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We consider ourselves Ecommerce veterans and we typically read Website Magazine cover to cover.

Last night I passed around the Top 50 Ecommerce review (page 16) and was sorely disappointed in how the information was gathered and ranked based on the site traffic and basically no other metrics?

We have reviewed, Installed, and hosted several shopping carts and one of the grandaddy of problematic shopping carts, X-Cart, made by a Russian group is ranked 14? OSCommerce ranked 6, has been a derivative of X-Cart.  X-Cart and similar ones should not even be on the list… but it is… Open source, ok, yeah I get it.

In short and I am certain that the Website Mag guys know that Ecommerce carts should be ranked based on  Security, Reliability, Installation,  SEO, Usability, Features, customers needs, etc.
Note: I think very highly of Website Magazine and it’s writers and I hope they will be more cautious next time.

One Sentence – Dynamic database vs Static Database pages is the KEY answer. Pinnacle is NOT as SEO friendly as ShopSite .

Compare Links to one site for Pinnacle address does not have understandable category and product links -

Pinnacle shopping cart – http://www.obxtradingroup.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=9&pg=1

ShopSite cart – http://www.ezupdirect.com/ezup-instant-shelters/exp2vp.php (all words can be easily crawled)

We just finished writing about ShopSite vs others – http://yourhost.com/netspeak/2010/07/shopsite-stil-holding-its-own-sp2-new-features/

I did some research on the web about Pinnacle Cart and came up with some favorable reviews, but we are always cautious with carts as time and time again we have seen some real troubles in one way or another.

One of the main reasons we have stuck with ShopSite is security and it being SEO friendly. ShopSite does not break and its  support system is great.
We have been working with ShopSite as a partner since 1997.

Maybe someone will comment on it.

E

We are looking at all browsers and players options, including the much discussed, HTML 5, Flash, and QuickTime. It is pretty slick.

Try this beta test page link on your desktop or device you may have.

Over the past 15 years, others systems have come and gone. Some stick, but have their challenges.

ShopSite is like the Tortoise and the Hare in its offerings and it still stands out.
YouHost.com staff is continuously getting feedback from it’s customers and from our YourHost.com internal design staff as to what we would like to see improved.

We are fully aware that ShopSite could use a short list of items and we are working with ShopSite to improve.

One of the big improvements we have seen in the past updates is templates (request a peak from tech), especially in the new release SP2 that is coming in a few weeks. Learn More…

See SP2 Theme Demos -

One of the new themes on ShopSites new release -

From – http://shopsitedemo10.yourhost.com/index.html

To – http://shopsitedemo25.yourhost.com/index.html

Note, there are 15 demos so if you change the number in this url from 25 down to 10 you will see other templates.

Believe-it-or-not Flash has been gaining momentum in everyday streaming (96% of the market). In the scope of streaming we are still not seeing any real real standards to speak of yet, but Adaptive Streaming is taking hold now to allow streaming on all platforms that can take advantage of http or website type serving of data.

Serving of data via the CDN is not considered streaming by any definition.  In Adaptive Streaming  on is pulling raw video in a organized way, but not Streaming in the true sense, hence, Adaptive Streaming. What is Microsoft doing about the platforms and streaming? Well they are coming out with their own Adaptive or Smoothstream systems, which appears to be on the right track with their Silverlight player. The Silverlight player is not required for Smooth Streaming Digital Rapids, a leader in Live Streaming  is releasing a codec for and specifically for our needs the, TouchStream system is releasing the codec in the next 60 days.  My 2 cents…. Microsoft moves with the wind and Windows media streaming is becoming such a small part of streaming, I predict it will be dropped by CDN’s in the next 12 months and embrace SmoothStreaming. This will be a  a large ramp-up and challenge for all involved.

Move Networks (Utah – former Novell executives for the most part) I believe introduced adaptive streaming with great fanfare. The problem is it only ran on when the viewer downloaded Move’s client software.  ABC one of their largest clients used it and dropped it like a bomb later. That is what Adobe is doing by downloading Flash for your browser or device.  On the other hand all the big sites are using it so if any user who wanted to see video on their favorite sites (like YouTube), the users did it.

