Welcome to to the February 2008 issue of ZooNews, from professional Web site design company Zoonini Web Services.

When is it too much? On a couple of occasions lately I found myself thinking "this is too much", and both situations related to an electronic mailing list I belonged to.

In the first scenario, a cooking magazine I subscribe to sent me its 3rd or 4th email promotion within the space of a week or so, advertising the same special offer. While I had opted in to get their promotional messages, and was happy to receive notices of discounts on their latest cookbook, I felt overwhelmed. After receiving so many in such a short space of time, I unsubscribed completely from the mailings.

So what's the lesson here? If you maintain an electronic mailing list, don't risk losing valuable subscribers who actually want to receive your email notices by abusing their consent and sending mailings out too often. When in doubt, as in so many things in life, moderation is the key!

The second case involved a singer-songwriter whose email list I belong to. The performer is up for a songwriting award for which the public is able to vote. Since I was excited and more than happy to vote for her, I immediately went to the link provided in her newsletter. But I was stopped cold. In order to vote, the songwriting contest required both my email address (all voters would automatically be put on the organization's mailing list, it stated) and my birthday. I was flabbergasted – that's way too much information just to vote in a music contest! I opted not to cast my ballot at all, but felt guilty about depriving the singer of a vote. Hopefully she still manages to win the competition.

What's the moral here? Don't put people off by asking for personal information that isn't strictly needed for your purposes. At the very least, make it optional, and explain why you're asking for it.

Ever noticed this big orange icon on a blog or news site? Heard the term RSS but never really knew what it meant?

RSS is an increasingly popular technology which allows news headlines, blog posts, or other changing Web content – called feeds – to be pulled together and read in one place. If you already have a Gmail or Yahoo page displaying your favourite weather, news, and entertainment stories, you're looking at RSS in action. There are also standalone Web-based RSS readers like Google Reader and Bloglines, along with desktop versions like the one built into the Thunderbird email program.

An acronym that stands for Really Simple Syndication, RSS is a feature of most blogs, as well as news sources from the CBC to The New York Times.

Got a technology term you'd like demystified in ZooNews? Send it to questions@zoonini.com.

Our new bilingual site for E.M.E. provides a wealth of clearly presented information on the Montreal-based company's range of crating, export packaging, loading and warehousing services. Featuring optimized copy by A.C. Riley Communications, the site makes it easy for potential customers to learn about E.M.E.'s services, make an inquiry using a Web form, or get directions via a custom link to Google Maps.

RIP Netscape. I recently caught wind of a low-key announcement that came over the holidays, signifying the end of an era. Considered the first commercial Web browser, Netscape Navigator will no longer be supported as of March 1. Wildly popular in the Web's early heyday in the mid-to-late 1990s, Netscape's decline began when Microsoft aggressively developed and promoted its own Web browser, bundling it with Windows software. This launched what became known as the "browser wars" and eventually made Internet Explorer ubiquitous among PC users, dramatically driving down the use of Netscape in the process.

À la prochaine,

kp
aka Kathryn Presner