Top 50 Virtual Product Shelves

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Website Magazine is here to bring you some pre-holiday cheer with a Top 50 list of the Web’s premier virtual product shelves — e-commerce engines and online shopping tools where you will want to have your products appear.

Keep in mind that the sites on this list are not an acknowledgement of their effectiveness but rather their popularity among Web professionals, the business community and consumers. 

What is most unique about this list is its variety. From top-tier engines to comparison engines, and deal sites to social shopping providers, there is no shortage of resources for consumers to learn about and be exposed to products. And that’s a good thing.

ClearSaleing Inc. and Vetra Analytics published an Internet retail version of its American Attribution Index in September that measured the effectiveness of various online media sources and their influence factors on online consumer conversion. The study showed that many types of media sources contribute to and influence a consumer’s purchase decision. According to the AAI news release, “branded and non-branded SEO, branded and non-branded paid search ads, comparison shopping engines, email, display and affiliates all play an important role in influencing purchase decisions among retail customers.” That almost makes you want to branch out from paid search campaigns exclusively on Google, right?

The top few positions on this month’s list are filled with the product-side interfaces of major search engines and large product networks like Amazon. But the real action happens further down the list. Comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com, Bizrate.com and Shopzilla.com present major opportunities for e-commerce merchants looking to acquire more traffic and vital impressions from consumers.

Social shopping engines and tools are also noteworthy. As social media continues its rapid rise, these resources are becoming an integral part of the online experience for researching and buying products. Kaboodle, StyleFeeder and ThisNext make their mark in shopping circles and, as a result, increasingly importance to merchants.

Deal sites may be your best bang for the promotional buck. Pronto, DealTagger, Sortprice and Dealtime established modest followings with serious shoppers. Price-sensitive shoppers are aware of their existence, and so should you.

It may be difficult to ensure your products appear on each and every one of these virtual product shelves, but doing so may be what makes this holiday season a festive one.




ABOUT THIS DATA
Website Magazine’s Top 50 rankings are a measure of a website’s popularity. Ranks are calculated using a proprietary method that focuses on average daily unique visitors and page views over a specified period of time as reported by multiple data sources. The sites with the highest combination of factors are ranked in the first position. Website Magazine’sTop 50 list should influence your buying decision but perform necessary due diligence before investing your time and resources. Conducting research, making formal comparisons, and talking to existing clients and users before starting are always the best course of action. Let this act as an important starting guide for your Web success.

Pichai noted that if you’re a lawyer doing contracts all day Google’s Chrome OS powered netbooks “won’t be the machine for you.”
The Chrome OS hardware is currently Smart Phones. That lawyer will probably use a Chrome OS PDA so that he can easily access his email, CLOUD stored documents and respond to his office without carrying his PC or NetBook.
SAZ Consulting

Google's Chrome OS: Will you give up desktop apps?

Google on Thursday revealed a bevy of noteworthy developments for its Chrome OS. The company released the Chrome OS to the open source community, laid out its security vision and promised to deliver a simple operating system. However, the success or failure of the Chrome OS will ride on whether users will give up desktop applications.Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management, outlined the Chrome OS, noted that “there’s a paradigm shift in computing” presumably to netbooks and noted:

“Every application is a Web application. There are no conventional desktop applications.”

And there’s the rub.

The Chrome browser on Chrome OS will be “blazingly fast” with a demo boot time of 3 seconds or so. The security picture is solid. And since the Chrome OS is connected to the Web, silly things like updating and installation will go away.

Gallery: Chrome OS revealed

Simply put, Google’s vision rides in the cloud. The devices that run the Chrome OS will have all data in the cloud and depend on wireless cards and Wi-Fi. Google said it would specify what wireless cards it will support. Google’s mission is to give the Web applications access to all of the hardware available to today’s operating systems.
So here’s the question: Are you ready to give up your desktop applications?

Is a bet that every app is a Web app a good one for Google?

You have about a year to answer the question and there will probably be a big debate between now and the Google OS launch with hardware partners. Google executives walked a line between pitching Chrome OS devices as a secondary computing machine, but one where you may spend the majority of your time on it.

Pichai noted that if you’re a lawyer doing contracts all day Google’s Chrome OS powered netbooks “won’t be the machine for you.”

Nevertheless, Google’s moves today with the Chrome OS are notable and the company clearly thinks that its approach will be a hit. And it’s hard to argue for the simplicity of a browser-based operating system, quick boot times and the move to cut out a lot of startup processes. If successful, Google can push more folks to the cloud.
My hunch is it may a while to get consumers to believe that “every application is a Web application.”

