Few would argue the Internet has changed how we live and work. More than one billion people rely on it globally, and more are jumping onboard daily.

What’s especially interesting is that the demographics are expanding. For instance, a recent Pew Internet study revealed broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009. Moreover, two groups of low-income Americans saw strong broadband growth from 2008 to 2009.

Web designers, developers and copywriters should take note as these trends could impact how websites should look and function, and what messages should be conveyed. For example, retirement homes often gear their web content toward sons and daughters of mature parents. However, if more mature people are surfing and spending time on the Web, it might be more effective to speak directly to the retirees or potential guests.

The study also revealed Americans value the Internet more than TVs or cell phones. Believe it. Even during the economic recession, more than twice as many respondents said they had cut back or cancelled a cell phone plan or cable TV service versus Internet service.

More and more people are realizing the Internet connects and empowers. And the smart businesses are making the most of this long-term and lucrative trend.

Google, Facebook, MySpace have all done it. Now another player, Yahoo, is dipping its toes into the self-service ad industry.

Yahoo recently unveiled its self-service option for display advertising aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses. The display ad solution is called Yahoo My Display Ads, and according to Yahoo it “puts display advertising within reach for businesses of all sizes.”

Should small businesses jump on board and start advertising with Yahoo My Display Ads?

To get the scoop on Yahoo’s latest venture, we chatted with Tamara Brooks, co-owner of Vancouver-based October 17 Media. Tamara is a seasoned marketing professional, having working in online marketing and the branding industry for roughly 12 years. With her business partner Brenda Cadman, October 17 Media has worked alongside clients such as Future Shop, Fitness Town, Canadian Gene Cure Foundation, Leahy Music, the District of West Vancouver, Homeworks Services Inc, Pennzoil Quaker State US, NAPA Canada and DDB Canada.

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Google has embarked on a public-relations offensive claiming it’s not so big as regulators are intensely scrutinizing its every move.

“Some analysts say that government opposition, here or in Europe, could pose the biggest threat to Google’s continued success,” noted New York Times’ Miguel Helft.

Experts are also saying the steady stream of headlines about antitrust investigations could taint Google’s image with consumers, who view the search engine company in a positive light.

To be sure, Google’s “Senior Competition Counsel” Dana Wagner faces a daunting task, considering:

• Google handles roughly two-thirds of all Internet searches.
• It owns the largest online video site, YouTube, which is more than 10 times more popular than its nearest competitor.
• In 2008, Google sold nearly $22 billion in advertising, more than any media company in the world.

But Wagner insists: “Competition is a click away.”

It’s true. Google is a search engine giant. But we need to remember, just a few years ago, Yahoo was on top of the world. And now Yahoo could lose its number two spot to Microsoft’s increasingly popular Bing.

Google’s got a grip on the market – for now. Fortunately, they still have worthy competitors gnawing away at their heels, looking for a bigger piece of the pie. It’ll keep them innovative and honest.

Read full story: Google Makes a Case That It Isn’t So Big.

When web writers get fancy, they create barriers for visitors to complete their tasks.

When web writers get out of the way, they empower visitors to navigate, gather information and get things done quicker, and with little effort. That’s why good web writers always strive for simple.

Clear, concise web copy fosters satisfaction amongst website users and promotes higher conversion rates.

To see different web writing styles, and find out which work best, check out Web Writing: The Good, Bad and Ugly.

Web designers can make or break a business. In fact, a good web designer can be just as valuable to a company as any director or VP.

The reason is a good web designer can make your business look established and credible on the increasingly popular Web.

Some 15 years ago, if you wanted to build a successful brand, you had to hire architects and trades people to build a facility, and then spend major dollars on print, radio and TV promotions.

Today, quite often, all you need is a well designed website.

Even if your business is just coming out of the gate, a relatively small investment can get you a professional presence on the web, allowing you to out-brand and outperform an established company in almost any industry.

Don’t undervalue what a good web designer brings to the table. With approximately 70% of the population using the Internet, a professional web designer can help you connect with prospects all over the globe, efficiently and with minimal cost.

And when seeking a quality web designer, remember the web design market has no boundaries. Whether your business is located in London, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Toronto or Vancouver, you can work with a web designer or web design firm situated in any city or country. That’s the beauty of the Web.

Partner with a professional web designer. Your brand will flourish and your bottom line will benefit, too.

