There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding devices like the iPad, Kindle and Nook, and it seems like everyone I talk to is singing the praises of the e-reader of their choice.

“It’s so easy to read, and you can even make the font bigger so you don’t have to squint!”

“It’s smaller and lighter than a book, so I can take it with be anywhere.”

“I can buy a book as soon as I think of it.  No more late night trips to Borders.”

People aren’t just talking about e-readers, they are buying them.  The Nook has led Barnes and Noble to a 21% revenue increase and Amazon’s Kindle 3 is the fastest selling version yet.  And Apple’s iPad sold over 3 million devices in just the first 80 days of being on the market.

I’d say that proves e-readers may very well be the future.

Think about it, how convenient would it be to finish "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and instantly be able to download “The Girl who Played with Fire” so you can start part two of Stieg Larson’s trilogy?

And it would be much easier to carry around a little one pound device than the 6 books currently sitting on my nightstand (so I have a problem finishing books, don’t judge).  There is even talk a mini iPad may be available by Christmas, which would be even easier to transport.

But after reading e-mails and looking at websites on the computer all day, there is something so refreshing about just picking up my paperback copy of “The Help” and unplugging from technology for a little while.  (Well, I’m not completely unplugged…I obviously still have my cell phone handy.)

Ah.  I just can’t decide!

If you have an opinion or advice, please share.  Have you taken the plunge and purchased an e-reader or do you prefer a good, old-fashioned hard back?

On Monday, Internet Explorer celebrated its 15th anniversary.

It is hard to imagine life without the ever present internet of today, so we at Wright Strategies took the time to reminisce about where we were in 1995 for the beginning of the internet as we know it.

Rebekah: I was in Mrs. King’s 4th grade class, spending my afternoons playing “Oregon Trail” in the computer lab.

David: My family had just received our first computer, a Macintosh, and I was browsing the World Wide Web on my top-of-the-line 14.4k modem.

Kendra: I was a writer for a high tech company. We were just figuring out that we needed to put my writing on this “internet” thing. Luckily our webmaster was lazy, frequently returning from hours away with grass marks on his face, and our boss was too busy to care. So I told the webmaster if he’d teach me UNIX and how to program web pages, I’d do his job and wouldn’t blow his cover. So you could say I owe my career to a mid-day napper and a boss who had more important things to do than focus on the web.

Chris:  I was 14 years old and barely knew what the internet was.

Aaron: I was a sophomore in college and had just been tasked with building a website for the Physics department. A little notepad and a lot of stolen gifs resulted in a truly special site that no one was envious of.

Jessica: I was using MS Word to crank out English Lit. papers on Turn of the Screw and  Bartleby, The Scrivener, and was learning Pascal in my Comp. Sci. class.

Jeremy: I was convincing myself that as a Fine Arts major I was going to escape the responsibility of having to use/learn Portland State University’s new-fangled Groupwise Email system and, God willing, the Internet all together. Yahoo!? Lycos? Amazon?  Certainly not anything I would ever have to worry about again!

Justin: I was skipping my high school classes to work at my high powered, well paying drug store cashier job. I “punched in” through an actual time clock, got to use a calculator to “ring” people up, and was trained by a German woman named Gisela whom was as intimidating as she sounds.

Oh, how things have changed.  Haven't we all come a long way?!

I’ll admit it, having a smart phone has lead to an increase in my procrastination.  No longer do I look up directions, hours or even a phone number before I’m out the door on my way to a restaurant.

Prep time has gone from a 5 minute search on my laptop to a quick look at the mobile site before I pull out of the driveway.

According to a recent report from Nielson, I am not alone in my use of a smart phone as 25% of US mobile phone users have a smart phone.  That number is expected to increase to around 50% by 2013.

Now more than ever, users are looking for simple versions of their favorite websites for their phone.  They don’t want to get bogged down by all the extra bells and whistles a laptop can support, just a streamlined design that is easy to navigate on a small screen.

So how does your mobile site stack up?

If a consumer is looking for you their smart phone, are they automatically redirected to a mobile friendly version?  Or five minutes later are they still waiting for your full site to download?

It seems a little silly to make it hard for your customer to find you…but maybe that’s just me.

We are so excited for you to meet the newest mini-member of the Wright Strategies family.  Aaron and his wife Jessica welcomed Alexander Darius Pederson into the world just a few weeks ago.

I think we can all agree with Aaron that he's a pretty good looking kid.

Welcome Xander!