Articles in ‘Tech News’

• Is video the answer to paid-for content?

  by Webfusion in Tech News on May 11th, 2012 1 Comment

  As news corporations find it harder to make big bucks in the digital world, competing against the citizen journalists of the social media world, the debate around the potential success of paid-for content increases.

  Of course some have already committed to it. Yet, none with great conviction. So the latest rumors given credence by a report in the New York Post, could set the debate alight with even bigger flames.

  The rumors are that with Google keen to push it’s premium content program for YouTube, it may look towards a pay-wall and paid-for viewing to entice some of the biggest players in traditional tv into online. Nobody expects YouTube to suddenly start forcing every user to pay per view – Google’s business heads know the importance of free content to drive audience for other paid-for services. What it may very seriously be considering is premium content available for a fee and it may follow very familiar broadcast models to dip its toe into the water.

  Just as now you may pay a ‘box-office’ fee to watch the big fight, or perish the thought have to watch the big game on your traditional cable box, YouTube could soon be offering similar sporting options at a pay-per-view online. Makes sense doesn’t it. And with YouTube’s popularity ever high, you can see it working quickly and effectively too. Traditional broadcasters who see these pay-per-view options as great money-spinners, could soon find their party hi-jacked.

  For a viewer looking for a wider range of events – possibly live concerts, live debates too – this could be great news. No need to watch at home, you could watch on your phone or tablet, and with more competition hopefully the end cost to the viewer should be lower too.

  We will wait and see.

• Where will Google go next?

  by Webfusion in Tech News on April 5th, 2012 Post a comment

  The answer could be a real eye-opener after Google this week revealed its next big move is into the realms of Augmented Reality and computerised glasses.

  Augmented reality is nothing new. Canadian Steve Mann,is credited with developing some of the first systems back in the 1980s since used to various degrees in industrial, medical and military application. Ever since the invention of Sci-Fi too we’ve been awaiting the first true wearable computers, but Google believes Google Glasses will finally make that a credible possibility and one we will take to en-mass.

  Effectively augmented reality allows overlays to be seen over any screen. So in terms of the glasses, you could be watching your favourite online tv series and still see your search results popping up in your vision as you carry it out.

  The cynics suggest the fact that these Glasses will need to be powered by a Google Android Smartphone is simply a half-hearted attempt at making the Android system more appealing than Apple’s iOS – yet Apple are also known to be looking at similar projects too.

  The fact that augmented reality will play a bigger part in our lives in the future is not in doubt. Each of the major smartphone app stores is packed with various applications using the technology to some degree and ‘smart-places’ are probably only a few months away as museums and entertainment venues look to exploit the latest technologies. The big question is whether wearing a set of glasses is the way we will be using them – probably the biggest failure of 3D television.

  Yet if anybody can turn something to gold it is Google, so perhaps we will wait and see.

• It’s all about online

  by Webfusion in Tech News on December 13th, 2011 Post a comment

  We probably all can guess that US adults are shunning traditional media and pushing more and more towards online options but a new report from eMarketer’s suggests that in the past year there has been a massive leap in that move.

  The report suggests that the time spent on the internet and mobile phones was up by 7.7% and 30%, respectively, from 2010. That means that US adults now spend more time on mobile devices each day than they do absorbing print media.

  Yet, despite industry suggestsions to the contrary, it appears online TV is not over-taking traditional television. In fact the time spent watching traditional TV  has increased in the past year. The research suggests the average adult consumer is spending 4 hours and 34 minutes each day watching TV and video on a traditional television set this year, up 10 minutes from last year.

  Confirming that we are the connected generation: The total time spent with internet, mobile phones, tv, radio, print and all media is now an average of 11 hours and 33 minutes each day.

  Have your media habits changed heavily in the past year?

