News archive
May 2009 - HTC Magic - The new Google Android mobile phone
Sleek, stylish and exclusive to Vodafone, the Magic is powered by cutting edge technology. So web essentials like Google Maps™ and Google Search™ work brilliantly. You can create shortcuts to your favourite sites and download fun games, news feeds and widgets. Then decide where everything goes - so you can get to it all easily.
The HTC Magic's 3.2 megapixel camera shoots photos in sharp focus and you can admire the results on its extra large high-resolution screen. Or upload your photos for your friends to see, and with superfast internet access they'll upload in a flash.
Features: HSDPA, WiFi, touch screen, camera/video, built-in GPS navigation, triband, Vodafone Mobile internet, alarm clock, touch screen. 3G, bluetooth, email, calendar, 3.2 megapixels, GPRS, MP3 player, handsfree headset, quadband, White.
February 2009 - Searches for 'valentine breaks uk' increase by more than 50%
The number of UK internet searches for Valentine breaks to UK destinations has increased by 50% compared to last year. Popular locations include Scotland, London, Yorkshire, Cornwall, and Northern Ireland. At the same time, searches for Valentine breaks abroad have decreased. For example, last year 'valentine breaks to paris' was the 20th most popular search term containing the phrase 'valentine breaks', but this year it has fallen to 29th.
Source: Hitwise
20 January 2009 - Google tries out yet another new favicon
Google has just revealed the design of its latest favicon. A favicon is a tiny logo that shows any web user, on any modern browser, anywhere in the world, whose website they are viewing. There is one on this site, which you can see at the top of this page, next to http://www.m35design.co.uk/...
The new favicon is Google's third attempt in less than a year to get the design right!
17 December 2008 - Microsoft Internet Explorer - Security Warning
Microsoft is due to issue a patch to fix a security flaw they believe has affected as many as 10,000 websites. The patch should be available to download from Microsoft from 6pm today, 17 December.
October 2008 - UK search engine usage
Source: Hitwise. Based on volume of searches for 4 weeks ending October 25, 2008.
www.google.co.uk - 75.11%
www.google.com - 14.33%
uk.search.yahoo.com - 2.86%
www.uk.ask.com- 2.16%
July 2008 - Free appraisal of your existing website
M35 Design are happy to offer you a free, no obligation appraisal of your existing company website.
April 2008 - 10 most popular search engines in the UK
www.google.co.uk - 73.74%
www.google.com - 13.77%
uk.search.yahoo.com - 2.94%
www.uk.ask.com - 2.80%
www.live.com - 2.20%
search.msn.co.uk - 1.21%
search.yahoo.com - 1.13%
search.orange.co.uk - 1.05%
search.msn.com - 0.31%
www.ask.com - 0.16%
Most popular search engines ordered by volume of searches for 4 weeks ending 22/3/08.
April 2008 - How popular is the Google "pages from the UK" search option?
Hitwise conversions ran a report over 4 weeks during March 2008 to find the answer. The results were:-
Pages from UK Search, 13.6%
Pages from Web Search, 86.4%
This is equivalent to about 1 in 7 searchers using the "Pages from the UK" option.
January 2008 - Cyber thieves target social networking sites
Security professionals are predicting what internet criminals will try in 2008 to catch people out. They say that sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace will become attack targets for the hi-tech gangs who are now behind the vast majority of cyber crime.
Some attackers have also tried to capitalise on the popularity of video clips on sites such as YouTube, putting booby-trapped links on pages that show the short films.
December 2007 - 'In Case of Emergency' virus hoax
London Transport and mobile phone firms are warning about an e-mail that is spreading rapidly, which contains inaccurate safety information. The e-mail claims that passengers on the London Tube system can contact emergency services via a satellite signal from their mobiles underground. However, mobiles do not work in the London Underground and satellite signals cannot reach there either.
November 2007 - Get Safe Online Awareness Week: 12 - 16 November
Find out how to protect yourself from identity thieves, viruses, phishing
and other internet threats. Help guard
yourself against online dangers with expert advice from the government,
the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and industry specialists.
Click here to find
out how to protect
yourself online >>
October 2007 - Bournemouth & Poole gets its own Monopoly game!
Poole and Bournemouth, where the land is worth more than the houses built on it, is to get its own tailor-made Monopoly board. Local landmarks, such as Sandbanks and Westover Road, will replace the famous streets, such as Mayfair, in the original game.
The customised version is due on the shelves on 15th November, but can be pre ordered here.
July 2007 - British customers annoyed by firms' email response times
According to a report by Gloucestershire-based hosting firm, Fasthosts,
78 per cent of British consumers are unhappy with the time it takes firms
to answer email queries.
The study showed the average consumer sent three emails before receiving
a satisfactory response. It also found that a third of British consumers
had sent more than ten emails about a single customer service enquiry,
and nearly sixty per cent of those enquiries didn't receive a reply
within the first 24 hours.
