What is a thumbnail?
Thumbnails – little pictures, lots of power
  • Social media

Thumbnails can be found everywhere online. These small images help users to get a preview of web content such as photos or videos, and to select what might interest them. Thumbnails can be seen as teaser, formatted as compressed images. Website operators use the thumbnail images to attract attention and gain clicks. But what exactly are thumbnails? And when are they used?

Thumbnails – little pictures, lots of power
Relational Databases
The relational database model
  • Technical matters

With relational database systems, you use tables to store and manage information. This sounds simple but involves quite complex concepts such as normal forms, key relationships, and JOINs. This article will introduce the basics of the relational database model, compare its advantages and disadvantages, and delimit this type of data storage from alternative approaches, like object databases,...

The relational database model
HSTS: Reliably secure your HTTPS connections
HSTS: How the HTTPS expansion works
  • Web development

HTTPS, the network protocol for TLS-encrypted data transfer online can be circumvented in some cases. The danger is that encrypted websites can be accessed via unencrypted HTTP. But the HTTPS extension HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) forces website access via TLS encryption, closing the security gaps that hackers like to use to intercept the HTTPS connection during transport using...

HSTS: How the HTTPS expansion works
The most important HTTP status codes at a glance
HTTP status codes and their meaning
  • Technical matters

404, 302, 503 – short number combinations with great significance. Users encounter server status reports time and time again and if you know how to interpret them you can act accordingly. Knowledge of HTTP codes is even more relevant for website owners. With the right know-how you can vastly improve user experience on your homepage, which will have an effect on the search engine ranking.

HTTP status codes and their meaning
How HTTP/2 optimizes the World Wide Web
HTTP/2 – how the new version optimizes data transfer online
  • Technical matters

HTTP/2 has been released and is the official successor of the internet protocol HTTP/1.1. It is already compatible with many current web browsers and servers. Up to this point, many of the bigger website operators have switched to using the new transfer protocol. But what lies behind the Hyper Transfer Protocol and what are the advantages of the new version?

HTTP/2 – how the new version optimizes data transfer online
Chrome 56: changes to make the web safer
Google is planning to label unsafe websites in Chrome
  • Search engine marketing

For two years now, Google has been actively promoting SSL encryption for websites. The search engine giant started acknowledging data transfer protection as a ranking factor in 2014, but now wants to go one step further. Users of Google’s browser, Chrome, will soon be actively warned about websites with unsafe data exchanges. This articles explains what the planned changes are and which...

Google is planning to label unsafe websites in Chrome
Chrome Updates
What is Chrome 68?
  • Technical matters

Early next month, Chrome 68 will be launched and the new browser will distrust all webpages that do not have HTTPS encryption as “not secure”. This is a big step in the recent trend towards emphasizing user safety on the internet, a not entirely selfless strategy from Google. In this guide, we will explain what changes will be made, why they are happening, and how you can prepare your website...

What is Chrome 68?
Keyword Planner alternatives you should know
Keyword Planner: 5 alternatives to the Google tool
  • Search engine marketing

Google‘s Keyword Planner has already undergone numerous changes; new features have been added and existing features have been optimized. Since the end of 2016, the keyword-based tool has only had limited usability unless you have a larger AdWords campaign. Instead of obtaining exact values for the search volume of reviewed keywords, users of the free edition only get approximate range values that...

Keyword Planner: 5 alternatives to the Google tool
Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
AMQP: Introducing the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
  • Web development

Many IT departments need communication between various applications to work swiftly and without errors. For example, lost messages or a bottleneck of messages can lead to expensive problems in the financial industry. With the AMQP protocol, problems like these don't occur. How does the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol work?

AMQP: Introducing the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
Buyer personas for optimal targeting
Buyer personas: Getting to know your customers better
  • Web analytics

When it comes to online marketing, data is what counts most today. But what good is the information you have collected and analyzed if you address indefinite groups of people in your messages? It is better to identify the people behind the data set and focus on them. Creating concrete buyer personas helps to better align marketing measures with the target group.

Buyer personas: Getting to know your customers better