Of all the elements that can be tested on a website, few are more important than testing the efficiency of your navigation elements. Navigation is an essential element of the Web, capable of providing a vastly improved experience for users and influencing several key performance indicators. While it may not be as exciting an element to test as pricing, it does carry major influence on creating a meaningful interaction for Web users and a profitable one for your Web enterprise.
Information portals and e-commerce sites are those that may benefit most from testing navigation. Groups or individuals focused exclusively on landing page optimization should certainly be concerned with and consider testing navigation,but when the notion of “conversion” rules the focus of every page, calls-to-action and other elements (e.g. imagery) that aid in the conversion process often take precedence. However, navigation should never be an afterthought, as it is an element that can undoubtedly move users closer to the end of the sales funnel, even from a very specific landing page.
Informed, Educated Testing
Depending on your website’s audience, understand that the navigation menu experience will change dramatically from site to site. You may find with a younger, hipper audience that users will prefer rollover menus but detest autoexpanding menus. You may find with far older audiences that text-style menus outperform Flash and hyper-sensitive flyout menus. While you can certainly make some broad guesses as to what will perform best, only testing will ensure the best experience for your audience and, therefore, the best opportunities for conversion.
Commit to Testing
Users must be able to easily find their way through a website from every page, ultimately reaching the information they want or need quickly. It’s hard to take a different point of view. When testing, both designers and site owners must understand users’ expectations of their website navigation.Finding a way to provide easy access to what users want (and with fewer clicks) when designing website navigation and structure will improve the information-seeking experience and make a positive impact on key performance indicators like time-on-site and bounce rate — important factors in everything from advertising metrics to SEO. The point is, even if you’re not committed to running elaborate tests on navigation, do recognize the importance of helping users get what they want.
How to Test Website Navigation
If you are committed to testing navigation but have not yet, selected a vendor (and don’t want to run manual tests) know that there are a variety of site testing tools available.
Online testing platforms the top nine players in the space which included Adobe Test & Target, Amadesa Customer Experience Suite, Autonomy Optimost, Google Website Optmizer, Maxymiser Content MVT, SiteSpect, Vertster Conversion Optimization Suite and Webtrends Optimize. Adobe Test & Target (formerly Omniture) and Autonomy Optimost are placed as the leaders — Adobe Test & Target excels in overall application usability, customer satisfaction and content support, while Autonomy stands out in administration, deployment options and breadth of testing techniques.
While free site testing tools such as Google Website Optimizer are attractive to many, other Web professionals demand more and these commercial vendors all provide competitive and effective solutions. Know in advance, however, that investing in any testing platform can be costly and time consuming.The cost of experimenting often depends on the amount of traffic pages receive, the complexity of experiments and, in some instances, the difference in conversion rates for your combinations. As such, know how these site testing vendors charge for their services and, based on your own needs, determine if using their services is necessary or warranted. With a little virtual elbow grease and some organization you can test navigation elements without these vendors, over time, to the same effect.
What to Test
Once it has been determined how you will test your website’s navigation (manually or by using a testing service), it is time to decide what you will be testing. A few of the more meaningful options you can select from the start include location, descriptions and functionality.
Location —Web users are an impatient lot, and they will not spend time on your site if they can’t find what they want. As such, navigation should be a prominent element of your design.But what is the optimal location for navigation? Only testing will reveal the answer.
The most common location for primary navigation is horizontally,across the top of the page. The advantage of using navigation elements in this location is that it provides additional room for content and other relevant information about products and services. By not forcing visitors to scroll down to navigate further into your site, the result might ultimately be increased page views and time-on-site. Keep in mind that should you opt to use graphics in the header of the page, consider testing navigation above and below the primary graphic. Navigation design trends today often include primary navigation bundled with images and calls to action, but providing a simple navigation path should still be tested.
While horizontal navigation is quite common today, that has not always been the case — it used to be that left-of-page navigation was the most common location. As design has matured and evolved, navigation location has increasingly taken on new forms and should be audience-appropriate.
When it comes to the location of navigation elements, consider testing new areas entirely (right-hand or left-hand navigation) or testing the presence of secondary
navigation elements in various locations around the page (the footer, for example) to determine if the presence increases page views or sales.
Descriptions — A website’s section names, particularly as labeled in the navigation, should clearly state what the user can expect after the click. General words like “resources” or “tools” are far too ambiguous and should be avoided. Using generic terminology tends to lead users to
wander, and away from the conversion path we have set forth.
Test reducing or increasing the amount of text in primary navigation. Depending on the makeup of the audience, they may need more or less descriptive text — you won’t know unless you test. Best practice guidance teaches us to settle on four to six primary sections of your website (and thus silo-ing existing content under these channels) and to focus on the naming conventions (keywordrich, of course) of those navigation links. This will offer users faster, more accurate access to the information they want.
Functionality — As important as where you
place your navigation elements and the clarity of the text individual navigational links provide is the functionality of the navigation menu itself. Web designers have a variety of options available to them when it comes to navigation functionality — from mouseover effects to dropdowns, to nested menus and more. For some ideas, look into Javascript libraries such as jQuery, Mootools, prototype or script.aculo.us.
Testing the functionality of your navigation will yield results. What should be tested is how certain effects impact key performance indicators, such as page views. Consider tracking how users interact with different navigation functionality by recording their visits — two services to consider include Click-Tale.com and Mouseflow.com.
Designing for users is important. Web designers need to provide visiting audiences with what they expect in a clear and compelling manner. The battle line is navigation. While the attraction toward using elaborate or intricate navigation is understandable, the goal is always to provide users with access to the information the website provides. Users do not have the patience or time to learn more intricate navigation, so focus on creating an experience that is both instinctive and natural.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Web Search Alternatives
Google is the first choice in web search for more than 65 percent of the Web, while the shared efforts of Microsoft and Yahoo have earned Bing the market’s only other significant share.
