The Internet news industry has had no shortage of stories in this past year. It seems that as the Internet matures, it only finds ways to speed up, change, and throw new wrinkles at website owners. For website owners, the number of changes can be simply overwhelming and slightly intimidating. Staying up to date on all the latest trends and theories on how to build a successful website is tricky, at best, and at worst a simple impossibility.

So how does a website owner balance the need to manage day to day operations while not being left behind by new startups that are able to take advantage of the latest trends and technologies? The pace of development will not die down in 2006, and already there are predictions as to how much website owners will need to change in order to keep pace with the Internet.

Some of the Changes in 2005

2005 was a year that was friendly towards introducing new technologies. Some have referred to it as the second Internet boom as venture capital money is once again flowing into new startups and new startups are being acquired without a clear plan for revenue generation (see the acquisition of del.icio.us by Yahoo!). Just like the first Internet boom, the current expansion of technology will undoubtedly effect the way you develop and present your website.

The Popularization of Web 2.0

If you have not heard about Web 2.0, take a moment to read ”Web 2.0 – Fad or Future”. Whether or not you are a believer of Web 2.0, there is no doubt that this buzzword hit the Internet with force this past year. Wrapped up in it were all sorts of technologies, concepts, and websites.

Yahoo seems to be trying to take the lead on Web 2.0, offering new services which take advantage of technologies and concepts such as folksonomy, AJAX, and social networks. Their focus on Web 2.0 is obvious not only in their release of My Web 2.0 but also on their acquisition of Del.icio.us.

The Search Engine Wars

The search arena has not cooled down in 2005 either. The much promised "search engine wars" have not dissappointed, with the highlight of the year being the reported Steve Ballmer's vow to 'kill' Google.

While Steve threatens the life of a corporate entity, though, the engineers over at MSN have managed to build what is becomming a very competitive search result in just a matter of two years. Their development is not slowing down either - they are in the process of developing an advertising network to rival that of Yahoo's publisher network and Google's Adwords/Adsense combination. Knowing Microsoft's marketing prowess, it would be foolish to count them out of the search pictures in the upcoming year.

New Technologies

Early in the life of the Internet, simply putting up a website with a tabled layout and some basic HTML was sufficient. Then PHP was introduced, and dynamic websites, shopping portals, and services became the new standard.

HTML standards, CSS and tableless layouts are now being widely accepted as the way to present your website to your visitors. Some have argued that tabled layouts do not fair as well in the search engines, although some would point out that there may be evidence to the contrary.

But don't think that technology will rest once you are able to make your site validate with valid HTML and CSS. PHP is getting a serious push by new, fancy web frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and Django. Both of these frameworks promise to make web development easier, faster, and more easily modifiable. Ruby on Rails, for one, has become famous for its "Create a Blog in 15 Minutes" video (although Django should not be dismissed when it comes to building web applications quickly). The Agile Web Development with Rails book has quickly become one of the hottest development books on Amazon. PHP's best hope for keeping pace might be the new PHP Cake framework (which is modelled after Rails).

Then There's Google

You can never have a discussion about the changing nature of the Internet and leave Google out of the picture. Since Google became the power that it is, website owners have watched Google's every move in a way that is very similar to how a wall street maverick watches the Federal Reserve Chairman. The slightest twitch can throw the blogosphere and SEO industry into a frenzy.

2005 was no different, and if anything, SEO's and bloggers had more to talk about this year than ever before. The latest change that Google brought upon us is the introduction of the Jagger update (which is speculated about here). But that certainly is not the only change that Google introduced.

From Google's Sitemaps program to the introduction of such programs such as Google Reader and their new music search, Google has had one of their most active years on record. To view a list of their services, take a look at Tip Monkies.

Reading over all the things that were introduced in 2005 can simply make you tired, and we only scratched the surface on the technological leaps made in 2005. Looking at all these changes, it begs the question as to whether or not it is really useful to even try to pay attention.

