Intranets are becoming a higher priority for organizations. Intranet teams are growing in size, and the best of them are embracing new trends such as mobile accessibility and social networking. These are some of the findings from Jakob Nielsen's annual report on the top intranets for 2010. Companies that made the list this year include General Electric, Trend Micro Devices and Walmart. Nielsen is recognized as one of the world's foremost usability experts. His findings appear solid, though it is apparent that Intranet development is just on the verge of becoming a central communication environment for enterprise collaboration. Sponsor This year, Nielsen says, top companies on the list had a median size of about 6,300 employees, which continues a year-to-year trend toward smaller businesses. He attributes it to the increase in availability of small-company-friendly intranet technology. In addition, intranet teams are growing, up to 14 people, 27% higher than the average team size in 2006. This is not a big surprise. The need to develop the best possible internal communications environments now cuts across multiple platforms, ranging from the web to mobile devices. More resources are required to keep these platforms synced and accessible to the employees in the organization. Mobile Intranet Sites The best intranets had a separate mobile site for its employees. Of the companies polled, only 30% actually had a dedicated mobile site. Expect this to change in the year ahead. People are still getting to know how to use smart phones. It's still rare for companies to launch application environments for users, but at least one company did: an iPhone web app. Soon, though, users will expect to have access "anytime, anywhere," to their organization's network. Social Features The social Web is finding its way into intranets. Nielsen cites two trends: social features for employees as individuals workgroup support and other features that encourage work-related connections He cites Walmart for its discussion and profile pages and Trend Micro's TrendSpace, which includes the capability for employees to create their own content. Trend Micro goes as far as offering an elaborate system of reward points that accrue to employees when they contribute to the intranet's community features. It's noteworthy that social features are still just emerging in intranet environments, especially with the advent of enterprise collaboration services. Companies still have the chance to be recognized as innovators in this space, especially if they implement real-time update capabilities and mashup environments . Intranet Design is Maturing Overall, Nielsen comes to the conclusion that intranet design is maturing. In many respects, the Intranet has come of age. In the year ahead, intranets will change even more. Mobile usability and social networking features will continue to evolve, especially as teams begin to experiment with the wide variety of enterprise collaboration services now available. Discuss

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Top Intranets Embrace Mobile Accessibility and Social Networking

If you want to help Mozilla to make Firefox better but you are not a developer, here is your chance. Earlier this year, Mozilla announced the launch of Test Pilot , the organization's new distributed usability lab. Test pilots will be enlisted in various usability tests and will be some of the first to see some of Mozilla's ideas for new user interfaces and Mozilla Labs products. We first wrote about Test Pilot when it was just a "still-in concept platform." Now, however, you can download the Test Pilot add-on for Firefox 3.5 here and begin to help Mozilla make Firefox even better. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! First Tests Are Coming Soon For now, Mozilla will start the program with a survey that aims to get a better understanding of who is joining the Test Pilot community. The first actual tests should arrive soon after this first survey is complete. Mozilla stresses that it will take its users' privacy seriously. Participants have to opt-in and data will be stored in anonymous form. Only aggregate test data will be made available to the public. Overall, this looks like a great project. Usability studies tend to be slow and costly, yet with Test Pilot, Mozilla will be able to quickly enlist feedback about new design ideas from its large community of users. Discuss

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Become a Test Pilot: Mozilla Wants Your Help To Make Firefox Better

Favrd , the now-retired (creator-destroyed) aggregation site for Twitter "favorites," began as the irreverent offshoot of a community of influential designers and developers -- people like Merlin Mann ( @hotdogsladies ), John Gruber ( @gruber ), Jeffrey Zeldman ( @zeldman ), and Dean Cameron Allen ( @textism ), the site's creator. You don't need to know the lofty origins of Favrd, though; if anything, they're antithetical to the point. Favrd ran on a "no-webcock algorithm." ("Webcock" was Dean's term for shamelessly self-promoting "new media gurus.") Sponsor This guest post was written by Kim Gaskins, a writer for Latitude Research . In an interview earlier this year, web developer Rafael Torres ( @rafitorres ) remarked: "A common concern for all of [the creators] was the idea that the social web had been invaded by a certain class of individuals who were apparently only concerned with marketing themselves and their brands through fake social interactions." How Many Stars in the Sky? Infinite: and That's Too Many. Simply put, I think what happened to Favrd was that a new crop of users appeared who didn't know how to value the currency , and thus they inadvertently devalued it. They were arbitrarily plastering their stars around town to promote themselves, like "take-out menus hung on the doors of other restaurants." Dan Wineman ( @dwineman ), "The Favrd Situation" In this way, currency (devalued) only serves to commodify valuable content. Remiel ( @remiel ) makes some generative suggestions here to "inject scarcity back into the equation." What if Favstar instituted a new metric... ? "The result, ideally, is... a truly useful list of vetted Twitter content, reliably worth reading. In short: a great, alternative Twitter filter." "I hate when clever, elegant things leave the web." Jeffrey Zeldman to Dean Cameron Allen, commenting on "The Stars Look Down" Favrd: The Black Sheep of Bottom-Up PosterCommunities Cohesive communities like Favrd, grown organically without a pointed goal -- especially the communities grown around liberality of mind and well-placed puns -- have some people asking, " yes, but what's the point? " Therein lies the point. "I've met lots of people, collaborated creatively with a few and even had one stay on my couch during his trip across the country. All wonderful experiences." Jon Dascola , commenting on Zeldman's "The Stars Look Down" So What's Beside the Point? Professionally speaking, Avery Edison ( @aedison ) is an upcoming UK-based comedy writer who has her roots in the feedback and support of the Favrd community. You Look Nice Today ( @hotdogsladies , @lonelysandwich , and @scottsimpson ) is a free podcast "prepared by and for 'adults'" that now performs in 3space as well, for money . Interview with Nick Douglas ( @nick ), author of Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less : For Goodness' Sake... SmallCanBeBig is a charitable non-profit that harnesses the power of small, direct donations for families in need. Mark Nikolewski ( @mnik ) is lead designer and art director for the organization; from his personal experience in the community, he can trace back thousands of dollars in direct donations to SmallCanBeBig from Favrd members. He estimates that the community supplies about 20% of the organization's ( @smallcanbebig 's) retweets, without accounting for any secondary networking effects. Mike Monteiro ( @mike_FTW ) has been one of SmallCanBeBig's most outspoken supporters, incenting donations via Twitter in Favrd fashion: "SmallCanBeBig: Tell you what: you donate $50 and I will tweet a PERSONAL INSULT which you can RT to show your friends how cool you are." (Visit SmallCanBeBig.org directly to donate sans personal insult.) Josh Hopkins ( @thedayhascome ) began tweeting about the medical condition of his daughter (born January 2009) as a part of the Favrd community, which rose up with overwhelming support while Lucy underwent serious operations and prolonged hospital stays. ( Josh and his family will be participating in the March for Babies in 2010 to raise money on behalf of Lucy's name. If individuals would like to donate money to The March of Dimes, on behalf of Team Lucy Kate who is walking in the Indianapolis event, more information is available here .) "Keep starring the heavens, kids. #thankyoutextism" (via @pagecrusher ) A more comprehensive directory of projects from the Favrd community is available here . Discuss

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On Favrd, Twitter & Community: Why You Should Be Able to Count the Stars