A comparison of Outright vs. Intuit QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Xero, and other solutions in the online accounting sector illustrates the “shading” of products in features, usability, scope, and target audience.

In every product category, it seems, there are users who desire and value a simple, basic, easy-to-use, and inexpensive solution. Vendors make legitimate strategic decisions to field products that meet these criteria and appeal to this user segment. An example is Highrise in the contact and lead management category.

This is the case with Outright in the online accounting arena.

Our user reviews get to the heart of the appeal of Outright:

• “I have found Outright to be a great option for self employed individuals, and sole proprietors looking for a simple, basic, and automated way to track their business income and expenses.”
• “For a sole proprietor who has almost no understanding of bookkeeping and accounting, Outright is a great option to simplify those tasks for you business. It is very easy to use and understand even for a non-bookkeeper.”
• “It was extremely easy to sign up for outright and overall it is a simple to use program. It does not have all the bells and whistles that a larger company might need but it is a great solution for small businesses and freelancers.”

When your needs become more sophisticated, you may outgrow Outright. As one user reported, “I may actually be looking into another solution for my bookkeeping that consolidates both my invoicing and my bookkeeping, which Outright does not offer, so I might not be with them long.”

This is when you step up to solutions like Zoho Books, QuickBooks, and Xero, which are more full featured and have more sophisticated integration capabilities.

In terms of pricing, Outright can’t be beat. Its full version is $9.95 per month per company, with no contract required, no user limitations, and there is a free 30-day trial. A free version also is available, which lacks some sales and tax tracking and reporting capabilities.

Bottom Line: If you fit the user profile of simple solution at minimum cost, Outright is the perfect choice. If your needs are more sophisticated, look at the solutions higher up on the food chain—such as QuickBooks, Zoho Books, and Xero.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Frank Reed on Marketing Pilgrim, in a report entitled “Are SMBs Just Confused About WOM and Social?” points out that the Hiscox study shows that only 24% of respondents said they get involved with social media, while 64% said they “either don’t use it for their business, don’t know enough about it, or don’t give a rip at all!”

A report by Machus Corporation also tells us that “Small Businesses Not Using Social Media Tools.” The report cites a widely reported Zoomerang Online Surveys and Polls study that found that about one-half of surveyed SMBs said they use social media marketing to reach customers, but that social media was “underused” by SMBs.  The study found that SMBs “are not using these tools to the fullest potential to capture their customers' attention.”

A study reported on gaebler.com offers even more startling results, informing us that “A Quarter Of Small Businesses Hate Social Media.” The report cites a recent survey from iContact that revealed that “one in four small businesses hate social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Groupon.”

If you’ve been on Twitter for more than a month or so, chances are you’ve been followed – rather quickly – by someone you started following.  And shortly after that, you received a direct message. “Wow!” you think.  “This person is really on top of their game!”  And then you open it, and it reads something to the effect of “Thanks for the follow!  Go read my stuff here: __ and let’s also connect here: ___ And by the way, I’m also over here: ___”

Genuine?  Not really.  Heartfelt?  Nope.  Automated?  Yep.

I’ve written about auto-DMing on follow on my own Subjectively Speaking blog in the past.  I’ll let that post (and the comments) stand on its own, and offer up another angle here for the Comparz readers.

In my original post, I talk about the receiving end of such a tweet.  It feels cold, impersonal, almost like a direct-mail postcard.  And if you use Twitter as primarily a broadcast, one-way channel, then this might work for you.  For those of you who don’t see it that way, but are still auto-direct-messaging-on-follow, give this a second thought: might your messages be misconstrued?  Might they look like a green salesperson, looking to boost numbers and followers and artificially inflate a following and perceived level of importance?

Instead, consider a different approach.  I think a direct message to Twitter followers is a good idea, if worded correctly and not sent automatically to everyone.  What if instead, you sent a direct message that thanked the other person for the follow, indicated an interest of yours, and then asked your new follower what interests them (or a different question)?  Now you’ve set up an avenue for dialogue.  You are possibly engaging them.  And it doesn’t come across as spammy. Business-to-business book co-author Eric Schwartzman offers his own take on it here, via this simple graphic.

“But this will take more work, Alan!”

Yes.  Yes it will. 

But it doesn’t matter really how you go about this, because no matter what, you’re doing it wrong.

Alan Belniak is the director of social media marketing at a major Boston-based software company focusing on product lifecycle management. To read more, find and follow him at his blog and via Twitter

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

The technology available today is unleashing new potential for SMBs, including the ability to expand globally. The advances embodied in technologies like the Internet, social media, mobile devices, SaaS, and office automation are enabling SMBs to pursue opportunities that were previously limited to larger enterprises.

