Archive for 2010

Suggestions for Contribute Next…

Adobe, the company that makes Contribute, is asking for suggestions for the next version of Contribute. Is there any particular nagging issue that you would want us to focus on future release? We would love to hear from first hand Contribute users. We are looking at suggestion on bugs to be fixed, workflow enhancements, feature request, […]

9 Easy Tips for Effective Gustavus Websites

For most people, putting together a website is a pretty big project; putting together an effective website can be a Herculean effort. We hope you consider these easy tips to make sure all of your effort is focused where it counts.

Calendar Events in Google Search Results

Google search for "gustavus football" Google has recently started showing our calendar events next to many search results at Gustavus. Want to know what’s happening at Gustavus? Search for gustavus. Wondering when the next big game is? Search for gustavus football. Curious about what the SAO has been up to? Search for gustavus student activities. […]

New Colors

The Gustavus homepage's new colors The Gustavus website just got a new paint job. Gold and blue were chosen to better highlight our school colors (black and gold) and emphasize our Swedish heritage. With our sesquicentennial approaching, it seemed like perfect timing. This update also brings a small but nice additional feature for those of […]

Blog Post Thumbnails in Search Results

Good news for Gustavus bloggers, we have taken another step toward making our search engine work a little bit better--blog post thumbnails will now appear next to search results just like profile photos.

Profile Photos in Search Results

Wading through search results can be tough when everything looks the same. It takes time to read through the results to find what you are looking for. Zeroing in on search results about a person at Gustavus just got a bit easier--we've added profile photos to our search results.

Lazy AuxBox Makes Pages Load 22% Faster, Generate 75% Quicker

Many pages on the Gustavus website feature a section of auxiliary content that we like to call the AuxBox--the blue part at the bottom of the page that typically has events, news, and profiles. While we really like having this content on our pages, we noticed it took a fair amount longer for our server to generate pages which use the AuxBox.

Tweet and Like Blog Posts and Calendar Items

Sharing your favorite Gustavus website content with your friends just got a lot easier. Today we added Twitter tweet buttons and Facebook like buttons to blog posts and calendar items.

Your Account Page

There are a lot of important things you need to remember; the location of the secret web page to change your password or configure spam filtering settings shouldn't be one of them. Thankfully, we just made it a lot easier to find and use these things.

Our New Mobile Website

Nobody had even heard of a smartphone when we first got the Internet at my house. Many websites were still designed with a web safe color palette of 216 colors and tiled backgrounds were the cool, new kid on the block. A MIDI and a scrolling marquee gave you street--or at least Internet--cred. In those days, the web was wild.