It’s that time of the year.. we’re still in the thick of winter, but Spring isn’t far off.
Before the really beautiful weather gets here is the perfect time to review your website(s) and assess where improvements can be made. Just like getting underneath the hood of a car and making sure that your cars fluids are full and everything is screwed down tight, websites need maintenance from time to time to perform optimally.
Things worth reviewing on your website.
1. Make sure that all of your published Email addresses work. There is nothing worse than missing an important contact because your Email address was invalid or wasn’t able to be delivered.
2. Check to make sure that links on your website haven’t went bad. Many domains on the internet don’t stay the same forever. Sometimes domains expire or lead to a “park.” Removing these dead types of links from your website will provide a better user experience for your reader.
3. Try a new design or layout. It’s almost like being able to change the furniture in your living room. It’s the same great website or blog with a different look and feel. This is especially easy because many layouts for blogs are available for free.
4. Patch your hardware/software. Make sure that you stay on top of patches for your hardware and software – this will help prevent corruptions within your database or computer. Be sure that you have a backup of your “last known good config” just in case.
5. Double check that your site is cross browser compatible. Just because your website looks wonderful in one browser doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to translate to another. Firefox and Internet Explorer are two of the more popular browsers used today.
If you still have energy after doing all of this, you can use it to clean out your office and the car.
Now get moving! You’ll be happy that you did. 
CrimeReports.com Keeps Track Of Your Neighbors
Are you looking for a detailed way to keep track of police calls in your neighborhood or town? A new website called CrimeReports.com allows visitors to view where crime reports were filed and integrates the information with Google maps.
Founder, Greg Whisenant started the site after being a victim of crime himself. He let a stranger into his apartment and was robbed. He wondered how technology could help and came up with the site. The site has been up for about a year.
Participating police departments pay $100.00 – $200.00 to upload their internal information to the site. Visitors can then view a map format where crime reports were filed. There is no charge to the visitor and Whisenant has vowed to keep the site ad- free. There are around 40 police departments currently enrolled. In order to protect privacy, the actual address of the report is not listed – it is marked on a “block” where the incident occurred.
This seems to be much like the Bad Neighbors website that recently caught public attention.
It seems to me that with more technology ‘self policing’ is getting to be more of the “norm” instead of the exception. Whether this is better for society, I have yet to decide.