Reliable Systems - Software Development Blog

I recently re-investigated the PEAR LiveUser package - it wasn’t suitable for “grab and use” a year ago - and I was surprised to see that the changelog for this package is 4 years long! Come on, guys! What’s taking you so long?

At least there’s now installation instructions for it

But really, sometimes it’s quicker to re-invent the wheel and have your custom authentication system done i two days and reuse it - getting accustomed with LiveUser’s documentation and API would take a comparable amount of time - and bugs you’ll find will be yours bugs, not the ones in highly complex code written by an alien team of people.

We made a pitch recently for one of potential clients - unfortunately we lost the deal.

But the remains of the pitch gave us unexpected results… My website about the pitch displays first on the Google results page, and the client's website - fourth!

That's why it is no longer sufficient to merely "make a website" - it needs to be done prpoerly to allow people to find you when they look for… you :)

It seems like the maket forces in the UK are more and more favorable for the e-commerce than high street shopping - and that is a good news, there’s still plenty of opportunity to invade the web with your online shop and start building a customer base - there’s a long way before the market gets saturated, and I think the growth accelerates every year.

But the question is - if we know more and more people will want to buy goods online, and want to sell it to them - why won’t the high street suppliers handle the e-commerce side of thing themselves, completely eliminating the “middle man”? That might be a danger for all the small online shops that spring each day, and if it comes to our market sector (web development) - that might mean a decline in number of potential customers interesting in opening their own online shops - who needs another online grocery if Tesco.com delivers your stuff to your doorstep?

I think we’ll see a lot of consolidation in the e-commerce sector now, so we really live in very interesting times.

But in spite of all the consolidation that goes on I still see a lot of opportunities for niche companies to really bloom and blossom - hence the future’s bright.