Website Magazine has had a tremendous year – one full of growth, in both revenue and respect from our community and for that we extend our most gracious thanks.

The sheer amount of content we've developed this year is impressive in both scope and depth – from the website and our print magazine.

We'd like to share with you the fifty weblog posts and articles which spoke most clearly (and loudly) to our audience in 2009.

Thanks for a great year Website Magazine Readers and good luck in 2010!
 

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1. Using
   Free Applications to Power Your Business – Milind Mody
2. Five
   PPC Landing Page Design Trends
3. What
   Web Superstars Won't Tell You (But We Will)
4. Bringing
   Back Scrollers with jQuery
5. 25
   Essential Reads for Web Pro's
   
6. Top
   50 Web Rankings: Affiliate Networks
7. Top
   WordPress Contact Form Plugins
8. Turn
   Right on Usability Lane – Bryan Eisenberg
9. The
   Anatomy of Linkbait – Jordan Kasteler
10. Top
    WordPress Membership Plugins (Commercial Solutions)
11. Facebook
    Peak Times for Business
12. Get
    Your Brand on Every Social Network
13. Five
    Awesome Drupal Themes
14. Debunking
    Common SEO Myths
15. The
    Search for Icons and Icon Engines
    
16. Everyday
    Usability – 14-Point Checklist – Kim Krause Berg
17. 5
    Signs 2010 Will Be the Year of Mobile
18. Twitter
    Provides Opportunity for E-Commerce Merchants
19. On-Page
    SEO and ALT Text SERP Ranking Influence
20. Avoid
    iPhone App Traps - Niels Hansen
21. Open
    Source Web Project and Code Management Solutions (You'd Pay For)
22. Creating
    Effective Press Releases for Power SEO
23. The
    LA Times User Centric Redesign
24. 10
    Steps to General More Leads – Barry Harrison
25. Eight
    Great API's For Your Next Website/Application
    
26. E-Mail
    Marketing's Future… Right Now
27. E-Mail
    Marketing Benchmarks for 2010
28. Best
    Translation Plugins for WordPress
29. Top
    50 Virtual Product Shelves
30. Most
    Popular Words in Subject Lines
31. Drop
    Shadow Layer Effect in Photoshop
32. Top
    50 Alternative Advertising Marketplaces
33. SEO
    – Do You Link Three Ways?
34. Guide
    to Single-Serving Websites
35. Choosing
    the Best Web Content Management System – Paul Markun
36. What
    We Can Learn from CNN.com Design Overhaul
37. Conversational
    Marketing with Twitter – Kalena Jordan
38. Reputation
    Management and monitoring for Everyone
39. Anatomy
    of a Viral Marketing Failure
40. Top
    50 Social Media Resources (February '09)
41. State
    of the Affiliate Marketing Industry (2009) – Shawn Collins
42. Keyword
    Meta Tags and Google
43. 30
    Plus Blog Directories
44. Hiring
    Pro Link Builders
45. Google
    Local Search: Get Found in 8 Easy Steps
    
46. The
    Ultimate WordPress Search Plugin List
47. The
    Decade's Most Influential Internet Moments
48. Top
    50 Websites for 'Net Professionals
49. Cross-Engine
    Keyword Richness Inquiry
50. Mastering
    Customer Capture on Your Website – Steve Castro-Miller & Ryan
    Allis

The 2009 most searched lists just keep coming, this time from voice mobile search provider, Vlingo:

1. YouTube
2. Facebook
3. MySpace
4. Weather
5. Movie Times
6. Twitter
7. Yellow Pages
8. MapQuest
9. craigslist
10. White Pages

So where are the Michael Jackson searches? Vlingo president and CEO Dave Grannan explains:

Unlike traditional Web searches that focus on specific search terms such as ‘Michael Jackson’ or ‘Twilight,’ our data shows that on mobile phones, people tend to search for specific destinations sites and resources. Mobile Web search is very popular on Vlingo, accounting for over 20% of all usage. Based on our users’ top searches, we are seeing mobile extending far beyond SMS and voice communications to encompass multimedia and social networking.

Consumer Watchdog and the Center For Digital Democracy contacted the FTC to halt Google from buying AdMob on anti-trust and privacy grounds, according to Tech Crunch.

Tech Crunch includes a letter written to the FTC co-signed by representatives from Consumer Watchdog and the CDD. The highlights of the letter include:

The proposed deal would substantially lessen competition in the increasingly important mobile advertising market.

In addition to the anti-trust issues, the spectre of the combined Google/AdMob raises substantial privacy issues.

Google amasses a goldmine of data by tracking consumers’ behavior as they use it search engine and other online services. Combining this information with information collected by AdMob would would give Google a massive amount of consumer data to exploit for their benefit.

How this will impact the approval of the acquisition will make interesting reading in the new year.

Those who follow the WM daily weblog know our affinity for jQuery and we came across a doozy today (hat tip to WebAppers).

Roundabout is a beautiful jQuery plugin that converts a structured of static HTML elements into a customizable turntable-like interactive area. The plugin works very well with ordered and unordered lists but can also work with a set of nested elements after some basic configuration.

Don't like the turntable effect? No worries, checkout Roundabout Shapes which offers additional paths for elements to rotate. From the "Lazy Susan" to the "Water Wheel" there is going to be something for every design you incorporate this plugin into. 

Created by Fred LeBlanc, Roundabout and Roundabout Shapes is offered under the BSD license. 

Google has launched a beta search platform for those certified by the company as professionals who can help manage Adwords campaigns. People can look up by location and amount they want to spend on a weekly basis. and find people who have passed the Google Adwords Professional certification.

Once you go through the initial search you can add other services you may need such as online display advertising, search engine optimization, traditional advertising (print, TV), web design, website analytics, affiliate programs, new media (mobile & social networks), creative and design services, call recording and tracking, auto-optimization tools and marketing consultancy.

I was one of the first 100 who got certified when it was first launched but have not done the recurring tests that Google requires to keep their seal of approval on my site. But with this listing service I guess I will have to.

This directory of professionals may have many individuals and agencies scurrying to get certified and listed and paying the $50 every 18 months. While it is commendable that Google has this program – the fact that it costs money to get listed and requires taking a Google generated test only to pass seems a bit unfair. One wonders what the limitations will be for people taking tests under various names to get listed in major cities. Does this unfairly help agencies over small shops or individuals who can get listed in multiple cities?

Obviously people who manage large spends will get an advantage, but even small shops do get their money back in bonuses that can be used with new clients that are offered to those managed a MCC account.

The Learning Center is thorough and well worth the time of anyone who works with Adwords – even the best of us can learn some things.