At some point we’ll do more with individual reviews, but in the meantime, here is a list of 22 different social media marketing management tools, platforms and services to help manage and scale your online marketing efforts on the social web:

Shoutlet – Manages social media marketing communications with one platform for building, engaging and measuring social media. Includes multiple account and platform support, social CRM and ecommerce for Facebook, email marketing and mobile features.

Direct Message Lab – Provides consulting, implementation and a platform (REACH) for centralized management of social media promotions & contests, advertising and measurement.

Objective Marketer - Offers social media marketing and analytics with integrated campaign management (Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, YouTube), multi-channel execution, engagement reports and user management.

Wildfire Interactive - Platform for easy creation, implementation and management of branded interactive campaigns including: sweepstakes, contests and give-aways.

StrongMail Social Studio – Comprehensive social media marketing platform with a referral marketing platform, social sharing tool and campaign management application. (Disclosure: StrongMail is a TopRank client)

Sprout - Cloud-based visual authoring software used to build interactive Engage Ads and Engage Apps that deliver rich, interactive, and social content across the web and mobile devices.

Spredfast - Enterprise social media management system that allows an organization to manage, monitor, and measure its voices across multiple social media channels. Also offers a white label option for agencies.

socialTALK – allows brands to create (text, photos, videos), manage (customize workflow & approval process), publish (single source, scheduled publishing to multiple platforms) and measure (aggregated analytics dashboard) their content strategy and posting schedule.

Crowd Factory – Suite of social media marketing tools include Social Campaign, that enables marketers to acquire new customers through simple social gestures and custom social marketing campaigns while easily tracking ROI.

Awareness - Social marketing hub that centralizes social media content publishing, management, measurement and engagement. Also includes access to 7 white-labeled, best practice social networking applications.

@this moment – Built on the @this moment platform, DEC is a system for managing a brand’s presence across multiple online environments combining multimedia UGC, and a variety of real-time inputs which are distributed across social platforms including YouTube Brand Channels, Facebook Fan Pages, MySpace Brand Communities & the iPhone.

MediaFunnel – Offers a Business Social Media platform for Facebook and Twitter supporting multiple users per profile and editorial review. Includes monitoring and integrates with Salesforce.com.

Virtue – Works with clients and agencies through a Social Relationship Management (SEM) platform offering Facebook tabs & applications, a publishing feature for Facebook & Twitter and mobile solutions.

Sprinklr – Social media marketing platform and consulting services for consumer & B2B marketers as well as agencies. Provides social media audience research, acquisition, content promotion and measurement tools.

Janrain – Web based platform of tools including: Engage to make it easy for users to connect a site with their social networks, Federate to facilitate navigation across multiple web properties & partner sites with a single log-in (currently supports 16 networks), Capture to leverage user data for personalized experiences.

Sprout Social – Affordable social media dashboard, monitoring, team workflow, influencer and contact management, performance metrics and daily or weekly email summaries. Supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and Foursquare.

Sendible – Social media marketing platform that supports 30+ networks & services offering management of: accounts/profiles, messages & content, social contacts, content discovery, engagement, blog content & promotion, monitoring and analytics. Also offers a white label version for agencies.

KickApps – Self service social media web site authoring and social content management system system supporting video, social networking, social graph & activity streams, apps & analytics. Enables web publishers and marketers to develop branded communities, social applications and interactive widgets on their websites and across the social web. Solutions for small and large business.

Postling – Local business social media marketing platform to create content, stay organized and reach customers. Currently free for small business or personal use.

pop.to Social Marketing –  A social marketing suite, including feed-enabled social gestures and widgets, social dashboard, segmentation tools, influencer identification, conversion tracking and built-in friend casting.

HootSuite - Social media dashboard for managing social content and engagement on multiple networks with team workflow and statistics.

Seesmic – Web and desktop tools to manage social marketing activity on Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Google Buzz and Linkedin plus a plug-in marketplace for more social management options.

This list of social media marketing platforms & services “ad hoc” was compiled by bookmarking various services as they were discovered or pitched to us (we don’t reply to pitches).  Here’s another useful list of SMMS was compiled in March 2010 by Jeremiah Owyang.

What social media marketing dashboards, software and management tools from the list above have you tested or use? Reviews, observations, insights and questions are greatly appreciated!

Dashboards got a much needed overhaul in the new GA. Users can now create up to 20 personalized dashboards, developing widgets and formats that make the most sense for them or their company. For instance, each company department could develop its own distinct dashboard to quickly access site performance statistics that relate to department goals. Keep in mind: Dashboards can only be shared by users on the same login.

At a minimum, these four widgets would benefit the average user.

• Visits – Timeline (can also include Metric)
• Goal Completions and/or Transactions – Timeline
• Source/Medium – Table
• Bounce Rate – Timeline

2. Keyword Clouds

Rather than viewing a long list of keywords to spot trends, users can now evaluate a keyword cloud. This cloud makes it easy to visualize top keywords based on different user-selected criteria, including visits, bounce rates and pages per visit.

3. Real-Time Data

In the past, Google Analytics data was typically delayed up to 24 hours after the visit. For the first time, GA offers a real-time data solution. With its real-time reports, users can view the activity on the site as it happens, drilling into the top active pages, top referrals, keywords and geographic locations driving the traffic. In addition to monitoring current activity on the site, these reports can also be used to test campaign tracking prior to launching campaigns.

4. Site Speed

When Google released this report several months ago, it required additional code to be added to sites. Now speed reporting is standard on GA, and doesn’t need extra code. Use the site speed reports to get information about average page load time.

Why is this important? A slow site can have a negative effect on quality score for paid search, so visits can cost more to a slower site. Google has also indicated that site speed may be an important factor in organic search rankings. Additionally, a one-second delay can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Use this report to monitor site speed and avoid these issues.

5. Search Simplifies Navigation

GA has activated menu search, a phenomenal usability update. The tool makes it easier for users to quickly navigate to the proper report. Google also created an account search that lets users directly access the correct profile, rather than scrolling through hundreds to locate the right one.

GA also introduced the ability to switch between multiple profiles while staying with and maintaining the settings of the same report. Previously this could only be done using a Firefox plugin.

6. Webmaster Tools

The new integration incorporates Google Webmaster Tools data into Google Analytics. Using this tool, users can get a better sense of which Google property (web, image, local) drove site traffic. Similar to statistics provided to paid search advertisers, Webmaster Tools provides impressions, average position and CTR data for GA.

