Speculation is rife as to the future of Foursquare following the launch of Facebook Places, a location-based service allowing users to ‘check in’ to the places they visit.

Facebook Places, currently only available in the US, uses the GPS on smartphones to provide a list of locations for users to choose from and publicise their whereabouts while out on the move. They can also tag friends who are with them, as long as they have ticked the ‘check in’ application on their account.

While there has been an inevitable privacy backlash, echoing criticism from earlier this year, Facebook Places product manager Ana Yang has defended the app, claiming it makes it easier for users to take control of connections by providing options to detag locations or opt out altogether.

Foursquare currently dominates location-based services online, in terms of both users and revenue, and claims to have witnessed a dramatic surge in new signups since the launch of Facebook Places.

There are many benefits to using Foursquare at the minute, including rewards for checking in frequently with participating businesses, which Facebook have yet to develop. However, with the strength of 500 million users and a reputation for tapping into the most significant social media trends – if not determining them – there can be no doubt that Facebook is up to the task at hand.

The news that Facebook has ‘acq-hired’ Hot Potato and will integrate the staff into the FB team may provide some indication of their plans. Hot Potato, which shares characteristics with Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook Like, allows users to “socialize around activities and live events” by stating what they are doing, reading or listening to and creating lists of trends.

Whatever Facebook’s plans with Places, they will undoubtedly play a significant role in the future of social media and online marketing strategies.

Apple and Adobe are at loggerheads again over apples decision not to include Flash in the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Steve Jobs, co-founder and chief executive of Apple was pretty damming in his memo "Thoughts on Flash" where he publically wanted to dispel any thoughts that Apple were are trying to close off protect the App Store.

Instead he has made it clear that the reasoning behind this is a business driven decision based on security and performance. Steve indeed redirects this criticism at Abobe and let it be known that Apple invested heavily in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years.

He continues "Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member."

Firstly there was battery life: "Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained."

Secondly: "Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which popup menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?"

Flash was "designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers... Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash Web sites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices".

We should keep an eye on this battle which I am sure will rumble on a lot further, depending on whoever come out on top could determine the future of web and mobile app design

New customers of Belfast-based Rainbow Telecom are set to benefit from Free Superfast Broadband from today. The company is the first in Northern Ireland to state its pricing structure ahead of the roll-out of next generation superfast broadband by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, due to be completed by May 2011.

Rainbow, Northern Ireland’s largest independent telecoms company, said today the move was designed to help local businesses save hundreds of pounds while improving the efficiency of their communications.

DETI aims to roll out Next Generation Superfast Broadband across Northern Ireland, with a target of reaching 85 per cent of businesses in the next year. The first areas to benefit will be Bangor, Lisburn and Balmoral.

Eric Carson, Director of Rainbow, said: “From today new business customers can take advantage of broadband speeds of up to 24MB through our 39 exchanges throughout Northern Ireland.

“As soon as DETI rolls out Next Generation Broadband in each area we will upgrade customers to 40MB."
“Although the roll-out of the Next Generation Broadband Project means all operators can now provide the same superfast broadband speeds we are the only one offering it for free!"

“We want to help Northern Ireland businesses say goodbye to slow connection speeds and become more competitive."
“As a locally owned business employing 50 staff we know that in the current climate businesses are looking to make savings, hence our Free Superfast Broadband will make a big difference as well as improving the efficiency of their communications."

“At Rainbow, we pride ourselves on customer service and as the largest independently owned telecommunications provider in Northern Ireland we have the same access to BT’s 14,000 engineers across the UK as BT Retail so we sort out technical problems as quickly as possible.”

Rainbow has over 5,000 business customers throughout the UK and Ireland, including 33% of Northern Ireland’s top 100 companies.

Superfast Broadband will allow communications providers like Rainbow to offer business customers greatly enhanced broadband speeds - allowing them to make use of the very latest on line applications and programmes in their business operations but Rainbow is the only company providing it for free.

By signing up to the free deal Rainbow hopes to help new clients take advantage of the faster business broadband roll-out and see the end of slow connection speeds.

Benefits include faster responses to customers and suppliers, faster ordering times, improved communications and increased efficiencies.

Companies with a call spend of over £75 a month can claim their free superfast broadband for 24 months by contacting Rainbow on 0800 018 8082 or www.rainbowtele.com

Social networking is starting to influence every part of our lives nowadays, from reconnecting with old friends to sharing photos to voicing your opinions on the Apple iPad.

People have been turning to the internet to help guide them through the entire election, including researching the various parties and their MPs, registering to vote, voicing their own opinion and discussing topics affecting local and general issues.

According to analytical firm Experian, UK vote-related searches increased by 169 per cent between the week ending 3 April 2010 and the week ending 10 April with searches for the most popular term, 'register to vote', increasing nine-fold.

