search marketing blog: ambergreen

As the mobile internet market expands, Yell.com, the UK’s most popular business directory has announced that it will make its mobile services free to use for the first time, making business names, location and contact information available from handheld devices.

Martin Wilson, head of Yell.com mobile marketing, told Netimperative:  “We’re entering a highly exciting period of development within the mobile internet arena.  As more advanced handsets become the norm … we can expect more and more regular users of mobile internet services.”

First available in 20001, Yell’s mobile service allows information to be stored in a contacts list, shared by text and also offers maps and easy to follow directions.  

Mobile phone users accessed the internet on the move more than 15 million times in December according to data from the Mobile Data Association.

While the increase in usage in December showed an increase of one million sessions from November, it is anticipated that seasonal gift giving could be behind the growth. As phones continue to become more sophisticated and user friendly, an increase was always on the cards. 

Nick Lane, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, told the BBC that, “The continued advancement of handsets means people are beginning to spend more time familiarising themselves with new services.”

Lane also said that by the end of the year 25% of the world’s 797.6 million mobile phone subscriptions will include web browsing facilities.

MySpace and similar social networking sites could also be a key to the rise in the mobile internet usage; mobile consumer research firm Telephia recently showed that 4% of UK mobile users have uploaded content created on their mobile phones to sites such MySpace, blogs and personal web pages.

Bill Gates has even more to smile about than usual today as Vista, the most sophisticated operating system from Microsoft yet, launches in 70 countries delivering a system that aims to manage the digital media boom and protect Windows users from the dangers of the internet.

Windows Vista is the first major upgrade to the Microsoft operating system since it introduced with Windows 95 over a decade ago. Vista is set to handle new challenges brought about by the huge rise in internet use and the resulting security issues: improved security is one of the system’s main features.

Other changes, most of which are more subtle, include desktop search tools, new graphical interface offering detailed 3D graphics and a new multimedia platform. Engadget has a selection of screen shots of the new system which demonstrate just how different the new interface looks.

Vista is bound to face a serious amount of scrutiny as it debuts, and no doubt it won’t be too long before we’re hearing stories of serious security breaches. The Guardian today published a warning from Webroot Software, a security company that helps protect Windows users from viruses, that “Microsoft’s anti-virus programs may not fully protect them.”

According to Webroot the Windows Defender program failed to block 84% of viruses, including 15 of the most common pieces of malicious code.

Microsoft is also using today’s launch to promote the new Office 2007. In the past eight weeks a staggering 5 billion beta downloads and over a million trial downloads.

Jon Stewart, the wise cracking host of The Daily Show, had a few words to say to Bill Gates about Vista, watch the YouTube video here and hear about Gates’ vision of the future.

Bill Gates is in ambergreen’s neck of the woods for the next few days as he takes to the stage tomorrow at the Scottish Parliament for the Microsoft’s Government Leaders Forum.  Joined by Jack McConnell, George Reid MSP and Gordon Brown to name but a few, the event allows influential leaders to discuss the main issues confronting businesses and governments in the 21st century before more than 400 delegates from around the globe.

Google has updated its image search to give you more information on an image as you mouse over it.

Not exactly an earth shattering change, and not as good as MSN’s Live Search images which display images a little more clearly and allow you to place images in a scratchpad. Still they say a change is as good as a rest…

If you fancy taking the new Windows Vista for a test drive, Microsoft has launched a new site which seems, if you’re in the UK, designed entirely as a tease. 

http://www.windowsvistatestdrive.com/ is designed to allow the curious to test drive the new operating system without actually having to install it.  Sadly its only available for US and Canadian users at the moment, but if this floats your PC boat keep an eye on it and hopefully Microsoft will let us all have a play about with Vista.

arstechnica.com have been able to access the Vista test site and have provided a short review, but expect more to pop up in the new few days.

Do those brainy people at Google ever take a break?  Every day there seems to be another rumour or press release confirming that they are up to something new.  Well today it’s Google Earth’s turn. 

According to an employee from Second Life investor company Benchmark Capital, “Google is working on turning Google Earth into a virtual world a la Second Life.”

This isn’t the first time this rumour has surfaced, last month at CNN Money Business 2.0 magazine discussed the launch of SketchUp, a 3-D modelling program which Google is encouraging developers to use to build layers on Google Earth.  

At the moment avatars aren’t available, but it seems that it’s only a matter of time before they are, allowing you to populate a virtual planet Earth.

