KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for August 16, 1997

Today's report might have some technical difficulties. Your Web Wanderer will be doing a "personal remote." Bob and Brian are in the studio, But I'm not at home as usual. Silicon Storage Technology, my "day job", is throwing a picnic party for us employees. So - I'll be at the picnic, with my trusty cell phone, fresh batteries, and prepared to tell you about these sites at the usual time:

Elvis Slept Here: "It was 20 years ago today....." Surfer Girl sent this one in. Elvis Slept Here is a series of pages (chapter?) put up by the Las Vegas Sun (newspaper) to chronicle the time Elvis spent in Las Vegas.; Why? It beats me. I'm not a rabid Elvis fan. Still - I found this site oddly compelling. The graphical design of the site is very well done, in a "nostalgic/fan/regressive" way. You gotta see it.; Worth a look for the experience. Send a friend, or your favorite web wanderer, a postcard. Check it out.
Fifties Web: Surfer Girl sent this one in as well - it's in a similar vein to the Elvis page. This site is geared for baby boomers, and proudly states, in a large font, "The Fifties Website is Boomer enhanced and therefore guaranteed to have NO SMALL PRINT." Cute.; The site includes an Elvis Memorial (of course), midi music, a tribute to American Bandstand, TV, you name it. Now, I don't remember much of the 50's, but elements of the culture are still alive today. It's a must visit site for Boomers.; This site is a "must visit" site for web page designers. No, you won't want to grab the colors and backgrounds. You wouldn't want them anywhere on your site. But you SHOULD study the site carefully - it's a brilliant design. All elements - midi, background, graphics blend with a common focus. Navigation is simple. The site does exactly what it intends to do. This is important stuff - often overlooked in these days of animated gifs and scrolling text bars.; Check it out. Thanks, Surfer Girl - for another great find.
MetaSpy: I was ahead of my time back on October 19,1996 when I featured "The Web Voyeur." Now, everybody and his uncle is doing push technology. If you haven't seen push technology yet, it basically lets you be a couch potato while surfing. Web Potato? Net Potato?; In any case, MetaSpy uses the automatic refresh feature of your browser to update your page automatically. What you get is - a list of what other Metacrawler search engine users are searching for.; Now, the link I show is the "filtered" page, so I don't see the list of female body parts which often appears on a site like this. Is you want the "full listing," there's a link for that. The unfiltered will give you a better idea of what people are using the net for, and it's not always pretty.; By the way - if a search looks interesting to you, click on it, and you'll get the full search results.; I'm still not sure about push technology. I do like to leave this page running while I'm doing other things. It's good for an occasional laugh.
Bobby: This is a Taxi Mike find. Bobby will check web pages for accessibility by people with disabilities. This site is provided by the Center for Applied Special Technology, a non-profit group whose mission is to expand opportunities for individuals with disabilities through innovative computer technology.; This site will also check for compatibility with older browsers. Want to see how accessible a page is for an AOL browser (either Windows or Mac)? Lynx? This site does it. Advanced options lets you browse pages on your disk, provides text only output, and allows you to test pages against multiple browsers.; This is a "must visit often" site for webmasters. See how accessible your pages are. Evaluate other pages to see how yours stacks up. Use it to debug when you get reports from people having trouble with your pages.; I had to see how my main page does. I'd given little attention to accessibility concerns. Simple things like "alt" tags would improve things a lot. I have a way to go. This site will be a help in getting it squared away.; Very, very nice. Thanks, Taxi Mike, for a great find!