As Clive Couldwell in The Wall Street Journal Digest reports, “More and more small-to-medium-size businesses (SMBs) are using technology to punch above their weight against much larger competitors.”

Couldwell cites research by Gartner that shows that 45% of spending on information technology worldwide now comes from SMBs, with SMB spending on IT expected to reach $836 billion this year.

A recent study by Portfolio.com found that U.S. SMB expansion overseas was growing and that SMB international business would soon reach $2 trillion. The study found that one-quarter of U.S. small businesses reported that some portion of their sales came from overseas, and that another 6% intend to expand globally, boosting the number of SMBs engaged in international business to more than one million companies.

“International business isn’t just for multinational corporations anymore,” said J. Jennings Moss, Portfolio.com’s editor. “With the power of Internet sales engines and the reach of mobile devices, smaller businesses and entrepreneurs in the United States are able to extend their reach beyond our borders.”

The study found that SMB owners who are engaged internationally do better than their counterparts that operate only in the United States, with companies that have an international sales reach reporting average sales of $13.2 million and 32% sales growth, compared to $7.7 million in average sales and 20% sales growth for all SMB owners

Seeing the opportunities to sell more products and services as SMBs expand globally, vendors like Cisco are promoting the trend. On Cisco’s web site, for example, is an article entitled “How Small Businesses Are Going Global” that offers case studies of SMBs that have  prospered through global expansion.

Also helping to give the trend some momentum, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) launched the OPIC Small Business Center, which provides expert assistance, streamlined approvals, and other aid to help U.S. small businesses expand into world markets. 

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Texas governor Rick Perry experienced what could be his “macaca” moment last night when he could not recall one of three government agencies he vowed to eliminate.

As The New York Times reported, “It remains an open question whether Mr. Perry will be able to move beyond the moment, particularly given that the video was already looping around the Internet and television broadcasts.”

Perry’s faux pas once again demonstrates the power of online video to giveth and taketh away.

Internet video killed George Allen’s 2006 Virginia senate campaign when he was caught on camera attacking an opposition Democratic campaign worker with the “macaca” slur.

Similarly, Vermont governor Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign disintegrated after clips of his “Yaah!” rally scream went viral.  

Companies as well as candidates today are one slip and a viral video away from disaster. This lesson was learned the hard way by the likes of Dominos Pizza (when employees posted a video doing disgusting things in a Dominos kitchen) and United Airlines (when a musician issued a “United Breaks Guitars” video after his request for reimbursement for his guitar damaged by baggage handlers was repeatedly denied).  

To counter these episodes, social media damage control, including viral video response, is now a formal discipline practiced by many corporate PR teams.  

Dominos was able to rehabilitate its reputation by issuing a video response from its president, and indeed, the company began employing video to its advantage, achieving the 10th-ranked video of 2010 through self-deprecating humor that featured U.S. customers explaining why they didn’t like Dominos old pizza recipe.

Employing YouTube videos for viral marketing was pioneered by companies like Blendtec with its famous “Will It Blend?” series. Today, having a video go viral is something marketers routinely strive for, and achieving one is the equivalent of hitting a home run.

Like Billboard top-100 albums, we now have viral video rankings from sources like “Top Viral Video Ad Campaigns of the Week” by Ad Age, the Viral Video Chart on Mashable, the Top Viral Videos on Marketingcharts.com, and The Web’s Most Shared Viral Videos on viralvideo.com.

A look at these lists shows that, like social media in general, a viral Internet video can be a positive or negative force, a two-edged sword that can sweep a company to victory or cut it off at the knees.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

There's been a lot of buzz about Klout recently in the press because it changed its algorithm.  Klout is basically a tool that enables people to compare their social standing and "clout" based upon their participation on Twitter and Facebook.  It's a fun tool for those who like to track their social media success.  And it probably is fairly accurate in terms of the reach you have through these social networks.

But where Klout falls short, as other social media experts such as Pam Moore suggest, is that it does not dig a layer deeper.  Social media influence is growing in importance.  No one can deny that.  But social media clout does not capture one's actual skill other than in social media prowess.  There is a lot more that makes businesses run and succeed than social media clout.  While Klout is trying to list categories where people have clout, it is only based on social media activity versus real business results.

While Klout has potential, I don't think it has the clout it deserves yet.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Yahoo! Small Business Websites and Yola are two of the top-ranked website creation and hosting services. In terms of name-brand recognition, Yahoo! has a decided edge. However, in the realm of real customer satisfaction, Yola wins decisively.

Our expert reviewer summed up Yahoo! as offering a respectable range of features that are neither a bargain nor offer the widest range of available features, while advising that there were “numerous reputable alternatives that are less expensive, less difficult to navigate, more flexible or ‘all of the above’ compared with what Yahoo! offers.”

