Frequently Asked Questions

A. Kameleoon is a software that adds a dynamic layer of customization to your website. Once installed, you will be able to modify and customize web pages directly from your favorite browser. You can change the position of elements, their decorations or appearance (colors, gradients, images...), or even their content. All without knowing CSS or HTML, and without having to redeploy files to your server. It's a perfect tool to quicky tweak existing pages, run A/B tests to optimize your site's conversion rate, or author beautiful designs.

A. Kameleoon is not a website builder or a hosting solution: our service plugs into an already setup site or platform. Thus it's not a tool for adding content to your pages, or adding new pages. Even though you can modify existing static content with Kameleoon, we recommend using a standard CMS solution to build the content of your website. There are lots of free solutions for creating blogs, e-commerce stores or full websites - for instance WordPress or Joomla.

A. We have two products built on the Kameleoon technology: Designer and Analyst.

• Designer allows you to author professionally looking designs, without any knowledge of HTML or CSS. You will love Designer if you want to customize a base template for your web site, or want to create a full blown design.
• Analyst is a full-featured A/B testing solution. A/B testing is a methodology that allows you to improve your website's conversion rate (and thus improve your sales) by comparing the performance of various variations of your site. Thus Analyst is a web intelligence tool aimed at serious online business that want to make sure they get the best ROI. Web marketers love our product as it allows them to efficiently run tests without bothering the IT department.

A. We developped Kameleoon with ease of use in mind. If you can use web applications such as Gmail, you will be able to learn Kameleoon quickly. The interface can be a bit complex at the beginning, but that's because we offer a very high level of control. For each element on the page, you can change its background, its borders, the text size and color, and add special effects like shadows or gradients. The base functionality of our software can be learnt in less than an hour, and everything is truly WYSIWYG, since the results of your changes are viewable directly in your browser!

A. There are several ways to get help and support. You can:

• browse this site;
• read the official Kameleoon documentation;
• speak with the developer team on the #kameleoon IRC channel on Freenode;
• or contact us directly. We reply quickly ;)

A. No - Kameleoon is a truly web based software system and you don't need to install anything. Not even a browser plugin! You only need to plug our service into your site, which is done by adding a line of code to your HTML pages - see next question.

A. Everywhere! Kameleoon's main strength is to be compatible with any website that is not 100% Flash based (just containing Flash elements does not cause problems). Just follow our startup guide. The procedure is exactly similar to a Google Analytics integration.

A. Yes! While the generic installation way is quite easy, it still requires you to edit your HTML source files. Sometimes it can be difficult, especially if you are using a hosted solution such as Blogger. However, we provide plugins for popular solutions to avoid doing this. We currently support:

• WordPress
• Jimdo
• Prestashop
• DotClear
• Joomla

Don't wait for the plugins to try out Kameleoon though - installation is easy as long as you know how to edit your HTML source files.

A. Just point your browser to your site. Once the page is loaded, hit [Shift + F2] and the Kameleoon interface will directly load.

• For Mac users: press [fn + Shift + F2], since [F2] without [fn] will by default adjust your screen brightness.
• For Opera users: the [Shift + F2] shortcut may be already assigned to Opera. In this case, either remove it (Preferences -> Advanced -> Shortcuts) or use the URL method below.

In any case, if the keyboard shortcut does not work for you, you can add ?kameleoon=true at the end of your URL and reload the page. Kameleoon will load in edition mode.

A. Just move your mouse on the page. Elements that you can customize will appear highlighted. Choose an element and click: the main tool panel will appear. You can then experiment with the different options. Changes will be visible in the chosen element instantly (to better view them, you can click on the green cameleon button to temporarily disable edition mode). To quit the edition mode when you're done, click on the small red logout button.

A. Many. See for yourself:

• Support for changing the background of an element: background color, background image or multi-step gradient;
• Two borders can be added to any element, and rounded corners are extremely easy to create;
• Change the margins, paddings or dimensions of elements;
• Change the text properties (font, color, size, style), or replace content with an image;
• Advanced effects (shadows, inner shadows, and more);
• Change the position of an element, and edit its content with a rich text editor (for static content).

