We are often asked about some of the ja jargon we use. Here’s a few common terms…

HTML

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser.

PHP

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language.

MySQL

MySQL is the world’s most widely used open source relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after co-founder Michael Widenius’ daughter, My. The SQL phrase stands for Structured Query Language.

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With millions of people using YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and other video websites, is it about time you thought about video? Here’s a few reasons to use video on your website…

Video doubles the time spent on your website

“Dwell time on a web page containing video more than doubles on average from 66 seconds to up to 250 seconds.”
(ComScore for www.telegraph.co.uk)

Influences Buying Decisions

“Visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not.”
(Internet Retailer, April 2010)

ROI

“53.5% of the population and 70.8% of internet users will have watched online video in 2012”
(eMarketer 2012). That’s a lot of opportunity!

SEO

“Websites with videos on are 53 times more likely to have an organic first-page ranking than a traditional web page without video.”
(Forrester Research)

Video helps build brands

Video is now the ’glue’ of social marketing:
1 in 3 video viewers comment, 1 in 2 viewers regularly share videos, more than 1 in 2 view online with others.
(Comscore, Jan 2011)

We have helped many businesses get video on their websites. Call 01892 723 218 to discuss your video requirements.

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WordPress is a good option if you want a bespoke website which you can regularly update and is effective in Google and other major Search Engines. Today WordPress powers one of every 6 websites on the Internet, nearly 60 million in all, with 100,000 more popping up each day!

1. So easy to use…

WordPress is very easy to use and has an intuitive interface.  Adding new pages, blog posts, images and other media on a regular basis is a breeze and can be done quickly. Formatting time is greatly reduced with its easy interface.

2. All you need is an internet connection…

WordPress is browser-based so you can login from any web connected computer and manage your website.

3. No HTML or FTP skills required…

WordPress is a self-contained system and does not require HTML editing software, such as Dreamweaver. You can create a new page or blog post, format text, upload images and documents, video files, image galleries, etc. all without the need for additional HTML or FTP software.

4. Great for Google…

The code behind WordPress is very clean and simple, making it easy for search engines to read and index a website’s content. In addition, each page, post, and image can have its own meta tag keywords, description, and title, and be optimised for specific keywords, allowing for very precise search engine optimisation.  You can also use tags to further enhance your search engine optimisation efforts.

5. Control your website

No more waiting for your web designer to make simple updates to your website, with WordPress you have control of nearly every aspect of your website and can easily make those simple updates yourself if required.

6. 100% customisable to fit any brand…

WordPress acts as the engine for your website. The look and feel of the website is 100% customisable, so your brand can shine through on your website and provide a unique experience for your visitors.

7. Blog away…

Since WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform, blogging capabilities are built-in and are easy to integrate, if desired. Setting up RSS and email subscriptions to your blog, commenting capabilities, and automatically adding the most recent blog posts to other pages of the website are also very simple to set-up, and help to extend your company’s reach and make your website more dynamic and interactive.

8. Fully extendable…

Want to add an event calendar, video gallery, Twitter Feed, Facebook Fan Box, and more to your website? WordPress makes this possible with hundreds of plugins, most of which are free or very reasonably priced.

9. Grow your website as your business grows…

WordPress websites are very scalable. You can have hundreds of thousands of pages or blog posts on your website and the performance of the website will not be compromised in the least.

10. Multiple users…

As an administrator of a WordPress site, you can set-up multiple users for the website and assign access levels and capabilities to each user.

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The problem, which affects hundreds of millions of IE browser users, is being used by attackers to install the Poison Ivy trojan.

This piece of malware is used to steal data or take remote control of PCs.

Microsoft moved quickly to address the issue. In a blog post, it said that it was “working to develop a security update”.

So-called zero-day, or newly discovered, vulnerabilities are rare. According to security firm Symantec, only eight such bugs were spotted in 2011.

Symantec research manager Liam O Murchu said they were dangerous to users because they were new.

