Forget Twitter, go back to email

Twitter is the current “in thing”; the numbers of people using it is rising exponentially. But could it have reached its peak? Remember just a year ago when the buzz was about Second Life? What happened? It didn’t even get discussed at the recent Social Media Conference in London. And …

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Your online profile needs to trigger emotions

How do you make your mind up whether to follow people on Twitter, or connect with them on LinkedIn or make them a Facebook friend? If you don’t know them already you probably take a look at their profile. New research on brain activity from the University of New York …

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Search behaviour is changing significantly

Search engine users are changing the way they look for things; and it’s a significant jump. When the Internet was a mere baby, you could easily find things. All it took was an army of editors at Yahoo! and they presented you with a list of all the good stuff. …

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All this stuff online and we still want to read books

Today is World Book Day, which aims to promote reading amongst young children in particular. But why do we need to promote books to children, when several novels-worth of material are added to the Internet every hour? Millions of words are added every day to the web, we read even …

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Online social networking is psychologically beneficial

Social scientists from the University of Amsterdam have suggested that using online social networking sites could be beneficial for your psychological health. They claim that the Internet has “come of age” and is helping people achieve greater happiness than before. Essentially they have compared the use of the Internet ten …

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People would rather your web site took longer

People always want to do things quickly don’t they? Everyone seems to be in a hurry these days. And that seems to be true online as well. Few people stay on a web site longer than a second if the can’t see exactly what they are looking for. One quick …

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It looks like Google has just committed suicide

This week, Google has made a change to its search engine rankings which could yet prove to be the most stupid action it has ever taken. According to several reports of the latest Google developments, the company has quietly changed its search algorithm to place a heavy emphasis on brands. …

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Internet shoppers plan to spend less in 2009

Internet shoppers are planning to spend less in 2009 than they did last year, when they forked out a staggering £20bn for online products and services. According to a new study, almost half of people currently shopping online say they will be spending less via the Internet in the coming …

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You thought the Internet was popular in business? Think again!

The popularity of the Internet seems obvious; after all, broadband suppliers can hardly keep up with the demand, Facebook membership is growing at the rate of 5m users a week and millions of people had their day disrupted yesterday because of a breakdown at GMail. However, two new reports on …

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Oh No! Facebook will change your brain – NOT!

Here we go again, another article from the Daily Mail in its continuing “anti-Internet” campaign. According to today’s piece of nonsense, Facebook is “harming children’s brains”. They quote Baroness Greenfield – an eminent scientist to be sure – who is fearful that sites like Facebook will “re-wire” the brain of …

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Sometimes your web site needs to be complicated – not simple

Simplicity is essential, we are told, especially online. People oftent cite the reason for Google’s success as being the simplicity of its plain white page with a single search box and no other distractions. Compared with the complications of the directory-based Yahoo! search page at the time of Google’s introduction, …

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Hardly anyone actually uses social networks

Here’s a major shock announcement for you – people visit social networking sites to be sociable. Gosh, hold the front page…! That’s the “revelation” in a study by JPMorgan and highlighted today by a report from eMarketer. Indeed, the principal reasons why so many people visit social networking sites are …

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Facebook could give you cancer: er, I think not…!

Oh dear, here we go again, another mass media “attack” on Facebook. The Daily Mail today publishes another story on their theme of “the Internet is dreadful”. According to today’s bit of nonsense, Facebook will increase your risk of cancer; I jest not…! Here’s the essence of the story. Our …

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Will Web 2.0 technologies spell the end for corporates?

Executives in big business face a real issue in the coming months; they need to generate more business in these difficult times, yet the very tools they can use to do this will make their life much more difficult than ever before. Corporate business is a top-down, patriarchal system. Bosses …

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