When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I develop web applications, they often give me a blank look. When that happens, I backtrack, generalize, and tell them I build web sites and they go, "Oh, okay!"

So what is the difference between a web site and a web application?

We all know what a web site is, so let's focus on web applications. Web applications, or Rich Internet Applications (RIA), are presented as either a web site or as part of a web site, but not all web sites are web applications. A web application is a web site that DOES something other than display content to the masses. It's intended for user interactions and transactions, performing actual business functions, and not simply displaying information to a user.

Ebay is a web application. So are Paypal, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, eHarmony, eTrade, GMail, and Wikipedia. Your bank, assuming it offers online banking, has a web application component on its site. If you can think of a site where you create an account, log in, and conduct some actual business, it's probably a web application.

By contrast, a web site usually refers to the front-end interface through which the public interacts with a business online. Web sites are typically informational in nature with a limited amount of advanced functionality. Simple websites consist primarily of static content where the data displayed is the same for every visitor and content changes are infrequent. More advanced websites may have features such as eCommerce, content management and dynamic content. Simple websites are basically clearing houses for information. The UGA Athletics Site is such a site, as are CNN.com, Nytimes.com and Nike.com.

Many large sites are a blend of the two. For example, Fidelity.com is a good example of a website with a web application built into it. A member of the general public can go to Fidelity.com and do research on current market trends, learn about the Fidelity company and the financial products they offer, learn tips on saving for retirement, etc. This part of the site is just a regular old web site.

However, if I have Fidelity accounts, I can sign on to a protected part of the Fidelity site where I can buy or sell stocks & mutual funds, track potential investments, get advice from Fidelity's advisors regarding my accounts, all through a nicely designed user interface. This part of Fidelity's site is a web application -- it facilitates business actions over the web, and I can conduct business on the site just like I could if I were sitting in a brick and mortar office.

Here at Plexus, we build web sites with an integrated content management application. So in that sense, every site we build has a web application built into it. Most of our clients don't need anything more than that, but a small percentage of our clients need their site to perform specific interactions with users. Our most recent web application is Listingtank.com, a site where renters looking for apartments can get cash rewards for a finding and signing lease through the site. Its business function is to match renters with property managers and to generate revenue for everyone involved. Is it a web site? Yes. But to simply call it a web site simply doesn't do it justice. Another client, Bulldawg Illustrated, uses their site to manage subscriptions to both their print and online publications. Another client recently built an application on their site to track data on local public health clinics.

Given this knowledge, the trick for any business with an online presence is to decide whether its web site could actually be used as a web application, and what business actions that application could conduct. Savvy business owners, such as Listingtank, have figured out how to adapt the technology we've made available to them to create a site that not only performs business functions, but is actually THE means by which they conduct business.

There are countless firms out there that can build you a web site. But can they build you a web application, customized to meet your business' specific needs? Can they take your traditional business functions and translate them to an interface allowing your customers to do business with you from their home or laptop? Plexus can. We love building web applications because each one is different, and each business has a specific set of needs. What business function do you want your web site to take on? The sky's the limit.

The great thing about blogs are the opportunity for dialogue they create. Blogs aren't intended to just be ramblings from the author, instead, they offer the reader the ability to comment and create a back and forth of conversation.

With blog commenting; however, there are some rules of etiquette to keep in mind:

• Use correct grammar and spelling. Most blogs will not only display your comment, but your name and email address as well so be sure that your comment is intelligent and grammatically correct.
• Provide insightful commentary. Don't comment unless you really have something thoughtful to say. "Right on" or "great" doesn't really provide much to the conversation.
• Stick to the topic at hand. Don't comment solely for the opportunity to produce a diatribe on something totally unrelated. Add to the conversation in a meaningful way.
• Don't attack the author. Certainly, you can disagree but be sure to do it a respectful manner.
• Don't ramble on forever. Be brief, and again, intelligent with your comments. No one wants to read a comment longer than the original post.
• Links - while it could be beneficial to link back to your own site in a comment when appropriate, do not spam blogs with only a link back to your site. If your site happens to provide more information on the subject at hand, and can be a source of further reference in combination with your comment, I say it's a "do". But, if your only intention is to try and drive traffic to your site from the link with no good frame of reference, it's definitely a "don't".

Bloggers post with intention of reaching out to the online audience so post when and where appropriate and be sincere and personal with your comments. Bloggers are looking to make connections and friendships with their posts and commenting is an easy way to get there. Hopefully you will have learned something from their post and in turn, are able to provide something of your own through your thoughtful comment.

Happy blogging and commenting!

Fashionista is not usually among my list top adjectives (I'm typically more along the lines of chatter box, curious, busy or animated), but for one evening, the ladies and gentlemen at Athens BLVD transformed me for their winter fashion shoot.

Showcasing a bone inspired necklace from Heery’s and a red Valentino silk shirt from Menagerie - two downtown Athens boutiques - the shoot aimed to highlight some of winter's fashion trends to feature on their new Web site, athensblvd.com.

While their choice of models may be questionable, the BLVD team is truly inspiring. In their first year of production of a quarterly Athens fashion magazine, they don't stop with just the publication - in fact, not even close. In September, the group of mostly students carried out a huge and wildly successful fashion show attracting more than 800 people in attendance and raising money for the Junior League of Athens (Here is a photo of me modeling for the show and some of my fellow Leaguers post hair and makeup but before wardrobe).

Tonight, they are helping to kick off the grand opening of P.S. Too - a new upscale thrift store benefiting Project Safe, an organization that to end domestic violence through prevention and educational programs, crisis intervention and ognoing supportive services. Later this month, they are cohosting Cine’s exclusive screening of Coco Before Chanel.

Check out BLVD and all they have going on at athensblvd.com.

