Tom Doyle

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Posts Tagged Microsoft

What’s the Buzz with Google Buzz??

Feb 11

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Google have yet again started rolling out a new application with stealth for the last couple of days. Users of Gmail are gradually being presented with a new screen when they login to Gmail. Rather than being brought directly to their inbox, they are shown a page promoting their new “Buzz” service. “No sign up required” the message happily proclaims.

But what is it and why would I want it?

Basically, Google Buzz is Google’s take on a Twitter styled system. I guess you could say it has everything that Twitter doesn’t. Do we really need another system like this? I’d have to say no, but it is a great way to get people engaging online. For example, Facebook brought in a similar system last year and it’s use grew substantially. Twitter still lags way behind Facebook in terms of users, but it’s simple system is appealing to a lot of people. People new to Twitter will probably feel that Google is trying to rip off Facebook, but that is not the case.

So where does this leave Twitter? For months there were rumours that Google was on the verge of buying Twitter – but it never it just never materialised. Most people within the online community expected it as a fact, rather than something that was about to happen. Personally, I can’t see Google buying Twitter now that it has built it’s own system that is very similar (or a complete rip!) with a lot more features.

It will be interesting to see if this has an effect on Twitter if any at all! One things for sure, Twitter will have to start working extra hard at trying to build a revenue model for the site as it doesn’t look like anyone will be interested in buying them now… unless of course Microsoft want a piece of this! :)

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Mugurdy – The New Irish (made) Search Engine

Oct 29

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Online Marketing, Web Design, Web Development

I always love to see new indigenous Irish companies getting a break. But when I read a newspaper article about an Irish company who were about to launch a new visual search engine, I thought to myself “oh no, someone else has been duped into parting with their hard earned cash!”.

A “visual search engine” is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination. There are a number of high profile visual search engines already up and running on the web for some time. In fact one of the leading visual search engines (searchme.com) has recently shut its doors. Their once innovative website sits looking deserted, with what can only be described as a desperate plea to raise cash by selling their IP to anyone who will take it off their hands! In the company press release, they stated that they needed to raise at LEAST $100 million to compete with the likes of Google, Bing or Yahoo!. This should be a stark reality check for Mugurdy, since it’s straight from a company that had already pumped $44m into their doomed idea.

But who cares huh?
We’re Irish after all and we all love the under dog… Surely Mugurdy can pull this one out of the bag with their Irish fighting spirit!

Wrong…

I stumbled across the sites release after reading a post on Boards.ie which said:

“I just thought I’d drop in a link to http://www.mugurdy.com which is a search engine we’ve been working on for a while now. It’s not finished, is basically still in beta, but I’d be interested to hear any feedback on it!”

I’m not entirely sure what Mugurdy’s strategy is here. If this is their plan for promoting the website, they really need a reality check. Remember, Microsoft pumped $1 billion into the marketing of their new Bing search engine to try compete with Google. If Mugurdy think that posting a link on one of Ireland’s most popular web properties is the way forward, they should really think again. I do hope they have a better strategy for promoting their site than this.

Anyway, I decided to play around with the search itself, to see if I would ever use a search like this. Now I know from using other visual search engines, that they just don’t give me what I expect from a search engine that I would be someone hard to please. Let’s face it, I search for information, not for pictures. I can see a use for a visual search engine for certain things, like looking for the prettiest website in a particular sector or to find a website that I a visual memory of what the website looked like. But for finding specific information, visual search just doesn’t cut it.

The first thing I noticed when I visited mugurdy.com was the homepage… They obviously went for the simplistic look made famous by Google. But they left out one key element of the Google homepage that Google value so much, their copyright notice. I’ve spoke before about why Google value their copyright notice (click here to read) and if Mugurdy want to compete with the big boys, they need to start researching in depth why things work so well for Google. There is plenty of free material available out there with studies on how people interact with Google.

As I continued on, it was clear that Mugurdy simply didn’t have the quality results that Google would have. I don’t knock them for that, we’ve seen how hard it has been for every other search engine on the web to come up with the quality of results that Google possess.

It didn’t take me long to realise (again) that visual search just isn’t for me, and never will be. For me, it’s much quicker and easier to hold my ctrl key and click each link on Google results to open a new tab. I can click 4 or 5 that interest me and by the time I’ve clicked the fifth result, the other 3/4 before that will have loaded into a full browser window in a new tab. You just can’t beat that simplicity.