Blekko
When Blekko launched back in November 2010, there were plenty of doubters who didn’t expect the startup search engine to last more than a year. While that may not be guaranteed just yet, Blekko is making good on its promise of creating a new and exciting alternative in search.
Blekko’s mission, some three years in the making before its actual launch, was to enlist human editors in an effort to eliminate spam and personalize and socialize the search experience. The team of 25 or so employees includes former Google and Yahoo search engineers and the project has received significant backing from some of the best known investors in the tech world.
The magic behind the Blekko vision was to use programming related slashtags or topic tags to create the most relevant search verticals for users. Those very users would be among the editors curating and maintaining the slashtags, and after three months Blekko reported that it had more than 110,000 human-curated tags.
Blekko clearly could not compete with the size and scope of Google’s or Bing’s indexes, but what it could — and does — do is produce more relevant, more accurate, better search results. Before Google made headlines around the globe with its Farmer Update algorithm changes, Blekko had removed the very same content farms (and many more) from its search index as a matter of standard practice — and to much less fanfare.
But what it may lack in publicity Blekko has made up for in terms of a devoted user base. Its January 2011 numbers indicated an average of 1 million queries per day and between 10 to 15 queries per second. And Google and Bing’s own publicity does them as much harm as good — the controversy over Bing’s “stolen” search results and Google’s paid links scandal with J.C. Penney being just two recent examples.
Perhaps that’s why Blekko and the alternative search options below have become favorites for many SEOs and Web professionals of every kind.
DuckDuckGo
Blekko recently forged a partnership with fellow startup search engine DuckDuckGo (DDG), in which the two companies share technologies and information in the name of improving the quality of search results for users. The partnership is sure to evolve over time, say the CEOs of both companies, but right now DDG receives access to Blekko’s auto-fired slashtags in seven categories (health,colleges, autos, personal finance, lyrics,recipes and hotels) in return for use of DDG’s proprietary feature, zero-click info.
Similar to Google’s Instant Search,zero-click info gives users the most relevant information on websites and search terms without having to click on search results. Local business listings from Yelp, word definitions from The Free Dictionary, Wikipedia entries andcontentfrom13additionalStackExchange sites are some examples of information users can find with zero-click results.
LikeBlekko, DuckDuckGo has developed quite a following and averages more than 5 million searches per month.
Greplin
Greplin is a user-authorized search engine that can search and index social services and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Google Docs, Evernote, Basecamp, Salesforce and more, and it’s adding more all the time. The startup recently announced the addition of a Chrome extension to its search presence so that users can now search their social data directly from the browser without having to go to Greplin’s website. Greplin may be the best known of a growing number of services such as CloudMagic that are designed for searching users’ social graphs for personal data and those hard-tofind items that often get lost in the cloud.
Wajam
Wajam is another socially driven search tool,but unlike Greplin it returns its results as part of your experience with Google or Bing. Where Greplin searches only the applications that have been preauthorized by the user, Wajam searches the entire Web but with an emphasis on returning personalized results from Facebook,Twitter and other social sites a user has bookmarked. It is used as a browser extension available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, and injects these social results into the search queries submitted to larger engines.
Quora
Quora is the extremely popular new platform that strives to be the definitive questionand- answer site for just about any topic on the Web. Like Blekko, it is largely humandriven and invites users to ask questions, provide answers and share their knowledge and comments. Questions are organized into different categories that can also be created by users, leading to a wide range and growing index of topical information.
Nobody believes that these solutions will threaten Google’s dominance in the world of search any time soon, least of all the people behind each service. But most of them seem to be much more focused on improving the Web by providing a better way to access
information.
Blekko
When Blekko launched back in November 2010, there were plenty of doubters who didn’t expect the startup search engine to last more than a year. While that may not be guaranteed just yet, Blekko is making good on its promise of creating a new and exciting alternative in search.
Blekko’s mission, some three years in the making before its actual launch, was to enlist human editors in an effort to eliminate spam and personalize and socialize the search experience. The team of 25 or so employees includes former Google and Yahoo search engineers and the project has received significant backing from some of the best known investors in the tech world.
The magic behind the Blekko vision was to use programming related slashtags or topic tags to create the most relevant search verticals for users. Those very users would be among the editors curating and maintaining the slashtags, and after three months Blekko reported that it had more than 110,000 human-curated tags.
Blekko clearly could not compete with the size and scope of Google’s or Bing’s indexes, but what it could — and does — do is produce more relevant, more accurate, better search results. Before Google made headlines around the globe with its Farmer Update algorithm changes, Blekko had removed the very same content farms (and many more) from its search index as a matter of standard practice — and to much less fanfare.
But what it may lack in publicity Blekko has made up for in terms of a devoted user base. Its January 2011 numbers indicated an average of 1 million queries per day and between 10 to 15 queries per second. And Google and Bing’s own publicity does them as much harm as good — the controversy over Bing’s “stolen” search results and Google’s paid links scandal with J.C. Penney being just two recent examples.
Perhaps that’s why Blekko and the alternative search options below have become favorites for many SEOs and Web professionals of every kind.
DuckDuckGo
Blekko recently forged a partnership with fellow startup search engine DuckDuckGo (DDG), in which the two companies share technologies and information in the name of improving the quality of search results for users. The partnership is sure to evolve over time, say the CEOs of both companies, but right now DDG receives access to Blekko’s auto-fired slashtags in seven categories (health,colleges, autos, personal finance, lyrics,recipes and hotels) in return for use of DDG’s proprietary feature, zero-click info.
Similar to Google’s Instant Search,zero-click info gives users the most relevant information on websites and search terms without having to click on search results. Local business listings from Yelp, word definitions from The Free Dictionary, Wikipedia entries andcontentfrom13additionalStackExchange sites are some examples of information users can find with zero-click results.
LikeBlekko, DuckDuckGo has developed quite a following and averages more than 5 million searches per month.
