Microsoft Bing
Google enjoys way more internet searches than any other search engine, with Microsoft in single figures. Now, along comes ‘Bing’, promising much more relevant search results and therefore user time saved. Microsoft says that 40% of search queries remain unanswered. If this were the case, why would (unsatisfied) users stick with their current S.E.? We simply wouldn’t see such dominance from the one player (Google).
For those that have seen previews of Bing, it’s been said that it’s very aesthetically pleasing, with an intuitive, logical, and practical feel to its design. It works by grouping together closely relevant information well and more ambiguous results decrease. Its is not yet clear whether the results given will be based, in part, on partnerships with local content providers. With a staged launch first in the US, and then into Europe, it’s certainly a work in progress, with noticeably, there would of course be no single dedicated mobile component.
Another issue is simple: Why would people stop using Google and start using something else?
With paid search traffic has in major decline (source: Hitwise), the future of Organic search looks brighter still.
The future of the Internet, says Tim Berners Lee:
Nottingham - World Design Capital bid for 2012 title
Tuesday 31st March saw the public launch of Nottingham’s bid to become World Design Capital in 2012, with the backing of the city council, the Arts Council, and Nottingham Trent University, supporting the application to the International Design Alliance (IDA).
Estimates quote the bidding process alone will cost £80,000, however city councillor Malcolm Wood said the bid would in fact lead to a boost for the local economy.
"Our aspiration to achieve this status puts down a clear marker for furthering Nottingham's strengths in design. Culture and creativity are a vital aspect of our societies, and this award will help us further raise our profile and reputation at an international level as a diverse and cultural city."
Also endorsing the application is Nottingham born designer Paul Smith, "It is fantastic to have such a vast area of design talent within the city covering many aspects of design. The city has in the past and is currently benefiting from fantastic regeneration, including many new and exciting buildings, again offering opportunities for existing and new creative industries to flourish," he said.
Iconic design works include the 60m (197ft) tall steel spire structure at the University of Nottingham's Jubilee campus, perhaps one of the most well known would be Raleigh, who ended its 100-year tradition of bike making in the city in 2002 when production shifted to Asia. A group of Chopper bikes, first made here in 1967, were ridden around the Old Market Square as the bid was unveiled on Tuesday.
Wish I still had my (purple) Mark II !
The first World design Capital was Turin n 2008, with Seoul given the title for 2010.
At the time of writing, It is not yet known which other UK cities Nottingham will be up against in run up to the competition. The successful bid will be announced this July.
Nottingham recruiter identifies e-commerce skills gaps
As a specialist recruiter of Marketing, PR and Creative professionals in the East Midlands we have first hand experience of the skills shortages that currently exist in many of the candidates that we meet. As keen students ourselves of the benefits of E-Commerce we have been able to develop our own business with a cost effective successful website and e-mail marketing communication strategy.
Recent media reports, and in particular Lord Carters Digital Britain Report have highlighted the current trend that seems to be emerging in this area. On a personal level, we see a clear gap in the e-commerce knowledge of marketing professionals and creative professionals, especially in marketing and with graphic designers.
Why is this happening? Well traditional forms of media and communication are changing which are forcing businesses to re-think their advertising and communication strategies. The sheer pace of changing internet technologies, for example, from website analytics packages, to the types of media artwork now required, together with the style in which it needs to be written is leaving many professionals needing to update their skills.
Is this important and what’s changing? Well look at the decline in our local regional newspapers, their advertising revenue is “falling off a cliff” and we may well lose them altogether in the not too distant future. A similar pattern is being repeated with national newspapers and similarly extends, into television advertising where similar major changes are also happening. Advertising spend is being re-directed into online and other mediums.
However, our experience is that many employers seem to be slow to recognise this. In addition, the problem seems to be compounded by many academic institutions (particularly marketing related) not yet recognising the changing trends and not catering for this. We know of only one local academic institution in the East Midlands that are offering E-Commerce courses which aren’t distance learning. There are plenty of very good emerging experts in this area, but these will charge a premium rate for their courses.
Training needs to be addressed in variety of areas from understanding E-Commerce, through to subjects such as copywriting and technical aspects such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Google Analytics and E-Mail Marketing. In addition, at a corporate level, increasingly complex web projects could perhaps be more efficiently managed by marketing professionals with a better level of e-commerce understanding, rather than traditionally relying on an IT department or external agency. New web technologies are making previously complex issues such as embedded video, and shopping cart integration much easier to understand implement, leading to major commercial and cost benefits for the businesses concerned.
