Evolution of Facebook Privacy - Matt McKeon 2010

In a world where being able to connect with old friends, family, co-workers, and connections is now the “norm” it surprises me when we start to see backlash as we are with Facebook recently. Especially when these are FREE services. However, everyone in the Internet age has been foregoing bits and pieces of their privacy for the convenience of connecting with each other and interacting in a social way online.

The thing is that when we interact online we are always leaving a little digital signature of who we are, where we came from, what we did, etc. Part of this is an aspect of the Web in general through cookies and GPS coordinates. Another part is just by virtue of how the Web works and how analytics are tracking site behavior. While Web sites may not know who you are specifically (unless you log in), they will certainly get a good idea of what you like and deliver better content next time.

Free sites have to make money. Running Web servers, development costs, etc all costs money and no investor or venture capitalist is going to invest in a company without the potential to get their money back. So for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, (insert name of cool website with free service), they all have the same issue; how will they make money? For many, it will be in online advertising. Google does this with most of its products from Google Search to Gmail to YouTube. Facebook does it with ads and virtual gifts. Even LinkedIn does it with their online recruiting (job board), research arm, and advertisements. However, nobody really seems to care about it when it is advertising because most often it is what keeps the service free to use. Do you remember when Google first rolled out ads that were contextual to your search, or your email messages? Everyone was outraged, yet millions of people still use those services. When you go onto Amazon and you see products that are based on your behavior, your information you have shared and more. No matter what we do online, the more we want convenience of personalized information and use of free services we will have to give up a piece of our privacy. When you check-in at a restaurant using Yelp, Foursquare or Gowalla, you are sending out your location over the web. “I’m here!”

Surprisingly I?ve seen little mention of the possible reasons why Facebook has shifted their privacy policy. I was recently at Facebook?s HQ and the light bulb went off for me when it came up in conversation. Facebook doesn?t want to be a social network anymore, they want to be a single source of your online presence. They want to provide you, the user, with news, communications, and ability to interaction with all your social graphs (friends, family, co-workers, and brands). Facebook has become a platform and stopped being a social network.

The easiest way that Facebook, and other social networks, are integrating your personal information is via their authentication tools. In Facebook?s world this is Facebook Connect. It allows you, the user, to log into another website with your Facebook credentials. In some cases, like a registration for a site, you can populate certain fields and share your activity with this new site with your Facebook friends. This is where everyone is getting their arms up air over this privacy invasion. But if you want the convenience of not having to remember dozens of usernames and passwords, using one, like what you use for Facebook becomes convenient.

The other big discussion is around Facebook?s social widgets. These are actually less intrusive as one might think. They are what we call iframes, which means the ?Like? button that they just rolled out is actually a page within a page. The Web site that the ?Like? button is on actually doesn?t get any information about that person. So for me, I have the ?Like? button on this blog post. If you see other people who ?like? this post, I get none of that data. It doesn?t go into a database of mine, or into an email to me. Zip. Nada. What makes them attractive to Web site administrators, like me, is that it provides a level of personalization that I couldn?t achieve otherwise. And because Facebook is 500M strong, the chances are of that personalization working on my Web site is pretty good. The same goes for CNN and thousands of other sites which have integrated these new features into them.

The next time you think about your privacy and where your information is being shared, or even sold, think about he conveniences you have online when you use Web sites. You are giving up your privacy every day, but you are also willing to do so. In fact, if you really want to know who else is using your personal information just look into the fine print of the following:

• Your Bank
• Your Credit Cards
• Your Loyalty Cards (Grocer, Movie Rental, Book Store)
• Google Account (Oh, how quickly we forget about them)
• Professional Association or Trade Association

You may be surprised on what you read.

I heard on the morning news today that despite the economy, companies are still willing to spend $3M for 30 seconds on NBC for the Super Bowl.  30 seconds in one of the most popularized, entertainment sporting events of the year.  Sure, your exposure is to millions of viewers (and a few football fans while you’re at it).  Some companies will spend about that much money to nail that 30 seconds for your attention.  To resonate with you to take some action.  What will be the return?  How can it be measured?  Sure there are ways, but the measurement is a conversion from one medium to another.  TV to Brick and Mortar or TV to Online.  Let’s repeat this, the measurement of success will most likely be a measurement of a conversion from one medium to another.  That’s where advertisers are missing the point in print.

Traditional uses of print advertising has been mostly around awareness.  It’s about branding.  But the problem is many companies haven’t adjusted their print strategies to consumer behavior.  They see that print isn’t returning results like it used to, and it’s too hard to “measure” a return.  The reality is that the C-level management want faster results, and print isn’t one for “timely” analytics compared to online advertising.  Additionally, circulation is still a “best guess” number, not as hard-core as actual pageviews/impressions that can be given in online advertising.  I get it, make sure you receive value for what you are paying for.  However, it’s reality. 

Arguments for why online advertising is better than print are completely valid.

• Better tracking
• Instant measurement
• Smaller buys can render bigger results
• Target, segment, target, segment
• Test, tweak, test, tweak

Yes, the are all good.  But let’s not forget that people still read magazines and journals.  They still like flipping through pages at stuff they can’t buy, or may want to buy, or are interested in. Online advertising, while instantly measurable, still has banner blindness.  The fear that a click on an ad will mean they will get more ads, or spam, or more pop-ups.  Seeing a full page ad in your favorite magazine means you can read it, flip past it, come back to it, read it again, and then make a decision to do more.  No fear.  They are in control.

Advertisers need to continue to understand consumer behavior.  Understand that your opportunity to grab one’s attention is still valuable in print publications.  Understand how you can create an effective campaign to go from offline to online and still measure success.  They need to accept the fact that the return on that media buy for an ad in a magazine isn’t going to show results for weeks after delivery.  But the incentive has to change.  You have to get the consumer to change mediums.  Print to online is possible.  The messaging has to be right, valuable, yet still enticing enough for somone to go online to do more.

Go back to my Super Bowl example.  How long of a lead time do you think companies are taking to get a campaign together for that $3M investment.  Weeks?  Months?  Now how long do you think it could take to put together a campaign and media buy for a print pub?  Yes, publishers still need weeks of lead-time, printing, and delivery.  So it may be on par with a TV advertisement, but not as expensive.  Not a one-time 30 second shot.

Integrate your marketing campaigns into multiple channels.  Print shouldn’t be ignored.  It still holds value, especially when it is being adapted to new mediums.  For instance, Digital publications.  Migrating to the Kindle and other digital readers.  When evaluating your marketing dollars, don’t forget the print publication.  It’s not dead.  It’s still valuable.  While patience is a virtue, management needs to know print can still return results.

This article originally was published in the May 2007 issue of LLRX.

You have worked for a large firm for many years and you have made the decision to either go solo or start a small firm. You were used to having access to all your information via an Intranet, file server, and your desktop. You could practice law and let the IT department worry about when the printer jammed or if you got a virus. Now that you are solo, you are the one that has to deal with all those problems as well as practice law.

It is no secret that one of the largest concerns for new and existing solo lawyers has to do with building an infrastructure for your new firm. Specifically, technology related concerns impact this group the most; computers, office software, security, back-up, billing software, case management, etc. The options are either to invest in all the technology yourself and spend a lot of time, money, and energy keeping all the systems running properly, troubleshooting problems, and performing regular maintenance, or outsource all of this overhead for someone else to manage on your behalf. However, you became a solo to practice law, not troubleshoot technology applications each day.

