Papa John’s, a Louisville, KY based franchise restaurant, has raked in $1 billion dollars in online orders since introducing the option seven years ago. As Vice President of Marketing Communications Jim Ensign told CNN, “It took us seven years to reach our first billion in online sales, and at our current pace and growth rate it will take us less than three years to hit our next billion.” Their website allows customers to access a comprehensive menu, complete with photos and web specials. The user interface leaves a little to be desired, though, and it looks as though it would not easily transfer to mobile devices. They do, however, take orders by text message, a trend likely to expand to their competitors.

Domino’s Pizza, on the other hand, has already created a site specifically for mobile users, enabling customers to order online from phones or computers. Domino’s has also introduced a tracking option on their website, and customers anxiously awaiting their pizzas can see when it goes in the oven, when it’s finished cooking, and when it leaves with the delivery van. The system was launched in January, and they recently rewarded the 1 millionth user with a $1000 gift certificate. As CIO Chris McGlothlin says in a press release, “Customers using Pizza Tracker will no longer have to wonder where their pizza is in the ordering process - it takes the ‘mystery’ out of waiting for their pizza. Not only that, it’s entertaining, too.”

Pizza Hut, as the largest of the pizza restaurant chains, has also taken steps to give “wired” customers the options they need to order online. They take orders online and through mobile messaging, and they plan to expand with the “Pizza Hut Shortcut” next year. This widget would enable ordering through a small desktop application, and customers could keep their favorite toppings combinations on “one-click” settings. This feature is also available to customers who have an online account, which the company called a “Pizza Playlist”.

Pizza Hut also recently introduced a “virtual waiter” to recommend toppings, side dishes, and extras based on your past orders. A recent press release explains: “We have a very savvy customer base when it comes to the Internet, so we want to make sure we’re constantly innovating online,” said Bernard Acoca, director of digital marketing for Pizza Hut. “At the same time, we want to make sure we’re not just creating a bunch of virtual bells and whistles for the sake of innovation; all the upgrades we make to pizzahut.com enhance the customer’s ordering experience in a meaningful way.”

All of these pizza restaurants are recognizing the value of the web when it comes to pleasing today’s tech savvy diners. Pizza is a traditional American comfort food, though the way we order it is anything but traditional. These brands are reaching out to a user base who expects the convenience of ordering online or with their mobile phones, and their strategy is likely to pay off. The web is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives, and it makes perfect sense for our delivery pizza to go the way of Web 2.0.

I was surprised to see my three year-old niece expertly navigate to PBSkids.org to play a game featuring Curious George. The site includes audio as you roll over buttons to help children who cannot yet read to navigate the site. While the games are educational in keeping with PBS’s mission, they all star characters from hit children’s shows, like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dragon Tales, and Sesame Street. Kids are no strangers to these brands, and they will remember the awesome Caillou game they play when their birthdays roll around. PBS also has a similar site called PBSkidsplay.org, which requires a subscription of $10 a month.

Another site that caters to children is AddictingGames.com, which is owned and operated by Viacom, parent company to Nickelodeon and MTV. This site mixes clever Flash-based games with online advertising. Players are invited to play and rate games from sponsors like Acuvue and Neopets. As a recent New York Times article puts it, “Clicking through and hopping from site to site will give a child a crash course in the latest Bratz movies or Hannah Montana concert.” The site also features plenty of games for older children and adults, giving it a wider appeal.

On a recent visit, my eleven year-old relative would wake up in the early morning hours and head straight for my laptop. His destination was Line Rider, an addictive online game that challenges players to create line drawings for a virtual sledder to follow like the peaks and valleys of a real hill. The game has some of the lessons of elementary physics, but it’s really just about creating an entertaining and nearly impossible sledding hill. Unlike PBSkids or AddictingGames, Line Rider is not associated with a major TV channel or toy company, but it is quickly building a brand that transcends age groups. By the end of the week-long visit, the eleven year-old wasn’t the only one spending hours creating and saving tracks online.

While all of the above mentioned games are free (or boast free versions), still other sites catering to children have some free content and some that requires a parent’s credit card. The granddaddy of these types of sites is Webkinz, which pairs a retail item (the plush toy comes with a code for the website) with online content. The “pets” are both virtual and physical, and kids can go online to take care of their toys. Webkinz also incorporates a social networking function where children can visit friends’ pets and even chat, though parents can control their level of access. The site gives new areas for each different pet, and kids are urged to collect them all. As the New York Times reports, “Some parents have been known to load up on dozens of Webkinz at $14 each.”

