Fortunately Komodo also provides a simple method for creating extensions within the IDE itself, so I gave it a try. Within a few hours I was able to build an extension to do exactly what I needed and configure it on a per-project basis. I’ve made the extension available as an MIT-licensed, open-source project. As always, this project is included on the open source tools page.

So, yesterday’s announcement by the Facebook development team about fql.multiquery couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Experienced web developers (and multi-tiered application developers in general) have all learned that performing work in the proper tier is always the most efficient way to work. Data should be managed in the database tier and as separately from the application tier as possible. This announcement from the Facebook development team is great news for Facebook application developers everywhere. Kudos to them!

I’ve just started reading it, but it’s absolutely enthralling. I’m going to send it over to my Kindle so I can finish it, but I have to say that the introduction and first chapter have me hooked. I’m always interested in seeing how fast companies like Word Perfect evolved from nothing to category killers and then collapsed in such a short time. It makes me think of the businesses, products and services that I’m been involved in creating.

Sometimes the evolution is part of the process. I think of the site that my wife and I created after we adopted our daughter, HopeToAdopt.com. It started from nothing, grew far beyond our initial hopes, but has naturally faded as our personal connection with adoption is waning. We’re shutting it down in August.

Sometimes the evolution is caused by competition or external innovation. Companies like Iomega experienced explosive growth at a time when their Zip drives were the best value for the money in storage, but as the price of hard disks, CDs and other storage fell, the Iomega drives were no longer competitive. Alta Vista (and others) fell to Google.

Planning for the inevitable cycles in business is not a sign of weakness or disbelief in a product or service. It’s the very recognition of the cycles that allow very long-term companies to continue to grow. If your current project is just starting, you should already ask yourself how it will end. That type of healthy attitude about product lifecycles will allow you to be an IBM or Xerox instead of a forgotten company.

For a while, I suppose, there was a reason to make a distinction between a traditional web site and a blog. Those distinctions might be in how the site was arranged, how dynamic the information on the site was, and how the site was maintained (which tools). I don’t think there ever needed to be a distinction between a small business presence web site and a blog — and I certainly don’t think so today. In fact I think the best way to create a small business web site now is by blogging.

But blogging is too much work

Go with me for just a moment. Let’s say that you’re getting into the home inspection business and you need a basic presence web site. You need a place to describe your business, create a contact form and you want to display some basic service information and policies. You’re not necessarily interested in posting regular updates, but you want to be able to change things around from time to time.

Guess what? That sounds like a blog to me. Modern blogging software normally allows the creation of pages in addition to regular posts. If you look at the top of this blog, for example, I have an About page and if you look at the very bottom I also have a Privacy policy page. From an administrative standpoint there’s no difference between a blog post and a content page.

So, before you rush out and hire a designer and a web developer to put together your small web site, you might want to take Wordpress.com for a spin. There you can create an account, set up your blog/site and see what it might look like. If you install the really incredible Thesis theme* on your blog, you’ll also get point-and-click control over which pages appear in the top navigation (and much more).

Future benefits

If you start building your site this way, you have the option to eventually post regular updates like you expect from a blog. You also get built-in commenting (which you can turn on and off for each page or post individually), a huge collection of installable plugins and widgets that you can use to display things from Flickr photos to YouTube videos to stock price widgets (and on and on).

Some caveats

If you’re trying to build a commerce web site for hundreds of products, a blog probably isn’t the right way to go. There are other solutions for that if you’re interested (drop me a comment). Also, keep in mind that free hosting on sites such as Wordpress.com might introduce elements (such as unwanted ads) onto your site without your control. It’s still worthwhile to consider, though, since Wordpress.com provides a premium feature set at extremely reasonable prices. You can build your site up on the free version and decide if it’s right for you, then upgrade if and when it makes sense.

Last thoughts

With all the flexibility built into today’s blogging platforms, it’s hard to come up with a good reason to build a site any other way. You may not be blogging today, but as your business expands, your customers may expect regular updates on your site. Using a blog as the foundation provides the ability to turn that feature on when you need it rather than having to figure out how to merge a traditional web site with a blog later. The simplicity of starting a new blog site on Wordpress.com reduces the startup barriers to practically zero, so there’s almost no reason that anyone — even someone with no experience creating web sites — couldn’t create a web presence immediately.

Get to it. Then tell me what you think!

* Disclosure: The Thesis theme is not free and I am an affiliate representative of DIYthemes, the creator. I get paid if you buy Thesis. I’d recommend using the Thesis theme even if I weren’t an affiliate.