Greplin
Greplin is a user-authorized search engine that can search and index social services and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Google Docs, Evernote, Basecamp, Salesforce and more, and it’s adding more all the time. The startup recently announced the addition of a Chrome extension to its search presence so that users can now search their social data directly from the browser without having to go to Greplin’s website. Greplin may be the best known of a growing number of services such as CloudMagic that are designed for searching users’ social graphs for personal data and those hard-tofind items that often get lost in the cloud.
Wajam
Wajam is another socially driven search tool,but unlike Greplin it returns its results as part of your experience with Google or Bing. Where Greplin searches only the applications that have been preauthorized by the user, Wajam searches the entire Web but with an emphasis on returning personalized results from Facebook,Twitter and other social sites a user has bookmarked. It is used as a browser extension available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, and injects these social results into the search queries submitted to larger engines.
Quora
Quora is the extremely popular new platform that strives to be the definitive questionand- answer site for just about any topic on the Web. Like Blekko, it is largely humandriven and invites users to ask questions, provide answers and share their knowledge and comments. Questions are organized into different categories that can also be created by users, leading to a wide range and growing index of topical information.
Nobody believes that these solutions will threaten Google’s dominance in the world of search any time soon, least of all the people behind each service. But most of them seem to be much more focused on improving the Web by providing a better way to access
information.
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Going Social
The impact of social media on today’s Web is unmatched; dare I say, even by search. When it comes to “going social” with our websites and business there are as many benefits as there are drawbacks, however. Along with the multitude of brand advocates you will acquire, you are sure to encounter more than a few, very vocal detractors along the way — such is business on the Web. What’s more, the social Web moves fast — much faster than any one person can keep up with.Enter reputation management, a practice that has not gone unnoticed by businesses both large and small.
A business and personal reputation is measured by your consumers’ perception of the brand’s products and services. However, so much focus is spent looking inward that we often miss all the activity going on elsewhere — the origin of many, if not most opportunities and threats. As such, using reputation management solutions and services that accurately and affordably help manage brand equity and awareness is a wise investment.
Online reputation management software is the new must-have solution, and businesses are buying in. The Marchex Reputation Management platform was named a finalist in the American Business Awards’ New Product or Service of the Year category, for one. SuperMedia’s SuperPages will make available the Yext reputation management tool to its advertisers over the next few months. These are just two examples of noteworthy happenings in the reputation management space, among dozens of other perfectly suitable vendors clamoring for your attention.
Reputation Management in Reverse
It’s time to rethink reputation management solutions as they have been offered in the past. Ask yourself: How closely am I looking at my competition’s reputation? The likelihood that it’s only in a cursory fashion is quite good.
Identifying the companies you are actively competing against should be the first step, but there are several others. Here are a few to help you rethink reputation management. Keep in mind that while you can set up an ad-hoc solution on your own, commercial reputation management and monitoring solutions provide the deepest insight.
Track: To locate competitors, head straight to the search engines; enter search terms representative of your business and make notes of those vendors found most often, and their corresponding websites and social media properties. Spend time noting not just the website URL, but the company name and the names of their products and employees, too (take a detour to LinkedIn to find them). Once the list is complete, make those search terms and phrases the ones to track.
Follow: Should the competition already have an established audience on social media, most of the legwork is already done. For example, follow some of the competition’s followers on Twitter, taking note of those accounts. Then, after a week or so,check to see if any of those individuals have followed you back. If so, send a direct message announcing who you are, why you chose to follow them, and your intentions. It is not an uncommon practice for heavy social media users of Twitter to set up an autoresponder to greet and reply to a new follower — another opportunity to communicate with a new prospect.
Active Social Marketing in Practice: Let’s say your restaurant and a neighborhood competitor share Twitter followers. If you notice on Twitter that a group of fans was meeting for lunch at the competitor’s place, consider sending that group a note (perhaps with a coupon included) inviting them to your restaurant. You will need to constantly monitor the real-time universe for reaction but good opportunities are present.
Engage: Posting user-generated content online today is easier than ever. Within seconds, customers can post reviews, kudos, comments and complaints directly from their mobile devices and applications to any number of sites. Since most content is consumed right away, it makes sense to constantly interact with your existing audience and look to expand your social network when opportunities present themselves. Myriad social tools online offer the ability to interact with followers and competitors. Using them means gaining valuable insights about the competing business and provides a chance to make informed choices when it comes to developing strategies to increase market share. Engaging consumers in context, based on their current feelings or interactions with your brand is the only way to build mind share and loyal customers, so watch intently and tread carefully.
Monitor: Once you identify the competition, follow their core audience and engage them them, it’s time to monitor the reaction. Most reputation management services provide sentiment analysis to provide insights into the mood and tone of comments and conversations you have successfully stirred up. The final step? Repeat the process. Track new competitors and their followers, engaging that audience frequently and building your social network with one competitor’s downfall after the next. Whether you have brand equity and brand awareness or not, it has been proven time and again that knowing what customers and prospects are saying and feeling about your business is of importance — the same holds true for what is being said about the competition.
A business and personal reputation is measured by your consumers’ perception of the brand’s products and services. However, so much focus is spent looking inward that we often miss all the activity going on elsewhere — the origin of many, if not most opportunities and threats. As such, using reputation management solutions and services that accurately and affordably help manage brand equity and awareness is a wise investment.
Online reputation management software is the new must-have solution, and businesses are buying in. The Marchex Reputation Management platform was named a finalist in the American Business Awards’ New Product or Service of the Year category, for one. SuperMedia’s SuperPages will make available the Yext reputation management tool to its advertisers over the next few months. These are just two examples of noteworthy happenings in the reputation management space, among dozens of other perfectly suitable vendors clamoring for your attention.
Reputation Management in Reverse
It’s time to rethink reputation management solutions as they have been offered in the past. Ask yourself: How closely am I looking at my competition’s reputation? The likelihood that it’s only in a cursory fashion is quite good.