While it may be tempting to park kids in front of the computer, even on child-oriented sites they are inundated with advertising and marketing messages. As the Webkinz generation ages, they will not only have an extraordinary level of web literacy, but they will also accept the presence of sponsored content and subscription sites in a way that older web users do not. With the integration of television shows, toys, and the web, we’re bound to see more and more online advertising aimed at the Barney set.

RSS, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, “Rich Site Summary”, or “RDF Site Summary” depending on who you ask, is essentially a self-updating content subscription. They are based on blogging tools that authors can use to post new stories, updates, and information. Avid readers can add a simple application (sometimes on the desktop, sometimes in the browser) which lists new content and keeps them up to date. RSS feeds are very commonly used on blogs, news websites, and podcasts. They are usually denoted by a small orange icon featuring a “sound wave” graphic.

Marketing groups are starting to use RSS technology also as an alternative to mass emails that serve to annoy and inconvenience even the most dedicated of customers. At this point, sources estimate that just 20% of internet users employ RSS feeds on a regular basis, but these numbers are expected to increase as the technology becomes more familiar. While it may not have as wide a reach for personal notes and messages, RSS has definite potential to change the way businesses communicate with customers. As a recent SiteProNews article suggests, “In the same way email eclipsed snail mail for content delivery, RSS will eclipse email as the consumer’s choice for opt-in messaging.”

One of the reasons RSS is so promising is that it actually reaches people who care. Even if you sign up for an email newsletter or HTML-based special offers flyer, the likelihood of it actually reaching your inbox shockingly 60% or less. RSS, on the other hand, does away with spam filters and allows users to check updates at their own convenience, ensuring that 100% of subscribers will get the message.

Another reason why marketers are turning to RSS is due to the rise of internet video. With sites like YouTube and Hulu topping the traffic charts, advertisers are turning to video as a way of grabbing users’ attention. Email, however, is a very complicated way to deliver a video message; even HTML emails are not a sure bet depending on subscribers’ clients and settings. Videos get stripped by email providers, and there’s no guarantee they’ll play within the message consistently, which is how users will expect it to work. RSS, however, was built to easily embed video and audio, just like a blog, and users don’t have inconsistent access to the message.

As RSS gains more users, businesses are seeing a unique opportunity to target their marketing efforts at their best customers. RSS provides a pain-free, consistent way to reach users who actually want to hear from them. It eliminates many of the inconsistencies and headaches of email marketing efforts, while still providing the wide reach that email creates. The potential upsides are enormous, and as the technology improves to allow for private messages and personalized content, RSS could well become the method of choice for online communication.

Microsoft launched a controversial health record storage tool called HealthVault in October, and thus far they have managed to attract some high profile industry partners, including American Heart Association, LifeScan (a glucometer manufacturer), and the American Diabetes Association. Talkibie covered the launch of HealthVault, and initial reactions to the technology were mixed. However, as the U.S. population ages and baby boomers become retirees, experts predict that the average patient will become more involved in tracking and managing their health records. The web is an increasingly convenient and secure option for keeping track of everything from taxes to social calendars to bank accounts, so why not hospital records?

Google had been hush-hush about a health records tool for months, though the technology world was expecting a competitor to Microsoft HealthVault. CEO Eric Schmidt finally announced Google Health in February, and the web-based application will allow patients to upload and link their personal health records to doctors offices, pharmacies, specialists, and other authorized parties. As the official Google blog puts it, “Google Health aims to solve an urgent need that dovetails with our overall mission of organizing patient information and making it accessible and useful. Through our health offering, our users will be empowered to collect, store, and manage their own medical records online.” The new record storage site is being tested at the Cleveland Clinic and Google is inviting both patients and doctors to share any thoughts or suggestions for improvement.

Microsoft also has designs beyond online patient record storage. They recently announced a new application called Patient Safety Screening Tool (PSST), which would be used within hospitals as a means of monitoring patients to prevent infection. PSST specifically targets sepsis, a deadly infection common in hospital in-patients which can affect as many as 750,000 patients annually. As a Microsoft press release explains, ““The Patient Safety Screening Tool for Sepsis can help save lives by monitoring clinical data inputs and dispatching alerts and reminders based on predefined thresholds and pattern matching to facilitate early detection and intervention.”

