The History of Web Browsers

A Web Browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the web.

Today’s web browsers are faster and more feature-rich than ever before. If you’re not sure which one you should use, then it’s not a easy task to pick one as i have seen many people saying don’t use Internet Explorer (IE), use Firefox, it’s much better. On the other hand some people say, don’t use Firefox, use Opera, it’s the fastest browser on earth. And there are few which say, use Safari, typical product from Apple, it’s the best. Some say go with Google brand and use Google Chrome.

The main keys for any web browser are browsing mode, speed, and customization. Here, In this article we trying to shade some lights on the history of some popular web browsers so you get to know that how they came so far.

The HTML5 and CSS3

Due to new features like “audio” and “video”, the new HTML 5 and CSS 3 seem to be the core of a new revolution in the www industry. The latest news about them can be found easily on HTML 5 and CSS 3; we all are fully prepared and impatient to operate with these magical languages, but one problem is often neglected: are browsers also prepared to render these features? A very good and quick solution to test the readiness of your browser regarding the HTML5 implementation is html5readiness. Some of the browsers present headways regarding a certain progress some of them enclose, while others aren’t interested by the new developed technology. Specialists of the www world forecast that this year will be the year of HTML5 & CSS3; therefore do not worry about the fact that your preferred vendor browser perhaps does not show interest in this implementation, surely it is a market decision and they work and hide the details. The most important players of the Internet are working to render well all features (drag and drops, canvas, border radius, 3D transforms and so on).

YouTube

YouTube is working on a new video player that is supported by HTML5; it won’t need any plug-ins as Flash Player. Unfortunately, it can only be used with very few browsers yet there are great plans for the future.

Microsoft

“The future of the web is HTML5. Microsoft is deeply engaged in the HTML5 process with the W3C. HTML5 will be very important in advancing rich, interactive web applications and site design” said Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of Internet Explorer at Microsoft. I believe that this opinion is enough to understand that the future is linked to HTML 5 & CSS3.

Before being so happy with the new versions, we should implement these modifications in design and coding and finally…the browser should render the website according to new standards.

First of all what is the definition of a browser? According to Wikipedia a browser “is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web”. Therefore the browsers are the main tool in surfing on the Internet. We should always pay attention to them regarding any new implementation of standards.

When we are very curious about the future a good choice is to look back to the past, so before trying to see the new browsers and the way they will be rendered the new websites let’s analyze the history.

The History of Popular Browsers

Since Internet has been born recently specialists developed a lot of browsers. Some bear up to the new challenges and others disappear.

The first browser was called WorldWideWeb (rename later Nexus to avoid any confusion with the www system) and was developed by Tim Berners Lee (maybe he didn’t invent the Internet, but his work was primordial in its creation and expansion). Did you know that the first version of WorldWideWeb was released on 25 December 1990? I do not know, maybe this coincidence wants to show all of us that the Internet is a good thing and only sometimes bad people use it in wrong directions. It was used especially at CERN (European Particle Physics Laboratory) and it was a big step in speeding up the exchange of information between scientists. The same Berners Lee in collaboration with Jean-Francois Groff released libwww; the main innovation was that the browser was created in C language, which was a more common one than NeXT, the language of Nexus. In the 1992 other browsers evolved: ViolaWWW, Erwise, Line-mode and Midas.

Probably Mosaic was the first browser which had a worldwide development and this led to an exponential use of the Internet. Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina from National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) are the creators of this browser which was able to run primarily on Unix computers. Few months after a version for Macintosh was released and Mosaic became the first browser with cross-platform support. It is a natural question: what features had Mosaic?

It was the first browser which displayed inline pictures and not on a separate window, it presented support for sound, bookmarks and history files; with these main features it became the most popular browser.

Marc Andreessen started his own company leaving NCSA and called it Netscape. In 1994 he presents Netscape Navigator which was the most popular browser of mid 1990s. I believe that the main advantage of Netscape is the fact that it shows texts and images during the time of downloading; until Netscape was born, a user had to wait to complete downloading all the elements of a page (more precisely sometimes you had to wait some minutes and watching a white background and after full downloading the page and its content you can see it). At its climax it accounted for 90% of all the web use.

As a reaction to the domination of Netscape and seen as a new financial treasure Microsoft released Internet Explorer 1 in August 1995.Since then IE became a vital actor in the market of browsers. The next step in its evolution is November of the same year when IE 2 was presented to the users.