Identifying the companies you are actively competing against should be the first step, but there are several others. Here are a few to help you rethink reputation management. Keep in mind that while you can set up an ad-hoc solution on your own, commercial reputation management and monitoring solutions provide the deepest insight.
Track: To locate competitors, head straight to the search engines; enter search terms representative of your business and make notes of those vendors found most often, and their corresponding websites and social media properties. Spend time noting not just the website URL, but the company name and the names of their products and employees, too (take a detour to LinkedIn to find them). Once the list is complete, make those search terms and phrases the ones to track.
Follow: Should the competition already have an established audience on social media, most of the legwork is already done. For example, follow some of the competition’s followers on Twitter, taking note of those accounts. Then, after a week or so,check to see if any of those individuals have followed you back. If so, send a direct message announcing who you are, why you chose to follow them, and your intentions. It is not an uncommon practice for heavy social media users of Twitter to set up an autoresponder to greet and reply to a new follower — another opportunity to communicate with a new prospect.
Active Social Marketing in Practice: Let’s say your restaurant and a neighborhood competitor share Twitter followers. If you notice on Twitter that a group of fans was meeting for lunch at the competitor’s place, consider sending that group a note (perhaps with a coupon included) inviting them to your restaurant. You will need to constantly monitor the real-time universe for reaction but good opportunities are present.
Engage: Posting user-generated content online today is easier than ever. Within seconds, customers can post reviews, kudos, comments and complaints directly from their mobile devices and applications to any number of sites. Since most content is consumed right away, it makes sense to constantly interact with your existing audience and look to expand your social network when opportunities present themselves. Myriad social tools online offer the ability to interact with followers and competitors. Using them means gaining valuable insights about the competing business and provides a chance to make informed choices when it comes to developing strategies to increase market share. Engaging consumers in context, based on their current feelings or interactions with your brand is the only way to build mind share and loyal customers, so watch intently and tread carefully.
Monitor: Once you identify the competition, follow their core audience and engage them them, it’s time to monitor the reaction. Most reputation management services provide sentiment analysis to provide insights into the mood and tone of comments and conversations you have successfully stirred up. The final step? Repeat the process. Track new competitors and their followers, engaging that audience frequently and building your social network with one competitor’s downfall after the next. Whether you have brand equity and brand awareness or not, it has been proven time and again that knowing what customers and prospects are saying and feeling about your business is of importance — the same holds true for what is being said about the competition.
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Thursday, September 22, 2011
Business Marketing with Foursquare
Foursquare, the popular social networking and activity application,recently announced
that more than 700,000 “check-ins” are taking place every day. That’s a lot of activity and it’s all centered on businesses and brands — an opportunity not to be missed. So, what is Foursquare, and how can it help your business?
In its simplest form, Foursquare works like this: Consumers launch the app from their phones (or via SMS for non-smartphones), then check in to a business when they arrive. By checking in, consumers can see if any of their connected friends are at the same location or nearby, share and discover insider tips about the location and earn points. Points are accumulated and badges earned, then used to assign a status for the individual, with the top point-getter being crowned “Mayor.” What this does is create a community — an active and competitive community — around the business itself. Users are engaged and encouraged to visit the location time and again. Essentially, Foursquare helps drive foot traffic, branding and create consumer advocates.
The Foursquare Community
Foursquare users are brand advocates by their very nature. Of course, they might not think of themselves that way — in their minds they are satisfying their own egos. But that satisfaction is derived vis-avis the business being patronized. The goal of every Foursquare user is to become Mayor of their favorite local businesses — restaurants, night clubs, golf courses ... just about anything. To do this, the user must check in from the location itself. So, the more they frequent a business, the better chance they have to become Mayor. Of course, there are other reasons for people to use Foursquare and make a run at Mayor other than simple ego stroking. And that’s where the businesses come into play.
Foursquare for Business
If you knew that a certain person was a fan of your business and was perfectly willing to encourage his friends to become fans too, wouldn’t you want to reach out to that person and make absolutely sure that they kept coming back? With Foursquare, this is precisely what you can do. One of the most popular and effective ways for businesses to use Foursquare is to offer real-world rewards to their business’ Mayors and other frequent patrons. For example, a restaurant can offer a free cocktail every time a user checks in, delivered right through the app. Or, perhaps the free cocktail is offered after every fifth visit, encouraging repeat business.
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and perhaps your budget. Also, remember the Mayor. Be sure to offer the best deals to that individual. Not only will this encourage advocacy, but also create a competitive spirit around the title. It might just start some rivalries where the only way to get ahead is to frequent your business.
Your business might already have a Foursquare presence, so search on Foursquare.com to find out. You will find a link to “claim” your venue. From there, get started setting up your specials for users. Business owners can also promote their Foursquare presence in-store — the website offers downloadable PDFs and can send official window clings for display.
Foursquare can bring a significant increase in traffic and, ultimately, sales to any brick-and-mortar business. And Foursquare is about to reach even more users. In June, 2010, The Wall Street Journal started providing “add-to-Foursquare” buttons at the bottom of restaurant reviews and other cultural coverage. When a user clicks the button, the venue mentioned in the article is added to a to-do list on the user’s Foursquare account, along with a tip written by a WSJ editor and link to the original article. It’s a safe bet to assume that WSJ will not be the last major media outlet to promote the service.
In the end, the service offers a built-in community that is eager to engage. Help your customers check in, then check out.
that more than 700,000 “check-ins” are taking place every day. That’s a lot of activity and it’s all centered on businesses and brands — an opportunity not to be missed. So, what is Foursquare, and how can it help your business?
In its simplest form, Foursquare works like this: Consumers launch the app from their phones (or via SMS for non-smartphones), then check in to a business when they arrive. By checking in, consumers can see if any of their connected friends are at the same location or nearby, share and discover insider tips about the location and earn points. Points are accumulated and badges earned, then used to assign a status for the individual, with the top point-getter being crowned “Mayor.” What this does is create a community — an active and competitive community — around the business itself. Users are engaged and encouraged to visit the location time and again. Essentially, Foursquare helps drive foot traffic, branding and create consumer advocates.
