Archive for July, 2010

• Your face type: Your typeface

  by Webfusion in Web Design on July 30th, 2010 Post a comment

  

  Before the rise of the personal computers, the differing styles of lettering were comfortingly known as typefaces, and a font was just one variation within that typeface. Now one designer is taking that traditional term literally by developing a nifty piece of software that will allow a user to create a font (or typeface) based upon the proportions and variations of their individual face.

  We’ve been following this project for months and this week designer Mary Huang has revealed some interesting developments as well as an Alpha release. Combining the current internet trend of personalization and plain, simple fun, the project was first announced in October last year via her blog. Now there’s an official site and a funky new video showing the TYPEFACE system in action.

  TYPEFACE utilizes a webcam to bring together facial recognition and type-design to produce a font as unique as your own face. Yet, far from just a one-off font creator, Huang sees the software as something to have some fun with that can keep evolving:

  “Originally, TYPEFACE was about creating a typeface that corresponds to each individual, like a typographic portrait. However, I found that what people really wanted to do was make funny faces at the camera so they could watch the type change. So, I decided to encourage that. I also wanted to draw a closer connection to handwriting, so I added the ability to type in the program, which creates sentences with accumulated variation in the letters.” she says on her blog.

  The aim is to help convert ‘thoughtful faces’ into ‘thoughtful type’. We think it could revolutionize the way we write and present our musings online and in print and Mary is inviting everyone to download (Mac and Windows versions) the Alpha release of the software, give it a try and send here feedback.

• Google’s latest move in taking over the world?

  by Webfusion in Online Business on July 27th, 2010 1 Comment

  This week a Google press briefing saw the announcement of a new version of its Apps suite, designed specifically for government customers. This tier of apps will be sold alongside the existing version of Google Apps and priced the same as the company’s premiere licence — currently $50 per user, per year.Google Apps for Government features all the same applications that can be found in other versions but comes with a higher level of security, which Google says meets the requirements set out by the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). This includes segregated datacentres, which Google says goes beyond FISMA regulations, and will keep government email and calendar event data within US borders.

  According to Google, the federal government spends $76 billion on information technology, while some $56 billion is spent by state and local governments.

  So getting departments across the board to use Google Apps will save money in the long run, but the question already being whispered is how much power would this put in the hands of Google? With public trust of the company perhaps at an all-time low given recent google maps street view privacy issues, the conspiracy theories are already gathering momentum.

  It is unfair to suggest any ulterior motive for Google in this latest move but if things were to go wrong with one of the projects adopting the system, the fall-out for the world of cloud computing and remote access to secure servers would be massive. We trust relevant checks and balances will have been put in place.

• Are users more at ease with mobile security issues?

  by Webfusion in Domains on July 23rd, 2010 Post a comment

  The latest survey from audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP suggests that the increasing uptake in mobile technology is overcoming concerns about privacy and security issues.

  The fourth Consumers and Convergence survey reveals that in the last months since the previous survey the numbers using their mobile for banking purposes has more than doubled to 46% of respondents while those using their mobile for internet shopping had risen from 10% to 28% in the same period.

  The worldwide survey (Over 5,600 respondents in 22 countries) revealed the uptake was being led by the fastest-developing economies of China and India where 77% and 43% respectively had used their mobiles to conduct financial related business. Yet, even those respondents still voiced privacy concerns when questioned.

  So while privacy issues might linger, it appears the convenience and technology improvements are helping grow the massive uptake of mobile internet usage.

  The report also revealed an increasing willingness for people to pay for high-value content which may also point the way for future developments in internet usage. Again the growing Asia Pacific economies seemed more open to paid-for-content whereas those most opposed (Canada, The Netherlands and Ireland) came from the Western world.

  With the majority of US respondents falling into the mid-range of answers compared to their global cousins, it appears that whilst hard-wired technology and internet connections may be more widespread here, the enthusiasm and commitment to the latest technologies – particularly mobile – has been surpassed by developing economies who have almost leap-frogged a whole phase of technology development. All of which is likely to lead to an even more competitive truly global marketplace.

• Are you appealing to the Baby Boomers?

  by Webfusion in Online Business on July 22nd, 2010 Post a comment

  As growth in consumer spending slows businesses need to begin looking at any key opportunity for marketing their services and goods and the latest results suggest the future spenders could lie within the Baby Boomer age group (those born between 1946 and 1964).