It really makes you think about how companies are getting investment in Ireland. In the past year or two I’ve seen a lot of good start up businesses with great web ideas struggling to raise investment. Then you see companies like Mugurdy being invested in when they clearly have little chance of success. If our investors keep investing in ideas like this, we’ll have no money left to put behind really high potential start ups.

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New PlayStation Motion Controller Demo

Jun 3

Posted by Tom Doyle in Gaming, Technology & Home Entertainment

When Nintendo released the most innovative controller the gaming world had ever seen back in 2006, Sony said that motion controllers were just a fad.

Obviously due to the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii, Sony have decided to released a prototype of their next generation motion controller, aptly named the PlayStation Motion Controller. The PlayStation Motion Controller is due to be released as a peripheral to the PS3 and isn’t planned solely to be released with a new console. It’s due to be released in 2010. Here’s the demo video of the controller in action.

Of course, Nintendo are due to release an add on for their Wii controller that will make it more sensitive later this month.

In the meantime, Microsoft who also claimed the Nintendo Wii was a fad, have been working hard on the so called “Project Natal” controller for the XBOX 360.

So far it looks “way out there”, maybe they are just using it to sow up all the patents before someone else does!

Here’s their demo video for Project Natal:

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Bing – a better way to search?

Jun 2

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers

Microsoft’s latest attempt at taking the search world by storm… www.bing.com

The full search service as described in their launch video doesn’t seem to be live yet (certainly not in Ireland) – You can view their demo video by clicking here.

Some features look great, like how you can search for holidays from within the search engine itself, which means you don’t have to visit loads of different websites. The shopping system is very similar to Google’s Froogle, but more integrated.

I’m not sure that we really need another search engine, but this is certainly an improvement on their last attempt at making an improvement. I just fail to see the innovation from Microsoft, but maybe they simply can’t be innovative anymore?

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Google Wave – the next generation of communication?

Jun 2

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Web Design, Web Development

Lars Rasmussen introduces Google Wave
Image by dailylifeofmojo via Flickr

Within minutes of Microsoft launching their new search system that is set to revolutionise the way we search, Google announced one of the most innovative applications yet to grace the World Wide Web.

Microsoft must have been so disappointed when all the web and blog headlines were NOT about their new search engine strangely named Bing. No, what caught every web enthusiasts eye was the launch of Google Wave.

Google Wave is Google’s attempt to rid the World of our archaic emailing system. They began their presentation with the notion of how old email has become in its 40 years of existence. It’s something that was designed and developed in a time when instant messaging, cloud computing, Facebook, Bebo and other social networking sites didn’t exist. They believe that now is the time to make the change to a new more advanced system that will incorporate all the “real-time” functionality that most of us live and breathe today.

Although I have to admit some of the functionality is mind-blowing and in places hugely innovative -  albeit that the system is developed with the yet to be fully HTML 5 standard – I’m yet to be convinced that it will actually replace people’s use of email.I just can’t see the normal joe soap trying to get to grips with this system when they hardly understand how to cc a number of people in a simple email.

Google plan to release a lot of this innovative code as part of their Google Web ToolKit which is an absolute dream for any web developer. They will also provide a fully open API which will allow developers to use the power of the system for their own applications, whether it be web, mobile or desktop!

One side of me is so excited about the release of Google Wave. That is the programmer side of me, the one that lives and breathes web innovation – we haven’t had anything like this in years! The other side – I’m kind of like, “so what?”. I personally see it as being the final string in Google’s stealth approach to building the World’s largest social network.

What do you think? Have a look at the launch here:

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Search Engine Marketing Tips from Microsoft

May 1

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft’s Live Search Webmaster Centre Blog has started a new blog series on Search Engine Marketing. Topics to be covered include tips on how to improve your conversions from your website to how to run a successful pay per click campaign.

They also plan to include a new section to cover topics specific to search engine marketing. The first post will be titled “What is SEM and why does it matter?”

More information over here : http://blogs.msdn.com/webmaster/archive/2009/04/28/search-engine-marketing-101-a-new-blog-series.aspx

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Fight duplicate content with the “Canonical Tag”

Feb 23

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

Duplicate content is something that has been an issue for quite sometime in terms of search engine optimisation and now Google, Yahoo! and MSN have introduced a new way for webmasters to deal with this issue in the form of the “Canonical Tag”.

In simple terms it allows webmasters to specify the preferred version of a URL. Using the Canonical Tag, webmasters can now sleep safely in the knowledge that Google knows that there is a preferred URL and that it should not penalise the site for having duplicate content to due an obscure URL structure created for programmatic purposes.