Also: Inside the Google Chrome OS security model

Live from Googleplex: Chrome OS details revealed · Google Chrome OS announcement · Google makes Chrome OS open source today · Google blog · Techmeme · Video: Early previews of Chrome OS ·

Toshiba's Unified Messaging for Small Business is nice, but it is for Medium Business not Small Business. SAZ Consulting believes that Google Voice is a better match for Small Business and it is FREE!

Toshiba Launches Unified Messaging For Small Businesses

By Antone Gonsalves
Courtesy of InformationWeek

The Linux appliance is designed to provide affordable messaging to small and medium-sized businesses, with 400 mailboxes and 300 hours of storage.

Toshiba America Information Systems introduced entry-level unified messaging server hardware for small to medium-sized businesses.

Strata Messaging is compatible with TAIS' Strata CIX family of Internet-based business communications systems. The new product, which is available through the company's dealers nationwide, is marketed as offering unified messaging to SMBs at a "very affordable price."

"In the past, small to medium businesses had to purchase expensive equipment for unified messaging features," Ron Hunsaker, senior product manager for TAIS' telecommunications systems division, said in a statement.

Strata Messaging is sized and priced for TAIS' smaller voice over IP systems, the Strata CIX40 and CIX100. The new product supports two to eight ports of voice mail, up to 400 mailboxes and has 300 hours of storage. The base system package offers two voice mail ports and 10 seats of unified messaging.

Strata Messaging, introduced Tuesday, is deployed on an external Linux-based appliance that connects to the Strata CIX through IP channels.

A major advantage of unified messaging is having one repository for e-mail, fax, voice mail, instant messaging and even video conferencing. The technology is particularly useful to companies that depend on staying connected, since a unified messaging system marries asynchronous applications such as store-and-forward e-mail with real-time applications that incorporate unified communications.

Today, implementation of unified communications platforms have been complicated by the tug of war between the types of devices employees want to use and the pragmatic concerns over security in running a business. With the iPhone, Macintosh computers, Linux PCs and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter infiltrating the workforce, most enterprises are looking for ways to support the diversity of systems and devices.

In approaching the problem, Bruce Morse, IBM's VP of unified communications and collaboration, recently advised attendees of VoiceCon 2009 in San Francisco to look for solutions that incorporate collaborative technologies as an important part of business communications.

HP Pitches Thin Computing To SMBS -- But Are They Interested?

By Fredric Paul

HP rolls out a raft of new thin client terminals -- some expected to cost less than $100 -- bolstered by new servers, new software, and new services. Will it be enough to convince SMBs that the time is finally right for thin computing to go mainstream in smaller companies?

As HP debuts new thin client machines along with new virtualization and management software it hopes will make the thin computing model simple enough to appeal to small and midsize companies. But SMBs have yet to show much interest in the concept -- typically choosing to virtualize servers and standard PCs.

The new hardware includes the HP t5740 and t5745 Flexible Series ($399) thin clients, with netbook-style Intel Atom N280 processors. The t5740 starts at $429 and runs Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 2009, while the $399 t5745 uses the Linux-based HP ThinPro operating system.

Meanwhile, the $199 HP t5325 Essential Series thin client uses a Marvell ARM chip and is designed for simple setup and deployment in a variety of virtualized environments running the HP ThinPro OS.

 
The HP t5325 shows what a thin client looks like.

Then there's the new HP Multiseat t100 Thin Client access device, jointly developed with Microsoft (using Windows MultiPoint Server), lets you turn a PC into a simple server running up to sub-$100 thin access points (each with its own keybaord, mouse, and display). Instead of getting one PC for $1,000, Groudan said, you get four! And the sofware hides the complexity, showing users only what they need to use. Pricing has yet to be finalized for the HP MultiSeat t100, and the hardware won't be available until next year.

 
The HP Multiseat t100 is the little box on the left.

New hardware is always nice, but that's not the biggest news for SMBs, says Jeff Groudan, vice president, Thin Client Solutions, Desktop Solutions in HP's Personal Systems Group. According to Groudan, new software included with all the products serves to lower complexity and cost while simplifying the user experience of thin clients -- making them newly attractive to small and midsize businesses.