Although the numbers are not 100% accurate, they can be used to evaluate relative trends and to provide insight into data lost due to Google’s search update. Although the Webmaster Tools report is in Google Analytics, it’s limited to a single part of GA.

7. Social Engagement

Use Google Analytics to track how visitors interact socially with your site. A 2010 study showed 54% of small and medium-sized businesses said they already use or plan to use social media, and 17% planned to increase their social budget again from 2010 to 2011. With more companies making a push for social, it makes sense to analyze social site interactions.

GA’s new social reports break down how many of a site’s visitors are socially engaged with the site, itemizing which social source and action occurred. That way you can determine how many of your visitors +1′d site content vs. how many Liked it, as well as the pages that prompted this social action. Social plugins ShareThis and AddThis easily integrate with Google Analytics, passing information on social interactions back to GA with minimal changes.

8. Visitor Flow & Goal Flow Visualization

Flow Visualization was announced in October, but only recently started rolling out to most users. Flow Visualization consists of two reports: Visitors Flow and Goal Flow. The Visitors Flow report can be used to visualize the “flow” of visitors through the site, while the Goal Flow is an improvement on the original Funnel Visualization reports.

The Goal Flow report is especially valuable, as it simplifies evaluating a conversion funnel. Have a checkout process six pages long? Now you can determine at which page people are abandoning their carts. Then improve the process and save the sales.

9. Event Tracking

Prior to this new feature, any goal interaction with a site that didn’t result in a new URL needed to be tracked using special code to create a virtual pageview, which resulted in inflated numbers in GA. For the first time, Events can be used as goals. Want to find out how many people downloaded a PDF? Interested in knowing how many visitors viewed more than 30 seconds of a video on your site? Now users can easily track these events without affecting other metrics.

10. Multi-Channel Funnels

The Multi-Channel Funnels are a series of reports intended to help provide attribution information. For example, a person visits your site first from a paid search ad, then from an organic search listing, then from a link in Twitter, and finally from an email link. Therefore, which channel should get credit for the conversion? With many analytics platforms, the credit goes to the final funnel, thus, the email marketing campaign.

Multiple reports in the new Multi-Channel Funnels allow users to view further back than the final channel. Now GA shows every interaction a user had with the site in the 30 days prior to conversion. Using these reports, departments can take credit for their assists to conversions, and companies can make more informed decisions about which marketing activities have the highest ROI.

These are just a few of the many great advancements made to Google Analytics with the new rollout. While there are still several features missing (such as the PDF and email export functionalities, percent comparisons, missing graph by week option, etc.), Google is constantly striving to correct these with future iterations of the platform.

Great article by Rachael Gerson via Mashable!!!

1. Metrics that are actionable – why measure stuff you can’t do anything about?
2. Metrics that help you get stuff done – using data to fight internal battles is vital
3. Everything else – meh, wouldn’t worry about it too much!

While I love diving into data and getting into the how and why trends appear in analytics, I have to remember that my time is limited, in particular when looking at a clients analytics account. I need to understand as much as I can, but ultimately I need to focus on the metrics that make a difference. Also if you are a bit of a newbie in SEO or analytics, the amount of data available to you can be very overwhelming. Far too many people make the mistake of focusing on the wrong metrics which can be costly to a project. It can sometimes look like you are doing a bad job if you are measuring the wrong metrics.

Metrics that are actionable

If a metric isn’t actionable, then its just fluff that fills up space in a report and doesn’t mean very much. While metrics can be interesting, there is a difference between a metric that is interesting and one that is actionable. Below I’ve listed a number of metrics that I define as actionable.

1. Beat Panda – Measure Content

Whilst the Google Panda updates of 2011 have looked to address a number of quality issues, one of the key ones in my opinion was the amount of good, quality content on a page. Many pages of thin or duplicate content across your site could potentially cause your entire site to fall foul of Panda. One way to assess this on your own site is to use custom variables to measure the content on your page. This works very well if you have an ecommerce site or any site where you collate reviews:

Action to take -

• Measure the number of reviews on your pages and see if pages with little or no content are as visible in Google

If you want to learn more about using Google Analytics custom variables, checkout this tutorial video.

2. % Visitors who view product pages

The reason this is important is quite simple, no view of a product page = no product sale.

This is one that is usually taken for granted by many ecommerce sites. They assume that because they have lots of product pages, that visitors will automatically find them. However there can be barriers to a visitor getting to your product pages, for example poorly designed navigation, poor internal site search, unclear category names etc. Also lets now forget that many ecommerce sites have other sections of their site such as a blog, a news section, buyers guides, videos and help pages, so a visitor can easily get distracted by one of these and end up leaving your site without ever seeing a product page.

Actions to take -

• Improve internal site search
• Improve navigation menus

Pro tip – make sure your internal site search works for both plural and singular product names. A classic mistake I’ve seen over the years is exact matching of queries to product names which means either singular or plural returns no results.

3. % of people who search your site then exit

If a visitor has made the effort to type in what they are searching for on your site and still left without buying, then you should take a closer look into why. So many internal site searches are not only badly designed, but also return bad results. If your website is like this, then you are losing sales. Actively improve your search results pages to make them more relevant and useful. it still amazes me that SEOs obsess over Google SERPs, yet neglect to take a look at the quality of their own despite having control over them!

Actions to take -

• Test it and make sure it actually works
• Do the results you see make sense
• Include special offers or discounts in results
• Enhance results with images – see Apple for a good example:

If you haven’t got it setup on your site yet, check out this information on setting up site search for Google Analytics.

4. Page load speed

If it isn’t already clear to you, Google is obsessed with speed. I can see why, a faster web is better for everyone and we all get frustrated if a page takes longer than a few seconds to load. Google have confirmed that site speed is part of the algorithm, albeit a small part. They’ve also made it measurable in Webmaster Tools and more recently they made it available in Google Analytics.

Now that we can measure load speed in analytics, it becomes much easier to see the results of the actions you take. Its also easier to see which pages of your site are slower than others, which allows you to try and work out why and fix the issues.

Something I wanted to point out here too is that you shouldn’t be worrying about site speed because it forms a small part of the Google Algorithm. You should be worrying about it because it is important to your visitors, they will not come back to your website if they are left hanging around waiting for the page to load.

