Monday, October 5, 2009
Dynamic Content
I don't envision websites changing size much in terms of the amount of content. Technology advances with modular code and content management systems make it easier for less savvy companies to get their websites started. Many Top-end companies use databases and advanced languages such as ASP.NET to create more dynamic websites. Think of YouTube; the size of their website has not really changed. The amount of content has changed, and the size of the video files due to higher resolutions. However this is organized and managed by the search engine and the databases on the server.I think as a designer/developer the focus is on these types of areas. Sites with a lot of content or files should definitely use a search engine to allow users to find information faster. Structuring the website that adjusts for dynamic content will also become crucial. Finally keeping in mind that the content may eventually be stored on a database, the website should be designed with the ability to add this interface easily.
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It's funny that you mention YouTube. I have attempted to use it a dozen times in the past few weeks and have experienced problems. I used several different computers and different network connections (and at all different times of day) and it took forever to stream a video. I'm talking 15 minutes to get a 4 minute video. It never took that long before. It occurred to me that maybe the content of the site has grown to be too much for current bandwidths to handle. Then again, maybe it was just a bad few weeks to use YouTube. Either way, it brought up an interesting question in my head:
ReplyDeleteIs it possible for a site to grow so big it can no longer effectively support itself?
If so, what's to be done about it? Do you weed out certain content to lighten the load or simply hope connection speeds increase? If deleting content, how do you choose what goes and what stays and what do you do about the members who posted that content?
Food for thought, I guess.
I agree with you that many basic companies will not expand their contact too much, but as speeds increase there will likely be new innovations that will allow for the expansion of content. Think about the 90s. Every site was basic, with mainly just text populating the pages. These days you have the ability to post large pictures, streaming audio and video, or even live content updates from other areas of the internet. In the future currently unimaginable content will be developed, so the companies that wish to utilize that new technology will have to expand their site.
ReplyDeleteI agree that dynamic content is playing a much more serious role in recent years. I would argue though that while the user of websites has more choice of what content to access, they don't yet have as much choice about how that content is displayed in their browser, which I think is a missed opportunity in a lot of cases.
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