Yahoo! fares worse than this middling assessment in the customer sentiment found in online reviews and forums, where the discontent far outweighs the satisfaction expressed. In general, there is a lot of dissatisfaction expressed for Yahoo!’s functionality and service, with many complaints about Yahoo!’s control panel, the difficulty of configuring systems, and the poor quality of technical support. A good number of Yahoo! customers describe being unhappy with the discontinuation of Geocities, lamenting what they see as a decline in service after being forced to switch from Geocities to Yahoo!.

Many customers also describe Yahoo!'s fees as being too expensive, which jibes with our expert reviewer who noted that after your initial term on Yahoo! expires, each domain will cost you $34.95 per year, “which is expensive compared with all leading competitors identified by Comparz.”

For Yola, on the other hand, the number of glowing reports and praise far outweigh the amount of discontent expressed. Yola has built a solid reputation by striving to provide easy-to-use web creation tools and exceptional service at low prices, and customer testimonials reflect the success of the company in achieving those goals. In general, users find Yola’s tools more modern, user friendly, and glitch-free.

As our expert reviewer noted, “Yola's streamlined, consistent offerings make choosing a construction and hosting package more simple and straightforward than it is at the sites of several competing providers.”

The pet peeve users have with Yola is the lack of free e-mail and the alternative choice of Yola Mail, an option priced at $9.96 per year per mailbox.  

For small businesses who do decide to go with Yahoo! or Yola, it is worth considering their premier service offerings. Yahoo! Small Business offers complete Web site design consulting services via a partnership with Logoworks by HP for $299, while Yola Premiere includes consultation with a dedicated Web site designer from HP Logoworks for a $499.95 first-year fee.

Big companies pay a lot of money for a web content management solution and a professionally designed website—many in the $100,000 to $300,000 range—so the Yahoo! and Yola premier services are a bargain.

Bottom Line: Yola offers exceptional ease of use and distinctive service at competitive prices. With Yahoo! Small Business Websites, you are prone to find unexceptional tools, service, and pricing. The premier service from both providers is a bargain worth investigating for SMBs.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

The battle of the social networks for the hearts, minds, and wallets of users escalated as Google introduced Google+ Pages for businesses. With a stranglehold on search and paid search, Google is trying to extend its search-engine hegemony into the social sphere dominated by Facebook and Twitter.

Just as having a web site is mandatory for businesses today, having a Facebook and Twitter presence has become de rigueur for organizations. While Google’s initial social foray, Google Buzz, was a dud, Google+ is gaining traction, and the obvious next step was to allow businesses to create Google+ business pages.

Google’s search business, where users actively look for products and services, gives it an advertising advantage vs. Facebook’s social networking business, where there is an aversion to overt marketing and selling. Thus, although Facebook has a huge lead in mindshare and users in the social media space, it trails Google in total users and advertising revenues by a large margin.  

As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, Facebook’s $70 valuation is based on its ability to attract advertising, and it is fighting an uphill battle to grow those revenues. According to eMarketer’s projections, Facebook is expected to take in $2 billion in U.S. ad revenues this year (up from $800 million last year), while Google is expected to take in $12.8 billion from 184.6 million U.S. users, based on ComScore data.

With Google+, Google hopes to draw away users and revenues from Facebook, while tying social networking more closely to search. To grease the process, Google introduced a Direct Connect feature to its search engine, which allows users to search for the Google+ Pages of companies and brands by typing a “+” before the company or brand name.

Since Google+ debuted, Google+ and Facebook have mimicked and stolen one another’s looks and features. For example, Facebook has “Likes” and Google+ has “+1s.” Google+ Pages and Facebook Pages also have a lot of similarities, and some differences. Unlike Facebook, Google+ Pages does not grant universal public access, rather requires you to add a business page to one of your “circles.”  Also unlike Facebook, Google+ limits page administration to one administrator.

Like Facebook Pages, Google+ Pages allow businesses to post images and videos, but Google+ also sports a new feature called Hangouts that enables visitors to invite people and engage in video chats.   

To create a page Google+ Page, go to the Create a Page tool and follow the prompts.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

One of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective things a small business can do to boost its awareness, revenues, and customer loyalty is e-mail marketing—sharing news and information via e-newsletters, publicizing events and webinars, and offering special deals.

Making contact with your customers and prospects is key, hence the name of two of the top-ranked e-mail marketing tools—iContact and Constant Contact. 

Which is best? As often is the case, it’s a matter of taste, feature preferences, and budget, and you’ll find pluses and minuses for each program.

For example, our expert reviewer felt iContact’s templates could use an upgrade, but found its social media integration and reporting features to be excellent.