Alternatives to the two scenarios above do exist. You can invest in Web-based tools to take some of the burden off of you, and let someone else worry about the back-up, security, and maintenance. The benefits allow you to practice law and have fewer worries about issues that may come up regarding the technology itself. The downside is that if your Internet connection goes out, you cannot do much. Even worse is if the hosting company that you are using has severe problems, your data may be lost forever. I’ll cover some of the tools that are available for you to explore as well as raise concerns of relying on such Web-based services for your daily work.

Tools Available

There are many office and support tools available in Web-based formats that can lessen your office overhead.

Google’s Products

Google continues to roll-out new web-based office applications that are worth reviewing. The company started with an email client called Gmail and through acquisitions and their own development teams, have expanded their offerings to include office applications. Currently Google provides the following:

• Google Docs (word processing and spreadsheets)
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• iGoogle (personalized page)

Google Docs and Google Calendar offer collaborative functions, allowing them to be shared others. Both services are free. Google also has a version of their office tools in a complete package that is fee based.

Google offers a small business package (Standard Package is free, Premier Package is $50 per year per user) includes:

• A customizable Start Page
• Google Docs and Spreadsheets
• Page Creator (basic webpage with a WYSIWYG editor)
• Gmail account
• Google Talk (IM/VOIP)
• Google Calendar
• Control Panel to manage accounts and your domain
• Help and support
• Extensible APIs to integrate with other third party software

This can be a very powerful combination of tools for solos and small firms who are looking to reduce overhead and IT support for basic office functions.

ZoHo’ Products

ZoHo is a brand of AdventNet, a software company. Their free and for pay services offer a wide range of options for solos and small firms who are looking to reduce IT overhead. Like Google, their Web-hosted tools provide a lot of functionality, but not a full suite such as Microsoft Office. Currently Zoho has the following product offerings:

• Writer
• Sheet
• Show
• Calendar and Email
• Project
• CRM
• Planner
• Wiki
• Chat
• Notebook (private beta)
• Mail (private beta)

Tom Mighell recently wrote about the benefits and differences between Google and ZoHo’s products vs. Microsoft Office in the March issue of Law Practice Magazine. One of the biggest drawbacks of using these services has to do with back-up. Tom reports that neither Google nor ZoHo offer bulk back-up to another source. You must download each file individually to your local computer prior to transfer to another data back-up location.

37Signals’ Products

While being able to replicate what a Microsoft Office Suite might offer is important for solos and small firms, there are other tools that will help manage your office. 37Signals based in Chicago, offers a variety of Web-based tools that address needs such as project management (or case management if you want to think if it in that perspective) and Client Relationship Management. Known for producing simple to use tools that offer many features but are not overwhelming, 37Signals products include:

• Highrise (CRM – Customer Relationship Management)
• Basecamp (Project Management)

37Signals’ products also offer many other opportunities as each of their products have APIs (application programming interface), which allow for other software to interact with theirs. A great example is their Basecamp product. This project management tool allows you to collaborate with others on a project by setting tasks, milestones with reminders, and file management for that project. If you purchase their comprehensive package of services it will even do time tracking. One feature Basecamp does not offer is billing or invoicing. That’s where FreshBooks comes in. They use the Basecamp API to allow their web-based billing and invoice software to interact with Basecamp to allow you to create invoices for each project. Of course you would need a FreshBooks account to make this happen, but having those two applications talk to each other makes sending out bills and invoices seamless.

Concerns for Lawyers

As the new generation of Web-based services and software arrives, lawyers will always have concerns. Do you reduce your overhead costs by outsourcing these tools or do you manage all of them yourself? If you do take a serious look at using Web-based tools, then privacy, data security, and copyright of content will be issues with which you will have to deal. This is particularly important if you plan to use “free” versions. Catherine Sanders Reach, Director of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, recently wrote on the group’s Site-tation site about the cost of free resources. Ms. Reach stated “…attorney’s must give thought to the potential repercussions of relying on free technology for mission-critical functions.” And she is correct. If for some reason your free web-based email service is down and clients can’t contact you efficiently, that certainly impacts business.

Ultimately, you have to be comfortable with the due diligence you perform in backing up your data, understanding what you are really giving up by using free services, and evaluating how these factors impact your clients and their respective matters.

What Does the Total Package Lack?

At this time I think there are several hurdles that must be overcome before any lawyer or business professional can truly use web-based tools to manage essential office tasks.

Simple single sign-on: Of all the online tools that I use, test, and experiment with, one of the nice things about the Google products is that I don’t have to re-login to use each application. Single sign-on is important for users who use multiple web-based applications from the same vendor. Of course if you decide to pick different products from different vendors this may always be an issue. OpenID may solve this problem (a universal unique identifier many web-based companies are adopting for access).

Access to third party back-up sources: Data security is always going to be on the mind of any lawyer or small business owner. This means that if you want to ship your data off to a third party security/storage center you need to be able to have the ability to do this at any time.

Smartphone access/integration: The world is quickly becoming more mobile. The expectation to have access to all your information at any given time is also becoming more mainstream. If you worked at a larger firm, what was your required response time? I understand some firms require their lawyers’ response to clients must be within 2 hours of receipt. Web-based products need to have the ability to integrate with Smartphones (Treo, BlackBerry, Q, BlackJack, etc.) to allow lawyers access to their contacts, documents, and email directly from their mobile device.

Central Start Center: Finally what would be very desirable is the ability to have a central start center which you can log-in when you get to work, have a portal that gives you access to all these applications as well as the ability to pull in other information like local news, custom search, and maybe even sports scores. Applications like iGoogle (now their name-brand for their personalized page) and NetVibes help do this, but these sites still have limitations, although they are improving continuously.

Ultimately, you can become relatively efficient with current Web-based applications. For the “office” applications, you need to be diligent in using the Web-app as an application, not as a storage facility. If you are finished writing or collaborating on a document, export it out to save in some other location. This does not mean you cannot re-import it and work on it again, but you should think of these as applications only as a tool, not as a complete, final solution.

By using Web-based applications, you can reduce the overhead dedicated to operating your office. Be diligent in checking the terms of use and privacy statements of all “free” applications. Be cautious of using vendors who are still small and have the potential to fold at any given moment (namely anything in “beta”). You do not want to lose your data forever because the lights go out in Silicon Valley. Finally, use the tools you feel most comfortable using. If you are a WordPerfect or Microsoft Word pro and use special features, equivalent Web-based applications will not serve your needs. Be smart about the tools you use and you will find the benefits and efficiencies come with those decisions.

What concerns you most about web-based office solutions replacing traditional desktop applications? Let me know at fred@frederickfaulkner.com.

Two years ago I wrote about what was going to be BIG in 2005. It was a fun take off on the VH1 BIG in 2004. With technology and the Web changing at an ever-quickening pace, I thought it would be good to predict what I think is going to be BIG in 2007. So let’s get started.

