Thanks to Google, many of us are familiar with the concept of online document sharing – a saviour for businesses with geographically diverse workforces. Documents are stored in ‘the cloud’ (is that term catching on, do we think? I see it a lot in posts like this one, but I have never yet referred to ‘the cloud’ in conversation with a colleague, other than when the view outside our window moves me to comment that it looks like rain), allowing for collaboration across the miles.

None but the most zealous Google fan would claim that the system is perfect, though: it’s not entirely intuitive, and documents often lose their formatting. Now Facebook announces that you will be able to share your documents through their system, too. Docs.com uses Microsoft Office technology to allow you to create and share documents, using those familiar Office interfaces, across the Facebook platform.

If you’re finding it hard to visualise just how this will work, think of how photos are uploaded and shared on Facebook: apparently this uses much the same technology. It could be useful for small businesses who have an existing Facebook network – but, just as you need to be careful that your great aunt Em doesn’t see the wrong kind of photos of you, you’ll also need to make sure you have the right filters in place to keep any business-sensitive documents as private as you want them to be.

We’ve proclaimed the benefits of social media many times: we’ve also warned small business owners to update their status with some degree of caution. With online services that you use in your own private life, it’s all too easy to lapse into an unprofessional tone on the business profile. Before you know it, you can besmirch your company’s good name, just like Habitat and Nestle, to name two recent cases.

That said, up until now, there has always been the safety net of time. As the weeks pass, your tweets and your Facebook updates disappear from the page, replaced by more recent messages. In the fast-moving online world, mistakes can be forgotten.

Or so we thought. This week, the library of Congress in the US has announced that it will be archiving every single public tweet, considering them to be a valuable historic record of public opinion. At the same time, Google unveiled its ‘live search’ timeline, which at the moment allows you to go back to February of this year – and soon will go back to the very day Twitter launched (21st March 2006, as it happens) – and search all public tweets.

Now that your tweets are saved for posterity, it makes sound sense to give thought to what you type, both on your business AND personal accounts. However, if you’re looking for consolation, it might be found in the fact that Twitter this month signed up its 100 millionth user. Finding your minor indiscretion in a sea of tweets that size… well, let’s just say it might be easier to find a needle in a haystack.

We learned this week that the police inadvertently tried to launch a new service under a domain name that already exists.

The news does not really surprise us. As the Internet constantly proliferates, the fact is that simple or obvious domain names will have been snapped up. That’s bad news for those who wish to use them, and good news for those who bought them and stand to make a profit if they decide to sell.

You may wish to consider purchasing variants of your company name before anyone else does – be that a competitor who wants to divert your business, or simply an unknowing business with a similar name.

Don’t forget that for your customers, it is not always easy to remember whether they should put a .com, .co.uk, .org, or .biz at the end of your URL. You can help them out by buying all of the options, and redirecting them to your site. It needn’t be expensive, and many would consider it a valid business cost.

If it sounds a bit complicated, we here at Notting Hill Internet Services can help both with the domain purchasing and the redirects. Just don’t find yourself in the position of the police, having to decide whether to change your website’s name all together, or buy out someone who got there first.

Following the news that Ordnance Survey have released their map data, we’ll be watching with interest to see how they compare with the omnipresent Google Maps.

Google Maps have been open-source from the beginning, meaning that they have been ‘mashed up’ and used in online projects from the sublime to the ridiculous. Council websites use them to show where their public loos are situated; holiday rentals websites can show local attractions and amenities; one enterprising soul is also mapping the cost of a Cadbury Twirl in shops across London. In short, there are few projects which cannot be illustrated with one of Google’s familiar rectangles of cartography, small or large scale, satellite or street view.

Ordnance Survey, which held out against unauthorised usage of its data for so long, has a long way to catch up. However, they are still the best-known name in mapping, in this country at least, and that noteriety will stand them in good stead.

At the end of the day, it will be about how easy the data is to use, and how the end results compare with a Google map. One thing is for sure – it’s always good to have more than one option.

Clearly the big news this week has been the launch of Apple’s iPad in the States – we in the UK will have to wait a little longer, unless you are fortunate enough to be able to pop over there to buy one.

Already, Google is announcing specific iPad functionality (for its email product, gMail), and Yahoo has jumped right in with a tailor-made entertainment app.

If the big boys are sitting up and taking notice like this, what does it mean for smaller fry? Well, they undoubtedly see a future for the ‘tablet’ style of computer. It’s true that where Apple leads, others follow: just look at the host of touchscreen phones that came in the wake of the iPhone.

No need to redesign your website specifically for the iPad, though, we’d say. The iPhone itself made it easy to navigate through websites that hadn’t been optimised for small-screen viewing, with the ability to scroll around the screen and zoom in on specific areas. The iPad has the same functionality but a proportionally larger screen, making navigation even easier.

Word is, though, that this device (which it is largely envisaged will be used in the home) will greatly increase the popularity of the app (short for application). We’ve talked before on this blog about how a great app can bring users back to your site and improve customer loyalty. If that’s something you’ve considered in the past, you may wish to give it even more thought for the arrival of the iPad in Britain.

A couple of weeks ago, Google Streetview finally rolled out for most places across the UK. It was a cue for us all to virtually ‘walk’ down the same roads we actually traverse every day in real life – well, it’s the novelty factor, isn’t it?