Similarly, our expert reviewer found Constant Contact’s customization and customer service to be excellent, but found its pricing “higher than some of its competitors.” Indeed, a number of user reviewers complained about Constant Contact’s pricing being excessive as the number of e-mail recipients rose and for the fees charged for add-ons.

As our user reviews show, while there are disgruntled users who dislike certain aspects of a program or have had bad customer service experiences, most users are happy with iContact’s and Constant Contact’s ease of use and customer service.  

Our expert reviewer noted that Constant Contact strives to provide friendly and helpful customer service, and user reviews bear testimony to the high degree of caring users felt they received.

With social media use on the rise, it is noteworthy that iContact and Constant Contact have integrated social media into their platforms, allowing users to post e-mails to Twitter, Facebook, and more.  

Likewise, with mobile use growing, users may tilt towards a platform based on the support for particular handheld devices. iContact allows users to manage campaigns from more mobile platforms, including the iPhone, Android, and the iPad, while Constant Contact offers QuickView, a free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Constant Contact’s pricing ranges from $15 for up to 500 subscribers to $150 for up to 25,000 subscribers. Beyond 25,000 users, pricing is provided by the company directly. 

iContact is free for users with list sizes up to 500 subscribers and up to 2,000 total emails per month. Its fees start at $9.95 per month for up to 250 subscribers and range to $699 per month for 100,000 subscribers. Larger plans are also available, as well as premium services billed at an hourly rate. 

iContact offers a 30-day free trial for all plans, and Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial for up to 100 contacts

Bottom Line: Both iContact and Constant Contact have reputations for ease of use, good customer service, and reasonable pricing. They vary in quality of templates, customization capability, mobile support, and other feature comparisons. Both companies offer free trials, so try their interfaces, test their templates, and see which one best suits your needs, taste, and budget.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Aren’t we all looking for ways to increase our productivity at work?  One simple way is to use video more.

Here are three great ways that video can improve your business productivity:

1. Videoconferencing.  If you haven’t started to use videoconferencing, you should.  The easiest way to do a one-on-one video conference is to use Skype.  It’s free and it’s a fabulous way to have a face-to face-conversation without leaving your desk.  If you have a larger group, there are plenty of web conferencing solutions that are not too expensive.  The top-5 web conferencing solutions Comparz.com has reviewed include: Join.me, WebEx, GoToWebinar, LotusLive, and Adobe Connect.  User reviews of these 5 tools are listed here.

2. Interviewing.  Interviewing of any type is so crucial to your business success.  Interviewing is an enormous time sink, yet it is so crucial to the success of your business.  This includes hiring team members, hiring contractors, or hiring vendors of any type.  There is a great new tool called TaketheInterview.com that can assist with all of these situations, using video to improve interviewing results and save time.  Taketheinterview.com is extremely easy to use and allows you to decide which questions you want your candidates to respond to.  Then the candidates can video their answers using their own simple video cam on their computers and provide you with an easy, quick way to narrow the playing field. 

3. Sales and Customer Support.  An informative video on your website can eliminate a ton of questions funneled to your sales or customer service lines.  You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to produce the video.  Use screen capture technologies such as Jing by Techsmith.  Create a simple video explaining how your product works or why a user would use it.  Then you can host it on YouTube and embed it in your site (very easily).  Answering common sales and support questions via video can reduce the time your sales and support personnel spend answering simple questions and allow them to focus on more value-added activity, thereby improving your business results dramatically.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Annoying Web site design practices would be a perfect topic for an Andy Rooney segment on "60 Minutes." I could hear Andy expressing his annoyance at blinking animations and unreadable text in his distinctly cranky manner.

Although Andy has retired, there are plenty of other critics online who have chronicled what they see as poor web design practices.

Among the best at describing the worst are Robin Bastien's “30 Bad practices of Web Designers,” Bogdan's “20 Examples of Bad Web Design,” and Emily Fox’s “10 Bad Web Design Habits You Should Avoid."

Anthony on UX Movement gives us “7 Bad Design Practices to Avoid on Your Home Page,” Simon Pascal Klein offers “Top 5 Peeves of Bad Web Design,” and Jason Yormark presents “5 Sure Fire Ways to Lose Website Visitors."   

One person carrying on in the Rooney tradition is Vincent Flanders, publisher of “Web Pages That Suck.”  Vincent includes a Daily Sucker and invites readers to submit clunkers. 

Among those who prefer to show us bad practices rather than simply describe them are The Manolith Team, which presents “20 of the Worst Designed Websites in the World," and Angelfire, which gives us “The World’s Worst Website,” a showcase for bad design practices. 

The litany of design sins these critics cite include:

• Dark backgrounds that make text unreadable.
• Music that plays instantly upon arrival.
• Poor images.
• Badly written content.
• Ad screens foisted upon visitors.