One year later Internet Explorer 3 was released and it was remarkable because it supports CSS (Cascading Style Sheet), also it was able to play MIDI sounds and display jpg/gif images. Another great advantage of IE in the competition with other browsers and especially with Netscape being the leading in this domain was that it was free for all Windows users.

Internet Explorer 4 was one of the greatest products of Microsoft: it was created by learning from the previous mistakes improving all negative aspects. The coming out of IE gives birth to a historical controversial: was it right to distribute Microsoft Windows with IE included?

The next edition was included with Windows 98 and the main attention was focused on the improvement behind the scenes so the design and new features weren’t changed (here we could mention the bi-directional text support, a feature very important for the universality of browsers).

The IE 6 edition confirms the supremacy of the browser but at the same time puts down the Netscape. Even if Microsoft had problems with the law in the antitrust case, the year 2002 was the one in which they crushed the market (it attain 96% of the web browsers usage share). Due to the lack of competitors between IE6 and the next version a five year length period passed by. It is a part of Windows XP and as main a novelty is the improving of security and privacy, but it has at the same time advancements at enhancing the Images Toolbar, Auto Image Resize and Print Preview.

The market of web browsers was growing and Microsoft wanted to maintain its supremacy therefore the IE7 had to be a quality browser and that really happened. The most important tidings are tabbed document interface (allow you to have multiple documents in one window), page zooming, feed burner. The latest version of Internet Explorer is IE8, was released on 19 March 2009 and it runs for Windows XP, Vista, 7, Windows Server 2003 and 2008. The good news comes with the better implementations of CSS, RSS and Ajax, but despite that IE9 is very expected to let the users know how Microsoft prepares the future with HTML5 and CSS3.

Mozilla

This project was born in 1998 and its roots are in the release as an open source of Netscape. At the same time with this release the Mozilla project became a global provocation and a lot of programmers contributed to it. In 5 June 2002 Mozilla 1 was released and it was the results of a world-wide contribution. This version presents interesting features, but the users of Internet probably didn’t realize the real capabilities of it. In 2002 Internet Explorer was “the One”; over 90% of the users were browsing with Internet Explorer so Mozilla 1.0 was almost insignificant. Until 2004 Mozilla suffered a lot of transformations, but what is more important was that all people contributed to the improvement of this browser. As a result of this universal contribution in 2004 Firefox 1.0 appeared which had a huge success. The most important thing is that the monopoly of Internet Explorer was put in doubt, the war between browsers became evident…it really was a war that helped mankind, hope to have many of these! Another good point in this evolution of Mozilla is that the online community saw that an open source project can be a success. Firefox 2.0 became available after 2 years of changes and upgrading. The new features of the browser were e.g. that you have a close button on every tab, after an unexpected crush the session is restored, inline spell checking for text boxes, anti –phishing protection, search suggestion for Google and Yahoo. Also this version includes JavaScript 1.7, better feed support, and new search plug-in and ads-on manager. Firefox 2.0 became official a competitor for Internet Explorer and the war expanded.

The developers made room for Firefox 3.0 on the browsers market on June 17, 2008 with a lot of good modifications, new implementations and improvements of standard compliance. As new and important changes I could mention the redesign of download manager and the possibility to resume downloads but very attractive was the fact that this version used different themes for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows XP or Vista. Maybe due to these characteristics of Firefox 3.0, June 17, 2008 was called the “Download Day”; in this day a new record was established Firefox 3.0 being the most downloaded software. According to World Guinness Book on the 17th June 2008 were counted 8,249,092 unique and complete downloads (Firefox 2.0 counted “only” 8,002,530). As it is normal we all expected the Firefox 3.1, but the guys behind it release Mozilla Firefox 3.5 in June 2009. They called this version 3.5 because it presents features and improvement that make it a super browser comparing to the previous one (Firefox 3.0). It was credited as being faster than any previous versions, including private browsing, support for  and  tags of HTML. The supremacy of the most used browsers was a fight between it and Internet Explorer 7.Who is the winner? You, the user!

Firefox 6 was released this year in January and contains few improvements (due to the fact that the previous version was a treasure); it is very clear that the guys behind it prepare a version that includes as many solutions as possible to be more compatible with HTML5 and CSS3.

Opera

Definitely Opera is a browser that has and will have a great number of users and they can’t be neglected in the market of browsers. This browser presents different features than Internet Explorer and Mozilla because of the fact that the latest two browsers are inspired by the same code, NCSA Mosaic, and Opera has its own code.