Content Syndication – My News, My Way

Two years ago I predicted that RSS was going to take off. It did, but not in the way that it should have. Many factors contributed to the lack of wider adoption of RSS, but now the playing field has changed. Publishing companies are seeing the value in RSS and how content can be syndicated to other Websites, and more importantly, delivered directly to readers. The software companies have also caught-on to the power of RSS and are integrating the RSS format directly into their applications. Much of this can be attributed to the explosion in the number of blogs over the last five years. Microsoft will help expand RSS adoption with the introduction of their new operating system Vista, and with user migration to Internet Explorer 7, released several months ago. Both have integrated features to facilitate the use of RSS.

RSS will be the vehicle for syndicating content, but it won’t just be text and images anymore. The popularity of content such as video and podcasts will continue to grow this year. OPML will also start to gain some traction as well.

OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. It will have many useful application as a content syndication vehicle as it continues to develop. The most common use at the moment is to bundle a number of RSS feeds into one file, which you can then in turn import into another aggregator. So if I wanted to share my Legal Blogs folder from my news aggregator with you, I would export the folder as an OPML, allowing you to import that file and use all the feeds to which I am subscribed, via your own aggregator. This saves both of us time because I monitor about 50 legal blogs, and it would cumbersome to copy and paste each feed URL into a document to email to you.

The Social Web Becomes the Regular Web

Last year was all about the "social Web." In 2007, we will see how the social Web will be absorbed into the "regular" Web. Blogs and Websites will for the most part become one and the same. We won’t differentiate them as much because blogs will continue to be integrated into mainstream Websites and their core features, such as blog comments and RSS, will become an accepted part of all Websites. This integration has already started with the re-launch of Time.com, along with use of these applications in mainstream media sites such as the WashingtonPost.com and NewYorkTimes.com sites, to name just a few. These publishing giants have taken social Web concepts and placed them directly into their respective Websites. These features include a blog aggregator which is summary content from many sources (Time.com), columnist blogs with comments enabled, podcasts, and a "save and share" feature on all their articles which allow you to bookmark or share links to articles via social communities like Sphere, Newsvine, Digg, and Del.icio.us.

The next generation of the Web will continue to prominently include online community building features. Websites like Second Life will continue to change the way we interact with each other. Companies will no longer just be on the Web, they will interact on the Web. The legal community will, to a certain degree, follow suit. Advertising rules and regulations will continue to evolve regarding how blogs and Websites are treated by the state bar associations [Link].

The Mobile Web

For the Web design and development community, the mobile Web has been talked about for years. Ever since the first cellular phone could access sports scores we’ve been thinking about how it will evolve into something more robust. Now with newer cell phone technology the rest of the world it is starting to see it become reality.

With access to the Internet beyond just dial-up and broadband, mobile phone companies and Wi-Fi hotspots have enabled us to use devices other than a laptop to access the Web. Smartphones were the first step into this arena. Business leaders and the legal community grabbed on to these devices for the ability to do more than make a phone call. Soon Webmasters started to see odd browsers visiting our sites, like the BlackBerry engine. With the recent introduction of other mobile devices such as the iPhone, and ultraportable PCs like the Oragami, accessing the Internet will no longer be as difficult as it was before. If someone wants to find a lawyer, or locate an office of your firm, the barriers to that task will be quite small. Internet connectivity will continue to be readily available, which means that you, and your firm’s Website, will always be on (as well as the expectation that you will respond to your clients in a much faster fashion). In 2007 you may want to consider having a mobile version of your Website available for visitors to use.

Convergence of Web Applications with Desktop Client Applications

First there was the desktop client application, and everyone was happy that they could write and edit documents faster than using a typewriter. This was fine for many years, but as business and the legal community continued to grow and computers were widely adopted, the limitations to this environment became more apparent. Collaboration between multiple people or multiple offices was difficult. What version of an application was Tom using, vs. Paul? Incorporating multiple changes from multiple platforms was a full time job. The Web transformed that with the introduction of Web-based applications like 30 Boxes, Writely and Google Spreadsheet (both now officially called Google Docs), and Gmail. We quickly embraced the ability to collaborate on documents instead of coordinating fifteen emailed versions of the same document among three people. And the price has been right, and help is free.

Being able to access documents and information stored on the Web is great, but what if you wanted to sync those documents with a laptop so that you can continue to work on a plane trip? You would have to coordinate with your colleagues that you were doing this and not to adjust the document while you were gone or you had to merge the changes back into the document when you landed. Now we have begun to see the limitation to having fully hosted documents. What was once a great solution has become constraining again because even if the Internet is much more readily available, doesn’t mean that we are always on the Internet to access our documents. So now a new challenge has to be surmounted.

Sometime in 2007 we will see the ability to sync those online documents with an offline version. I believe the need for this feature will be the next logical step for many of these online software providers, and one that the users will value. While many are free services, new features will be added that will require a fee and I’m sure some, if not many, will pay the price to have this convenience.

Other Continued Trends

The three aforementioned items above will not be the only technology changes in 2007. Other trends will continue to gain momentum, and could find the tipping point of wide adoptions this year as well. Examples include:

• Podcasting and online videos
• Online communities and social networks
• Web access to basic legal services

This year looks to be another exciting one for technology, and how the legal profession will leverage applications to improve and diversify services. The Web is offering users around the world the ability to connect, share, and do business with one other in real-time — all the time. If you think I’ve missed something, or have a BIG trend you see forming in 2007, let me know so we can track it together. I’ll write a follow-up article to this at the end of the year to see where we landed.

The end of the year is closing in fast and you will undoubtedly ready many "year in review" articles this month. Rather than writing a column referring to what we covered this past year, I want to get you thinking about next year, so you can start the year off right – with a strategic plan for your website that is integrated into other firm goals for 2007.

Reviewing Your Current Website

Hindsight is always 20/20, so – what didn’t you accomplish with your website last year? Do those unaccomplished goals still hold value within the scope of your overall marketing strategy? If so, do you want to make sure these goals figure prominently in your plans for next year?

In following with what website plans were not implemented, did you perhaps add a new feature or features that failed to generate the response you anticipated or simply did not work? To what can you attribute this lack of success?

Looking at what you have done and how your website has contributed to your overall goals and marketing efforts will help you to focus your plans for improvements and enhancements for 2007. Review all aspects of your website, from design to content to traffic statistics to clients who engaged your services through the site. Having a complete picture of what happened over the course of the last twelve months will provide you with valuable data. 

The next step in this evaluation process is to draw up a short list of ideas and changes that you want to make to your website in the next year and put it aside. Then take a look at the competitive landscape that surrounds you.

Competitive Analysis

Knowing what you have worked on over the last twelve months is a good starting point, but information about what your competitors have accomplished is an essential component of your future planning process.  Has your competition taken specific business away from you? Is another firm or practice providing a service that is within your field of expertise? Do other firms have value-added services that you offer but have not properly communicated or marketed, or that you can enhance to extend the range of your services to clients? Remember, you do not have to be the first to offer a online service or implement a technology application (such as a blog, wiki or an extranet).  The objective is to determine how to implement one or more of these applications in a manner which keeps you competitive and expands your services.

Ideas that you will want to consider include the following?

• coordinated offline and online branding
• e-mail updates on topical subject matters
• client portals
• web-based client intake forms

After taking a quick look at your competitors within the context of the "marketplace" (location, industry, etc.), you can add more context and content to your wish list of ideas to implement over the next year.

