What are billboards (banners, header images, et al) you ask? Billboards are the large images you see on various websites that cover the header area. They typically contain marketing statements and imagery relevant to the websites purpose or page content.

Here are is one of my favorite examples:

Visit Southern Delaware Tourism Website

See that set of images just above the content, fading in and out? That is a billboard. With this module, you can create those in a matter of seconds.

After some brainstorming between Shaun and myself, we set out to create something simple, as simple as creating a Page node, without all the aforementioned hassle. After a week of coding, testing, testing and testing, we achieved just that. Now all you have to do is say, I want to create a Billboard, drop in your images (with a cool AJAX in-place uploader, you don’t even have to leave the page), and tell it what pages to display on and you’re done! It couldn’t be any simpler. You also have additional options available to you such as changing how the images display (random image, or fade in/out between images), setting ALT and Title tags for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and select a resize option to size the billboard to (which is controlled and hooked into ImageCache!). Oh, on top of all of that, it’s all output via a single block. That’s right, you can have 100 billboards and just one block. Once you place it in the region, depending on your site theme, it’s ready to go. In the future you will be able to add blocks so you can have a billboard in the header, and also the footer or sidebar if you wish.

We have been taking feedback from our clients over the months, taking notes during training meetings, and analyzing massive amounts of performance data from our servers. It’s been pretty quiet in the blog, Facebook and our Twitter and it’s because we’ve been very hard at work. Over the last few weeks Inclind has been working at refining what we do in order to better serve, better train, and better our clients online presence. The Billboard module is just the tip of the iceberg, a precursor to the ultra-streamlined CMS package we have been putting together. There is so much going on, I couldn’t even begin to write up what will be coming in the next few months.

We’re here to serve you, to help you get things done faster, and make it so you don’t need a PHd to manage your site.

If you have any questions regarding Billboards, Drupal, our refined CMS package or need help managing your content, we are here to help. Give us a call at 302-856-2802, send us a tweet @inclindinc, or stop by our office.

A lot of businesses are using Twitter to connect with clients in new ways every single day. If you’d like to know more, we’d be happy to train you or your staff on how to market your company through Twitter, CoTweet, TweetDeck and a host of other Twitter solutions. Just give us a call at 302-856-2802, or tweet us @inclindinc.

About Twitter:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. Source: Wikipedia

Their new site has everything they have been wanting and more. Dogfish Head Brewery can now easily manage their 800 page (and growing!) website, all its users, media, newsletters, news articles, events, RSS feeds, and comments. They can add/remove ‘locations’ of where their product is sold, served, or distributed. This allows customers to log in and see where they can find Dogfish on the ‘Fish Finder‘. Try it out!

With that, the new site features a fully functioning community section and social network. Users can register on the website for an account, after which they can create a basic profile. From there, they have access to submit a map location to their Fish Finder, add or comment on threads in the Forum, submit questions to Dogfish staff in Ask Dogfish, comment on Dogfish staff blogs (Blogfish), and connect with other Dogfish loving fans. All applicable content is able to be sent instantly through Twitter/Digg/MySpace/Facebook/etc in a single click of the ‘Share’ button. We really went all out to flesh out the community side and give users stuff to do in between staff blogs and answering questions.

Our new system that was used on Dogfish Head Brewery has no official name yet, or I’d tell you what it is ha. We hope to have that nailed down soon. What I can tell you is that its the most feature complete, stable and scalable CMS you are going to find on the east coast. I would put it up against anything the competition has to offer from Maine to Florida with confidence ours is as on par or better than what else is available. Since the code is modular, its not coded for 1 strict specific project (as we used to) but rather, any client who comes in the door can have the same power, accessibility, UI and functionality of big time folk like Dogfish. In other words, it makes our platform highly scalable and consistent.

All ya gotta do is ask us.

As for the rest of the week, Pete, Trey and Kevin are representing Inclind at DrupalCon in Washington DC. They will be talking to fellow developers and programmers and sharing / showing off work. You can follow what we’re up to on our Twitter (either by going to the Twitter site, or the side of our page on this site, or adding us inclindinc).

Their new website gives Beracah Homes staff the ability to fully manage their website content inside and out. They have the ability to create polls, homes, banners, slideshows, forms/inquiries, as well as upload videos for web streaming. You can view Beracah Homes commercials and clips from their DVD on their website, all in Adobe Flash. The server handles the conversion to Adobe Flash, so all a user has to do is upload the video in MPG, WMV, or Quicktime format. The content management system has been simplified to the point where it is extremely easy for the client to make the changes they want without hassle. We utilized cutting edge tools, custom PHP programming and easy UI for management purposes. The backend for Beracah Homes will also provide their 9 builder partners the ability to direct and share content across their sites as well, which will start launching in August, so look for those too.

