Webaloo has launched a new website design for Dakota Communities! let us know what you think!

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — If you’re finding it tough to stay off of Facebook, you may soon find it even harder to keep your words off of Google.

The Internet’s most popular — and powerful — search engine will soon expand its search index to include user comments on Facebook as part of Google’s traditional search results.

While private users will still be protected, any comments made on Facebook forms on other websites or public pages within the social networking site will be indexed and open for all the world to see.

The controversial change comes as Google looks to expand its reach to any user content currently hiding from its all-seeing search robots — usually in comment systems like the one used on Facebook and other popular sites.

While Google has pledged to take “precautions to avoid performing any task on a site that could result in executing an unintended user action,” not everyone is cheering its latest indexing tool.

Developers are concerned that the new effort could disrupt confidence for users who may feel uncomfortable leaving comments on their respective websites without revealing them to Google — and the rest of the Web community.

It is the face of your business to the world.
First Impressions are often lasting impressions.
It is the greatest opportunity for growth.
The ROI is outstanding - working 24×7 for you!

This entire website was donated by Webaloo to Champions In Action.

Tim Anderson and Lucy Anderson recently attended The Databank’s Annual User Conference at the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis Minnesota. They met with Joshua Bertsch from the Council on Crime and Justice about their website needs.

Dec 29, 2009 at 5:32pm ET by Joshua Odmark
Article Source

The mobile web is a fascinating space that is still in its infancy. If the current capabilities of mobile devices are a sign of things to come, I can only imagine what will be possible five years from now.

Here are 10 reasons I think that anyone with an online presence should establish a mobile presence separate from your website:

1. Google has a separate index for mobile content.

Not only do they have a separate index for mobile content, but also it is fairly empty. The other day I performed a search for an Imax theater in Santa Barbara, and it told me that the best option was a theater in San Diego. Really? I jumped on Imax.com and found a theater located just 19 miles away.

I never thought I would miss directory style websites, but in this particular example, a mobile directory for all theaters in the US would have been able to give Google Mobile the correct solution to serve up.

2. Your regular website is not going to cut it.

There is a fundamental design difference between a regular website and a mobile website.

On a mobile phone, there is a very limited amount of screen space. If you have ever had to side scroll to view something on a website, you realize how much of an inconvenience it is. This is magnified on a mobile device. Even with the ability to turn the device lengthwise, the resolution is still extremely small.

There are numerous mobile phone emulators that can show you what your website will look like on a mobile device, and I can guarantee it is probably a terrible experience for a mobile device user.

3. 1/5 of Americans access the mobile web each day.

This percentage is increasing every year. If you’re not representing yourself on the mobile web, your competition surely will take up the opportunity.

4. Mobile web will overtake the desktop within 5 years.

Not only will the mobile web inevitably overtake the desktop, but also usage and adoption is growing at a much faster rate than the desktop did.

In the future, the vast majority of visitors to your website will be on a mobile device.

5. $1.6 billion purchased from mobile devices in 2009.

This is likely the most exciting and sought after information about the mobile web. If millions of people are using the mobile web, but they are not buying anything, most commercial websites would not bother establishing a mobile presence.

As you can see, purchasing from mobile devices is already in the billions.

Studies show that buyers do not have as much confidence in purchasing from a mobile device as they do from their PCs, but both comfort levels and the amount being spent is increasing.

Users went through the same hesitation when the Internet was just becoming popular, and now most people do not hesitate when buying something online from their PC.

You can rest assure that the same thing will happen with the mobile web.

6. 93% of U.S. adults own a cell phone.

Not all cell phones have Internet access capabilities, but that is currently the trend. Smart phones are not the only ones with access to the web. Standard phones are coming out with Qwerty keywords and website browsers seemingly every single month.

It is safe to say that in the near future, all phones will have some form of online access, whether it is being used or not.

7. 5% of the top 500 online retailers have a mobile website/iPhone app.

I was rather surprised by how low this number is. But then again, this means great things for the rest of us who are not in the top 500 online retailers.

I am willing to bet that one of the biggest reasons that you’re not ranking as high as you would like is because your competitors are doing a better job than you are in some shape or form.

Which means that if you’re reading this, chances are fairly high that you are already a step ahead of your competition.

8. Mobile advertising spending will surpass $6.5 billion in 2012.

Ad spend is a great indicator for the current status of an industry. If someone is willing to spend their hard earned money putting their products in front of users on the mobile web, you can assume there is a pretty good reason for it.