The history of Opera starts in 1994 when a group of researchers developed the concept at a telecommunication company called Telenor, somewhere in Norway. After two years two researchers left the company and founded Opera Software.
Opera 1.0 was released between the 10th and 14th April 1995 and wasn’t such a big success. Also Opera 2.0 which was released after a year also had a very insignificant number of users.

Opera 2 series presents two version 2.1 and 2.12 both presenting interesting features like the possibility of using zoom, multiple graphics formats support (.jpg, .gif, bmp), and support for HTML 3.0. The next series, Opera 3.0, with many versions included seemed to implement better the CSS1 and in a more poorly manner Java Script.

The next version, Opera4, became more stable and had the advantage to be able to run on various Operating Systems. Opera5.12 which was released on June 2001 was a very good browser that is world-wide known; in fact Opera became a global actor in this market. Mozilla and Internet Explorer encountered in Opera 6 a small competitor, but the next version of it really was a major step further. The seventh version comes with many improvements as: a new rendering engine which was called “Presto”, support for W3C DOM, more options for dynamic pages, Small Screen Rendering for mobile devices, Drag and Drops of tabs, fast forward. The major advantage of the next version was the removing of any ad banner and the browser became free for any kind of users. Opera 9 brings additional improvements and implements some CSS3 capabilities; therefore the new generation of browsers came to us.

The latest version of this browser is Opera 10.6 released on 31st May 2010 and the most important new features from the 9 series are: Opera Turbo, auto update, new skin elements, inline spell check, Opera Widgets for desktop, private browsing, improving zoom facility, inline page search, Search box, password manager and it is the fastest browser ever created. Another good point of this version consists in the realization of many HTML5 & CSS3 features.

Safari

Definitely what impresses me the most is the result which this browser scored at the Acid 3 test: 100 points from…100 points. According to this test Safari renders perfectly web pages being built at the aim of JavaScript, CSS, XML, SVG. Really impressive, isn’t it? It is good to know that Internet Explorer got 68 points and Mozilla 94.

Safari 1.0 was released by Apple on the 7th January, 2003 and initially worked only on Macintosh, hardly in the mid of 2007 appeared a version for Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Safari 2.0 was the first browser which passes the test Acid2, but it still has some bugs to cover, unfortunately some bugs have a prolongation in the next version or new problems arise.

Safari 4.0 is a very good browser and together with its release the market of browsers knows five big participants: Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Google Chrome and, of course Safari. Safari 4.0 brings a lot of improvements and cool applications like:

• Cover Flow-it allows you to see the websites visited as you see the album covers in iTunes;
• Windows Native Look and Feel- Safari has the same look and performance both on Mac and Windows;
• Nitro Engine- according to Apple it is the speediest browser;
• Resizing of text that is too small or too large;
• spell checking;
• password management;
• passed the Acid 3 test.

Safari 5.0 has just been released but it promises a lot of new improvements and some application that make it outstanding. One of the most intriguing features is the ability of stopping the flash banners that truly irritates the users during reading of articles. Apple noticed that the web probably will know a new revolution due to the new standards of HTML 5 and CSS3 and tried to implement as many as possible these novelties. Regarding the speed from a year or two ago every company producing browsers claims the right of having the fastest one….anyway the users choose.

Google Chrome

Initially Google denies their interest for creating a new browser but on the 2nd September, 2008 Google Chrome was launched in 43 languages and it became a huge success gaining continuously more users. It has a very short history maybe it is proper to say that it has a very nice beginning. Until I finish writing this article Google Chrome has 5 versions, each being a real improvement of the previous one.

Google Chrome 2 comes with stability and speed, the next version launched on the 15th September 2009 improved speed with almost 25% but, what I consider a very good move of Google is the start of implementing HTML5. Probably you can guess that the 4th and 5th versions bring more speed and stability together with deeply implementations of the new standards of HTML5 and CSS3.

The guys behind this browser thought it should be a very safe and fast tool of navigation on the Internet; much more they quit many facilities and stressed the idea of being simple and reliable. It is not a hidden promo of this browser, but it’s worthy to see it in action, and this is not because it is a perfect or a better browser, but because it is different from any other. The managers of Google decided to let it being an open source probably to fasten the process of running on other OS than Windows.

Anyway it promises to have an important word in the future.

