diffuse - web design, web development, bespoke websites, web hosting and & search engine optimisation (SEO)

The backbone of the internet, no website can be built without it. HTML is used to structure how a web page is laid out, and you can see what this page looks like by right-clicking (or control-clicking on a Mac), and then selecting "View Source".

You can learn a lot about a company by looking at the HTML they produce; we take pride in the fact that we hand-write our HTML, so we know exactly what's going on under the cover of your site.

A technology that used to only be used to bring up endless popups that no one liked, JavaScript is being used more and more, and to great effect today. You'll find a lot of JavaScript used on this site, for example, the image gallery on the home page, the sliding effect on this page when you click on a heading, and the gallery on our portfolio pages.

There is a real balance in how much JavaScript should be used, and the real question for every situation is, does it help display information more effectively and enhance the user experience? If the answer's not 'yes', then there's really no point in including it.

PHP (www.php.net) is a programming language that allows your website to behave differently for different users, allows you to add new products into your e-commerce store, and automatically resize an image when you upload it to your image gallery.

PHP is used to generate HTML, and we use it on about 90% of the sites we build... we couldn't live without it!

Where is the data from your Content Management System (CMS) stored? You got it, it's in a database, and the one we like to use is MySQL (www.mysql.com).

MySQL is a free database system, meaning we have no royalties to pay for using it, which results in a lower cost for our customers.

Much like JavaScript, a much maligned technology, but one that when used well, can add a lot to a user's experience on your site. A few years ago, you would have seen it as an opening animation to a website, nowadays, it's found itself a much better role in providing small animations to accompany content on a page. For an example of how to use Flash well, take a look at one of our clients' sites at www.eurobrick.co.uk - Flash is used for the animation on the right-hand-side of the page.

Flash is also used to deliver Video & Audio technologies to end users in applications such as BBC's iPlayer and YouTube.

These technologies can add so much to your site... but they should only be used when there's a genuine use for them. Many people still regard them as technologies only to be used on sites targeting teenagers, but when used for a demonstration of a product - a how-to video, or to give an audio sample, these technologies are invaluable.

Don't forget to take a look at Everything But The Gnome to see how they use Audio to give their customers a sample of what their garden windchimes sound like. Tyneside Vineyard Church and Trent Vineyard Church, both clients of ours, both use video effectively to communicate visually with their church members what's going on, and what's coming up.