Chris Lake

Digital Bites - A Week In The Video Downloads Sector

LOVEFiLM's Craig Sullivan provides a weekly overview of the key news stories to emerge this week in the online video sector.

by Chris Lake 18 August 2006 16:23pm 0 comments

Kiko dives into the Web 2.0 deadpool, business model AWOL

This week Web 2.0 startup Kiko put itself up for sale on eBay, after its founders seemingly became bored or disillusioned.

Kiko, which is priced at $49,999 (it has yet to attract a bid), is an online calendar built using Ruby on the Rails and claims about 40,000 users per month. Which, in case you are wondering, is a cost to the ‘business’. Kiko doesn’t appear to have any notable revenue streams.

by Chris Lake 18 August 2006 15:12pm 1 comment

Google Analytics now offers immediate access for all

Google Analytics will from today provide instant access for anybody that wants to open an account and start using the service to monitor visitor activity on their website/s.

The service, which is free of charge, provides comprehensive information on visitor behaviour to help webmasters better understand how their sites are being used and where users are coming from.

by Chris Lake 16 August 2006 12:35pm 1 comment

Google Maps launches printable coupons scheme

Get some, get some – Google Maps is inviting local business owners to add their company listing to its maps alongside a printable coupon, which can be redeemed offline by consumers.

The move, a push to increase listings and increase reach among SMEs, is interesting not least for the offline focus.

by Chris Lake 15 August 2006 16:33pm 0 comments

Web 2.0 and UK newspaper groups

On a scale of one to two point zero, how are the UK’s newspaper groups doing in terms of their adoption of Web 2.0 concepts, tools and approaches?

Ian Delaney, a UK journalist who blogs about Web 2.0 over at twopointouch.com, alerted me to a fine piece of analysis conducted by the BBC’s Robin Hammon, who has looked into this topic in some detail.

by Chris Lake 11 August 2006 10:50am 1 comment

Viacom fancies coy Bebo, and with good reason

This week’s Bebo acquisition rumour comes in the shape of Viacom, the also-rans in the MySpace courtship battle. With Bebo in no rush to sell, we don’t anticipate this latest industry gossip will become a reality anytime soon.

It is plainly obvious that Big Media Companies are now scrambling all of their M&A jets in search of social networking sites to buy. This was previously something that seemed a little bit like bandwagon jumping a few months ago, but now there is a real reason for it.

by Chris Lake 08 August 2006 12:44pm 1 comment

Is Google News on holiday?

What's happened to Google News today? Is Newsbot on vacation? We noticed that stories stopped being indexed at about midday GMT, and other publishers are reporting similar issues.

Highly unusual...

by Chris Lake 07 August 2006 17:05pm 0 comments

Why isn’t ebookers top of Google for a search on ‘ebookers’?

While doing some project-based research last week I noticed that ebookers isn’t on the first page in Google for a search on its own brand name. Ouch.

The travel group is currently paying Google for an Adwords ad, to achieve the brand visibility it needs, but it is puzzling as to why an established dotcom with many thousands of inbound links is failing to capture the number one spot for its own brand.

by Chris Lake 07 August 2006 16:58pm 7 comments

French government censors Greenpeace's mashup

The French government has instructed Greenpeace to remove a webpage featuring a customised Google Map with details of the locations of Monsanto’s genetically-modified cornfields.

The ban, issued via a French court, flies in the face of EU law, which states that this sort of information should be made available to the public by governments.

by Chris Lake 31 July 2006 13:22pm 0 comments

10 reasons why I’ll swap my iPod for a Zune

I was given an iPod as a birthday gift a couple of years ago. Immediately, I fell in love with it, and it revolutionised my listening habits. It looks good, it is easy to use, and my particular model stored 5,000 songs, about half of my CD-based music collection.

But my love affair quickly turned sour. Over time, I have experienced various problems with the iPod and iTunes, some of which are listed after the jump.

by Chris Lake 28 July 2006 17:29pm 43 comments