When is the Internet not the Internet?

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) of the UK has this week decided to ban Apple from showing an advert “in its current form” which claims that “all parts of the Internet are on the iPhone”. This is an interesting conclusion. Apple should have expected controversy, but by the same token, the ASA ruling was by no means a given and Steve Jobs’ merry-band have the right to feel more than a little aggrieved with the ruling.

A lack of support for Flash and Java were cited by the ASA as reasons why the claim is not reasonable, but the truth is that the Internet is complimented by a myriad of plug in technologies and I don’t think it is reasonable to assume that all of them, or a major subset of them, must be available to a browser for it to be considered capable of accessing the Internet in its full glory. I won’t get really pedantic and highlight the difference between the web and the Internet, and therefore what I consider to be the even greater folly of the ASA’s actions.

The custodians of the Internet, the W3C, define standards for distributing hyperlinked webpages. The iPhone can handle those standards. Proprietary add-ons are considered beyond the remit of the Internet standards and are subject to natural market adoption patterns. Therefore, I would say that it is reasonable to claim that the Internet, as defined by the W3C, is available for browsing on the iPhone. Otherwise, where does it stop? RealPlayer? PDF readers? XML/XSL? Who is the authority who decides if it is not the W3C?

The ASA have set what I consider to be a dangerous precedent. In assuming that Flash and Java are de facto technologies of the Internet, rather than optional, they are undermining efforts to make the web more accessible through the promotion and adoption of standards by web browsers.

Apple has so far been silent on the ruling, but don’t expect it necessarily to lie down and accept this without clarification. Perhaps it will see the irony and make counterclaims based on any browser which doesn’t support its video player technology, QuickTime?

Web2.0 Will Re-Ignite of the Value of Information

The Internet killed the value of information. Information became so pervasive that traditionally information-based businesses needed to reinvent themselves to survive because a few button clicks in Google (or even AltaVista) could open up a library of information more impressive than most... well... libraries. Professional service providers became undermined by automated tools and strove for added value.

With Web2.0 allowing almost anyone to become a publisher, you might have expected this trend to continue. Has it? Will it? Actually, I'm going to be rash and make a prediction. Safe in the knowledge that I can delete this post down the line, I'm going to put my head on the block of futurology. I believe information has become such a commodity that people are finally starting to recognise the value of good quality sources. Others might say that we've all experienced misinformation online and that such scraping of the barrel was bound to induce a hockey stick kicker. Differentiation has real meaning. Wikis compiled by professional service providers are garnering a respect not seen since the late eighties. Beware the expert- they're back, and they really are experts!

The true acid test though, is "are people prepared to pay for it?" Look out for those green shoots. Expect a resurgance in subscription newsletters, but watch for the subtle transfer to the blog format. Round the corner is a new wave of knowledge commerce.

Microblogging- a Sort of Electronic Graffiti?

There was a fantastic article in today's Financial Times by Chris Nuttall titled "Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short" which describes the phenomenon which is set to put all us macro-bloggers with the dinosaurs- Micro-blogging.

Unlike blogging, micro-blogging puts more emphasis on the aggregation of even more sporadic information through sites and apps such as Twitter, Tumblr, Jaiku, Mozes and Moodgeist. The article quotes Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, on how the limiting of posts to 140 characters (the SMS single message limit) is like "...writing on a wall and if some chooses to read it they can do".

As a child of the 70s and 80s, it strikes me that this is analagous to graffiti. On the surface, it seems futile, but it shows that many people are driven to hang their short thoughts out there and people do enjoying reading them- and not only to find out how free 'Mandy' is with her affections or who "was here".

Tags: technology, Internet, blogging, blogger, micro-blogging, microblogging, macro-blogging, macroblogging, graffiti, Financial Times, FT, Twitter, Tumblr, Jaiku, Moodgeist, Mozes, FT

LinkedIn Upselling leaves something to be desired...

Now. I'm a big fan of LinkedIn, but even I was left not in the least bit tempted by this attempt to encourage me to extend my professional network. With all due respect to my friends Liz and Bela, librarians are not the top of my list of "must network with". Where are the astronauts, lion tamers and QCs?

