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Facebook Passes Google

Well it was only a matter of time before it happened but Facebook has now passed Google as most popular site on the internet. In recent reports by industry leaders Facebook has surpassed Google as the number one destination for web surfers in the U.S in terms of minutes spent onsite. In August users spent a little over 41 million minutes on Facebook reports comScore, an analytics and traffic monitoring company. During that same period users spent only 39.8 million minutes on Google and all Google owned sites (think YouTube, Gmail, Google News).

google-facebook-graph

Facebook Passes Google in Time Spent

I'd like to make an interesting point here. These studies only point to one factor, that being - amount of time spent on a site. Google having just released Google Instant is working harder every day to get the user to their destination in the fastest way possible. This equates to less time spent on site. Meanwhile, Facebook is all about keeping users on its website and interacting with others on its website. This would obviously lead to more users spending longer on Facebook's site and less time spent on Google.

Interesting strategies being invoked by both companies. While it is apparent that Facebook, recently passing the 500 million user mark, is a popular online destination it focuses solely around users spending time on its singular website. Meanwhile, Google appears to be attempting to have you always looking at a website owned by Google, or supported by Google, or simply one that contains Google AdWords - regardless of whether the URL says Google.com

I would contend that, although Facebook is a popular online destination for users, the amount of time spent on a website does not equate to the superiority of a company or its associated web size and presence. Google continues to offer varied, different products and services to meet a wide swathe of needs and continues to become more and more deeply embedded in a person's life on or off the internet - and certainly without having to be logged in to Google.com to do so.

Unsolicited Product Review: DropBox

I'm not paid by any of the companies that I'm going to review products from (unfortunately) but I figured that since I deal with electronics, computers, and software on a daily basis there may be some tips and tricks that I've learned along the way that might be helpful to others as you look for answers about particular choices.

The first product in this series that I want to bring up is called DropBox. Now some of you are probably quite familiar with DropBox but for those that aren't this is a simply amazing tool to synchronize your data across all of your devices. I use a Mac at the office and at home, I have a MacBook Pro, an iPad, and an Evo phone. I needed an easy way to share files among all of my devices. I run a web development company, so I have servers at work, servers in the cloud, and rack space at several locations. However, I was looking for a dead simple solution that I could implement quickly to do simple file-sharing across multiple device types (aka, the iPad).

I checked on DropBox and found their installation process to be a breeze. They also offer a version of their software for each platform I needed. They have a basic free plan that offers 2GB of storage which was great for what I was looking for. Now I can share files, images, PDF's, word docs, and any other filetype quite easily. DropBox functions as just another folder on my computer that I can drag and drop files into and they are immediately synced with all of my other locations privately and securely. I can share files publicly as well by placing them in a special public folder.

(Bonus Tip: If you use 1password for storing passwords you can place your encrypted password file on your DropBox account and be able to have all your password data available on each computer that you have 1password setup).

If you need some way to easily manage files on multiple machines and don't want the hassle of setting up a server, configuring mirroring, and all the headaches that go with, then DropBox provides a great solution. I would recommend them highly.
   

What Does Google Instant Search Mean for SEO

Google announced the launch of their new search engine today named Google Instant. If you haven't seen it yet you need to take a look. They are rolling it out to all users within the next few days and have plans to rollout a mobile version sometime in the next couple of months.  Google Instant provides instant results for what you search for without you ever having to strike the enter key. This means that as you type a word the entire Google search page will update automatically to display the results for what you have entered. This is a phenomenal show of computing power and internet dominance.

Google announced they perform over a billion searches a day currently. That means that their databases return results for a billion queries each and every day. With Google Instant they are no longer returning a single page of results based on your entered search criteria but they are also returning results for every possible partial search as you enter each character of your search. What does this mean? This means Google will help you find exactly what you are looking for, and find it for you on page one of your results. Search engine optimization has just taken a dramatic turn. You need your content to be optimized correctly so that Google will display your information when users are searching your keywords - and you need your content to be optimized for partial keyword searches as well.

SEO is an ever-changing game, and this latest announcement from Google only testifies to this fact. If you need your website to be displayed prominently in this new search result set you need a company that understands how it works and can help you maintain a high ranking status through additional changes as they come. WebSpark offers just that service.
   

Sweat the Small Stuff!

I know it's a cliche phrase. Not cute, not catchy or original, but so very true. And that is what design is all about. Good design doesn't have to be cute or catchy or even original (although there are times when cute is good, catchy or trendy is not always bad and it never hurts to be original). Everything around us has an element of design. Some of it might not be as noticeable as others, and some may even be examples of bad design. Regardless, design surrounds our daily lives. It's been around forever. Look at ancient art as far back as possible and you will see some of the same elements occurring in the most cutting edge websites being created today.

Now there are too many things that make up a great design for me to try and get into it in a short blog post. But one that I have to touch on is the importance of the little things. Making sure that your edges line up just right, all the little things that aren't noticed when looking at a good design, those are the pieces of a design that bring it together and make it a great design.

We pay attention to the details, we sweat the small stuff. We like to showcase how we've tied design details from classic works of art, and design into our unique design created for each client. At WebSpark we think those little things matter and we prove it in our work.

   

Is It All Who You Know?

There are several adages that seem to always go around. Things like, "It takes money to make money.", "Go big or go home.", and others. One that I have been questioning lately is "It's all in who you know".

As social media becomes more and more the norm and it seems that every business, regardless of its industry and customer base is convinced that social media is where it needs to spend its advertising and marketing efforts I return to the question, is it all who you know? Social media seems to claim that it is. If you have 'friends', 'followers' or whatever the term for the specific site is then you know more people and therefore you will be more successful.

This can have a mixed effect in my mind. Obviously a social presence is important, and every company's true desire is to build a personal relationship with its customers so that it can meet their needs and expectations, but is this the same as 'knowing' someone? Communication is a two-way street and it requires give and take from both parties involved. The company can't simply advertise or market on social media channels, neither can they sit back and passively listen to the chatter of their customers.

True social media is the perfect blend of the two. I guess it's not just who you know, but how well you know them, and how close they feel to you.
   

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