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Part of our job at WSI is to stay on top of the latest news on and about the internet. Visit our blog often to hear the latest on internet marketing, SEO and how they can impact your business.

Too many shopping sites on Google? Get rid of them (almost).

joe tirio - Monday, October 12, 2009

Tired of searching for Trout and finding nothing but shopping sites. Now you can reduce the number of shopping sites with a click of the mouse.

Though not widely publicized, Google has been making changes/improvements to their site. Chances are that you've seen and yet not noticed the little "+Show Options" link under the Google logo on your search results page. Click the plus sign to reveal some of these new options.

Scroll down near the bottom and you will see a set of links that include one that reads "Fewer Shopping Sites". Click this to reduce the number of shopping sites on that page.

While you're poking around on the left side, try some of the other features like the "Wonder Wheel" . Many of these features are Beta (i.e. not ready for prime time), so cut them a little slack if they don't work quite as well as you'd like..

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What kind of FaceBook quiz taker are you?

joe tirio - Monday, September 14, 2009

If you have been on Facebok for more than a couple days, you've no doubt come across some number of their interesting and enlightening quizzes. These nuggets of internet gold attempt to answer man's most perplexing questions such as "Which Super Mario character would you be?", "How gangsta are you?" and one even offers guidance on which quizzes you should take.

Recently, the ACLU 'Blog of rights' posted "Quiz: What Do Facebook Quizzes Know About You?" I encourage everyone to read it through. The gist of it is this...
1. Nearly anyone on Facebook can create a quiz.
2. The creator of the quiz can and will gather information about you and potentially all your friends, despite your security settings.
3. The creator of the quiz can do whatever they want with that information... sell it, use it to correlate other information even give it away.

Personalization of the web is happening now. Google knows more about you then you could ever imagine. They use it to improve search results and to guide better ads to more likely sales prospects. Google is a big company with a reputation built on the maxim "Do no evil". But what will the creator of the "Which pie are you?" quiz do with your data and what does he have at risk if you catch him doing something nefarious?

The fact is that, the internet is a reflection of the physical world and like the 3D world, there are good and bad people doing good and bad things. And just as you can't just hide in your house for the rest of your life, you do need to 'get out' and play with the other kids At the same time, need to keep your eyes open for 'stranger danger' (and his friend, the Nigerian Prince).

Remember, like Las Vegas, what happens on the internet, stays on the internet. Be thoughtful of who/what you share information with because you never know where it may show up again.

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The Top 5 Best Performing Public Job Sectors During The Recession And Beyond...

joe tirio - Friday, August 14, 2009

Many officials and economists around the world claim that in spring 2009 the global economy passed the critical test for what lies ahead. Although, nobody can guarantee with certainty that the recession is over many believe that the economy showed glimpses of recovery. The stable and in some cases increasing prices in the housing market, the latest rally in the stock markets in Europe, Asia and the US are some of the reasons to be more optimistic for the future.

Nevertheless, both Ben Bernanke, the president of the Federal Reserve in the US and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of IMF, claimed that the situation is still fragile and the recovery will be slow. With plans to inject even more money into troubled companies and sectors (the so called “statistical easiness”) it is almost certain that it will take longer than initially thought for economies to fully recover. In the UK, the Governor of the Bank of England Mervin King is under new pressures to print more money as GDP slumps again.

One of the sectors mainly affected by the recent developments in the economy is the labour market. The unemployment index has reached record levels in the UK and Europe and predictions are less promising for 2010. Latest data from the British Chambers of Commerce economic survey indicate that the UK recession is still very serious and that unemployment can be expected to grow rapidly in 2009 and 2010. So which job sectors can be considered “safe” and how the economic situation will affect the jobs market? We will analyse in this article the top 5 best performing public job sectors and which the safest career choices are at a time of economic slowdown. Are you safe in your existing job or do you welcome the opportunity to try something new?

This is a list (in no particular order) of the top 5 best performing public job sectors according to Public Jobs Direct. The analysis refers to the sector as a whole and presents future plans that strengthen will their performance.

Education

Latest figure show that the education sector is still going strong and for certain disciplines such as science teachers the situation is even more promising. With shortages for such skills across the majority of schools in the UK the demand for teachers is on the increase. The new plans of the government to invest in building more schools also gives a boost in the employment activity for this sector.

Health and Social Care

Similar to education health and social care seems to be a “recession-proof” sector. The government in an effort to reduce unemployment is not adopting job cutting practices in this sector and on the contrary continues to hire new personnel. Doctors, administrative staff and social care workers are still high in demand. The social care reform plan than was launched in early 2008 outlines the roadmap to help councils redesign and reshape their services and systems over the next 3 years.

