?

If your web designer wants to add Web 2.0 to your site, ask them to justify why it is necessary. If they answer with a logical explanation, go for it. Otherwise - leave it out.
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