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I read with great interest last week when the independent Web Marketing Association called the 2008 United States presidential election, three weeks before a vote has been cast, to Barack Obama. The reason for this was that Obama's website won their WebAward over John McCain's website!

The decision to award www.barackobama.com the gong for 'Better Website' was made by 110 internet website experts, who sit on the Web Marketing Association's WebAward judging panel. And the fact that this same crew voted for Obama's website as 'better than Hillary Clinton's' during the Democratic primaries, and Obama ended up defeating Clinton, could mean the same path is set for November 4.

Let's take a closer look at both barackobama.com and johnmccain.com...

The Web Marketing Association judged the websites based on the following categories:

• Design
• Innovation
• Content
• Ease of Use
• Copywriting
• Interactivity, and
• Technology

In all these categories, Obama recorded smashing victories over McCain, with his smallest score being 70.1%, which was for Copywriting.

Viewing both websites, they have definitely gone down the path of Web 2.0 to pass on their message to American voters.

Both websites have similar large fonts; they both possess significant movement throughout pages, they both have shops, they both have significant calls to action directed at supporters, videos are prominent, blogs are updated and interactive, while 'interactive' is a good one-word summation of the image they both do well in extracting through their respective websites.

Does one do it better than the other?

I think yes. I am in agreement with the WebAwards that Obama's website is more interactive, innovative and better looking. Although I am not convinced that barackobama.com deserves to thrash johnmccain.com in all the above categories.

For example, I think McCain's website is at least the equal of Obama's in the 'Ease of Use' category, while 'Copywriting' is another category they could have scored closer in. However, as far as 'Design', 'Innovation', 'Content', 'Interactivity' and 'Technology' goes; Obama's website deserves to score higher thus deserves the better website award.

I feel the reason the respected judges have gone with a thrashing victory to Obama over McCain is the overall appeal of these two candidates to a web audience.

Despite efforts by McCain to jazz up his campaign with a fancy font and Sarah Pallin, he still looks like an old man. Not many surfers of the web are looking for old men.

Obama, on the other hand, is different. He is youthful and he seems genuinely web savvy.

Where McCain seems to be using the web because it is an essentiality, Obama has been using it to gather grassroots support from day 1 and credits in with building his profile as a president-worthy individual.

In 2004 Google exploded onto the email scene with their innovative free webmail offering, GMail. Microsoft and Yahoo quickly tried to play catchup, but GMail has been going from strength to strength ever since then.

But what's so good about GMail? Well, consider just a few of it's key features:

Powerful Anti-Spam
With a custom email address that average around 100 spam emails  a day unfiltered, after switching to Gmail I’ve had less than 5 spam emails slip through in the last 2 years. That’s impressive. And what’s so brilliant is that it just works. No fiddling around with settings! (more)

Automatic Anti-virus Scanning
This doesn't mean you'll never get a virus, but it does mean that every attachment sent to your GMail account is automatically scanned in the background for viruses (more).

Instant Google search across all your email
No fiddling around with complex search forms, or waiting 10 minutes for years worth of emails to be searched - GMail uses the Google engine for searching, which means instant results (more).

7GB+ of storage space
This was one of GMail innovations when it first launched - never worry about deleting your emails again.

Manage multiple custom email accounts from within Gmail
Maybe you've got your own email address with your own domain? No worries - GMail can automatically download emails from your other accounts and let you reply to them directly.

Access GMail on your Mobile
Whether you've got an iPhone or a 5-yr old Nokia, if your mobile has net access then you'll be able to access your emails from anywhere (more).

Access your email using IMAP
This is a killer feature: in short, IMAP means automatic synchronisation of all your emails across multiple workstations and mobile devices (more).

Hopefully that's whet your appetite somewhat. There's plenty more to GMail though: read about some of their newest features here, and keep an eye out in future posts for tips on how to maximise the benefits of GMail and other Google offerings for your small business.

A month since its trial release, Google's Chrome web browser is gaining mixed reviews by web analysts. According to some users, Google Chrome is super-fast and easy to use; others complain that it is too bare, while competitors state their own products remain superior in the newly-congested browser market.

My personal tests of Chrome have been extremely positive, considering it is its VERSION 1 release. Google has again embraced the advantages of open source web development to deliver a product in a rare segment of the web they haven't yet cracked.

Creating a browser was a natural ‘next step' for Google.

Regardless of the browsers we - as internet users - have been using, we have been typing in the Google URL (www.google.com.au, www.google.com, etc.) more than any other URL worldwide. It was only a matter of time until Google decided that the place you type in URLs should also be owned by them.

Rather than creating a ‘me too', the techs at Google decided to add some key features to their product which would differentiate it from competitors like Internet Explorer (Microsoft's web browser), Firefox (Mozilla's web browser) and Safari (Apple's web browser):

• It has brought Google search into the browser
  One can type in a search term instead of the URL in the URL bar, and it will return a Google search.
• It has brought Google applications onto the browser
  One can access Gmail, Google Docs, etc from the browser itself.
• It downloads JavaScript faster
  Most web applications these days are written in JavaScript.
• Kills the tab, not the browser
  Like the others good browsers, it allows for tabbed browsing. But its difference is if one tab crashed, the other tabs are not affected.

It is clear from the first two points above that Google's greatest advantage is in its name. The fact that Google Search and Google Applications are so popular, making them more accessible for their users will ensure they flock to Google Chrome.

The other advantages are arguable in Chrome's early days.

Internet Explorer, with its new IE8, feels its product is also quick. After testing myself, I can state comfortably that it is not. It is crap, and it is a browser with everybody BUT the end-user in mind.

Firefox says its latest release is the best. After testing myself, I have to agree with the people at Mozilla. In speed, I do not sense a major difference with Chrome, but in options, Firefox is far better equipped due to the head-start it has had in the browser market.

Firefox has more plug-ins, add-ons, etc, which means it is more extendable NOW. IE is not extendable, while Chrome will catch up.