As 2010 draws to a close, it’s time to turn our attention to another year. Another decade, actually, that will bring new challenges and new opportunities. Here are five important trends you can expect to see in 2011 and a few ideas to get you started on the right foot. Happy New Year. Security. Consumers are worried about online security, and for good reason. Increasingly, security is an issue not just on our own websites but wherever our brands can be found on the Web. As we increase visibility across properties – mobile, Facebook and Twitter, online forums, location-based apps…more»

A recent blog post that caught the attention of readers included a summary of the annual report from online employment platform Elance. Another Web employment marketplace, oDesk, has released its own year-end report with similarly positive views of both the year in review and the year ahead. The report from oDesk says that employers spent $115 million on online work in 2010 and that job opportunities doubled from 2009 to approximately 602,000. Mobile was the best bet for job-seekers, and positions involving Android expertise shot up 680 percent from 2009 while iPhone-related jobs increased by 152 percent. Social media was…more»

Advertising designers walk a fine line. They must design ads that are attractive but direct and engaging. Often, success depends on the venue for which the ad will be designed and displayed. That being said, there are some places where display advertising has a significant edge over any other form of advertising – well worth the time and effort to design stunning ads. Display advertising has a distinct advantage over search. It doesn’t require searching. Display ads can be seen without a single keystroke and on just about any digital surface. That fact alone has helped reenergize the entire industry.…more»

Yahoo! has released a new Web based tool which offers an interesting and visually appealing way to explore search trends. Yahoo! Clues provides a way to discover and compare trending information. What makes Clues so interesting is that it provides not just search volume charts, but demographic graphs, maps and even related searches to a demographic group. It makes Google Trends look like an elementary-level Excel spreadsheet in comparison. Noteworthy features include the ability to compare two terms, a time filter (only for the past one, seven and 30 days) and of course the information categories which delve into gender,…more»