As quality assurance assistant and junior developer for Semantico I spend a lot of time developing and implementing
QA tests. Testing an e-publishing website can be time consuming.
Even a simple test of search functionality has several steps; go to the designated
URL, log in, search, verify the search results, check hit highlighting, start an advanced search, verify those results, check hit highlighting again, start another search with a different term… well, you get the idea. It’s repetitive. And there are many aspects to test, not just the search facilities.
After a while you might find yourself thinking that there should be a more efficient way to test your website. You can hire someone to do all your
QA tests for you of course. But will they test your website in an efficient way? Will they follow your test cases to the letter; the tests you have spent hours designing, editing and documenting? If only there were an automated tool to do all this – and one which did not require a degree in Computer Science to operate.
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Though Apple arguably achieved a significant first with the launch of its App Store in July 2008 it is certainly not the only company currently with their own App store (interestingly the word ‘App’, coined by Apple, was accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary as long ago as 1985).
Since its launch, the App Store has enjoyed tremendous success. There are now over 100,000 Apps in the store, which logs over 10,000 downloads a day. But the market for smartphone apps is heating up. So let’s take a look at some of the contenders who are going to be snapping hard on Apple’s heels. Continue reading 
It’s always suspicious (to a jaundiced marketing person’s eye) when a show organiser chooses to place a large seated cafe area at the centre of the exhibition floor.
There were some noticeable absences at this year’s Online Information exhibition at Olympia – no doubt the result of crunch-inspired budget caution – and the air of an industry bracing itself for further shocks.