There is help out there, various not-for-profit local agencies, such as Business Link and EMDA recognise this problem. Currently, the ebusinessclub provides some excellent free courses which are well attended and demonstrate the knowledge demand that there is out there.
If you’d like to view some supporting articles and information, please look at our website www.red-creative-moves.co.uk and follow the link to our “News” Section.
Source:
New Media Knowledge – Mind the Skills Gap
http://www.nmk.co.uk/article/2008/1/23/mind-the-skills-gap
Lord Carters Digital Britain Report (Para 9 is interesting):
http://writetoreply.org/digitalbritain/2009/01/29/section-51-education-and-skills/#5
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7934990.stm
Roses Design Awards – coming our way!
We heard a rumour, and now confirmation: the longest running, and most prestigious, design event outside of London is coming to Nottingham this year, after Nottingham City Council earned the right to host the Roses Design Awards.
After being held for over a decade ‘oop North’ (lad), in Manchester, it celebrates design excellence across all sections of the industry, attracting over 500 professionals each year, from architects to graphic designers.
Describe as the cultural capital of the East Midlands, Nottingham currently hosts around half of all the creative industries and jobs in the regions main centres.
Lorraine Baggs, Nottingham's investment manager, comments on the move: ''The move of the Roses Design Awards to Nottingham is extremely good news for the city and further demonstrates that when it comes to design and creativity Nottingham is firmly on the international map.
''Nottingham is a champion of quality design and creativity in urban planning and building communities, and the launch of its bid to become World Design Capital in 2012 is a key example of its commitment to this. Becoming the new home of the Roses Design Awards will position Nottingham well as a contender for World Design Capital status.
The Roses Design Awards aim to highlight to clients how buoyant the market is outside London, therefore attracting investment and positive interest in the regions and hosting city. They would give Nottingham City Council the opportunity to put the city on the map, championing creative excellence and encouraging social and economic development by sponsoring the prestigious awards in 2009.
Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council, Jane Todd, comments: ''Nottingham is extremely well equipped to play host to The Roses Design Awards as it has some of the best creative organisations and business opportunities in the country. It is bursting at the seams with a plethora of skilled and talented creative thinkers; from photographers, film makers, and performance artists, to writer, musicians, and graphic designers. Creative thought runs through the heart of the city, enriching history in the process.
''The move of the awards to Nottingham will, hopefully, act as a stimulus encouraging local companies to enter and compete on a national scale as well as being a step in the right direction in developing Nottingham's current and future design industry.''
Nottingham's aim is to become the regional capital for Urban Design and its new Design Guide, which will be launched at MIPIM later on this year, promotes high standards of sustainable urban design and architecture in Nottingham city centre.
Salaries decline’ lowest recorded demand for staff.
Sobering as it is, and whilst we much prefer something light-hearted on this page, the latest official statistics, make for depressing reading. Focused primarily on the east midlands, we didn’t have to wait for this report to be published to see these patterns, with more junior roles accounting for most of the vacancies on the market, whether they be replacement roles, or due to organic growth.’ on-permanent’ and part-time roles have steadily become more popular, with employers unable to commit to permanent or full-time contracts.
The REC / KPMG monthly Report on Jobs shows further deterioration in the labour market, accentuated by continued reduced demand for new staff during February. Only the Nursing/Medical/Care sector bucked the trend of sharply falling demand for staff.
Permanent placements and temp billings fell at record rates, vacancies contracted at the fastest pace in the survey history, with reductions in permanent salaries and temporary pay.
Also highlighted were continued falls in salaries during February, as weak demand for staff and strong candidate availability served to depress pay rates. For both permanent and temporary sectors, the declines were the steepest in their histories.
With redundancies and fewer job opportunities on the market, there is further marked increase in the supply of candidates
Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the REC is quoted, “It is clear that we have not yet hit the bottom of the jobs market with demand for staff continuing to contract. Every job must be seen as an opportunity to keep people in work, including temporary, interim, and contract positions. It is essential that we avoid any additional regulation that would simply act as a disincentive for employers to offer these kind of flexible working arrangements to job- seekers at such a crucial time. Although demand for temporary staff is down and despite recent high-profile examples of assignments being terminated, there are still over a million temporary and interim assignments available every week. Feedback from recruiters confirms that a greater proportion of job-seekers are looking for higher-end positions compared to previous downturns”
Mike Stevens, Partner, and Head of Business Services at KPMG commented:
“We struggled to find any glimmer of hope in these figures but failed. The UK jobs market is continuing its downward spiral, with placements falling for the 11th month in succession and vacancies down across most sectors. The latest survey also reveals that salaries for permanent and temporary hires are falling at record rates. In practice, we believe this is partly a result of employers replacing senior people with lower level and lower paid staff.
