Blog Archives
Where the Internet lives
They are some of the most awesomely powerful places on Earth. Yet most of us will never get to visit them, even though many facets of our everyday lives depend upon them.
Google has recently opened the doors, giving a peek into some of its datacenters. At the Where the Internet Lives site you can learn about the immense capabilities of Google’s data farms and some of the people who work there.
Microsoft also occasionally gives glimpses into its own datacenters. Here’s a video from 2011 giving a behind-the-scenes view into the technology that Microsoft’s customers use every day without even realising it.
They’re massive, energy hungry and pretty awe-inspiring to look at. But without them our digital lives simply wouldn’t be the same.
It’s time to Get Safe Online
It’s Get Safe Online Week and a timely reminder to all of us to think again about how we protect our personal data and identities on the Internet.
If you’ve ever had to change a password because you realised or feared it had been compromised in some way you’re not alone. A new study shows that as many as 4 in 10 adults in the UK have had to change all their online passwords at some time to foil crooks who had stolen their identity. But many victims are too embarrassed to speak out about their experience so their stories often go untold leaving others at risk of encountering the same threats.
It’s time to take action, for yourself and your friends. If you’ve ever been a victim of viruses, email or social media hackers, fraudulent selling or online credit card fraud, please tell others about your experience. The Get Safe Online campaign call this ‘Click and Tell’ and it’s the very best way to learn from each others’ experiences. With the average successful online attack costing the victim £247, the best time to get prepared is now, before the bad guys find you.
For information on how to get safe online visit https://www.getsafeonline.org/.
This subject, and particularly the issue of safeguarding children’s safety online, is close to my heart. I continue to give talks to groups of parents of schoolchildren to help them understand the online world our children are growing up in and ensure they take steps to make it safer. To find out more about this, please get in touch.
A Day in The Internet: Just One of 200 Million Blog Posts Written Today
Our digital world moves fast. So, here for your weekend delectation, is a thought-provoking infographic that shows just how much stuff happens each day on this thing we call The Internet. Enjoy!
Created by: MBA Online
News Flash: our news habits are changing
Gosh, these data bring things into sharp focus! We all know that our information discovery and consumption habits are going through some pretty seismic changes, but new data from the Pew Research Center in the US show how rapidly this change has come about.
In 2010, the Internet surpassed TV as the main source of news information for 18-29 year olds in the US, while 48% of 30-49 year olds also cited the Internet as one of their two main news sources. The use of newspapers remains in decline across most age categories, while radio seems to be holding its own, albeit at a low point of between 13-19%.
[click graphs to enlarge]
There’s a whole generation of consumers who have recently or are about to enter the workforce whose news consumption behaviours differ wildly to every generation that has gone before. Over the coming years, as these consumers grow older and become the group with the highest disposable income, the way news and information are discovered and shared will undergo further transformations. The challenge for marketers and anyone in the content creation business is huge. These data provide us with a compelling and undeniable truth: the future’s digital.
Not-Quite-Maslow’s Hierarchy of Internet Needs
While Abraham Harold Maslow spins furiously in his grave, Internet marketers are busy adapting his legendary hierarchy of needs for our new digitally-connected era. No surprise that the framework of Maslow’s thinking still stands the test of time today and we can draw reasonable parallels between the ways we express ourselves online and the more rudimentary psychological and physical needs that Maslow studied in the 1950s and 1960s.
Where are you on the pyramid? And where are your customers?
Thanks to Flowtown for sparking the idea.
Internet Explorer 9 Beta – the start of something big
The web tonight is awash with news of the release of the beta of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). At the risk of being accused of cronyism, this is a major development for web design and designers. IE holds over 60% share of browser usage (source: Wikipedia) and the release of IE9 beta therefore signals the beginning of widespread adoption of new web coding techniques like HTML5, Canvas, SVG and CSS3. The feature set is impressive and you can immediately notice the speed improvement over IE8 and appreciate the potential that hardware accelerated graphics and text bring to future web design.
To see the power of these technologies for yourself, install IE9 beta, then explore some of the test drive sites and the many live sites available from today. Be sure to check out some of my favourites including The Killers’, Gorillaz, and Pixel Lab’s delightful Agent 8 Ball game.