Brainstorm Your Website Wish List

Once you have conducted an comprehensive and efficient evaluation of your work over the last year, and identified the same for your competitors, sit down with your staff and start brainstorming about ideas for your website. Ask them to contribute ideas that they find are useful on the web in general, not just what they believe are useful on other law firm websites. Remember to bring those initial ideas from reviewing your own website to the discussion. Putting all options and ideas on the table will give you an extensive list and allow you to chose the "best of breed" to implement. Don’t restrict your thoughts to financial requirements or additional resources, as you might be surprised on what you can implement through a project plan that includes implementation over a one year period.

Once you have that list, eliminate the extremes that you feel are either out of your financial reach, won’t provide a satisfactory ROI, and do not fit any other firm requirements. Take the remaining ideas and review the business, technical, and resource requirements required to implement them successfully within your established time frame.

Develop Requirements for New Features to Integrate

Now that you have a list of features you have determined are worth implementing, create a requirements list to go with each feature. This requirements list will include not only technology requirements, but business requirements, an outline of staff resources, and information related to whether a consultant or third party is required to expedite completion of the project. Documenting these requirements prior to beginning the project will assist in fulfilling the objectives as it is put into motion. This information also provides responsible committee members all the information they need to review and approve the project. At the end of the article, I have included a link to a basic form (in PDF) that you may follow to gather requirements for website enhancements.

What is Your ROI?

With any new enhancement or project you want to be able to measure if the change was successful or not. Determining a Return on Investment (ROI) to help put a dollar amount to your project is always a motivating factor for selecting a project that can be successful. You want all of the proposed technology related enhancements to be strategic, measurable, attainable, realistic, and tangible, or S.M.A.R.T.  Choosing an enhancement for which you can’t measure the impact on your business may not be not a smart investment. To assess the ROI for an enhancement, you should to weigh all costs to implement the work to the return that the enhancement will bring. For example, if you want to add a client intake form to your website, you need to calculate the programming costs, staff time for reviewing the form and testing, and finally implementation. Next, you need to determine how much staff time will be reduced or increased by the use of this form. Finally, how many new clients will it take to make this improvement a profitable enhancement. Of course the last part will vary because cases can cost and bring in different levels of revenue, so choose evaluation criteria that most closely match your firm business practices.

Build Your Website into Other Marketing Efforts

If you haven’t already done so, your website should be integrated into all of your marketing efforts. All your print collateral and business cards should have your web address on it. If you have a special area of law that you cover, you need to make sure you have some informational resource related to that topic on your website for current and prospective clients. Build a client intake form into your website to streamline your phone process.

Plan for at Least One New Enhancement

Every year you should plan for at least one website enhancement. To some this may seem like a big investment, while others may want to implement several enhancements at a time. How many you implement on an annual basis is up to you, and is dependant on how your website fits into your other marketing and business efforts and goals. The web is a powerful tool that breaks down barriers of entry into markets and can reduce costs, all at the same time. Many firms have realized this and have successfully leveraged the marketing value of their respective websites. As the number of web users steadily increases, for locating professional services as well as a range of consumer related activities, having a website that can work for you instead of against you is vital.

Conclusion

The web will continue to become part of our everyday lives. Proactively improving your website with enhancements that work in tandem with your overall firm goals and marketing strategy ensures greater success. Creating S.M.A.R.T. enhancements and mapping your timeline now will save you frustration and dollars at the end of the project. Good luck planning your strategy for 2007, and feel free to contact me about the enhancements you plan on making and if they are successful after implementation. [Note: Follow this Link to an example of a form for planning your website enhancement - PDF]

It is probably the most taken for granted webpage you visit every day—the infamous homepage that appears each time you open your Web browser. Many see it as just another page that they immediately click away from once their browser is open. Others actually change it to something more meaningful or interesting. Traditionally, the homepage, is usually set by someone else at first, but with the expansion of the Web 2.0 era and the greater adoption of RSS you can actually do more with your homepage than ever before.

The problem with homepages is that you only get to choose one page. If you are lucky enough to be able to switch this page (some companies lock down their computers so this feature is disabled) you are forced to make the difficult choice of picking a page that suits your needs. Many choose a search engine, a news site, or another favorite website. With personalized pages becoming more common place, it only makes sense to maximize that experience to get the best of both worlds. At the end of this article I’ll take you step-by-step on setting up a personalized homepage with one of the services I mention below. So let’s see what is available for you to use and how you can get the content you want all in one spot.

Typical Homepages

Common homepages include a company’s homepage, your Intranet, major news sources like CNN.com or NYTimes.com, major search engines like Google or Yahoo!, or an ISP or computer manufacturer branded homepage like Comcast.net or Dell’s homepage. While all of these pages are fine and you can get great content from them, there is still something lacking, and that is the ability to make them really personal to you. If you are like me, you have a plethora of bookmarks from sites you visit regularly, why not have all their content in one organized place? Why not be able to open your browser and not only see information those sources, but also have a To Do list, a sticky note pad, or a preview of your Web e-mail account? Now you can and it is not hard to set up. So where do we start?

Websites You Can Personalize

Companies like Google and Microsoft are providing the ability to create personalized homepages instead of your default browser homepage. Other established portals like MSN and Yahoo! are enhancing their “my” space features to give you more options to add content and add pages to them. Finally, there are Web 2.0 companies building spaces specifically for customized homepages that are tapping into the far reaches of the Web to give you your one custom homepage.

To give you a more personalized portal, each of the examples below provide a standard set of modules that you can customize, as well as access other pre-defined modules to add to your homepage. They also allow you to define content to be filtered into your homepage from other sources such as your favorite blog or website that provides a RSS feed. Each page is has multiple columns so you can keep the modules organized. Modules can be dragged and dropped into different columns, additional pages, or deleted all together.

The first three, Google, Netvibes and Windows Live, are very similar in how they work. Each offer multiple columns and tabbed pages approach. MyYahoo! and MyMSN are more traditional content portals and are laid out differently than the other three. They provide two columns and access to their other services very easily. Depending on your personal taste, one may or may not be better suited for your needs. Personally, I use Google’s personalized page because I use many of Google’s products which integrate nicely into my homepage, but each of these below are top rated in their offerings.

• Google
• Netvibes
• Windows Live
• MyYahoo!
• MyMSN

Adding Content to Your Personalized Homepage

With the ability to add content from almost any source that publishes an RSS feed personalized homepages can be powerful sources of information. Adding the content is very simple. Google, Netvibes, and Windows Live all provide pre-defined "widgets" and "gadgets" to add to your pages. Usually by clicking the "Add Content" link you will be presented with categories for different types of information you can add. Then it is as easy as finding one you want and clicking “Add to page”. If there is a source not available in their listings you can add that source via their RSS feed (if available). Google makes it easy by adding a link by their search box called "Add a source". Netvibes and Windows Live provide similar features as well. Coming up I’ll take you step-by-step on how to create a personalized page with Netvibes and how to add pre-defined as well as custom content to those pages.

How Legal Professionals Can Take Advantage

For many legal professionals, staying abreast of developments in certain industries is critical to cases and overall daily work. The ability to have current awareness tools and other personal interest information available in one source is both powerful and efficient. If you are not using a news aggregator yet to monitor industries or topics, a personalized homepage may be one way to ease yourself into the concept. It can, however, be very cumbersome if you have a lot of modules of feeds on one or two pages. With that in mind, personalized pages are a better choice when you are looking for quick snap shots of information. A news aggregator is the better technology alternative to track and monitor many sources, such as an entire industry.