Everyone that does streaming in one sense or another will be hit with the challenge to now have to stream multiple streams at once, Flash, Adaptive, and whatever they may one to stream. How do you do that when your standard desktop or Mac will only will send out one live encoded stream at a time? Even if you come up with software upgrades that will accommodate the multiple stream issue, the desktop video card was just not designed to multitask the multiple streams very efficiently. Remember, I did not say they won’t be able to stream, they just will not do it well on many levels.

So, what is the answer? Currently, there are streaming systems/units in the market that will handle multiple codec streams at a time or many pushes and pulls at a time. For an undeniable 360 experience, the hardware and software need to be designed, built and integrated, from the ground up, in order to handle these complex tasks. YourHost.com  has put a lot of research time for it’s customers,  looking at the right company that will produce the best combination of software,  codec, ease-of-use, at a modest price all can enjoy. YourHost.com found system and Company called Digital Rapids, which offers the TouchStream System, which YourHost.com  has wholly embraced, and is selling,  supporting, and consulting streaming users.  Looking for a solid company that can help you wade through the mine fields of streaming and hosting is not an easy task and we feel we are one company that can, learn more here.

FYI from a reliable source – Flash estimated Market share at 96% – whatever the real percentage is it is dominant by a long shot.

Adobe’s own statistics on Flash’s market penetration claim 99 percent penetration as of last month. That’s because, according to their survey methodology, they’re only counting “PCs” — which ignores the entire sort of devices which have brought about this debate.

Adobe is arguing that Flash is installed on 99 percent of all web browsers that support Flash, not 99 percent of all web browsers.

I am comfortable with  a conservative 80%. That still makes Flash the “Big Dawg”

that’s it for now, more later.

Sources -

YourHost.com – Eric Kirkhuff
D4Media.com – Gary Ivaska

The experience was a treat on our team, partly because we were   able to fellowship with pastors to enlighten them on how YourHost.com understands the “Church Culture”,  as it relates to Technology and their daily technical challenges.

YourHost.com got Pastors attention when we told them we can make the process painless, quick, and cost effective when it came to Live and Video On Demand (VOD) streaming in the time it takes to setup a self-managed account, for at little as $50/mo. .

Eric Kirkhuff, Matt Kotich, Chris Duffy, and Nathan Wing were present who were able to present how YourHost.com’s  13 years of Internet experience could  painlessly offer Streaming, Ecommerce, and Web Design to churches.

Adding to YourHost.com offerings we introduced the implementation of Digital Rapids TouchStream system, along with our JW automated Player generator, that makes it painless, quick, simple to get online in under 15 minutes.

See photos of the Ipad, ITouch, and HD Camera Winners and become a fan of our YourHost.com’s Facebook page

We broke out some quick photos of the TS Web SDI unit below -

There are 4 basic models and I will the differentiation between them is the word WEB in the model. All Web models come with the Flash and H.264 Codec.  TS WEB SDI is becoming more popular as people are looking purchasing or upgrading their camera to SDI out.

TS WEB  analog S-Video (Silverlight/VC-1/Windows Media & Flash – h.264/AVC)

TS WEB SDI (Silverlight/VC-1/Windows Media & Flash – h.264/AVC64 digital BNC interface)

My personal thanks to Brent Ross and the Digital Rapids team along with Darryl Spangler of Mobile Media Devices and it was great meeting them.  When a company looks for a relationship with another company they look at how well they support not only their customers but their channel. Digital Rapids does both extremely well.

D-R (Digital Rapids)  has recently announced and embraced the IPhone and other Smart Phones streaming challenges. It uses a progressive http Get from any CDN (HighWinds from YourHost.com).