Anyone who has surfed the Internet for any length of time has accumulated a bundle of grievances. My pet peeves include:

• Sites that load excruciatingly slow.
• Sites that make it too difficult to determine what and where their content is, especially sites with tiny lettering positioned in hard-to-find places.
• Sites that take you through too many screens. 
• Sites that disable the browser back function
• Sites that don’t allow you to copy information.

I find it irritating to have to watch ads before I can see the video I’ve chosen. I also dislike floating ads that keep reappearing, blocking the content you’re trying to read, and that won’t go away. 

Studies show that it takes only about 50 milliseconds for a visitor to form an opinion about the visual design of your website. As Rick Sloboda counsels on CMSwire, a do-it-yourself poorly designed website can drive away visitors and inhibit your business's growth, so it is worth investing in a site design that will please visitors and help your business flourish.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Google has introduced a new program aimed at helping SMBs with limited online advertising experience manage AdWords campaigns through the help of hand-picked partners.

Called the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program, or PSP, the service “connects experienced AdWords partners with businesses that want expert help in creating, managing and optimizing their online advertising campaigns,” said Google.

Google will act as the middleman, organizer, and promoter of the service, with the obvious aim of boosting AdWords revenues by engaging SMBs that are now sitting on the paid search sidelines.

Like almost every major technology vendor, Google sees the SMB market as a vast reservoir of untapped riches. Most vendors have been stymied, however, in their attempts to capitalize on it. IBM, for example, has targeted the SMB market repeatedly with little success.

Google will fight a similar uphill battle to induce SMBs to spend more on paid search. Surveys show SMBs are more interested in spending their ad dollars on other forms of online advertising like display ads and social media. A study by Borrell Associates, for example, showed that paid search spending in 2011 will decrease 28.7% to $5.43 billion from $7.62 billion in 2010.

SMBs interested in Google’s new PSP service can hook up with authorized partners that Google has made available via a “Find a Partner” link. The partners are being carefully chosen and vetted, says Google.

Google says partners must meet a strict list of criteria to participate, including:

• Large existing customer base of small/medium-sized businesses
• Tele/field sales force with the ability to sell Google’s advertising products
• Commitment to provide phone and/or email customer support to their advertiser base
• Existing operational infrastructure (billing, reporting, etc.) to service thousands of customers

So far, there are 13 partners listed, including Advance Internet, Cobalt, Dealer.com, Dex One, Driven Local, Hearst, Moore & Scarry, OrangeSoda, ReachLocal, Scripps, TopSpot Internet Marketing, Web.com, and Yellowbook. Each of these partners has issued a press release trumpeting their inclusion in the program.

Google says advertising agencies who are accepted into the program will receive access to new Google technologies; technical, marketing, account, and product support from Google; access to joint promotions; and performance incentives.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Groupon is scheduled to launch an IPO tomorrow and some say it could have a valuation of $12 billion.  Regardless of Groupon's valuation and how you feel about the company, Groupon is a great story on the power of entrepreneurship.  The business you are working on today could be one "pivot" away from a billion dollar idea.

Four-and-a-half years ago I interviewed with the people behind Groupon, specifically Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, who provided the early funding for what became Groupon (I learned days later that my family was moving to Boston, so I didn't proceed with the conversations).  They were speaking to me about opportunities at their portfolio companies, one of which was thepoint.com, a site focused on effecting social change through collective group activity.  While ThePoint still exists today, it was the initial business that spurred the idea behind Groupon. 

It is amazing and inspiring to think that four-and-a-half years ago Groupon didn't exist and now Wall Street is valuing it at $12 billion.  The concept of the "pivot" has been popularized by Eric Ries' Lean Startup Methodology, which loosely defines a pivot as changing the strategic direction of a company based on user feedback.  A business (regardless of the size) should be constantly testing its operating assumptions by getting customer feedback every step of the way.

To all of you entrepreneurs, keep listening to your customers, think big, and execute quickly, and within a few years you could be the next Groupon as well.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Google is now searching and indexing public comments made on Facebook.  This is a new and significant development, not only for people who may have left embarrassing comments, but for businesses whose Facebook pages could not previously contribute to their rankings on Google via SEO (search engine optimization).

Google’s spiders, called Googlebots, previously could not penetrate Facebook’s iFrames coding and read comments within Facebook’s confines.  New technology allows Googlebots to read publicly made Facebook comments by searching AJAX and JavaScript, accessing the comments via third-party sites that siphon off public Facebook comments via the Facebook Connect add-ons, such as the Facebook plug-in for Wordpress.

Private Facebook pages apparently will remain impervious to Googlebot’s spidery reaches.  However, publicly made Facebook comments and people’s names attributed to those comments will now be searchable on Google.