For example, I monitor the Web, legal, and marketing industries on a regular basis. While I could set up three separate tabs in my Google homepage for each industry, I have at least 20-60 feeds in each category. Taken together, those pages would be difficult to manage and track, so I still use a news aggregator for the majority of my news feeds.

I use my homepage to monitor the ABA’s reputation online via a few custom search feeds and our own internal RSS feeds which we publish. I also have a few tabs set up for personal items and general news. The main tab is set up with some widgets that help me get things done like a To Do list, a notepad for larger notes and thoughts, access to my Gmail account and my Google Calendar. This allows me to open up my browser, see what is on the agenda for the day, and organize my tasks by priority. I can also quickly see who has been talking about the ABA overnight and what we are publishing out to the world via RSS feeds. For me, it takes less than five minutes in the morning to get up to speed and then start my day.

Making a Personalized Homepage

To help you get started with a personalized homepage, I’ve documented the steps you need to go through using Netvibes. I chose Netvibes for this example because it requires no additional account set-up besides an existing e-mail address. You don’t need to have an account with Google or Microsoft as you would for Microsoft Live or the Google Personalized page. In this example, we’ll set up the account, add content to the main page, and create a new tab and add content. So let’s get started!

Note: If you don’t have access to adjust the homepage of your browser you can still create a personalized page – you will just need to bookmark it and go there every time you start your browser.

Step 1. Starting out. To get started with a personalized page, visit Netvibes, www.netvibes.com. Once there you will need to create an account so you can personalize this page.

Step 2. Sign In / Create a New Account. Click the Sign In link in the upper right corner. A Web 2.0 looking window will overlay the screen with Existing User and New User choices. Select Sign Up Now!. Provide an e-mail address and password. This will be how you identify your personalized page from everyone else’s. Once your account is created you will be able to modify the modules, add tabs, and they will be retained for your own account.

Step 3. Title your Page. You will want to add a page title for your personalized page. The text at the top of the page that says "Type your page title here" is editable by clicking on it. You can name it anything you want. I called mine Fred’s LLRX Start Page.

Step 4. Adding Content via Pre-defined Gadgets. Before we add content to your page, take a look at the pre-loaded items. If you don’t have a Gmail account or don’t care to see the colorful looking pictures via Flickr you can delete the module by clicking the “X” in the module header when you hover over it. Once you have deleted the modules you don’t want to retain click the “Add Content” in the upper left hand corner. A taskbar will appear on the left side of the screen. In that taskbar a series of categories and types of modules will appear. You can hover over any of the links to see more about that particular module. If you click the link an example module will appear. If you want to add it to your page, click “Add to my page.” Fill in as many modules and gadgets as you desire. If you want to see more modules you can check out the Netvibes Ecosystem for more custom modules created by other users.

Step 5. Adding Tabs. You may find that your main personalized page is getting pretty full from the modules you are adding. To help organize your modules Netvibes, just like Google and Microsoft Live, has tabs you can add. To add a new tab click the “New Tab” link next to your General tab. You can then label the tab anything you want. For example if you want to put all your search modules on a second page, you can call the tab “Search.” Once a tab is created you can drag and drop any module on any tab and it will move the module to that tab. To add new content to that tab you would use the same process as Step 4.

Step 6. Adding Content via RSS Feeds. If the modules and gadgets provided by Netvibes and the Netvibes Ecosystem do not provide specific modules of content you desire, you can add your own RSS feeds to your Netvibes page. Say for instance you want to add the LLRX RSS feed to your personalized page to see when the next issue is published. To do this, surf to LLRX.com and click on the orange XML icon at the bottom of the left sidebar. Copy the URL and then go back over to your Netvibes account. Click “Add Content” and select “Add my feed” link at the top. There you will paste the URL for the LLRX News Feed into the top box and click “Add.” A module showing the last five entries in the RSS feed will be displayed in a module on your personalized page. You can edite that module to show up to 9 entries by hovering over the top of the module and clicking the “Edit” link. You can do this for any RSS feed from any Web site. So if you prefer CNN news to MSNBC or WashingtonPost.com you can add any CNN feed to your personalized page.

Conclusion

Personalized homepages give you the ability to create quick snapshots of information that you may visit on a frequent basis. Making a personalized homepage your start page for your Web browser ensures that you can access that information quickly at any time. Adding new content to a personalized page is easy, and you can even drag and drop them to any column you want with the click of a mouse. Now that you know how to create a personalized page, take advantage of your homepage and maximize it to provide all the information you need in one central location. If you are using a personalized homepage, let me know what you like about it and ways in which you find it useful.

I am often asked, “Is 200,000 hits a month good for a Web site?” when talking with lawyers at meetings and other events. Of course the number changes every time, but the general inquiry is the same: how does someone determine if their Web site is successful or not? For some it is all about the numbers. The bigger the numbers, the more successful it is. To others, they want to track a specific ROI to their Web site, which could be I receive x amount of clients for every y amount of phone calls via my Web site.

My typical response to these types of questions is that the success of a Web site is determined by a variety of factors that are weighted differently by each individual asking the question. In reality, the success of a Web site is in the eye of the beholder, and it is the management of the expectations put on a Web site that determine if it is successful or not. While that may sound like a cop out for an answer to some, it is very true. For a large firm, a Web site may be largely a marketing tool for exposure, but their focus to gain more clients is through their partners and rainmakers. For a solo or small firm in a suburb of a metropolitan area, a Web site may be a great way to bring in clients and distinguish them from the lawyer down the street.

Reasons Why People Visit Your Web Site

Before you can make some adjustments to your Web site, it is best to understand some basic behaviors of the types of visitors that come to your Web site. Visitors to your Web site are most likely doing one or more of the following:

• Shopping around for legal services
• Looking for someone they can trust
• Looking for someone who has expertise and success with the problem they have

Like many services, visitors to law firm Web sites are shopping around for legal services. Many have a problem that they cannot solve on their own. They want someone who can help them solve their problem, whom they can trust, and who will accomplish the assignment without breaking their bank account. Your Web site is one of the first exposures a potential client has to you and your firm. Building initial trust via your Web site is crucial to get that visitor to even consider filling out a client-intake form or making that initial phone call.

Tips for Improving Your Web Site for Success

Assuming that your Web site, at the bare minimum, gives your firm exposure to someone seeking a lawyer who is on the Internet, the following tips will help you identify ways you can improve your Web site to meet your expectations.

Look at Your Web Site Statistics

Every Web site host should provide you with some statistics about your Web site. It is best to look at these statistics before you make any other adjustments to get a baseline of what is really happening on your site. Looking at these statistics can help you identify problem spots as well as traffic trends. Some key statistics to look at are:

• Entry Pages
• Most Visited Pages
• Search Terms
• Bounce Rate
• Referrers

Entry Pages. This is the first page a visitor comes to when they are on your Web site. This is a key report to know if your visitors are entering on your homepage first, or going to a specific content page. If visitors are entering your Web site on your homepage, you will want to take a look at your Exit Page report next. More on that when we get to bounce rates. If visitors are first entering your Web site on a deeper content page, such as a practice area, you will want to see if that matches with the types of clients you may be gaining from your Web site.