  With the oldest of these Boomers moving into retirement more and more of them are finding the time and inclination to move online and are also more likely to have disposable income to spend.

  A report this week from information giants Nielsen featured on their blog suggested the 78 million Baby Boomers in the US are showing a willingness to adopt new technology and importantly try new products and brands. Plus with an ageing population the growing number within this age-range could hold the key to business success particularly in the short to medium term future.

• The net just got safer

  by Webfusion in Tech News on July 16th, 2010 Post a comment

  You probably didn’t notice it and we doubt many other outlets will be reporting the fact either, but yesterday the internet got a whole lot safer.

  The security standard DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) was finally assigned to the internet’s 13 root servers and many will never know. ICANN has been working with Verisign and the US Department of Commerce for a number of years to try and integrate DNSSEC into internet infrastructure and now over six months after the roll-out began it is all complete.

  Most users won’t notice any changes but the DNSSEC implementation means a lot of configuration burdens will be taken away form ISPs. The higher security functions mean even more confidence can be placed on the fact that the site showing in your browser is the one being sent by the authorised server. Designed to protect the Internet from attacks such as DNS cache poisoning, essentially DNSSEC is a set of extensions to DNS, which provide authentication of origin of DNS data, data integrity, and authenticated denial of existence via a series of Keys.

  The push will now be for servers further down the internet tree to adopt the system too.

• Bing climbing in latest survey

  by Webfusion in Search Engines on July 12th, 2010 Post a comment

  The June 2010 search-engine market results have been released by the respected Experian Hitwise and they make very interesting reading.

  The report headlines with a massive 7% growth for Microsoft’s Bing to take 8.85% of the US search market, but the more interesting trend is the way people are searching.

  Google continues to dominate with 71.65% of the search market, a slight fall month on month, with Yahoo (14.37%) and Ask (2.19%) making up the bulk of the market. Yet, the real news appears to be the use of longer search queries by those using search engines.

  In what might be reflective of experienced users discovering ways of improving their search results, there was a slight increase in both search queries averaging between 5 and 8 words and also 4 to 7 word searches. Internet marketeers then might want to bear that in mind when thinking about keywords and SEO, although 65% of all searches still rely on three or less words.

  How do you search? Does it depend on the search engine you are using?

• Today’s trend is tomorrow’s dollar

  by Webfusion in Search Engines on July 8th, 2010 Post a comment

  When you are struggling for inspiration for that next internet project it might be worth spending a few minutes checking out Google trends. This really is the sharp-end of what is popular on the internet at this current moment in time and it might give you an idea of where the nation is heading in terms of web-based interests. The system simply takes the most searched for terms by those using its website and puts them into a top 20 format. Simple but effective.

  When we looked “Octavia Nasr” the former CNN Middle East correpondent fired for her Twitter remarks, was top of the hot searches for US-based googlers, but so too was “orient express train” – the wonders of a TV Special! As you can see the majority of hot searches tend to be based on the news of the day but you can change the date of your results and often spot a trend or two.

  With the Google trend graph showing how popularity of that search term changed during the day, you can also have a good guess at what sort of internet users are using the search term. By understanding who is searching for what and when you can also get a better understanding of how people are using the internet and with that you can be better focused on how you can attract them to your site.

  It’s not going to tell you what your next internet project should be, but it does get you thinking in a different way and understanding that your potential audience might not use the internet or search engines the same way you do.

• The internet keeps on growing

  by Webfusion in Domains on July 5th, 2010 1 Comment

  If you were in any doubt that the future of your business requires a presence online, then the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign confirms that the internet continues to grow at an impressive rate. There are now over 193 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domain Names (TLDs) with registrations up 6% year on year.

  The .com and .net domain names continue to dominate with a 7% rise over the same quarter of 2009, while the percentage of .cn (China) domains has slowed, perhaps highlighting a bottle-neck in a country where internet restrictions still limit growth.

  The brief also refers to another report: ITIF Report: The Internet Economy 25 Years After .Com from the US-based tink-tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Assessing the impact of the internet, it estimates that one in four people worldwide use the Internet today, with e-commerce a growing use highlighted. The report saws the percentage of online shoppers in Europe grew by 85 percent between 2004 and 2009. Online shopping in developing countries is also developing rapidly. Sixty-three percent of Internet users in Latin American and 70 percent of users in Asia Pacific countries have made at least one purchase online – compared to 85 percent of Internet users in North America and Europe.