The good news for businesses is that positive comments made publicly on Facebook about those businesses will now be considered in Google’s rankings. This will open up new SEO possibilities and cause many organizations to focus on Facebook, an area that was fallow ground because of its exclusion on Google.

The new Googlebot searches will also be able to index comments from other sites that were previously omitted, such as Disqus and Intense Debate.

Google did not announce that it was now reading and indexing Facebook comments. Rather the  discovery was made by Digital Inspiration and then confirmed by Google employee Matt Cutts who launched a tweet yesterday that read:

"Googlebot keeps getting smarter. Now has the ability to execute AJAX/JS to index some dynamic comments http://goo.gl/F9et1"

I'm a huge fan of Twitter and I actively use it.  But Twitter is not about the number of followers you have.  I cannot tell you how many profiles I see of people who have over 25,000 followers, but they are not on any Twitter lists.

A Twitter list is a way to see a Twitter stream of select individuals you have grouped together.  This is a great way to segment your Twitter list and see what certain segments are talking about.  To be put on a list is generally an honor of sorts, as it means that someone deems you an expert in a certain area. 

When I see people with over 25,000 Twitter followers but they are on little to no lists, that screams Twitter spammer to me. This individual has found a way to get follow backs, but likely they aren't really leaders in their respective fields. 

So, what are good Twitter metrics?  I say the list-to-follower ratio is the best metric of whether to follow someone.  The higher the ratio, the better.  Also, the balance between followers and followed is interesting (although less important than the list to follower ratio in my opinion).  In general, it's nice to see a somewhat equal follower-to-followed ratio.  Some hot shots don't follow many back, which is fine, and obviously people love what these people have to say, but let's just say it's a bit elitist. And on the other end, if users have many more followed vs. followers, they are likely just listeners, which is perfectly fine, you just might now want to follow them.

All of that said, Twitter or any other form of social media is all about connecting with real people.  Keep that in mind as you use it.  Reach out and meet people.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Backup storage in the cloud is a wonderful and welcome service for many users, and two of the leading providers of online backup are Dropbox and SugarSync.

These services allow you to backup, store, synchronize, access, and share data—and to do so 24x7, in any location, and from multiple devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

As our user reviews show, it’s hard to find a discouraging word about Dropbox or SugarSync. However, discouraging words are out there, with the complaints centered mainly on the storage limitations of these services.    

Indeed, the storage limitations on Dropbox and SugarSync are the biggest drawback for many users. If you need to store digital music, video, and photo files, the Dropbox ceiling of 100 GB does not go a long way.  Moreover, many businesses these days have fairly substantial portfolios of videos and images that easily exceed 100 GB. While the 500GB maximum of SugarSync is larger, these types of files can easily eat that up as well.

Thus, you find that the satisfied customers of Dropbox and SugarSync typically fall into a user demographic of smaller data collections, and seemingly limited awareness. On the Dropbox forum, for example, you find shock and awe among users that are incredulous that other users might need more than 100GB of storage, as well as equally incredulous users who see 100GB as an obvious limitation for dealing with video and audio files.

For those who fall within the low end of the storage limit demographic, these services can be a bargain. If, however, you fall within the higher end of the storage requirement spectrum, these services can get expensive.

Dropbox’s pricing is 50GB for $9.99 per month and 100GB for $19.99 per month. Dropbox also offers a 5-user team plan for $795 for 5 users, and $125 for each additional user, with a 100GB storage limit.  

SugarSync’s pricing ranges from $4.99 per month (49.99 per year) for 30GB to $39.99 per month ($399.99 per year) for 500GB.

For those with truly meager needs, Dropbox and SugarSync offer free plans for up to 2GB and 5GB, respectively.

While users sing the praises of both services, there are differences in the features and in the platforms and types of folders and synchronizations supported.

Bottom Line: Depending on your storage requirements, Dropbox and SugarSync can either provide plentiful storage at a great price or frustratingly limited storage at a costly price. Try them both for free and decide which one you like best.

Trick or treat! That's how I felt after obtaining “free” price quotes when researching the pricing of ADP and PayChoice online payroll products.  I was initially pleased to find that the companies provided what were ostensibly free price quote calculators on their sites. “Try our new Payroll Price Quote Tool” says ADP’s site. “Experience the ease of transparent pricing,” says PayChoice’s site, “Get a free rate quote.”

However, to get a free quote you must first fill in a form that requires you to provide your name, company name, phone number, email address, number of employees, and how frequently employees are paid.  You are then able to use the tool to get price quotes.

Afterwards, as expected, ADP and PayChoice sales reps were all over me like a bad suit with phone calls and e-mails. “I see you were on or site looking for information. Please call back and I’ll help.”

