Road to Nowhere

Last post

2010-04-01T16:45:00.000Z

As a web content consultant, I have set up a new business: Burwell Web Communications (http://www.burweb.co.uk), trading on the internet as burweb. I regularly post stories on items from the advertising, marketing and web sectors there which would previously have appeared on 'The Road to Nowhere' or 'Building Brands'

Please switch to my burweb blog (http://burweb.blogspot.com) to continue to receive stories. You can see the feed at http://www.burweb.co.uk/Blog.html where you can also subscribe via RSS or e-mail.

Mark Rasdall

Fen Creative: Views from Cambridgeshire, in words at http://www.fencreative.co.uk and pictures at http://www.fencreative.shutterchance.com

History of the internet

2009-10-26T12:31:00.001Z

Found this excellent resource from The Guardian this morning featuring the first 40 years of the internet

Social media statistics

2009-09-22T10:46:00.003Z

Interesting series of articles from Tech Crunchies giving internet statistics, and social media information including Twitter profiling.

the cloak

2009-09-21T14:22:00.002Z

Came across the cloak site today which allows for anonymous web surfing. It's also a really handy site for testing shortcuts to live web links.

Social media monitoring

2009-08-17T13:13:00.002Z

Found this wiki covering social media monitoring sites today.

Twitter 101

2009-07-28T13:38:00.002Z

Beginners guide for brands for customers and brands using Twitter

RSS to PDF

2009-07-28T12:54:00.003Z

Discovered this really handy utility today from fivefilters. It allows you to create PDFs from any RSS feed on the fly and also customise titles etc. It will be really useful when scooping up topic headlines at the end of the day and then taking the printed document on the train to read?

Bing versus Google

2009-07-22T11:03:00.003Z

Found this interesting comparison site comparing bing (Beta) and Google results on the same page.

Barriers to Social Media

2009-07-08T11:33:00.004Z

Interesting article on barriers to use of social media techniques from New Media Knowledge

Mobile web browsing growing

2009-06-17T07:41:00.001Z

I saw this report from Market Share showing mobile browsing having a 0.72 share of all web browsing, and growing.

Bingo

2009-06-09T12:26:00.002Z

I've been testing Bing - the new search engine from Microsoft. It seems fairly impressive in Beta, especially as it's not able to search for UK-only sites yet.

I also used the Blind Search site to test between Bing, Google and Yahoo.

Voting for what I considered to be the best results each time usually revealed Yahoo or Bing to be the engine performing the blind searches, not Google. However, whether this will be sufficient to open my own search eyes and switch allegiance away from Google after so long remains to be seen.

Eyetracking for web properties

2009-05-21T09:31:00.002Z

Excellent eyetracker news from Eyetrack III. Especially interesting findings on use of right-hand navigation as opposed to left.

Cognitive Daily

2009-03-26T10:33:00.003Z

Discovered this blog on Cognitive Information. It is an easy read on psychological phenomena as they are applied to daily life.

Clickthrough rates

2009-03-25T08:46:00.002Z

Interesting article from Only Dead Fish reporting on an ADTECH survey showing banner clickthrough rates are estimated to now be in the range of 0.11% to 0.19%.

The author points out that you can see this as 1 to 2 people out of every 1000 clicking on your links; or, 98 to 99 people fail to respond!

Most viewed

2009-03-23T15:00:00.003Z

There's a great application on the BBC site which shows most popular stories both latest, around site sections and on previous days.

I find it a really good way of catching up on news items I may have missed rather than just tracking breaking news from the likes of Twitter.

Twitter and newspaper sites

2009-03-21T10:41:00.006Z

I was reading recently that The Guardian online retains its place as the most visited UK newspaper site. I must say that this is the site I tend to go and link to if I'm looking for general news and current affairs; much more so than The Times. However, I probably glean most of my news from Yahoo! or the BBC site.

Online reading of newspapers is so different isn't it. It really is a case of dipping in and out, whereas when you buy a paper you tend to read it from beginning to end - or at least sections of it. I remember going to a seminar years ago when someone said that the difference between newspapers and magazines (offline) was that you skimmed a newspaper or went to a specific section seeking something in particular such as the football results, whereas with magazines they were more of a luxury buy and it was finding what you didn't expect to read that was the big difference.

With the web, I do find that it's partly both - I go to specific sites for answers or updates but then linking takes me to items I knew nothing about, so it successfully marries the two. I rarely buy the Guardian offline any more and am only getting The Times from our Tesco delivery this morning as something of a treat. Maybe my whole reading behaviour for current affairs has been transformed by the medium rather than differences between newspaper brands or product differences?

