We all have a bit of trainspotter in us – don’t we? (and there’s no offence intended to trainspotters in that). We all have a little passion, something that focuses our attention more than other things and perhaps even sets us apart from our closest friends or brings us closer together. With most of those passions, comes a collecting phase. Whether it is memorabilia, prize-winning examples of just badges of pride, admit it there’s something quite comforting and pleasing collecting relevant things.

Even in the social media world we now operate in, similar trends can be found. Sites like Foursquare and Gowalla encourage active badge collection and even Facebook you risk social suicide if you fail to accept a gift of this or that.

Now Twitter has its own version too. Badges of honour, the third-party Twadges, award tweeters for frequency, followers and obscure criteria such as ‘Joined Twitter before Oprah’.

Their popularity will of course depend on the competitiveness of those using Twitter – expect it to be high as users vie to get this badge or that, before their mates – but the idea behind it is not just silly fun. With badges for least profanity, most links etc, it might also focus Twitter users on more considered tweets. Additionally, marketers are turning to Twitter more and more and this concept offers them an at a glance insight into what sort of person you are, just by the badges on display.

At the moment the system has a smaller following than many celebrities (around 3,500) but as word gets around the concept certainly shows potential.

Is this a positive addition to Twitter? Will you be signing up?

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We know we featured Ask Jeeves last week but it does appear they are trying hard to be pro-active in changing the way we use the internet. Looking to take more ground in the search engine sector against Google, Bing and Yahoo, Ask Jeeves have launched a new public beta, which combines  technology and human insight to provide more personalised responses.

That’s nothing massively ground-breaking though. This old hack fondly remembers gaining essential internet experience in the late 1990s working for the now defunct UKPlus search engine. In the days when content portals Yahoo, Lycos and Excite dominated the search options too, UKPlus a division of the Daily Mail group offered a family friendly search directory where every entry was reviewed and written by a journalist. As the internet expanded at a pace even our growing over-worked band of reviewers couldn’t cope with, so the project ended and the Googles of this world took over – robots and clever SEO driving the way we found sites relevant to our needs.

Yet, this latest move by Ask appears to be a move back towards that personal touch while staying with the technology benefits. By picking ‘experts’ from their own user-base to offer these human insights Ask is effectively asking those who use it most to help improve its search tool.  The Beta is by invite only but, if Ask.com can attract only a tiny percentage of their existing community drawn from 87 million monthly uniques, then there will be plenty of experts on offer. It may also attract new users over looking for something different from the modern computer driven responses. Perhaps best described as a more considered and moderated version of sites like Yahoo Answers mixed with the existing Ask offering.  Ask are marketing it on the “capability to pose questions to real people…for those complex, subjective and/or time-sensitive queries that, no matter how advanced, computers simply can’t address.”.

It will be interesting to see how it works in practice.

Do you think human input can ever rival clever technology generated search results?

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Back in February 2006 freelance software developer Andy Geldman found inspiration in a newspaper article about website addresses with accidental double meanings.  The same day, he coined the phrase Slurls (combining slur with URL), set up a website and started blogging as Chief Slurler hunting for more of these internet unique pockets of humour and embarrassment.

Years later he is still finding them, listing them and making jokes about them and has put the best together in his new book Slurls, offering a definitive introduction to the world’s worst Internet URLs. So here at the 123-blog we thought we should get Andy’s advice on how to avoid choosing a slurl and make sure you select a domain name that will be a success for the right reasons.

“I think you need to think about what the main aims are when choosing a domain name” explains Andy. “You want something that is 1. Easy to remember, 2. Easy to type in and 3. Gives the right impression.”

That all might sound like common sense but as Andy explains “The scarcity of domains does make it difficult to find the perfect one.” And it is that inability to get their first choice that often panics domain buyers and sees them making a bad choice and potentially creating a slurl.

“It is a bad idea to make up words. If they have no connection to what the business does then they can be difficult for people to remember.” points out Andy. “Also the trend for q’s and z’s if they cant get the usual plural is a bad idea, unless you have a massive marketing budget to really promote it.”

Just sticking to those three important aims is not as easy as it sounds “Sometimes the aims conflict with each other. Those that are easy to remember might not give the impression you want to give.” Cincinnati-based Effective Office Environments selected a simple abbreviation of their name but “effoff.com” doesn’t really promote customer service. “Abbreviations like that are completely logical. Not on the face of it ridiculous but it is a bad idea to choose unusual abbreviations. It is something people try to do again when they can’t get their first choice.” explains Andy. “It’s actually not that difficult to come up with something ridiculous or even offensive by mistake.”

Andy is a strong supporter for keeping it simple. “It’s good to have a meaningful name. Something that people might type directly into their browser.” he explains, “Don’t make it too long – it makes it hard to remember, hard to type in and is often too dull and uninspiring.”

Yet the biggest piece of advice is offered as a last chance to stop your entering the world of the slurl: “Get somebody outside the business to check it for you. Preferably somebody who doesn’t even know what you do.” The reason: sometimes the impact  of coupling two words or a phrase you see everyday can have devastating effects that you will not spot. The example Andy gives is itscrap.com “I can completely believe that if you are involved in the computer recycling sector every day, using those two words becomes natural to you, but when you see it as a URL, as an outsider the words pop apart differently and most people get completely the wrong impression. I suppose it is linguistics.”

