From what I have seen so far it looks like Google wins hands down.

Google has finally taken their Google Music out of beta. I downloaded it and took a look today and have to say that I am impressed. While Apple has their iCloud that they charge for, Google’s services seems to be free so far.

I love the idea of being able to play my music anywhere I want. I have an Android phone and the app seems to work seamlessly.

If you are in the market for cloud storage for your music, I would highly recommend Google Music.

If you are just starting your website design there are a few steps you can take to ensure your project runs easy.

This is not necessarily a website design tutorial, but merely a place to start when designing your website.

1. Clear Goals

2. Planning

Planning a website design takes time and effort. Having all of your content ready in a digital format so the developers can easily take it and use in your website design can be a time consuming process.

Often times companies will have only printed copies of the content they want on their website and converting that content to a digital format adds time to the website development process. Time you may be charged for by your website developer.

Taking a little time in the beginning by planning out your website design project can save you time and money in the long run.

3. Hire a professional

The best advice I could give anyone thinking about creating a new website is to hire a professional website designer.

You can easily get what I refer to as an “out-of-the-box” website design from several websites on the Internet, but a truly unique and custom website design is something only a professional website designer can give you. There is always the option of having your nephew

Hiring a professional allows you to focus on your business and let’s the web design team focus on theirs… building your website.

It appears the new startup Asana is having some problems.

This really seems like a great platform if it was working.

Seattle website designers have it made.

I mean aside from the rainy days and the grey and dreary weather, Seattle website designers have it pretty good.

Seattle Coffee

We are known in Seattle for our coffee. Most specifically Starbucks Coffee. Truth be told, most Seattle website designers make at least one visit a day to any of the Starbucks here in the local Seattle area. A trip to Starbucks is how most Seattle website designers begin their day.

Seattle Inspiration

Designing websites and living in Seattle seems to be a perfect match. There are several places for a Seattle website designer to draw creative inspiration from. We have Paul Allen’s playground the Experience Music Project, The Seattle Center, The Space Needle an so much more.

Seattle Tech Companies

All of the tech companies in the Seattle area are a Seattle website designers dream. We have the largest e-commerce retailer in the world: Amazon.com. We have one of the largest software makers in the world: Microsoft. One of the leaders in streaming audio and video: Real Networks. We’ve got Adobe, Nintendo, F5 Networks. Yes for a website designer, Seattle is definitely the place to be.

According to a new report out by Neilsen we email, check sports scores, and engage in social networking.

So I understand needing to be connected. But I remember a day when you sat down to watch a little TV and that is all you did. You did’nt have to check your email every few minutes or tweet about what is happening in your favorite TV show. You just sat down and enjoyed some quality programming…. Ah wait a minute, could that be it. Maybe there is no quality programing on anymore. NO! How could that be? I mean everyone wants to see how house wives live, right?

Read the full article on Nielsen Wire

Hollywood feeling pressure to take their content to the cloud.

Imagine being able to stream the latest movie release to your Droid or iPhone. You can already do it with Netflix, but the big movie studios are soon going to be putting their newer releases in the cloud.

“Starting this month, consumers can buy the first film discs offered with UltraViolet, a format designed to allow instant streaming or downloading on devices ranging from videogame consoles to tablets and Web-ready televisions.”

Read the full article at Reuters

The holiday season is here. All you have to do is go to your local store and you’ll see all of the Christmas candy, yard decorations, and useless crap, shoved in right next to the Haloween stuff (also more than a month away).

Here are a few tips to keep you and your e-commerce website ahead of the curve this holiday season.

Make your comapny logo holiday friendly
Your logo represents your company. Show some holiday spirit and add some holly or a little festive decoration to it. Let your website visitors know that you know it is the holiday season and you are ready for them to shop in your online store.

Consider Free shipping (if you can afford it)
When I am shopping online I find myself looking for the best deal possible. Often times I’ll find the same item on many different websites. Many times it comes down to who has free shipping. If you can afford it, offering free shipping to your e-commerce customers can mean the difference between making the sale or not.

Product Inventory
This is a big one. Make sure that you, or your suppliers, have enough inventory to fufill the online orders you anticipate recieving. There is nothing worse than ordering something online, especially for Christmas, and not getting it on time because the website you ordered it from does not know how to control their inventory. This is very important. You pretty much get only one chance to make a customer happy online. If they have enough faith in you and your website to place an order, be sure you have the inventory to fill it.

Solid E-Commerce Platform
This should go without saying, but I’m going to anyway. If you are going to sell anything online, you have to do it right. Having a solid platform for your online store is crucial. There are many out of the box solutions that may fit your needs or can be easily customized. Often times a custom e-commerce web design is neccesary to bring the shopping experieince you want to your customers. Either way there are several things to consider, a few of them are inventory management, credit card and payment processing, and order fulfillment.

Product Images
This may be the most important one of them all. The images that you use to represent your products must be high quality images. If not you are wasting your time. The images should also allow your website visitor to visualize themselves using your product. A high-quality product image can increase sales 10 fold.

Many of us use our smartphones to actually make phone calls. With all of the bells and whistles of todays modern devices, it’s a wonder we use them for conversation at all.

According to a recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, here is what you are using your smartphone for.

92% – Sending or recieving text messages
92% – Taking a picture
80% – Send a photo or video to someone
75% – Send or recieve email
59% – Access a social networking site
55% – Get location-based directions or reccomendations
45% – Post a photo or video online
15% – Access Twitter
13% – Participate in a video call or chat
12% – Use a geosocial service liuke Foursquare or Gowalla

What do you use your smart phone for?