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Whenever somebody has something technical to explain, or some stats to communicate, it seems that the trend nowadays is share a digitally produced and very cool infographic.  People seem to instinctively demand a visual aspect to the constant data to which they are exposed. It’s efficient and makes the world of hard data a more beautiful place. So let’s take a look at the best infographic websites on the net.

Designtaxis ‘ Most Popular Infographics of 2011’

Just released is this list of 2011’s top 10 infographics from Designtaxi.com. Of course  Read XML  is most interested in ‘Google’s Most Expensive Keywords in 2011’, but also popular in 2011 were ‘Anatomy of an Ad Agency’ and ‘Did You Know: Computer Keyboards Five Times Dirtier than Toilet Seats?’ Hmm. You might wonder about the ratio of useful ‘info’ vs. fun graphics in some of these, but apparently this is what the people want.

Visual.ly

User-generated infographics website, Visual.ly  boasts a virtual buffet of visualised data. Although the infographics vary in their quality and complexity, it’s worth the dig to find infographics that inspire you. Did you ever want to see a map of submarine cables across the world? Or an infographic that explains sales figures for a bestselling series of novels? We like that sort of thing.

Strange Maps (from Bigthink.com)

Map infographic enthusiast Frank Jacobs collects unusual maps. Not restricted to creatively realised maps of actual places, you can also find true fantasy maps. The website contains a huge archive trailing back to 2006.

Informationisbeautiful.net

David McCandless is the author of coffee table book ‘Information is Beautiful’. Describing himself as a “data journalist” and “information designer”, McCandless has made a career for himself as a creator and educator in the realm of infographics. On the site you can view many of his own visualisations, including ‘2012: The End of the World?’ (lo and behold, experts on the Mayans don’t think the world will actually end –  but it’s a fun,  interesting visualisation).

Infographics tend to keep geeks and non-geeks alike happy.  Like most good trends, infographics are a democratic tool. What will people be creating infographics about in 2012?

Guinness World Records confirmed in March 2011 that the Microsoft Kinect was ‘fastest-selling consumer electronic device‘ to date. Selling more than 10 million Kinect sensor in a 60 day period since its launch in 4th November 2010.

The sales figures outstrip those of Apple’s iPhone and iPad during a 60 day period since launch. Guinness World Records said that Microsoft sold eight million devices between 4th November 2010 and 3rd January 2011 at an average rate of 133,333 a day. The Kinect is an infrared camera add-on for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 games console, although diffrent to iPhones and iPads, such figures puts it in a league occupied by a small range of other successful electronic devices including Apples iPhone, iPad and the BlackBerry smart phone

The original iPhone was released in June 2007 and the latest iPhone 4 was released in June 2010, reports suggest that Apple has sold over 89 million units of these smart phones to date. (89,974,000 to be exact) according to Wikipedia. Apple sold one million iPhones in 74 days.

The first version of the iPad was released on April 2010 and took 28 days to sell one million devices and sold over 3 million devices in 80 days, leading to 15 million iPads being sold up to January 2011. With the iPad 2 just released Apple have released this version to 10,000 retail outlets compared to 221 Apple Stores and 1,100 Best Buy Stores for the original iPad launch (in the US). The iPad 2 sold out in major U.S. cities within hours, with sales figures of around 500,000 within the first three days, the iPad 2 looks set to be another fast selling consumer electronic device. Since launching the BlackBerry phone in 2002 (the pager system had been released in 1999), BlackBerry have reportedly sold approximately 100 million handsets between 2002 and June 2010.

Japan’s economy has been overtaken by China over the year of 2010, reports suggest.
At the end of the year Japan’s economy was rates as US$5.474 trillion according to Tokyo, where China’s grew to a massive US$5.8 trillion over the same period.
So why the shift? Many economists point to a drop in exports from Japan over the year and a decreased consumer demand, something not affecting the ever-growing Chinese economy. Consumer spending dropped by 0.7% in the last three months of the year and though demand has been picking up over 2011 already, there is not expected to be a sudden recovery. The population of Japan is old, and ageing, and generally spends less than rprevious genereations. Their workforce is also proving to be relatively expensive and inflexible.

China, in contrast, is booming thanks to a manufacturing rise that has lasted years, expanding domestic industries and infrastructure too. An emphasis on that infrastructure has been a solid foundation for growth, and one which many companies have built upon as a result.

Most experts agree though, that these statistics are still slightly deceptive. Japan still far outranks China in the GDP/per head of population, in 24th place overall compared to China’s 93rd (the UK sits pretty in 20th position), and most Chinese still live in the countryside and are generally poorer on average than the Japanese.

It is interesting to think that out of the numerous ways in which business owners can advertise their products and services, many of them neglect to place their company’s URL in the very advertising they are already paying for.
Sometimes simply placing their website URL in their paid advertising is not that obvious. Here are 10 not-always-so-obvious ways to promote your Web site.
1. Include your URL on business cards , stationery, brochures and other literature. As silly as it may seem, this no-brainer is often overlooked. You’d be amazed how many business owners either forget to place their URL on their business cards or don’t think doing so is all that important. Be sure when printing your company’s promotional and marketing materials, to leave off the http:// part and include only the www.domain.com portion.
2. Don’t neglect e-mail and e-mail newsletters as a way to bring visitors to your Web site. Utilize the signature file option (company name, address, phone number, URL, e-mail address) in your e-mail program. Many business owners sign their e-mails with just their first name, nothing more. Moreover, many business owners still send and receive business-related e-mails using a free e-mail account or their ISP’s email, like Hotmail, Yahoo, or Ameritech, rather than using their corporate e-mail account – another free Web site promotion tool. While it’s a big commitment in time, publishing a weekly, monthly, or quarterly newsletter is one of the very best ways to keep in touch with your prospects, generate trust, develop brand awareness, and build future business. Don’t forget to place your URL in each newsletter you send out.