While all these efforts towards cracking the health care market are laudable, one has to wonder if Microsoft and Google are barking up the wrong tree. The industry is notorious for tight budgets, strict administration, and binding bureaucracy. While some might view these as barriers, these two technology companies clearly see them as opportunities for improvement. If a new software tool or web application can save doctors time, save administrators money, and save patients’ lives, it would certainly have every chance to succeed in the health care sector.

The EPA list of acceptable cars is expected to be out before the end of 2008, and speculation about what will be included is rife. The EPA does host a Green Vehicle Guide website, which rates autos on a 0 to 10 scale for air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and many expect high scorers on that scale will populate the recommendations. These vehicles could include the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic hybrid, Ford Escape hybrid, and other low-impact options.

Reactions in the halls of Congress are mixed, with some representatives pleased to be doing their part and others angry at being forced to change their car choices. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, a Democrat from Missouri, drives a converted diesel van that runs on used vegetable oil. He has little sympathy for colleagues who must lease green cars. As he told the L.A. Times, “They want their Lexuses and their Cadillacs. I just think it’s a poor example for us to spend so much time talking about energy independence and global warming and presenting to the people an image of fat cats living the fat life.”

Others find the new law to be an unfair limitation. Joe L. Barton (R - Texas) expressed the opinion that it is one’s constituents who should decide if a vehicle is inappropriate for their congressman. “I guarantee you that my district is not upset that I’m driving a Chevy Tahoe.” His district, incidentally, is where his Tahoe was manufactured. Others complained that the list might hurt domestic automakers. “A Prius isn’t made in the United States,” Rep. Elton Gallegly of California noted. Some representatives also pointed out to the L.A. Times that they chose to lease certain vehicles due to mountainous districts and height requirements, which made small cars uncomfortable.

While the bill is undoubtedly controversial, it is also unusual in its specificity. We have many regulations and requirements of our federal representation, but choosing their vehicles for them is certainly a first. It’s not a surprise that some find the move too pushy and personal. After all, their constituents would balk if the situation were reversed; imagine Congress trying to pass a law that required us to buy only certain models of cars. That being said, congressional leaders are not your average Joes. They are using taxpayer money to lease these vehicles, and many of their taxpayers are choosing more responsible cars. While it may not be as flashy, I’m sure a hybrid SUV can climb mountains or accommodate tall representatives just as well as its gas-guzzling counterpart.

When shopping online, it’s all too easy to find a competitor with the same product. If shoppers become frustrated by complicated interfaces or annoying advertising, they are far more likely to find an alternative than brick-and-mortar shoppers, who would presumably have to walk back to the car, navigate a crowded parking lot, and drive some minutes to another store. For this reason, online customer retention is a challenge facing many web retailers, and advanced measurement tools are helping them keep finicky customers.

One traditional software option was developed by TeaLeaf Technology, an offshoot of enterprise giant SAP. As the name suggests, TeaLeaf’s aim is to help businesses read the signs that their customers are having a hard time, and then find the solutions to help them retain their users. One high profile client who has successfully retained customers using TeaLeaf is U.S. Airways. They found that many customers were looking up flight schedules and prices on their website, but failing to purchase tickets. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, “The software revealed that many customers were typing in their frequent-flier numbers incorrectly…When the Web site couldn’t process an order, it notified customers they had inserted an error without being more specific.” TeaLeaf’s tool identified this error, and U.S. Airways saw their online ticket sales success rate jump to almost 100%.

Another tool which can help companies identify customer experience issues is Coremetrics, which follows the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Their tool helped sporting goods giant Bass Pro Shops better focus email marketing materials. With so many different products for different sports enthusiasts, Bass has a uniquely large customer base. While many customers gave their email addresses as part of an online purchase, Bass Pro wanted to avoid “harassing” casual shoppers with unwanted emails while still sending special deals and promotions to targeted groups. Coremetrics platform allowed them to look at which items shoppers looked at and purchased, and they were able to target emails to user’s interests, causing a 10% increase in email-instigated sales.

While many businesses use some sort of website monitoring software, it takes a certain amount of expertise to interpret the data and find solutions to known problems. New tools like those provided by Coremetrics and TeaLeaf allow large and small companies alike to gather and understand web metrics that directly impact online customer experience. With more businesses realizing the potential value in reducing clicks and confusing interfaces, us avid consumers will hopefully find our web shopping experiences a lot more pleasant.