Actions to take -

• Look at which pages or sections of your site are the slowest
• Focus on improving the speed of your money pages
• Bug your developers and educate them on why its so important

If you want to learn more about what you can actually to do speed up your site, take a look at Craig Bradford’s site speed for dummies part one and part two on the Distilled blog.

5. Average Order Value

This metric is all about squeezing as much revenue as you can from each order. Quite often, an SEO will start a project and the first thing they do is assume they make more revenue for the client by getting more traffic. Whilst this can be true, the quickest wins can often come from taking a good look at ways to get more value from the existing traffic.

There are actions you can take though if you are looking to drive traffic that will increase your order value.

Actions to take -

• Add up sells as much as you can to the buying process – Amazon are awesome at this
• Look at keyword trends to see which ones drive a higher order value
• Look at traffic sources to see which ones drive a higher order value

6. Measure SEO Variables

Similar to point one above, you can also use custom variables to track various SEO variables of your website such as -

• Pages tagged with Rel=canonical
• Pages that are linked to sitewide
• Tag certain “types” of content across your site

Action to take -

• Measure things such as the above and see how these pages perform in search results

7. Completion of Tasks

This one falls outside Google Analytics but I still wanted to measure it as it can be a great way of getting quick feedback about your site. I’d recommend taking a look at 4Q survey for this one, they offer a free trial so you can give it a test drive and see what you think. Avinash wrote a pretty in depth review of it on his blog if you want to read a bit more into it.

Quick sidenote, if you are into Analytics and not following Avinash on Twitter or reading his blog, you should be! He is also speaking at Mozcon in July and I’ve heard great things about his presentations.

Actions to take -

• Ask your visitors questions that matter using this software and feed the answers back into your strategy

8. Share of Search Landscape

I really like this metric. The main reason I like it is that it is a metric that anyone can understand, even people who don’t get SEO will understand this. This is because its very similar to a traditional marketing metric of market share, so it can be used when demonstrating SEO growth and targets to your clients.

Here is an example of how this may look (dummy data!):

9. Form Field Tracking

This is such an easy one to action and can make a big difference to your conversions. If you are able to identify fields that are consistently confusing customers and perhaps making them abandon the form, then you are able to look into why and remove these barriers to conversion. You can even take a step back and ask yourself if that field is even required at all.

Action to take -

• Identify form fields that are causing problems and either remove them or improve them

Pro Tip – you can use Google Analytics events to track which form fields are causing problems. Here is a good thread over on the Analytics help forum which points you in the right direction for setting this up.

10. Branded vs Non-branded Search Traffic

If you are an SEO, or you employ an SEO agency, you should be measuring this metric. The great thing about measuring non-branded traffic is that pretty much 100% of the credit can be given to SEO efforts. Whilst credit for branded search increases can be credited to a number of marketing channels such as PR, offline advertising or online display advertising.

Action to take -

• Measure non-branded keywords and see which ones convert best, then focus on increasing rankings for these

11. Conversion Rate

I’m pretty sure you are all looking at this metric, but I bet that some of you are not using it properly. By not measuring it properly I mean that you are probably looking at this overall figure:

You can’t take any actions from this figure. In order to take actions, you need to segment by relevant dimensions such as traffic source, type of visitor, location, keyword etc.

Action to take -

• Segment conversion rate by best performing dimensions and invest more resource into those dimensions

All of the templates, kits, stencils and even the Photoshop Actions we have in this post have all been designed to help make the initial rapid prototyping stages of web and mobile development that little bit easier, quicker and smoother.

As you would expect all of the kits are fully editable and available in a multitude of various formats (.psd, .ai, .eps, .png or even .kth (Keynote), .ppt (Powerpoint) or Omnigraffle formats). So, whatever your preferred format is you are guaranteed to find it in this post.

Fireworks Mini Web Wireframing Kit (.png)

The Dragnet website wireframes kit is a common library for Adobe Fireworks and contains over 25 objects that are useful for rapid prototyping of websites. The kit contains common web design elements such as scrollbars, buttons, menus, alerts etc. with the most of them supporting the 9-slice scaling feature that is build into Fireworks for a better resizing of the objects.
Website Wireframes Kit for Adobe Fireworks (.png) →

Fireworks Mini Web Wireframing Kit (.png)

The idea behind this mini wireframe kit is to give you just the essential shapes for web wireframing. The file is in .PNG format.
Fireworks Mini Web Wireframing Kit (.png) →

Wireframe Stencils for Keynote (.kth)

These stencils are a collection of UI elements using Keynote to create interactive wireframes and rapid web prototyping.
Wireframe Stencils for Keynote (.kth) →

Keynote Wireframe Templates (.kth)

These Keynote templates allow you to put together interactive product wireframes quickly, adding hyperlinks and enabling interactivity without writing code.
Keynote Wireframe Templates (.kth) →

Wireframe Stencils for PowerPoint amd Impress (.ppt)

This is a collection of common user interface elements for use when creating wireframes of desktop or Web applications in Microsoft PowerPoint. Most elements are created using tables allowing for easier editing of more complex objects (.e.g. tab panels).
Please note, I am not 100% sure that this is a FRESH resource, but it is new to us and certainly worthy of a mention.
Wireframe Stencils for PowerPoint amd Impress (.ppt) →

Web Wireframe Kit (.psd)

This basic web wireframing kit consists of a PSD file with some of the most common design elements. Available in both black and white.
Web Wireframe Kit (.psd) →

Small GUI Pack (.ai, .psd & .png)

Small GUI Pack (.ai, .psd & .png)

Web Kit Interface Layout Pack (.psd & .png)

This web interface layout template pack comes packaged with a choice of six colors (grey, purple, blue, yellow, red and green) and are each available in both .psd and .png.
Web Kit Interface Layout Pack (.psd & .png) →

Blue Modern Web UI (.psd)

Blue Modern Web UI is a clean and well structured PSD file with example buttons and web form elements.
Blue Modern Web UI (.psd) →

Android 2.2 GUI (.png & .psd)

This Android kit, based on Smashing Magazines Android 1.5 GUI kit, has been updated with Android 2.2 (Froyo) features.
Android 2.2 GUI (.png & .psd) →

Android Widgets GUI (.psd)

This Android GUI default widget pack contains 14 of the default widgets, including: Analogue Clock, Buzz, Calendar, Facebook, Latitude, Market, Music, Picture Frame, Power control, Twitter, Voice Inbox, Voice settings, Weather, Youtube. And top of that there is also the Notification Bar with customizable Notification icons and the Launcher Tray with customizable Launcher icons.
Android Widgets GUI (.psd) →