Since then, we’ve all been finding ways in which it will make our lives easier: checking out holiday destinations, ‘visiting’ houses for sale, and casing out new neighbourhoods before visiting them.

One thing we’ve noticed is how information from Google maps dovetails neatly with its 3D incarnation. Thus, if your premises are marked on Google Maps, they will also be on Streetview. Yes, another reason to make sure your shopfront is looking spruce!

More seriously, it’s also another reason to make sure your Google Maps listing is also looking spruce. We’ve mentioned before how listings can now include photographs, opening times, and user reviews. With each new innovation, Google will see more visitors. This recent launch will have had users flocking to see their towns – and, quite possibly, your listing. Time to get it in order!

The beginning of this month saw Yahoo’s 15th birthday. While for many businesses 15 is not an advanced age, on the Internet it makes you one of the elders.

Back when Yahoo started, search engines were not a common concept, and, indeed, only a small percentage of the population was going online at all. It’s inspiring to think that this global, million-dollar company was started by two young graduates who happened to see a need. It’s a pattern that we’ve seen over and over again, as the Internet starts enabling Joe Normal to make it big, with nothing more than a rock-solid idea.

Yes, many companies fall by the wayside, but as we begin to understand this manmade phenomenon, the Internet, we also learn more about how to use it to succeed. Let’s take a moment to salute Yahoo, and to hope that our own small businesses might one day match this behemoth of the online world.

Rumour has it that the upcoming Digital Economy Bill will seek to outlaw the provision of an open wireless Internet connection. It’s probably a wise move for private households, but it could have unforeseen effects on small businesses.

An open connection is one which requires no password when joining. Many pubs and cafes, unwilling to provide wifi to passers-by unless they spend a little money, require users to request a password – but of course, unless they have the patience to change the password regularly, word can soon get around.

Under the proposed bill, this situation need not change, but it would no longer be permitted to have a completely free network available. Would this cut down on the number of paying customers, or increase them? The obvious conclusion might be that if you have to ask for a password, you are far more likely to purchase – but one might also argue that humans tend to take the easiest path, and would happily buy from a cafe where they knew they could access the wifi without the need for instruction.

ZDNet also makes the point that businesses will be required to capture and keep details of those who log on, adding unwelcome amounts of administration to what was previously a simple service.

It’s possible, too, that a crackdown could see a reduction in the number of on-the-go searches, as those users without a paid connection (eg, those on iPod Touches) would no longer be able to look up local businesses simply by piggy-backing onto an unsecured connection for a short while, as they stand outside the providing establishment. Whether this would have a large impact is difficult to know – and my feeling is that more and more of us are opting into paid data packages on Smartphones, making the lack of free connections less of an inconvenience, but more of a cost.

Did you hear the one about the technology blog that people started mistaking for Facebook?

It’s a funny story, really, but it teaches us a lot. In a nutshell, ReadWriteWeb wrote a workaday blog post one day, about a new log-in function of Facebook. Now, ReadWriteWeb is a high-ranking well-respected blog, and before long, that post had gained a high Google position for the term “Facebook log-in”.

So far, so good, until the post starts attracting a disproportionate number of irrelevant comments, all saying things like “What’s going on? I just want to get to my Facebook page!”. Yes, you guessed it, these were people who habitually get to Facebook by going to Google, typing in ‘Facebook log in’ and selecting one of the top results.

Having reached that page, though, they don’t think, hmm, this doesn’t look like Facebook. No, they quickly look for a log-in box, enter their details, find they’re still on the same page, and leave a bewildered or angry comment.

At some point during this process, more savvy web-users pick up on what is going on, and start to comment too. The resulting effect is a string of these discontent comments, interspersed with comments saying – with varying degrees of politeness – ‘This is not Facebook! Try typing Facebook.com into your address bar!’.

Amusing or sad as this whole event might be, it does underline a couple of pertinent points. Number one, there are a lot of users out there for whom the internet feels like an irrational arena, prone to springing unwelcome surprises upon them. Longterm users have, without knowing, picked up an understanding of interfaces and vocabulary that not everyone shares.

Number two, everyone skims. There is so much irrelevant stuff on every webpage these days – ads, invitations to register, alerts, and so on – that skimming is a vital skill if you want to actually get anywhere. Can we blame these people for skimming what, at first sight, may just look like an announcement for a new piece of functionality? Goodness knows the ‘real’ Facebook does enough of that.

There’s a take-away learning from this incident. You cannot underestimate your audience. Make your website as simple as possible, and when you’ve done that, make it twice as simple again. Remove unnecessary clutter. Don’t expect people to read your lovingly-crafted six paragraphs of text. Signpost the way. Your users will follow.

So, last week tweets from space – this week, tweets from dogs. Is the world going completely crazy?

Mattel, the well-known toy company, have brought out Puppy Tweets. It’s basically a collar which is triggered by certain doggy events – barking, say, or chowing down – to send an automatic message to the dog’s Twitter account.

Which does rather beg the question, who (beyond its adoring owner, I suppose) is going to want to read those tweets? As some wag remarked as Twitter announced that 50 million tweets are sent per day, yes, and at least 1 million of them are actually read.