• Streaming but not at a PC

  by Tim in Tech News on October 27th, 2011 Post a comment

  We all know that traditional watching of TV is changing and more and more people watch TV and film online. For a while, the prime-time download leader in North America has been Netflix but a new report from Sanvine suggests that no only does Netflix still dominate (with almost 33% of peak downstream traffic) but that people are streaming media via non-PC devices.

  As this infographic based on the report findings shows, only 45% of the data volume used by those downloading video is now accessed by laptops and desktops. Perhaps surprisingly the mobile collective of games consoles, smart TVs, set-top boxes, tablets and smartphones are now the preferred streaming tools.

  Across the month and not just in peak-hours YouTube is still the leader with 83% of broadband subscribers using the channel but usage is shorter – averaging 3minutes per video compared to the 42 minutes average of NetFlix subscribers.

  Sandvine’s report suggests that almost 34 percent of all downstream traffic to mobile devices is media based ahead of Web browsing at 27.5 percent and social networking at 18.3 percent.

  The figures suggest brands need to re-consider advertising plans and how they reach out to potential customers. The digital era actually provides greater interaction with the viewer than traditional TV. As people’s perceptions change website creators should also take note. Embedding a video within a website will have a far greater impact nowadays that it would have 6 months ago. While embedding the video you can also ensure the main feature is surrounded by other sales messages from your business and attempts to engage with your audience. It’s all relevant. This is how people are using the internet.

  How do you stream your tv and film? Have you changed your preferred channel in the last six months?

• WordPress the most powerful Web engine in the world

  by Webfusion in Tech News, Web Design on September 7th, 2011 Post a comment

  According to a blog post created from the Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word speech at WordCamp San Francisco 2011 last month, WordPress powers 14.7% of the top million websites in the world, and the trend is growing.

  That’s a figure up from 8.5%, and, claims Mullenweg, the latest data shows 22 out of very new active domain in the US runs WordPress.

  The key is the simplicity to get a WordPress blog up and runing and the cusomisation allowed via the 1,000s of themes and plug-ins out there. Simplicity includes being able to update sites via smartphones, meaning dynamic sites are no longer a drain on time and resources.

  Don’t forget WordPress is one of our many One-Click applications, free with our Unlimited hosting package. Have you tried it?

• Do you YouTube?

  by Webfusion in marketing, Online Business, Social Media, Tech News on August 1st, 2011 Post a comment

  If you’ve dabbled but never really got to grips with how to best use YouTube, then now may be your opportunity.

  YouTube have launched the first edition of the YouTube Creator Playbook. It is designed to give partners and creators important tips, best practices, and strategies that will help build audiences on YouTube.

  YouTube say they will keep the Playbook (downloadable as a PDF) updated as new features are released and the servive evolves and shows a very strong commitment to ensure that YouTube continues to grow but also maintains a consistent high quality amongst the top channels.

  Worth a look even for the curious and a must for anybody looking to use video as a marketing tool.

  Have you been inspired by the YouTube Playbook?

• Internet Explorer 6.0? PHP4? Not if you’re blogging

  by Webfusion in Social Media, Tech News on July 21st, 2011 Post a comment

  The blogging community have not always been the fastest to respond or update to the latest software. Experienced bloggers are often a bit-geeky and seem to even like making life more difficult for themselves for the sake of being loyal to their old favourites. Switching blogger software is possible but rarely done, so as expected there have been a few grumbles from the blogging fraternity over the latest WordPress release.

  WordPress 3.2 (‘Gershwin’) enjoyed over 330,000 downloading  the upgrade in the first 24 hours earlier this month (Have you upgraded?) but owners Automatic, promoting it as ‘lighter and faster’ have been a little bit quiet about some of the lack of compatibility the new version suffers from.

  3.2 has lots of nice new features. The new default theme ‘Twenty Eleven’ runs powerful HTML5  designed to keep WordPress powered sites looking cutting-edge and there is also a full-screen writing mode to allow you to concentrate on writing.

