What is the future of search engine optimization (SEO) now that consumers and customers can interact with Google like this (click play below)?

Yet another semi-scripted, one-take tutorial on how to use the Dialogue Script PageLayout control to create a simple online survey that is managed in Salesforce.

View the full screen video.

It's been over a year since I took a hard look at offering a hosted i-Dialogue solution for Microsoft CRM. At the time, the Microsoft CRM partner subscription model really wasn't in place (to be fair, the Salesforce Royalty Winter gave partners shivers too ).

But a lot has changed in a year:

• Microsoft launched CRM Online
• Microsoft reached out and gave us a great deal on a MSDN subscription
• Microsoft launched the Service Providers License Program
• The CRM 4.0 API offers a dramatic improvement over previous releases

I continue to be astonished at how many of our Salesforce customers use Microsoft Outlook, and I really see no end in sight for the Exchange beast, so it's worth conceding on this front that any truly effective eMarketing or Sales "dialogue" must integrate well with Outlook... somehow.

More on this later...

Cost of gas getting you down? Virtualize your office with on-demand applications and work from anywhere, with anyone, at anytime.

We've added a few more 'must have' apps to our list of SaaS productivity tools.

www.whenisgood.net - Excellent for coordinating product demos, installations, and meetings.
www.echosign.com - For digital signatures, closing contracts and agreements, signing NDAs.
www.centraldesktop.com - Project and issue management.

All 3 offerings provide great value with their introductory free versions. The paid subscriptions are worthwhile and have immediate ROI at every tier.

For all the talk and buzz around Facebook's social networking and "Web 2.0" features, I think many people forget just how dependent Facebook is on the execution of a successful "Web 1.0" strategy and 1-to-1 targeted advertising.

Like Google, Facebook makes the majority of their revenue from advertising. But unlike Google's pay-per-click (PPC) model, Facebook was largely dependent on a CPM model that guaranteed they got paid for ad impressions... not clicks. Until recently, the relevance of my Facebook Ads were not very relevant at all.

But it appears that Facebook has finally figured it out. Their PPC program is underway and their personalization engine is gaining ground on Google.

For example, the ad below knows I'm in a ".NET Developers" group and has a call to action (CTA) to register for a .NET conference. Other ads use my age or college education in the CTA.

Login and click around Facebook and take a look at the flyers on the left side of the screen and judge for yourself just how relevant they are.

Here are a few of the features we'll be demonstrating at Dreamforce 2008 that are currently in development.

Dialogue Script / Content Management

• New tabs added to content/script editor for easy access to "Form Handler Settings", "History and Notes", "Alerts", and "Advanced"
• One-click milestone saves for version control. One-click restore of saved milestones.
• Detailed history log of all content changes (who changed what and when).
• Ability to receive real-time alerts when subscribed content is modified.
• Form wizard: Ability to generate HTML web pages from Salesforce Page Layouts. Ability to use inlineHelpText as form labels (for use in surveys).
• Advanced caching parameters, time-to-live, auto-refresh on Salesforce trigger event

Packaging and Deployment

• New "Get It Now" AppExchange Package that supports just-in-time provisioning of web portals (30 day free trial).
• Separate packages for PE and EE/UE organizations.
• Use of metadata API to dynamically update native and custom objects depending on Salesforce edition.
• CMS Serialization and Site Exchange feature. Package landing pages, microsites, and portals to XML. Upload to Cubic Compass Site Exchange or download serialized sites for use in web development. 

Business Intelligence and Reporting

• Daily and Weekly email reports sent to website owners with information about site activity, SEO/PageRank stats, exceptions and errors, and new lead activity.
• "Measures" custom object with nightly capture of configurable metrics. Ability to export to Google spreadsheets for time-series analysis.