Why It Is Important to Pay Attention

It can be overwhelming. It is unrealistic to expect any one person to be able to pay attention to all the changes that are happening in the Internet industry - yet it is something that we must do out of necessity.

The Internet is a very unforgiving industry. Web users have no patience for out of date websites, and security and privacy issues force us to constantly change our identity, our infrastructure, and the way we go about running our websites. At the same time, any new technology or change comes with a caveat that it may not exist in 6 months.

The problem with our industry is that if we stay still, if we fail to adapt our websites and our images to the latest trends and styles, there will undoubtedly be hundreds of competitors who will be more than willing to take our place and who will adapt their websites to the latest trends. We also know that what works today in marketing and SEO may not necessarily work in tomorrow's Internet. When pop-up ads were released, they saw an incredible clickthrough rate in the ranges of 10%, yet now they see less than a 1% clickthrough ratio (if they are even able to launch).

Knowing the difference between a promising new technology or theory and a no-so-good new technology or theory requires that we be familiar with the entire industry. This, unfortunately, requires us to become intimately familiar with the theories and the way the Internet works. The professional who has been active on the Internet for a while gains a perspective on all the changes the Internet throws at us and is able to quickly decipher what is a legitimate aid to our business and what is just a mirage.

At the Same Time - Ignore the Changes

There are only two guarantees that the Internet offers: 1) The technology and website you have today will be outdated within 2 years, and 2) new fads have no assurance of actually be useful. So while we are forced to keep up with the many changes that the Internet throws at us, must learn to ignore these changes and continue on with business as usual.

A website owner could conceivably spend every waking moment learning every new web framework, every new SEO trick 'guaranteed' to get a top ranking, and researching every new aspect of the Internet. The result, however, would be that they have a website perpetually under development, never suitable for a visitor.

Being successful as a website owner requires that you learn how to filter out the fads. Over time we have found that there is a certain set of standards which are not only acceptable by website owners, they are also expected. Staying true to these standards provides continuity to your website visitors which allows them to focus on the content of your website rather than trying to learn all the new technology you are throwing at them.

Finding a Balance - A Picture of the Good Website Owner

As with most things in life, being a successful website owner means finding a balance in all the demands that you face. It is essential that you spend time on the development of your site, the SEO of your site, the marketing of your site, accounting for any business done through your site, and all the other business related activities that are included in managing a website.

As with any profession, adding continuing education to your list of responsibilities is an absolute must if you want to grow your skills as a website owner. A wall street investor is always armed with a copy of the Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times. A politician arms herself with copies of the latest newspapers and inside news stories. Doctors and lawyers subscribe to trade magazines, and sales people attend conferences to hone their skills.

A good website owner will arm themselves with the tools of the Internet. If you have not yet started using RSS feeds to stay up to date with news, start today. Whether you use a service like Bloglines, download a third party RSS Reader, or simply use Firefox's live bookmark manager (my personally preferred choice), using RSS feeds will keep you up to date with the latest news.

Make it your New Years resolution to spend time every day reading some of your most trusted sources for webmaster information. If you do not know who to goto for this information, feel free to start with my favorites. None of these sites (with the exception of the first one) are affiliated with Site Reference (in fact some are competitors), but they are excellent sources of information:

Site Reference (of course :) )
Matt Cutts Blog
Mike Grehan
The Search Engine Watch Blog
Problogger
A List Apart
Performancing - The hot new blog on the block

These are just a few of the sources that we subscribe to. There are hundreds of other sources which are all very good, and every website owner will have their own mix of feeds.

As We Roll Into 2006...

Keep in mind that the new year is likely to bring about change - some of which will be significant. Small business owners should be very adept at changing to adapt to these new changes, its what makes small businesses effective and competitive.

Paying attention to the changes that are certain to hit the Internet int he coming year will help you know the direction you need to take your business. Remember that the business that stands still is the business that slowly dies. The web is a dynamic creature, and your website should reflect that.

Best of luck in 2006, and here's to hoping for success for all of the Site Reference readers!

About this author

Mark Daoust is the owner of Site Reference

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