Email & Coffee

New Year is a time for tips and trends for the upcoming year. A lot of no-brainers like mobile-friendly websites and mobile applications on the rise, more social media integration and targeted content to better engagement.

But, I'm not going to dish out the obvious and will instead focus on the subtle undertones. You know, the stuff that makes fine wine fine.

The year 2011 starts with large computer displays and websites that claim prime real estate with extra widened pixel widths. Meanwhile, mobile devices employ the rule that less is more. As operating systems and best-of-breed coding practices auto-size content display, the power of possibility will naturally impact design. So buckle your seat belts, we're putting the pedal to the metal once again.

Cloud technology, the rush for portability and a healthy bit of competition continues to propel email service providers back to the drawing board to create seamless, attractive and manageable applications for small and medium-sized businesses. Behind the scenes, developers improve templating languages, bridging inline style sheets to editable sections for an effortless update process, drag-and-drop compartmentalization that simplifies selection options, rendering engines provide client-side email previews and spam test-filters help to project deliverability. ESP's extend free trails and even free scaled-down accounts.

Supporting all these great innovations is a new composite workforce. Full time employees, freelance contractors and everything in between. The grass roots online workforce - a product of global outsourcing - is a little bit country and a little bit rock'n'roll, and growing fast.

There's an awful lot of opportunity out there, besides the over-obvious and all that chatter. Stay tuned for more undertones of 2011 and the power of possibilities...