A. Yes. You can create as many designs as you want, and change them whenever you want. For instance you could have a special design for the Christmas period, or for summer. To manage your designs, go to the design manager. It can be accessed in the top toolbar, right of the green cameleon button (last button of the select box).

A. You can modify all that's related to the appearance of text: fonts, size, colors, style... Besides, Designer includes an advanced rich text editor, so you can change text content. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you use this, this will change the content for *all* the pages of your website, so if this element's content is dynamic, it is probably not a good idea! For dynamic content, using appearance changes (from the Design panel) is fine though.

A. Yes. However, once you made a modification, check with different pages and screen sizes to make sure the result is correct, as changing the layout of a page can be sometimes tricky.

A. We have a useful feature that allows an element to be reset to its original state (before being edited by Kameleoon). Go to the "Effects" tab and click on the Reset button.

A. We keep adding cool features to Kameleoon to make it the best decoration tool available on the Web. To learn about planned features, the best is to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. To request a feature, please use the feedback tab on the left to access our forum for feedback and user's requests.

A. A/B testing is the most cost efficient methodology to improve your conversion rate, which is the percentage of visitors that actually become customers. By improving this crucial rate, you will get more sales for the same traffic. We have a whole website dedicated to getting started with A/B testing and explaining why it is so important to consider A/B testing while building or improving your website (as important as good SEO!).

A. If you're just getting started with A/B testing, it can be very difficult to actually run your first tests. You have to send visitors to different pages, track their behaviors... even creating the different variations can involve quite a bit of work. For this reason, it makes much more sense to rely on an A/B testing solution such as Analyst to perform experiments and tests. Our product is targeted at web marketers, conversion specialists and enthusiastic small online business owners. It takes away the technical complexity of creating variations and running tests, allowing you to focus on your creativity in order to improve your website. For large accounts, our main advantage is that tests can be ran without interfering with the IT department: once the script is installed, you will never have to bother the IT manager again!

A. The variations are created with Designer - so you have lots of features to use. There is really no limit to the variations you can try; almost anything you could imagine can be done with our software.

A. Yes, there are some additional features that only make sense for A/B testing, such as the possibility to use redirects, custom JavaScript code, etc.

A. Absolutely. You can choose a general deviation percentage (eg, only 20% of my visitors will actually see the test), and there are also more advanced targeting options available.

A. We have a basic dashboard available where you can check results, but we really recommend you to track and visualize the results using your existing web analytics solution (such as Google Analytics). Integration between Kameleoon and solutions such as GA is super easy - since we created our software for that purpose!

A. We use smart, patented techniques to make Kameleoon work "magically" in a generic way on any website. Basically, when a page is requested, the Kameleoon script will load elements generated via the interface (images, and style files) from our server and add them to the rendered page. It also modifies the original DOM to enhance it with extra elements needed to provide all the decorations in a cross-browser way.

A. Yes, they are. It can be compared to using the Google Web Font API, for instance, where fonts are stored on Google's servers. Distributed content has indeed a lot of advantages (in our case, it allows instant style updating, without deployment issues that would prevent most people from using our software). Our servers are highly redundant and won't go down, so don't worry about stability. If you really want to, you can fetch the generated files from our servers (those are publicly accessible) and store them wherever you want. In most cases we think it's not worth the trouble though.

A. You could, but it would require you to add the Kameleoon needed HTML elements to all your pages and customizable blocks. So it should probably done in your server side code (PHP, ASP, JSP etc). We don't recommend doing that: again, it's not worth the trouble. The future of the Web is moving towards the use of more intelligent client side code where it makes sense, and keeping everything on the server is generally not a smart choice. Note that JS is absolutely mandatory for edition mode.

A. We support all widely used browsers (the combined marketshare totals more than 95% in the US / Europe). To be precise:

• Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9;
• Mozilla Firefox 3 and later;
• Google Chrome (all versions);
• Apple Safari 4 and later;
• Opera 10 and later;
• Mobile browsers (notably Android, iPhone and iPad browsers).

