Yes, Google has got the most popular search engine on the planet, and yes it has quite a few useful features. For me though, it does lack one important feature, and that is the ability to visually preview a site before actually clicking to enter. A thumbnail preview if you like.

Web typography is the most undervalued and misunderstood aspect of web design. There are many reasons for this, probably, the most common factor is it is ignored purely for simplicity. Why over complicate something that works fine as it is? Web typography is all theories and opinions, that is the point. The evolution of web design relies on opinions and theories, otherwise we would be stuck with the repulsive web designs we had 10 years. So, yes, web typography is very important and you cannot afford to ignore it any more.

A selection of web sites that caught the eye this week, keep your recommendations coming, I can’t get enough of them. Anyone know of any well designed FLEX sites?

The list of cool digital photography techniques and tutorials is endless, you can even find 10 completley different methods to achieve the same effect. Which is the best? It really depends on the photographer and there level of expertise. In this post we have listed our own personal favorites photography techniques with tips tutorials to help you recreate the effect. You will find tecniques for the currently in vogue HDR, Tilt-Shifting and Lomography to the less common and diverse Sabatier and Escher effects. Which ever effect you use, your images are going to look cool and unique.

In this post we have a selection of jQuery plugins and tutorials for enhancing and aiding in the development of the dreaded form area. There are the always important validation plugins, plugins that will give the form added functionality (stretching text-areas, auto-tabbing…) and also plugins that will help you to style the form exactly as you need…and more.

Most Twitter “Follow Me” buttons and icons are boring (look at mine, very dull),soulless and clichéd. How about something with some creativity, originality and a little bit of character. In this post that is exactly what you will find, 35 Original and Creative Twitter Icon Sets.

In this weeks selection CSS is back! I am loving the Smoking Cow and the DUEL PURPOSE designs, they are the best I have seen in a little while. Incidentally, I seem to grade every site against Good Magazine, the pinnacle of this years web design. Marvelous site.

I hope no one has forgotten about MooTools as jQuery seems to be taking over the world. Yes, jQuery is by far and away the more popular Javascript Framework, but is it better than MooTools? They both offer the same functionality and they can both be dropped into any website with relative ease. I suppose it just comes down to preference.

Stylish typography in web design gives your site or blog an added air of quality and sophistication, it demonstrates that mere text can transform a dull and bland design into an eye catching collage of visual architecture. In this article you will find 20+ Free and Stylish Typography Wordpress Themes.

Joomla, the popular professional content management system, has a lagged behind Wordpress for a number of years now. This is due to its slower development and, due to its smaller community, but don’t let that put you off. Joomla is a very solid foundation for any web site, and has you can see by the sites below they can help you create beautiful and very functional web sites.

When a designer releases a free high quality icon set, we are all delighted and grateful. And when a designer releases an icon set accompanied by the .psd files we are ecstatic. An icon set may at times be limited to your requirements, and the chance to extend the icon set, with the use of a .psd file is always helpful.

Flash again is dominating in this weeks web design inspiration. There are a few designs created with CSS, but not as many as expected. Whats going? Has Flash had a new surge in popularity?

Taking the step into a new Content Management System (CMS) can be a daunting prospect. Sometimes you just have to take the step, it could be a client requirement, or simply that the new CMS is tailor made for your current projects spec. Whatever the reasons, it is best as a web designer, to have the knowledge of several CMSs and not be limited to only one.