Graham Charlton edits and writes for the Econsultancy blog, as well as contributing to our Best Practice Guides and other reports. You can contact him at graham.charlton@econsultancy.com.
10 amazing Google infographics
I've rounded up ten recent infographics on Google, with lots of stats, tips on searching Google, the most expensive keywords, and 2011 revenues.
Where possible, I've added the infographics to this post in a readable size, but for others you can click on the image to see a larger version...
BBC Sport website gets mixed reviews
The BBC today unveiled its new look sports website, which follows the redesign of its homepage in September.
The new look includes replacing the side with top navigation, wider page layouts, and a new colour scheme, which is great if you like yellow and blue.
As always when the BBC makes any changes to its website, opinion is divided...
Site review: Four Seasons $18m redesign
Four Seasons unveiled its new website earlier this month, with many eyebrows raised as a result of the reported $18m pricetag.
While this seems like a lot of money for a site relaunch, it is an international brand, and the $18m may cover more than just a redesign.
The important point is whether or not this website will help it achieve its aim of improving its online revenues, which currently stand at 12% of overall sales.
With the help of some user testing videos (kindly provided by whatusersdo), I've been looking at the user experience on the new Four Seasons site.
While the site contains some great imagery and content, there is plenty of room for improvement, and it's a big fail on accessibility...
Online retail delivery: what does Kiddicare get right?
Kiddicare was the winner of the Snow Valley's recent Golden Chariot award for online retail delivery excellence.
So what has Kiddicare been doing right with its delivery policies and processes?
I'll look at this, as well as some highlights from Snow Valley's 2012 Online Retail Delivery report...
UK online shoppers spent £68bn in 2011
2011 was yet another growth year for e-commerce in the UK, with the nation's shoppers spending a record £68bn.
According to IMRG's e-Retail Index, this represents an increase of 16% over the previous year.
There was also a strong finish to the year, with £7.9bn spent online in December.
Tablet shoppers spend 21% more than other consumers
Tablet visitors to e-commerce sites spend 20% more than desktop shoppers, and twice as much as those using smartphones, according to a new report.
Adobe's Digital Marketing Insights report takes its data from 16.5bn visits to more than 150 retailers last year, and shows that AOVs from tablets are higher than from other devices.
It also suggests that retailers should consider optimising the experience for tablet users.
11 dubious uses of QR codes
There are some very good examples of QR code use, but many of them seem to be used without enough consideration of factors such as location and optimising landing pages.
Here are some dodgy uses of QR codes, some bizarre, some in ridiculous locations, others just plain stupid...
Google 'Search, plus Your World': the experts' view
Google announced yesterday that it will begin to integrate and give more prominence to content from Google Plus in its search results pages.
This change, which will affect logged in users, of which there are many, raise some interesting questions, and has several potential implications for SEO.
It will also worry rival social networks. For example, Twitter's Alex McGillivary called it 'a bad day for the internet' in a tweet yesterday:
I've been asking search experts for their opinions on the possible consequences of this new move from Google.
Toyota launches personalised ‘shout out’ social media campaign
Toyota has launched the social media arm of its recent Outsmart Life campaign for the Yaris, with rapper Gadget.
Consumers can have their own personalised video created for them by Gadget and Slick, the puppet which was featured in a previous Toyota Yaris campaign.
Christmas 2011 e-commerce stats round up
Figures released so far suggest that some online retailers have experienced growth over the Christmas shopping season, with Boxing Day being the being the busiest ever online shopping day in the UK.
I've rounded up some of the stats released so far on online shopping in the UK over Christmas...