Public Transport

Public spending on infrastructure is one of the popular measures governments adopt in order to stimulate the economy in situations such as a recession. Investing in public transport development helps both the employment market and at the same time improves the local communities. With the 2012 Olympics just 3 years away the government is planning to invest in certain infrastructure improvements such are trains and busses. Moreover a £1bn plan to electrify the main rail route between London and Swansea has been announced by the government.

Renewable Energy

This is another sector where the government is planning to invest heavily in the next few years. The prime minister unveiled that the plan is “to build up Britain's clean power supply in order to reach the EU-imposed target of producing 15% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2020”. With a total investment that exceeds £100 billion the estimate is that the renewable energy programme would generate around 160,000 jobs.

IT

Despite some major job losses in the short term mainly in the financial sector, the IT sector is proving quite resistant in the mid to long term. After all, we live in a technology driven world. Many companies have the standard practice of cutting jobs in the IT infrastructure and outsource their operation in the short terms. But the demand for highly technical and skilled professionals drives the market. Companies will usually invest in new projects and systems (both software and hardware) in order prepare their in-house operations for the “day after the recession”. The demand for talented software designers and developers is currently growing and there seems to be an increasing trend for the next 4 years.

About The Author

Finding and recruiting the best quality candidates doesn't have to be difficult, complicated or expensive. Public Jobs Direct is one of the highest ranking Public Sector job boards in the online recruitment arena, it is compatible with most posting tools and we can provide you with measurable return on investment. But it doesn’t stop there, everything we do is focussed on helping you to identify the right staff, simply and cost effectively.

The author invites you to visit:
http://www.publicjobsdirect.com/

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Yahoo's Next Move

joe tirio - Wednesday, August 05, 2009

With the recent deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft, one might wonder what Yahoo's next move might be? Its obvious that they are out of the search business and interested in the ad business, But where will they run their ads?

Pop Quiz:

1. What company has the top email site?

2. What company has the top sports site?

3. What company has the top celebrity gossip site?

4. What company has the top financial news site?

If you answered Hotmail, ESPN, TMZ and WSJ you are wrong on all counts. The answer is Yahoo! across the board.

As newspapers fold (pun intended) and the mass news media recycles the same stories over and over again, Yahoo has a nearly unique opportunity to become the world's leading content creator/aggregator. Combine their place in these arenas and then consider the value in removing the yoke of Google-scaled search competition and you now have resources for marketing a whole new product to a public that has already shown an interest.

Yahoo! will (or should) position itself as your personal newspaper and internet launchpad.

Anyone wanna bet?

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Somebody explain to me how discounts on a car require a dealership to relinquish access to their computer systems?

joe tirio - Wednesday, August 05, 2009

By now you've heard of the government's CARS or 'Cash for Clunkers' program that provides rich rebates to car dealers to recycle old, inefficient cars. What you may not know is that If you've done business with a dealer that uses the program, they have had to agree to allow the government full access to their computer and its records. Specifically, the user agreement states:

"This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

Chances are good that very few dealerships read the user agreement and I'm sure the government doesn't allow them to say No and still participate in the program.

There are two lessons her. The first is that you really have to read user agreements and privacy statements. At least give them a quick look for any obvious issues. The second lesson comes from the time-worn axiom "there is no free lunch". I would add to that, sometimes the price is not so obvious.

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Micro-hoo? Bing and Yahoo finally get engaged, but Dad (the DoJ) may not approve.

joe tirio - Sunday, August 02, 2009

Last week the details were released on a search engine deal between Microsoft and Yahoo!. Simply put, Bing will now provide the search results for Yahoo (as well as Bing, of course). Yahoo will handle the ad inventory for Bing. It also means that Bing/Yahoo now compete directly with Google in the search and ad businesses. And this combination now gives the new partnership about one-third of all search results.

So what does this mean for businesses that rely on search results for their business? Here's a couple possible outcomes.

Nothing.

This partnership may not have any effect at all on those that advertise on the web or rely on search results for business. While Bing has shown some interest and the launch has created some buzz, most think its just buzz and will pass. Google is the leader by a vast margin because it works well and people are resistant to change if there's no good reason to change and what they use today (Google) works reasonably well.

Bing-ahoo continues to lose market share.

No one has been able to get and keep any additional share from Google in a long time. Many believe that this 'repackaging' will do little more than change the names on the pie graph while at the same time Google will retain the largest piece of that pie.

Google is toppled.

This is the most unlikely case, but as more and more people come to rely on the Big G for more than search (Google Voice, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc.) Google opens itself up to greater losses. Imagine what would happen if Google was hacked or lsot critical segments of its infrastructure. Or, worse yet, they violated their 'do no evil' mission. That's the kind of thing that changes the seats around the dinner table.

The 'Nothing' scenario is what I believe to be most likely. In the end, I've got to believe that SEM will remain and good content will still rule the search engine relevance game.