Conclusions

Like I said previously there a lot of browsers, I presented only the most important players. This article hasn’t as purpose to make a comparison of them, just only a very brief history; on Internet you can find a lot of test and comparisons.

Honestly the most important and in the fact the only test is the wish of the user…if I like my browser and use it then it means it is the best, is not it?

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY

hi people of india...........we heard soo much history...soo much passed infront of us but we didnt have that much courage 2 b a part of it............but we can b be do small small things 4 our motherland so plz take a chance and show what we can do.....b indepndent & b a indian..............."happy republic day"

The Mercenary’s Guide to Effective Writing

Writing is an art, and as with any art, one must properly train for it. I started writing a while back and was really happy with my work, until I noticed readers poking fun at my writing and criticizing every little thing that I did. My articles were not well structured and had no headings; the paragraphs were informative (or so I believed), but nobody cared to read them. This moved me to research all about good writing practices, tools and resources.

Here is the post based on that research. I have tried to touch on all points related to writing. And after many mistakes and much criticism, I am sure what I have produced here would benefit all budding writers and serve as a checklist for professionals.

Why Is Writing Important?

Our work as designers demands that we write about it, and write a lot. When you’re confident, you want to boast about your work, and boasting about your work in turn makes you more confident and leaves a good impression on clients. Blogging makes people aware of your skill and provides a window onto your inspiration. When readers comment on your work, you learn what your faults are and get better day by day.

To Reach Your Audience

By writing, you reach your audience and create a market for yourself. If you are a designer, then writing for a few design magazines could get you decent attention. Participating in community blogs and sharing useful tips might also earn you a following. Writing lets you connect to a broad readership and appeal to workers in your field, turning you into a valuable voice in the domain, especially if you write regularly.

To Serve a Broader Goal

Some people are motivated to write in order to increase sales, and some just to share ideas. Sales-oriented people could use blogs, social networks and community forums to advertise their services. Others might find those same channels useful more for propagating their ideas. Writing about your interests also connects you to people with similar interests.

Enhances Search Engine Ranking

Writing quality, detailed content on a wide range of issues in your field will not only attract readers, but also get your website higher up in online search rankings. If you offer a lot of content about a particular industry, you will naturally get noticed. SEO in particular calls for quality content and headings that are properly defined in the HTML. Write on various websites and then link back to your home page to draw readers.

Would You Be Fulfilled?

Many people think they would enjoy writing and could make a career out of it, but some of them burn themselves out in the process. Never pursue a job just for the money, because you wouldn’t be doing yourself justice and would in fact be hurting yourself.

Are You Sure You’ll Love Writing?

Be sure about it; it’s not as easy as it might seem. One has to do a lot of work to get in the rhythm of writing. Those who are passionate about it won’t be having any trouble, but you need to be serious about it. Of course, that goes for any job: you have be passionate about it and be dedicated to growing in the profession.

Are You Disciplined Enough?

You need to work for some time before you figure out the best practices, get a hold of the market and gradually become an expert. Discipline is important, and consistent writing can bring you volumes of work. When you stick to a particular job for a long time, you gain expertise and grow, but going off track is very easy.

Are You Doing What You Love?

In the industrial age, laborers had to do any job they could find, and before that slaves were forced to do their owner’s bidding. But today, no one can force you to do anything. You have a responsibility to learn what you like and then take up that; no other human soul can get a Shakespeare or Mozart out of you. Get yourself in a situation where you can see your future and then go for that job. You answer to yourself, so be sure of your job.

Benefits of Productive Writing

There are many benefits to being an effective writer. You need not have a degree in English, nor even a high school education; if you can write, you can spread your ideas around. Writing is a skill that opens job opportunities.

Make Money

There are many writing jobs, and many people to take them. Students might do it for pocket money; others might do it in their free time to supplement their income. Because social content is growing so fast and so many people are searching for so many different things on the Internet, many companies are fuelling their websites with social content to drive traffic.

Making a Career Out of It

There are many opening at various firms for content writers to write about a company’s products, handle promotions and distribute press releases. We can make a distinction between freelance and day jobs. Freelance writers have the perks of working from home, at flexible hours, and taking time off whenever they want. With day jobs, the salary is fixed, health insurance is covered, and there are not many ups and downs with the workload.

Anyone interested in writing can make a decent living from it these days. How much better does it get: laying back and making money while writing?

