123-reg.co.uk

As names go, we’re sure you’d agree that Princess-Rainbow.com is a pretty unusual one. We’ve never met anyone named after a domain name before.

So when we read about a Manchester woman who’d changed her name from Claire Forshaw to Princess-Rainbow.com by deed poll, we decided to investigate further.

The full story was in the Independent last week, but we managed to track down Princess-Rainbow.com herself to ask a few questions.

Q: What made you decide to change your name to Princess-Rainbow.com?
A: I actually didn’t think about it that much – I’d had a few drinks and it came up in conversation that it only cost around £10 to change your name. So I thought it would be funny to do it. The Princess-Rainbow bit was suggested by my boyfriend Robert Morris – we liked it so that’s what I changed it to.

Q:Have you always wanted to change your name to a web domain?
A: Yes – I’d mentioned in the past that if I ever changed my name it would have to have .com at the end, mainly for comedy value. Plus no-one I know has a web domain as a name. Read the rest of this entry »

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Last week it was Google deciding to create its own operating system. This week it’s Microsoft making the big announcement: that the next version of Microsoft Office will be available online, for free. Take that, Google Apps!

Microsoft Office is one of the company’s most important products – it includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access (chances are you’ve used one of these before) – and as pretty much the global standard in office software, it generates piles of cash for the company.

So what does this mean? Well, when the next version of Microsoft Office comes out, it’ll be available in the shops as usual. But if you’d rather, you’ll be able to simply visit the Microsoft website, log in and use it there.

It’ll be like having a copy of Microsoft Word (or whatever Office program you’re using) running in your web browser. The buttons and menus will be almost-identical – and it’ll be free. Read the rest of this entry »

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Unless you’ve been paying zero attention to the newspapers, TV and web over the last few months, you must’ve heard of Twitter. The ‘microblogging’ site has received loads of press – helped by people like Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross who’ve enthusiastically taken to the service. We’ve now joined them, and if you already use the service, you can follow us online here.

In a nutshell, Twitter is a free social media network that lets users shout short messages, called ‘tweets’, to the people that follow them. You can access the service directly through the Twitter website, as well through other programs installed on your computer, mobile phones, email, instant messages and even Facebook.

Rather like Facebook’s ‘Barney is…’ function, Twitter is an effective way to keep your family, friends, and co-workers connected and up to date on what’s going on your life in real time. But that only really scratches the surface of what it has to offer. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’d be interesting to be a fly on the wall at Microsoft’s headquarters today.

Why? Well, Google has just fired the most blatant shot yet in its battle to take business from Microsoft, with news that the search giant is working on its very own operating system, to be called Google Chrome Operating System.

The announcement comes about ten months after Google introduced its own web browser – a move which itself was widely perceived as being an attempt by Google to get people to switch away from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

As the company says on its own blog:

“So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”

This is a big deal: it’s currently the third story on the BBC news homepage and nobody online seems to be talking about much else this morning. Read the rest of this entry »

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As you’ve probably heard, Firefox 3.5 has been released and is available to download.

There are changes and new features in several areas, but some of the most interesting for web developers are the new CSS effects: rounded corners, various forms of shadows, and providing fonts to use for text.

The Mozilla Hacks site has thrown all these together in a demo (which in itself looks hideous, but does succeed in showing what’s possible), and there are a few other articles on that site also worth exploring. They link to Font Squirrel, which seems to be a good place to find free downloadable fonts to use on web pages.

Often when a browser gains new capabilities web designers are understandably reluctant to make use of them straight away — understandably so when they lead to a worse experience in existing browsers.

The great thing about these new CSS features is that they degrade gracefully: you can specify your organization’s house font for body text (or whatever) so Firefox 3.5 users will see it, while users of other browsers will be blissfully unaware and continue to see your site exactly as they do today.

What do you think — let us know in the comments below. Are you going to use these new effects in your website? Have you upgraded to 3.5 yet, and if so are there any new features you find particularly compelling? And most importantly, have you found any pandas?

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When news of Michael Jackson’s death broke last week, it sent shockwaves around the world. Celebrities don’t come much bigger and that meant from London to Lima, New York to New Delhi, everyone was talking about it.

Canny domainers (those people who buy and sell domain names at a profit) don’t usually miss a trick. And even while the news wires were red hot with the latest developments, it turns out many of them had spotted an opportunity and were busy buying up all sorts of Jacko-related domain names.

Check these out:

• michaeljacksonisdead.co.uk and jacksontribute.com were registered on 25 June. That’s the day Jackson died – presumably while the rest of us were asking our friends whether the story was an elaborate hoax.
• jackolives.co.uk was also registered on 25 June, perhaps by a domainer convinced the story was untrue. This one’s my favourite actually, because initially I misread it as Jack Olives. Read the rest of this entry »

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