Put Some Wow In Your Website
New graphics, sounds, and more.
Published September 2006
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COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLEYour business probably has a website. And you may have paid a developer a lot of cash to set it up. But have you invested in it recently? Technology on the Web gets stale fast, and it doesn't take long for sites that were once fast and shiny to feel sluggish and dated. Fortunately, Web design and development are experiencing something of a renaissance. Thanks to near-ubiquitous broadband, features that developers once could only dream of--digital mapping, smart searching, customer analysis, video, podcasting--are now within reach of nearly everyone. And you don't have to spend a fortune; many of the most intriguing bells and whistles are open-source tools available for free. Bear in mind that this can be a far cry from plug and play: If you're not versed in, say, Asynchronous JavaScript or XML, you might need to engage a techie. But a site that feels fresh is probably worth the investment. Here are six ways you and your tech team can get started.
Best for... Sprucing up your site
Yahoo Design Pattern Library
What it does: Some of the most talented Web developers work at Yahoo. The company's design pattern library puts their expertise at your disposal by offering a library of Web templates that the Web giant uses for its own site development.
What's cool: Yahoo's library contains more than two dozen features, such as user ratings and content highlighting. Web design mavens will appreciate the detailed explanations of each design--and a blog that lets users discuss fine-tuning and other issues.
Drawbacks: Yahoo's tools are aimed squarely at professional Web developers and designers. If you're a programming neophyte, don't expect the site to make much sense.
Price: Free
Best for... Podcasting
Big in Japan PodServe
What it does: Podcasts sound terrible if they're not produced correctly. PodServe brings together a suite of tools to make it easier to make and manage high-quality podcasts.
What's cool: The PodCall feature allows you to record podcasts from your personal phone. Other tools let you create social podcasts, in which several people podcast on the same feed, and public podcast "channels" that are open to anyone--say, customers who want to deliver testimonials via podcast. PodServe also supports 5- to 10-minute video podcasts.
Drawbacks: Why podcast when an MP3 or Flash audio file might work? Also, the software does not yet come in a hosted version, which means you have to install and maintain it yourself.
Pricing: PodServe can be downloaded and used for free. A companywide customization and installation runs as much as $20,000.
Best for... Adding a blog
Six Apart TypePad Business Class
What it does: Business Class is a blogging tool designed specifically for businesses. Though Six Apart hosts the service, the blog runs through your Web domain (there's no "blogspot.com" or "typepad.com" suffix) so your blog is more closely associated with your business--which, of course, is the point of blogging.
What's cool: It's easy to set up and includes advanced comments and anti-spam tools. Management tools make it easy to control who has access, to feed posts to search engines, and to categorize content. Business Class also offers one-click customer support.
Drawbacks: The main one is that it costs money in a market where most tools are free.
Price: $89.95 per blog per month (with 4 gigabytes of hosted storage and 40 gigabytes of hosted bandwidth per month)
Best for... Smarter searching
Baynote Content Guidance
What it does: Baynote's Content Guidance tracks every term visitors search for on your site and tracks their actions as they navigate the results. It captures the results and the links that work best, then presents these to other visitors when they search for the same information. The service, which is hosted by Baynote, also has an analytics engine that can help companies reorganize site content.
What's cool: Baynote makes searches on your site more effective, reducing the average number of clicks it takes to find what visitors are looking for from six to one. It also gets smarter as it tracks more searches.