Time in the Spotlight

People fight tooth and nail for attention, now that the Internet has made everyone vocal and visible. There are so many social networks and so many industry-specific networks that one can make a name for themselves easily. Post an article about your favorite artist; if it generates discussion, you could land up with a top search result, with a few people putting your piece in places like Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.

You’ll be well known in no time, writing about the latest news, with a loyal following.

Self-Promotion

Writing can be used to promote any business, freelance venture or non-profit organization. Writing about one’s business on a blog is very common these days. Promoting yourself and your website in popular portals and forums can get you good traffic as well. Writing has become a kind of service, and anyone wanting to be heard can do so quite easily by writing a lot and in various places.

How to Get Inspired?

Inspiration is in the eye of the recipient. You can get inspired to write by roaming around a park or while watching your child play in the garden, anything. What inspires a writer is their outlook on things and their field of his interest. A designer might get inspired by a beautiful image and write an entire post on that.

Keep Your Creative Hat On

Wherever you are—at work, at home, taking a vacation—always keep your creative hat on. Great ideas come when you are at leisure and suddenly come upon a fresh idea. Never lose your creative perspective. Some popular designers get ideas while on vacation or in a coffee shop. The break in routine opens our minds to new ideas.

Look at Covers of Newspapers and Magazines

Leafing through a magazine or newspapers can give you whole new ideas. Just have a thirst for fresh ideas in everything you do and they will come. Inspiration needs no fixed agenda. My last post was inspired by the digital arts, and got that idea from a cover story.

Read Books

When you have writer’s block, go through your favorite books or blogs; you will find the inspiration you are looking for. When a person is immersed in familiar material, they feel comfortable and can think better. Open your closet and put your favorite stuff on the bookshelf, to be ready at any time.

Listen to Music

I listen to hard rock to calm myself; this increases my efficiency several fold. I focus on my work better, I am able to put all my energy into one thing, and I get ideas this way. Music has long been inspiration to many great people.

Bad Writing Habits to Avoid

Many writers (including me) make many mistakes while writing and don’t even know where they fall short. In this section, I’ll go over the most common errors made by writers. Look through them and tell me if I have missed any. Bad writing habits can be overcome early on only by practice and conscious effort.

Don’t write in an old style.

You don’t have to mimic a 400-year old style. To appeal to today’s audience, go through today’s authors and check out their writing and dramatic style. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a heck of a lot more than a children’s series.

Do not write long paragraphs.

Writing long paragraphs can kill the reader’s interest. People who read online look for fun tidbits and little shots of information. Make your paragraphs short, attractive and easy to read.

Don’t beat around the bush.

Beating around the bush is a total blunder, because nobody likes getting caught in a puzzle. You might think you’re getting the reader more absorbed, but it actually alienates them.

Don’t stick to stereotypes; be innovative.

You need not stick to one format or style. Stereotypes are everywhere today. The same format and design make life boring. Innovation has no boundaries.

Write the way you speak.

Listen to your inner voice. Write what you’re thinking. Employers often puts constraints that force the writer to lose their voice. Writer should know how to make their point while preserving the personality in their writing.

Keep titles short, and use simple language.

Writing long titles and using complex language might look good, but they do you no good if few people read it and even fewer understand it.

Don’t ignore readers, colleagues or social media.

Writers often ignore what their readers and peers have to say about their work. You don’t have to totally switch directions based on feedback you get from social media, but at least listen to it, or you might be run out of the business.

Put your ego aside.

A big ego is reflected in one’s writing. Readers want good writing, not a big ego. Some might argue that their ego helped them get to where they are. Perhaps, but it will bring them down even faster.

Avoid grammatical mistakes

Here are some of the most common (at least for me) grammatical mistakes. Nobody is perfect with these (unless they’ve got a degree in English).

· 
Your vs. You’re

Your is “the possessive case of the personal pronoun you.”

Usage > your book

You’re is a contraction of “you are.”

Usage > you’re not doing this right.

·  It’s vs. Its

Its is the “possessive form of the pronoun it”.

Usage > this book has lost its appeal.

It’s is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.”

Usage > It’s very important to use correct English.

·  There vs. Their

There as a noun means “a location other than here.” Also an adverb.

Usage > I love going there.

Their is “the possessive case of the personal pronoun they.”

Usage > their opinion is also important.

·  Affect vs. Effect

Affect is a verb that means “to exert an influence on.”