So you do, in sense, have to pay for the free quote through a degree of annoyance.

Having to fill in a form to get an article or whitepapers, or view an ad to read an article, get a game score, or watch a video, has become commonplace and is a price we pay, often begrudgingly, to get the information we seek.

While this is annoying, it is not as bad as some of the bait-and-switch marketing ploys that are being perpetrated online. I recently received a notice that I had won $1,000 gift certificate for Walmart and all I had to do was provide information to claim it. I thought I’d follow along to see where it led.  I was taken through screen after screen of survey information and offers, and finally was told I had to subscribe to one of a number of offers to receive my “free” gift. At that point I left. Since then, I have been continually inundated with e-mails offering me all sorts of special offers and deals.

The web is increasingly becoming a thicket of unwanted ads, pop up screens, fill-in forms, and deceptive deals that you must negotiate to get to the content that is seemingly offered for free.  While to the offending companies, this is slick and savvy marketing, to the user it is more and more unwanted trickery and a commercial nightmare.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

PayChoice and ADP are among the top-ranked online payroll services, and both companies are vying to serve small businesses. 

PayChoice markets itself as “America's choice for small business payroll” and tells us that “approximately 150,000 businesses rely on our services and technology to eliminate the hassles associated with payroll, HR, record keeping and tax filing.”

While ADP has a reputation as a higher-end provider for larger companies, it tells us that “small business is (y)our business” and invites you to “join the over 400,000 small businesses that trust their payroll to ADP, and see what our team of experts can do for you.” That number is a significant percentage for a company that claims to have about 570,000 clients.  

Pricing for small businesses is a key issue, and until recently, it was difficult for a small business to get a price quote from ADP. You could only obtain pricing by speaking to a sales representative. However, ADP recently posted a new price quote tool on its site that allows you to get quotes for up to 49 employees. Beyond 49 employees, you still must contact ADP Employer Services to get a quote.

PayChoice, meanwhile, touts its pricing as 15% less than other national providers, and its online price quote tool allows you to get quotes for any number of employees.

In using both companies’ online quote tools, I found that PayChoice’s quoted prices were indeed about $15 to $20 lower per month than ADP’s for full service offerings. Moreover, PayChoice’s quotes are described as “total” prices, while ADP tells you its quote is the “starting at” price. For example, pricing for payroll services for 25 employees on a semi-monthly basis was $80.60 "total" for PayChoice vs. "starting at" $105.25 for ADP.

PayChoice also offers a self-service payroll service for a flat $49 fee for up to nine employees. If you can handle your payroll app yourself, this is a good deal. ADP's pricing for five employees, by comparison, starts at $70.25 per month, and for nine employees it is $79.25 per month.

PayChoice invites you to “experience the ease of transparent pricing,” and its pricing does appear to be more straightforward.

While ADP's pricing is higher, it banks on its reputation and aims to distinguish itself by providing personalized service via dedicated account representatives. PayChoice, however, provides both self-service and full-service options, including dedicated account reps.

Both ADP and PayChoice provide full-featured payroll services. Which provides better service? Neither company appears to have a spotless reputation.  PayChoice’s reputation took a hit in October 2009 when it was victimized by two security breaches within one month in which customer data was stolen and phantom employees were added to customer accounts. The company addressed the issue and no breaches have been reported since.

Large companies with long histories never please every customer, and ADP has its share of customer complaints online. A number of them cite mistakes in calculating and reporting and withholding taxes, as well as poor and uncommunicative service. Some customers complain that ADP’s software is outdated and overly complicated.

Bottom Line: PayChoice and ADP are national providers with full-featured online payroll services. If price is your key deciding factor, PayChoice’s prices are lower.

In the recessionary and increasingly remotely connected, or disconnected, working world, many businesses are discovering the merits of web conferencing. Among the top-ranked web conferencing systems are Adobe’s Connect Pro and Citrix’s GoToMeeting.

Because Adobe Connect Pro and GoToMeeting appear on a lot of short lists of recommended products, it is no surprise to see contentious marketing among advocates and resellers of these systems as they fight for market share.

As one reviewer pointed out, there is confusion, often deliberately introduced by Adobe competitors, over Adobe Connect Pro and Adobe ConnectNow. Adobe ConnectNow is the cheaper stripped-down version, lacking features like meeting recording, teleconference integration, breakout rooms, weblinks, moderated chat, and polling.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term Astroturfing, it’s a seemingly objective website that is surreptitiously sponsored to provide slanted propaganda favorable to the hidden sponsor. And indeed, there are apples-to-oranges comparisons of Adobe ConnectNow vs. competitors online, including GoToMeeting, that seemed purposely deceptive.