Most Visited Pages. Consider these pages as your most popular pages. Most visited pages, or most page views generally are ones that visitors look at the most. This report consolidates all the pages, by ranking, into one nice listing of what visitors are looking at. You may be able to identify a page that has important information regarding one of your services is not being looked at a lot you may need to investigate why. Is it your navigation? Is it how the teaser on your homepage is phrased? This report helps identify those types of instances.

Search Terms. Search terms are another key indicator as to what visitors are using to find your firm’s Web site. If you have tailored your Web site correctly with terms that describe what type of services your firm provides, you should see the same terms in this report. If you do not see them, you may need to adjust the copy on your Web site so that it is more in line with what visitors are searching on. It is not uncommon for a law firm Web site to use terms that do not match those for which a visitor is searching. Remember, more often than not a potential client will not be searching on the technical or legal term for a type of case, but rather the type of problem they have.

Bounce Rate. The bounce rate can be determined by dividing your exit page by the entry page that matches it. For instance, if your top exit page is your homepage with 100 exists, and your homepage is on your entry page report with 200 visits, then your bounce rate is 50%. This means that 100 visitors entered your Web site at your homepage and then immediately left without going to any other pages. Some analytics programs, like Google Analytics, provide a report that shows the bounce rates for your Web site. Others will require you to do some comparison to determine your bounce rate for certain pages.

Referrers. Knowing how your visitors found you is also important. A referrer report will tell you the site a visitor was on just before coming to yours. Often the first couple of referrers will be search engines. Other times you will see directories that list your Web site. If you register your Web site with a directory listing, or pay for search result listings, you will want to make sure those Web sites are in your referrer report.

Building Trust with Proper Design

Did you know that you have less than 30 seconds to make a positive impression or grab a visitor’s attention to continue reading your Web site? If you have a home-grown Web site that was built in Microsoft’s Front Page or Publisher, or by your nephew, it is time to trade up.

Professionalism is what immediately starts to build a potential client’s trust in you and your firm, not the standard clip-art of the scales of justice that is on that template you used. There are many firms that can provide you with a professional looking Web site for minimal costs. Some will even help write the copy that goes on the site and make sure it is search engine optimized.

Having a cleanly designed Web site is a start to building trust. Use colors that are inviting, not dark or heavy. It is best to put a dark font color on a light background, not the reverse. Make sure your Web site will print out easily without cutting off text on the right side of the page margin. If you want to see some of the best designed and formatted Web sites, take a look at Internet Marketing Attorney’s Nifty Fifty. These independently evaluated Web sites cover areas such as design, content, usability, interactivity and more. You can get some good ideas from these Web sites concerning features to include when developing your Web site.

Design goes beyond pretty pictures and clean lines though, to how your navigation is written. The how your page "scans" is also important. That is a key thing to remember; Web users scan Web sites, not read them. It is only when they see something that catches their eye will they read more about that topic. So if your Web site is very text heavy, you will want to break up those paragraphs into readable, scannable chunks of content. This is where the words used in the headlines are always key. It is also important not to bury content that is important so your visitor can contact you. Make sure you phone number, or client intake form is readily accessible from anywhere on your Web site. Once that visitor decides they want to call you, don’t make them search too hard for how to do it. Having your contact information in your footer is always best.

It’s About Them, Not You – Evaluating Your Copy

The problem with many legal Web sites is the copy in them. More often than not, the Web site content will focus on what the firm has to offer; what the firm can do; what areas of law in which their lawyers are experts.. What the content should address is how your firm can help a visitor solve their problem. An easy way to see if you have self-centered copy on your Web site is to count up how many times you have "we" in your copy vs. "you." You will want phrases like "Thomas Jones, LLC can help assist you in a child custody hearing," or "The Bill Smith law firm are experts in the new bankruptcy laws to help you get back on financial track." The focus is on them, not you; it  is important for a potential client to see that you care about their needs. Just this slight change of text and content orientation will help bring clients to your firm versus them moving on to the next one.

Conclusion

Web site success is based mostly on the owner’s expectation. If they have a certain expectation that their Web site should bring in 10% of their firm’s clients, then their Web site needs to be geared to bring in clients. By analyzing your current Web site statistics and visitor behaviors you can determine where you can make improvements. Cleaning up the copy on your Web site to make it client focused and adding phrases that target their needs will help you build trust. Having a professional design will also build trust. It is through that initial trust where a prospect will have the desire to call your firm, or fill out a client intake form to contact you.

Where do you get your legal news and updates from? Law journals? Your state bar association? Online searches and watchlists? LexisNexis or WestLaw? The problem with those resources is that they require reading. You have to sit down and read text on paper or a screen. Enter the podcast, an audio file that can be downloaded or burned to a CD that can be played anywhere, anytime. Here I will explain what a podcast is, describe their potential, and how to find and subscribe to them.

What is a podcast?

At its core, a podcast is nothing more than a recorded audio file, just as a blog is nothing more than a website. But like blogging, the value of podcasting comes from the content that is written and how widely it is distributed. According to Wikipedia a podcast is:

"…the distribution of audio or video files, such as radio programs or music videos, over the internet using either RSS or Atomsyndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers."

Legal podcasters, like legal bloggers, share knowledge, opinions, and commentary on topics that can advance the profession while keeping us up-to-date on legal topics or new legislation. In many cases, they are produced by the same person creating content in both mediums, written and spoken.

The Future of CLE?

In 2004, Duke University gave its entire freshman class an iPod. Why? It was an experiment, with professors recording their lectures and making them available as podcasts to students to listen to and reference. It is an experiment that has taken off, and now many universities are producing podcasts for students. Why is this relevant? Today, over forty (40) states require mandatory continuing legal education credit for lawyers licensed in that state. Regardless of the state, all lawyers need to keep up on what is happening in their areas of practice, to maintain a competitive advantage inside and outside the courtroom. Podcasting is just one more way to keep up to date on what is happening in your area of law.

The biggest difference, though, is that you may not receive CLE credit for your efforts. At least not yet. Robert Ambrogi, a lawyer and contributor to the Law.com network believes that podcasting could be the next wave of how to obtain CLE credit.

One of the great things about podcasts is that it is a listening medium, which makes it much more flexible to stay up-to-date on legal information. For instance, I, like many others, have a decent commute to work. Truth be told it is about an hour and twenty minutes each way. In that time I will work on my computer, gaze out the window, listen to music, and more recently listen to podcasts. That commute time is a perfect opportunity for me to catch up on topics and commentary on the web and legal industry.

Self Study

One way many lawyers will obtain CLE credit is through self study. This is where podcasts have their current potential, though there is no official report of a podcast being accepted as a self study CLE course. Many CLE courses are submitted by approved organizations. Individuals producing podcasts may not go through this process of getting approval before publishing them, and thus lawyers listening to them may not receive credit for listening to them.

Regardless, if you apply for self study CLE credit with your state, if you find the right podcast that covers topics in your area of law, the information is valuable no matter what source it comes from. We should all strive to continue to educate ourselves to be the best in our fields, whether credit is given or not.

If you are not sure about what your state allows for self-study CLE, check out the ABA’s MCLE center or your state bar’s website.