This story is a little off the search path but a great way to show the power of podcasts and whip your grammar into line at the same time!

Arizona technical writer Mignon Fogarty got the idea to spread her grammar expertise while correcting an error laden document, and realised that spreading the word would lend itself to a podcast. Enter ‘Grammar Girl’ and her ‘Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing’. Normally one of the most dull subjects imaginable, Fogarty has actually managed to make grammar easy to learn and fun.

Now the 47^th most popular podcast on iTunes, Fogarty’s shows have been downloaded more than 1.3 million times and have captured audiences from China to the US.

So if you have an issue with apostrophes or problems with punctuation (you know who you are ), visit Grammar Girl for the easy way to become a better writer.

UK shoppers buy more items online than their European counterparts according to new research by the European Interactive Advertising Association.

The research shows that UK shoppers bought 18 items online in six months in 2006, compared to 14 items during the same period in 2005. 

UK spend was, unsurprisingly higher than the European average, with the UK spending an average of £804, £301 more than European online shoppers.

98% of UK internet users now shop online, an indication of increasingly sophisticated shopping habits says Michael Kleindl, Chairman of the EIAA. 

“As consumers further embrace their digital lifestyles, they are becoming more ambitious in what they choose to buy over the internet as well as how much they spend.

“This research demonstrates the increasing trust in the internet amongst consumers to obtain information and buy a growing range of products. More money spent and items bought online shows that consumers are integrating online shopping into their daily lives.”

The study found that UK shoppers are bargain hunters not unlike myself - 42% of use comparison sites to find the best price for goods, while 49% visit auction sites at least once a month.  

The Semantic Web initiative intends to create a universal medium for information exchange. This is to be achieved by defining standards for data representation and then using these standards to put documents on the World Wide Web. This would allow data to be shared and exchanged easily for different needs, regardless of information location or format.

Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, is now leading the Semantic Web project and although he is confident about his concept of the future of the web, there is still confusion. The most common misconception is that Semantic Web and Web 2.0 are one and the same. Let us dispel this myth…

Web 2.0 is not the Semantic Web

When the Semantic Web project was born, it was referred to as Web 2.0. Today, Web 2.0 seems to be a by-product of the Semantic Web project. Contrary to some opinions, social networking, blogs, tagging and AJAX applications have a little to do with the Semantic Web concept. Although these sites offer better information sharing functionality, the data representation is still poorly structured from the Semantic Web perspective.

Tim Berners-Lee can only distinguish two versions of the Web:

1. Web of documents, which he invented in 1989 and called World Wide Web, now also referred as Web 1.0, Web 2.0
2. Web of data, which is also called Semantic Web or Web 3.0

Searching in the “Web of documents” vs. searching in the “Web of data”

As we can see, the way we search is going to be totally different. This also means that the role of search engines will change.

The role of Search engines in the Semantic Web (Web 3.0)

Search engines in the traditional web of documents have the task of finding relevant items in a sea of documents. These documents are presented in natural language and are connected with links. The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) process in the traditional web is a process of removing these barriers and allowing search engines to understand and read content in the way search engines like.

The traditional web falls short when it comes to more complicated queries. For example, a computer might be instructed to compute the shortest distance from Edinburgh to London that would enable a visit to a Mexican restaurant after 2 hours drive, a petrol station and a florist that sells pink lilies. To perform this in the traditional web, we require search engines that are individually tailored to every website being searched. A semantic web would give us a single standard of data representation for all the websites, and asking this or a similar query would be possible - as Tim Berners-Lee says “The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialise.”

As for the search engines and their role in the Semantic Web, we can only guess how a search engine will look, or indeed if it will exist at all. However, the question should be what can we do to today to be ready for the new generation of the web in future?

Google may be working with other major publishers to make e-books available on mobile phones and other handheld devices in a bid to give readers full access to books online according to Dominic Rushe of The Sunday Times.

Reinventing Google Book Search to bring books out of the library and into readers’ pockets, Jens Redmer, director of Google Book Search in Europe, told The Sunday Times that making books available online didn’t spell the end of the printed word, but would give readers.

“Ultimately, it will be the readers who decide how books are read,” he said.

A new innovation in the UK and US, Japanese consumers have been reading e-books on mobile gadgets for several years. Google’s project is likely to be realised sooner rather than later according to the media giant.

But the project is not without its difficulties; the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers is suing Google over its deal with major libraries to scan their collections, with publishers claiming that the scheme infringes copyright and that Google should be required to seek permission from before scanning published works.