Today it is Blog Action Day. One day to think about the environment. To think about what you can do for a better environment, even if it is a bit, since a better environment starts with yourself. The color green plays an important role in this, since almost everybody associates it with a better environment.

In the development of a web site green also plays a quite important role. Some people live for the green bar the W3C markup validator shows when a web page validates. The green color indicates everything is good, and that is also what a better environment is. Unfortunately nothing can be validated on how good they are for the environment, even web sites not.

Another green aspect of web development are Microformats. Microformats help people and computers interact with each other much easier, they are more balanced. Thinking about the environment also about getting a better balance between you and everything around you.

For the server-side programmers, I have this one: PEAR. Their web site is green, but that’s not the only equality between PEAR and a better environment. PEAR allows every developer to share and grab code others developed. Developers can learn and safe time by looking at code by others, or be nice for colleague developers by sharing their code. A greener world also is good for others, and people can learn from nature in many ways.

I almost forgot graphic designers. It’s a fact a higher percentage of the designers uses an Apple Mac. So it is good to know Apple was tackled down by Greenpeace to build greener Apples. It is a result of the Green My Apple website.

Concluding I can say web designers and developers can help the world to be much greener. If you have more ideas, I would love to hear: just drop a comment.

Lately I’ve been talking with Johan Stokking about several interesting things. One point was the growing the Internet bubble that is growing at the moment. The current bubble will grow larger than the previous one, and also will have more impact if it bursts.

I’m talking about all Web 2.0 companies, like Google but also several others. Those companies are interesting because they are personal. People can do things in a personalized environment, a huge difference from static web pages. One point to care about is the privacy. There is a lot of discussion around Google and that kind of thing (so I won’t go into depth about this).

But there is even a larger problem those Web 2.0 companies need to solve, if it even is solvable. I’m talking about advertisements. People hate them, even when they are personalized. All those Web 2.0 companies rely on those advertisements. Also business plans of new Web 2.0 sites include being purchased by Google (or Yahoo, etc).
The popular Firefox extension AdBlock can easily block advertisements on a web page. Several websites blocked Firefox because of that extension. Something I think it indicates the need of the web site owners to display advertisements, as well as the need of the people who browse to block the advertisements.

So, when will Google die? I don’t know. But for a company where over 99 percent of the incoming money is earned from advertisements, it is just waiting for the day people stand up and advocate their own privacy.

Assistant Professor Michael Wesch made a video about Web 2.0. In five minutes he explaines what it is, how it works etc. Nate says about this video:

Perhaps the so-called ’social web’ isn’t about connecting people (not about helping people socialize), but about information conservation: If a person chooses to do something — no matter how small — it’s inherently interesting, precious, and valuable.

Many ‘old’ people think youngsters are different from the oldies. But I think -as eighteen year old- there is also a difference between youngsters.

Since two year I have got a MSN account and can chat with friends and family. I was 16 years old at that moment.

But at this moment childs on primary school have got MSN accounts, and also chat with friends and family. They are 10 years old now.

Do you see the differences? I do, in spite of this is a very simple example. Link via Bart.