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.

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.

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

It’s like Twitter on steroids. The new Google Wave is a fusion of productivity tools, social networks, and micro-blogging.

You can communicate and collaborate on the Web platform with both private and public messages. In fact, some believe Google Wave will reinvent e-mail.

Check out the Google Wave demo now.

Web Designer Wall recently featured an article surrounding a Webcopyplus web poll, which indicated more users are demanding good web design. It sparked a debate at a recent workshop, where web writers, designers and developers started debating which is the king of the Web: web content or design.

While I’m on record for suggesting web content is the king of the Web, I believe both are royally important. In fact, if you dig deeper, I’d have to say consumers are the true ‘kings of the Web’ because they ultimately dictate what succeeds and fails on the Internet.

As web specialists, we need to keep reminding ourselves that a website is critical in how people perceive, understand and interpret a company and its offerings. And everything counts. Quality web writing can’t compensate for poor design, and good design can’t save poor web copy.

Web designers, developers, web writers – and anyone else involved in creating websites – need to respect what others bring to the table. It’s best to put egos aside and collaborate. That way, everyone involved wins – especially the client.

Too often, business owners think websites are merely digital brochures. They’re much more — if you get the right web writers, designers and developers onboard.

In fact, a well-planned and implemented website can be the sustaining engine of any business in any industry.

They can gain your business major exposure for a fraction of the cost of ads; distribute your information to any region; connect with specific audiences and markets; generate leads and sales 24/7, and much more.

Just ask Macinhome, a Vancouver-based Mac training and technical support company, which took the time to assemble a team of Web specialists. They made a considerable investment, and it starting earning the Mac consultants an extraordinary return almost immediately. Their website generates leads and sales weekly, and they’re now the fastest growing Mac consulting company in Western Canada.

Get a cheap template and spend a week fiddling with your site and chances are you’ll end up with an ineffective “digital brochure.” Carefully choose your resources and invest wisely, and you’ll reap long-term rewards with your devoted virtual ambassador.

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web 20 years ago, is proposing a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures and video.

He suggests unlocking raw data globally could unleash a new world of answers, which could connect people and build relationships, aid mankind and generate infinite opportunities.

If everyone partakes – including governments and corporations — “link data” could completely connect the world via unprocessed information, utilizing everything from event and personal data to medical and economic data.

So many more answers would be at our fingertips.

Watch Berners-Lee discuss link data on TED.

Most business owners understand and appreciate the benefits of having a website: it’s cheaper and more flexible than print; makes market expansion possible regardless of your size; works for you 24/7/365; and increases revenue stream opportunities. The list goes on.

But while websites provide a super highway for informational communication, there’s also the all-important relational aspect. Websites are critical in establishing and nurturing relationships with others.

Indeed, use websites to get your point across. Just don’t forget to leverage the opportunity to foster closer ties and create a solid rapport with your prospects and clients alike.

Whether you take advantage of e-mail, newsletters, online tools or one of many nifty Web 2.0 applications, remember your website can build authentic relationships that create desirable outcomes for all parties involved.