The 'SEO Rapper' performing to students studying internet marketing!
Thanks Samsung!
I do so love a good idea for viral marketing...
Dennis
4 February 2009
The Mac turns 25 tomorrow!
Just come across this on the BBC, MSN UK's technology editor Jane Douglas wrestling with the first Mac.
It came with a ‘relatively low’ (remember, this is 1984!), price tag of £1,840, a whopping 128k of RAM, and as for the discs…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7845988.stm
Dennis
23 January 2009
One for the mantelpiece!
Scrubbing up nicely (so we say anyway!), we got the D.J's out for our long standing associates, Axis, who held their annual awards in December.
Scooping 'And the prize for the best viral goes to... / most outrageous publicity stunt' was presented to us by the living legend 'I taught Derren Brown all he knows' aka Jonny Green.
Living in Uncertain Times
It goes without saying that recruitment has been hit particularly hard in the current economic environment, there’s no escaping this, in what is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year.
We all hope that some confidence begins to return to parts of the business community soon. Apart form the problems created by the banks with the cash flow difficulties that this has created, many employers are quite understandably taking a very cautious and defensive stance to their current business planning activities.
From a recruitment perspective there is currently a clear shift to temporary and part-time employment roles. For our creative candidates this is something that many of them can adjust to and for some it fit’s in with their lifestyles. The corporate roles are more difficult however, although here it is noticeable that there are more fixed term contract roles available.
Mark
16 January 2009
Olympic Games related contract opportunities
In the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games, businesses will be awarded an estimated £6bn worth of contracts linked to hosting the Games. Whilst businesses are benefiting from these contracts, many businesses including women owned businesses, Black, and Minority Ethnic businesses and disabled business owners are missing out on these opportunities. This event is specifically aimed at encouraging more diverse companies from across the East Midlands to compete for and win Games related contracts.
You may never have considered that the London 2012 Games could open up opportunities to your business, but 26 companies in the region have already secured contracts supplying the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), 43 per cent of them small and medium sized (SMEs). Many more have won work supplying the ODA's contractors and are preparing to compete to win future work.
This unique event brings together a panel of experts to show you:
• Where to find out about contract opportunities
• How to put your business in the shop window
• How to position your business to win
• What ongoing support is available
If you wish to register for this event, being held on 24th March at Pride Park Stadium, Derby, please complete the online booking form at:
http://www.emda.org.uk/onyourmarks
Dennis
15 January 2009
£2,500 anyone?
We are certainly not the first to mention this, but just in case you’ve been off planet for a few days, the Government says it’s planning to give firms that recruit people ‘who have been unemployed for more than 6 months’, ‘golden hellos’ of up to £2,500 apiece.
Reputed to be costing a whopping £400m, the initiative was announced at the Governments jobs summit, and will empower Jobcentre Plus staff to award up to that amount to firms that hire people who have been out of work for more than 6 months – as long as they keep them on their books for at least a further six months.
Eh?!
Does this mean that you won’t stand a chance of getting any job until you reach the 6-month or beyond mark? Does this mean business will be crystal ball gazing; trying to forecast what their clients / income stream will do over the next 6-to-12 months – and commit to keeping someone for 12 months - or risk having to give the cash back? That means that if you do find yourself having to ‘let go’ in months 7-12, it will be cheaper to make another, more time-served employee redundant instead!
What’s cheaper: paying an unemployed person the appropriate jobseekers allowance etc, for 6 months ‘until they qualify’, or paying the golden hello?
Current statistics tells us that there are 262,000 people registered as having been out of work for more than 6months; how many of the other official 1.6m are nearing 6-months I have no idea, (and the jobless total is predicted to hit 3 million by the end of this year).
Are YOU an employer thinking of recruiting someone? Or are you currently or about to be unemployed? What are YOUR thoughts?
For more discussion, try these:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7823764.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gtldh/The_Daily_Politics_12_01_2009/
(forward to around 4 minutes on this one)
Dennis
13 January 2009
2 Google searches = 1 cuppa!
Apparently, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 - boiling a kettle generates about 15g. More complex websites – with rich animations and video - can be responsible for 300 mg CO2 per second!
