By now you’ve probably seen the news headlines, heard the rumors or even noticed the ominous black line across the top of your Google homepage. What does it mean? The folks at Google are planning something big, and we can’t wait to check it out ourselves. 

When I first heard about Google+ and the possibility of it becoming Facebook’s “competitor” I didn’t believe it.  However, after researching a bit and taking the interactive tour online, I think they’re really onto something.  Yes, it’s another social networking tool.  Yes, it’s kind of like Facebook, but it’s different in a way that makes social networking much more personal. 

Question: Don't you think its tough to measure social media?

There’s no question on arguing how a website can help you obtain a successful online presence and that it’s the most effective marketing strategy one can have as a designer or a company. A successful website should already have basic information where a site visitor can learn, identify and quickly understand how you can help. Essentially, a website provides a solution to a problem.

Read on past the break for more details about this new deal!

According to the news posting on their blog, "Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve."

Read Google's blog here, or read some additional thoughts about Google's Chrome OS after the break.

So let's assume you've read the article I keep posting regarding 50 uses of Twitter for business (heck, why not browse all of our Twitter-related articles), and you've started your Twitter account. But what's this? No one will follow your tweets? What do you do? I have some suggestions about getting those elusive Twitter followers, so read on past the break to learn some simple ways you can encourage followers and gain that Twitter audience you crave!

Read on for ideas for guidelines you can set for yourself, and settings relevant to several of the more popular sites to keep your personal information private.

Want to know why the continued survival of IE6 is such a big deal? Read on to learn how not all browsers are created equal, and why IE6 looks to be sticking around for a bit longer.

Check out the complete article here!

I touched on some of this briefly in a previous article, but I'd like to take some to review why it's so important to keep things simple for your site visitors.  Read on after the break to learn some of the benefits to bringing focus and simplicity to your site.

Not exactly. A website must go beyond one-way communication, meet definable customer needs, and achieve company goals. Most websites are too wordy, asking viewers to read the site like a book instead of finding ways to use the site as an interactive branch of the business. Text-heavy sites are built with the incorrect assumption that visitors will patiently click one page after another and read every word, eventually finding what it is they are looking for. These sites fall short of quickly directing visitors to critical information, and fail to encourage an actionable goal out of their visitors. Read past the break to learn how your site can avoid the same fate.