ThinPro Setup Wizard for Linux and HP Easy Config for Windows are intended to let SMBs who may not be familiar with thin computing set up, configure, and connect systems just by clicking a few settings. "Not a lot of documentation, knowledge, or training is needed," Groudan said.

What's The Real Problem?
But it's unclear if technology -- or even cost -- is really the issue, as thin clients are not on the radar screen for most SMBs. Groudan acknowledged the problem, and partly blamed the industry for not doing a better job articulating the technology's value proposition. But he also said that SMBs just don' realize the improvement that have been made in thin clients. "They're a new, different, strange paradigm," Groudan said. SMBs say "I like what it could do for me..." but it's too complex.

Simplicity is the key, he said, standing above costs. So HP is assembling modular thin-client solutions down to about 200 seats that allows businesses to scale by adding modular chunks of infrastructure.

HP is also offering new training options, including a $6,000, one-day HP Transformation Experience Workshop and the multi-week HP Business Benefit Workshop ($10,000 - $60,000). If thin client computing still seems too complex, HP Enterprise Services offers hosted Desktop as a Service options where HP handles everything for you.

What Do SMBs Really Think?
Will that be enough to change minds in SMB IT departments? Last week the topic came up in a conversation with several SMB IT folks at the KACE Konference user conference in San Francisco. While some of these people were attracted to the ease of management promised by virtual desktops, they seemed less interested in thin clients.

Tom Miller, senior director of information technology at medical equipment makerVNUS Medical Technologies, for example, explained that "we were leaning toward thin clients" to minimize the use of IT, but after seeing virtual containers in IE, he's now more interested in virtualizing applications on standard PCs.

Rich Battin, computer and network tech for Academy District 20 in Colorado Springs, Colo., finds desktop virtualization "intriguing," but he has yet to actually virtualize any. He too is more interested in locking down the browser. "That's where all the problems seem to come from," he said.

Of course, many SMBs have special requirements that still don't lend themselves to thin clients. Christopher D. Blake, workstation administrator for the Benchmark Group, an architecture and engineering firm in Rogers, Ark., explained that "We're interested in virtualization, to a point." The problem is that "some of our apps require quite a bit of horsepower," he said, so desktop virtualization and thin clients "are not attractive enough" to make a move.

Touch Screens Find Real-World Applications In SMBs

November 16, 2009 By Fredric Paul

If touch screens are so hot, what are small and midsize companies actually using them for? It can't all be restaurant workers and customer-facing kiosks, can it? We check out a new health care application, try to figure out uses for touch-screen laptops, and wonder if new software development programs will help.

Fredric Paul

Now that Windows 7 includes native support for touch screens, hardware vendors are busy rolling out touch-screen-capable machines and talking up their transformative power.

But for all the hype, there's been precious little information about real businesses using them for real applications -- outside of restaurant/hospitality workers, customer-facing signage, kiosks, and the like. Surprisingly, even the makers of touch-screen computers don't have a good handle on how their products are being employed in the real world.

So I was intrigued to learn about a touch application actually in use in a small medical office. TouchChart is a touch-screen-powered paperless-medical-records application optimized for use in healthcare practices ranging from small private clinics to large hospitals. Created by Aquarius Imaging from an earlier Tablet-powered application, TouchChart lets doctors and nurses use an touch interface to upload, store, and view patients' medical records, including written files, videos, x-rays, sonograms, voice notes, and digital images.

TouchChart incorporates multimedia as well as charts.

Aquarius' Mark Wright says the app began life some 5 years ago when the company developed a document scanning and management app for a St. Louis oncologist. Dr. William Morris was looking to replicate the paper charts he was used to using. But tablet/stylus computing never really panned out, and so for the past few years the app has been in regular use, but with standard mouse input.

But when Aquarius folks saw HP's TouchSmart PC in a Best Buy one day, they decided it would be perfect for medical applications. Working with HP, they skinned the existing app to make it more "touch-friendly" and optimized it for the HP TouchSmart's 22-inch screen, with enlarged buttons. When they showed it to Dr. Morris, Wright says, he was "blown away."

The key is simplicity and a precise replication of the familiar paper charts, all the way down to the colored tabs. "This made learning to retrieve the charts simple for all our doctors and staff," according to Darlene Boylan R.N., the Practice Manager at St. Louis Oncology. "This process allows the doctor to see patients in the style they always have. If they need patient past history, lab, or radiology information, it is only a few clicks away with TouchChart. The doctors also like that they can access the patient charts from home."

Paper charts are replicated complete with colored tabs.