During the historic televised prime-ministerial debate, Twitter showed more than 184,396 tweets for the #leadersdebate, equating to more than 29 tweets-per-second!

Surfers also flocked in their tens-of-thousands to other social networks, news sites and blogs to comment and read up about the event. Even Google is lending a helping hand with its own dedicated election 2010 page tracking various UK Election search trends.

Beyond this major event, topics such as the passing of popular bills are increasingly discussed, petitioned and viewed on social networks such as Facebook, with the real time immediacy allowing political figures and the general public to have a greater impact on the decision making process, not just after the fact, but in near real time.

The same trend was seen in the US during the last election and was used to particularly good effect by Barack Obama and the change.gov platform to promote his profile and engage the nation's population by providing a single resource for Americans to give input on the priorities for the first year of the incoming administration.

The site had around 134,000 registered users, saw more than 30,000 ideas submitted in the first 96 hours and over 1.4 million votes cast in total. By the end of the election the site had received just shy of 40 million visits. The site's popularity is proof of the power of crowd-sourcing, not just for discussion, but for the generation of ideas.

A similar launch in the UK is Debate2010 web site http://www.debate2010.co.uk, which provides a dedicated, central platform for parties and voters to have their say and make a difference to what the next Government will do by harnessing the 'wisdom of the crowd' through the innovation of cloud computing.

All the parties and most MPs have a web site. A lot of MPs also have blogs, while around one in five are on Twitter, with parties having their own Twitter feeds as well. Critically, social media must not be viewed as a pure broadcast channel - those involved need to ensure that the communication is two-way, taking on and responding to comments made by voters.

This is particularly true for local MPs, who have a huge opportunity to use tools like Twitter to interact with constituents on a personal level, while getting a handle for the topics most strongly on the minds of those within their constituency.

So, while some may argue that social media may not make or break a party's chances in the upcoming election, at a time when apathy and mistrust in the political protest has ebbed, its value as a channel for education, awareness, debate and communication is undeniable.

Good news for e-commerce as figures report a dramatic rise in online spending in July, the fastest rate of increase in three years.

The online retail sector has been enjoying continued growth throughout the first half of 2010. But the latest results from the IMRG and Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index indicate that the rise in July was even greater than expected.

Online consumers in the UK spent an estimated £5 billion in July, or approximately £81 per head. That’s an impressive increase of 18% compared to June 2009, when total sales were £4.2 billion. The figures also represent growth of 14% when compared to June 2010, the highest monthly upturn of the year so far.

According to Chris Webster, Head of Retail Consulting and Technology at Capgemini, the figures show a return of customer confidence to pre-recession levels.  Webster welcomed the news suggesting that “although online retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than high street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times.”

What are the reasons for the marked growth in e-retail? Some sources, including the BBC, have suggested the British summer may have encouraged shoppers to stay indoors. Indeed with rainfall at twice its average value for the time of year, hopeful travellers logged on to take advantage of last minute deals on holidays and escape to sunnier climes. As a result, the online travel sector enjoyed a growth of a third compared to July 2009.

For David Smith, Managing Director of IMRG, the new figures are a result of changing consumer behaviour. He stated: “with over half of the UK population online at least once a day it is no surprise that online sales continue to grow impressively year on year.”

Smith asserted that now is not the time for online businesses to rest on their laurels: “The evidence mounts that high street retailers will need to invest more in their online business and put it at the heart of their retail strategy. Online retailers, on the other hand, will need to continue to innovate as they strive to close the growth gap.”

Page titles are one of the biggest factors that search engines look at when trying to figure out what a given page on your website is all about. Here are some basic guidelines on writing SEO friendly page titles.

Specific
Every page on your site should have a specific purpose/focus. Look at the page in front of you, and try to describe it. When writing the titles for each of these pages, keep the specifics of the page in mind. If this is a page specifically about "Adobe Photoshop training", the title should include your keywords centred around "Adobe Photoshop training ", and not a more generic keyword phrase like "graphic software training".

Unique
Just like every page title should be specific to each page, you should also make sure that each page title is unique across your entire site. If you follow the first rule and making sure that every page is laser-focused on a single topic, it should be extremely easy to also make sure that each page title is unique.

Make them catchy
When you are looking at a search engine results page, there's only three things that appear for a visitor - the page title, the page description (even better if you have a unique and targeted meta description), and the page's URL. Try and treat your page titles like the titles for your blog posts, and make them catchy.

Don't be repetitive
Your page titles shouldn't include multiple variations of similar keyword phrases. A great example of being bad would be "photoshop, adobe photoshop, photoshop CS3, photoshop software, photoshop training". Titles like this promote worst practices and often make it difficult to keep your page titles unique to that page.

