The Online Degree Directory is dedicated to providing the ultimate resource for anyone considering obtaining a college degree – whether online or on campus. Since its inception in April of last year, it has successfully helped college-bound students make informed decisions regarding higher education.

This success has only made our commitment to providing the ultimate college resource grow. In an effort to not only offer all the tools necessary for those planning to enroll in a degree program, but also to support the learning community, Best of the Web now offers scholarship opportunities through the Online Degree Directory.

The launch of the BOTW Scholarship Program allows students to use the Online Degree Directory to find not only important information about higher education, online and traditional colleges, and specific degree programs, but also financial support for the costly venture that is a college education. While a college education grows increasingly expensive, the Online Degree Directory aims to assist those who may be struggling to afford the rising costs of tuition with continuing their education. Scholarship funds can be applied directly to tuition, textbooks, housing, and related college expenses.

Right now any U.S. citizen over the age of 16 intending to enroll or currently enrolled in a college degree program is eligible to apply for the $2,500 scholarship award. Scholarship offers will be updated frequently, so students should check back at the Online Degree Directory regularly to find details about the latest scholarship offers.

Best of the Web’s newest resource, Be Green, is dedicated to providing meaningful guidance to Internet users interested in “going green.” You can get informed about environmental issues such as ecology, alternative energy, technology, transportation, and find ways to embrace a greener lifestyle through educational articles as well as a question & answer forum.

Through Be Green, Best of the Web is committed not only to guiding and educating users about all things environmental, but also to spreading awareness about why such issues are worth considering. Think you’re living as green as can be? Be Green features a 30-question environmental quiz that lets users measure the eco-friendliness of their current lifestyle, providing informative tidbits along the way.

Ultimately Be Green visitors can learn how to make their lifestyles more environmentally friendly and, in turn, lead healthier lives. Whether it’s making your home more energy efficient, or cooking with locally grown organic foods, you can find advice and direction for every step of your journey to a greener and healthier life through Be Green.

If you’ve been following this blog in recent weeks, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that the most popular social networking platforms are a bunch of copycats when it comes to design. In the case of Facebook’s most recent update, it comes down to the age-old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The new Facebook brand pages could be a response to Twitter’s redesign (the focus of which was on brands). Just as feasible is the idea that Facebook’s development team had been planning to roll out the Timeline to brand pages all along. Needless to say, the redesign was inevitable regardless of how it came about.

If you don’t have a very active personal profile on Facebook, here’s what you can anticipate on your revamped brand page:

An example of the new brand pages with Facebook Timeline from American Express.

• Cover Photo: The Timeline allows you to choose a graphic to feature in banner-like fashion at the very top of your page. You’ll want it to be not only attention-grabbing, but also aesthetically pleasing, so it may take more consideration that choosing your most recently uploaded picture.
• Featured Story: If any aspect of this update feels similar to Twitter, it’s the new ways Facebook is allowing brands to feature content. Now brand profiles can choose to pin important updates or special content just below the basic profile information.
• Displaced Tabs: Through the current brand page layout, profiles can include countless tabs. These are used to organize content and direct visitors to important content. With the Timeline, and the implementation of featured stories, the tabs now appear as icons below the cover photo, and only three will remain immediately visible (others can be accessed through a drop-down menu).
• No Landing Page: Perhaps the most disappointing part of this update is the inability to set a default landing page. Landing pages used to be included within the page tabs. Having transformed tabs into icons and relocated them, the Timeline does not accommodate any default landing page. Brands will now have to translate the information landing pages once provided visitors into featured content.
• Private Messages: Brand pages can now send messages directly to users without going through a page Admin’s personal account. This will not only enhance communication, but also keep clutter off the brand’s wall. For instance, questions about the company or products offered can be sent directly to a page’s inbox, and addressed on a case-by-case basis. For Best of the Web‘s Facebook fans who regularly participate in the weekly Trivia Challenges, soon you can expect to receive your prize details directly from the BOTW page.

Companies with Facebook brand profiles need to anticipate these upcoming changes, but consumers also have plenty to consider in interacting with these redesigned pages. Many Facebook users are still adjusting to the Timeline on their personal profiles. The new layout is promised to take effect within the month, so users and brands alike should take this time to adjust and prepare for the remnants of Facebook’s older appearance to disappear entirely.

Several months ago, Facebook announced its partnership with eBay, and their intentions to turn the social networking platform into the next big online shopping destination. If successful, Facebook – which currently has nearly 850 members – would be equipped to revolutionize eCommerce as we know it.

Unfortunately, efforts to embrace the idea of bringing storefronts to Facebook have not yet been fruitful for merchants. During the past year, major retailers including The Gap, GameStop, 1-800-FLOWERS, J.C. Penny, and Nordstrom have opened and quickly closed these social e-shops. It seems that, despite having success in brand marketing, Facebook’s efforts in creating a “social shopping” have not adequately encouraged purchasing.

One reason behind the failure of these social storefronts is redundancy: online shopping is already convenient through retail websites. If there isn’t unique, exclusive content or merchandise only available on Facebook, there’s no incentive for customers to make purchases on a social networking site. Consumers can just as easily visit a trusted brand’s website to shop.

This brings us to the other prominent (but often disregarded) problem for these social shops: trust. Facebook users are all too familiar with unannounced changes to their privacy controls. Equally concerning is unreliable security: for instance, the malware worm that compromised the accounts of 45,000 Facebook members in early January. Consequently, many consumers are still hesitant to share and potentially store sensitive credit card information on the site.

Some retailers behind the recent e-shop flops have expressed a desire to modify their approach and have their storefronts make a return to Facebook eventually. Others intend to take a step away from the idea of social shopping. Despite this less-than-encouraging response from consumers and retailers alike, Facebook is not ready to give up on its vision of revolutionizing the world of online shopping.

In recent months, the focus of developments on popular social networking sites has shifted from individual user experience, to brand interests. Some speculate that these changes are a direct result of the increasing popularity of Google+ — not among consumers, but businesses.

For instance, Facebook’s planned “social shopping” through their recent partnership with eBay will allow businesses to better monetize their efforts on the social networking sites outside of paid advertising campaigns. Similarly, Twitter’s revamped profiles allow brands to more easily attract new followers and reach potential customers.

The biggest concern for active Google+ users seems to be a lacking audience; however, the way Google search results implements data from their social platform necessitates a presence there for any company utilizing social media to reach a bigger demographic. Here are a few things to consider in your approach to optimizing your brand’s Google+ profile:

• Update regularly. Profiles with frequent posts are more likely to appear as related results in Google searches.
• +1s are more influential in search results than shares or comments.
• Brand pages can more easily affect search results than a personal profile.
• Like on Twitter, your circles (or lists) and follower count matter.

Ultimately, despite the differences in these various platforms, a brand’s Google+ strategy will inevitably emulate their presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites: the focus remains primarily on the relevance of content shared and the audience reached.