Our kettle is never cold…
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece
Dennis
12 January 2009
Advertising on the Beeb, one way or another, coming your way soon?
It isn't going to happen, (following an Ofcom study presented to the BBC Trust), but there's lotsa food for thought here.
I've already planted my stake that local newspapers - in print at least - will cease to exist as we know it, in the UK very soon.
The BBC's proposal had envisaged websites with on-demand videos, featuring news and sport as well as weather and user-generated content.
Users would access the free content, which would not have carried adverts, using either a computer with a broadband internet connection
or a 3G mobile phone.
They were looking 'to invest' (hmm, advertising on the Beeb coming our way soon then, one way or another?), £68m, about £1m per local website.
Hhmmm, we’re off to think on some more…
Dennis
21 November 2008
How do you become top of your game, be that design, marketing strategy, etc?
How do you attain such ‘world class’ levels of success and recognition? Are you born that way, or is nurture and circumstance?
Well, ‘simple’ practicing your craft, in the main, and at some stages in history, a unique combination of technological developments and economic climate.
Reading an article this weekend by Malcolm Gladwell, - that excellence at complex tasks requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise, and researchers have stated what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours of practice!
The piece includes observations and study on ‘subjects’ including The Beetles to Mozart to Bill Gates!
Ten thousand hours is a mind-boggling statistic! Think about it; how can you cram that in by say the age of 21? You will need to have parents who are encouraging and supportive; you can't be poor, because a part-time job would eat into your time, etc.
We pride ourselves to having ‘served our time’ within the recruitment industry, and we’ve calculated that we’ve served about 20,000 hours each, so does that makes us ‘double geniuses?’ LOL. Hmmmm.
Born in England in 1963, and named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2005, Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker Magazine. Author of two books, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference," (2000) and "Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking" (2005), both of which were number one New York Times bestsellers.
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell,
The full article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday November 15 2008 :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/15/malcolm-gladwell-outliers-extract
Dennis
20 November 2008
Affiliate Marketing (November 08)
How much do you know about affiliate marketing?
It’s one of those relatively new areas of on-line business activity, that’s very much in its infancy but attracting a lot of interest, if done in a professional basis. Basically it’s a form of online marketing where activity is driven towards a key partner, who in turn pays a commission for the referred business.
Do you have any experience or involvement in this area? If so, we’d be interested in hearing from you. It’s such a new area of business activity that many people become involved in it initially as a hobby. Not surprisingly people don’t include any knowledge or experience they may have on their CV’s, perhaps because they think nobody’s interested?!...
Let us know if you have any experience in this area; who knows, perhaps a new career beckons for you?
If you are interested, more information on affiliate marketing can be found on the following links;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing
http://www.e-consultancy.com/topic/affiliate-marketing/
Mark
13 November 2008
We absoluetly love this - viral at it's best!
We spotted this before we knew who won, but it's still great.
Dennis
31 October 2008
Google's view on the future of business (Oct 08)
I came across this interview the other day hosted by the Management Consultancy Group, McKinsey. It is hosted by the Eric Schmidt CEO of Google, and discusses how the Internet will change the nature of competition, innovation, and company operations. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Innovation/Googles_view_on_the_future_of_business
An_interview_with_CEO_Eric_Schmidt_2229?gp=1
If you were wondering (as I was) just how big a cheese he is, check out his entry in Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_E._Schmidt Apparently it is rumoured he could be something big in the next US Presidential administration if Mr Obama is the winner?
Where is your business? In the “head” or “long-tail”? We are know our spot…
Mark
30 October 2008
Credit crunch vs. the numbers, numbers, numbers.
Having just taken the physical, if not mental stress out of shopping for the business recently (the mental remained as most of the sites I used were not that easy to get around, and one had a particularly annoying way of ‘predicting’ my address – incorrectly, several times), credit crunch defying statistics for on-line growth amaze. We continue to spend with a raging thirst on-line; Internet advertising spend up an un-paralleled 38% in 2007, and marketing spend in the UK a staggering £1.7 billion during first half of 2008! (the total advertising market would have actually fallen 4.6% without factoring in on-line spend. Source: IAB).Why is the Web not suffering the obvious effects of downturn of TV, press, outdoor and radio?
Paid search continues grew by 28% year-on-year (worth £981 million in the first half of this year, market share now 58.3% of total online advertising), and a 36.6% increase in the spend with 'embedded' formats - banners, rich media, and video.
