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Google has provided advice for website designers on how to make sure their site is correctly displayed on the company’s new browser, Chrome.

Maile Ohye, a developer for Google writing on the Webmaster Central blog, recommends using HTML rather than AJAX coding, as this will help search engines find the site.

And to achieve a uniform look across all browsers, validated code should be used, while designers should make sure that they have tested the usability of the site and not just its aesthetics.

‘When your site renders poorly or is difficult to use on many browsers you risk losing your visitors’ interest and, if you’re running a monetised site, perhaps their business,’ she wrote.

‘It’s possible that the clickable area of a linked image or button may change from browser to browser.’

According to research firm Net Applications, Chrome has a one per cent share of the browser market.

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Search engine providers need to be more transparent about how they utilise users’ data, a government initiative has said.

Get Safe Online, a joint initiative between the government and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, has said internet users should make a decision as to whether to remain with providers who use private information for things such as targeted advertising.

A report released this month by the European Union stated that search engines should not hold on to personal data for a period of more than six months. Google and Yahoo! currently carry a policy of rendering all users’ data anonymous after 18 months.

Managing director of Get Safe Online Tony Neate said: “It’s not always exactly transparent why they [search engine providers] need it [user data] so I’d like to see a bit more clarity in relation to the information that they hold and why.”

A June 2007 report by Privacy International said that Google demonstrated an “aggressive use of invasive or potentially invasive technologies”.

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Normally I do not like doing reviews of things as I do not have time to do reviews. Today I am going to try to tell you about something that Web CEO development team probably does not want you to know about.

Web CEO, as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) software that I have been using for a very long time. It has been a while since the version 7.5 came out. Until today I did not need to use it much since I installed the new version. Just to get an idea of how CGC ranked by search engines I decide to give it a go and see what’s new.

First had to wait for some of the updates to download and install. But when restarted I was presented with an error message saying my Knowledge Base is out of date (current date is ‘10 December 2007′; the deadline for the next Knowledge Base update is ‘13 November 2007′).

Just shows how things can be left out even after very detailed quality control process. Hope they fix it soon, because I’d not like to go back a month on any software.

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