Android Wireframe Tools (Omnigraffle)

Android Wireframe Tools (Omnigraffle) →

Photoshop Android GUI Set (.psd & .png)

The package includes fully editable Photoshop files, original fonts and previews and everything that you could possibly need in order to customize your GUI set according to your preferences.
The set includes: Main men, Contextual menus, Keyboard, Radio, Applications, Browser, Status Bar, Screen label, Dialog, Options panel, Slider, Google search, Circle buttons, Bottom bar, Media player, Contact list, Messages view, Message compose, Word suggestion, Hour, Signal bar and Battery status.
Photoshop Android GUI Set (.psd & .png) →

iPhone 4 GUI PSD – Retina Display (.psd)

This is the updated version of teehanlaxs famous iPhone GUI psd. The file is huge, both in file size (62.7MB) and dimension (4074×2986). You’ll need to work at 25% – 50% even on the largest screens to roughly grab elements before zooming into 100% for the actual work.
iPhone 4 GUI PSD – Retina Display (.psd) →

iPhone 4 Retina GUI (.psd)

This iPhone 4 Retina GUI PSD has been based on the iPhone GUI PSD 4.0 designed by teehan+lax.
iPhone 4 Retina GUI (.psd) →

Mobility: A free set of mobile UI design elements (.psd)

Mobility is a free set of mobile UI elements (.psd) to help speed the customization of your mobile web application designs.
Mobility: A free set of mobile UI design elements (.psd) →

iPhone Wireframe Kit (Google Docs)

iPhone Wireframe Kit (Google Docs) →

Squetch – Wireframing Toolkit for Illustrator (.ai)

Sqetch is a little Illustrator-toolkit consisting of several templates and elements: Browser, iPad upright, iPad landscape, Smartphone, GUI-Elements and Form-Elements.
Squetch – Wireframing Toolkit for Illustrator (.ai) →

Free iPad Template (.psd)

Free iPad Template (.psd) →

iPhone 4 PSD HD (.psd)

This is a high-res iPhone 4 PSD (a huge 3000x4000px) and the download comes in at a whopping 60mb!
iPhone 4 PSD HD (.psd) →

iPad Wall Presenter (.png & .psd)

This is a clean template to present your iPad Wallpapers. The Download contains transparent both PNG and the original high-res PSD.
iPad Wall Presenter (.png & .psd) →

iPhone UI Kits (.psd)

In this iPhone UI kit you will find psds for: Switch controller, Segment controller, Page controller, Slider, Simple textfield with Search box and Buttons.
iPhone UI Kits (.psd) →

Illustrator Template for iPhone Design (.ai)

Illustrator Template for iPhone Design (.ai) →

HTC HD2 Smartphone Vector (.psd)

HTC HD2 Smartphone Vector (.psd) →

HTC G2 (.psd)

HTC G2 (.psd) →

Motorola Droid 2 (.psd)

Motorola Droid 2 (.psd) →

Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 (.psd)

Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 (.psd) →

Samsung Galaxy S (.psd)

Samsung Galaxy S (.psd) →

Free Button Collection (.psd)

These buttons are in a fully editable .PSD file and every element (even the shadows and highlights) has been constructed with vector shapes and layer styles, making each button fully scalable.
Free Button Collection (.psd) →

960 Grid System Photoshop Actions

Do you use the 960 Grid System? Well if you do, here are a set of Photoshop actions for you to download. These actions will create a Photoshop document ideal for laying websites out in 12, 10, 8, 6 and 4 columns.
960 Grid System Photoshop Actions →

Browser UI Photoshop Actions – Home Standard Edition

http://www.youtube.com/v/2OaJtS_XDok?fs=1&hl=en_US

The Browser UI is an action that creates a browser window around any size Photoshop document you can throw at it. Simply install the action, choose a browser and play it.
Browser UI Photoshop Actions – Home Standard Edition →

The Social Media for Business Leaders Series is supported by The Awareness Social Marketing Hub, an enterprise-grade application for marketers who manage multiple social channels. Learn more here.

While a small, influential group of businesspeople are paving the way for social media adoption among leaders and even lending insight into how social media may be used by CEOs in the future, executives from many of the world’s biggest businesses are behind the curve in adoption, according to a recent study. The study found that only 36% of the CEOs at the world’s 50 largest companies are engaging via social media or their company websites.

The study also found that for those CEOs using social media, most of the activity was akin to traditional one-to-many communication methods — 28% of CEOs gain visibility online by posting letters or messages on their company websites, for example. Interestingly, video was the strongest component among CEOs using social media, with 18% having a video presence via their companies’ websites or YouTube () channels. Only a small percentage of respondents, though, reported having a profile on Twitter () (8%), Facebook () (4%), MySpace () (4%) or LinkedIn () (4%).

We scoured the socialverse for business leaders utilizing social platforms effectively and in innovative and valuable ways. The folks at Klout.com provided a list of the most influential CEOs, founders and business leaders in the social space based on Klout Scores, a measurement of true reach, amplification probability and network influence. This enabled us to compile this roundup based on Klout’s quantitative reasoning alongside our own top picks based on proven quality.

When it comes to social influence and value, these five business leaders outperform their peers in both quantitative and qualitative tests, proving that they have a grasp of how to use social media effectively.

1. Brooke Burke, Co-CEO, ModernMom

http://www.youtube.com/v/_mARSSvt8RM?fs=1&hl=en_US

Brooke Burke may be best known as a model and TV personality (most recently as host of Dancing With the Stars), but she is also an entrepreneur. Burke is the co-CEO of ModernMom, an online parenting guide, and founder of BabooshBaby.com, an online baby and pregnancy store.

ModernMom seems to be Burke’s focus in the social and online realm. The site has its own social media presence with active Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts, but Burke adds her personal touch by making frequent appearances on the YouTube channel to discuss health, fitness and parenting. The YouTube channel provides huge value via search, as the uploaded library represents a year’s worth of content with more than 270 videos, totaling more than 2.8 million views. Many of the best performing videos are the ones featuring exercise and health tips from Burke.

She also maintains an engaged personal Twitter presence, tweeting about just about everything, including traveling, her show biz life, her four children, and of course, the latest ModernMom blog posts and events.

The Lesson: Kudos to Burke for using her fame to enhance her own entrepreneurial endeavors. She approaches the social world with a genuine and open attitude, contributing value in her areas of expertise.

