Industry News

Controversial insider information site Wikileaks, jumped from their Swedish server to Amazon’s US cloud server after having a taste of their own medicine when their site was hacked. The move lasted almost the whole day before Amazon took down the site after Senator Joe Lieberman; the chairman of House Security supposedly applied pressure to the ecommerce giant.

Wikileaks is currently at the centre of a row with the US government after the site leaked 250,000 sensitive documents to the online community. Although not necessary harmful to any individual the documents are at least embarrassing for the government members involved.

Lieberman issued a statement saying, “I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on Wikileaks’ previous publication of classified material. The company’s decision to cut off Wikileaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies Wikileaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material.” more…

The reigning giant of internet search is facing some strong allegations and an investigation from The European Commission due to supposed misuse of its dominant position. There is no doubt that Google is the lord of all things search, from those of us who work in the industry to those who fleetingly visit the web, Google is a staple.

At first it seems Google has been accused of offering preferential treatment to some services whilst shutting out others within its organic results. Also, it has been accused of targeting price comparison sites, and lowering their rankings in order to make its own services more apparent. The accusations come from three companies; Foundem, a British price comparison site, Ciao, which is coincidentally owned by Microsoft and French legal search engine justice.fr. more…

No matter how many social networks try to catch up to Facebook and never do, it doesn’t seem to stop others trying. This week saw Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes launch ‘Jumo’, a new breed of socially aware social network that offers charities a platform to reach people and engage them.

Hughes has amassed himself some pretty good credentials over the recent years, after aiding the creation of Facebook in the now shrine-like Harvard dorm room, he went on to become the social media guru for little known politician Barack Obama, both projects went quite well. more…

Last week Twitter announced the imminent launch of its own analytics service, the long awaited service is currently being tested by a panel of Tweeters as we speak.

Social media works, we all know it works but without quantifiable results it’s hard to convince some people. The new tool is said to meet the strong corporate demand for better analytic tools and will also allow Twitter to work closely with other developers.

Twitter Analytics will give users the opportunity to track how effective their tweets are, how often they get passed on and by whom, and also which tweets caused people to unfollow. The app has been created by the team behind Trendly, a service which allows the user to track traffic to and from a site and any other important changes in user behaviour. more…

A report issued recently has detailed exactly how the internet has affected the British economy. ‘The Connected Kingdom: How the Internet is Transforming the UK Economy’ is a joint venture between Google and The Boston Consulting Group and has pointed out what we have known for a long time.

The report has detailed that 7.2% of Britain’s GDP is made up of the internet; a figure they predict will rise to 10% by 2015. The internet also provides 250,000 jobs within Britain and delivers a £50 billion turnover. From its inception it was easy to see that the internet was destined to transform the way we live our lives, now 73% of the British population have a broadband connection, while an ever increasing 31% of people currently access the internet via their mobiles.

According to PayPal’s Online Retail Report(June 2010) they predict online retail is expected to grow by over 36% in the next 18 months compared to just 1% for in-store sales. Additionally, where the offline economy exports 90p for every £1 it imports, the internet is transforming the British economy by exporting £2.80 in goods for every £1 it imports. more…

“British businesses should have no more vocal champion than that of the British government itself and that is why I have put the promotion of British Commerce and International Trade at the heart of our foreign and economic policy”

These were the words of David Cameron speaking at the CBI conference yesterday. The spending cuts last week and the drive for growth through business, technology and innovation is music to both my ears and many other businesses in the UK I would imagine. When the Coalition came to power early this year, there was speculation as to what the Government would mean for British businesses. I am filled with confidence after the recent announcements from the Coalition, finally the government is thinking like a business, understanding that every penny both counts and should be accounted for.

Being British, the weather has a massive impact on nearly everything we do, from conversations with colleagues to our search behaviour on the internet.  It will therefore come as no surprise that the time of year and the weather we are experiencing drives what we search for on the web. Where the summer calls for barbeques and flip flops, the wintery months gain searches for gloves, boots and all things woollen.

We all know the importance of targeting the correct search term, if your business sells apples there is no point opting for deckchairs. Clever businesses are altering their search terms as the year progresses in order to react to the change in needs of their visitors. By opting for seasonal keywords a business can widen the net, display their seasonal products and increase traffic to their site.

The common consensus regarding British weather is that predicting it can be like storing water in a sieve, but we can be sure of some things. History has shown us that the winter will be cold and the summer will be slightly warmer.  Aside from the occasional freakish weather, such as a rainy August bank holiday or T-shirts in January, seasonal weather changes can be expected. Gearing your search term for the coming months can put you a step ahead of your competitors. more…

Just for a moment let’s ignore the gradient in the blue box, and indulge me by pretending you’ve never seen Helvetica used in a logo this way. Let’s pretend that the logo doesn’t have flaws and it’s something we’ve never seen before. You’d still hate it. And the reason you’d hate it is because you are yet to have any emotional attachment to it.