The correct apples-to-apples comparison is Adobe Connect Pro vs. GoToMeeting. For these systems, the sweet spot, or cheap spot, is for meetings that include no more than 25 people, and this is where their marketing focuses, each touting pricing in the $45 to $59 range.

Based on Adobe’s Flash technology, Connect Pro incorporates a number of innovative and advanced multimedia features like “pods” and streaming video. Although Adobe Connect Pro may be the more sophisticated product, some users, as we see in other categories, value a simple, bare-bones product that is easy to operate, less complex, and less confusing. This is the appeal of GoToMeeting and where it wins advocates.

Adobe Connect Pro's pricing, at $45 per month for 25 users, is lower than GoToMeeting’s, which is $49 for up to 15 attendees. For up to 25 attendees, GoToMeeting’s pricing is not published on its site, but is around $59 per month.

For meetings above 25 participants, however, the pricing escalates for both these vendors’ systems, and they may no longer be a bargain for budget-constrained small businesses.  

Adobe’s pricing above 25 users gets murky and is difficult to find, while GoToMeeting’s is clearly published on its website—with GoToWebinar options, which include GoToMeeting, priced at $99 for up to 100 participants, $399 for up to 500, and $499 for up to 1,000.

Adobe’s pricing above 25 participants, as our reviewer noted, can cost up to several thousands of dollars per year.

If you want a real bargain, then Join.me is the way to go at $29 for a maximum of 250 participants.

Both GoToMeeting and Adobe have introduced novel pay-as-you-go schemes. GoToMeeting allows you to purchase a license on a daily basis, while Adobe Connect allows you to buy web conferencing on demand by a pay-per-minute option. For an ad hoc or emergency meeting, these are fine, but for users that hold many meetings per month, they are expensive options.

Bottom Line: Adobe Connect Pro and GoToMeeting are top-ranked systems and worthy of consideration, with GoToMeeting generally seen as a simpler and easier-to-use product but lacking Adobe Connect Pro’s more advanced features and sophistication. For meetings up to 25 attendees, Adobe offers lower pricing. Above 25 attendees, both these systems get expensive, with GoToMeeting’s pricing easier to establish. Take advantage of free trials and special offers, get quotes from resellers, and choose according to your needs, preferences, and budget.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

The most dramatic trend affecting small businesses is software as a service (SaaS), with the cloud giving small businesses access to applications previously affordable only by large enterprises with deep pockets and specialized IT staffs.

BI in particular has been among the most expensive, complex, and specialized areas, which only the largest and richest enterprises could afford. Now SaaS is bringing affordable business intelligence (BI) to SMBs.

BI, when performed successfully, can give a company a competitive edge. By analyzing reams of sales and economic data, for example, businesses can see patterns that allow them to adjust and optimize their sales strategies, manage their inventory better, and bring new ideas to market. BI can yield useful results via historic and predictive analyses.

All the major analysts—including IDC, Garnter, and Forrester—see SaaS BI posed for major growth. IDC predicts that the SaaS BI market will experience triple the growth of the market overall, soaring at a compound annual growth rate of 22.4 percent through 2013.

Aberdeen Group, which has been following the BI SaaS market consistently, sees SaaS BI growing fast, with its studies showing the number of BI SaaS deployments across all organizations increasing from 7%  in 2008 to 13% in 2010 to about 20% in 2011. 

Similarly, a study by  AMI-Partners projects that the opportunity for SaaS BI analytics software will increase by 25% through 2015 to reach the $500 million mark.

Steve Bogdon of Dashboard Insight, in his collection of major Business Intelligence Predictions for 2011, showed that SaaS BI is the most significant trend cited by industry players. As Richard Daley of Pentaho remarked, “The barriers to 'BI accessibility' are being shattered with lower cost and faster on-ramp alternatives like cloud BI, mobile BI and commercial open source BI."

Among the new breed of vendors offering SaaS BI solutions are Bime, Birst, BirtOnDemand, GoodData, Indicee, Kognito, MicrosStrategy, PivotLink, RoamBI, and Yellowfin. Established vendors offering SaaS BI include Tibco and SAP, as well as IBM business partner Sky IT Group. Microsoft and SAS Institute also are bringing SaaS BI offerings to market.

Pricing of some SaaS BI services may still be prohibitively high for many small businesses. GoodData, for example, charges $2,000 to $5,000 per month, but argues that this is a significant saving vs. traditional fees ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 per month. Pricing of PivotLink starts around $3,000 per month.

Indeed, a look at SaaS BI provider websites shows that few of them publish their pricing. The lowest published pricing I saw was on Bime’s site, with prices ranging from $60 to $240 per month per analyst.

However, through competition and market demand we can expect general SaaS BI pricing to continue to shrink.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.