  Yet, some of the back-end changes have cut compatibility dramatically. In version 3.2, WordPress no longer supports PHP4, nor versions of MySQL prior to 5.0, plus if you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 you can no longer use the admin console.

  That’s an interesting decision given that many bloggers are some of the most die-hard, committed to tried and trusted software and operating systems, but the reasoning is, if users haven’t upgraded their browser they are not likely to be upgrading their WordPress install either.

  Have you tried 3.2? What are your thoughts?

• Google adds Offers to its portfolio

  by Webfusion in Search Engines, Tech News on July 14th, 2011 Post a comment

  It’s often said that Google does everything in a big way and that frequently means taking a good idea in practice elsewhere and improving on it. The social buying phenomena is no doubt led by Groupon, but more and more competitors are moving into the market and that includes Google who have launched Google Offers in beta – covering the New York and San Francisco areas only.

  Money-saving offers are sent daily via email to those subscribing to Google offers who can then take advantage of big percentage savings (65%, 50%, 40% seem common – the power of bulk sales). Nothing too different from the other options already in the marketplace, but this is Google and the slick marriage of it to its product portfoilio could see this one fly.

  Your subscription will obviously be linked to your Google Profile, which given the hidden wonders of Google+ is about to become more ‘personalized’ than ever before. That means, once more businesses sign up to offer via Google Offers, the deals ‘selected’ for you could become scarily more accurate to your precise desires. Find an offer you like and you can swiftly pay via Google Checkout. Whether you buy or not you are also encouraged to share the offers via Google +1 and social networks like Google+. In fact, with the release of Google Offers, the whole purpose of Google +1 and Google+ becomes a bit clearer. They want to be our online personal concierge – and to be fair they are making a good pitch for it.

  You can watch the video of some of the first businesses to be included in Google Offers here. – a diverse range.

• Google +. Are you in?

  by Webfusion in Social Media, Tech News on June 30th, 2011 Post a comment

  Google’s selected few were this week invited to take part in the latest social media project from the online giant: Google PLUS.
  So positive was the uptake, we were told, Google had to close the system to new sign-ups within days – it is a test project to be fair. Yet, ironically the very might it seeks to take on, Twitter, then became alive with various back-doors and bugs as to how those already in, could sign up their friends, and so the network grew.

  The idea behind Google + is to share and discuss status updates, photos and links as you would in Facebook but within a more intimate group. ‘Circles’ as they are called are the focus – colleagues, best mates, sportsteam teammates etc – and to help there is even group text messaging and video chat facilities. In looks, it has the appearance of a clinical Facebook – lots of white space, simple links, nothing too fussy.

  Google claim it is more like real life – you have more control and more privacy. Yet from our own first look and the thoughts of others, that all seems a gray area. There’s been an interesting set of ‘bugs’ to get new people signed up – were these really bugs or were they deliberate holes left there to encourage the network to grow virally. COuld this be Google’s very own social media experiment? Is this the online equivalent of The Truman Show? Could all the users trying to get to grips with Google’s new offering be unwittingly part of an online documentary about the way humans use social media? Have they given us a toy and are watching how we use it to get an insight into how to create the ultimate web / networking tool?

  We will have to wait and see.

  Have  you had an invite to Google +? What are your thoughts?

• Webmaster Tools and Analytics integration

  by Tim in Search Engines, Tech News, Web Design on June 17th, 2011 Post a comment

  Google is on the hunt for volunteer Webmasters to help with a new pilot project aimed at integrating its two most successful add-ons Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics.

  The idea is to supply website administrators with a more holistic view of internal traffic and SEO data. It will also allow Webmaster tools to take advantage of the graphs and charting functions of Analytics.

  According to the Google Analytics blog this integration has been top of the wishlist for many Google users.

  A limited pilot is planned to far, with not all those looking to sign-up likely to be successful. So if you are not a chosen one, you may have to wait another year or so to see how it all works.

  Have you been selected for the pilot? We’d love to hear from you.