June 2007 - Half of Britons 'email addicts'
A survey carried out by ICM Research for Nasstar plc, has found that half of Britons could not exist without email, with 30 or 40-somethings more addicted than teens.
It was also found that 41% of all females admitted they would find it hard without email contact, compared to 38% of males.
More...
June 2007 - Europe online '24 hours a month'
A report by comScore Europe, says that more than 122m Europeans aged 15 and above use the internet each day at home, school or in work.
Out of 16 countries surveyed, the Netherlands had the highest score with 83% of the country online.
The most popular online destination in 13 of the 16 countries was Google, followed by Microsoft in second place and Yahoo in third.
May 2007 - Increase in UK spend on internet adverts
Figures due to be published in June in the AA's Advertising Statistics
Yearbook 2007 show advertising spend in the UK exceeded £19bn, up 0.7%
from 2006.
Online advertising surged 47.5% to £2bn, 10.6% of total expenditure
and, for
the first time, UK spending on internet adverts topped 10% of the total spend.
Apart from the internet, outdoor advertising was the largest gainer. Meanwhile,
money spent on UK television adverts fell for the first time since 2001.
"I believe online spend could overtake TV within the next three to four years," said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau, the trade association for the internet marketing industry.
May 2007 - Helvetica is 50!
One of the most popular sans serif fonts, Helvetica, has just celebrated
its 50th birthday. Some of the big names that use the Swiss typeface
are Gap, Orange, Currys, Hoover, Lufthansa, Panasonic, Royal Bank of
Scotland, Tupperware and Zanussi.
More...
April 2007
Google rolls out 'personalised search'
Google have made some changes to the way their search results work, which may affect a website's search engine rankings.
Several weeks ago, Google started pushing personalised search by default to holders of Google accounts such as 'GMail'. In a nutshell, this can be defined as search engine results that are tailored to an individual's idiosyncratic search habits.
Google are slowly implementing widespread integration of this into standard (i.e. not paid listings - PPC) search results, which will have an impact on the results that are returned when a user searches on something.
Exactly how does search personalisation work?
In the past, Google required you to manually enable 'Search History', but no more. It now means that anyone who is signed in to any Google service (such as 'GMail', 'Analytics', amongst others) will automatically be enrolled into three additional Google Products: ''Search History', ''Personalised Search' and 'Personalised Home Page' (to be rebranded on 1st May 2007 as iGoogle).
On 1st May 2007, location-based personalised search results will be brought in by Google. This means that users who have indicated their default location to Google maps will get more personalised results based on that location. For example, someone with a southern England location who enters "sailing equipment" will see results from that geographic area.
Overall, search results will differ from user to user, dependant on their user profile and previous search history and, of course, on whether or not they are signed into a Google product. If someone doesn't want to see personalised results they can choose to sign out of their Google Account, but how many people will actually know that?
Put another way, someone who isn't signed into a Google product is likely to see different search results from someone who is signed in, and the latter will see results that are tailored to their search history. Not great news if you are a website owner, or is it?
How much might search results vary per user?
Search engine practitioners have found that results for personalised search -v- non-personalised search can vary by as much as 90%.
What does Google say?
Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, said that the personalised home page has been Google's fastest growing product, with tens of millions of users. You can read what Google has to say about personalised search here.
How quickly will personalised search catch on?
It is not known, although a 2006 'Choice Stream Personalization Survey' of 1,100 respondents revealed that over half of them would be willing to trade privacy for increasingly tailored search results.
Will there be any benefits for users and site owners?
Search personalisation can benefit users as it can help make their searches more relevant, since it bases results on their past search behaviour.
It will also benefit websites that have excellent content, with good titles and descriptions (a.k.a. meta tags) in their code. This type of website is likely to be weighted more favourably in search results than those that have poor or little content, and bad or non-existent meta tags.
In short, no change from current advice, i.e. "Content is king!", but it will simply become even more important to web site owners to make sure that all these things are in place.
What are the drawbacks for users and site owners?
There is a possibility of potentially useful websites not appearing in a search purely because they don't fit a user's previous search history. Further, if you have regular website search ranking reports these will change in order to show average rankings rather than absolute rankings.
This is boring! I just want to know what I do to make sure my website won't lose out?
Contact us now to find out more.
March 2007
Are you eligible for website development funding?
You may be able to claim up to £500 worth of website development funding from IT@Work Online.
IT@Work Online provides support, information, advice and funding, enabling businesses to create or develop a website, meeting the needs of their customers and business.
M35 Design is a member of the Business West IT@Work Services Register, meaning that we can promote the availability of the IT@Work Voucher Fund to our clients.
Applying for website funding >>
January 2007
Companies Act - disclosure obligation on emails and websites
From 1 January 2007 all UK companies must include certain information on documentation in their websites and email footers, or they will breach the Companies Act and risk a fine. Under this Act every business must:
1. List its company registration number
2. Place of registration
3. Registered office address
This information should also appear on order forms and in emails.
Download a guide (PDF) from Business West explaining more about your obligation as a company.
Importance of
a search engine friendly web site 