3. Take a moment to use your traditional means of advertising to add your URL. Be sure to include your URL in any display or classified ads you purchase in trade journals, newspapers, magazines and more. View your Web site as an information adjunct to the ad – to capture the readers’ attention with the ad, and then refer them to a URL where they can obtain more information and perhaps place an order. Look carefully at small display or classified ads in the back of magazines or trade periodicals. Sometimes these ads are more targeted, more effective, and less expensive than online advertising. Consider other traditional media to drive people to your site, such as direct mail, classifieds, post cards, etc.
4. Become an online expert in your field . Use your expertise to become an expert in your field and promote your Web site for free. Sign up for Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/) or Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/) and answer questions asked by online visitors. You will have the opportunity to write your company’s URL in your profile. This is a great way to gain additional Internet exposure as well.
5. Issue press releases . When your business has a newsworthy event, send press releases to print and online periodicals. Use these opportunities to mention your company’s URL near the bottom of each news release. There are many online PR Websites, including PRWeb.com, PRWire.com and others you may use to promote something exciting happening within your company.
6. Promote your site in mailing lists and news groups . The Internet offers hundreds of targeted e-mail based discussion lists, chat rooms and news groups made up of people with very specialized interests. Spend at least one hour each week searching for groups where a conversation is taking place. Do not use aggressive marketing and overly plug your company, even if you see some people doing so. Instead, add to the discussion in a helpful way and let the signature at the end of your e-mail or post message do the marketing for you. People will gradually get to know and trust you, visit your Web site, and do business with you.
7. Ask visitors to bookmark your site . It seems so simple, but make sure you ask visitors to bookmark your Web site. Use a text link or graphic on the homepage of your Web site.
8. Place URL in any yellow book advertising you already do . I once knew of a company who was spending $90,000 in yellow page advertising, across numerous books in the area, and included front yellow book cover ads as well as full-page, full-color ads throughout the yellow pages. Not once did they mention their Web site, which has been on the Net for many years. The company surprisingly saw no value to it.
Whether placing full-page ads in your local yellow pages, or only paying for a bold listing in the white and business yellow pages of your local directory, consider leaving open one line for your company’s Web site address. Because you are already paying for the directory advertising, this is one particular place you definitely do not want to overlook.

9. Write articles for use in newsletters and other Web sites . You can dramatically increase your Internet visibility when you write expert articles about your field and distribute them as free content for other article directories, e-mail newsletters and other related Web sites. At the bottom of each article written, request a link back to your Web site and a one-line description of what you offer. This is an effective viral marketing approach. 10. Devise other viral marketing techniques . Viral marketing uses the communication networks of your site visitors and current customers to spread the word about your Web site exponentially. Some examples include word-of-mouth, public relations, referrals, blogs, creating “buzz”, and other forms of network marketing.

If you find Verdana just too commonplace, Tahoma is good alternative and well worth considering. It’s now standard on most computers and is a better Helvetica option than Arial.

When I worked on a google map for a client, I realized that the free API doesn’t work with postcode or address like their website : maps.google.co.uk

The free Google service is pretty comprehensive, but the service doesn’t offer geocoding (e.g. postcode -> coordinates) at the moment which it is going to be a problem if the user is entering post code or addresses rather than geo coordinates

Therefore it might be worth considering company like: postcodeanywhere.co.uk http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/developers/tutorials/googlemaps.aspx and purchasing a license to get the coordinates from postcode or address to then use in the google scripts.

They aren’t cheap please feel free to check their prices on : http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/products/prices.aspx#prices
Also you might be able to find other companies that can do it for free or for less !!!!

It may not be particularly new, but when you need a clear san-serif typeface, Verdana is a modern class. Designed for on screen legibility,it’s clear, stylish and everyone has it, so you can use it without fear.

Apparently, either the current Google PageRank update or someone at Google doesn’t like Digg because the nexus for social media currently has a PageRank score of zero.

That’s right, when you navigate to Digg.com, Google’s green bar turns white (this goes for both the www. version and the non-www. version). I’ve got a screenshot if you are interested in case this gets corrected anytime soon. Although, when you consider How PageRank Works, then perhaps this wasn’t an accident at all.

Hat-tip to DazzlinDonna for pointing this out at her SEO Scoop blog.

This sample illustrates how to write XML to a file using the XmlTextWriter class. The writer provides a fast, forward-only way of generating XML and helps you to build XML documents that conform to the W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 and the Namespaces in XML specifications. The XmlTextWriter writes to a stream rather than using an object model such as the XML DOM, and so gives better performance.
Typically, you use an XmlTextWriter if you need to write XML as raw data without the overhead of a DOM. The XmlTextWriter is an implementation of the XmlWriter class that provides the API which writes XML to file, stream, or a TextWriter. This class provides numerous validation and checking rules to ensure that the XML being written is well formed. When certain violations occur, exceptions are thrown and these exceptions should be caught. The XmlTextWriter has different constructors, each of which specifies a different type of the location to which to write the XML data. This sample uses the constructor that writes XML to a file. In particular, the following sample code constructs an XmlTextWriter with a string representing the file location for the newbooks.xml file.

Dim myXmlTextWriter As XmlTextWriter =

new XmlTextWriter (“newbooks.xml”, nothing)