“Any time you see a zero-day like this, it is concerning.”

“There are no patches available. It is very difficult for people to protect themselves.”

The flaw was spotted by Luxembourg-based security expert Eric Romang, when his PC was infected by Poison Ivy last week.

Microsoft told users to download a free patch, the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, as a temporary solution while the company continued to work on a long-term fix.

But experts warned the new software must be downloaded and manually configured, making it cumbersome for many ordinary users.

Some advised users to switch to alternative browsers, such as Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox while the bug was being fixed.

It is expected that producing a proper update will take about a week.

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With the help from private funding the Socialmatic’s creators will not only be able to create a prototype of the Instagram-inspired camera, but also bring it to the mass market.

Here are the camera’s capabilities:

“The Instagram app icon, the Socialmatic will come with 16 GB mass storage, Wifi and Bluetooth, a 4:3 touchscreen, two lenses (the first for capturing the image,  while the second is for 3D filters, webcam applications and QR Code capturing), optical zoom, and LED flash.”

“As with smartphones, you’ll be able to create an image using the Socialmatic, change the look of the picture, then post it on Facebook for all to see. And you’ll be able to create your own pictures thanks to the presence of an internal printer and paper cartridge with Instagram Paper Sheets. ”

Sounds like an interesting project for Instagram fans.

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Social media is popping up on the web all over the place and it’s hard to ignore it. We’ve all heard of Facebook and many of us have an account and many friends who have them too. Twitter too is becoming commonplace with many TV and Radio channels quoting Twitter addresses. YouTube – yes, most of you know that one too and with this advance of Social Media many more are becoming recognisable – but what are they and what do they do?

We spotted this donut analogy which has gone viral and it makes it easy to understand the different Social Media channels. Douglas Wray posted a whiteboard breakdown of all the major social media services and explained how they differ from each other using the example of a donut and posted the photograph on Instagram – the photo sharing service.

This analogy makes it pretty clear how YouTube differs from Facebook, Twitter from LinkedIn, or Instagram from Pinterest:

• Twitter “I’m eating a donut”
• Facebook “I like donuts”
• Foursquare “This is where I eat donuts”
• Instagram “Here’s a vintage photo of my donut”
• YouTube “Here I am eating a donut”
• LinkedIn “My skills include donut eating”
• Pinterest “Here’s a donut recipe”
• Last FM “Now listening to ‘Donuts’”
• G+ “I’m a Google employee who eats donuts”

Hope that makes it easier to understand!

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We’ve compiled a small list of good quality UK websites where you can add your website and link back to yours without cost.

Getting back links helps you with your rankings and brings your website to a new audience.

There is no point getting backlinks from poor quality websites so always go for quality relevant links.

DMOZ

www.dmoz.org
Find your category and click “suggest URL” top right
NOTE: Takes a while to get listed but highly rated by search engines.
They say “Help build the most comprehensive human-reviewed directory of the web.”

The Free Directory

www.the-free-directory.co.uk
NOTE: UK Directory
They say “ The Free Directory UK offers British orientated web sites a free direct text link to your website with No reciprocal link required.”

FreeIndex

www.freeindex.co.uk
NOTE: High quality UK Directory. Click “Register Now”
They say “FreeIndex is the UK’s fastest growing business directory with photos, reviews, jobs, special offers and more. Create your free business profile page today.”

BT Tradespace

www.bttradespace.com
NOTE: You can create a microsite here.
They say “BT Tradespace is where you can interact with other businesses and shoppers, advertise a business, or review companies you use.”

These are free but they will be keen to upgrade you!…

Yell.com

www.yell.com
NOTE: Check you have at least a free listing.
They say “Yell.com is London’s local search engine, providing access to classified business information, including business websites, addresses, phone numbers etc”

Thomson Local

www.thomsonlocal.com
NOTE: Check you have at least a free listing.
They say “UK local business directory, find classified business listings for local UK suppliers including telephone numbers, ratings and reviews, web and email addresses.”

