Today, we’re all either breathing a sigh of relief that 2020 is finally over with, or steeling ourselves for what could be an even worse year. Whatever the case may be, we’ve been hard at work here at AWT getting ready to bring you an all-new Apple World Today.
Around January 15, 2021, we’ll be switching over to a new site that is designed from the ground up for speed. All of the images are compressed and stored on a content distribution network (CDN), and we have optimization tools that alert us when things start running slowly.
The new site is also designed to automate a lot of the functions that Dennis and I currently have to perform manually. Sadly, that has meant that Dennis has had to do most of the writing for the site while I’ve been working on the “back end” of the site, but I am hopeful that I can spend more time writing for AWT in 2021.
We’re also going to try making ads less obtrusive on the new site. Let’s face it — we need ad revenue in order to survive, and ad rates are at an all-time low. However, we feel that the existing site has been overwhelmed with advertising so we’re toning it down a lot. To bring more eyes to the site, we’ll be using some search engine optimization (SEO) tools that can hopefully bring us the needed revenue while keeping ads from interrupting.
Even searching the site should be faster and more accurate thanks to the tools we’re using for the redesign. A spell and grammar checker will ensure less errors on Apple World Today as well. We also hope to have a new service in place where you’ll be able to buy good used Apple equipment or get repairs on existing gear.
You’ll still have access to the over 21,000 existing articles we’ve written since February 9, 2015. If there’s a hint or tip that you need to find, it’s likely we have it for you!
When we get closer to the migration date we’ll be warning you about possible downtime and begging for your patience with any unexpected glitches that may arise. We’re looking forward to introducing you to Apple World Today 2.0 soon!