I also saw this story where it is suggested that Twitter (which I increasingly use) attracts more traffic than any single UK newspaper site, though it also drives an increasing amount of traffic to them. Short-form for now but will I go back to long-form when time is more readily available? I'm not sure that I will.

Mind mapping

2009-03-21T09:53:00.002Z

Some years ago we had a session at the day job on mind mapping. It's helped me in lots of ways since as I think, like many other human beings, in essentially a spatial, visual way. We spend our lives being organized into boxes with text labels but, through education and paid-for emplyment come to see only the words and lose sight of the boxes.

I found this link today which may be of use in the future: Mind Mapping Software

Is blogging still growing?

2009-02-06T13:46:00.005Z

Interesting stats from the LeeRaito site suggesting a date when there will be one billion online blogs.

The question for me is less production than consumption i.e. how many unique users will still be regular or even occasional blog readers?

BBC Weather Centre - out of time if not date?

2009-02-05T17:01:00.005Z

I didn't take any notice of weather forecasts but, as spring is with us once again, I want to ensure we won't get snow to ruin it so I've been checking more regularly online and the BBC Weather Centre is a great online resource. It enables you to custom short-term or five-day weather forecasts to your specified location.

However, given the spped of change in the weather - which is apparently 'increasing' - surely any great web resource such as this will only be effective by tying in with Twitter or text-based applications?

What are the top blogs on blogging?

2009-02-05T09:59:00.004Z

Found this article on DailyBlogTips via @LizzHarmon on Twitter. It reports on the most highly ranked blogs about blogging. I note that problogger is number one.

Twitter crashes blogs

2009-02-04T11:23:00.003Z

Interesting article from Royal Pingdom about Twitter pulling down blog sites due to sheer volume of traffic.

Twitter Grader

2009-02-04T11:07:00.003Z

Interesting site that grades how powerful your Twitter Profile is.

Google Earth

2009-02-02T18:33:00.003Z

Apparently Google Earth is being expanded to a chart of the world's seas and oceans.

Corporate blogs

2008-12-10T09:11:00.003Z

According to research by Forrester only 16% of consumers trust what they read on corporate blogs, below user-created wikis such as Wikipedia (33%), message board posts (21%) and personal blogs (18%)

Gratefulness

2008-12-02T18:24:00.002Z

I'd never visited this site before today. It has a lot of spiritually uplifting material there and you can subscribe to a 'word for the day' and light a candle among other activities.

On the Box

2008-11-22T17:43:00.002Z

I often look for TV Listings and Onthebox is quick and easy to view.

Free Rice

2008-11-22T16:27:00.003Z

I blog on another platform as well and was alerted to this site. all you need is to answer multiple-choice word definition questions and the FreeRice system donates grains of rice per correct answer via the UN Food Aid programme. FreeRice is a sister site of poverty.com.

Google Search Index

2008-10-03T13:21:00.002Z

Netimperative article on Google opening up its 2001 Search Index, showing the growth and evolution of the online marketing sector. With commentary from webcredible.

Technorati blog research

2008-09-24T14:07:00.002Z

Interesting research from Technorati into blogosphere trends

TV online

2008-09-12T15:21:00.004Z

I saw, in Ofcom's annual UK Communications Market Report, that the number of people in Britain who watch TV via the internet has doubled in the last year from 8% to 17%.

Apparently 32% of internet users now watch videos and webcasts online compared to 21% in 2006.

Wordia

2008-09-12T15:15:00.005Z

Apparently Wordia, the new video dictionary service, from Bebo founder Michael Birch is due to launch in September 2008. I notice that its entry on Wikipedia is due for deletion though as it amounts to 'speculation'

Cuil new search engine

2008-07-29T09:40:00.002Z

I read about the new Search Engine - cuil (pronounced cuil) in Metro this morning.

Created from ex-Google employees it claims to have an index three times the size of Google's. I tried some elementary searches this morning and didn't pull back many of the similar results I'd found on Google. I also noticed that cuil pulls up strange graphics to display on its results pages, almost as though their spider is selecting random images when presented with a choice.

Dopplr

2008-07-14T13:09:00.003Z

Great travel site where you can upload travel stories via Twitter (and others) using web or mobile 'phone. You can then share these with friends or colleagues and the system tracks common dates and times with invitations to meet. Dopplr

Yule never hear this story

2007-12-21T10:11:00.000Z

I love stories which is probably why I love to both listen or read or use what I've heard to base new stories and new characters on.

