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Nielsen Normal Group recently released its Intranet Design Annual, which highlights the year's 10 best intranets and details the common themes present in the most successful sites across the globe.

This year's 10 winning intranets are:

Altran, a large engineering and innovation consultancy (France)

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a developer of computer and graphics processors (USA)

BASF SE, the world's leading chemical manufacturing company (Germany)

COWI Group A/S, a consulting group focusing on engineering, environmental science, and economics (Denmark)

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT), a global professional services network providing audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services (a Global member organization)

Environmental Resources Management (ERM), one of the world's leading providers of environmental consulting services (Global)

HSBC Bank Brazil (Brazil)

Kaupthing Bank (Iceland)

L.L.Bean, a vendor of apparel and outdoor equipment (USA)

McKesson Corporation, a large provider of pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and health care information technologies (USA)

Bigger is not always better. One of this year's winners includes a team of five members, and in the past, winners have included one- and two-person teams. Another healthy trend is that companies have taken more ownership of their intranets. While six of the winners were designed by a combination of in-house and outside expertise, none of the winners were designed exclusively by an outside agency even though it was a common approach in previous years.

Big trend? Social networking

When I spoke with Kara Pernice, managing director at Nielsen Normal Group, she shared how social networking has grown leaps and bounds since past years' design annuals. While companies may have had some of the social networking features in the past, now it is much more prevalent.

"The Intranet tends to follow trends from the web, and social networking is no exception," noted Pernice. The ability to be social on the company web is especially valuable for the more introverted employees who normally would not become part of the "party" at work because they were not very social. Now even these folks can get connected without having to try and fit into someone else's mold.

In the Intranet Design Annual 2009, the authors call social networking and the intranet "a marriage made in e-heaven." Popular Web 2.0 features -- including blogs, forums, videos, calendars, wikis, and social networking -- are not just features offered on the intranet but are being put to good business use. Each of the 10 winners offered one or more social features.

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