ColinL

Using standard web technologies like Javascript to handle visual effects for websites - like animations, transitions and reflections - ensures site content is accessible to site visitors regardless of their choice of operating system, browser or device. Advances in standards-based web technologies such as Javascript, HTML5 and CSS3, means that web designers can start taking advantage of a work-everywhere website, without having to rely on Flash.

Changing web standards and the expanding reach of broadband Internet connections means web designers are no longer limited to a handful of "web-safe" fonts. Web fonts and CSS3 are combining to open the doors to new and radically different website designs.

The next version of HTML (HTML5) promises to radically change the way we add video content to websites. Though HTML5 standards are a long way from final sign-off, we can already start taking advantage of it to provide plug-in-free, universal video content.

In a tough economic environment, online retailing is one of the few areas of economic activity showing signs of resilience. Making the decision whether or not to build an online store is a lot simpler for businesses these days - the ever decreasing costs of online stores, which have fallen dramatically over the last 5 years, making them affordable even for the smallest of businesses.

In spite of what is sure to be a permanent and profound shift in consumer spending patterns, small businesses seem oblivious to the move to online shopping. In ignoring this ever-growing share of the retailing market, they risk being left to fight over a dwindling pool of revenue, and for their very survival, in an already difficult economic climate.