Tags: technology, Internet, web, LinkedIn, professional networking, social networking

Is Second Life the new Sharepoint?

With much talk over the last 5 years about collaborative technologies there has been a huge investment in portal platforms- from Microsoft's Sharepoint to Oracle's Collaborative Suite. These platforms essentially extend existing comms user interfaces into the browser, but are they about to be usurped by a game? Virtual worlds designed for entertainment are being turned to by corporates and institutions looking for a richer immersive collaborative experience. The most hailed is Second Life, from Linden Labs, which according to Forbes (and reported on FutureHIT), is used by about 40 companies- mostly for a savvy marketing prescence. Some, such as IBM are reported by Chris Edwards of the IET magazine to have 'secret islands' to try out concepts. Starwood Hotels built a concept hotel so they could gauge the feedback of virtual guests. Campus: Second Life is even structuring learning facilities for use by real life institutions with profiles for their students.

Will this become the norm around corporate offices? Induction Courses the world over will have to add the agenda item "Build Avatar".

Tags: technology, Internet, virtual worlds, Second Life, collaborative technology, Linden Labs, Microsoft, Sharepoint, Oracle, Collaboration Suite, avatar, Campus:Second Life

Get a Blog. Get 3 degrees of Seperation!

Read this amazing story about Jason Happe of GA who lost a Swiss Army Knife his grandmother had given him. Years later, a blogger called Rick Lee picked up the knife in the forest of West Virginia and posted it on their site. The site was seen by someone who'd served in the army with Jason and, via his father, the knife made its way home.

Fantastic. It just shows how a sense of community has grown around the blogosphere.

Tags: technology, Internet, blog, blogosphere, Jason Happe, Rick Lee, Swiss Army Knife

IE7... no, Firefox 2.0. No IE7... or maybe Firefox?

I've mentioned before how I'm broadly very pleased with IE7 to the point where it has retaken the mantle of "Preferred Web Browser, Autumn 2006" from Firefox2.0. I've not mentioned that this was largely on the strength of the "Feeds" feature.

I was interested to read in the Jan 2007 edition of PC Pro that they prefer Firefox2.0 so maybe I'm wrong? They clearly are paid to review products. I just fit this around a busy day job. What would I know?

Not only do they prefer Firefox2.0, but it is on the strength of the feed features! I looked into this a little further and they basically find my source of irritation with Firefox an improvement- that is the drawing of summaries into a live bookmark. The thing is, I was thinking that it's 'neat' for Firefox to have the feeds running off the favourites menu navigation, but I find it an irritation to keep returning there to flick through sources when IE7 can have the feeds pegged to the left hand pane. HOWEVER, being forced to reappraise my assessment and I can now see that you can do the same with Firefox2.0 from the View menu.

So, after all that, the debate is wide open again at ClickTowers. IE7 and Firefox2.0 are neck and neck, until I look into it again...

Tags: technology, Internet, Internet Explorer, IE7, Firefox 2.0, information technology, Mozilla, Atom, Microsoft, browser, RSS, feeds, live bookmarks

Internet Explorer 7 Choking on Technorati

I've been using IE7 for quite a few weeks now and it's managed to usurp Firefox 2.0 as my preferred browser for general web use. I still use Firefox but only for very specific things where it just pips Internet Explorer 7. However, IE7 does seem to have a problem with the Technorati site from time to time. It's not all the time, but at least once a day it downloads the page HTML and starts pulling down the images etc when it seems to choke on something "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site... Operation abandoned"

From this screenshot you can see that it might be the advertisment at the right hand side which is in Flash 9.
In terms of plugins, I only have the Google Toolbar running and I can't imagine that causing instability (the core of IE should be fairly immune to plug in vagries anyway?).

Has anyone else experienced problems?

Tags: technology, Internet, Internet Explorer, IE7, Firefox 2.0, Flash 9, Technorati, crash, Microsoft, browser

Full Page Search Engine Ads in London Daily

If ClickRich was starting to look like a "Search Engine Special", with this being the second post on the subject today, then don't be surprised if it happens one day in the real world of publishing. This is because I was amazed to see Microsoft taking out a full page advert in this morning's Metro newspaper in London. A colleague tells me that they had a 'wrapper' advert yesterday. Incredible. The search engine wars are hotting up!