Marketing mastermind Seth Godin noted in his blog that business cycles are far shorter these days. “More now than ever,” he wrote, “success today is no guarantee of success tomorrow.”

Few would argue that point. Yet, he points out that too often we spend more time than we should defending the old thing, instead of working to take advantage of the new thing.

The fact is people resist change when we perceive it as a threat. The true entrepreneurs, on the other hand, look at change as a big, fat opportunity. They have a positive outlook and create a productive spin.

For instance, I read about an owner of a high-end restaurant in Edmonton who insisted the downturn in the economy would create new opportunities for him. His reasoning? Well, instead of going out for four or five average meals monthly, people will go for one really nice outing each month.

Could this be true? Perhaps — or it might be far from the truth. But the key is true entrepreneurs see opportunities in everything, even during the most trying moments.

And today’s entrepreneurs need to be especially quick on the draw. As Godin pointed out, business transitions are virtually an annual event. To that point, he concluded: “The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does.”

Harsh, but true.

We often come across and receive killer resources from web industry partners — and we like to share, too.

Here are several that are especially useful for web designers:

Telling Google about domain changes
Moved a client’s site? Tell the king of search about your domain change. Google tells you how.

Are your clients’ soles starting to wear?
Smashing Magazine examines what exactly makes for a good website footer. This insightful article discusses what to include in footers, the importance of sitemaps, usability practices, and styling ideas and trends. Plus, it showcases approximately 50 well-developed footers. Play footsies with Smash Mag.

Fixed or fluid layout?
This Smashing Magazine feature goes over the pros and cons of fixed, fluid, elastic and hybrid layout designs to help web designers head down the right path.

Web browser standards
Web Devout promotes the health of the Web by providing web developers both knowledge and tools. This section covers Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera web browsers, with focus on the HTML, CSS, DOM, and ECMAScript technologies. Get standardized.

Give me speed!
Web users indicate slow load times are one of the key factors likely to turn them away from websites (see Users place more weight on design). Slow-loading sites are caused by everything from too many image requests to heavy javascript. Yahoo’s YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve website performance.

Useful Firefox plug-ins
Firefox is popular among web designers. Heck, almost 60 per cent of Webcoppylus’ visitors use Firefox.  Web Design Booth brings you 35 useful Firefox extensions for web designers and developers alike. Plug away.

The demand for good web design is increasing, revealed a recent Webcopyplus online poll. Almost 25% of web users indicated “poor visual presentation” as the number one element that drives them away from websites.

Only 6.6% of web users who participated in a similar 2007 online poll indicated ‘poor visual presentation” as the main reason to abandon a website. That equates to a 267% increase during the two-year period.

Our web content specialists believe the increased desire for quality design comes from the fact that Internet users have become increasingly sophisticated. Consequently, more of today’s Internet users understand that a well designed website makes it possible to achieve more, with less time and effort.

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This spring, forget about your garage and closet — clean out your website!

If your site’s been online for more than a few months, chances are it’s cluttered with unnecessary content. Meanwhile, every extra item on your website competes for your visitors’ attention, reducing the impact of your key message.

Employ the following six steps to eliminate these distractions and instantly improve your site’s usability:

1.    Sweep out useless items
Is that welcome message necessary? Are some of those buttons or links redundant? When it comes to web content, less is more. So scrutinize every element on your website and discard whatever you can.

2.    Update your information
Keep your web copy up to date. If you don’t have adequate resources, keep time-sensitive information to a minimum.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt slammed Microsoft’s new search engine Bing on Fox Business Network this week.

Here are some highlights from Schmidt:

“It’s not the first (search-engine market) entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year. From Bing’s perspective, they have a bunch of new ideas and there are some things that are missing. We think search is about comprehensiveness, freshness, the scale and size of what we do. And it’s difficult for them to copy that…”

“(We’re) actually not (spending more money in response to Microsoft’s advertising blitz), given the name. But the fact of the matter is that we are spending all of our time on exactly what we’ve always done, which is innovation. I don’t think Bing’s arrival has changed what we’re doing. We are about search, we’re about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation…”

“You earn (the No. 1 spot). You don’t buy it with ads. You earn it, and you earn it customer by customer, search by search, answer by answer. And we believe that today we beat our competitors because we’re so focuses on comprehensiveness, speed, freshness and having the depth that people really care about.”

Schmidt is free to share his views, but ultimately it’s the market’s opinion that counts. So far, Google seems safe, but Yahoo might start losing sleep soon.

Read more at Seattle P-I.