Qype

www.qype.co.uk
NOTE: Good quality UK Directory
They say “User recommendations and reviews of the best things in London. Find the best shops, restaurants, bars, nightlife, gigs, services and more.”

Hotfrog

www.hotfrog.co.uk
NOTE: Good quality UK Directory
They say “Make your business stand out online with Hotfrog UK. Find products or services in your location, fast and easy on Hotfrog. You can add your business for free.”

Touch Local

www.touchlocal.com
NOTE: Good quality UK Directory. Check you are listed.
They say “Find locally reviewed UK businesses with the Touch Local business directory. Add your business for free.”

Call us if you want some help getting quality links to your website

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Alexa.com ranks websites based on tracking information of users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox and from their extension for Chrome.
A useful exercise is to visit each of the websites in your coffee break and see if you feature in any of the relevant ones – even Baidu.com should bring you a result!
Here’s how they rank…

1 Google

google.com
Enables users to search the world’s information, including webpages, images, and videos. Offers unique features and search technology.

2 Facebook

facebook.com
A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.

3 YouTube

youtube.com
YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!

4 Yahoo!

yahoo.com
A major internet portal and service provider offering search results, customisable content, chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager.

5 Baidu.com

baidu.com
The leading Chinese language search engine, provides ‘simple and reliable’ search experience, strong in Chinese language and multi-media content including MP3 music and movies, the first to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search in China.

6 Wikipedia

wikipedia.org
A free encyclopedia built collaboratively using wiki software.

If you’re trying to establish how your website is performing in the world of search, then Alexa rank provides a good barometer of how your website ranks against your competition. Check your Alexa Ranking to see how you’re performing.

The post Top 6 websites today appeared first on Web Marketing EQ MEDIA Limited.

Google’s new privacy policy has some people up in arms as Google is combines dozens of privacy policies into one, and saying that they will use information from all if their products to help personalise other products. For example if you searched for “jewellery” when you visit YouTube the next time you may have suggested some jewellery videos.

Microsoft has jumped on the opportunity to slam Google on this issue and is hitting the media hard with full page ads in major newspapers suggesting users switch to Microsoft alternatives like Office 365, Hotmail and Bing.

Google acted quickly to counter Microsoft’s suggestions on its public policy blog…

Myth: Google reads your email. [Microsoft]
Fact: No one reads your email but you. Like most major email providers, our computers scan messages to get rid of spam and malware, as well as show ads that are relevant to you.

Google hit back at Microsoft’s own privacy policy…

We don’t make judgments about other people’s policies or controls. But our industry-leading Privacy Dashboard, Ads Preferences Manager and data liberation efforts enable you to understand and control the information we collect and how we use it—and we’ve simplified our privacy policy to make it easier to understand. Microsoft has no data liberation effort or Dashboard-like hub for users. Their privacy policy states that “information collected through one Microsoft service may be combined with information obtained through other Microsoft services

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Losing your iPad could seem like a disaster to most of us but if you use iCloud, here’s a tale to give you hope. Read and remember!

A sales manager was pleasantly surprised by the swift reaction of police officers after he lost his iPad at an airport. He boarded his flight carrying his iPad as he headed for a business meeting. After disembarking he promtly forgot his iPad.

The sales manager recalls the events:

“I used my iPad while I was on the plane. I was going to be late for my meeting and, in the rush of departing the plane, I forgot my iPad in a compartment in front of my seat”.

Discovering the mishap he contacted the airline immediately and reported his loss and see if it had been handed in to lost property.

The sales manager explains what he did next:

“I then decided to log on to my laptop and the iCloud service (which links Apple products with one another), and found that my iPad was still in the vicinity of the airport.”

He reported his findings to airline officials who instructed him to contact the authorities. Using the iCloud the police tracked the device and found the thieves who took it, a driver for an aircraft catering company and a cleaner.

The men were arrested and the iPad recovered.

Justice done!

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