Is it time for Web Developer Licensing?

Here is a dangerous thought... Need some opinions, but expect to hear mostly negative.
As a professional web developer, now in my 12th year, I have run into untold number of clients who agreed to have an "unknown" developer or company develop their website. All too often it is the same outcome... the developer vanishes without a trace and the client is out their money.
Additionally, in Ohio, Ohio Revised Code 1329.01 and 1329.10 stipulate that all persons or businesses must register their DBA with the state. Unfortunately, Ohio's AG office and Secretary of State office refuse or are unable to enforce these rules.
So, would a national "Web Developer License", with similar screening to that of an Accountant be worthwhile in our industry? Would it help to weed out the unscrupulous individuals that prey upon unsuspecting clients and businesses? After all, many of these developers have access to a clients' e-commerce system and access to all the customer data within the system. Shouldn't businesses have some assurances that the people behind the scene are ethical, honest, and have been screened through a licensing process?

Should search engines give favor to registered businesses?

For the past several years I have been doing all I can locally to push for web developer licensing and business registration. I have been doing this to encourage those who are not a registered business to file for registration. Every year I hear from dozens of clients who fall victim to web developers who are not on the "up and up". These clients are swindled out of their money and never get their site developed.
Therefore, I have been pushing Ohio representatives to enact laws that will require a state/federal license requirement for web developers, more specifically, e-commerce developers. After all, if you have to have a license to cut hair, shouldn't you have a license when you have access to hundreds if not thousands of sites and customer financial information.
Until that day happens, I'm hoping the search engines will take a pro-active stance on this and start adjusting the search results to give higher preference to search results of registered businesses (llc, ltd, inc, corp, etc).
If Google were to implement this criteria in their search results, the unregistered web developers and other unregistered businesses would not get higher preference in the results. This would force businesses to have to register themselves as a company. This would have the following impact on the industry.
1. It would give Google a positive light as it would be encouraging people to be honest and ethical and register their business within their state or federal government.
2. This in turn would protect the general public from un-registered hobbyist or the unscrupulous.
3. The increase in registrations would help to add revenue to state coffers because of the increase of business registration fees.
4. It would temporarily give a boost to the honest and ethical businesses that are already registered as a business in their state or federal government.
I hope Google and it's board will give consideration to this and help me in my goal of creating a more ethical and honest internet. Together, we can encourage legislation to promote this agenda and at the very least promote self regulation in the industry that has run a foul with dishonest web developers and other fly by night operations.

When it comes to PCI Compliance and Joomla websites, you really have to give it up to the Joomla Core Developers for thinking ahead of the Government!

For the past week I have been working on securing two websites in regards to PCI Compliance.  For me, this is the second go around with Compliance testing.  Quite honestly, the whole process makes me want to vomit every three months I have to do this.  It is an absolute nightmare.  I'm now into my 7th day of testing and have run over 5 tests during the past seven days.  Each time, I have to hunt down the culprit issues and secure them.  This whole process involves talking to McAfee Secure Support to get a clarification of the report and then twisting the arm of my Host provider and convincing them of the PCI issues.... not an easy task.  Fortunately, since I'm on my own dedicated server, I have more leverage in getting what I want!

Any ways, thank the Joomla team for making a portion of this process a little easier.

The following companies are business that we would refer our clients to for services above and beyond our capabilities and for second opinions and comparison estimates.  In our opinion, they provide excellent quality service, good pricing, and are dependable and trust worthy.

First Communications Group Inc - www.firstgrp.com

Harvey Advertising & Design - www.harveyad.com

Aardvark Inc - www.aardvarkmedia.com

CompNet Integrated Solutions, LLC - www.compnet-is.com

What are the following businesses hiding?  Why won't they register with the Secretary of State?

The following companies are located in or near Findlay, Ohio and operating a business in violation of Ohio Revised Code 1329.01 and 1329.10

Please review the following pages to verify the consquences of doing business with a business in violation of ORC 1329.01.  Please consult your attorney before signing any contract of a "Company" that has not filled ORC 1329.01.

Google changes are coming soon!

Some activity in the search engine indicates some changes in the Google Algorithm are currently in progress.  How do I know?  Well, for starters, since 2002, www.dynamicwebs.com, will drop in and out  and bounce around from page to page of the search results during what I call an "Algorithm Purge".  During this algorithm purge sites are re-indexed, spidered and ranked based on their site content.  For the past seven years, dynamicwebs.com has consistantly ranked in the top 1-3 pages of the search engines for the term "Ohio Web Design".  As of today, 5/26/09, dynamicwebs.com has been dropped completely from the search results.  This means that the domain has been removed from the results for further inspection by computerized means or for human inspection.  The reason for this could be for any reason related to algorithm changes or it could be the result that dynamicwebs.com has recently gone through a complete content make-over.  Regardless, because the site is no longer in the google index for "ohio web design", it is a pretty good indication that a algorithm purge is going to take place in the next few days or weeks.  It will also mean that a lot of sites will re-shuffle in the results.  Let's hope this purge and re-indexing is a little more accurate than previous purge/shuffles.

Our site was recently upgraded to a new Joomla template design built with CSS 3 and web 2.0 technology.  You will notice we now have many new product offerings, services, and features to assist in your web development projects.  In addition to our new services, Dynamic Webs is moving closer to full integration with advanced Virtuemart Storefront development and PCI Compliance for credit card transactions.

Several new sections to our site are:

• Live Support - Talk to an agent live through one-on-one chat.
• Support Tickets - Open a support ticket for assistance.
• Blog Posting and Comments
• Account Login
• Order Services and Support through our web portal.
• SEO Tools - Analyze your site with our search engine optimization tools.
• Review our Portfolio