Tom Doyle :: TALK

I caught the end of RTE’s “The Mentor” last night. The programme, hosted by Jay Bourke and Dr. Jeanne Bolger aims to help ailing companies turn their businesses around, with a mix of re-branding and businesses strategies.

Usually I’m a big fan of Jay Bourke, he seems to know what he’s talking about, until of course last night!!

The company in question on last nights show was Loughnane Sportswear, now re-branded to Scor Sportswear. As I only caught the end of the programme, I don’t know the full ins and outs of what was happening within their company, but they were aspiring to create a company as big as Nike, but at very worst be the most successful sportswear company in Ireland.

One of their problems, as pointed out by Dr. Jeanne Bolger, was their very poor website. Jay made the point that “No-one knows how big or small a company is on the internet” which is completely true. This is one of the big pluses of having a really good website, it simply puts your company on a different level.

To get an idea of how valuable a website can be to your business, they were sent to see the owner of Schoolbooks.ie. I didn’t catch the name of the guy that runs this company, but he made a couple of points that sent alarm bells ringing in my head. As you can see, it’s not the greatest site in the world, but it obviously serves its function. But he suggested to them, that they register a .ie domain name as Irish people are more likely to purchase items from the website.

This is where I have to disagree with him completely. If Scor are trying to become a global company, a leader in sports fashion throughout the world and want to appeal to the masses, a .com domain name should be be what they look for.

Anyway, that was only the start…. Then came the task of getting costs for developing the website and this is where my respect for Jay Bourke dwindled (no not really, just annoyed me a little).

The main proprietor got 2 quotes from “Irish guys” who were looking for in the region of €6-7k for a web site to be developed. Jay Bourke came out with the brazen statement “You could get it a lot cheaper than that”. Yes I agree, you can get websites cheaper than this, but not a properly developed website that will achieve a return on your investment.

A properly developed website can take at least 4-6 weeks to develop, go ask a builder to do this work for you or maybe ask a solicitor or branding expert, how much would they charge?
In the end they paid only $350 dollars for their main company website >> www.scorsportswear.com.
A company who wants to compete with the likes of Nike and Adidas, can’t be taken seriously with a website like this, can they??

The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is so true when you go to develop a website. If you want quality and substance, talk to a professional web development company that know how to help you best achieve your goals! But it will cost money for a quality service.

Look, would you ask a student just out of college to help you develop your brand? So why do it with your website?

Rant over……

Google have launced a new service aimed at website owners who have a dire need for an easy to use search system for their website.

Google Co-op allows web site owners to create a free custom search engine for their website using Google’s poweful search algorithms.

It also allows you to choose specific websites that you would like search results from. So if you had a site dedicated to web design, you could create a search system that searchs articles from a list of your top web design websites.

Another nice tool from Google and another way for Google to use web developers to promote their great search engine!

Only 24 hours after it’s public release, a security violation has been found in IE7. You can see a demonstration of the vunerability here >>

Google have launched a new search engine, that seems to be pretty similar to their main search engine.
It’s not obvious that the site is related to Google in any way until you look at the privacy page.

There is one great feature of this site, after you’ve done a search, click the “more webpages” link at the bottom of the results to see the next set of results scroll up in front of your eyes!
So what are google up to? See what you think…. www.searchmash.com

Google have launced a brand new service to help businesses get the most from their Google Adwords campaigns.

Google Website Optimiser is a free self service tool that allows businesses to experiment with their landing pages. Why not try it out now >>

I know I will loose a lot of votes when I voice my opinion on the above mentioned, but I can’t help it… he is seriously getting on my nerves.

Ok he has a great scoring record so far for United this season, but then again Van Nistelrooys was better.

Yes, I do agree that Louis suits Man Uniteds game a lot more than Van Nistelrooy did in his latter days, but I still can’t shine to his terrible performances.

I find him poor when receiving the ball and he loses it more than he does something useful with it. Andy Cole was bad to watch in his early days, but at least he was making chances, Saha just isn’t.

Fergie’s gotta start looking for a quality striker in the transfer window or I’ll probably end up watching Liverpool instead!

If your dream is to buy a house in Ireland’s garden county, don’t hold your breath. The housing statistics released last week show that Wicklow was bottom of the table for the number of houses built in their county from the previous year. Not only was Wicklow the bottom of the table, it also had 14% LESS houses completed than the previous year. Wicklow is simply no longer an attractive place for developers to build new homes.

This could be down to numerous reasons, not least the great “Locals Only” rule that prevents people from outside the county buying houses within the county in certain areas.

Not only is there a serious concern in the housing industry, now the council seem to be favouring huge retail developments in some of Bray’s most attractive areas.

Wicklow County Council have given the go ahead to another huge retail development close to the new Woodies and DID retail park.

Who makes these decisions? Have any of the decision makers been up to the DID retail park? DID hardly get visitors at all and there are still empty units available - why are they allowing more high rise buildings to be built in an area that clearly needs more public transport and local ammenties than large scale retail developments…… tut tut….

The new gimmick that most search engines are beginning to offer are Instant Answers. Google has for some time offered News results for household names such as Microsoft (as per image). But search engines like Microsoft’s new Live.com, go one step further.

Try it for yourself, a search in Live.com for “Marketing Definition” gives you a definition stating “selling of products or services”.

If you’re a NFL fan, you can also use Live.com to gain access to the last scores in your favourite competition. Try this >> NFL 10/8. Unfortunately, they haven’t offered a similar service for the premiership yet!

Another nice feature of Instant answers is getting instant access to some useful information…. try this “Population of Ireland” .

There are many more nice features like this, so if you have time, PLAY!!!

Ask.com is another search engine that provides an interesting Instant Answers service. A search for “History of Ireland” gives you a short description of Ireland’s history and links to other areas of Irish interest.

Who need’s other websites when all the answers are provided by the search engines?

I came across these guys whilst watching my favourite Scuzz Music Channel. I don’t know if it was the lead singers big fizzy head OR his high pitched voice that caught my attention, but either way, within seconds I was hooked.

The track I heard was “Welcome Home”, a classic rock epic with simularities to a Led Zepplin song. So at this stage I thought it was worth the purchase of their album.

So off I went on the trek of tracking down their latest album. After the first listen, I just couldn’t get into it. After listening to 3 tracks my brain just couldn’t handle the high pitched voice of Claudio Paul Sanchez. The songs were also a bit light for my liking, but none the less very catchy and radio friendly songs.

The best of the lot are “Welcome Home”, “Ten Speed” and “The Suffering”.

So would I recommend the album? No
Are they worth a listen? Yes

You can get the album here >>

Microsoft officially launched their latest browser attempt on Monday. You can download it here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx

Boasting a new look and a host of new features including tabbed browsing, rss feeds and new security features it looks like it’s one hell of a browser…. not!!

If you are looking for a decent browser, steer clear of IE7 and go download Firefox!