- Beacon lawsuit shows being too "forward-thinking" has risks
- Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:00:00 UT -
When Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook's ill-fated Beacon advertising initiative in New York last year, he stated:
"Once every hundred years media changes."
With that, Beacon was not only supposed to change the financial outlook of a company struggling to monetize its massive audience, it was also supposed to deliver on the social media promise of advertising as conversation.
- Accepting credit cards online - merchant account basics
- Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:45:00 UT -
If your business needs to accept credit card payments online, chances are you may have started out with a service like PayPal because of the low costs and the ease of integration.
But when you "outgrow" such a service, it's time to step up to a merchant account.
- Q&A: ABN Amro's Popke Rein Munniksma on virtual worlds
- Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:33:00 UT -
As head of 3D experience at ABN Amro, Popke Rein Munniksma is experimenting with virtual worlds as an opportunity to promote the banks brand and cut the costs of internal meetings.
Here, we ask him about ABN Amros virtual world investments beyond the much-maligned Second Life, the challenges of gaining internal acceptance within his organisation and how he sees 3G technology being used within the firms existing websites.
- Founder of UK blog network plays the blame game
- Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:28:00 UT -
I discussed
the economics of blogging recently,
sparking
a bit of debate.
And it seems for good reason. The evolution of the blogosphere as a business hasn't been easy for many of its participants.
- Site review: Oasis revamp
- Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:27:00 UT -
Fashion retailer Oasis has just launched a redesigned version of its website, with the stated aim of making the purchasing and checkout process smoother.
We've had a look through the site to see if Oasis has managed to improve on the previous version...
- BBC finally experiments with in-text 'links'
- Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:29:00 UT -
The BBC is experimenting with the idea of linking out to external sources from within the body text of its news articles, in a trial which will last for four weeks.
Obviously this is a good idea, though why it has taken a decade for the BBC to roll out a 'trial' is anybody's guess (though it won't have done any harm to The Beeb's own Pagerank).
However, the way it is going about this is, well, a little bit Noddy...
- Web optimisation: the ultimate conversion insurance
- Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:49:00 UT -
The days of deploying your site changes to production without first testing functionality and cosmetics are long gone.
So too will the days of deploying website changes that are not conversion tested.
- Entrepreneurs, profitability and opportunity cost
- Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:31:00 UT -
Last week, I came across an interesting blog post.
Giacomo Guilizzoni, who was formerly a senior engineering lead at Adobe, recently launched a software company called Balsamiq which is focused on developing plug-ins for existing "Web Office" platforms.
- Finding a domain name for your business via marketplaces
- Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:26:00 UT -
Are you looking for a great domain name for your business but can't find one?
It's a common experience due to the volume of domain names that have already been registered, especially .coms.
- Online Reputation Monitoring worth £60 Million in 2008
- Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:31:00 UT -
E-consultancys latest addition to its research, the Online Reputation and Buzz Monitoring Buyers Guide, reveals that this sector will grow by 30% in 2008, to an estimated value of £60 million.
The addition of this guide not only demonstrates the accelarated growth of this rapidly developing market, but also shows how the industry has moved on, from a rather fluffy approach to online PR, to quantitative measurement that incorporates analytics, monitoring tools and tangible metrics.
- Used car search tools... suck!
- Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:29:00 UT -
I have been looking for a used car recently across a selection of manufacturer and third party sites, and it seems there is plenty of room for improvement in the way their search tools work.
Ideally, a search tool should be easy to use, but still allow users to choose between complex features and sort the results effectively.
So how do some of the major car manufacturers perform?
- 5 wireless network security tips
- Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:45:00 UT -
As my fellow E-consultancy blogger Drama 2.0 discussed earlier this week, the theft of more than 40mn credit and debit card numbers was due to insecure wireless networks.
If you run a wireless network at home or in the office, the same sort of security breach could easily occur if you are not taking advantage of your wireless router's security features.
- The Web Week in Review
- Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:05:00 UT -
What caught Drama 2.0's attention this week? Find out before you leave for the weekend in the latest installment of The Web Week in Review.
- Proctor & Gamble makes big cuts to ad spend
- Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:26:00 UT -
Proctor & Gamble (P&G) is probably the number one client any ad-based business hopes to acquire. After all, P&G is the largest advertiser in the world.
So when P&G cuts its ad spending by a double-digit amount, ad-based businesses take notice.
- Q&A: Comets Content Manager Robbie Tutt
- Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:39:00 UT -
Electrical retailer Comet has this week introduced a new beta version of its homepage, asking for user feedback on the new design.
We talked to Comets Content Manager Robbie Tutt about the thinking behind the new homepage.
- Etailers look set to weather credit crunch
- Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:19:00 UT -
While the effects of the worsening economic climate will reduce overall consumer spending, e-commerce looks to be in a good position to weather the storm, according to a new survey.
While 64% of respondents said that the economic climate would force them to reduce their overall spending, 56% said that they would continue to shop online as much as they are already, while some will even spend more.
- How do you manage your internet channel?
- Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:06:00 UT -
Our recently released Managing Digital Channels report has been very well received by the internet strategists who are responsible for figuring out how to best run their online operations.
Published two weeks ago, and compiled by Dr Dave Chaffey, it is an update to a report called Managing an E-commerce Team, a study we first conducted in 2005. Things have moved on since then, some for better, others for worse...
- Q&A: The New Football Pools Dominic Starkey on its digital revamp
- Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:21:00 UT -
The last few years have seen football pools operators once-massive audiences dwindle as the popularity of the lottery and online gambling has soared. But Sportech, the company which now owns the main pools players Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters, is attempting to see their luck turn.
Last month saw the announcement that it would bring all three brands into one website - footballpools.com - as well as the launch of radically different digital strategy centred around social betting. The company has also been investing heavily in content, improved analytics practices and new channels on MySpace and Facebook.
Following all that, we grabbed a few minutes with head of online marketing Dominic Starkey to see how challenging the whole process has been...
- Massive credit card heist shows pitfalls of wireless technology
- Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:50:00 UT -
In what is being called possibly "the largest federal hacking and identity theft case ever," United States authorities recently charged 11 people with stealing more than 41m credit and debit card numbers from popular retailers such as Barnes & Noble, TJMax, OfficeMax and Boston Market.
- The five factors of compelling content
- Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:45:00 UT -
I've been involved with online content in a number of capacities. I've run my own online content ventures, consulted with people running online content businesses and obviously am a content producer myself.