Every design and effect that you create works in all those browsers. We worry about cross-browser issues so that you, as a designer, don't have to.

A.Here is the list:

• Google Chrome, version 6 and later (recommended choice);
• Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and later;
• Internet Explorer 8 and 9 (not recommended, since they are 5 to 10 times slower than other browsers);
• Apple Safari 4 and later;
• Opera 10.50 and later;

We recommend using the latest version of Google Chrome as it will provide the best performance for Kameleoon. Latest versions of Firefox (5.0) and Safari (5.1) work very well too. A mobile friendly version is planned.

A. None. We don't modify the original content, and the elements are added via JavaScript, which Google does not take into account when crawling your site. So if you add Kameleoon to an existing page, its ranking won't be changed at all. However, if you start from a blank page or clean template and use Kameleoon for all your design and decorations, it will actually help your SEO. This is because fewer divs will be needed in the original HTML code for design and decorations. Only important semantic content will be present in the Google crawled HTML page, without any garbage elements - and those sites tend to be ranked very high by Google. But since the decoration elements will be added dynamically by Kameleoon, you can also have a visually rich site! With Kameleoon, you can easily get the best of both worlds: a clean HTML structure for higher Google rankings, and great looking pages for your visitors, resulting in higher conversions.

A. No. Quite the contrary! Your pages will actually load faster because:

• page load will be distributed over several servers. The load on your server will be reduced because static files will be downloaded from our servers;
• our HTTP servers are tuned for better static file serving; we will send those files to the browser probably much faster than the web server you currently use (such as Apache).
• Kameleoon optimizes page loading by using well known techniques such as compression and image combining, which results in fewer HTTP calls and lower bandwidth.

Of course, to really take advantage of this speed increase, your original base page should be unstyled. If your initial pages already contain style and images, there won't be much difference.

A. We usually offer Kameleoon in SaaS (Software as a Service) format for Web sites in need of A/B testing, or platforms in need of a customization technology for their users. The software and support (including updates, etc) is provided for a monthly fee. Pricing is available here. Other licensing options are available on request.

A. A/B testing is a proven methodology used by web giants such as Google and Amazon to improve their conversion. Sometimes even a very simple change (like a color change in your "Buy" button) can result in dramatic improvements! As A/B testers and conversion specialists ourselves, we really advise you to at least try some basic experiments on your site as soon as possible - you will probably be very pleasantly surprised at the results.

A. It depends. Kameleoon Analyst is a tool; if you use it yourself, we cannot guarantee that the modifications will create will be beneficial (although if you are motivated and try sufficient tests, there is a great chance they will). However, if you wish, you can order from our team a full A/B testing campaign. In that case, you don't have to worry about anything: we create variations, run experiments, and analyze the results. You receive the final reports. In that case, we can work out a deal involving success fees, as we're quite confident in our capacity to boost your sales.

A. Because customization is very important for a lot of people nowadays. People are customising their Gmail pages, their gadgets (iPhone), and more! Even if providing an additional tool for your platform may be a bit confusing, and obviously won't be used by all your customers, your most dedicated (and usually most vocal) ones will be very happy to be offered a service to customize their experience of your platform. Don't forget that 95% of all Wikipedia content is written by 5% of contributors. The same will be true of your customers: the minority that advocates your platform should be kept happy. In some cases, an entire concept and business can be built around the customization of a simple element. For instance, look at the success of doyoubuzz which offers the possibility to create highly customized resumes. We can provide a customization technology for any web based service.

A. Why not ask your own users and customers their feedback? We're confident that they will be very positive about Kameleoon, so we're ready to offer you our product for free for 3 months. We will help you for the technical integration of our software into your platform, and your users will be able to try out Kameleoon. At the end of the test period, you will be able to make an informed decision about the benefits of our customization technology.

A. Not yet, but we're working on it - it will be an important part of our efforts to create a lively Kameleoon community.

A. Of course we are! We're always looking for partnerships, whether it's a simple link exchange or a big opportunity like integrating Kameleoon in a new exciting open-source platform. Contact us and we will work something out together.