With Facebook announcing a number of changes and new releases this week the interweb is buzzing with rumours that Facebook is trying to push Google off its throne and ‘take over the web’. These changes include, among others, the change of fan pages to resemble community pages, where fans are no longer fans but rather, can choose to ‘like’ a product, brand or service.

Another big change is Facebook’s Open Graph.  When users logged into Facebook earlier this week they were greeted with a message saying ‘connect with your friends on your favourite websites.’  This new feature is aimed at instant personalisation and will utilise the data on your Facebook profile to show you information relevant to your interests, and also to show you what information your Facebook friends found useful on that specific website.  According to CCN.com the new changes mean, “If you’re a Facebook user reading CNN.com, you’ll be able to see what all your Facebook friends are looking at, view recommended stories and see which friends liked which stories.”  Facebook said this new feature will enable users to more easily share information they find on the Internet with their social network.

Mark Zuckerberg said at the f8 Developer Conference that “we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone.”  Users can opt-out of the new feature but that does not mean your Facebook friends cannot share your information with the mentioned companies.

Read more about these and other Facebook changes:

• On CCN.com
• Article:  Facebook plans to take over the web
• Post:  Facebook announces a slew of big changes

Many companies recognise the importance of having and maintaining a strong online presence, yet many struggle to get the basics right. Below are a few basic website-related factors that, when not taken in consideration, could damage your online presence.

Long loading time

Online users are impatient.  For instance, if a visitor arrives at your website through a search engine and your website takes longer than 5 seconds to load, it is highly likely that the visitor will click away to find the information elsewhere. Also keep in mind that event though flash websites are visually attractive, most of them have a lengthy loading time.  Make sure your website’s images are the smallest size possible to ensure that your website loads quickly.

Broken links

When a visitor locates the information they are looking for on your site, but the link they click is broken, it is almost guaranteed that they will close your website and find the information somewhere else.  Once a visitor is on your website, you want to keep them there and encourage them to perform an action that will turn into a lead or conversion. Hence, make sure your links are in full working in order to retain and convert visitors.

No contact information

Why invest money in a website if it’s impossible for visitors to contact you via it?  This is a guaranteed fail! If you don’t want your contact details publicly available make sure there is at east a contact form that visitors can fill in to contact you, and be sure to respond to these queries promptly.

Chunky copy that doesn’t read well

Website visitors usually don’t read online copy from left to right like they would read a book. Instead, they are likely to scan the page for keywords until they find what they are looking for. For this reason, you need to make sure that your content is short and to the point. You could also bold the important keywords and key-phrases in the copy to draw their eye to these points.

It’s difficult for people to find what they are looking for on your website

Illogical navigation is a sure-fire way to fail at having a strong online presence.  Online users are impatient, and if they find your website difficult to use, they will click away to find a competitor website that makes it easier for them to find what they are looking for. Another easy way to make it easy for visitors to find information is to include a search box on your website.  The simplest things can make the biggest difference!

Need help to determine the efficiency of your online presence and to improve the usability of your website?  Ask us!

It is a well-known fact that no website user likes to go through a lengthy sign-up process when registering.  This has contributed to the widespread success of social network APIs like Facebook Connect, Twitter Connect and OpenSocial, Google’s API.  These APIs allow users to login to third party websites with a click of a button and the relevant app pulls in all the necessary information from their social profiles.

To decide which API you are going to use, you need to determine which social network your target audience is spending their time on.  By allowing your website’s visitors to log in with their social network profile, you not only encourage them not to use fake login details, but also make it easy for them to post information from your website back onto their profiles.

Once visitors are logged in you can enhance their browsing experience by personalising their visit based on data from their social profile.  It’s a win-win situation and the big bonus for visitors is that they don’t have to remember different logins.

Read more on the various API’s:

-  Facebook Connect on the Developers’ Page on Facebook

-  The Twitter API

-  Google’s OpenSocial

-  MySpaceID