2. Pete Carroll, Head Coach & Executive VP, Seattle Seahawks

Seattle Seahawks head coach and executive VP Pete Carroll is one of the more social coaches and business heads in sports, with a very active presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Carroll updates his YouTube channel with pre-season, training and interview videos that take an informal, informative and personal point of view. As a viewer, you feel like he’s speaking directly to you. One again, a database of uploads proves valuable for a business leader; after three years and 150 total videos, Carroll’s YouTube channel has racked up more than 3.7 million video views. He also boasts an engaged following elsewhere, with his posts across Twitter and Facebook gaining traction within his community relatively quickly upon posting.

The Lesson: Carroll speaks conversationally about topics that Seahawks fans care about. He understands his audience and what is of value to them and provides content accordingly.

3. Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media

Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, has the highest Klout Score (at 87 of 100) among Twitter users describing themselves as founders or CEOs. He is an authority on all things tech, which makes sense given his company’s expertise in that area.

While at the Web 2.0 Summit, for example, O’Reilly has been maintaining an active stream on Twitter, with his thoughts on the latest announcements and some cool behind-the-scenes tidbits. His stream epitomizes what Twitter should be about — directed, personal updates and knowledge bites.

O’Reilly is always making his rounds on the speaker circuit, and we give props to the O’Reilly Media team for keeping a very updated catalog of his speeches and appearances on the O’Reilly YouTube channel. For example, you can already see O’Reilly’s latest videos from Web 2.0 Summit on YouTube.

The Lesson: Maintaining clout on social media entails timely and thought-provoking commentary on your area of expertise. Stay in the conversation or be left out.

4. Craig Engler, SVP & GM of Digital, Syfy

Craig Engler, the general manager and senior vice president of Syfy Digital, engages Syfy fans directly through the company’s official Twitter and Facebook pages.

We applaud Engler for his enthusiasm for and genuine interest in connecting with Syfy viewers. He recently told Mashable () that he is quite active, “probably more than I should [be],” with engaging @Syfy followers. Here’s how he described his tweeting habits:

“I’ll check in throughout the day and night and also on weekends, posting stuff I think viewers would be interested in as I come across it, answering questions, etc. During more than one Syfy senior staff meeting someone has said something and then immediately turned to me and said ‘Don’t tweet that!’ ”

Engler is a huge advocate for “going social” and recently authored a Mashable post on “10 Reasons Every TV Exec Needs to Start Tweeting.” Having a true conviction for using social media usually correlates with a person’s ability to do it right.

The Lesson: Adding a personal touch to a corporate account allows users to interact with a face behind a company. Don’t be afraid to go all Tony Hsieh on the Internetz.

5. Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital

Steve Rubel tweets about a range of topics, including social media, public relations, marketing, blogging, technology and media, according to his Klout analysis. Along with carrying an influential name as a Jack of all trades, Rubel also curates a well-trafficked and widely shared blog (), where he generally posts on marketing, media and technology.

Klout quite appropriately categorizes Rubel as a “pundit,” someone who doesn’t just share news, but creates it. He is a monthly columnist for Forbes.com and Advertising Age, which supports his reputation as a content creator.

Analyzing Rubel’s Twitter feed, you’ll also note that he does an amazing job at curating news from around the web that appeals to his followers. Within the past week, he has retweeted and sourced a range of influential and relevant information sources, including Poynter, CNET, Wired, ReadWriteWeb, The New York Times and ClickZ. His ability to find and curate useful content for his followers makes him follow-worthy. His audience is large, engaged, and likely to read and pass on his opinions.

The Lesson: Content creation and curation are two must-have web skills for bringing value to the individuals that follow you — Rubel has mastered both.

Above is a screenshot of The New York Times’ opinion section, whose redesign went live a few hours ago. Looks sharp, doesn’t it? It also looks like it’s itching to be put into a different context:

The web redesign looks an awful lot like an iPad app: stories set into big touchable-looking blocks; non-standard web typography; more white space and more room for graphics than 99 percent of newspaper websites offer. And below the area in the screenshot above, the selector for moving between different Times columnists is all done in Ajax, so each click seamlessly shifts between content, much as a nice menuing system in an app might. Even the ING Direct ad in the upper right looks like the sort of small display ads some apps use. In some ways, this redesign more closely resembles the original NYT iPad app previewed in January than does the app the Times eventually shipped.

The redesign is limited to the Opinion front door; the actual story pages are unchanged. But this is the strongest sign yet that the design motifs news organizations are using in app development are bleeding back into the web, as I’d predicted back in April. Twitter’s recent redesign, of course, had a similar app-to-web feel.

Part of this design trend is driven by technology: more people using modern browsers that can handle Ajax; faster connections for big graphics and larger page sizes; the arrival of Typekit as a de facto standard for non-standard fonts. But I think it’s also driven by the desire to present easier navigation choices for readers and the sort of graphical class that lets you stand apart from the increasingly info-cluttered corners of the web. (Compare the Times’ new opinion page to, say, its politics page.)

I think this is important in ways that aren’t just about aesthetics. Simpler, bolder design also helps news organizations push back against the notion that the web demands more more more — more stories, more updates, more exhausted reporters. In the comments to Nikki Usher’s post on the “hamster wheel” a few days ago, a few of us had a mini-discussion on the subject. After C.W. Anderson described “the ‘needs’ of the internet” as “bottomless needs,” I said:

I’d just like to put a signpost in the ground for the argument that the needs of the Internet are not “bottomless needs.” There is not a single human being who consumes everything The New York Times produces online in a given day — or even the amount that The Dallas Morning News, or The Toledo Blade, or The Podunk Gazette produce. (Okay, maybe The Podunk Gazette.) Aren’t there any number of successful online content businesses built around strong but not overwhelming-in-quantity content?

I have no data to prove this, but I think there’s a chart to be drawn somewhere that features both quantity of content output and loyalty of audience, and I don’t think they line up 1:1. I don’t think the hamster-wheel model makes a lot of business sense for even a lot of online news outlets, whatever journalism sense it may make.

The hamster-wheel urge to produce more more more is happening at the same time that audiences are feeling more overwhelmed than ever with information. There aren’t many Americans who, at day’s end, lament: “Man, I just wish I’d had access to more content today.” There’s a role to be filled by providing simplicity, a more limited universe of choices, and information underload.

