28th Jan 2012

Being able to compete on the Internet is tough and increasingly costly.  In the history of the internet and ecommerce it used to be that having a reasonable price, a good looking site (not always the rule!), and being found on the search engines was enough to generate considerable success.  Businesses who had deep pockets but were failing at search engine optimisation were able to get around the ‘getting found’ issue by using pay per click services like Google Adwords (at considerable extra cost I might add).

30th Apr 2012

Advertisers are planning on using social media websites such as Facebook to raise their brand’s profile this summer.  Not content with people simply buying their products,  advertisers are hoping that social media will help them to communicate with their customers – and more importantly, get their customers talking about them too.

26th Jun 2012

Microsoft has launched its own t6ablet device in a bid to compete with Apple’s iPad. The tablet, named the Surface, works on the new Windows 8 operating system.

19th Jul 2012

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, has said that he will be willing to ‘’turn off’’ the website again in future to protect the Internet from policies that will affect everyday users.

15th Aug 2012

A new virtual grocery store has ‘opened’ in Gatwick airport this month.

5th Sep 2012

From October-December 2010, 31% of UK internet users caught a computer virus figures from Eurostat reveal.  Disturbingly, 7% of those suffered a financial loss due to the virus. This is despite 88% of users stating that they had security software in place.

12th Sep 2012

Investigations into Conservative chairman Grant Shapps’ Twitter account reveals that he regularly follows large numbers of accounts and unfollows them if they do not follow back in order to have a perceived large following.

15th Sep 2012

The xx, who became a word of mouth phenomenon when they produced their first album in 2009, recreated their past viral triumph by releasing a stream to their second album Coexist to one superfan on Facebook days before its official release date.

19th Sep 2012

Following recommendations from the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland, facebook has suspended the facial recognition feature on the website.  The feature recognised faces in the background of images and allowed people to be tagged.

24th Sep 2012

Economic development in rural communities cannot happen without proper access to the Internet the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) warned recently. Currently 1/5 of people in rural areas do not have access to broadband which is adequate for business needs.

5th Oct 2012

Hackers have targeted the online adventure game, World of Warcraft (WoW) this month. The hackers were able to create a character that could destroy all other characters- including those controlled by the game.

10th Oct 2012

The BBC has launched a separate iPlayer app for radio; using audio content from the existing BBC iPlayer to offer a separate service from its TV service.

15th Oct 2012

Despite 4G mobile technology, only just being launched in the UK (on Tuesday 30th October) experts at Surrey University are already working towards developing 5G, which they believe will be available in 2020.

12th Oct 2012

The OFT has found that more than a third of UK online retailers could be breaking consumer laws by adding unexpected charges to orders. They have warned retailers to change their websites before Christmas.

30th Oct 2012

The long awaited new 4G service has gone live in cities across the country including London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow with Southampton to have access to network EE’s 4G from next week. Belfast, Derby, Hull, Newcastle and Nottingham will be active by Christmas.

5th Nov 2012

Microsoft’s latest foray into the smartphone market begins as the Windows Phone 8 goes on sale. Whilst reviewers and the relative few who bought the Windows Phone 7 praised the product, sales were slow despite the fast-growing market.  Even with more features and improvements on the original, it would seem that many people are reluctant to stray from their iPhone or Android counterparts.

10th Nov 2012

The annual festive holiday survey by Nielsen has revealed that the iPad has risen in popularity by 17% since 2010, allowing Apple to claim four out of the top five most wanted Christmas presents.

15th Nov 2012

Nearly a year after initial plans were submitted for a £530m project to bring faster internet to the UK countryside, the European Commission has finally approved the scheme. The plan to improve rural connections was part of the coalition government’s goal to give the UK the best broadband network in Europe.

22nd Nov 2012

A meeting of the International Telecommunication Union on 3rd December has motivated Google to create its ‘Take Action’ microsite www.google.com/takeaction to protest against and educate web users about the dangers of a government-regulated web.

28th Nov 2012

Global information services company Experian predicts that Monday 3rd December 2012 will be the busiest online shopping day pre-Christmas.
UK consumers are likely to spend 375 million hours shopping online in December 2012.  Furthermore, Experian predict that Christmas 2012 will be the biggest and busiest ever for online retailers in the UK.

24th Dec 2012

Coinciding with the end of the world (21/12/12), we launched our all new Freetimers.co.uk website, focusing specifically on website design.  It’s a lovely site, with a great portfolio that really shows the quality of the work we do.  Starting initially on web design Northampton Milton Keynes and Bedford, our intention is to position the site to rank for web design nationally.  So watch this space!