Digital Marketing Blog

O'Reilly reverses call for blog code of conduct

Praise be! Tim O’Reilly, aka the man who coined the term ‘Web 2.0’, appears to have decided to drop plans for a blogger code of conduct that he proposed as recently as last week.

Speaking to Wired, he says: “I've come to think the call for a code of conduct was a bit misguided.”

Damn straight.

by Chris Lake 18 April 2007 14:04pm 2 comments

Barclays uses chip and PIN to combat online fraud

In an attempt to add an extra layer of security to online banking transactions, Barclays Bank has sent out 'PINsentry' machines to its online account holders.

Over half a million Barclays customers will be sent the free PINsentry card readers by the end of the year, which will be used to prevent online banking fraud.

by Graham Charlton 18 April 2007 13:39pm 57 comments

Interview: Ted Speroni, director, EMEA, HP.com

Ted Speroni heads the European operations of HP.com, as well as the tech giant’s regional preferred online partner programme – an interesting case study in how to incentivise resellers via the web and drive sales through third parties.

We spoke to him recently about the challenges of running and managing the programme, as well as future plans for improvements.

by Richard Maven 18 April 2007 13:24pm 1 comment

US internet radio under threat from new ruling

The US Copyright Royalty Board has rejected an appeal by internet radio broadcasters against a plan to increase royalty fees.

Many US web broadcasters are saying that the royalty hikes, which will be backdated to January 2006, will put them out of business, as well as affecting the diversity of music available online.

by Graham Charlton 18 April 2007 10:03am 1 comment

Chain of eBay drop shops cops it?

The future of Online Revolution, the UK franchiser of eBay drop shop brand iSold It, appears to be in the balance amid reports that it has gone into receivership.

The company is refusing to comment on its future, referring enquiries instead to accountants BDO Stoy Hayward.

by Richard Maven 17 April 2007 16:28pm 2 comments

Google's mobile buy turns pear-shaped for founders

The joys of being acquired by Google, the search behemoth and all-round cash mountain, have worn off quickly for the founders of Dodgeball, the location-based mobile alerts service.

Both Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert bailed out of Google less than two years after the search giant paid an undisclosed sum to buy their startup.

by Chris Lake 17 April 2007 14:38pm 1 comment

Xing's B2B social network surpasses 2m users

The impressive growth of German-based business network Xing is continuing, with the company announcing that its membership has now passed the 2m mark.

Xing recently recorded massive user growth in its end of year results for 2006, achieving membership growth of 149% last year, from 680,000 to around 1.6m members.

by Graham Charlton 17 April 2007 13:01pm 0 comments

Cookie-based data inflates website stats

A new study from comScore has questioned the validity of using cookie-based data to measure website audiences, claiming that unique visitor counts for websites may be overstating the actual visitor totals by as much as 150%.

The measurement group, which surveyed 400,000 home computers, found that three in ten US internet users regularly delete cookies from their computers.

by Graham Charlton 17 April 2007 10:59am 2 comments

How does the Google-DoubleClick deal affect you?

Google has certainly got tongues wagging with last week's announcement of its $3.1bn DoubleClick buy. Some seem to think it's got a bad deal while others believe that it's got one that’s too good and is anti-competitive. Others have been crying foul over various 'conflicts of interest'.

The implications are broad-reaching, so let’s have a look to see how different parts of the industry have reacted, starting with Google's big media rivals...

by Richard Maven 17 April 2007 10:46am 0 comments