Graham Charlton

Bebo adds widgets

Social network Bebo is partnering with Photobucket, Rockyou and Slide to offer the site's users the ability to add simple, secure and viral widgets to their profiles.

For the first time, Bebo users can select photos from their personal profiles, create their widget of choice, and display it on their Bebo profile with a series of simple clicks.

by Graham Charlton 20 December 2006 10:54am 0 comments

Polar Rose to launch 'visionary' photo search tool

Polar Rose, a Swedish startup which aims to revolutionise image search on the internet, with its facial recognition technology, has announced more details of its plans.

I mentioned Polar Rose last month after they had announced that they had raised $5.1 million in VC funding. Now they have announced more details of their image search project.

by Graham Charlton 20 December 2006 10:57am 0 comments

Online discount woes hit Hamleys

Toy retailer Hamleys had its website pillaged by bargain hungry e-shoppers over the weekend, as customers exploited an error with discount codes.

The offer allowed shoppers using different discount codes together to get a whopping 60% off goods at Hamleys' online store. After the 'offer' was displayed on the HotUKDeals website, thousands took advantage.

by Graham Charlton 19 December 2006 15:31pm 2 comments

Venice Project review

The Venice Project, the latest venture of Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has been going for a week now and we received an invitation to try it out.

The P2P site aims to deliver an internet TV service which is as near to TV as possible, while adding the sort of social features you would get on YouTube or other video sharing sites. The service is currently being tested by 6,000 people.

by Graham Charlton 19 December 2006 12:00pm 2 comments

Fashion network Glam raises $18.5 million

Glam, an online fashion and lifestyle publisher, has announced that it has raised $18.5 million in venture funding, which it plans to use for mergers and acquisitions.

Glam Media, which claims to have had 8 million unique users in November, has also announced a deal with Hearst magazines to add content from Marie Claire to Glam’s sites.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:36pm 2 comments

StumbleUpon launches video service

StumbleUpon yesterday announced the launch of a new video service that will offer viewers a selection of videos from YouTube, Google Video and MySpace, based on their personal preferences.

StumbleUpon has until now been known for a browsing application which helps Web users discover sites based on the ratings of users with similar tastes. It is now applying the same idea to video. And it's pretty cool.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:37pm 0 comments

Mozilla to release Firefox 3.0 next year

Despite the fact that Firefox 2.0 was only released last month, Mozilla is to release the new version of its browser as early as next year.

The rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer has increased its share of the browser market since the release of Firefox 2.0 to nearly 11% in the US, 22% in the UK, and an average of 23.2% across Europe.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:42pm 1 comment

Massive increase in phishing attacks, claims FSA

The Financial Services Authority has expressed its concern about the rise in phishing scams to a Lords Parliamentary sub-committee, claiming that such incidences are on the rise.

A spokesman from FSA’s Crime Team told the Lords that such attacks have risen by a staggering 8,000% over the past two years.

Of course this statistic merely reflects a rise in 'reported' incidents, which does necessarily paint a precise picture of what's going on.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:41pm 0 comments

Online consumers reluctant to shop around

Despite the number of e-commerce websites on offer, the UK's internet users seem to be playing it safe and doing the majority of their shopping at the more established ones.

According to Royal Mail research, despite the fact that there are more than 26,000 retail websites, 72% of online shoppers are buying from less than ten online retailers each year, with the average customer using just eight different e-commerce websites.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:38pm 0 comments

Gartner predicts that blogging will peak next year

Gartner yesterday released its ten key predictions for business and IT in 2007 and beyond. These included forecasts that PC prices will halve by 2010, and that Vista will be the last major Windows release.

Another prediction caught the eye though - that the blogging phenomenon will peak next year and level out thereafter.

by Graham Charlton 14 December 2006 12:50pm 4 comments