Our thoughts, rants and inside knowlege of web design & development!
Adam
I work part time at Areatrade, and I am in charge of developing the internal database to help the business run more efficiently. My blog posts will focus on social media and developments in the industry.
Homepage: http://www.areatrade.co.uk
Posts by Adam
Google increases emphasis on social search rankings
Feb 18th
Google has announced an upgrade to its social search features. A feature has been available for some time that shows links related to your search at the bottom of the results page that have been shared by your contacts on social networks.
Now Google will be further integrating this feature by moving the social results higher up in the rankings. This feature is only available to users signed into a Google account that is attached to social networking accounts.
What does this mean for people optimising their websites for promotion on Google? It seems clear that a strong social networking presence is becoming a increasingly important component of an effective online promotion campaign.
Apple bring the App Store dream to the desktop
Jan 13th
Apple have opened their new ‘Mac App Store’ for business. For those of you who use an iPhone or any similar smartphone, you will know that the ‘App Store’ is a marketplace for the quick purchase and download of mobile applications. It would seem the quick and easy process of purchasing new software has proven very profitable for Apple, as they have now brought the concept to their Mac desktop operating system.
After running a software update, Mac users will find a new App Store icon on their Dock. The Mac App Store is already quite well populated, with the most prominent offers being the Apple iLife and iWork suites. iLife consists of photo organisation, music production and video production software, whereas iWork is an office suite which provides word processing, multimedia presentation and spreadsheet software. Previously you would have to purchase each suite in its entirety, costing upwards of £60. But the App Store allows users to download the components of each suite separately for £9-12, depending on the software – a bargain!
Other popular items on the App Store include the official Twitter desktop client, ‘Twitter for Mac’, and a desktop adaptation of the popular mobile game ‘Angry Birds’.
Users may More >
UK government proposes nationwide filtering of adult websites
Dec 23rd
The Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has proposed cutting off access to pornographic material at the ISP level in an interview with The Sunday Times. The government has been in talks with internet service providers (ISPs) to implement a system to filter access to pornographic content. Under these proposals, customers would have to contact their ISP to have the block removed.
Proponents of the proposal have noted that easy access to pornography can be damaging to children who view it. Miranda Suit, chair of the Safer Media organisation referred to a report compiled by the US-based Witherspoon Institute – “Children are becoming addicted in their teens to internet pornography. They are being mentally damaged so they cannot engage in intimate relationships.”
ISPA, the industry body for ISPs, has responded to the government proposal: “Ispa firmly believes that controls on children’s access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down.”
Critics of the plan have noted that filtering systems tend to be extremely indiscriminate and with alarming frequency block access to important material such as sex education resources. Civil rights organisations have also noted that the classification of which material is More >
Apple remove unofficial WikiLeaks iPhone app from App Store, claim it is “harmful”
Dec 22nd
A developer who created an unofficial app that accessed content from the controversial whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has had their app removed the iOS App Store by Apple. The cheeky developer was charging $1.99 for access to the US embassy cables being issued by WikiLeaks, which can be accessed free of charge online through various ‘mirror’ sites.
Apple have released a statement saying the app was pulled for not complying with local laws and not ensuring that individuals and groups were kept out of “harm’s way”, possibly referencing allegations by the US government that the leaks are endangering American diplomats and military services around the world.
This move comes after PayPal, everyDNS, Bank of America and Amazon have all terminated services they provide to WikiLeaks, prompting controversial online organisation ‘Anonymous’ to mount DDoS cyber-attacks against some of their websites.
Julian Assange, the leader and founder of WikiLeaks, is on bail in the UK and appealing against extradition to Sweden for rape allegations. You can find out more about the story so far in the special report on the BBC News website. See our other posts about WikiLeaks here.
The Hype Machine re-launch website with HTML5 technology
Dec 17th
Popular music discovery service The Hype Machine has rolled out a major upgrade to its website interface. The Hype Machine is a service with a social media element which aggregates posts from music blogs across the internet and allows users to listen to them and ‘like’ them. The most ‘liked’ songs posted in the last three days show up in the Hype Machine chart, allowing users to get a great overview of what’s popular online at that very moment.
The website previously relied on Flash technology to play music to users, but has now switched to the up and coming standard ‘HTML5′. This allows the website to be used on many of the latest smartphones and tablets, including the iPhone, iPod touch [update: iPhone/iPod touch support is not confirmed by Hype Machine and users are reporting issues with it] iPad, and Android phones and tablets. The website certainly seems to be running much more efficiently after the re-design.
Other improvements include the consolidation of songs posted on multiple blogs into one entry. Instead of seeing the same song from three different blogs as three rows in the playlist, you now see only one, allowing the user to better judge the popularity of the song.
The More >
Foursquare Reaches New Heights: 2,000,000 check-ins a day
Dec 8th
CEO of the location based social network Foursquare has announced at the Le Web conference that Foursquare is hitting new heights, quoting the following figures:
- Over 5 million users
- 2 million check ins a day
- 250,000 new users a day
- Average of 3 to 4 check ins per user per day
These figures are impressive and will be a valuable tool in convincing businesses to utilise the marketing tools Foursquare offers at a local level. You can link special offers to your business to keep customers coming back, including offers for the ‘mayor’, which is the user who has visited the location the greatest number of times in the last two months. The competition is a fun and potent attraction for repeat visits on the customer’s part.
The real world role of social media: tuition fees debate
Dec 8th
You may have been following the UK tuition fees debate with some interest in the news, and seen how previously apathetic students have sprung into organised protests and occupations with surprising speed and ease. This is a great example of the role of social media in a practical context. Let’s take a look at how social networking has been used, and how it is relevant to the commercial world.
How do you know if anybody is coming to a protest? How do you know where to meet? The popular social network Facebook has been used extensively to organise protests across the country. Facebook ‘events’ have been set up with a wealth of information on dates, times, locations and attendees to organise their exploits. However, event pages are only useful up until that event starts. Which leads us to…
So when the march has started, how do such a large mass of people communicate? Twitter is the popular micro-blogging platform used by celebrities, politicians, businesses, charities, activists and everyday people – including students. When police attempted to use their controversial ‘kettling’ tactic a multitude of warnings would appear instantly on the site warning other protestors to change route. Occupations and sit ins have More >
Tumblr: “We’ll be back shortly”
Dec 6th
The popular mixed media blogging service Tumblr has been down for over 15 hours, with no access to its homepage, user blogs, or the ‘dashboard’ where users can make posts. As a young service some troubles are to be expected, and Twitter users will be familiar with the ‘fail whale’ which commonly occurred in its early days. However a downtime which is approaching 20 hours as I write this could prove catastrophic for the company, as companies will shy away from unreliable services.
Do you have a Tumblr account? How do you feel about this extended downtime? Rant or comment freely in the section below!
New Facebook profile roll out begins
Dec 6th
Facebook have started to roll out a new profile page design to its users. Every user has a profile which acts as a hub for their photos, videos, status updates, links they have shared and items that their friends post on their ‘Wall’. The new design rearranges the profile into sections which can be accessed from a menu on the left rather than the previous tabbed interface on the top. Recently tagged photos of the user are shown across the top to make the profile current and add customisation. You can now add even more information to your profile including philosophical views such as religion, people you find inspirational, political views, your favourite quotes, and detailed descriptions of each of these beliefs. You can also add sports you enjoy, and tag friends who you like to do these sports with. The same applies to your favourite ‘activities’. You can now add multiple schools and universities, and tag friends from these places. You can tag friends at your workplaces too, and break down your work and education into individual projects that you have worked on and classes you took, and once again, tag your friends and colleagues.
See the screenshots and a More >