Technology has scared away a lot of these physicians," Wright says, "especially the older ones that control the money." But "this really breaks it down to, if you can use an ATM, you can go get patient records," he says. "Like an ATM or giant iPod, it becomes so simple that you don't have that aversion" to changing to an electronic system.

The system has been in use at St. Louis Oncology for a couple months, with TouchSmart PCs in every exam room and the offices for nurses and support staff.

Video shows how the system works.

Despite the initial success of TouchChart, Wright doesn't see touch screens replacing current data entry options for everyday uses. But it's "great for average knowledge workers doing different things" that they may not use all the time. "It's visual," he says, so it's easier to train users to be productive faster. "The mouse is 2-D," he explains, "touch is 3-D." And the success of the "iPhone is putting an exclamation point" on the potential of touch screens.

How Would You Use A Touch-Screen Laptop?
Still, applications like TouchChart are by far the exception, not the rule. For instance, when I saw that Toshiba introduced a touch screen laptop, I figured that had to be generating some innovative applications. After all, you wouldn't normally use a laptop in customer facing situations, right?

 The Toshiba U500: What would you use a touch-screen laptop for?

But Fady Abourjeily, a Toshiba B-to-B product manager, pitched the $999 Satellite Pro U500-EZ1311 laptop's touch screen as little more than an alternative to a mouse or touchpad, not an enabler of new apps. Abourjeily did say touch screens are popular in the healthcare and education markets, but couldn't say exactly what they were being used for.

He did he note a couple of new programs that ship with the Toshiba laptop -- ReelTime and Bulletin Board -- that make good use of touch-screen capabilities to let users visually organize tasks and files. But Abourjeily acknowledged that the "coolness effect" is currently a big driver for touch-screen sales. That can't last, of course, but if it can get a significant number of users to pony up the $100 price premium commanded by the touch-screen version of Toshiba's U500, over time we may see creative SMBs begin to find new uses for these clever devices for actual workers beyond the restaurant/hospitality niche, not just customers.

Got any ideas? If so, you might want to check out HP's new TouchSmart DevZoneand download the company's new touch-screen software development kit (SDK). The site also offers code samples, documentation and application programming interfaces (APIs).

The following article from   is true, but it doesn't mention that Microsoft has based Windows 7 on a operating system like Apple's OS X or Linux (a Unix derivative). I am waiting to see how Google's Chrome operating system matches up to these cutting edge systems.

Steve Owner SAZ Consulting

Use Windows 7

By Scott Steinberg

 

A no-nonsense rundown of why small businesses, especially, will find it worth their while to upgrade to Microsoft's new operating system.

Small-businesses frustrated with Windows Vista's assorted hardware incompatibilities, ceaseless battery of pop-up alerts, and puttering speeds can officially unclench their jaws and ease those quivering fists away from their screens. Windows 7is actually good enough to make even holdouts still clinging desperately to Windows XP want to upgrade.

Albeit no revolution in desktop computing -- it's essentially a revamp of Vista that addresses owners' most common complaints and tightens the user interface -- Windows 7 provides a welcome evolutionary step forward for the platform, significantly improving security, stability, and everyday convenience.

Granted, some aspects may confuse. Cases in point: Multiple versions with negligible feature differences are offered, you have to manually backup and reinstall data to upgrade from Windows XP, and certain programs (including e-mail and calendar applications) must be downloaded separately from the OS. But these hiccups can't detract from what is easily the most significant upgrade the hoary old software standby has seen in years.

Here are 10 reasons why you'll inevitably want to earmark room for it in your IT budget:

Reason 1. Lower system requirements
Unlike Windows Vista, which required significantly more memory and processing speed to power its graphical user interface, Windows 7 isn't a system resource hog. As such, the same machines you now having running Vista should easily be able to accommodate the new OS, which in many cases loads programs and boots or shuts down faster. Less money spent on hardware upgrades translates into immediate cost savings, while a decrease in downtime twiddling your thumbs waiting for software to load provides a corresponding productivity boost. Furthermore, even a relatively slow 1GHz PC with 1GB of memory can run Windows 7 (though 2GB of RAM is recommended and 4GB for the 64-bit edition), making it suitable for installation on low-end netbook computers on up to high-end desktops.