This decision can heavily affect the performance of the Website in the major search engines and if someone makes the wrong call, it is extremely difficult to make changes. The truth is that there is not a single best practice, since all of the aforementioned methods have several pros and cons. In this article, we’ll discuss when it is advisable to use different domains, subdomains and folders and we’ll analyze how each method affects the SEO campaign.

Below you will find one example URL for each method:

• www.example.fr (multiple domains)
• fr.example.com (subdomains)
• www.example.com/fr/ (folders)

In order to get a holistic view of the issue we will examine the effects on many different factors. We’ll discuss how Geographical targeting (GEO Targeting) can be achieved in each case, whether any Authority/Trust/Domain Strength passes from the original Domain, how the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are affected, whether Sitelinks are supported, what is the degree of Control over the website, what is the degree of freedom that we have in terms of Design & Web Structure and how Link building and Link structure are affected.

GEO Targeting

As we all know, the major Search engines usually serve different results for the same keywords in different countries. Several factors are taken into account such as the language of the page, the IP of the server, the country code (.gr, .fr, .de) of the domain (ccTLD), the language of the websites that link to our domain, the settings in the Google Webmaster Console, the META-geo tags (supported only by Bing and Yahoo) and more.

Usually the best solution from the geographical targeting point of view is to have multiple domains. This method allows you to create different websites with the country code TLD of your choice (when there are no law restrictions), to use the META-geo tags, to have different servers around the world and to use IP addresses from the targeted country. If a generic TLD is used (.com, .net etc), you are also able to set the Geo Targeting from Google Webmaster Console. The second best solution is to have multiple subdomains and use META-geo tags, have different IPs and set the Geo Targeting from Google Webmaster Console. Finally by having Folders you can only use META-geo tags and Geo Targeting from Google Webmaster Console.

Authority, Trust & Domain Strength

Search engines use several metrics to determine the authority, the trust and the strength of a domain. Those metrics are very important since they can heavily affect the search engine results. This is the reason why in some queries, less targeted and low PageRank pages that belong to high authority websites, appear on the top of the search engine results (for example Wikipedia).

So the question is which of the 3 methods keeps the Authority, the Trust and the strength of the main domain? From this point of view the best choice is to use Folders (ex: www.example.com/blog/). Since the folders are part of the main site, all of the domain metrics are maintained. When you use different domains (ex: www.example-blog.com) then none of those metrics pass to the new domain.

So the question is what happens when you use subdomains (ex: blog.example.com)? The SEO community has suggested several theories in the past on this topic. Experiments showed that in some cases, when the main domain has a relatively small amount of subdomains, part of the authority passes to the subdomain. According to other theories, the subdomains are handled like different domains and thus none of those metrics pass to them.

WebSEOAnalytics.com team has done extensive analysis in the past on the Data that we collect from the reports of our SEO tools. Based on those data there are strong indications that a part of Authority and Trust passes to the subdomains only when the domain has a small number of subdomains and when the link structure of the main website passes enough link juice to them. An additional factor can be whether the subdomain keeps the same website and link structure as the main website. On the contrary, when the number of subdomains is too great (ex: blogspot.com) and when there are no links pointing to them from the main domain, then no authority or trust is inherited.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

When for a particular query a website has more than 1 page appearing on the SERPs, there are increased probabilities of getting more traffic. Nevertheless usually search engines avoid showing more than 2 results from the same website in order to increase diversity and ensure the quality of the results.

So in this case, using different domains can lead to multiple appearances on the SERPs. Also it is clear that usually by using Folders you can’t get more than 2 pages on the SERPs. So the question is what happens when we use subdomains? As we saw above, one SEO theory suggests that Google is supposed to handle subdomains as totally different domains. But if this was always true, should not we see more often multiple subdomains in the SERPs? In order to answer this question we need to take a closer look on how search engines work.

Google uses anti-“host crowding” algorithms to ensure that the user receives results from different sources. Almost 3 years ago, Matt Cutts has provided information on this subject in his article “Subdomains and subdirectories” (Note that since the article is old, there might be significant changes in those algorithms). He suggested that in most cases their algorithms ensure that no more than 2 results appear on the SERPs from the same domain or subdomain. Nevertheless there are cases (for example when we search for “hp”) where the SERPs include results from different subdomains. By searching for similar terms that include the brand names of big companies, it becomes clear that in such cases sub-domains are favoured against pages from the same domain.

In order to be understand how subdomains are handled by the search engines, we need to know exactly how they work and thus we can’t give a define answer. Nevertheless as we said above extensive analysis on SERPs & SEO experiments showed that by using subdomains you can get more than 2 results on the same SERP for particular search queries.

Sitelinks support

The sitelinks are links to internal pages that appear in some SERPs in order to help the users navigate the website. They are generated algorithmically but webmasters can select the most relevant sitelinks from the Google Webmaster Console.

Sitelinks are supported for both Folders and subdomains. Obviously since the addon domains are different websites, they can’t appear in the sitelinks of the main domain.

Website Control

The most straightforward and safe solution is to use Folders, because no special code is needed to handle the different parts of the website. This solution allows you to control easier your website, simply because all of its parts are integrated.

Creating multiple subdomains usually means that you have additional parts of the website that need to be handled separately. As we said earlier the sub domains can be hosted on the same or on different servers, they can execute the same code or have a completely different technology to support them. The same happens when you use multiple domains. Of course from one point of view this gives you the freedom to handle those parts differently from the main website (see below), but this certainly is going to create additional costs for you.

Design & Web Structure Freedom

Mainly for usability reasons, when we create a website, we tend to keep the same design and structure across all the pages. This helps users navigate easier and find faster what they are looking for. Additionally by keeping the same website structure we help search engines understand which are the basic components of our website (menus, footers, headers, etc). That is why when we use folders, which are considered to be parts of the same website, we usually tend to have a similar layout in all pages.

On the other hand, when we use subdomains, we can consider them as different websites and thus we can have a different layout and website structure. The same applies when we use different domains. Especially when we have multilanguage (or multicultural) websites, where the menu, the categories or even the philosophy of the website might be different, using separate domains or sub domains can be a great solution.

Link Building & Link Structure

When you use Folders the link building campaign of your website is not affected. Depending on your plan, you can add the links directly to your homepage, or place them on the internal pages to boost their rankings. Additionally in this case you can manipulate your link structure in order to flaw the link juice to the most important pages of your Website.