Every year, in the western world, we despair of the commercialism of Christmas and its emphasis on making some people happy through earning and spending money, nd others sad through the lack of it. All of this seems to take place earlier and earlier in the calendar year and we find ourselves looking back to snowy Christmas scenes and simple carols that told the 'true' story.

I was thinking about all of this, today. With three children we are all looking forward to Christmas. We think of Jesus but also of presents and games and a general optimism for the days ahead, together as a family.

Of course, this was the original point of Yule. This pagan festival was based on the winter solstice and included elements we recognize today such as decorating fir trees, bringing gifts to others and celebrating the certainty that the freezing winter would eventually be replaced by the warm and plentiful summer. In short, it was a celebration of life.

The early Christian writers took the Yule story and superimposed the Christmas story on it, so that Christmas Day became the focus of all things celebratory and optimistic, just as bankers and bakers and bookmakers do today.

When I walk out in the cold December air, I feel a certain warmth on the breeze. I believe in the Christmas story but also the Yuleide promise of a happy ending.

Quintura

2007-12-20T12:16:00.000Z

Quintura is a visual search engine - very much like looking at a mindmap.

Stampede

2007-10-19T17:51:00.000Z

Found the Stampede Secret site today via a Google alert. Good source of web 2.0 and Search posts.

MLM soundbites

2007-10-01T06:58:00.000Z

Interesting site from MLM offering concise summaries of terms and techniques used in blogging and social networking.

Snap Blog

2007-09-24T08:58:00.001Z

Interesting updates from the Snap Blog. We're using Snap on the new IPA site. I also use it on my Fen Creative site, pulling in blogs from the Fen Creative family.

Snap

2007-09-10T16:47:00.000Z

Great, free utility from Snap enabling Snapshot previews of links before they're clicked. Can be used for internal links as well.

Broadband speed

2007-09-05T12:46:00.000Z

Lots of these 'free' speed tests come up in Google and Yahoo results, but are really just sales pages for paid-for programs, with limited free testing. I like the Speedtest one at www.speedtest.net

Unype

2007-08-29T12:26:00.001Z

Unype Everywhere combines Facebook, Google Earth and Skype into a single application enabling direct communication with other Facebook users in Google Earth.

There is also a Unype blog.

Yahoo! overtakes Google

2007-08-15T08:01:00.000Z

University of Michigan report shows Yahoo! overtaking Google for the first time in its satisfaction survey, run since 2002: Netimperative

The cookie crumbles

2007-07-17T14:16:00.000Z

Google agrees to delete user data after 2 years: Netimperative

Marketer's blogs

2007-07-14T06:40:00.000Z

List of Marketer's blogs: Being Peter Kim

Google searchers missing out on results

2007-07-13T12:55:00.000Z

Netimperative report suggesting those using Google only for web searches miss out on 73% of the best results: WebFetch Survey

Blue Fountain Media

2007-07-13T09:28:00.000Z

From Google Alerts (Building Brands): survey suggesting users are more aware of brands when they engage with them online Shiny Red survey

Whoosh UK

2007-07-06T20:50:00.000Z

Just discovered this search engine: Whoosh UK. It's search results came back extremely quickly for me across a range of UK-based search enquiries.

CaughtOffside

2007-07-06T20:40:00.000Z

I regularly post my articles from Soccer Special to the sports site - Sportingo. I read this week that they'd bought the award-winning site CaughtOffside which has won awards from Metro in its Best of British Blogs competition.

Not sure whether this will become Sportingo's dedicated football site or not.

Most popular terms

2007-07-04T14:49:00.000Z

I read in New Media Age recently that Google, Orange and BBC were the most visited mobile sites, according to a survey by M:Metrics.

I then read in Marketing Week about research from Immediate Future which suggested that Google, Apple, Yahoo! and Microsoft were the most talked-about terms on the web, in terms of mentions in social networks, blogs and other forums.

SEOMOZ

2007-03-30T15:50:00.000Z

Useful collection of tools, articles and blog posts at SEOMOZ, a search optimisation company.

Useit

2007-03-29T13:18:00.000Z

Excellent site on usability with good forward links to other resources:

useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website

2007-03-23T13:36:00.000Z

Found the Reddit site via a link from the Telegraph. It is very easy to register and therefore participate in - without even the need for e-mail confirmation. Each recommendation directs users straight to the site concerned and works on the familiar user voting system. Each piece the user views is used to build a personalised list of recommendations in the background.

Ad Revenue Sharing

2007-03-22T13:29:00.000Z

Interesting article from Netimperative on Ad Revenue sharing on the social web.