How do you use this tag?

Well simply add something like this within the head area of your HTML:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/page.php?idname=web-design”/>

More information

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Microsoft issue brown alert for Internet Explorer

Dec 16

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

Another major bug has been found in IE, enough to make Microsoft issue a “brown alert”.

You can find out more about the vunerability here >>

You can also take the US Cert’s adive on preventing yourself from being vunerable at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/493881

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Statcounter.com browser usage update – FireFox still losing

Sep 15

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers

Mozilla Firefox Icon

Statcounter.com have released their latest browser usage statistics after the release of Google Chrome. Global statistics show Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox have lost users to Google Chrome. The US stats show some interesting statistics, with IE gaining in users to the tune of 4% and Chrome gaining by just under 1%. Overall though, Firefox still appears to be the biggest loser.

Global Stats – Browser Usage
IE Firefox Safari Chrome Other
Sep 01 66.92% 25.26% 2.99% n/a 4.84%
change - - - - -
Sep 02* 67.58% 24.36% 2.91% n/a 5.06%
change 0.66% (0.90%) (0.08%) n/a 0.22%
Sep 03 67.81% 23.54% 2.70% 1.11% 4.87%
change 0.23% (0.82%) (0.21%) 1.11% (0.19%)
Sep 04 68.59% 23.20% 2.56% 1.16% 4.51%
change 0.78% (0.34%) (0.14%) 0.05% (0.36%)
Sep 05 68.44% 23.22% 2.56% 1.12% 4.66%
change (0.15%) 0.02% 0.00% (0.04%) 0.15%
Sep 06 65.46% 25.43% 2.81% 1.16% 5.14%
change (2.98%) 2.21% 0.25% 0.04% 0.48%
Sep 07 63.15% 26.69% 3.02% 1.18% 5.96%
change (2.31%) 1.26% 0.21% 0.02% 0.82%
Sep 08 65.89% 24.46% 2.69% 1.10% 5.86%
change 2.74% (2.23%) (0.33%) (0.08%) (0.10%)
Sep 09 66.27% 24.17% 2.66% 1.07% 5.83%
change 0.38% (0.29%) (0.03%) (0.03%) (0.03%)
Sep 10 66.28% 24.31% 2.62% 1.05% 5.75%
change 0.01% 0.14% (0.04%) (0.02%) (0.08%)
Sep 11 66.67% 23.95% 2.59% 1.02% 5.77%
change 0.39% (0.36%) (0.03%) (0.03%) 0.02%
Total Change (0.25%) (1.31%) (0.40%) 1.02% 0.93%

More statistics and information on Statcounter.com’s blog – http://blog.statcounter.com/2008/09/chrome-latest-stats-globalusuk/

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Windows Live SkyDrive as an Online BackUp Service?

Aug 26

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers


20px|Windows Live Logo Windows Live SkyDriveIn May this year, Microsoft launched a new service to the World called Windows Live SkyDrive. Formally known as Windows Live Folders, the service offers users the ability to upload, store and share files in their own file storage area. I just recently became aware of this and decided to try it out.

It seemed for sometime that it was just way too expensive to choose an online backup solution. No-one seemed that interested.

Online backups just make so much sense though and should not be overlooked. Why have a tape drive or external hard drive backup that you either have to remember to change tapes or take a copy off-site every night. Isn’t it much easier to schedule your computer to do it to a remote location without any interaction from a human? It makes so much sense, of course until you see how costly it could get.

Nowadays, companies offering online back-ups are becoming more and more popular. It was obvious that someday it would be requirement with all the information people want to store, from music to photos. A typical hard drive nowadays fills to the brim pretty quickly.

So what does Windows Live SkyDrive offer as a solution?

Well from a space size, it’s pretty darn good. 5GB of free space.
The user interface is really simple and easy to understand. It allows you to select files for public and private viewing. you can also download a simple program that allows you to easily upload files in a drag and drop fashion.

FWindows Live SkyDriverom a backup point of view, is it any good though?
So far I fail to see how I could possibly use it as a backup service. Its biggest downfall is the fact that you have to drag files individually to upload. You can’t for example drag a folder onto it or else you get an error.

Most online backup solutions offer you a decent piece of software that will allow you to not only schedule file uploads but will also check to see what files have changed rather than uploading everything again.

So for now, Windows Live SkyDrive just isn’t the solution for me. But! I pity anyone trying to make a business out of this, because I’m sure it won’t be long before Microsoft will launch a backup tool that can be used with Windows Live SkyDrive.

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