Who's Talking About You?

Another new service coming out of the Google stable is Web Alerts - presently in beta test mode.

If you want to find out whether another website has mentioned your company name, your website, or your own name, for example, you can set up an alert and Google will send you a message when the reference appears. Up to 10 alerts can be set-up under the beta account.

One assumes that this may become a fee paying service at some stage, but at least you can have a play now. Click the link below.

Google Alerts

PS: This site should not be confused with www.googlealerts.com which is a different company not affiliated to Google, but providing similar services.

Which? Web Trader Successor(s)

Following the demise of the Which? Web Trader scheme (any website that still displays the logo is providing outdated assurance), it looks like there are to be two successors.

Trust UK, which is backed by the UK government, will be for trade associations, who will relay information to members; SafeBuy appears to be the direct Web Trader scheme and the channel for public information.

Simplification or Duplication?

We will keep you posted on the development of these schemes.

A Clean Image

We are often asked: 'what is the benefit of having a website that can be accessed anywhere in the world when the services are only available in a discrete locality?'

First of all it doesn't matter if someone in California comes across a website for a company based in Aberdeen – you never know who they know, and maybe if they are impressed they will tell their contact about you.

Of course, a local company's principal objective is to appeal to their target customer base, so it is important to follow four golden rules.

1. Have a professionally prepared website - a crummy website does zilch for your image.

2. After launching your new website, write to your existing customers and ask them to take a look. It's an opportunity to maintain customer contact.

3. Make sure the website name appears on all letterheads and other stationery as well as any company vehicles and equipment.

4. Use a professional company to undertake Internet directory and search engine submissions, particularly those with a geographic indexing. (Google Local is not far away from launch in the UK and will be a major player.)

Low Cost IT Training

One of the most effective ways of building skills over time is to use a trickle-feed approach. In conjunction with Training Masters Limited we have just started to offer a two-level service aimed at achieving productivity gains using computers and software already on most office workers desks. The base level service comes at less than 10p a day. Read more...

BT Yahoo Virus Scan Not Absolute

Private and small firm users of the BT Internet services will have been getting used to the recent tie-in with Yahoo! Some of the facilities are good, particularly the webmail features and the Spam filtering, but in our experience the virus guards are not completely thorough.

Even though BT Yahoo is using virus detection software from Symantec, and many viruses are detected prior to delivery, we still receive a few virus messages every day that are only detected by Symantec's own product installed directly on our machines.

The key point therefore is don't stop paying for detection software on your own machine - it would be a false economy.

"Horses For Courses"

In most organisations there will be a strong and shared understanding at the Board level that if you want professional tax advice you speak to a suitably qualified accountant; if you want legal advice you go to a specialist lawyer; if you want to build a new office you appoint an architect and associates professionals…...you get the drift. But why is it that when it comes to computers and the Internet that we see so much amateur involvement?

I could speak of many instances where organisations have suffered heavy cost burdens from the inefficiencies of computer system planning, maintenance and support – not to mention the lack of training. Similarly, (as I commented in an earlier post) there are innumerable instances where someone has constructed a database or spreadsheet that has become a key part of the business operation, only for major disruption when someone new comes to try to find the documentation or change things.

The Internet is no different. Websites are no longer a trendy thing to have – they are a necessity. Where do you go to when you want to find information about a particular company? The Internet is increasingly the first port of call.

With so many websites badly designed, often totally lacking in the features that will assist search engine placement, and with no use or awareness of Internet marketing and advertising techniques, your organisation may be losing opportunities and market share to competitors that you had not previously seen as a threat.

Horses for courses….

Contact Bernie Vincent if you want professional help.

Gmail - a new email service

Google has launched of a trial version of email services called Gmail.

Gmail will be a rival to Hotmail and Yahoo! and offers a massive amount of free storage (1,000 Mb against Hotmail's 2 Mb and Yahoo!'s 4 Mb) giving the ability to have long term storage of messages.

But the launch has not met with wholesale approval from privacy watchers. Whilst Gmail says it will be free of banners and pop-up adverts, the content will be scanned (Google says it's automatic – no human intervention) to detect the content and then feed related adverts from its very successful AdWords programme. There are also concerns being expressed over the level of privacy when large amounts of private messages are retained.

The introduction of the Gmail service is seen as part of a growing commercial battle between the search engines and email providers. Google has a very strong position in the search engine field – although it no longer provides the main feed of data to Yahoo! – but whether its foray into email services will be a success remains to be seen. Addressing the privacy concerns will be key to this.

Social Networking - new names for you

We are starting to see the emergence of 'Social Networking' over the Internet. Some reports say that upwards of $30 million has been invested in new applications so far this year.

Here are three examples:

ZeroDegrees focuses on business networking and has developed some associate links with BNI (Business Network International). ZeroDegrees works on the observations through experiment that it is possible to reach anyone who has the information or influence to help you within 6 steps. Although a fledgling company, ZeroDegrees has already been snapped-up by InterActive Corp who have built sites with dating and matching services with millions of subscribers. Links: Zerodegrees and BNI

Google has joined in the fun with an arms-length association with Orkut, which calls itself "an online community designed for friends". The site is being developed by Google's own staff, who are allowed under company policy to spend one day a week on personal projects. Link: Orkut

Eurekster is a new-entrant into the search engine market. It works on the basis that you share your searches (mostly drawn from AlltheWeb at the moment) with those who you have invited into your network. It remembers that searches you perform so, for example, if you were to search for 'Schatz Clocks' and click on the our Shipstore site – about 9th on the list – and spend at least one minute on the site, the next time you search for the same thing, Shipstore will be top of the list. Any of your friends who are part of your designated Social Network will see that this is a site you have viewed. Link: Eurekster

It's all a bit complicated at the moment, but Social Networking is seen as a powerful new entrant beyond the 'chat-room' era. Once the big companies start to take an interest, you can bet that there is money to be made!

Achieving Best Practice...a bad start

Today sees the demise of the UK Online for Business programme to be replaced with the snappy ‘Achieving Best Practice In Your Business’ programme. I commented in an earlier post that the end of the programme was brought about because the government considered that the original programme had failed to achieve its objectives and I explained why I believe that was the case.

How many large businesses could face their shareholders having spent tens of millions of pounds creating and promoting a brand, yet fail to get the message delivered locally and see the solution as replacing it with something so nondescript as Achieving Best Practice In Your Business?

Talking about best practice - perhaps the new organisation should start with itself and ask why, when the launch of the new programme had been planned for so long, that they failed to get their new website in time!