Industry News

Your photos, your friends, your stuff…

According to Google, its service has been made even better “by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends”. The changes are supposed to bring a personal touch to search – Google claims that results are now more relevant and personal to the searcher because they include content such as pictures, posts and videos from the user’s friends, family and colleagues. more…

Trends are telling us that there is a great probability that Google’s Chrome will overtake Microsoft’s Internet Explorer half way into 2012. Chrome overtook Firefox last year and is now aiming for the no 1 spot.

A new Browser was born…

Google’s browser Chrome was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, the day after it was accidently announced prematurely. The beta version was followed by a public stable release in December that same year.
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I travel to work on the train every day and buy the FT at the station kiosk. By the time I get to the office I’ve checked all the articles with a relevance to the Zeta business. I cut them out and place them on the boardroom table for all to see and discuss. At the weekend I carry out the same exercise with the Saturday Guardian, Times, Telegraph and FT Weekend. Old fashioned perhaps, but definitely effective. more…

Last week Lord Sugar fired the one engineer from The Apprentice with the now familiar words “I have never yet come across an engineer who can turn his hands to business”.  Andrew Bounds, the FT Enterprise Editor, fueled the debate with his article “Sugar sounds off”.

Engineers are up in arms, some even appalled at Lords Sugars view.  But it has more than a vague ring of truth to it.  And what is the argument?  If it were reversed would pure businessmen be affronted if they were told that rarely do they make good engineers?  Of course not, business is business and engineering is engineering.  Great engineers should join forces with great business people and not fall into the trap of thinking because they are good engineers those undoubted skills are transferable into the necessary credentials of the successful business person.

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Daniel Pimlot and Tim Bradshaw’s article in Monday’s FT identifies that the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is now using Google to harvest data. Definitely a milestone and should be applauded but with caution. Not as far as the concept is concerned but definitely on the search criteria being used and on the reliability of the information being harvested. The first point will have a direct bearing on the second.

Dan and Tim’s article identifies just two search terms one is ‘estate agents’. That term alone will only yield a fraction of the possible searches. It’s doubtful that many would search simply for ‘estate agents’. When all the possibilities such as ‘houses for sale’, ‘flats for sale’ etc plus the geographic terms are considered the list of relevant key phrases will grow hugely. Has the Bank followed this line? more…

Over the past few weeks Twitter has been gathering news reports like birds sitting on a wire. Whether it is overpowering super injunctions, launching photo sharing services or gaining around 600,000 new users a day, Twitter has been creating a colossal swell of activity recently.

Twitter has proved to have tailored an unbeatable formula which is original, evolving and, as it has proven recently, above the law. This recent hive of press has seen Twitter gain record numbers of sign-ups, from both individuals and businesses alike. But with new companies and businesses joining Twitter every day, how can you stand out from the crowd? Here is a look at a few brilliant campaigns of late… more…

In February 2011 Google launched Panda, an algorithm update that was designed to streamline search results within the US. The aim of this update is to filter low quality and irrelevant sites from search listings and deliver the user trustworthy and comprehensive results.

However, as a consequence of Panda some legitimate sites have seen a fall in their rankings. On the 12th April, Panda was subsequently rolled out to all English language queries, bringing its effects to the UK. more…

The 14th March saw the release of IE9, Microsoft’s latest offering in the much publicised battle of the browsers, and by all accounts they have created one of their best browsers to date. However, IE9’s success was short lived as the 22nd March saw the release of Firefox 4 which promptly left dust in the eyes of IE9 by scooping well over double the amount of downloads on its first day.

Even though IE9 has been wildly hailed as a sign Microsoft are stepping up their game, it still wasn’t enough to fend off the young competition from Firefox 4 which gained 7.1 million downloads in its first day. As well as faster loading, increased privacy and stronger security, the new Mozilla browser includes improvements to HTML5, including WebM video, CSS3 and javascript. It also includes access to hardware accelerated graphics (on Windows) which offers users faster graphic rendering and thus more complex gaming which can run within the browser. Unlike IE9, Firefox can also be run with Windows XP which is one of the widest used operating systems. more…

Originally designed 7 years ago, Quick Response codes have been on the peripherals for a while, yet they have never been able to fully take hold. The past few years have seen them make small steps towards an increase in popularity, but is this the beginning of a snowball or will they continue to drift around the edges?

Quick Response codes can simply be explained as a 2D barcode, which when read with a mobile phone camera or web cam will create a link to a piece of online content such as a site, article or video. The matrix for QR codes was created by the Denso-Wave Corporation from Japan in 1994, as it stands no license fee needs to be paid so QR codes are available more…

Facebook has recently announced that it is now offering a new version of Insights for Websites, which includes more in-depth analysis in to how users are interacting with sites that use the like button and other social widgets. Designed to monitor social plug ins and the traffic they are driving to a site, Insights have given marketers valuable information about the behaviour of their audience. Facebook has enhanced five key features on the site which include; more…

This week, New Media Age has reported on the unstoppable force that is Facebook, and the threat it could prove to the previously almighty Google. Although the figures still place Google at the top of all things search, stirrings from Facebook suggest that it is only a matter of time before Google feels the pressure. more…

Well, today is Data Privacy Day, and with December seeing a record high in online shopping it could not have been timelier. With a snow covered winter, the high street seemed like a distant far off land and the majority chose to buy the essentials, and some non-essentials, from the comfort and warmth of our living rooms and offices. However, every online purchase requires you to handover your details and trust that these sites will use your information properly and keep you protected. more…

Latest developer tweak from Facebook branded by bloggers as ‘evil’ , ‘criminal’ and ‘unjust’ as the giant social network exploits users personal information.

On Friday evening Facebook was first to announce its latest developer tweak via its blog which claimed that Facebook were now making users’s home address and mobile telephone number accessible to developers. more…

Well here we are, in the first week of January raring to go. Rafael G Lepper (@rglepper) has joined the front end development team, Rosie is finalising the 99moves film “The Storm” (coming to a field near you very soon…), Will is expecting his fourth child any day now and I am chairing the various discussions over what will and won’t happen in 2011.

A few of the things mentioned include:

2011 is a year for Google to deliver on their promises! Let’s see what happens to Google’s ebooks and TV after a year of rushed launches and big promises to compete with Apple and Amazon. more…

We’re watching you…well Facebook, Twitter and Google are watching you. This week the social media giants have all released their annual search and trending topics review, apparently Justin Beiber was quite popular.

Google zeitgeist has monitored both the fastest falling and the fastest growing trends of the year in a range of topics. Overall the fastest growing global search terms this year include ‘chatroulette’, ‘ipad’ and ‘Justin Bieber’.  In the news the Haiti earthquake and Chilean miners rescue were top amongst the list, along with the Gulf oil spill and strangely, Lady Gaga. Google zeitgeist keeps a track of all sorts of things, such as the fastest rising health queries. It’s interesting to see how many people are Google-ling ‘appendicitis symptoms’ instead of just going to the hospital.

Twitter has also released a comprehensive review of the overall trends of the year within categories, whilst also releasing a top 10. Twitter puts the Gulf Oil spill at the top of the overall trends, closely followed by the World Cup, Vuvuzela’s and, once again, Justin Bieber. more…