Ok, well you don’t *need* to yet, but Google is rolling out a new tracking code, which will replace the long-lived urchin.js script, to a new, lighter, more customizable ga.js script.

The new code will let you benefit from a bunch of new features now, and in the future, as they won’t be rolling out any new features to sites using the current tracking code. The current code will continue to function for at least a year from the time they release ga.js.

Among the immediate features are a bunch of customization options to the script, such as cross-domain tracking, file download tracking, better e-commerce tracking and better virtual page tracking as well as automatic HTTPS detection, and a smaller, faster loading source file.

All you need to do is change this:

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    _uacct = "UA-12345-1“;
    urchinTracker();
</script>

to:

<script type="text/javascript">
  var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ?
  "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
  document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost +
  "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
   var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-12345-1“);
   pageTracker._initData();
   pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

Obviously changing the red tracking number to your own.

Google has a more detailed integration guide, with info on how you can customize this code further for different uses here.

Important! Don’t use ga.js and urchin.js on the same page. They won’t work.

Digg just released a new photo application to Digg Labs for visualizing photos added to it’s new photos section announced last week. See the application here.

Ahh. Finally it looks like Internet Explorer will follow the rules. The folks at Microsoft have been working hard (well, they’re probably trying to reduce the pain), and they now pass the infamous ACID2 test (you would see a smiley face on the second link if your browser passes), which even the current version of Firefox can’t claim.

Microsoft’s channel 9 has more, including a video with IE’s GM Dean Hachamovitch and Architect Chris Wilson. Oh yeh, but you need silverlight to watch it. Doh.

Anyway, congrats to the IE team, and keep working hard at it. This is good news for both developers and users (which latest figures show are anything from 30% to 90% of web users).

Photo credit: Ben Crowder

The BBC have redesigned their homepage, in a much more web2.0, widgetized theme. You can drag modules around like iGoogle. They’ll also soon be adding the iplayer to the new page (which in case you didn’t know let’s you view the last 7 days worth of BBC programming online for free - streamed online).

From a purely design point of view, I feel the design is too “chunky”, large text, large buttons e.t.c. Overall, for the BBC’s audience, I think they’ve done a great job. Even the current BBC’s homepage hasn’t had it’s shortage of praise for it’s usability and functionality. The overall color scheme on this new design (green in the below screenshot) also changes when you switch between the 4 feature items which is a kind of interesting choice.

The homepage is in BETA right now - screenshot below, click it to preview..

A new IMAP feature has appeared in Gmail and mail for your domain accounts. This addition will make many people happy, and may even provide a real alternative to some people to host email, if Google’s privacy policies don’t put them off.

For those of you that don’t know what IMAP is, it is an alternative email protocol to POP (which Gmail already supports), which provides more redundancy and improved speed than POP. E.g. if you connect your Gmail account via IMAP to your mobile device, laptop, and home PC, any email’s sent, received, deleted e.t.c. will be reflected across all these devices. I.e. if you delete an email from your home PC, it will also delete from the other devices when they connect; If you reply to a message, it will be marked as replied on all mail clients. This of course includes the actual Gmail web interface.

No doubt the IMAP feature will be a popular one. But at the same time, for Google, this brings up the issue of Monetization. There is no way to display ads to IMAP users, unless in the messages themselves which would probably turn people back away from IMAP. And I know personally at least, I prefer my desktop mail client over any webmail interface - as long as there is also a webmail interface if required, e.g. on a guest computer or in case of SMTP authentication problems, which I experience frequently while traveling.

I only use my Gmail account for junk/non-important mail, but the addition of IMAP may make me use it a bit more for general online use for which I’m not too bothered about security or availability.

Via Download Squad

I use Firebug all the time to track javascript errors, AJAX requests and to monitor network requests, and it’s a real cool part of my web development arsenal. But Firebug can be helpful in more ways than just testing and debugging your own apps.

So, I’m pretty much in the middle of nowhere, in the only decent hotel (definition: has broadband) in the area. I connect to the network, bring up the usual sales page and enter my contact and payment details. Ok, all good.

Error: Invalid zip code. I go back and check the details I put in, and the zip code is cut-off as this form only accepts 4 digits (bad design), when my credit card zip is 5. So I open up firebug, switch to the inspector, click the zip field, and change the maxlength attribute of the input to 6. Voila, I type my zip code in, re-submit, and I’m online!

Of course, I could have emulated the form by copying the code, changing the maxlength attribute, saving, opening in a browser and re-submitting, but that takes time and would loose the SSL. Or, I could write a quick greasemonkey script to make the change, but again, more time consuming.

I’m not a big public transport user (other than the French TGV, and Paris metro), so I’m not up to the latest trends in this arena online or off, but I’m in switzerland for a few days and have been making good use of Swiss public transport, especially focusing on their website.

The website simply asks for your place of departure and destination. It then combines all methods, including Metro, Tram, Train, bus and even short walks to create several options to swiftly reach your destination. And it can even take you cross-country (e.g. Italy, France).

In my case, going to Italy from Geneva, this was a 90 minute train ride, 5 minute walk, then 2 hour bus ride, on which I’m typing this post (and almost dropping my laptop every 5 mins going up the mountains). The whole thing is smooth, perfectly timed, and even getting the ticket is easy - just one for the entire journey. I also love how the bus drivers seem to collect post from all the little villages they stop at.

I seem to recall Google has something similar for major cities (they have most things if you look hard enough) - but only for major cities (which is cool, this isn’t an automatized thing). But it would be nice to see more of the government-run sites following the Swiss. ehem. Belgium.

Does anyone know of any other good sites doing similar stuff?

It looks like a MySpace platform is be coming next week - something similar to the Facebook platform launched several months ago, allowing developers to develop applications within MySpace, and likely with it’s own markup language.

But I can’t see Myspace turning round anytime soon, almost everyone I know now uses Facebook more than, or instead of them.

Be interesting to see what they’ll release..