Web Dev Digest Episode 3 Intro ...INTRO MUSIC... Welcome to the Web Dev Digest. The show where we look back on the day's web development news. This is episode number three, for Friday, June 29, 2007. I'm your host, Ara Pehlivanian. In today's show we'll be checking out exciting new development for CSS3. We'll try to figure out what Joe Hewitt's latest project is. And could the days of the same old fonts on the web be numbered? Stay tuned to find out this and more on today's Web Dev Digest! ...MUSIC INTERLUDE... Hello and welcome the show. CSS3 and Opera If you're a web developer, there's a good chance you've heard of CSS3. But did you know that modern browsers are already supporting some of it? According to CSS3 dot info, all major browsers are now supporting at least some part of the spec. Leading the pack is Konqueror who's way out in front with Gecko coming up a distant second. (Gecko of course being the rendering engine used by several browsers the ever popular Firefox.) But things are looking to change real soon with Opera Software's recent announcement of Kestrel. Kestrel is the code name for the upcoming release of version nine point five of their Opera web browser. What's significant about this release is that Opera will be the first major cross-platform browser to offer CSS3 support. Unfortunately the Kestrel announcement covers a lot more of the browser's overall improvements, and the details on exactly what part of CSS3 it'll support are a little thin. In fact the only thing we know for sure is that it'll let you do text-shadowing. SEOmoz Hiring Are you looking for a job? SEOmoz dot org is looking for an experienced LAMP developer to work out of their Seattle Washington offices. For details on the position visit SEOmoz dot org or check out the show notes for a link. Joe Hewitt Joe Hewitt, the author of the revolutionary Firefox extension Firebug posted an entry to his blog yesterday entitled "Things that don't suck". In it he talks about his overwhelming excitement about something he's working on at the moment, and apparently he hasn't felt this good about coding in years. Hewitt doesn't come out and tell us what he's working on--in fact he specifically states that his project is quote, under the radar, end quote--but it's possible to piece together from his hints that he's most likely working on a mobile Facebook app. Specifically something for the iPhone. Keep your eyes peeled because whatever it is, if the inventor of Firebug is building it, it's bound to be really good. Google Updates Webmaster Guidelines Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Webspam team, wants your feedback on Google's recently updated Webmaster Quality Guidelines.  The guidelines serve to inform website owners and builders on how to play nice with the Google search engine. Following them not only helps your site rank well, but it helps keep you from accidentally getting blacklisted for doing things like loading pages with irrelevant keywords. It's worth taking a look because in the end, if your site doesn't show up on Google, it just doesn't exist. Bye bye web fonts Richard Rutter of clagnut dot com reports on a new licensing program just announced by Ascender Corporation. Ascender is the distributor of Microsoft's fonts. In a press release this past Thursday, Ascender stated quote: The Ascender Server Font License program grants organizations the right to install fonts on a server for use with an application that can be accessed by an unlimited number of users. The server license is available for either internal use (i.e an Intranet within an entity), or external use (for Internet-based applications), end quote. Rutter points out that the main purpose of this new licensing program is for Microsoft's Silverlight, which doesn't embed fonts the way Flash does. He goes to point out however that just the existence of this new license is an encouraging step forward, and maybe the beginning of the end of same old web fonts we've all had to work with for far too long. Outtro ... OUTTRO MUSIC FADE IN ... You've been listening to the Web Dev Digest. The show where we look back on the day's web development news. This was episode number three, for Friday, June 29, 2007. Show notes with links to the news covered in this episode can be found on ara pehlivanian dot com.