Imagine if some flash Gok Wan type in thick-rimmed spectacles had just come along and chucked your favourite Levi’s in the bin and presented you with a brand new pair. You’re understandably resistant. They feel stiff, they make your shoes look old and, more importantly, not one member of the opposite sex has ever said how good your backside looks in them!

You’d want your old pair back wouldn’t you? And no doubt your moaning would perpetuate until at least a few compliments about the new pair had been heaped upon you. By this time, though, you would have probably realised you like the new pair just as much as the old pair, if not more! It’s no different in branding. Change is uncomfortable, but in the long run, it’s needed. more…

Showbiz fans can get even closer to the stars from today (12th October 2010) as The Famous Bizarre column from UK Tabloid The Sun goes digital with the brand new Bizarre Smartphone App.

The app is described as an “Access All Areas” pass to showbiz news and will give fans of showbiz all the latest celebrity news and pictures on the go, as it happens. The App has reportedly already attracted thousands of pre-registrations on The Sun’s website.

The app updates automatically throughout the day with breaking celebrity news content from Gordon Smart’s Bizarre column so followers can be sure they will be the first to get the insider news.  It also features an exclusive “Live Gossip” Twitter style feed from the Bizarre team and celebrity guest tweeters. Launching it off today is guest tweeter X factor winner Joe McElderry.

The app is available to download worldwide from today via the Apple store and Android Marketplace. But is Murdoch, as ever, being too greedy again?  One of my personal criticisms of this app is the price. more…

Malaysians are reported to be the biggest users of social networks, accumulating more online friends than any other country. Whilst their close counterparts over in Japan are reported to have the least number of friends on social networks like Facebook. Despite being renowned as one of the most technologically advanced nations, it seems the Japanese are way behind when it comes to making digital friends!

This revelation is part of a wider group of findings from a new study named the Digital Life research project. The study explores people’s online activities and behaviour and claims to the largest of its kind. The global study was undertaken by popular custom research company TNS, who announced their findings on the10th October 2010. more…

The battle of the browser has been a long one, and shows no sign of relenting just yet.

Internet Explorer, the long-established leader of the browsers has competition for the crown. This month it was revealed that Microsoft is losing its market share, and chief rival Firefox is slowly but surely creeping up the chart. Although it seems not even Firefox is safe, as Google’s offering, Chrome, is rapidly gaining on them. more…

After over 50 years in show business Sir Norman Wisdom has died at the grand age of 95 years old. With a career spanning decades and an appeal bridging generations, Wisdom peacefully passed away in an Isle is Man nursing home last night. But forget Madam Tussauds, we believe stars are now immortalised on the web.

The comedian, who also did a good turn as a singer and actor, starred in 32 films with his own brand of child-like slapstick comedy. With Tony Curtis also passing away last week, it seems personalities from the golden age are becoming increasingly rare, and the legacy they leave is becoming ever more important. more…

Back in the forgotten past of about two weeks ago, we at Zeta made a prediction that eBook sales would soon overtake sales of the printed word, and it seems we may have been right, in the US at least. (Read Brad’s previous post)

Reports released this week (21 July 2010) state that Amazon has sold 143 eBooks for the Kindle (Amazon’s own specifically designed e-reader) to every 100 hardback books in the past three months. Amazon has gone on to claim that over the last month sales of eBooks have continued to creep, now reaching almost double that of hardbacks. more…

I returned to work today after having a couple of days off ill to learn that Apple has called a surprise conference tomorrow (15 July) to discuss the not so healthy iPhone 4! Will Apple take a leaf out of Johnson and Johnson’s book and recall the handset? The iPhone 4 may not exactly be life threatening to consumers but the bad press is certainly killing the Apple brand!

Funnily enough yesterday evening I went to pick up my second iPhone 4 from Orange.  I returned my first one for being faulty. Nothing to do with the signal issue, (although that is pretty bad!  But then again I am on Orange!) but because of its shocking battery life.

This is the first Apple product I have purchased. I own an Apple 2^nd generation iPod Nano but I did not purchase this myself.  I did rush out to buy the new iPhone release a couple of weeks ago, partly because I wanted to be cool and hip, and also because I was due an upgrade, so it seemed the natural choice. more…

eBook sales look set to outgrow printed book sales as the ebook reader market diversifies and the technology finally matures. With well over 120,000,000 ebook-capable mobile devices now in consumers’ hands there is clearly a huge market for publishing pixels.

The reach of eBook stores will continue to grow as the increasing competition pushes down prices in the eBook reader market and more people upgrade to smarter phones. Amazon has already done amazingly well to sell an estimated 3 million Kindles considering it is only available online. Super-secretive Amazon now appear to be rolling out bricks-and-mortar retail distribution with US chain Target announcing that the device would be available in its 1740 stores.

If the claims of many avid eBook fans that reading on ‘ePaper’ screens as found on dedicated devices like the Kindle and Sony Reader is vastly superior to the back-lit displays found on multi-purpose units like Apple’s iPad are true, then Amazon and Sony might be able to wrestle market share from Apple when consumers hold the devices side-by-side. more…