How to Find Podcasts

There are many directories that list available podcasts to which you can subscribe to. Often you will find them by accident if you are reading a legal blog or one is referred to you by a friend or colleague. Popular directories such as iTunes, Odeo, iPodder, and Podcast Alley provide listings to many legal podcasts, though none have a specific legal category at this time. At the end of this article, I have links to several legal podcasts, directory listings, and legal information provider’s podcasts.

How to Subscribe and Listen to Podcasts

If you are not familiar with the process of subscribing to a podcast, here are the basic steps. Note, you do not need an iPod to listen to podcasts. You can listen to them on any MP3 player or computer.

First you will need to download a podcast aggregator. If you already use a news aggregator like FeedDemon, you can use it. iTunes is another popular software if you have an iPod.

Second, select a podcast directory to search within. For this example, I’m using Podcast Alley and doing a search on "law". The first result is May It Please The Court by J. Craig Williams. Click on the link which gives you some additional information about the podcast as well as an option to "subscribe" to it. Click the "subscribe" link and you are then presented with a URL to copy and paste into your podcast aggregator. If you are using iTunes open the program and do a Ctrl U and paste the URL into the subscribe screen. If you are using FeedDemon, copy that URL into a new Channel.

Third, connect your MP3 player of choice to your computer and transfer the audio files to your portable player. If you are using iTunes, it will transfer automatically after it downloads the most recent podcast. If you are using another aggregator such as FeedDemon, you may download each individual podcast from each entry in the RSS feed.

Once loaded onto your portable music player, you can listen to the podcast from anywhere. If you download the audio file to your computer, you can burn a CD and listen to it on the go as well.

Will Podcasting Catch On?

In February 2006, eMarketer reported that more companies are looking to advertise or sponsor podcasts due to the targeted audience that a podcast can provide. PEW Internet for Life Project in July 2005 reported that 13% of Internet users even know what a podcast is. That number has undoubtedly increased since then. I recently saw a billboard driving into Chicago for the new AT&T that said "Podcasting Delivered," referring to their Internet access service they provide. Adam Curry, the one often referred to as having started podcasting, recently stated on his show the Daily Source Code that it may take another three years for podcasting to become really well known. Though still in its infancy, the legal arena has seemed to adopt blogging quickly, and they may just do the same with podcasting.

So Who’s Podcasting in the Legal Industry?

While there are many podcasts available on a variety of topics and subjects, there are just a few as of today that are specific to the legal industry. There are a couple of lawyers podcasting as well as a few legal information providers. The following is a beginners list of podcasts to subscribe to.

Lawyer Podcasts

• Bag and Baggage (Podcast Feed) – Denise Howell, appellate and intellectual property lawyer with Reed Smith.
• May it Please the Court Podcast (Podcast Feed) – J. Craig Williams, a founder of The Williams Law Firm.
• Coast to Coast (Podcast Feed) – J. Craig Williams (May It Please The Court) and Robert Ambrogi (Lawsites)
• The Legal Talk Network – a network of lawyers nationwide providing the latest legal news.
• The Legal Underground Podcast (Podcast Feed) – Evan Shaeffer, a trial lawyer in the midwest.
• The Rethink(ip) Aloud Podcasts (Podcast Feed) – IP lawyers, Douglas Sorocco, J. Matthews Buchanan, and Stephen Nipper
• The Kennedy-Mighell Report (Podcast Feed) – Legal technologist extrodinaire Dennis Kennedy and online legal research guru Tom Mighell explore the world of legal technology with an Internet focus.

Legal Information Providers

• FIOS Podcasts on Demand – FIOS podcasts featuring hour long seminars covering a wide range of E-Discovery topics.
• Merrill – Legal solutions provider has several on-demand seminars for download in mp3 format.
• Ten Minute Mentor – The State Bar of Texas’ podcast on mentoring and practical information to lawyers.
• The Westcast (Podcast Feed) – Thomson West podcasts on legal news.
• Update Philadelphia Bar Association – The Philadelphia Bar Association has a variety of podcasts covering topics from Practice Management to Interviews.

Directories

• iPodder (http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/podcasts/categories/law) – Download aggregator software as well as search for legal related podcasts.
• Podcast Alley (http://www.podcastalley.com/search.php?searchterm=law) – A specific search for "law" in podcasts listed in Podcast Alley.
• iTunes (req. download) – Search for "law" under Podasts in iTunes to get a listing of available legal related podcasts.
• Odeo (http://www.odeo.com/find/law) – Record, download, and share podcasts with Odeo.

Update: Since publishing this article, the Creative Common’s Podcasting Legal Guide was released with some great information on the legalities surrounding podcasts.

Security Warning

Security is always a risk when installing any third party plug-ins on any computer. Before installing any new software, extension, or plug-in on your computer, contact your system administrator.

Toolbars

Toolbars are great additions to web browsers. They allow you access to information right from Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox instead of going to search engines or specific websites. Google, Yahoo!, and now LexisNexis all have toolbars that can speed up your search process and allow you to focus on matters that require more attention.
Google and Yahoo! – Similar in function, the Google and Yahoo! toolbars are among the most popular toolbar around for both IE and Firefox. These toolbars allow users to search the Web, provide a pop-up blocker, auto-fill, access to news, spell-checking and other features.
Yahoo! Toolbar
Google Toolbar
In typical Google fashion, they currently have a beta of their next version available at http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/T4/. This version offers a more streamlined approach by incorporating additional icon buttons versus text-based buttons. The toolbar also allows you to create custom buttons to your favorite websites or RSS feeds. Finally, the new toolbar allows you to send clips or links to web pages via SMS messaging, or through your Gmail account.
The nicest thing about the Google Toolbar for IE is that you can search Google instantly. Those who use Firefox may not see the need for the toolbar as there is a search bar already built into the browser. The next version of Internet Explorer, IE 7 will incorporate a similar feature.
LexisNexis – LexisNexis released a toolbar for IE in January 2006. Those who have a LexisNexis account can conduct specific searches directly in its databases via this toolbar. The interface is very simple, with a basic search box and then a “Select Source” drop menu where you can drill down to specific areas ranging from Codes and Regulations to Federal Litigation. It even lets you search Shepard’s. Get the LexisNexis Toolbar at www.lexisnexis.com/toolbar/.

Bookmarklets

Bookmarklets are small pieces of JavaScript that allow browsers to access websites or perform specific requests to websites right from your browser. Bookmarklets are usually placed on a toolbar and not in your bookmarks, which make them easy to access.
TinyURL – There are many bookmarklets available on the Internet, but none are more efficient than TinyURL. Have you ever received a link in an e-mail that wraps to the next line, but it breaks? You then have to copy and paste the URL into your web browser and hope that you got it all in order to open it. A frustrating process to say the least. TinyURL solves that problem. TinyURL is a website that allows you to paste large URLs into its interface, and it will in turn automatically create a shortened (“tiny”) URL that is easy to use and will not break when placing in an e-mail message or posting on a website. This bookmarklet allows you to create that “tiny” URL without having to go to their website. You can create a tiny URL from any web page just by clicking on the bookmarklet link in your toolbar. You can get the TinyURL bookmarklet at http://tinyurl.com/#toolbar.