The Foursquare Community
Foursquare users are brand advocates by their very nature. Of course, they might not think of themselves that way — in their minds they are satisfying their own egos. But that satisfaction is derived vis-avis the business being patronized. The goal of every Foursquare user is to become Mayor of their favorite local businesses — restaurants, night clubs, golf courses ... just about anything. To do this, the user must check in from the location itself. So, the more they frequent a business, the better chance they have to become Mayor. Of course, there are other reasons for people to use Foursquare and make a run at Mayor other than simple ego stroking. And that’s where the businesses come into play.
Foursquare for Business
If you knew that a certain person was a fan of your business and was perfectly willing to encourage his friends to become fans too, wouldn’t you want to reach out to that person and make absolutely sure that they kept coming back? With Foursquare, this is precisely what you can do. One of the most popular and effective ways for businesses to use Foursquare is to offer real-world rewards to their business’ Mayors and other frequent patrons. For example, a restaurant can offer a free cocktail every time a user checks in, delivered right through the app. Or, perhaps the free cocktail is offered after every fifth visit, encouraging repeat business.
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and perhaps your budget. Also, remember the Mayor. Be sure to offer the best deals to that individual. Not only will this encourage advocacy, but also create a competitive spirit around the title. It might just start some rivalries where the only way to get ahead is to frequent your business.
Your business might already have a Foursquare presence, so search on Foursquare.com to find out. You will find a link to “claim” your venue. From there, get started setting up your specials for users. Business owners can also promote their Foursquare presence in-store — the website offers downloadable PDFs and can send official window clings for display.
Foursquare can bring a significant increase in traffic and, ultimately, sales to any brick-and-mortar business. And Foursquare is about to reach even more users. In June, 2010, The Wall Street Journal started providing “add-to-Foursquare” buttons at the bottom of restaurant reviews and other cultural coverage. When a user clicks the button, the venue mentioned in the article is added to a to-do list on the user’s Foursquare account, along with a tip written by a WSJ editor and link to the original article. It’s a safe bet to assume that WSJ will not be the last major media outlet to promote the service.
In the end, the service offers a built-in community that is eager to engage. Help your customers check in, then check out.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2011
GIS technology to visualize data
Knowing your customers is vital to the success of any business. Today, a great deal of customer information is readily available. What to do with all of that data is the question many of us face. So what is a business to do? Use a map. A GIS (geographic information system) map, that is.
Geographic Information Systems Applied
GIS is all about mapping places, measurements, demographics, and conditions to identify the relationships between each piece of data. The results can vary depending on your needs; usable locationbased data, geographically organized reports, or any number of data-rich charts are among the options.
A Geographic Information System is made up of hardware, software, and data that enable an organization to understand location or geospatial information about a particular area of interest, and apply this information to meet the needs of their business.
GIS involves using the “geographic approach” to gather, process, and model data. According to GIS.com, an effective method for solving a business challenge geographically is to ask, acquire, examine, analyze, and act. For example, if you’re managing a consulting business and you need to look for a more efficient way to conduct Web research, you might collect consumer data; compare available schema, topology correspondence, and metadata; and implement a plan to reduce the amount of time your employees prepare information for their clients.
We see GIS as a combination of basic computer mapping with deep dive analytics: so being able to join facts about people and property happening at a place to the place itself. The difference between GIS and what we see as typical consumer mapping applications is the ability to perform your own analytics [and] combine that with the sort of information that you think about generally in databases or in tables.
Geospatial information has actually penetrated all areas of our lives, from GPS devices integrated into smartphones to Google Maps replacing hardcopy street atlases to 3D map flythroughs as part of every evening newscast.
We (humans, collectively) are continually presented with GIS data, making us more spatially aware than any previous generation. Traditional GIS organizations like national mapping and defense agencies use geospatial information to make time-critical decisions every day, while state and local governments may use geospatial information for tax assessments, allocating green space, and preparing for disaster and emergency response.
The most mature business space using GIS at this time is the retail marketplace,says Thompson. Think about globalization; but there’s also glocalization (a combination of global and local). [There is the] driving idea that I can give the ability to a local store manager to make decisions in their own marketplace, customize the merchandise, so I can deal with different ethnicities, incomes, or locations.
GIS In The Cloud
Advancements in GIS have now reached the cloud. Cloud computing and GIS are ideal partners because cloud innovations make collaboration, map sharing, and data collection all the more seamless. For instance, a geospatial application such as GIS Cloud (www.giscloud.com) provides the tools to create, manage, and integrate geo data on the public GIS Cloud itself or in private behind a company’s firewall. GIS Cloud lets colleagues edit mapping projects anywhere, publish updated maps to the Web, retrieve data via mobile device, stylize thematic maps, and incorporate maps into existing applications such as Google and Bing Maps.
The concern associated with GIS in the cloud is the same concern for any business using cloud computing, which is the security of data. The fear is rapidly becoming less common due to remote management and access capabilities. Besides eliminating the need for in-house hardware and IT staff, GIS cloud-based products provide shared infrastructure costs and lowmanagement overhead, and with a preconfigured, monthly package, there are no surprise costs to ownership.
ESRI offers its own SaaS platform called Business Analyst Online. The service processes demographics, consumer spending, and other commercial data to produce analytics about trade areas, buying trends, and customer service communications (based on the criteria you’ve entered). You can go in (Business Analyst Online) and type a location (store, site, etc.) and everything from starting a business as retailer to things like dry cleaning, tax, or service franchises and you can minutes, ZIP code, or town.
Geographic Information Systems Applied
GIS is all about mapping places, measurements, demographics, and conditions to identify the relationships between each piece of data. The results can vary depending on your needs; usable locationbased data, geographically organized reports, or any number of data-rich charts are among the options.