“We chose Inclind to totally redesign our website because of their professionalism. They had specialists in each area of web development and design. In addition, their portfolio of work was convincing. We’ve been very pleased with the results with our new and dynamic site. – Roger Collison, Vice President, Beracah Homes, Inc.”

About Beracah Homes:

Beracah Homes, Inc. is a custom designed, modular home construction company located in Greenwood, DE. Pioneers in “off-site, stick-built” construction, Beracah began production in its factory on April 7th, 2003 and was built to deliver quality and value in the new home construction industry. That commitment to quality can be seen in the raw materials that are built into each home. Your Beracah is built with a little more lumber than a typical home constructed entirely on-site, is a lot stronger, and will make you very happy. 

Our sites have found their way onto this site before and hopefully the ones we have in the pipeline will make it on up to Design Meltdown as well.

Link to Article: http://www.designmeltdown.com/chapters/FlowerPower/

Link to Anita’s Garden: http://www.anitasgarden.com/

A cut above the rest.

Imagine – Imagine, a cosmetic boutique located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, services clients with their expert makeup services in multiple industries.

Rehoboth Lodging – RehobothLodging.com is the one-stop shop for all your hotel and vacation needs in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Bethany Beach, Delaware! Our goal is to provide you with the best deals at the top hotels located in Delaware’s most popular beach destinations! The RehobothLodging.com website provides you with a wealth of information about Southern Delaware and all the tools necessary to help you make an informed decision about your lodging choices at the beach.

Grand Rental Station – Grand Rental Station of Rehoboth Beach Delaware started serving the beach areas of Southern Delaware in 1987. The owner-operated, year-round business of 20 years is known for friendly customer service. Expanding niche categories such as audio/visual, baby/guest, and games has helped us meet the growing demand of renting versus buying. We like helping you solve problems, enjoy your time in the area, plan for the perfect wedding, or just have fun with our games. Our knowledgeable staff, prompt delivery, quality rental equipment, and friendly customer service will make your rental experience a pleasant one. So, if you live at the beach, vacation at the Delaware beach, or meet at the beach for business, just call or stop in and give Grand Rental Station a try, they’ll treat you right!

Atlantic Millwork – Founded in 1991, Atlantic Millwork has provided the Delmarva Peninsula’s premier builders with quality building materials. However, supplying quality material on a timely basis is only part of the process. Atlantic Millwork has an established reputation for customer services before, during and after the sale. Atlantic Millwork is the perferred choice for building materials by hundreds of residential and commercial contractors on the Eastern Shore.

Atlantic Cabinetry – Atlantic Cabinetry provides builders and homeowners with several lines of fine manufactured products such as cabinets, countertops, sinks and hardware. Don’t forget: our custom shop can make bars, entertainment centers, mantles, window seats and other non-standard projects that fit your specific needs.

Bryce Lingo & Shaun Tull – With over thirty-five years combined experience Bryce and Shaun have seen every turn in the market and they believe success is earned through creating and maintaining long-term relationships with clients. Both Bryce and Shaun find their work to be extremely rewarding as they help facilitate one of life’s biggest decisions …buying or selling a home. They bring a strong work ethic, dedication and determination to everyone that they come in contact with and have built their reputation upon these values, which is why they are confident that they will continue their record of success into the future. Bryce Lingo and Shaun Tull have created brycelingo.com and shauntull.com to provide you with easy access to the Sussex County MLS listings.

Friday calls, its time to go.

Using the internet should be fun, not a hassle. It’s only going to get better from here. Lets take a look at some of the new features of Firefox 3:

From lifehacker: The newest version of our favorite open source web browser, Mozilla Firefox 3, offers dozens of new features and fixes, but only a handful will make the most dramatic difference in your everyday browsing. After 17 months of alphas and betas, Mozilla’s finally made a feature-complete release candidate available, so it’s time to spotlight the biggest improvements that will make “Gran Paradiso” the browser to beat. Nearly everything in the open-source app has gotten a second look from the minds at Mozilla, from back buttons to bookmarks, address bars to add-ons, passwords to performance, and the changes will make Firefox 3 worth the upgrade come its official release date, slated for sometime next month. Let’s take a look at the 10 best upgrades in Firefox 3, and how they’ll bolster your browsing, after the jump.Note: Firefox 3 hasn’t been officially released yet—a public preview release is available and intended for testers only. While it’s a very stable preview, only use it if you’re willing to deal with bugs and instability as the Mozilla teams ready the official release.