Reason 2. Simpler navigation
A trio of improvements to the user front-end makes Windows 7 easier to navigate and multitask within than its predecessors. To begin with, using Aero Peek features, Windows 7 users can more easily view desktop contents by turning all open windows transparent. With Aero Shake, you also have the option to simply grab an active window and physically shake the mouse to minimize other panes cluttering up one's monitor. Last, but not least, Aero Snap functions automatically resize windows to take up half the screen when they're dragged to either side of your display.

Reason 3. Better multitasking
Borrowing a trick from Apple's Snow Leopard operating system, Windows 7 now offers a more aesthetically pleasing, icon-based taskbar that lets you permanently pin and organize favorite programs on it. You can additionally point to icons to get thumbnail previews of open files and windows associated with each program, all accessible with a click. Everything's displayed in as minimally intrusive a way possible as well, helping cut down on clutter and making it possible to keep track of everything that's happening on your desktop. Jump lists for each piece of software, available when you right-click on the respective program, even let you immediately pull up recently opened files and documents--a major time-saver.

Reason 4. Greater stability
Unlike Windows Vista, most hardware and software is readily compatible with Windows 7 and will work right out of the box, with no need to download and install additional drivers. Happily, in instances where necessary, locating and adding these updates to your PC proves a relatively painless procedure.

Reason 5. Enhanced security
Instead of making you play watchdog and constantly click to approve program access, Windows 7 does away with the vast majority of Windows Vista's nagging pop-ups. Users can now control the relative amount of prompts regarding system security they receive using an intuitive slider bar control, with alert messages minimized to avoid becoming a nuisance. In addition, the Internet Explorer 8 Web browser is better-guarded against external threats. Purchase the Ultimate Edition, and you can further encrypt drives and data using BitLocker technology to protect sensitive files and even portable USB keys from unauthorized intrusion.

Reason 6. Multi-touch capabilities
If you have a compatible touch-screen PC or laptop, multi-touch physical gestures can now be used to navigate the operating system and pull up documents and data with a flick of a finger.

Reason 7. Simpler file organization
Libraries, which serve as all-purpose containers, allow you to conveniently catalogue photos, music, video and files in single locations, no matter where they live on your hard drive. Because of this, it's a breeze to keep all materials related to the same work project organized in one readily retrievable location.

Reason 8. Optimized network setup
Brisk, painless network setup via new HomeGroup features makes it simple to share devices, documents and printers between other PCs running Windows 7 on a password-protected home network. Small businesses that need to access a larger companywide network may need to upgrade to the Professional Edition, which allows connectivity with more complex workplace servers.

Reason 9. Less clutter
Don't like all the so-called "bloatware" -- useless applications that traditionally come installed on any new operating system or PC? You'll be right at home here, as programs like Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery aren't even included with installation except in cases where they're pre-bundled by certain PC manufacturers. Instead, you choose to optionally download them for free from Microsoft. While some may balk at these typically preinstalled apps' omission, for others, it'll be seen as an effective way to cut down on unused programs that needlessly waste hard drive space and system memory.

Reason 10. Overall performance
Given its suite of welcome upgrades, Windows 7 is sure to inspire more third-party developer support than Windows Vista, and enjoy a larger business software library that takes advantage of its built-in features. As the system's improvements significantly enhance users' everyday work and online experience, it's inevitable that your enterprise will want to take advantage of programs which natively support these updates. Even those who opt for just the basic Home Premium edition and never buy another application will be able to appreciate extras like faster and more reliable desktop search functions and simpler document retrieval. Making it infinitely simpler to organize, store and navigate both your desktop and supported applications, more than a few small businesses will find that Windows 7 has been well worth the wait.

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Google Introducing Chrome OS November 19

Posted by Eric Zeman, Nov 18, 2009 09:25 AM 

Members of the media were invited to Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s headquarters for the official unveiling of Chrome OS, the new operating system from Google. Details were few and far between, but don't expect Chrome OS to become widely available until 2010.

Rumors have been circulating the Interwebs for weeks now about when Chrome OS will arrive. In fact, a beta version of the operating system was expected to appear as early as this week. That may still be a possibility, but given the wording of the Google invitation, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Google has shared little information since first announcing Chrome OS just a few short months ago. The operating system, says Google, is designed for people who spend most of their time on the Web.

Google is billing Thursday's event as "an update on our progress with Google Chrome OS." The event will include a demonstration of what Chrome OS is and how it works. Google also said it will detail its "launch plans for next year."

That last quote makes it pretty clear that the operating system won't be ready until some point in 2010. Hopefully it will be earlier in the year rather than later in the year.

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS, will be leading the event.