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Predictions about Apple's new Device

joe tirio - Sunday, July 26, 2009

I’ve been listening for some time to others postulating what the new Apple device may be. I am at once saddened and excited to say that you are all wrong. Saddened for how silly you feel once you see how obvious this is and excited because the new device will be AWESOME.

I’ll start by naming it. It will be called the iPad.

So what is it?
The iPad will be a multifunction, location, attitude and proximity aware device and will possess the following functions/attributes. It will be a pad-like device about the size of a kindle. Few, if any physical buttons. It will bear a similarity to the latest iPods but will not be exactly like them. it will contain no moving platter storage. It will have a huge battery and will connect via WiFi, WiMax and 3G/4G Cellular Data services. It will have one SD card slot, stereo mics and at least one (maybe two) cameras. The device will not be a processing powerhouse but will focus a great deal of power on graphics display.

Drawing Tablet
The iPad will function as a drawing tablet as it sits docked to your Mac. You will be able to use your finger or styli to control your mouse pointer on the screen.

Alternate Display
The iPad will be used as an alternate display… a second monitor of sorts. A place for property panes or meta data… or just a second monitor.

Alternate Input Device
In order to fulfill the requirements of a portable computing/communications device ( see below) the iPad will need to be able to create and accept text and gesture input. For this reason, you will be able to use the iPad’s on-screen keyboard and multi-touch capabilities as input options for your conventional laptop or desktop. What the iPad also allows is the creation of application specific control and input/output devices. Imagine an audio mixer or video mixer. Maybe even a jog wheel. If you can draw a picture of it, you can pretty much turn it into a control.

Remote Control
Why doesn’t Back to my Mac work? Why haven’t they fixed it? Because they will be bringing it out in the latest version of Leopard to work with the iPad. It will turn the iPad into the ultimate remote for AppleTV and the other network-connected Apple devices (iMacs, MacBooks, iPods, iPhones) in your life. This is why they haven’t already killed the AppleTV. It and the iPad become the media output devices in your home.

Portable Computing Device
No, they won’t make a netbook. They will make the netbook look ridiculous by comparison. The iPad will leverage MobileMe and Back to my Mac to replicate your desktop/laptop functionality. Simply connect to a network then to your desktop and you have access to your work, your media, your digital world… all integrated. Just like Apple likes it. And Gaming!!! Imagine the impact of a larger display and control surface on the already wildly successful Apple AppStore gaming industry.

Portable Communications Device
It seems silly to call it a phone anymore, but you will be able to place calls with it. You will also be able to make video calls, making it the first truly pervasive video phone. I suspect that Apple will make the video call protocol available to other platforms to ensure that Mac users can call the rest of the world (to tell them to buy an iPad).

Where do I get my hair-brained ideas?
The explosion of the netbooks tells us that people want an easily portable computing/communication experience. The popularity of the iPhone as a mobile computing platform is, in itself, a milestone in computing history. What stops it short of being the iPad is simply its size. You really can’t comfortably read or write on the iPhone for very long. We’ve also heard from several sources that Apple has purchased 10-inch touch screens. We know that they wouldn’t make an also-ran netbook with them. We also know that SnowLeopard is more about security and code efficiency than new OS features. These efforts would also support design and delivery of a small, network connected device.

Maybe I’m completely nuts, but I’ve always believed that Apple isnt about sacrifice, its about innovation, simplicity, elegance, integration and connectivity. So, when we heard about the touch screen displays, and you apply those principles, you must come to the conclusion that the device cannot simply be another netbook. Apple dreams big, and like its sibling Pixar, it makes game-changing products that redefine, even create markets.

What’s next?
I suspect that the next hardware rollout (probably next year) will be the Apple Core. A server based on the Mac Mini hardware platform that provides a NAS-like gateway to your media and other files, manages DRM and controls access. If you need additional processing, simply add another Mini and mesh computing will distribute the tasks. It may also manage backups in the same way that Time Capsule does today. It will feature Drobo-like redundancy and ease of use. Drives will look like Mac Minis. Simply attach them via firewire or what have you. If they fail, unplug and insert a new one. I predict Core will also be Steve’s last project and mark the fulfillment of his vision when he rejoined Apple.

Comments welcome as always.

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NetBorn NetBlog

Too many shopping sites on Google? Get rid of them (almost).

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What kind of FaceBook quiz taker are you?

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The Top 5 Best Performing Public Job Sectors During The Recession And Beyond...

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Yahoo's Next Move

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Somebody explain to me how discounts on a car require a dealership to relinquish access to their computer systems?

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Micro-hoo? Bing and Yahoo finally get engaged, but Dad (the DoJ) may not approve.

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Predictions about Apple's new Device

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