In the wake of the announcement, Yahoo! stock sank, reportedly off 16% by 10 A.M. on Monday. This reaction shows just how much shareholders and traders were depending on a successful negotiation, and Yahoo!’s next moves will determine whether they stay afloat. They’ve begun more than a few new ventures in recent weeks as an attempt to boost stock prices in the face of Microsoft’s offer, but will any of their efforts prove successful without the deal going through?

First, Yahoo! launched a news-rating website called Buzz, which gives readers the ability to vote on their favorite content by “buzzing it up”. The most popular stories and pages will rise to the top of the page, giving readers a chance to see what others in the Yahoo! community are reading. Buzz attempts to mimic the success of popular link-sharing sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon while spreading the success of Yahoo!’s news service.

Also, Yahoo! entered into a controversial partnership with Google for a short experiment in ad sharing. Google was allowed to place ads on 3% of Yahoo’s various sites, which prompted a share rise of 7% upon announcement. The strategy lasted just two weeks, but some experts speculated that it could signal a longer-term cooperation between Google and Yahoo!. The controversy comes from anti-trust watchdogs and regulators, who would likely strike down a true partnership between the two, as it would consolidate web advertising in too few hands.

Lastly, Yahoo! plans to unify many of their various services into one network, giving users the opportunity to create profiles and share their activities with friends. The social networking model would tie together their popular email service, Flickr (a photo storage & sharing site), Del.icio.us (social bookmarking site), Upcoming (social calendar site), and many others. They plan to sideline Yahoo! 360°, a social networking site that hasn’t caught on in a major way. Rather than building a social network, Yahoo! plans to build social features and conveniences into each of their services, providing users with a unified, customizable dashboard.

While many had hoped that a deal would be imminent (particularly Yahoo! shareholders), executives at Yahoo! were not ready to give up just yet. These recent announcements could be what it takes to keep them in the game, albeit not on the level with Google. As for Microsoft, they’ll have to wait for another opportunity to jump into the web market.

The controversy began over paid click data released by comScore and by Google. In their quarterly earnings report, Google asserted that clicks on its advertisements had increased by 20% from the same quarter in 2007. As a Google press release explains, “Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 20% over the first quarter of 2007 and approximately 4% over the fourth quarter of 2007.” ComScore, on the other hand, had already estimated 1.8% growth in Google’s paid clicks. That’s way too large a discrepancy to be within a margin of error, and comScore stockholders let their flagging confidence show. The firm’s stock dropped 8% and shares closed down 40 cents at $23.18.

The key to the different numbers is all in the fine print. Google’s earnings report extends to global websites and were overall figures for all partner sites. ComScore measured only U.S. clicks and did not include non-search ads. A prominently displayed press release on comScore’s website accounts for the seeming error. Bold face type explains, “The main difference between the paid clicks trends reported by Google and comScore can be traced to the fact that the comScore paid click data cited in financial analysts’ reports (and subsequently reported by the media) are U.S. data only.” The treatise also warns, “Analysts’ efforts to use comScore’s domestic data to estimate Google’s global trends were misguided…It also needs to be noted that comScore does not currently provide a measurement of global paid click data and has never claimed that its U.S. data can be used to “predict” global trends.”

O.K., so it was simply a matter of comparing apples to oranges. Why the stock scare? Why the outrage? Advertisers, as implied in the press release, use the data released by measurement firms like comScore and Nielsen to find the most advantageous spots for their ads. As the Wall Street Journal put it, “Advertisers study their [comScore’s and Nielsen’s] data - including a Web site’s total visitors or page views and time spend on the site - to try to determine which sites are popular among particular demographic groups or in certain topic areas, such as news or sports.” If advertisers see comScore’s numbers and make decisions based on those, they’re barking up the wrong tree. They must delve deeper into demographic data to find real value on the numbers. However, comScore clearly deflects responsibility back to their users, who should not rely on their data for financial reporting or decision-making.

All of this has created quite a controversy in the web measurement world, and it has industry experts and marketers alike wondering exactly how to track internet data. It’s tempting to lean towards Nielsen or comScore data as a barometer for economic growth or financial status, but it is really most useful for media and consumer research. As comScore’s press release warns, “we should all be mindful that the primary uses of comScore’s data are for marketing and media analysis purposes.”