That said, our favorite Firefox 3 features include:

10. Souped-up Add-ons manager

A big part of what makes Firefox so special to power users is its extensibility with extensions, add-ons, plug-ins and themes, and Firefox 3’s Add-ons dialog got the attention it deserved. The Fox’s Add-Ons menu is more robust and intuitive on at least two fronts. You can search and install extensions and themes right from the pop-up box, no browsing required. Also, a new plug-in manager lets you enable and disable third-party helpers like Flash, QuickTime, and anything else that makes content work (and causes you grief).

9. More intuitive interface overall

Mozilla tweaked and updated a whole lot of little things here and there throughout Firefox 3, which amounts to a big overall boost in usability. Most noticeably when you first switch, the Back button only appears on the address bar if there is a page to go back to, and when it does, it’s bigger and easier to click. Users who want to make sites with small text more readable permanently are in luck; Firefox 3 can increase the size of images and text, or just the text, on hard-to-read sites. In addition, Firefox 3 applies favicons more consistently to bookmarks, you can click a site’s favicon to get extended site identification information, you can resize the search box to hold more than two words, and the find-on-page search box automatically grabs the currently selected word, just to name a few new UI improvements.
In the long term, once webapps catch up, Firefox 3 will let you do really neat stuff in your browser, like register your favorite webapps to open certain file types, and access your online data even when you’re not connected to the ‘net. To get a taste, see how you can configure Firefox 3 to launch Gmail for mailto links.

8. Stronger phishing and malware protection

Firefox 3 has stronger filters and protection against malware, phishing sites, cookies, and other tools that compromise privacy and security. A malware warning shows up when you visit sites known to install malicious software, Firefox 3 doesn’t show the content of knock-off sites (like PayPal “Update Your Account” phishing scams) by default, and Firefox 3 checks against Google’s ever-growing blacklist of phishing sites. Now you can feel even better switching your less tech-aware relatives over to the open-source browser.

7. Improved download manager

Never wonder where a download came from, or went to, again. Gran Paradiso’s download manager lets you search through recent files, resume big downloads after a crash or restart, and lets you keep an eye on your transfers in the status bar.

6. Native looks for every system

Your browser is a serious part of your computer time, so having it look like nothing else on your system can be seriously annoying. Firefox’s designers made system integration a priority with this release, and it shows—even Windows XP’s and Vista’s button layouts have subtle differences in color and shading. There’s differences at deeper levels, too, with Cover Flow-type styling in the add-ons manager for OS X, transparencies in key places in Vista and OS X, and other tweaks that make your browser feel like a natural extension of your system.

5. Streamlined “Remember password” handling

No more guessing whether you’re saving the right password or clicking “Cancel” on unnecessary pop-up requests. Gran Paradiso only asks you to utilize its password-saving function once you’re already in and sure everything worked, and it won’t block you from seeing the logged-out version of a page if you don’t want to sign in.

4. Smart bookmarks

Much like iTunes’ Smart Playlists, Firefox 3’s new Smart Bookmarks function can analyze your browsing habits and create lists of links based on it. The default bookmark toolbar only comes with three standards, “Most Visited,” “Recently Bookmarked,” and “Recent Tags” (more on that later), but it’s none too hard to make your own.

3. Places Organizer replaces the Bookmark Manager

Previous versions of Firefox’s bookmark organizer have been pretty utilitarian affairs that make you drag and drop your links around nested folders. With Firefox 3’s new Places Organizer, those with reams of URLs can find them using boolean rule searches and multi-column results, as well as keep them better organized with a tagging system. Better still, you can save those smart searches for when you next need them.

2. Smart Location Bar learns how you browse

Like a personal assistant who telepathically knows when you’re going to need just the right phone number (or Starbucks fix), Firefox 3’s address bar, now dubbed the Smart Location Bar, helps you get to your frequently visited, or recently discovered, sites in super-quick fashion. That application you just read about on Lifehacker, but can’t remember the name? Type “li” into your address bar, and Firefox instantly pulls the relevant sites from your history. The bar also learns through repetition, so the next time you start searching with “li,” it knows you’re looking for Lifehacker, not Linux.

1. Insanely improved performance

It’s not flashy, and it doesn’t have any social networking features, but Firefox 3’s actual performance is the best reason anyone should consider upgrading, or making the switch to the ‘fox. Firefox’s engineers claim that their third major release is 9.3 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 in JavaScript performance, and 2.7 times faster than Firefox 2. This means snappier browser performance when you’re using webapps like Gmail, Remember the Milk, and more. Even more important, especially for Mac users, is the improved memory usage and more than 15,000 improvements that make for a less crash-prone browser. I’ve seen noticeable speed-ups in page loading in Linux, XP, and Vista, but the real reason I’ve switched over to using Release Candidate 1 is that I haven’t had to cross my fingers every time a Flash-based video loads. Graphed comparison of memory use amongst browsers in Vista courtesy of John Resig.