Usage > Communication skill immensely affects one’s income.

Effect is a noun that means “the result or consequence of something else”.

Usage > Communication skill has a great effect on income.

·  Loose vs. Lose

Loose is an adjective that means “become less tight.”

Usage > Your pants are too loose.

Lose is a verb that means “allow to go out of sight.”

Usage > don’t lose your wallet.

·  Who’s vs. whose

Whose is “the possessive case of who or which.”

Usage > Whose game is over?

Who’s is contraction of “who is.”

Usage > Who’s coming home with me?

Tips for Effective Writing

A pro might give thousands of tips for writing content for the Internet. I have kept the best and present them here. These are all borne of experience and numerous mistakes.

Keep your language straight and simple.

Be clear in your writing, and make sure your language can be understood by anyone. Replace difficult words with simple ones. Language should be appealing and easy.

Rules are made to be broken.

If your way is better than what the rules state, then by all means take it. After all, rules are meant to help you, not hold you down. Where would humanity be if we had followed all the rules?

Don’t fake it.

Some writers come up with convoluted ways to make their point. This practice won’t get you a following; rather, people will flee because nobody wants a puzzle that doesn’t pay off.

Jot it down before you lose the thought.

Always carry a notebook. Just as the guys at Reuters are always ready for news, inspiration can strike at any time, so be ready to write down the key points. As long as you’ve recorded the idea, you can work on it later.

Get your story straight.

Be clear about your story, frame it properly, brainstorm on sub-topics, and then proceed step by step. Don’t lose the theme along the way. Properly frame the content, moving readers steadily through your argument.

Get the facts.

Check all facts you have cited in your story. You don’t want people pointing a finger at you. Link to the sources of your comments; this will also give you credibility.

Minimize distractions.

Avoid writing in rooms where the TV is on and people are chatting. Quiet, comfortable working conditions are more professional and improve efficiency.

Keep paragraphs short

Simple writing is most appealing. Short paragraphs and plenty of headings grab readers.

Ask for feedback

I like to ask for feedback on all my content, asking the person what they liked or disliked. Be open to criticism, however nice or harsh. You will be better for it.

Resources for Improving Your Writing

Many resources are available online for improving your writing skills. Some require payment, and some are free. Here are the 20 best free resources I have found.

Recourses for Common Errors: grammar, punctuation, etc.

·         Ultimate Style: The Rules Of Writing – A to Z list of common grammatical questions.

·         Use English Punctuation Correctly – Guide for English punctuation.

·         HyperGrammar – Online grammar course at University of Ottawa.

·         Grammar Girl – Helpful trips on word choice and grammar rules.

·         Better Writing Skills – 26 short articles on ampersands, punctuation, character spacing, apostrophes, semicolons and commas, etc.

·         The Guide to Grammar and Writing – Help with writing at the word and sentence level, as well as the essay level.

·         Paradigm Online Writing Assistant – Common grammar mistakes, basic punctuation and concepts.

·         English Style Guide – Metaphors, punctuation, figures, hyphens, etc.

Blogs on Writing

·         Copyblogger – Teaches you the basics of writing. The regular posts are darn good.

·         Men with Pens – Useful tips for writers, freelancers and entrepreneurs.

·         Problogger – Darren Rowse has a great resource for copy-writing and generating income.

·         CopyWriting – Many resources on generating profit, including tools and articles.

Writing Tools

·         OneLook Dictionary Search – Nice collection of words, with definitions and translations.

·         WordWeb – English thesaurus and dictionary with a wide range. Works offline.

·         Definr – Suggests as you type; can be added to the Firefox search box.

·         Visuwords – Teaches word association using diagrams (similar to a neural network).

·         Merriam Webster: Visual Dictionary – Visual dictionary, showing image and definition together.

·         OneLook Reverse Dictionary – Defines a word and shows a list of related words and phrases.

·         Online Spell Checker – Online spell-checker in 28 languages.

·         Advanced Text Analyzer – Counts number of words, lexical density, words per sentence, characters per word, etc.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now know how important writing is. We use the skill every day. Whatever your profession, writing and communicating well will make you a better worker.

At the end of the day “content is king,” and without good content, people won’t revisit your website. When you offer quality content, supported by facts, people will link to your website. Presentation is also important, as is context.

Search engines are smart enough to figure out the most authoritative content on a particular topic. Web pages with quality information will make it up higher in search results, so concentrate on content above all.