Keep them short
70 characters should be the maximum length – Google will cut your page title off after 70 characters so that everything after 70 characters will be neglected.

Company name?
In the majority of cases, your website will already rank highly for your company name. Search engines will allocate greater weight to the words at the start of your page title.

Recommended Page Title
Keyword < Category | Company Name

Most businesses measure the success of their email marketing or email newsletter in terms of the amount of emails opened and the clicks they generate. If your email marketing isn't going as well as you'd planned, here are some suggestions to help you to improve your email marketing efforts and the success of your email newsletter.

Frequency of emails:

How often are you sending your email campaigns? Are you bombarding your customers with too many emails? This is a common problem. Too often is too much, to infrequent doesn’t encourage communication and maintain interest.

Content of email marketing messages

Regular good quality content will help to keep your readers interested and your open rates up. Are your emails offers and news appealing enough? How does your emails compare to your competition?

Relevancy of your email newsletters

This is the biggest problem with most email. If the emails you send through have nothing relevant for a recipient why would they click-through?

Relevancy can be resolved in a number of ways including: sending to segments of your database each time rather than the whole list, using past email behaviour to determine interest and using tailored content blocks or dynamic content by using a solution such as The Web Bureaus e-mail marketing solution.

Email deliverability

Quite simply if your emails are not getting into the inbox or being labelled as junk it does not take a genius to work out that fewer people will open the email and even fewer will click-through.

Take proactive steps by ensuring your email provider is white listed and not blacklisted and that your email has been scored in a spam checking tool.

Professional Looking Emails

Ensure your email lands in the recipient’s inbox looking professional and tailored to your business look and feel. Ensure by testing the email that it doesn’t look mangled and unprofessional. Ensure it makes for easy reading. Regularly check and test your emails in a variety of browsers and email clients.

What should you Do

In particular what you should look at here would include:

Obvious Call to Action?
Does your message take into account the preview pane?
What does your HTML email look like with image blocking enabled?
These tips are always a good place to start if you use email marketing or are planning on starting your own campaigns. Of course other brainstorming activities such as looking at what your competitors are doing is also a good place to start.

Good news for e-commerce as figures report a dramatic rise in online spending in July, the fastest rate of increase in three years.

The online retail sector has been enjoying continued growth throughout the first half of 2010. But the latest results from the IMRG and Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index indicate that the rise in July was even greater than expected.

Online consumers in the UK spent an estimated £5 billion in July, or approximately £81 per head. That’s an impressive increase of 18% compared to June 2009, when total sales were £4.2 billion. The figures also represent growth of 14% when compared to June 2010, the highest monthly upturn of the year so far.

According to Chris Webster, Head of Retail Consulting and Technology at Capgemini, the figures show a return of customer confidence to pre-recession levels.  Webster welcomed the news suggesting that “although online retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than high street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times.”

What are the reasons for the marked growth in e-retail? Some sources, including the BBC, have suggested the British summer may have encouraged shoppers to stay indoors. Indeed with rainfall at twice its average value for the time of year, hopeful travellers logged on to take advantage of last minute deals on holidays and escape to sunnier climes. As a result, the online travel sector enjoyed a growth of a third compared to July 2009.

For David Smith, Managing Director of IMRG, the new figures are a result of changing consumer behaviour. He stated: “with over half of the UK population online at least once a day it is no surprise that online sales continue to grow impressively year on year.”

Smith asserted that now is not the time for online businesses to rest on their laurels: “The evidence mounts that high street retailers will need to invest more in their online business and put it at the heart of their retail strategy. Online retailers, on the other hand, will need to continue to innovate as they strive to close the growth gap.”

Mobile Media and Mobile Apps are is taking the world over by revolutionary technologies emerging in the Application Development arena. Mobile devices are extensively used for movies, TV, radio, e-mails & business communication. The normal media types are facing stiff threat from Mobile media owing to numerous advantages and the sheer fact that mobile devices are with us 24/7.

Mobile Applications are fast becoming the most preferred alternative by the business people due to their effective capabilites in administering and management of the company and business operations. It has become extremely crucial to harness Internet’s capabilities of Search and Interactivity, which are now easily available on mobile phones.

At the web bureau we are keen to expand our portfolio in this area and we have expertise in app development that can be integrated in various mobile platforms. Please speak to us today to see how we can turn your idea into a reality.

How your website is developed and each page is coded is very important for SEO, therefore it is important for the Web Developer to get this right.  This useful resource/checklist includes:

Important SEO HTML Tags
Search Engine Indexing Limits
Recommended Title Tag Syntax
Common Canonical Issues
301 Redirect
Important Search Engine Robot User-Agents
Common Robot Traps to Avoid
Robots Meta Tag Syntax
Robots.txt Syntax
Sitemap Syntax
Download the Web Developer Cheat Sheet here