Five or ten years ago, your Web site was your entire on-line presence, simply because there wasn’t any other place to deploy content and functionality.

Today, that’s not the case at all: with the proliferation of platforms (Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.), embeddable content, widgets (video, Flash, etc.) and access methods (desktop, mobile, game system, large screens) your on-line presence is much more than just what’s on the Web site. In extreme cases, there’s no site at all: a company’s presence may be entirely embodied in a Facebook app, for example.

Moral: don’t think of the Web site as the only place to focus development efforts. Treat the off-site stuff as first-class features and prioritize them against the Web site investments. Specifically consider:

• Widgets

• iPhone app (or an iPhone version of your site)

• Google widget

• Facebook & MySpace app

• Twitter integration