Only recently a friend was remarking how amazing it is that Google is one of the world's largest companies, yet he'd never seen an ad or met anyone who works for them. That could change quickly.

Tags: technology, Internet, search engine, Google, Microsoft, Live, Microsoft Live, London, UK, Metro, newspaper, advertising, advert

Google Threat to Technorati?

It was only a matter of time, but Andy Boyd seems to have spotted Google dabbling with integrating blog search technology into its heavyweight main search engine.

A bit of competition for Technorati will keep things interesting.

Watch this space.

Tags: technology, Internet, blog, blogs, blogosphere, search engines, Google, Technorati

Google helps to Diagnose Patients

As a one time sufferer of the rare illness henoch schönlein purpura, I'm very familiar with the concern surrounding undiagnosed conditions. In my case it was the 80's and the efforts of a non-medically qualified, but very concerned, mother were more effective than the doctors in diagnosing an illness that aflicts just 14 people per 100,000.

So, I was very interested in how doctors are beginning to embrace the technology of the raging-consumer success that is Google. A British Medical Journal article reports on the success rate of search engines in helping unravel unusual and complex symptoms. Ironically, it is usually professionals that pioneer new technologies which subsequently filter into the high street and home. In this case it's been the reverse. Nevertheless, better late than never.

So, is this the end of doctors? Not really. Using Google, users successfully identified 58% of diseases published from a range of symptoms from The New England Journal of Medicine. It takes a qualified, intelligent human being to take that success rate beyond 80%. The computer is just doing what computers have always done well- to sift through huge amounts of knowledge (in this case pretty much the accumulated medical knowledge of the human race) and present it back in a prioritised fashion. You can't train a human to do that.

Tags: technology, medicine, medical, British Medical Journal, diagnosis, Google, henoch schönlein purpura, Internet, New England Journal of Medicine, search engine

Adults need to know about Line Rider

This is a post for the adults out there. This is because everyone under the age of 18 will know about this phenomenon already. Nothing makes you feel middle aged like being sent a link to a website which you think is really cool and then to find out that the kidz have been blogging about it for nearly 2 months (thanks to Technorati's chart for that info). The toy (the author says it's not a game because there's no objective) is called Line Rider, and very easily enables you to draw lines that a little character can then sledge down... or crash.

In its simplicity the game is really fun, but the big hook is in how people are recording their results to YouTube. These videos made my 10 minutes of playing look pathetic. Either there's some seriously mispent youths evolving out there, or the next generation are evolving some talent beyond mere hand-eye coordination.

Tags: technology, Internet, Flash, Macromedia, YouTube, Technorati, toy, game, Line Rider, line rider

Studying Blogging

What did you study at school or university? Latin? Maths? Physics? Well, some lucky students in Interactive Media Studies (or is that Strategies?) at Bournemouth University have, as part of their studies, been asked to set up a blog. Although not all have embraced the idea, see The Reluctant Blogger, the blogosphere has been fanned with a flurry of new bloggers. Some of opened up with good humour (that was my tactic, how long will it last?), others matter of factly, but it will be interesting to see how they pan out over the duration of the course. Point your RSS readers at Bournemouth Uni!

Tags: blog, blogging, the Reluctant Blogger, Bournemouth University, IMS, Interactive Media Studies, Interactive Media Strategies, Internet, KatesVoice, MattPDP, media, technology

RIP Pluck RSS Reader

It's a sad day at ClickTowers on reading the news that Pluck are withdrawing from the RSS Reader market. It seems that they've found some effective ways at earning revenues by targetting the publisher (and their budgets) which make their consumer facing products nonsensical. I've been a happy user of Pluck for a year or so. Oh well, I'm sure a star will come forward to fill the void. Perhaps it's time to try the inbuilt readers of Firefox and IE7 (another reason that Pluck have thrown in their towel on this one).

Aren't you glad you never got round to that corporate roll out?

Tags: technology, blog, internet, Pluck, RSS, reader, RSS reader, IE7, Firefox