When you use subdomains and especially when you have different domains, it is highly recommended to launch separate link building campaigns for them. You will need to ensure that those subdomains/domains receive enough links from external domains in order to speedup indexing and increase authority, trust and PageRank. Additionally in the case of subdomains make sure that you place links from the parent domain. Finally when you have multiple domains make sure you cross link them in a whitehat and transparent way (avoid hidden links and cloaking).

Should I use multiple Domains, Subdomains or Folders?

So this is the point were we covered almost every aspect and you have to make the decision. Obviously it’s up to you to decide which of the 3 methods suits you best. Below you will find the most common uses of each method.

When you should use Multiple Domains

Multiple domains are used when we want to be very GEO targeted and when we have enough content and resources to support all these websites. This solution allows us to have different website layout, structure and categories and it helps us increase the number of results in SERPs. Creating Microsites is a good way to promote individual products and services and they can help you achieve better rankings especially if you can incorporate the main targeted search terms in the domain name. There are several business, marketing and SEO reasons that can affect your decision on whether you should have multiple domains, but we will analyze them in another article.

Examples:

www.example.com
www.example.de
www.example-blog.com
www.micro-example-product.com

When you should use Sub-domains

Subdomains are used when you have different products and services that you want to present by using a different website structure (Google does this for several products such as Adwords, Google Docs etc). Also they can be used for GEO targeting, or for increasing your results in SERPs. In many cases websites use subdomains because they use hosted blog services to power their blogs. Finally for dynamic multilanguage websites, subdomains are a great solution because they can be easily coded and they can achieve good SEO Results.

Examples:

specialproduct.example.com
blog.example.com
fr.example.com

When you should use Folders

The folders are the most common, easy to use and all purpose solution. It is the safest method in terms of SEO and Web Development. You should use folders when you have a relatively small website and when you want to maintain the authority of the domain in the main categories.

Examples:

www.example.com/product/
www.example.com/blog/
www.example.com/fr/

Summary

In this article we examined in detail the best current practices, we covered when and why each method should be used and what are the pros and cons. Remember that before making the decision you have to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I have the resources to support multiple websites or subdomains?
• Do I have the knowledge to setup correctly the domains/subdomains?
• Can I develop a strong SEO campaign for them?
• Do I have enough content to add to all the new websites?
• Can I provide enough links to all the domains and subdomains?

If you don’t answer positively to all the above questions then the safest way is to proceed with folders.

The table below shows the various factors that we examined along with the 3 methods:

01. Master/Detail

Master/Detail screen pattern can be vertical or horizontal. Ideal for creating an efficient user experience by allowing the user to stay in the same screen while navigating between items. Horizontal layout is a good choice when the user needs to see more information in the master list than just a few identifiers- or when the master view is comprised of a set of items that each have additional details.

02. Column Browse

The Browse screen pattern can be vertical or horizontal. Ideal for creating an custom user experience by allowing the user to start from various entry points for navigating to the item(s) they are interested in.

03. Search/ Results

The Search screen pattern can range from very simple to quite advanced. Ideal for creating an efficient user experience by allowing the user to navigate directly to an item or set of items meeting specific criteria.

04. Filter Dataset

The Filter Dataset screen pattern can be vertical or horizontal. Ideal for creating an efficient user experience by allowing the user to refine a set of known data, or further refine search results.

05. Forms

All Form screens should be approached with a solid understanding of usability and design best practices.

06. Palette/ Canvas

The Palette/ Canvas screen pattern is seldom the right pattern to apply, but it is the only pattern for documenting or creating: linear or non-liner processes; flow diagrams; screen layouts; design/diagram with physical size or layout constraints.

07. Dashboard

A well designed Dashboard will provide: key information at a glance, real time data, easy to read graphics, clear entry points for exploration This is typically not achieved by displaying a single screen of metrics (either in a big table, or just a bunch of graphs). Providing a high degree of customization is no substitute for user research and testing. Stephen Few has a nice book on this topic Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data .

08. Spreadsheet

The Spreadsheet screen pattern is ideal for creating an efficient user experience by allowing the user to easily scan, edit and enter information (in bulk). The Spreadsheet should provide the following functionality: standard table features like sort, hide/show columns, rearrange columns, group by (if applicable), global level undo/redo, add/insert/delete row, keyboard navigation, import and export.

09. Wizard

The Wizard/Quick Start screen pattern is ideal for creating an efficient user experience by guiding the user through a complex or infrequent workflow.

10. Question & Answer

The Q&A screen pattern is ideal for creating an efficient user experience by allowing the user to enter known information and receive a solution. Q & A differs from Search in that this pattern should be used to assist users in identifying possible options or a single recommendation in an arena they are lacking expertise (health insurance, mortgages, planning, purchases).

11. Parallel Panels

The Parallel Panels screen pattern can be stacked (showing one at a time) or unstacked (showing all at once). This pattern is ideal for organizing chunks of information that are similar or have interdependent tendencies. Efficiency is gained by keeping the user in one screen. Ideal candidates for the stacked variation of this pattern are simple work-flows with: a high level, visible goal that is fed by multiple inputs, multiple non-sequential steps.

12. Interactive Model

The Interactive Model screen pattern is characterized by many interactive elements associated with the key object (a calendar, map, graph, chart, canvas). It is ideal for creating a user experience that is closely aligned with the user’s mental model (a natural fit). Excellent candidates for this pattern are: calendars, maps, gantt charts, what-if scenarios (including calculators), WYSIWYG editors (including photo editing).

Bonus. Blank State

This is the natural state of the application, before any data has been entered or accessed. The book, “Getting Real” by 37signals”explains that a blank state screen is an excellent place to set users expectations. By giving them a preview this can lower anxiety and reduce frustration and confusion. Items to include in a blank state screen include: videos, quick tutorials, help tips, a screenshot of what a fully loaded screen will look like.

Missing Patterns?

Noticeably absent are two patterns that are grossly overused and misused in enterprise software- portals and tabs.

1. Portals- If your market research, business requirements and user feedback lead you to design a portal, follow the same design principles and best practices as the Dashboard pattern.
2. Tabs- Tabs are a component, and ultimately not a screen pattern. They are to alternate between views of data in the same context. If the data structure is leading you to a tab heavy UI design, I have two suggestions. First, reconsider the IA. Use card sorting and/or hire a professional Information Architect to help you for a few days. Second, follow the same design principles and best practices as the Parallel Panels pattern.

