Wizard New Media

In a great discussion in  E-consultancy Andrew Girdwood suggests there  has been a lot of change in deciding what ranks on a Google search result page over the last few months. According to Andrew, ‘Too many SEOs are in denial about the radical changes that have overhauled Google in recent months.’

One of the biggest changes Andrew’s talking about is the importance of ‘real time search’, which requires a fundamental shift in how you go about producing content.

So how can make your content production process more suited to the demands of real time search?

The article is entitled Adapting content management to real time search

My favourite story, from way back, was my local development agency telling me the Internet would never catch on – when I proposed electronic publish in 1995. Sadly some believe that this is still the case. Like it or not, how we receive our news and other important information has changed.

I’m 50 years old and now read the papers on a Sunday to get a more in depth view of what has been happening during the week. The rest of the time I have BBC News 24 or Sky, or the BBC Scotland Website, or numerous RSS feeds from a variety of newsfeeds. Scottish Enterprise, local councillors and other government agencies keep me up to date on Twitter and so on. Now, I may be more Internet savvy than others but I am far from being alone.

The young adults of today get the bulk of their info from their mobile phones and the Internet. As they enter the workplace they will expect to see similar facilities available to them at work. Let us move forward instead of back.

I suppose you could say that it’s evolution – people will always need news and views – but in a format that suits them. Local papers ( and nationals) are struggling to make ends meet. Sadly it can only get worse to the point were newsprint all but disappears. Watch out for electronic paper – once that is fully ready there is no going back. That is why I launched Argyll Free Press

The Times Online and The Guardian are excellent. However, if you want real innovation then step forward Scotland’s newest newspaper – Caledonian Mercury ( http://caledonianmercury.com/) it is bang up to date, features top journalists and is a damn good read.

Local papers currently fill a need but the Internet is where it is all going to happen in the very near future.

Nowhere is this more telling than at our local recycling centre. Two years ago I started counting the number of bundles of the Dunoon Observer that had been consigned to the skips. I would estimate is has doubled in that period. Just an observation you understand:o)

Tags: Argyll Free Press, Caledonian Mercury, local newspapers

BBC’s attempt to get behind the truths and myths of the youth drinking culture, in the Buckfast Code, was a bit of mixed bag.

It’s worth a watch, however, the interviewer’s attempts to elicit a negative response from young offenders should be questioned. Before the subtitles appeared I was able to identify two of the three as decedents of famous ‘traveling’ families. If you had changed the name of the drink in the question the answer would have been the same. Blame it on the booze. I would suggest these young lads had more social problems to contend with than just mere drink.

My daily rant at the t.v. came to a hault when my step-daughter pointed out that her boyfriend, at 16, was able to complete the Buckie challenge in four seconds. We’re doomed I tell ye doomed:o)

As this clip shows.

Tags: booze, Buckfast, Scotland

What with family re-unions and dark nights ( I hate the winter) I haven’t been attending to this particular blog.

It’s very hard these days to keep up with the world of technology. Recent observations.

• The Bebo generation are now firmly ensconced on Facebook – this will change its dynamic as a business tool, and not for the better.

• I still don’t much care for Twitter, however, I have been introduced Tweetdeck by my good friend Laurena McKenna – its a winner.

• I have been playing about with Netvibes again but that login bit does my head in.

• The world has gone Mafia Wars and Farmville crazy. Apparently 70 million people are now invloved. Do you know anyone who doesn’t play one or the other, or both?

More later

Tags: Bebo, Farmville, Mafia Wars, netvibes, Tweetdeck, Twitter

A Creamed Cage in August. Never heard of it? What about Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow? Still no?

Actually, they are one and the same. It’s a Marc Bolan and T.rex Album from 1974. So what, I hear you say, some old shite that nobody listens to any more. You’re almost right. I own two copies of this album. Both are vinyl copies that I haven’t played in more than 20 years. The single sleeved version was played a lot back in the day. The gatefold sleeve version which is rare has only seen a couple of outings.

