Google recently announced that it has  designs on Facebook’s social media crown by launching its  own rival site.  In spite of rumours that it’s going to be called ‘Google Me’, we’re not sure how much of a chance it has.

Since February 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, Facebook’s early predecessor, few could have predicted the speed or the level of impact it would have on the online advertising community. With the imminent launch of ‘The Social Network’, it seems interest will continue to grow, but now, a mere 6 years since it has been available to the public, how do we feel about it?
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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…

Zeta is one of the hottest digital agencies on the south coast. We’re based in Poole: just minutes from the beach and a quick trot from the train station.

Our work demands and clients are growing and we need a senior / lead PHP developer to take command of all our LAMP projects.

We are looking for someone who:

• Knows that LAMP is not what sits atop a lamp post
• Writes specifications that a monkey could follow
• Can make their dinner object oriented
• Sees HTML and CSS the way Tank sees the Matrix
• Eats open source cereal for breakfast
• Has lived the Digital Agency high-life for at least 3 years
• Can order a pizza from a Linux command line
• Knows their ASP from their elbow
• Can hold an entire conversation in SQL
• Debugs code like a hungry ant-eater

It would be great if you:

• Are familiar with Zen Cart & Word Press
• Know how to implement a slick version control and release system
• Can write a bit of ActionScript when required
• Have real experience with iPhone and Android Apps
• Like to get blood on your hands with cutting edge technologies

If this is you – and you’re up for getting into bed with one of the best agencies since sliced bread – then drop us a line.

Our head office is based in Poole, Dorset: just 10 minutes from Bournemouth and two hours from London. This is where you will spend most of your time working. Although you may have the opportunity to work in our London office from time to time.

We also have a dead friendly team that is fanatical about everything digital. They’re a lovely bunch and will make sure you feel right at home. They’ll also make sure you get everything you want out of your sparkly new job.

Did we mention money? We’re offering a competitive salary plus bonus and benefits depending on experience – and you get free breakfast and as many cappachinos as you can drink. Make sure you let us know your salary expectations so no-one is left disappointed.

We’d guess you’ll have some good experience in doing the things mentioned above. We’d also imagine you’re extremely ambitious and hungry for a role that grows quicker than you can say “Digital Superstar”. You may have a degree, but we’re not that bothered really. We just want to know you eat, sleep and breathe web development; with extra points for having a penguin tattoo (OK, so that might be going a bit too far).

If you’re still reading then we’d love to hear from you. Send us your CV, but make sure you mention anything you think we’d like to know about you in your covering email (especially the items on our nice-to-haves list) and don’t forget your salary expectations.

Send an email to careers@zeta.net.

Welcome to Zeta’s Behind The Scenes series. It is something we have just started, which will showcase our way of working and to give you a closer look at what we do. What a project we have to start with – the ecoffee video.

Rogers Estate Coffees is the UK subsidiary of Rogers Family Company – a coffee roaster from San Francisco, USA. As one of our longest standing clients at Zeta we absolutely love working with them.

Challenges and Considerations

Rogers Estate Coffees came to us with a product – ecoffee. The brand and the packaging had been developed by branding agency Red Brick Road. Zeta worked closely with the team at Red Brick Road to understand the brand attributes and personality which had already been assigned. 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 consumer’s 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…

New .co domain names will open up an opportunity to have the domain name you have always wanted.

Have you ever tried to register a domain name for your business, brand or company website only to find that someone else has beat you to it?

Are you constantly looking for a dot com only to find they are ‘dot GONE’?

Here at Zeta we know the scenario only too well – when clients come to us with a name they want but simply cannot get.  Very often they have to pay thousands to purchase their preferred domain from a reseller or domain squatter.

Well forget .com the name on everyone’s lips will soon be .co. more…

10 days ago (12th June) my friend hosted a World Cup BBQ for England’s opening game against the USA. There was a massive selection of alcohol and all types of juicy animals to throw on the BBQ. As well as the delightful day of feasting Mark had invested in a new flat screen TV for us to witness the USA thrashing.

OK well everything went to plan apart from England actually winning, but the point I am trying to illustrate is we spent a huge amount of money and not once did anyone question our actions.

This is why I wasn’t surprised when IMRG/Capgemini (read the full report) announced yesterday (21st June 2010) that online retail sales have has increased by 22% in May 2010, becoming the highest growth rate since June 2008.

Beer, wine and spirits experienced a massive increase of 23% and electrical goods also jumped up by 13%. Online shoppers spent £4.5 billion during the month of May which works out as an equivalent of £73 per person in the UK. more…

An Orange a Day Won’t Keep Fifa Officials away

Picture this; a group of beautiful women, glowing the colour orange, surrounded by a group of footballers and boisterous men.

Don’t be mistaken I am not talking about a night out with my fake tanned friends, I am talking about the latest ambush marketing stunt at the 2010 FIFA World Cup by Dutch beer company Bavaria!

It was not instantly obvious that the 36 women wearing tight figure hugging bright orange dresses at the World Cup game between Denmark and Holland on Monday 14^th June 2010 were advertising for the Dutch Brewery.

(And let’s not forget ITV pundit Robbie Earle who is said to have provided Bavaria with the free tickets to the World Cup Match who has since been fired!) more…

I know what you’re thinking… Rio breaks his leg in a horrific training ground accident and Cappello’s obvious replacement is central defensive work horse Henry Waterfall-Allen.

Of course we took Fabio’s call seriously, but due to a last minute project involving Unicorn Media and global media giant IMG world to produce a video skin for a world cup news player, Henry had to tell him to take Michael Dawson.

The project Unicorn approached us with sounded really interesting, an opportunity too good to pass up. They had developed a player which would carry video advertising before and after world cup news reports produced by IMGs network of sports journalists. more…