Chris Lake
I am Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a long-term internet fiend.
Contact me via chris@econsultancy.com.
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At this year’s Internet World we met a bunch of passionate internet professionals based around the M62 corridor, who pretty much demanded that we host more events based outside of London. And hey, we’ve taken notice…
Having seen the (Northern) light, Team E-consultancy is rather looking forward to our inaugural ‘Digital Shorts’ internet networking event that we’re jointly hosting with Manchester Digital later this month.
Yup, it’s in Manchester, so internet folk based in the Good North should come along and say hello if we’ve not met you before.
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by Chris Lake
03 July 2006 11:16am
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3, the mobile operator with the dubious brand name, has teamed up with Yahoo to finally allow its users to access the web via mobile handsets.
The telecoms group today announced a global agreement with Yahoo to demolish its ill-advised 'walled garden'.
Despite being the first mobile operator to roll-out a 3G network in the UK, 3 users haven't been able to visit websites of their own choosing, instead being force-fed a diet of 3-approved websites and services.
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by Chris Lake
30 June 2006 14:06pm
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Is London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) the new Nasdaq? This is the question being asked in the US by VC’s such as Charley Lax, of GrandBanks Capital.
The figures speak for themselves. Last year some 519 companies sought a listing on AIM, while there were just 45 IPOs on the Nasdaq.
Why is this happening? The Nasdaq is a larger market, so wouldn’t that be a better place for many VC-backed US companies?
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by Chris Lake
30 June 2006 12:08pm
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GBuy is here, only it is called Google Checkout and despite the chief doers of no evil claiming that it “isn’t like PayPal at all”, it is, erm, rather like PayPal, in that merchants use it to process consumer payments.
Google Checkout allows consumers to purchase products by simply logging in to Google – no need for credit card numbers or filling out forms. Obviously you need to tell Google to begin with, but thereafter Google will store your credit card and address data...
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by Chris Lake
29 June 2006 18:51pm
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YouTube has settled a six-month dispute with NBC, after the TV network decided to relax and climb into bed with the video-sharing behemoth.
The turnaround is unbelievable, and a huge positive for YouTube. Some months ago NBC’s legal department forced YouTube to remove the 'Lazy Sunday' sketch, taken from NBC-owned Saturday Night Live. Like much of the content on YouTube, the clip was used without the permission of the copyright owner, in this case NBC.
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by Chris Lake
29 June 2006 14:24pm
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The BBC looks all set to introduce “low-key” advertising on its BBC Worldwide websites within a year, with a final decision on the matter due in the autumn after a further round of consumer research.
The announcement was made yesterday, when BBC Worldwide announced annual profits of almost £90m, up by around two-thirds on the previous year.
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by Chris Lake
29 June 2006 12:59pm
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The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has launched its latest initiative to understand more about the online behaviour, in a bid to provide advertisers with “a holistic understanding of what, where and how people are accessing the internet”.
The Holy Grail for the IAB is to provide “a single online planning currency” for marketers, to help them “plan their online brand campaigns against traditional media”.
The IAB has teamed up with National Readership Surveys (NRS), which will add an online element to the 3,000 face-to-face interviews it does each month with random consumers: “Areas covered in the study will include; demographic information, frequency of internet usage, where people are going online and how they are accessing the internet - for example by PC or through mobile devices.”
The trouble is, I don’t think this is what online media planners need...
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by Chris Lake
27 June 2006 15:01pm
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When the big tech brands like Amazon start using Ajax to improve their user interface you know the tipping point has been reached. So how long will it be before the great and good embrace Fjax, aka ‘Ajax 2.0’?
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by Chris Lake
26 June 2006 16:16pm
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In 2004 we discovered that half of all onsite searches returned no results, despite the fact that products were actually available and could be found by clicking navigation links.
What did this tell us? Well firstly, it made us shudder. Half of all onsite queries returned NO results! Why was this happening? The main problem seemed to be related to poor quality metadata, but we also realised that some of the big retailers had site search tools that were perhaps not up to scratch.
Roll forward to 2006 and we figured that it was about time to investigate the site search market. What tools are available? What are the trends and issues in the marketplace? Why should site search be a priority if you’re selling online?
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by Chris Lake
26 June 2006 13:13pm
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After the success of Alex Tew’s MillionDollarHomepage we’ve seen innumerable clones and a smattering of twists-on-a-theme. Now, we’ve spotted a new site that is gathering online and offline buzz. It allows you to buy one word as a link to your website, for a period of five years.
So how does it work, and will it work?
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by Chris Lake
23 June 2006 14:36pm
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