A Geographic Information System is made up of hardware, software, and data that enable an organization to understand location or geospatial information about a particular area of interest, and apply this information to meet the needs of their business.
GIS involves using the “geographic approach” to gather, process, and model data. According to GIS.com, an effective method for solving a business challenge geographically is to ask, acquire, examine, analyze, and act. For example, if you’re managing a consulting business and you need to look for a more efficient way to conduct Web research, you might collect consumer data; compare available schema, topology correspondence, and metadata; and implement a plan to reduce the amount of time your employees prepare information for their clients.
We see GIS as a combination of basic computer mapping with deep dive analytics: so being able to join facts about people and property happening at a place to the place itself. The difference between GIS and what we see as typical consumer mapping applications is the ability to perform your own analytics [and] combine that with the sort of information that you think about generally in databases or in tables.
Geospatial information has actually penetrated all areas of our lives, from GPS devices integrated into smartphones to Google Maps replacing hardcopy street atlases to 3D map flythroughs as part of every evening newscast.
We (humans, collectively) are continually presented with GIS data, making us more spatially aware than any previous generation. Traditional GIS organizations like national mapping and defense agencies use geospatial information to make time-critical decisions every day, while state and local governments may use geospatial information for tax assessments, allocating green space, and preparing for disaster and emergency response.
The most mature business space using GIS at this time is the retail marketplace,says Thompson. Think about globalization; but there’s also glocalization (a combination of global and local). [There is the] driving idea that I can give the ability to a local store manager to make decisions in their own marketplace, customize the merchandise, so I can deal with different ethnicities, incomes, or locations.
GIS In The Cloud
Advancements in GIS have now reached the cloud. Cloud computing and GIS are ideal partners because cloud innovations make collaboration, map sharing, and data collection all the more seamless. For instance, a geospatial application such as GIS Cloud (www.giscloud.com) provides the tools to create, manage, and integrate geo data on the public GIS Cloud itself or in private behind a company’s firewall. GIS Cloud lets colleagues edit mapping projects anywhere, publish updated maps to the Web, retrieve data via mobile device, stylize thematic maps, and incorporate maps into existing applications such as Google and Bing Maps.
The concern associated with GIS in the cloud is the same concern for any business using cloud computing, which is the security of data. The fear is rapidly becoming less common due to remote management and access capabilities. Besides eliminating the need for in-house hardware and IT staff, GIS cloud-based products provide shared infrastructure costs and lowmanagement overhead, and with a preconfigured, monthly package, there are no surprise costs to ownership.
ESRI offers its own SaaS platform called Business Analyst Online. The service processes demographics, consumer spending, and other commercial data to produce analytics about trade areas, buying trends, and customer service communications (based on the criteria you’ve entered). You can go in (Business Analyst Online) and type a location (store, site, etc.) and everything from starting a business as retailer to things like dry cleaning, tax, or service franchises and you can minutes, ZIP code, or town.
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Friday, September 16, 2011
Web technology and softwares:Use WI-FI hotspots wisely
Protect Yourself
The ugly fact is that someone with enough skills and determination can hack into any network, and all but the most secure, private connections can be hacked by someone of average skill and enough determination. Consequently, the most important thing you can do to use Wi-Fi hotspots wisely is to lock down your data and system.
Do not to surf without a firewall. If you do not have firewall software installed, turn on Windows’ built-in firewall protection. Because many users have third-party firewall software, we won’t detail these instructions here. You can locate available firewall programs by browsing to windows.microsoft.com and searching under Firewall (your version of Windows).
The next step is to secure your data. Windows Vista/7 give you the option of selecting a network profile (Home, Work, or Public) when you connect. Always select Public unless you trust the network and its members. Doing this prevents other computers on the network from discovering your PC and turns off the File And Printer Sharing feature. You can tweak any of these settings in the Network And Sharing Center: right-click the network icon (a monitor or series of bars, potentially with a red X or starburst on top) at the bottom right of your display. Select Network And Sharing Center in Vista; Open Network And Sharing Center in Win7.
In WinXP, File And Printer Sharing is turned off by default. To enable this feature, right-click the network (monitor) icon at the bottom right of your display and select Open Network Connections. Right-click the icon for your wireless device and click Properties. Under the General tab, deselect the File And Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks checkbox to turn sharing off globally. When you return to a safe environment, you can re-enable this feature when necessary. In Vista/Win 7, you can also turn off the File And Printer Sharing feature manually through the OS’s Network
Connection Properties feature, but it’s easier to let Windows do it for you.
How to Connect through Windows
To connect to a wireless network, right-click the network icon and select View Available Wireless Networks (WinXP) or Connect To A Network (Vista). InWin7, select the Network icon.
A menu will pop up displaying available networks. Each OS will identify whether networks are secure. If the network you want is open, select it and click Connect. We advise not connecting to an open network unless you know it is the one you seek. Hackers set up open networks with friendly sounding names hoping that unsuspecting individuals will hop onto them.
If you are connecting to a secure network, or if you don’t know the name of the network you want, contact the network host. You’ll need the network name (also called a service set identifier or SSID) and, if the network is secure, a security key or passphrase. Select the desired network and provide the key if prompted. (See the “How To Evaluate Security” section before you complete this step.)
If you use WinXP, your network card may manage network connections, leaving you unable to connect using our instructions. To give Windows control, click Start, select Control Panel, click Network And Internet Connections, and select Network Connections. Right-click your wireless connection and click Properties. Click the Network Settings tab and select the Use Windows To Configure My Wireless Network
Settings checkbox.
Set Up Manual Connection
If you cannot locate the network you want (because some networks choose not to broadcast their SSIDs), you can set it up manually. In addition to the network, name, and credentials, you will need the network security protocol and encryption type (TKIP or AES).