D-R has made the codec that will accommodate VOD streaming to IPhones.  Using the Touch Stream system you need to make profiles for 4 files to for each speed and phone type and your good.  It is adaptive technology. This format includes a solution for the IPad which actually has a higher resolution to accommodate the larger and Hi res screen.

The Touch Stream Live Streaming box is a great tool and companies and groups are choosing this tool in as a cost effective alternative to the Stream Z , which is an awesome box, not portable.  They choose the TS system in order to cover the ability to be portable or to have the ability to be portable as their needs evolved in the future.

In the D-R booth, I watched many people who appeared to have a good grasp on video and broadcasting, struggling to grasp the basic streaming concepts and implementations of projects, bobs, and various streaming parameters that are available when setting up streams.  If you are familiar with Sorenson Squeeze, it will be a breeze to grasp.  This tells me that the field is wide open and the public need companies like the Official Digital Rapids VAR (Value Added Reseller) like MobileMediaDevices to consult and sell Touch Stream systems, to Digital Rapids for post sales support, and YourHost.com to connect the dots, providing the user-Friendly, world-wide peering CDN self-administered publishing points, tools, and support.  YourHost.com being a Christian owned and operated company, and when it comes to streaming we offer our services to many different venues but our prime streaming focus is on Christian related organizations.

I have reviewed some of the other streaming systems and tools out their and found tools Digital Rapids to be a solid choice for All of our CDN customers.  I did like the authoring tools that TriCaster had to offer but the tools and GUI were a little more difficult to the non technical user.

Sorenson Media, Inc. was there showing off their encoding Streaming tools.  I had the pleasure of briefly chating with, Cathryne Conner,  the Direct Sales Representative and a support resource.  Cathryne showed me some of their Squeeze encoding products and how one can make post production modifications with their Squeeze product.

We use and Highly recommend Sorenson products to our customers when encoding for CDN VOD streaming content.   With all the time an organization spends producing content, it is critical to use the right encoding tool.  I cannot tell you how many times a customer calls or writes and tells us there content is not streaming as smooth and as clear as they would like to find out that they used a free encoding software and underrated hardware to make the streaming files.

On the Move Event Tools -

I ran into two very nice gentlemen from Canada represeting Dejero Labs. They had a an amazing tool that is revolutionizing how people are remote broadcast quality news.

I only had a few minutes with these guys between shoots and  I met Ovidiu Frusina and his partner whom I did not get his name (sorry), of Dejero Labs, Inc.  Ovidiu’s partner was the key person that gave me the overview and highlights of their product.

In layman’s terms, they have a software-Hardware combination that basically eliminates the need for the Big TV News Truck.

They have found a way to grab any and all phone services where ever they are and bind or combine or “Teather” them to the to create an acceptable pipe to stream live or broadcast from anywhere in broadcast quality.

This means that one can stream anywhere there are multi-carrier cell phone services.  Picture the multiple phone services as an 2 to 10 lane plus highway and each highway represents a part of the bandwidth that you need. I.E. Each phone line of a 5 phone carrier choice may represent 150k each and the Dejero system can recognize all 5 and bring the mobile broadcast team a combined 750 k stream!

The software will allow the user drop and add services on-the-fly as they are moving so they not miss or drop content for the most part as I understand it.

In the 2010 Olympics torch run, the Dejero team was the only camera team that was able to follow the 1,000 mile Olympic “carrying of the torch” in Canada, where others could not get a strong enough signal.  The system sits in a highly modified Pelican case that was put in the trunk of a Toyota Tercel during the 2010 Olympic torch run. You only need the case and a camera and your ready to stream or broadcast your content.

Dejero is changing the way events are run and covered.

The other area that impressed me was the exponential progression “Green Screen” video production that is now becoming affordable for the “Pro Sumer” user at reasonable costs.

At the end of the day we ran into one of our great hosted Ecommerce customers, EZupDirect.com.

They showed me a great “Transformer”-type table that is very versatile. I understand the design of this cool product was the brain child of CEO Mark Carter of EZup International was the  See the photos below.

There was many other items that we reviewed but these stood out the most.