Furthermore, if they continue to spend more year after year, that indicates that the previous years investment paid off. And that is exactly how mobile advertising is trending across the board.

9. Users average 13 hours online per week, up from 7 in 2002.

As online usage increases regardless of the device used, accessibility is going to be the next lever to increase online usage.

A desktop or laptop used to be the only way to access the Internet, but now with Internet enabled mobile phones the Internet has truly become mobile. It is now simply a matter of service availability from your mobile phone network provider such as AT&T and Verizon.

10. There are an estimated 2 billion cell phones worldwide.

Not only are there a lot of cell phones worldwide, but they seem to outlast their owners and are passed down to another owner. There are great recycling and refurbishing programs that use old cell phones as emergency dialers or resell them at discounted rates.

As you can see, the mobile web is clearly trending up and has a lot of room to grow. If the mobile web were a stock, now would be the time to buy. It is the closest thing to a sure bet as you can get.

You may have noticed most websites now have a link to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or Youtube. Social media can help you reach out to your audience on a platform that they are comfortable with and use often. Webaloo now has the ability to create social media pages for your business/organization as well as seamlessly integrate them into your website.

Check out the Article below from Social Media Examiner to gain a better understanding of how people use facebook, and why its so critical for you to be using it as well.

3 Studies Show Facebook’s Marketing Potential

Facebook is hot.  There’s no question that Facbeook has a large audience.  But what does this mean for marketers and business owners?

Here are three recent Facebook-related studies that answer these very questions by examining how much time Facebook users invest in the platform, if Facebook ads are effective and other Facebook trends among online merchants.

#1: One-Third of Online Time Spent on Facebook Among U.S. Users

According to recent findings by market researcher Morpace, U.S. Facebook users are on the site for 1 of every 3 minutes of time spent online.  Users 18 to 34 years old spend the most time on the site per week (8.5 hours out of 22.4 spent online). Users 55 and older spend an average of 4.6 hours per week on Facebook.

The study also explored Facebook activity by ethnicity.  According to the results, Asians were the heaviest users of Facebook.  As a group, they devoted the most of their Internet time per week to Facebook (39.6%).  African Americans were the second heaviest users at 35.1%.  Hispanics spent the least amount of time on Facebook (31.7%).

One of the most interesting stats from this study showed that Facebook users making at least $100,000 annually spent the most time on Facebook and on the web as a whole. This is valuable information for companies selling products and services online.

#2: Facebook Ads Most Effective On User Profile Pages

Facebook users spend more time looking at ads on their own Facebook profiles than they do on news feed pages (their homepages), found a new report by Mulley Communications.  Specifically, the study found that 71% of users looked at advertisements on their profile pages, while only 31% of users looked at advertisements on the news feed page.

In addition, 53% of users pay attention to page updates in their news feed wall, which may explain why they mostly ignore ads on their pages.

Here’s a short video to show the heat map of the news feed from the study.  Notice how there’s little activity in the right-hand side of the wall.

#3: Online Merchants Loving Facebook ‘Likes’

There’s been a lot of discussion about retailers extending the power of Facebook to their sites.  Website conversion company SeeWhy found that 35% of ecommerce online marketers have implemented Facebook’s “Like” plugin, while 33% plan to do so in the near future.

The second most popular Facebook social plugin was the login application, as 18% reported they had implemented it and 15% said they plan to do so in the future. The login plugin allows consumers to skip the registration step and login directly from the merchant’s site. This allows conversion to be simple and quick, which is a huge advantage for the merchant.

Facebook social plugins have been getting a lot of attention from online merchants because they can drive traffic back to their own sites without having to build an entire ecommerce site into their Facebook page.  Although 26% of respondents said they plan to build ecommerce applications on Facebook itself, 67% said they plan to use Facebook to actually drive traffic to their sites.

In addition, 44% said they plan to use Facebook applications in place of microsites for launches and specific promotions.

Every year without fail new website trends emerge and old ones become obsolete. We are especially excited about the newest website trends for 2011. Check out the list below to learn more about them.

1. Social Media - You may have noticed most websites now have a link to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or Youtube. Social media can help you reach out to your audience on a platform that they are comfortable with and use often. Webaloo now has the ability to create social media pages for your business/organization as well as seamlessly integrate them into your website.