To set up a manual connection in WinXP, open the available networks list as described previously and click Advanced or Change Advanced Settings (depending on the service pack that you have installed). On the Wireless Networks tab, click Add. In Vista/Win7, open the Network And Sharing Center. In Vista, click Set Up A Connection Or Network at the top left of the display; in Win7, click Set Up A New Connection Or Network (under Change Your Network Settings). Select Manually Connect To A Wireless Network and click Next.
Provide the information exactly as you were given it (uppercase and lowercase). In Vista/Win7, you can opt to see the characters as you type for confirmation. If the network is WEP and you do not see this option, select Shared. Select an encryption type if you have one. Otherwise, keep the default. After entering all this information and configuring the desired settings, click OK or Next to connect.
Evaluate Security
Most private, as well as some public, networks use one of several security standards to protect users and themselves from intrusion. You’ll encounter WEP, WPA, and possibly WPA2. The Wireless Network Connection dialog box may provide the network type. If not, here’s a hint: WEP security keys always contain 26 characters; WPA and WPA2 security keys are eight to 63 characters in length.
WEP is the least secure and easiest to crack; treat a WEP network as you would an unsecure network, setting its profile to Public unless you absolutely must communicate with other PCs. WPA and WPA2 are more impervious to cracking, so you can use a profile that is more open, such as Work, if necessary (or tweak the settings in the Public profile to open things up as needed).
At the end of the day, the responsibility for protecting your assets lies with you. Using common Internet precautions is also a good idea. Before you provide sensitive information, be sure you are at a secure site. The Web address should begin with “https” instead of “http,” and your browser should display a padlock icon or other security confirmation. Check with your email provider to see if you can encrypt your email messages. Another precaution you can take is to turn off your wireless adapter when you are not using the Internet. To turn wireless off, right-click the icon for your wireless connection in the System Tray and select Disable.
The ugly fact is that someone with enough skills and determination can hack into any network, and all but the most secure, private connections can be hacked by someone of average skill and enough determination. Consequently, the most important thing you can do to use Wi-Fi hotspots wisely is to lock down your data and system.
Do not to surf without a firewall. If you do not have firewall software installed, turn on Windows’ built-in firewall protection. Because many users have third-party firewall software, we won’t detail these instructions here. You can locate available firewall programs by browsing to windows.microsoft.com and searching under Firewall (your version of Windows).
The next step is to secure your data. Windows Vista/7 give you the option of selecting a network profile (Home, Work, or Public) when you connect. Always select Public unless you trust the network and its members. Doing this prevents other computers on the network from discovering your PC and turns off the File And Printer Sharing feature. You can tweak any of these settings in the Network And Sharing Center: right-click the network icon (a monitor or series of bars, potentially with a red X or starburst on top) at the bottom right of your display. Select Network And Sharing Center in Vista; Open Network And Sharing Center in Win7.
In WinXP, File And Printer Sharing is turned off by default. To enable this feature, right-click the network (monitor) icon at the bottom right of your display and select Open Network Connections. Right-click the icon for your wireless device and click Properties. Under the General tab, deselect the File And Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks checkbox to turn sharing off globally. When you return to a safe environment, you can re-enable this feature when necessary. In Vista/Win 7, you can also turn off the File And Printer Sharing feature manually through the OS’s Network
Connection Properties feature, but it’s easier to let Windows do it for you.
How to Connect through Windows
To connect to a wireless network, right-click the network icon and select View Available Wireless Networks (WinXP) or Connect To A Network (Vista). InWin7, select the Network icon.
A menu will pop up displaying available networks. Each OS will identify whether networks are secure. If the network you want is open, select it and click Connect. We advise not connecting to an open network unless you know it is the one you seek. Hackers set up open networks with friendly sounding names hoping that unsuspecting individuals will hop onto them.
If you are connecting to a secure network, or if you don’t know the name of the network you want, contact the network host. You’ll need the network name (also called a service set identifier or SSID) and, if the network is secure, a security key or passphrase. Select the desired network and provide the key if prompted. (See the “How To Evaluate Security” section before you complete this step.)
If you use WinXP, your network card may manage network connections, leaving you unable to connect using our instructions. To give Windows control, click Start, select Control Panel, click Network And Internet Connections, and select Network Connections. Right-click your wireless connection and click Properties. Click the Network Settings tab and select the Use Windows To Configure My Wireless Network
Settings checkbox.
Set Up Manual Connection
If you cannot locate the network you want (because some networks choose not to broadcast their SSIDs), you can set it up manually. In addition to the network, name, and credentials, you will need the network security protocol and encryption type (TKIP or AES).
To set up a manual connection in WinXP, open the available networks list as described previously and click Advanced or Change Advanced Settings (depending on the service pack that you have installed). On the Wireless Networks tab, click Add. In Vista/Win7, open the Network And Sharing Center. In Vista, click Set Up A Connection Or Network at the top left of the display; in Win7, click Set Up A New Connection Or Network (under Change Your Network Settings). Select Manually Connect To A Wireless Network and click Next.
Provide the information exactly as you were given it (uppercase and lowercase). In Vista/Win7, you can opt to see the characters as you type for confirmation. If the network is WEP and you do not see this option, select Shared. Select an encryption type if you have one. Otherwise, keep the default. After entering all this information and configuring the desired settings, click OK or Next to connect.
Evaluate Security
Most private, as well as some public, networks use one of several security standards to protect users and themselves from intrusion. You’ll encounter WEP, WPA, and possibly WPA2. The Wireless Network Connection dialog box may provide the network type. If not, here’s a hint: WEP security keys always contain 26 characters; WPA and WPA2 security keys are eight to 63 characters in length.
WEP is the least secure and easiest to crack; treat a WEP network as you would an unsecure network, setting its profile to Public unless you absolutely must communicate with other PCs. WPA and WPA2 are more impervious to cracking, so you can use a profile that is more open, such as Work, if necessary (or tweak the settings in the Public profile to open things up as needed).