If your small business doesn't have a budget to hire a PR agency...don't despair, HARO is there.

HARO was the brainchild of Peter Shankman. In less than two years, the website has quickly become the go-to resource for reporters who are on a tight deadline and need sources. Shankman originally set up HARO as a Facebook page, but when things took off and he maxed out at 1,200 followers, Shankman launched the website HelpAReportOut.com

The concept is simple and the web site is even simpler. There is a small form to fill out - 4 fields. Fill out the form and you are hit with three daily emails full of reporters looking for an "expert" to consult with for their story.

Plexus has been using it for just a few weeks and we already have a hit. American Express sent out a query looking for small businesses using Software as a Service (SaaS). We responded quickly and they bit. We will be quoted on the American Express Open site with our review of how SaaS can improve a small business's bottom line with our real world example.

There are five rules of HARO:

• You will get three emails a day, M-F, with reporter queries from reporters and outlets from all over the world. Scan the emails, and if you're knowledgeable about any of the topics, answer the reporter directly.
• Don't SPAM reporters with off-topic pitches in response to their queries.
• You MAY forward queries to friends, but DO NOT post them on blogs or anywhere on the web.
• You're not allowed to harvest the reporter email addresses in the HARO emails for any reason.
• Be excellent to each other.

Spend two minutes by visiting HelpAReportOut.com, give them your first name, last name, company name and e-mail address and you are on your way to starting your own in-house PR campaign.

This August, Mark Milian of the LA Times reported that Apple's iPhone had surpassed the Canon Rebel XTi as the most popular camera on Flickr. Let's distill that down to its essence -- the most popular camera on the world's most popular photo-sharing website isn't a camera, but a phone with a camera in it.

If you have an iPhone, or have seen pictures taken by one, you know that the camera which comes bundled inside Apple's ubiquitous pocket-computer isn't the best in the world. In fact, it's barely passable as a camera. The pictures it takes remind me of the first commercially available digital cameras that came out in the late 1990's - terrible resolution, washed out colors, poor focus and virtually no depth of field. Forget about action shots or night photos. Those cameras were basically toys which cashed in on the novelty of a film-less camera. Then, as the technology improved and became more affordable, digital cameras became more acceptable in terms of photo quality, and now there are DSLRs available for under $500 which can take pictures of a professional quality.

The Canon Rebel XTi, while still a bit above that $500 mark, is one of the current breed of DSLRs that shoot incredible pictures. A search of XTi-taken photos on Flickr quickly reveals a array of stunning images. Canon and Nikon also both make point and shoot cameras which are remarkably capable of taking high-quality shots in the right hands.

The iPhone, on the other hand, takes blurry, washed-out photos that no self-respecting photographer would want to add to their portfolio. Since quality of images doesn't explain it, what IS the reason for the iPhone's popularity on Flickr?

One word: Connectivity.

The iPhone lets you go from point and shoot to sharing on the web in a matter of seconds, thanks to its internet connectivity via WIFI or 3G. I can take a photo with my iPhone, post it to Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc , and be receiving comments in less than a minute. The picture itself becomes more relevant because it is being seen almost in real time. On the web, freshness counts. Which means that if we want to quickly snap a photo to share with friends online, the iPhone is the instantaneous choice, despite its poor quality. It's already right there in your pocket anyway. While a Nikon D90 or Canon Rebel might take a picture that's 100 times better, it requires downloading the shot to a computer, then uploading it to the web, which means you have to be near or return to your computer before you can share anything. So lately we've all been sacrificing picture quality for speed, convenience, and above all connectivity.

I'm no different. In the last 15 years I went from being a photo snob that only shot on slide film with an SLR to someone who grudgingly accepted digital cameras because of their web-friendliness, to someone who doesn't even use the digital camera I have anymore because basically every picture I take is on the iPhone so that I can get it up onto Twitter quickly & easily.

So what are the implications?

First, it indicates to me that high-end camera makers like Canon and Nikon need to be developing technology to integrate internet connectivity into their cameras. If I could shoot pics with a Nikon D90, then upload those pics to the web from the camera via WIFI, I would be a lot more inclined to use said expensive camera because then I'd have the best of both worlds -- quality and web connectivity. Real-time photo sharing within a micro-blogging framework with (gasp) high-quality images. At present, there have been a few half-hearted efforts at the point-and-shoot level, but none have full web connectivity.

Secondly, Apple will doubtlessly improve the iPhone's camera quality over the next few years. Just like the awful digital cameras of the 90's, the technology will improve and become so cheap that before long we will carry around 10+ megapixel cameras bundled inside our phones. A competitor's phone will out-camera the iPhone, and Apple will respond. The soon-to-be-released Motorola Droid purports to have a much better camera than the iPhone. But in the meantime, the web is being flooded with terrible pictures of interesting things, and I think that's a shame. We're stuck in another low point in the evolution of cameras, (like the 90's digital camera gap) where the one everyone uses is awful, despite the fact that high-end cameras are available and affordable.

Think back to your family's pictures from the 70's, when everyone was using 110mm film. Remember the rounded corners on the prints, the flat tonality of the colors, the yellow-orange tone to everything? Those shape our memory of that time. When we look back nostalgically at the Ought's (as I intend to refer to this glorious time), will the only tangible supplements to your memory be blurry, washed out photos, scalable to no larger than 640x480?

I'm writing this post as much as a chide to myself to use my good camera and not my pocket novelty camera, but that connectivity issue is such a big one that I think it's worthy of mention. So make an effort to take a picture with a good camera this week, put it on the web, and then share it with me, because if I have to look at too many more blurry, washed-out iPhone images I just might wipe the inch of dust off my Nikon SLR and start shooting on slide film again. I need some clarity.