Normally when working, anywhere, I need my music. It helps me concentrate and get things done. Take away my music and my attention deficit order kicks in big time – look a squirrel! Of recent weeks when working at our home office, with my partner at the next desk it has been a bit awkward. Sharron is the opposite of me – she can’t stand music when she is working , and that includes when I wear headphones. This usually means I go sulking off to the living room with the laptop.

Sharron is off site today, so I took advantage of Spotify at full volume. Normally I just let it run, but today I thought a bit of Bolan would be good. Spotify pulled up some really duff covers of Raw Ramp and Motivator by Steve Overland. Leave the guitar solos alone. Bolan wasn’t a great guitarist but I loved these solos – shame on you.

So I’m scanning and I find Zinc Alloy, selected all the tracks and off we go. Some of the songs I though were crap when I was 14 sound so much better to my (almost) 50 year old ears. I now have a new favourite T.rex album. Thank you Spotify – you’re real pal.

Truck on Tyke………………..

Tags: david farrell-shaw, listen to music, Marc Bolan, music, Spotify, T.rex, Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow

Technology expectations should be realistic – don’t promise bang wizz and then fail to deliver. That has always been my mantra and, over the years, I have often moaned about what a service says it will do and then been disappointed with the actual results.

Sometimes, however, its not down to the service itself, but rather how the service is delivered. We are at the mercy of Internet Service Providers (ISP) and the bandwidth they provide us to go about our daily tasks.

It was good to catch up with content guru Gerry McGovern today. He was taking me through his latest incarnation of Customer Carewords – if you haven’t heard about it  hang your head in shame. So there we are Skype to Skype and having a blether. Gerry moves me on to a meeting using gotomeeting.com so that we can discuss the finer details. It doesn’t quite work. Disappointed? Not a jot. Once we have a established the limits, it is perfectly possible to have a business discussion. We make allowances for Gerry’s broadband playing up. As a fall back he moves to using his mobile broadband dongle and we get a positive result.

So what is the point of all this waffle, I hear you ask, and, be honest, some of you started thinking this at the very first sentence! The point is; a couple of years back we couldn’t have had our meeting online. It would have seemed like a magic lantern show. I have been talking up web conferencing for a long time – usually to an audience that seemed to be thinking “burn the witch , burn the witch” – and now we just accept it as being like radio or tv. When it doesn’t work – some people get agitated – us old heads don’t.

Stop to think about it. I am sitting at home in Dunoon. Gerry is sitting at home in Ireland. We are using telephony over the internet, running through slides and websites via Citrix and all we have to complain about is a five second delay. To me that is still amazing – will I ever grow up?

Tags: Brian Lamb, Citrix, Content Critical, customer carewords, david farrell-shaw, gerry mcgovern, gotomeeting.com, web conferencing

This really reminds me about a certain someone:o)

Tags: bad manager, complete erse, poor managment

“Ideas come from great talent, and talent wants two things: creative environment and creative opportunities. I’d even argue that comes before money”. According to Digicynic.

The blog article had created a buzz at its original release has now attracted a new audience. Make that eleven things digital agencies should be doing. All too often this morning’s stories are this afternoon’s browser clean out. It’s great to see that good content has a longer shelf life.

Read more

Toma Bonciu posted an interesting article on LinkedIn. He wanted to discuss;

Definition: a broadcaster on Twitter is a person that is not interested in engaging with others or build relations or communicate

The odd thing is that many times the tweets contain useful tips and suggestions or useful links. So, why this can be a problem? Because it lacks interaction. You see, there are many broadcasters on Twitter. That is why you see every day hundreds of tweets about the same article, in the same form: title of article plus a link to it. There is no value on that.

We never do this in real life. We never recommend a book or a movie like that. We always express an opinion. And this is what I think is missing from Twitter right now. Look at Chris Brogan. Every tweet he puts on is an invitation to engagement and communication. We should learn from that.

A video of Toma’s suggestion is available on YouTube.

It’s good to see this type of debate taking place. As social networks mature, they will have to show a real ROI for businesses – the debate has top start somewhere!

Tags: Broadcasting, Chris Brogan, conversations, engagement, LinkedIn, Toma Bonciu, Twitter, YouTube