But when you want to find a person or a social media profile, search engines still shows you the results but with not that accuracy. But thanks to social network search engines that are designed in such a way that aggregates data from social networking sites. These social network are free, public search engines that allows you to research lots of social networking sites, as well as other online sites, by a person’s name, email address, sometimes by a phone number etc.

Sometimes, online marketers have also been using social network search engines for competitive research, monitoring for brand reputations, content marketing through social keyword trends.

So, in this article, I am gathering 11 most popular social network search engines for individuals and small businesses. These search engines will help you to search all social network sites once without going to check individually. And if you feel that I left some other sites uncovered, feel free to share with our readers in the comments section below.  In today’s post, we’ll look at a few of these social networking search engines.

1) Spokeo : Spokeo is a social network aggregator web site that aggregates data from many online and offline sources (such as phone directories,social networks, photo albums,marketing surveys, mailing lists, government censuses, real estate listings, and business websites). This aggregated data may include demographic data, and estimated property and wealth values.

2) Google Social Search : Google has added a new feature some time before that can make search results much more personal and relevant. The new feature is called Google Social Search that integrates results from your social networking sites. For using this feature, you have to signed with your Google account and normally search any term and click on More search tools on left side of the page. You will see “Social” option lying there, just click it and you will see your results will be filtered from your social circle.

3) Social Mention : Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’ssocial media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.

4) Wink : Wink is a people search engine that makes it easy to find and connect with people online. Wink.com is the largest online people search with more than 200 million people profiles from across the Web, including social networks and other online communities. Users can contact other users they find on Wink, and can also choose how they like to be contacted. Users can set their preferred method of contact, so that people who are looking for them can get in touch with them.

5) Whos Talkin : WhosTalkin.com is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most. Whether it be your favorite sport, favorite food, celebrity, or your company’s brand name; Whostalkin.com can help you join in on the conversations that you care about most.

6) Sightix : Israel-based Sightix is a search engine platform designed to give people the results that they are not currently receiving from Google. The platform is available to any site that contains social elements and it enables individual users to receive different search results based on their social graph. Simply put, the Sightix algorithm takes a user’s friends and connections into account whenever they search for something on the platform.

7) yoName : Look for anyone you want. You can even look them up by a username or an email address! If they’re on any of the big-time networks like MySpace or Facebook, yoName will find them. Look up friends, family, ex-es. Look up yourself and see if someone’s impersonating you. Or just have fun and look up celebrities.

8 ) Snitch.name : This application was originally a tool that was developed to search in various place to find information in various social networking sites.It hasn’t been designed to be fancy, but solves a real world problem until the people that buid social services decide on some profile seraching APIs.Search for information about your friends, mates, new collegues, etc.See how your name ranks on the social web.Use it as a central gateway for the social services you use.

9) SamePoint : Samepoint rolled out one of the first social media search and analytics platforms to help brands monitor and measure consumer feedback. The company set out to build the web’s largest database ofsocial media web sites and make it easily accessible through a familiar search box interface. Since that time, the company has developed a range of tools to monitor, mine and measure the real-time web, helping organizations, celebrities and individuals to track and analyze the online “buzz” around their brand.

10) Folowen : folowen is a social media search tool that aggregates social profiles of people and organization’s on several social media sites into one search result.It simply makes it easy for you to follow a person or organization’s social web; be it a Facebook profile, page, group, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, a YouTube channel…etc.

11) KGBpeople : KGBpeople provides a quick and easy name search that shows results in Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Classmates.com and Xing, and other social networks, websites, photos sights and more.

// //

The defining characteristic of the semantic web is that information should be stored in a machine-readable format. Crucially, that would allow computers to handle information in ways we would find more useful, because they would be processing the concepts within documents rather than just the documents themselves.

Imagine bookmarking a story about Barack Obama: your computer will store the URL, but it has no way of knowing whether the content relates to politics or, say, cookery. If, however, each web page were to be tagged with information about its content, we can ask the web questions and expect sensible answers.

It is a wildly attractive idea but there have been few practical examples. That’s about to change.

Google’s acquisition this month of Metaweb, a San Francisco-based semantic search company is a step in the right direction. Metaweb owns Freebase, which is an open-source database. Why would Google want Freebase? Partly because it contains information on more than 12 million web “entities”, from people to scientific theories. But mostly because of the way in which Freebase accumulates its knowledge – it is almost as if a person were doing it, making links between pieces of information in a way that makes sense to them.

Freebase entries, culled from sources such as Wikipedia, are tagged so that computers can understand what each is about and link them together. Freebase lists, for example, that one entry for “Chicago” is about a city and another describes the hit musical. Entries are also linked to other relevant entries, such as other towns or shows.

Freebase’s tags and links will help Google develop smarter searches. For example, you may be able to request a list of “colleges on the US west coast with tuition fees under $30,000″, or “actors over 40 who have won at least one Oscar”. So Jack Menzel, Google’s director of product management, wrote in a blog post.

Google isn’t alone. Recently details emerged of Twitter’s “annotations”, a system that allows tweets to be tagged with information that will not appear in the message but can be read by computers. A tweet about a film, for example, might let you link straight to a movie trailer or the Amazon page for its DVD. A test version may be launched this summer.

Meanwhile, Facebook’s changes to its Open Graph protocol also have a semantic element. The protocol allows web developers whose sites are devoted to specific topics, such as a restaurant, to add tags and a “like” button to their site. The tags tell Facebook’s servers what the page is about – perhaps including the restaurant location – and when one of its users clicks the button, a link is established between that site and their Facebook profile.

The moves by Facebook and Twitter could change the very nature of how we interact with the web. Software writers will be able to build applications that search for bars and restaurants your Facebook friends have enjoyed, or movies and books your Twitter contacts say were over-hyped. Facebook’s involvement should help overcome one of the biggest hurdles faced by the semantic web – persuading website owners to tag their content.

While users may find that the semantic web can help them get to grips with some complex questions, its main attraction may be for advertisers. “The whole play is about advertising,” says Alex Iskold of Adaptive Blue, a New York-based start-up that focuses on semantic technologies. “Better data will mean better ads.”

So advertisers may seize on the capabilities promised by tools like Shinavier’s to probe consumer tastes in specific regions. Facebook’s semantic tags will also appeal to advertisers, who can use them to explore the connections between users and interests.

Berners-Lee’s vision may finally be here, but it comes with something he did not ask for – adverts finely tailored to our likes and dislikes. And those of our friends.