Social networks challenge Google

2007-03-14T17:34:00.000Z

Article in Netimperative today where Andy Black of search technology, Convera, argues that social networks and vertical search may combine to challenge Google. He cites the main reason for this being consumers demanding personalisation and a sense of community in their searching lives:

Challenge to Google

Blogging stars in the east

2007-02-16T17:12:00.000Z

I was reading in Campaign recently that South Korea is leading the way on Web 2.0 applications. It has the most active blogging rate in the world. Apparently 64% of people who consume blogs also write their own. Also, 52% have signed up to a social networking site.

Although blogging has had an impact globally, the Asian markets appear to be leading the way. The same report cites Spain, France and Italy as the key dynamos in Europe in terms of blog consumption with the U.S. having the largest universe of 27 million readers. However, only 39% of blog readers also write blogs in the U.S.

e-mail: more or less?

2007-02-06T13:47:00.000Z

I was reading in New Media Age (NMA) about the DMA's National Email Benchmarking Report which showed that soe 4.3bn marketing e-mails were sent in 2005. They expect that figure to surpass 6bn when the 2006 figures are released. However, the volume growth predicion of circa 43% does hide some other key metrics: open rates fell from 30% in 2004 to just 23% in 2005 and click-through rates for customer retention campaigns fell from 13% in 2004 to just 8.5% in 2006.

NMA then goes on to discuss the use of outbound messages by a company's employees, estimating that they might send between 10 to 20 per day, and the obvious marketing opportunities therein. They also estimate that knowledge workers might spend at least 2 hours per day on email. I send and spend far more than that and the reality behind the apparent decline in effectiveness is directly linked to volume - not just SPAM which is more effectively filtered now - of useful information that I receive and feel the need to look at. Unfortunately I just don't have the time.

YouTube of money

2007-02-06T13:37:00.000Z

Netimperative is reporting on Google's plans to share ad money from YouTube with those people posting videos on the site. Apparently this was disclosed at the Davos World Economic Forum last Saturday. I wonder if this was the end game all along, following Google's purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in November 2006, especially given the enormous volume of subscribers. It certainly makes more sense than a purchase based on Google Video's comparative failure and yet another example of monetising user-generated content.

Mystore

2007-01-22T08:40:00.000Z

I was reading in Metro that Mystore, the retailing arm of Snocap are going to be offering indie music as mp3 downloads from MySpace. I didn't realise that independent record labels make up some 30% of music sold worldwide (the major labels are consolidated into four principal players: Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner).

Snocap is the digital music company formed by Sean Fanning, who founded Napster. Apparently the tie-in is imminent and is likely to further fragment the traditional music charts where music downloads are now counted and the long tail is wagging.

Joost do it

2007-01-17T13:47:00.000Z

Joost is the name of the new work-in-progress from Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. It is software which enables the aggregation of high quality, cutomisable and personalisable live television content, broadcast via the broadband-enhanced internet. I read about this in the Guardian and you can see the full article here:

Joost television

Revenue is expected to come from advertising via targetted spots but users will also be able to easily search content libraries to view what they want, when they want. But, apart from waiting to see what quality content is available, is this joost all too much effort for most passive television viewers?

Google share increases in U.S.

2007-01-17T08:47:00.000Z

Netimperative reported on comScore research this week that showed Google capturing 47.3% of the U.S. search market in December 2006, up 0.4 share points on November. Yahoo had 28.5% of the market, up by 0.3 share points. Microsoft, Ask and Time Warner all reported month-on-month decline.

You can view the story summary here:

Google share increases

The story states that there were 6.7 billion online searches in the U.S. in December, up 1% on November and up 30% year-on-year.
It will be interesting to see when Microsoft's Live.com search offering begins to make an impact; if it does?

UK Government Kills sites

2007-01-12T20:25:00.000Z

The UK Government is killing 551 of its own websites, on top of the 90 that had already been closed, according to Netimperative. The full article can be found here:

Goverment kills its own websites

It seems as though this is partly a cost-cutting mission and partly the fact that the authorities have realised that so many of these government websites were just about local vanity and spin. Is this cost versus spin or Brown versus Blair?

Google book store

2007-01-12T10:01:00.000Z

I was reading on the BBC website that Google is considering an online bookstore. They have been scanning a wide range of sources and the possible copyright implications have been highlighted in the book and information science press for some time. The full article can be found here: Google book store

Google claim they are looking at providing a card catalogue only, in line with their Search mission, but could this lead to a revival of the e-book concept? How would Amazon react given that low-sales volumes down the tail are often simply printed on demand which is very close to this concept. Could there be a tie-in to get around the copyright problems?