Extensions

Extensions are somewhat similar to bookmarklets, but they provide more features. Often they work like min-programs or scripts that extend the functionality of a browser far beyond its original framework. Currently extensions are only available for Firefox. Personally, I use Firefox solely for the use of extensions. They allow me to leverage my browser to accomplish tasks and access information quicker than IE. If you use Firefox, here is a short list of extensions that you may find valuable to assist with your tasks on the Internet.
All-in-One Gestures – This extension allows you to use your mouse to navigate, or perform other macros within your browser. Move forward, back, open a new tab or window by holding down your right mouse button and performing a specific gesture. Use pre-defined gestures, or create your own. After using this extension, you’ll never surf the web the same way again (the URL is http://tinyurl.com/cg6xy).
CustomizeGoogle – While Google is the most popular search engine around, it is not always the most relevant when it comes to search results. CustomizeGoogle adds links to other major web and blog search engines to perform the same search you just did in Google (the URL is http://tinyurl.com/df242).
PDFDownload – PDFDownload is a nice extension that gives you options when you click on a PDF in your browsers. You can open it in a new tab, download it, view as HTML in a new tab or cancel the download. These options come in handy when you click on a link that you didn’t realize was a PDF, or when you want to view other pages while the PDF is opening up (the URL is http://tinyurl.com/bfkpy).
GoogleSuggest – Sometimes we don’t use the best search phrase when looking for certain information. GoogleSuggest adds a list of other suggested search phrases that are similar to the one you are typing in. It dynamically narrows your search phrase as you type it in (the URL is http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/suggest/index.html).

Additional Search Engines

Another advantage to Firefox is that it allows you to load additional search engines into it’s default search box. Do you prefer to search Yahoo! vs. Google? No problem. Do you like to search Wikipedia for certain topics? Adding Wikipedia to your search box is as easy as clicking a link. You can add many different search engines to your Firefox browser by heading to https://addons.mozilla.org/search-engines.php?application=firefox.

Conclusion

Armed with the right arsenal, your browser can be configured to be much more functional than visiting website to website. While Firefox has the most customization possible, using the right toolbar can enhance your experience using Internet Explorer as well. At the end of the day, using a toolbar or extension is about accomplishing the task at hand faster so you can move on to other tasks.
Originally published on my column on LLRX, Faulkner’s Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys, February 15, 2006.

It is easy to forget about your website after you first launch it. Many law firms have what is typically called a “brochure” site, which is just a few pages of marketing copy about their firm and what type of services they provide. With the web increasingly becoming an integral part of our daily lives, including locating products and services, your website may require some freshening up. This is not to suggest that you need to completely redesign your website, but there are several types of approaches you can take to update your site, ranging from easy to challenging projects. You will want to focus on updates that will help you bring in clients who are more informed about you and your firm, what you do, and how you can help them.

Easy

Don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to updating your website? These easy updates are the ones you can make in the shortest amount of time possible, yet which can still improve your website by leaps and bounds.

Marketing Copy. When was the last time you looked at the copy on your website? Was it last year? When the site was launched back in 2003? By revising your marketing copy you can give your website an intellectual face-lift. One tip when revising marketing copy – remember that visitors scan, more than read, long paragraphs of copy. Break your copy up into coherent chunks, and use sub-heads so visitors can hone in on what they are looking for quickly.

Attorney Bios & Photos. Have your attorneys been published in the last year? Have they won significant cases or been involved in visible pro bono or public service projects? Make sure their biographies reflect these additions. Clients like to see more than an educational background for attorneys they may potentially work with. Plus, are you still using black and white photos of your attorneys? Maybe it is time for a new photo shoot where you can get color photos of your attorneys. These photos can be multi-purposed and also used for press releases, brochures, and publications.

Contact Information, Directions, and Maps. You always want to ensure that your potential clients know how to contact you and find your office. Having a main office phone number (or client intake line), detailed directions to your firm, as well as a map, is a great client service. Don’t make them take the extra step to look you up on an Internet map service; give them one right on your website. A bonus to having this information on your site is that it will help your firm get picked up on local search results as well.

Moderate

Looking to make more of a change to your website this year? The following suggestions will take some more time to implement, but will nevertheless enhance your website offerings.

Add a Blog. It seems simple to do, but I put this in the moderate category only because your firm will have to find the right attorney(s) who you want to blog on the firm’s behalf. Blogs are a great way to demonstrate that your firm and attorneys are knowledgeable about current legal topics in the sectors/arenas you support. By adding a blog to your firm’s site, you can provide additional content in an easy to manage interface. Don’t want to host this on your own? There are services available that will help you get one up in running in no-time flat. [example: Justia: Law Firm Web Site Design]

Add or Update Your Client Intake Form. An online client intake form is a great way to screen potential clients before they call. If you already have a client intake form, this would be a great time to review it. Talk to the other attorneys in your firm and see if they find they are missing important information that can be added to the intake form. The more you know before taking on a case the better position you will be in to serve those clients.

Basic Search Engine Optimization. It is important that firms have websites so potential clients can be informed about you and your services before they call you for the first time. Of course your firm’s site needs to be found on the Internet for this to work effectively. There are basic search engine optimization techniques you can implement on your Website that will help with your search engine rankings. A couple of things to quickly look at include:

• Descriptive <title> tag with rich keywords first. Don’t have "My Law Firm’s Name: Page Title". Rather, have "Page Title – My Law Firm’s Name".
• Use keywords in section headers. Use the keywords in the <title> t tag in the section headers on the page. An example is instead of “About the Firm” use “About ACME Law Firm”.
• Proper metadata tags. Make sure you have a description and keywords meta tag on every page. Implementing these techniques and retrofitting your website may take some time depending on the size of your firm’s website.

Difficult

Difficult also means very time consuming. Implementing the tasks here will most likely require a committee and marketing team to make crucial decisions as well as staff or an outside firm to implement them.

Accessibility Compliance. One of the most overlooked aspects of a website is accessibility. If you are a law firm who specializes in cases for the disabled, your website should be optimized to be read by screen readers (for clients with limited vision). Accessibility also covers viewing websites on other devices such as Smart Phones, TV, and BlackBerry devices. While these are not as critical as screen readers, with the increasing popularity of alternative devices to surf the web, taking proper measures may benefit your firm.

Usability Study. Are you sure your potential clients are finding the information they are looking for that is crucial to making their decision to use your firm? Sometimes a navigation structure or organization seems logical to you and your planning committee, but in reality it is not for the visitor. Going through a usability study can help optimize your site to convert visitors to clients in the quickest fashion possible. It is suggested that you do not do this on your own, but rather use an experienced firm to conduct the study.

Complete Website Redesign. If you are looking to do the two tasks above, you might consider a complete website redesign. This will allow you to build a more robust back-end structure that will accommodate multiple reading devices, screen readers, as well as to integrate a blog right into your design. Using proper Web Standards for coding and structure, you will be able to make adjustments in the future in less time and more efficiently. The other advantage of redesigning your website is that it will allow you to make sure you are incorporating your website into your firm’s marketing strategy.

Originally published on my column on LLRX, Faulkner’s Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys, January 15, 2006.

Related Reading:

The following books are good references and resources that are not technically oriented, but are written for the business user/manager. Easy to read and the information is written in a manner that everyone can understand.

• Don’t Make Me Think, Second Edition
• The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web