As you can tell, we’re completely geeked out about the upcoming Firefox 3 release. For more about the new version of the browser, check out our continuing coverage:

• The Complete Field Guide to Testing Firefox 3
• Make Your Extensions Work with Firefox 3
• Firefox 3 Robots Easter Egg
• Set Firefox 3 to Launch Gmail for mailto Links
• Firefox 3 RC 1 Portable Edition Now Available

Source: Lifehacker

Blue Waterfront Properties is a Prudential Gallo project operated by Andrew Ratner and D.C. Kuhns. Blue Waterfront Properties is managed directly from Prudential Gallo’s custom Intranet (also built from the ground up by Inclind, Inc). Tying into Prudential Gallo’s custom Intranet allows the staff to manage two websites easily (with more on the way). They can administrate listings that are fed in daily from an MLS feed every morning at 5 AM, add additional data, documents, photos, or virtual tour links. Blue Waterfront Properties staff can also add a Google Map pin to a listing easily. Prudential Gallo’s custom Intranet presents the user with a map of Sussex County, and then they can place a pin on the map if Google can’t find the address. This is a cutting edge feature that most other Delaware real estate firms do not have the capability of doing.

Complimenting an effective web 2.0 application is an elegant web 2.0 design from Tom Brown. Aesthetically pleasing and visually engaging, Blue Waterfront Properties is one of the nicest looking Delaware real estate websites around.

If you’re looking for Delaware real estate near the water, bay, river or pond, the highly qualified and experienced staff of Blue Waterfront Properties will help you find what you are looking for!

For more information on custom Intranets, web applications, content management systems, Delaware web design and quotes, please contact us or call 302-856-2802.

When they needed to completely overhaul their website design and corporate image, they needed the right tool for the job. They came right to Inclind. We provided them with our robust Content Management System with a fresh new design to meet their expectations.

In addition to a transformation of the website design, the redeveloped website includes several additional new sections of content including information on specific projects. It will be much easier to make changes and updates any page of this new website with the included backend intranet branded as Inclind CMS. This content management system will also include a tool to post news releases and a tool to manage employee events. This Inclind product is really a valuable advancement that allows companies like George & Lynch to make adjustments to their website themselves instantly and effortlessly. This is an enormous breakthrough from their previous website, and only Inclind Delaware web design can offer such tools.

Full search engine optimization capabilities were implemented as well so anyone looking for the services George & Lynch offers can find them easily in any major search engine. Inclind’s web applications allow for very organic search engine methods to be executed by the user, and our web applications are intelligent enough to manage this without any interaction at all. Our adherance to strict web standards allows us to deliver websites that are accessible in any major browser equally, reaching a wider audience than their old website could.

“We have enjoyed working with Inclind, and look forward to working on other projects in the future.” says Dave McGuigan, George & Lynch’s Vice President of Business Development.

Initially, the most-noticeable element of this website is the striking background of crushed stone from an actual StoneTech jobsite. This website features sections about StoneTech news, equipment, and even a map with directions. Inclind developed a great, new, photo gallery feature just for this site.

The StoneTech project gallery features photos from past asphalt recycling, concrete crushing, and even demolition projects. Visit the new website to browse the photos from the demolition of the old Salisbury Mall.

As with all of our website applications, full search engine optimization capabilities were implemented as well so anyone looking for their services can find them easily in any major search engine. Inclind’s applications allow for very organic search engine methods to be executed by the user, and our web applications are intelligent enough to manage this without any interaction at all. Our adherance to strict web standards allows us to deliver websites that are accessible in any major browser without hindrance, reaching a wider audience than older methods from a few years ago.

“Inclind’s CMS (content management system) allows us to react quickly to changing market conditions.” says Brian Tregoe, President of Stonetech LLC.

About StoneTech Crushing:

Stonetech opened it’s doors for business on June 26th of 2006. The father son team of Tom and Brian Tregoe bring over 30 years of combined experience in the construction and aggregate business. Our first goal is to supply contractors with an approved RCR-6 material for use on private and municipal jobs. Stonetech has the most efficient and technologically advanced equipment available to the industry today. Stonetech prides itself on having the best equipment available to provide a quality, efficient and professional crushing job.

View the StoneTech Crushing Website »

For more information about Inclind or Delaware Web Design, feel free to contact us.