Fix Drop Down Menu behind YouTube Videos

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We get asked a lot of times about Z index’s to fix drop down menus hiding behind a youtube video.

There is many different ways to fix this problem but it seems you are fighting against Internet Explorer each time you fix this in another browser.

To explain the problem, when you add the iframe to your code to call the YouTube video for example you will use:-

https://www.youtube.com/embed/InDMh5s0-q0

No in the browser no matter what you do you get a z-index greater then everything else which means that YouTube video will be overlayed on top of anything and this is why you bang your head against the wall fixing with CSS.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/InDMh5s0-q0?wmode=opaque

To overcome this issue you can tell the YouTube video how to behave adding the following code:-

<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" 
width="640" height="360"
src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/InDMh5s0-q0?wmode=opaque" 
frameborder="0"></iframe>

This fix works and the drop down menu will appear over the YouTube video. But the problem is you have to remember to add this to each video you embed so here a fix you can add to the header of your website coding and it will automatically add the required fix so you can embed normally and let the coding do the hard work.

function addToQueryString(url, key, value) {
    var query = url.indexOf('?');
    var anchor = url.indexOf('#');
    if (query == url.length - 1) {
        // Strip any ? on the end of the URL
        url = url.substring(0, query);
        query = -1;
    }
    return (anchor > 0 ? url.substring(0, anchor) : url)
         + (query > 0 ? "&" + key + "=" + value : "?" + key + "=" + value)
         + (anchor > 0 ? url.substring(anchor) : "");
}

Birmingham Named Best City to Visit in the UK

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Birmingham has been given the award of Best UK City to Visit by readers of Group Leisure Magazine, beating off stiff competition from York, Liverpool and London. The award was presented at a prestigious ceremony held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

Over the last 6 years, Birmingham has seen an 11% rise in visitors and a continued sense of regeneration throughout the city. Visitors flock to see some of Birmingham’s main attractions including the NEC, Symphony Hall, the new Central Library and the Bullring Shopping Centre. Christmas is a particularly busy time for the city as the Frankfurt Christmas Market brings extra visitors to the area, as well as the lure of the Bullring for Christmas shopping.

Rob Yandell, the managing editor of Group Leisure, commented that ‘the city is delivering a first class experience’, further indicating the support for the Birmingham tourist industry. Birmingham is a vibrant and thriving city which is going from strength to strength, and Chameleon Web Services are pleased to be a part of this.

How to Choose a Website Design Company

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There are thousands of web designers in the UK, from amateurs operating from their bedrooms to multi-million pound web services corporations so finding the right one to work on your website can be a difficult task. There are many aspects to consider when shopping around for a website designer and getting the right one to complete your website is important.

The main issues to consider include:

Price of Website Design

Cost is often the main concern for an individual or business when buying a new website. A word of warning; if it sounds too good (or cheap!) to be true, then it probably is! Naturally you want the best deal possible and to save money where you can, but beware that the cheapest website design company is not usually the best. Choosing the cheapest web design company can cost you more in the long term; there is no point having a website developed which is unappealing, unattractive and ultimately unsuccessful just because it was cheap.

Web Designers Portfolio

It is very easy for web designers to pray on a person’s inexperience and lack of knowledge in the technical arena, promising you the earth and then delivering sub-standard results. A way in which you can help guard against this is by asking to see a portfolio of the website design companies past clients; this will give you an indication of their capabilities and also what level of work you can expect for your budget.

Website Designer Customer Service/Reviews/Recommendations

It is important to work with a website designer that you can trust and find easy to work alongside. To get a feel for the nature of the web design company that you are going to work with, check out their customer reviews and online recommendations. For an even deeper insight, ask the company if you can have the contact details of some of their past clients and speak to them directly; they will have the most accurate information on the company.

Having a website designed is an important aspect of web marketing and it is imperative that it is completed correctly. If you choose the right website design company you will have a fantastic looking website, at the right price with excellent ongoing support.

Chameleon Web Services offer a comprehensive website design service; all of our sites are built to our customers’ specification and budget, as well as being optimised for internet marketing purposes. To discuss your requirements and for a free quote, contact us today on 0121 663 0456 or fill in our online contact form.

Should I use the disavow tool even if there’s not a manual action on my site?

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Should I use the disavow tool even if there's not a manual action on my site?

Should webmasters use the disavow tool, even if it is believed that no penalty has been applied? For example, if we believe ‘Negative SEO’ has been attempted, or spammy sites we have contacted have not removed links.
James, Bristol, UK

Google to Block Child Porn Sites

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The Daily Mail has been campaigning for Google, the leading search engine, to block links to websites promoting child pornography and indecent images and videos; they have finally won this campaign. Google have taken the move to clean up their results, remove imagery and videos that are identified as child abuse/pornography and help those who are searching for these abhorrent things to seek help and advice.

In 2012, two schoolgirls were abused and murdered by men who had an addiction to internet child pornography; Mark Bridger and Stuart Hazell. It was proved in their trials that before they assaulted April Jones and Tia Sharp respectively, they viewed videos and images of child pornography and abuse. What is even more shocking is that they were able to access such material through performing simple keyword searches on Google.

In a move to tackle this issue, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has revealed that Google have taken big steps to eradicate these search results and links to inappropriate sites being displayed, as well as encouraging those who are looking for this type of material to get help.

Firstly, they have changed their algorithm so that links to pages promoting child abuse images and associated material do not appear in their search results. This has had an effect upon over 100,000 different search queries made in the English language. There is a plan to roll out these clean-up changes to over 150 languages soon in order for the results to be globally realised.

Removing the links to inappropriate pages will not necessarily deter all paedophiles from searching for child pornography, therefor over 13,000 search queries now come with warnings. They state that child sexual abuse is illegal and point the user in the direction of a help and support system.

The job of detecting images of child sexual abuse must be completed by people rather than computers as there is no way for computers to distinguish between innocent and indecent pictures. Therefore, Google dedicate time and staff to review online images and if they are found to contain abuse, give them a unique digital fingerprint which allows us to identify the image wherever it may be on our system and remove it. Microsoft developed and shared this outstanding piece of technology.

As more and more paedophiles turn to video to record their crimes, YouTube are developing new technology to try and detect these types of video. It is in the testing stage with Google at the moment, but next year should be available to other internet companies and child protection agencies.

Google is the leading search engine and as such, has a very highly skilled workforce. This is being shared with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in Britain and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US in the form of secondments of key members of staff.

These steps are a clear indication that the internet is changing and it is being made more difficult for paedophiles and other individuals to access child pornography which is a big step in the right direction.