March, 2008 Archive

Hot on the heels of my personal tale last week, BBC London has been carrying out its own investigation…

The report entitled Is the Internet a fraudsters paradise? follows the real life case of hackers getting hold of data from a “lavender lotion” merchant based in Carshalton in Surrey.

The way this feature was presented on TV this morning was a bit dark and heavy handed, but I suppose gets the point across to people who may not be so careful when purchasing online.

While there is an issue, we must remember that internet fraud accounts for just a fraction of the billions of pounds spent online every year.

A very cool site outlining how Windows Vista & Windows Live can enhance the Digital Lifestyles of four very different journeys across this mortal coil.

From now on get a Windows Digital Life!

Media Week here in the UK, have partnered with Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions to bring interviews with media industry notables to the very small screen.

Media Week TV anchorman Steve Barrett is actually the publication’s editor. Using his clout to wrestle high-profile names in the media industry onto his couch for a chat, Steve’s managed to secure spots with Michael Heseltine, Michael Grade, and more recently Facebook commercial director, Blake Chandlee.

The latest luminaries, talking about how they’re handling the editorial and commercial tranistion to the online world, are Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of British Condé Nast, and Simon Waldman, group director of digital strategy and development at Guardian Media Group. Check out what they have to say here!

….and not a single Search Engine Marketing Blog among them 🙁

Check out the Observer’s Chart and tell me what you’d like to see in there?

The Policeman’s Blog is a favourite of mine!

Nice piece yesterday in the Sunday Times showing how the internet is no longer just the place for spotty male geeks to gather. Not that that stereotype is necessarily warranted, but check out how Libby  Purves referred to my blog a few months back!!!

The Pew Internet Project in the US recently found 35% of girls compared with 20% of boys have their own blogs, and 70% of girls aged 15-17 have embraced social networking and built their own page on Bebo or MySpace compared with 57% of boys.

Hitwise backed this up in in January, reporting that 55% of UK social networkers are women too.

The upshot of Kate Spicer and Abul Taher’s piece is summed up nicely by their main subject, a 12-year-old girl from Surrey who spends much of her time one her PC doing homework but also gossiping with friends on Bebo or Facebook.

When asked if she’d want a career in software development in order to create such experiences in the future she replied:

“Girls are creative, they are more into history, English and art – it’s the boys who are more into the techie things!”

Want to know Microsoft’s position on search & online advertising?

Watch this…

My collegue Nate from the Live Search Webmaster Tools Crew, presents on Advanced Search Engine Optimisation for Web Developers at MIX08 in Las Vegas.

Watch it in Silverlight – very cool!

Go Steve!

If it is, check out the money program tonight on BBC 2 at 7pm for some insight and tips on how to Take Back Your Life!

Did you know that two million emails are sent every minute in the UK or 3 billion per day?

Ray Tomlinson wrote the first emailing code in 1971:

“I do feel proud of this accomplishment. In some sense it was such a simple thing to do at the time, but it has had ramifications through many people’s lives. What I didn’t anticipate is how fast it would grow once it started growing.”

Thanks Ray – I’m just off to photostat some memos……

As a fan of Banksy, I’m delighted to see his handy work has appeared on a chemist wall in north London.

Given the recent prices Banksy’s work has been fetching, I’m sure the pharmacist will be prescribing himself a little valium to help him sleep tonight!