2. Mobile Platforms - Smart phones are now some of the most popular phones available today. Mobile websites are a great way to make sure anyone looking at your website through a mobile device is able to see and use your website effectively. While a mobile website is basically a simplified version of your website, that doesn’t mean it has to look that way.

3. Widescreen Website Designs - Most of the newest website designs are expanding in size. As computer screens get larger, so do website designs. Below is an example of how simply widening the design can make a world of difference.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Webaloo offers our clients easy to understand SEO, which in turn will provide you with more traffic and better search engine rankings. With the realization that most searchers do not make it past the first two pages of search results, the need for professional SEO is critical to any strategic Internet marketing plan.

Call us today to learn more about these exciting services and tools for your Webaloo website!

Wishing you a great New Year!!

Sincerely,

There has been a movement taking off in website design in the last few years, ever since the internet and bandwidth have become more affordable, it’s called Minimalism. Minimalism is a term used in some circles to mean keeping things simple. Whether the project is a painting or photograph, artists know the term. Now that space is more affordable, Minimalism has spread to the website design world, with good reason. Keeping things simple on a webpage helps to avoid clutter and busyness, improve readability, and create a quality of attractiveness.
In regard to website design, Minimalism means using a simple page layout, a limited color palette, and not over using photos on a page. Also using implementations like Flash, audio, and video sparingly will help keep a website from becoming overwhelming.

http://blog.publishedandprofitable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/second-park-four-5.jpg

With everything that is available to integrate into a website in today’s world, it is very important to use white space well! One principal to keep in mind when deciding to use a Minimalist philosophy for web building is, “Less is More”. One of the biggest mistakes made today is turning a website into a maze of words and pictures. Using white space will keep a page from becoming chaotic and busy.
Many websites that practice Minimalist designs will have a large central banner with text that will highlight the most important feature of their website, along with a large central photo. Often there will be top or side navigation and sometimes both, but these will not usually stand out or take away from the banner and photo. This is but one basic outline of a minimalist page, it can be done in many other ways.

http://2expertsdesign.com/images/website-designs/AuthenticStyle.co.uk.jpg

Minimalism is taking off these days because, in a world where anything is available to put into a website, people are recognizing the need to preserve simple, elegant style on the web. Minimalism tries to bring the long practiced art tradition to the webpage and following in its path will allow a website to avoid clutter, improve readability, and gain an attractive edge.

There are a few basic things that are coming to the fore in the web design world right now. Large headers that contain flash and/or photo slideshows are becoming very popular, there has been a movement toward minimalism, or the idea that the main page of a site shouldn’t have too much on it, and the use of interactive information boxes is picking up for some examples. But whatever the current trends are, they will never become the heart and soul of a webpage. In order to recognize a well designed page the viewer must be aware of a few principles: a page should satisfy the viewer’s desire for aesthetic beauty, form follows function, and design supports content. Following these principles will give a good impression to viewers and help a website endure the test of time.

Behind the beauty of any page is the consideration of the aesthetic and psychological needs of the viewer. A page is designed to give off certain emotions and satisfactions based on the intention of the designer. This is done through the use of color, texture (the feel or look of the surface), architecture (page layout), and typography (interplay of fonts and text on a page). By controlling the colors, textures, layout and placement of items, and the use of lettering on a page, a designer can guide the eye around a page and give emphasis to certain parts.

While a designer is coming up with the aesthetics of a page, he or she must keep in mind what Louis Sullivan once said, “Form follows function”. This means that the one thing of ultimate importance to a webpage is its functionality. If a website isn’t easy to use and navigate, then it doesn’t matter how pretty it looks. One mistake that is sometimes made is adding too much to a page. When too much is on a page, it creates clutter and takes away from any single effect.

Finally all the bricks of a webpage’s foundation must support the content of the page. The content of a page, or what it is saying, the text and message, is the most important part of any page. Everything on a page should be ordered to delivering the page’s message in a particular way, while at the same time never taking anything away from that message.

“Good art stands alone. Good design supports content.”

-    Matt Ward, Echo Enduring Media.

With beauty, functionality, and content cemented on a page a designer can feel free to follow the latest trends without fear of taking away from the purpose of their pages. Trends will come and go, but the foundation of a page must always remain. Building and keeping the foundation will attract and impress your viewers, and help your site endure the test of time.