I had a conversation recently with a client about where the IT industry in general, or the internet in particular, is going to be in the next couple of years. The first place to start with this kind of hypothesizing is to really understand where the industry is now. I get the idea most folks don’t quite understand the massive transformation that has occurred in the technology world in the last several years. The fact is, we are in the midst of a gigantic melding of media and technology, and when it is complete, there will be no distinction between the two.

This is a question that’s big out there, bigger in Maine than a guy like me would like it to be. I do this for a living, I want there to be some stronger demand for my services.
Fortunately, it’s an easy question to answer. The way I start my answer is with another question- do you advertise in the Yellow Pages? Of course, most would answer. Well, 4.6 billions searches were conducted on the internet last month. How many folks do you suppose flipped through their coastal Maine yellow pages?

Ok so small businesses in Maine have all kinds of reasons to ignore search engine marketing, and though I’m sure I disagree with 99% of them, I can understand where these folks are coming from. Most search engine stuff in fairly inaccesible, esoteric and confusing to the non-geek crowd. But the internet is evolving so rapidly, and we’re coming up fast to where ALL businesses need to focus- Local Search.

Jim Hedger wrote an interesting piece in Search Engine Journal about how usability is moving into the optimization world…Usability has always been a no-brainer in terms of making money from your site, but Google reveals in its patent that it is looking at many user behaviours as part of its assesment of websites. From Jim’s article:

Rich Brooks over at Flyte New Media just tipped me off to a local company using blogs …The Inn at Ocean’s Edge is a new upscale restaurant/inn that seems to be right on the front end of things these days. It’s a great idea for local folks, they list contact info, specials, etc., and also a great way to create affinity from clients that are now out of town for the winter.
http://mainelodging.blogs.com/inn_at_oceans_edge/

I’ve been immersed in Naked Conversations over the last week… it really is stunning how prevalent blogs are becoming. 40,000 new blogs go online every day. CEOs of huge corporations fighting media slant through them, teenagers expressing their age-specific rage through them, it really seems like the medium has opened up a massive wave of media access to the common shmoe.

Yahoo! commissioned a poll taken in late October that shows 83% of consumers will shop online this holiday season. The Hosting News has a great story here >>>

The survey also shows 80% will purchase from small businesses online, and that consumers look for an internet presence to test the legitamacy of local merchants.

Sales are up for online shopping 29% this holiday season from last year…

Google’s Froogle is free shopping directory that Google offers to business owners. You can pipe your company’s product catalog to them at no charge, and they will list individual items and prices that redirect back to your site. This is a great service that anyone with an ecommerce site should jump on.

I was selected to review the galleys of the upcoming book Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers, by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble.

http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2005/09/galley_reviewer_1.html