Added extras The great attraction of Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter is their interactivity. With a blog you can elicit comments; with a Facebook or Flickr special interest group you can share experiences or fire up heated debates; with Twitter, an idea can be published instantly, and rapidly disseminated. The traditional HTML/CSS websites that we have discussed so far can seem rather static ­ they only ever change when the designer decides to update them, so remember to update your website regularly with new content. These kinds of websites resemble traditional publishing: you put a book or magazine out into the wide world and the only feedback you can expect are the sales figures and maybe the odd review in a specialist journal. Ways of enlivening your site range from adding an animated GIF or embedding content from Twitter, images from Flickr or news from a blog, to making your site dynamic with Flash or JavaScript. This takes us into another area altogether ­ into the world of programming, a thought that many designers may regard with horror. Most graphic designers will delegate this work to a programming professional (who might enjoy it). Some designers specialize only in Flash-based websites (Fig 6.1). Shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay have websites that are compiled `on the fly' from a constantly updated database using a scripting language such as PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) or ASP (Active Server Pages) ­ you may have noticed the .php or .asp acronym at the end of a URL instead of .html. Programming is beyond the scope of this book, but we shall briefly look at each technology later. 6 133 6.1 London-based BIO Agency's Flash- based website uses the graphic device of a `good idea' lightbulb, which changes appropriately as your mouse explores their client list below. BIO stands for Big Ideas Online