Following last week’s post on Web 2.0 open source technologies, Mashable has posted 10 of the best open source social networking platforms. Keep in mind that some of these platforms are FREE, and not necessarily open source. There is a difference.

Read/Wite Web has another article on the topic, entitled “cloning web 2.0,” adding to list of open source web 2.0.

Web 2.0 and open source go hand in hand. The LAMP platform, Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, is one of the most robust and commonly used platforms for the web. Our focus is on the software that creates the experience. Here are some of the most common and best applications powering the next generation of web applications.

Blogging:

• WordPress - the foundation of this blog and nearly all other blogs in the free world. The community behind WordPress, the constant development and additions make it a living breathing component of web 2.0. WordPress is more than a blogging platform, it combines content management, and social networking into a single application.

Social Networking:

• Pligg - social content management system a la Digg allowing users to submit articles/stories and vote for their favorites
• Elgg - a social networking platform that allows people to easily connect and share resources. Geared toward education.

Content Management Systems:

• Joomla! - award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications
• Drupal - easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website

Ecommerce:

• Zen Cart - a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart system, an offshoot of osCommerce

TechCrunch recently did a writeup on a new web 2.0 product called Tailgate. The software, dubbed as “Worlds First fully transactional web 2.0 banner system,” allows users to make purchases directly through a banner ad.

It’s a strange concept, but take a look for youself.

Several questions come to mind:

• Success rate - banner ads typically have very low click through rates, are users now going to interact with the ads?
• Security - will users feel comfortable entering in their personal and credit card information in a banner ad on a third parties website?
• User Experience - the advertiser/seller loses all control of managing the users’ experience and opportunities for building a relationship. Will retailers take to this approach?

Would you purchase from a banner ad? As a retailer, would you want to sell your products through a banner ad?

Often times the focus of ecommerce and online marketing is on conversions - making sales to your sources of traffic. But what about selling MORE to the people who already want to buy from you?

In the July 2007 edition of Business 2.0, the article “Rethinking The Recommendation Engine” discusses some of the latest in ecommerce cross selling and up selling technologies (aka recommendation engines).

According to Forrester Research, consumers spent $220 billion online last year and it is estimated that 10-30 percent of that is accounted for by recommendation systems. That is anywhere between 22 and 66 billion dollars!

So what is a recommendation system? The most recognized recommendation system is Amazon’s. Based on the items you have purchased and what you search for, they do some complicated calculations to find items that you might also like.

A ‘recommendation system’ is a friendlier name to the traditional sales terms of cross selling and up selling.
“Would you like to to super size that? Would you like fries with that?”
“If you love that shirt, take a look at this one. Do you want some new pants to go along with that as well?”

The article goes on to talk about some new recommendation platforms out there used by some heavy hitters.

• ChoiceStream - suggests movies and songs, used by Blockbuster, Comacst and iTunes
• CleverSet - Scans products descriptions, prices and ratings to make recommendations
• Aggregate Knowledge - Uses “supercomputers” to make connections between consumers and products - used by Overstock.com and WashingtonPost.com

These technologies are not well suited for the average online store. But that doesn’t mean you can’t, and shouldn’t, have some means of cross selling or up selling. Creating a simple recommendation system not only creates value by selling more, but it also enhances the customers’ experience, introducing new products and helping customers find what they may have forgot or need.

Here are some concrete recommendations for creating a simple system to capture that 10-30%, making the most out of your sales:

• Start simple - build in to your ecommerce platform a way for you, the store owner, to associate different products with one another
• Suggest similar and complimentary products - if they have a new pair of shoes in their shopping cart, suggest some shoe polish
• Get more complicated - make recommendations based on previous the buying patterns of the individual as well as other customers
• Up sell - show the higher end models of the same product
• Make recommendations along the way - show your recommendations on the product page, shopping cart page, checkout, and after checkout (do you need a car charger for that new iPhone?)
• Continue the dialog - follow up in the confirmation email with other items they might like or may have forgotten
• Monitor, analyze and adjust - constantly adapt to changing demands of your customers, especially if your software can’t

The technology platform of your website has serious implications in your search engine optimization efforts. Often times in the development of sophisticated content management systems and ecommerce engines marketing and SEO take a back seat to functionality.

But that should not happen. If you build a system right, it will not only be “SEO friendly”, but often times can help streamline your SEO efforts. The trouble is that it is very rare to find a development team that understands the implications for SEO and coordinates with your online marketing agency.

A great search engine optimized technology platform should, at a minimum, allow for the following:

• Creation and management of unique page titles, meta tags, and URLs
• Output of clean XHTML code
• Mechanisms to maintain the integrity of the above

So how do you evaluate if your content management system or technology platform put SEO in the back seat? Look for these signs -

• Long complicated URLs (index.php?content=aboutuspagenumber12)
• Messy HTML code (multiple header or body tags, random CMS generated style sheets)
• Short non-descriptive or repetitive title tags (ie: Company Name - About)
• The inability to control any of the above

Optimizing a technology platform can be a lot of work, so be sure to evaluate if you are better off just rebuilding the platform rather than trying to plug a sinking ship.