• Adopt “wide-angle lens” thinking

To weather a rough patch, businesses should focus on long-term goals and stay the course on projects that will extend beyond a short-term slowdown. As the webcast pointed out, most recessions in recent years have lasted just 17 months or less, and many businesses have development cycles much longer than that. By keeping an eye on the ultimate goal, you can ensure that you will be prepared with the best offerings once the situation improves.

• Spend where it counts

According to a recent Forrester report, top organizations across industries are spending money to improve usability and make online customer interactions more enjoyable. While it may seem counterintuitive, laying out a little money on research can make a big difference during economic times. Unfortunately, this is often exactly where companies cut back. However, by getting to know your customers better and investing in their needs, you can help stabilize profits and revenues by keeping loyal users and attracting new ones.

• Innovate

One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of a recession is to innovate a new product or service that gets consumers excited. Our economy is largely based on faith, and if consumer confidence increases, so does consumer spending. A revolutionary new product or service can gets users buzzing and spending, and it can uniquely position your business to survive a slowdown intact.

• Align across teams

Many businesses streamline their employee structure during recessions, often with layoffs. This does not have to be the solution if you can foster communication and organize teams to perform at a higher level. Just as geese fly in a V-pattern to reduce drag and improve efficiency, you can align efforts to reduce overlap and improve workflow. One way to do this is through collaborative tools like WIKIs and online document sharing. Give teams the ability and incentive to share knowledge, work together, and improve performance; this will eliminate duplicative efforts and save you money and man-hours.

• Validate and measure success

While this is an important development step for any product during good economic times, it becomes doubly useful during a recession. Test features, gather user feedback, and apply metrics to help with future upgrades. By continually improving your service and features, you ensure that customers will continually find new value with each visit or interaction. This builds loyalty and excitement for your product and gives users the assurance that their needs are recognized and implemented.

Though we all must make changes during an economic slow-down, it is possible and even essential to keep the value that your users require. By thinking long-term, investing in user experience, providing innovative products, cutting down on internal overlap, and continuously improving products, businesses can ensure that a recession does not sink their prospects. Visit Human Factors International for more information and additional webcasts.

One such innovator is SuccessFactors, a San Mateo, California-based SaaS company which provides employee performance monitoring tools to businesses all over the globe. Their on-demand platform allows employees to create personalized profiles and set goals, monitor projects, and fill out evaluations. One of SuccessFactors clients, Belkin International, told the Wall Street Journal, “Most people just went in and used it [the program], no problem.” SuccessFactors purposefully used a familiar interface for their product to eliminate the need for ongoing training and tutorials, which can cost companies thousands of dollars and man hours.

CEO Lars Dalgaard says the system is “very much like an enterprise Facebook,” and the profile page was built on a social networking model. Employees can connect through personalized profiles, which display information such as work history, education, professional training/certifications, and a personal photo. Belkin uses this feature so that employees in different offices can get to know each other, despite having never met. By mimicking the look, feel, and ease-of-use of popular sites like Facebook, SuccessFactors can cut down the time it takes for employees to begin using their tools.

Another good example of this is Salesforce.com’s on-demand enterprise software. With over 1.1 million subscribers, Salesforce’s sales management service is one of the most successful tools in the SaaS industry. CEO Marc Benoiff told the Wall Street Journal that his visions, “was basically a replica of the Amazon.com user interface.” Training offered for the program is minimal, since many employees who use the internet on a regular basis are already comfortable with sites like Amazon, Ebay, or Facebook.

Some of the traditional website features that have sneaked into business software include “progress trackers”, which tell employees their “profile is 25% complete” or their goals are “65% completed”. Other packages have used a color-coded system to indicate progress on projects or documents, which gives employees immediate access to the information they need most. Many have incorporated search functions based on web algorithms, and sharing tools that automatically send emails to collaborators when changes have been made to a product or document. RSS feeds, like those used to stay up on favorite blogs and websites, are sneaking into enterprise systems so employees can follow the progress of a project or goal.

Both Salesforce and SuccessFactors are web-based, so it was only natural to apply web usability standards to their products. This trend, however, is likely to expand to traditional software companies who are daily losing market share to SaaS products. Both Oracle and SAP posted below-expected earnings for the quarter, and they are struggling to compete with innovative interlopers like Salesforce and SuccessFactors. Poor usability not only frustrates businesses, but also costs them money in training, man hours, and ultimately customer service. Perhaps user experience and usability should take on a greater role in their development process, as it clearly matters to businesses who use their products.