Sector-wise, Technology was highest (17.3% of market share), Finance (11.9%), Entertainment & Media (10.7%) and last – but hey, not least - our very own, Recruitment at 9.9%.
Whilst confessing to enjoying a curry over ‘Corrie Catch Up’, ‘looking at on-line services such as BBC iPlayer, and Channel 4's 4oD, 27% of 15-24 year olds say that they use the Internet for 'watching TV programmes' (17% up), 45% used it for 'watching video clips/web casts', (+18%).
Much used ‘Social Media’ (Death of the Pub imminent?), continues to have a massive impact overall on the market, especially as an ‘audience driver’, although Ad spend is still comparatively low, yet set to grow steadily as these platforms become part of every day life (like it or not), with the demographic changing - women aged between 25-34 spending more time online than men, together with more over-50s logging on (I know of a couple of Octogenarians who dabble online, bingo included!).
Dennis
29 October 2008
Web presence. Important?
The way we all communicate and do business is developing quickly, and still growing, with some businesses putting huge efforts into promoting and getting found online, leaving traditional media in significant decline.
Someone once told us “the Internet can be the greatest leveller for the small business when competing against the much larger”
That rings true for ourselves, although at the time we didn’t appreciate the true value of what was being said. Since then, we have put a lot of efforts into keeping up-to-date with what is happening out there, what Google is believed to prefer, and what technologies are available. Rather than simply ‘sit back and buy in’ the services of others, we have worked hard to ‘understand ‘ and worked very closely with some trusted partners.
“Search ranking results are important for any business, and we are delighted with the excellent results from our recently launched SEO driven website” commented Red Creative’s, Mark Spreckley “Visitor traffic has increased significantly and unsolicited visitor feedback has been great!”
We haven’t finished yet either, only held back at the moment with the hours in a given day, so watch this space!
Mark
22 October 2008
So you want to get into advertising?
Consuming the weekend papers the other night, and I came across an interesting article in the Guardian about a ’aptitude testing’ for those wanting to get into creative jobs. A few Googles later revealed that this has also been publicised several months ago, (so apologies if this is old hat to you, but I do confess it passed me until now).
The test itself is described as designed to identify 'diagonal thinkers' - those who are both logical and creative – its aim is to shed the industry's middle class image. Diagonal thinking itself is ‘the ability to switch effortlessly between linear, logical thought processes to lateral, creative ones’. Tim Lindsay - president of TBWA – is mentioned, having been completed the assessment himself.
According to the IPA, only 10% of the population can think diagonally apparently!
With the financial sector in crisis, the government sees the creative industries as key to Britain's future economic success. Currently accounting for more than 7% of GDP, the creative sector is growing at twice the rate of the wider economy and is on course to become the second largest contributor to the UK economy by 2018.
Try it – it does take while, so turn off the phone, and see if you’re suited.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/27/careers.advertising
http://www.diagonalthinking.co.uk/
Dennis
3 October 2008
Putting a good CV together
Those of you that have been to see us will know that we take time talking to our candidates about the presentation, layout and construction of their CV’s.
Remember that the layout of a CV is highly subjective, almost impossible to have in a ‘one size fits all’, however, listed below are a few ideas that will help;
Layout:
Personal contact details followed by:
“Profile” about yourself, will encourage a reader to continue…but don’t include; “hard worker”, “self-starter”etc! – What do they mean anyway? This could be followed by:
“Key Skills” section, bullet pointing your main selling points. You could then follow this with,
“Career” as appropriate - always most recent first, working back chronologically, and usually we would recommend only a brief sentence for any roles prior to the last 10 years of your career.
Note:
If you are a Designer, it’s useful to remember that the facts in a cv created MS Word or a similar text
Format is what we need. Producing a beautiful design-led CV with elaborate graphics is not generally
very helpful, although having a copy of some of your portfolio in a small size Pdf’s is always welcome.
Key Words:
Remember to carefully consider and evaluate your skill sets, ensuring they are contained on the CV.
(Marketing, marketing Communications, E-Commerce, Software, Supervisory, etc…
Meet your recruiter
A good recruiter will always take the time to meet you personally and identify your skills. You may wonder if it’s worthwhile meeting them, but you’d be amazed how much positive and useful information we gain from meeting candidates face to face.