At the end of the day, the responsibility for protecting your assets lies with you. Using common Internet precautions is also a good idea. Before you provide sensitive information, be sure you are at a secure site. The Web address should begin with “https” instead of “http,” and your browser should display a padlock icon or other security confirmation. Check with your email provider to see if you can encrypt your email messages. Another precaution you can take is to turn off your wireless adapter when you are not using the Internet. To turn wireless off, right-click the icon for your wireless connection in the System Tray and select Disable.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Web Technology and Softwares:Green cost cutting measures
Energy consumes a significant portion of a company’s expenses; it’s the energy your company uses, converts, and discharges that produces its profits. Getting a handle on how you use energy, how much energy costs you, and how much energy you waste can be a real eye-opener. Small changes in energy usage can have dramatic effects on a business.
Analytics
Many business intelligence providers offer sustainability management tools designed to measure, manage, and provide data on key energy, environmental, economic, and social indicators. In addition to helping you meet your company’s green goals, sustainability management tools can also help you use your resources more economically.
Automating reporting will ensure end-to-end data gathering and presentation to those who need the analytical data. Performance monitoring can be used to look at how energy is used within your business and makes you aware of how various areas are
meeting planned goals.
Real-time energy monitoring can help to reduce a company’s overall energy consumption pinpointing where energy is being used with no real benefit, such as leaving production machinery running when workloads are low, heating areas when not in use, or fully lighting areas that only need a minimum amount of light. Real-time energy monitoring lets you identify which facilities are underutilized or operating at peak usage, allowing you to make production decisions on the fly.
Supply chain monitoring may seem counterintuitive, but not paying attention to a supplier’s energy use could result in higher production costs for your company. It can also help companies uncover anomalies early, signaling possible production delays.
The ability of business analytics to consolidate data into quickly understood information can be applied to the greening process. By monitoring current usage against desired goals, and tracking your usage over time, you can use business analytics to increase your overall efficiency, as well as to document any compliance goals you need to meet.
The Cloud
The average business PC only uses up to 20% of its computing capacity. Most of the time, corporate PCs sit idle, consuming energy but not accomplishing much of anything. We’ll get to that point later.
Cloud computing is promoted as a way to store data so that it’s available to any device, anytime, anywhere a connection to the cloud (Internet) is available. Although that’s true, that’s only half the picture. The cloud is also a post-effective way to provide software services, virtualization, and scalable computing resources. Instead of purchasing new, faster desktop computers for everyone, you can grab the necessary computing power from the cloud. Remember that 20% usage rate? Move to cloud-based services and you extend the life of your PCs. You obtain a green benefit by reducing short-term recycling needs; an economic benefit by reducing short-term PC purchases; and a long-term green effect by concentrating your computing needs into a more easily manageable central site.
There are powerful economic factors pushing us toward cloud computing. One of the major reasons is the more efficient use of power by cloud computing providers. Spreading computing loads across many users as well as time zones improves hardware utilization, while at the same time spreading fixed costs over more servers and users.
Cloud-based services aren’t limited to classic office productivity applications. A wide range of commercial services is available to address almost the entire range of business needs. By moving these applications to the cloud, you also open up the possibility of true mobility. Some of your staff may be able to perform some or all of their work from home, reducing the overall energy footprint at the office. And of course the cloud keeps everyone connected when they’re traveling.
Analytics
Many business intelligence providers offer sustainability management tools designed to measure, manage, and provide data on key energy, environmental, economic, and social indicators. In addition to helping you meet your company’s green goals, sustainability management tools can also help you use your resources more economically.
Automating reporting will ensure end-to-end data gathering and presentation to those who need the analytical data. Performance monitoring can be used to look at how energy is used within your business and makes you aware of how various areas are
meeting planned goals.
Real-time energy monitoring can help to reduce a company’s overall energy consumption pinpointing where energy is being used with no real benefit, such as leaving production machinery running when workloads are low, heating areas when not in use, or fully lighting areas that only need a minimum amount of light. Real-time energy monitoring lets you identify which facilities are underutilized or operating at peak usage, allowing you to make production decisions on the fly.
Supply chain monitoring may seem counterintuitive, but not paying attention to a supplier’s energy use could result in higher production costs for your company. It can also help companies uncover anomalies early, signaling possible production delays.
The ability of business analytics to consolidate data into quickly understood information can be applied to the greening process. By monitoring current usage against desired goals, and tracking your usage over time, you can use business analytics to increase your overall efficiency, as well as to document any compliance goals you need to meet.
The Cloud
The average business PC only uses up to 20% of its computing capacity. Most of the time, corporate PCs sit idle, consuming energy but not accomplishing much of anything. We’ll get to that point later.
Cloud computing is promoted as a way to store data so that it’s available to any device, anytime, anywhere a connection to the cloud (Internet) is available. Although that’s true, that’s only half the picture. The cloud is also a post-effective way to provide software services, virtualization, and scalable computing resources. Instead of purchasing new, faster desktop computers for everyone, you can grab the necessary computing power from the cloud. Remember that 20% usage rate? Move to cloud-based services and you extend the life of your PCs. You obtain a green benefit by reducing short-term recycling needs; an economic benefit by reducing short-term PC purchases; and a long-term green effect by concentrating your computing needs into a more easily manageable central site.
There are powerful economic factors pushing us toward cloud computing. One of the major reasons is the more efficient use of power by cloud computing providers. Spreading computing loads across many users as well as time zones improves hardware utilization, while at the same time spreading fixed costs over more servers and users.
Cloud-based services aren’t limited to classic office productivity applications. A wide range of commercial services is available to address almost the entire range of business needs. By moving these applications to the cloud, you also open up the possibility of true mobility. Some of your staff may be able to perform some or all of their work from home, reducing the overall energy footprint at the office. And of course the cloud keeps everyone connected when they’re traveling.
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