You may be encouraged in the past to send your details to organisations that you will never meet (or speak to in some cases we hear, until you get the call ‘hey, have we got the job for you!’). Do you simply want your CV “key-words” matching an employers brief and end up going for an interview that is a waste of time to all parties?
Please give us a ring or email us if you’d like to talk to us about any of the items raised.
Mark
23 October 2008
What’s in your job title?
The answer is possibly quite a lot, or maybe not, depending on the experience of whoever is reading your CV….. !
Perhaps even more pertinently, if your CV is registered with one of the large, “faceless”, national recruitment agencies, then their database system has probably auto-matched your CV and will only recognise you for vacancies with the same job title as your own. Makes you think doesn’t it?....
Ask yourself - is your job title easily recognisable? For example do you know what an Innovation Specialist – Creative Practitioner is? Neither did we... (apologies to the candidate concerned). Technical roles with larger employers seemingly attract complex job titles. In these circumstances it’s obviously important that a candidates CV is carefully constructed ensuring that the individual’s relevant and sought-after skill sets are fully explained.
Ask yourself a few questions when you are next presented with ‘an excellent opportunity;
- Is the role you currently perform similar to that in the other organisation or does it stop at the job title stage?
- Does your current job title adequately reflect the tasks and undertaken in you role?
We’ve met candidates whose job titles do not adequately reflect their status and responsibilities.
For example, what does an Account Manager do that an Account Executive doesn’t?
Marketing Manager vs. Marketing Executive?...
We’ve seen salary packages from £18k to £50k quoted for a Marketing Manager, but why is there such a difference for such a similar sounding job? It obviously reflects the responsibility and accountability for the role, but how on earth can you be ‘auto-matched’ beyond that point!
Sometimes the addition of the term “Junior” or “Senior” into the job title can clarify things, although this can be misleading when a “Seniors” salary package is considerably less than a “Juniors” package elsewhere!... (trust us, it happens!). And if you are in a peer group of one, how can you be the junior or senior to anyone else!
Introducing the human touch:
Having lived a little in the world of work before running our own business, we have the experience to ensure we can help our candidates present themselves, and their CV’s, in the most constructive and positive way. You are more than a name or number to us; we take time to get to know you personally which gives you the confidence and guidance you deserve when looking to move jobs..
Mark
18 November 2008
Social browsing toolbar
Do you socially network, (as in the on-line sort and not down the pub)? We’ve just stumbled across this little add on (Me.dium (http://me.dium.com ). Described as ‘Real Time Social Search’, essentially, it lets you browse online ‘what is hot right now’ and to influence what should be featured in said hot zone. You can also chat, share music files and videos, and see what your friends are looking at at the same time (once installed, a small toolbar appears in your browser window, the top panel of the sidebar is a map that lets you view what sites your friends are visiting, you can view your friend’s profiles and also send them a message similar to Facebook).
You can specify your visibility settings, ie: how much people can see without being approved by yourself. I read that the application is secure and that the program suspends sharing when you leave the site.
It all rings a bit ‘cool, happening and right now’; a quote from the site: ‘we tend to surface news, reviews, pictures and videos that are hot, right now, according to crowds of people just like you’.
Dennis
18 September 2008
Spam – and not out the tin either!
Like most of you, we get our fair share of spa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam. One of the problems for us is that our various email addresses are posted all over the wonderful world of web, so we are an easy target to spot.
Its is calculated that in the UK 3 million people lose £3.5bn to mass scams sent via email, text and via those ‘congratulations’ phones calls.
The OFT and Trading Standards Services ‘Scamnesty’ campaign launched earlier this year indicates that so called prize draws, , bogus lotteries and health related ‘cures’ are the most common forms of scam in the UK. http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2008/17-08
The Scamnesty campaign encouraged the public to fight back against scammers by collecting any scam mailings they had received and dropping them into designated Scamnesty bins at local libraries and other public areas across the country. Residents in nearly 50 local authorities dropped more than 15,000 scam mailings in Scamnesty bins across the country. Derbyshire, Edinburgh, Brighton and Hove, Hampshire and Norfolk all reported at least 1,000 separate scam mailings.
OFT director of consumer protections Mike Haley says: “The huge range of mailings uncovered by the Scamnesty campaign illustrate that there really is a scam for everyone. This campaign has provided crucial intelligence, helping us to stop scams bringing misery to millions of people every year.”
What are your experiences? Let us know.
Ps: if you want the nicer stuff: http://www.spam-uk.com
Dennis
17 September 2008