So choosing a domain name is not easy but following Andy’s simple rules means you should at least avoid picking a slurl. If it does all go wrong however, there is plenty of fun to be had with Slurls as Andy’s book shows.

Have you found any new slurls?

Andy is offering Slurls to 123-reg customers at a discounted price of just £7 including postage and packaging (for UK customers only). If you want to take advantage of the same follow this link

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© London 2012

There’s plenty of coverage today about the London Olympics being two years away, with lots of spin about projects being ahead of schedule. If you don’t believe them the Web cams from around the Olympic Park seem to back those claims up but that’s about it in terms of technology.

The Official London 2012 website is fairly informative but the section covering technology is pretty sparse. We are constantly being told that it will be an e-Olympics with full WiFi, etc but so far the firm details on public release are very limited. Yes there is a blog, online maps, photos, short-clip videos and virtual tours, but that’s all standard for event sites nowadays. Perhaps two years is too long a time in techno0logy terms to really be planning what technology will be used and available but you can’t help wondering if the tightening of budgets in the economic climate may see the opportunity for a truly digital Olympics unfulfilled.

Perhaps, that leaves the door open for independent projects perhaps with more user-generated content and interactivity, but we warned. As many found to their dismay during the recent football World Cup, the lawyers are likely to be quick and sharp in closing down any unofficial site that might be trading on the Olympic name, breaching trademarks, etc.

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Apparently Virgos are more likely to turn to their horoscopes than any other star signs. Those born under the symbol of the Virgin between late August and late September are the most avid horoscope fans in the country, according to new research released by search engine Ask Jeeves.

The poll of 1,000 people found that even in today’s hi-tech age, one in four people regularly check their star signs to see what the future holds and nearly 10 per cent of people admit looking at their horoscope occasionally.

On the back of the same Ask Jeeves today hosts a special horoscope question and answer session between 12 and 2pm, with astrologer Russell Grant. The bubbly tv-star will attempt to solve users star sign questions on the Ask Jeeves Facebook fanpage. It is the latest of a successful series of events using the social networking site as a way of hosting online expert chat sessions.

All chats last for 2 hours and have been very interactive. Past sessions with experts from Practical Parenting magazine attracted over 120 comments and over 130 new fans signing up , while a Met Office representative drew 151 comments and over 100 new fans.

That however is all set to be surpassed by today’s event. The official Russell Grant website has been attracting over 100 million hits per month for years and there is already a bit of a buzz about the event on Facebook and Twitter in the build up.

What is for sure, is that the idea has been a great marketing tool for Ask Jeeves at minimal cost. The true marketing potential of Facebook has yet to be fully realised by UK businesses but holding events like these keeps fan pages fresh and lively while attracting a whole new set of members every time (over 15,000 people ‘like’ the site), whose information might then be put to use on future campaigns.

Whether you believe in your stars or not, internet marketeers might want to follow this one closely as businesses look for new ways to reach out in touch economic times.

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Once the handset of choice, Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia have announced a 40% slump in second quarter profits compared to last year. Although still reflecting a health £191 million for the three months ending in June, the company has also warned it is unlikely to meet its previous financial forecasts.

Much of that decline is being put down to the success of new entrants into the mobile market of technology giants Apple and Google. The Apple iPhone operating system and Google’s Android have revolutionised the way people use their mobile phones and with the majority of Nokia handsets running the older Symbian operating system. Whilst technically, the majority of its latest handsets are Smartphones, Nokia’s reliance on Symbian has seen it fall behind other handset manufacturers with developers shunning the operating system to focus on the growing App market for iPhone and Android.

Consistently one of Europe’s most valuable brands, it appears that Nokia may fast be becoming a dying star and an example of the need to stay in touch with trends and adjust your business accordingly, however good and big you are.

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There used to be a time when any ticket for a concert, club night or gig was backed in large letters telling you no photographs or video footage were allowed to be taken at the event. Nowadays it appears you are actively encouraged to do so.

At least DJ Tiesto is encouraging his fans to do so. Dutchman Tiesto, who is currently ranked as the top grossing concert DJ by US based Billboard, is asking fans to take video on their mobiles at his ‘concerts’ and send it in to him. The same will then be used to help create a crowd-sourced music video using mobile phone footage from concert audiences around the world.

The campaign is being launched in association with SD card manufacturer SanDisk who are offering specially marked cards containing exclusive tracks from DJ Tiesto and sponsoring a number of his forthcoming arena gigs.

Concert-goers will be able to send their video-clips to www.wakeupyourphone.com/tiesto with Tiesto set to select his favourite fan-created clips for use in a future music video.

For those interesting in trying their hand at filming for the music video, Tiesto hits the UK on his current tour on:

July 30th – Victoria Park, London
and
September 21 – Scala Club, London

Is this just a PR stunt or do you think user generated content (UGC) has to be fully tapped for its potential?

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The latest Juniper Research report suggests the world of Apps is set to snowball in the next five years. The report findings estimate that the annual number of consumer-oriented handset downloads is expected to rise from less than 2.6 billion in 2009 to more than 25 billion in 2015.

According to the mobile app stores report, an increasing number of companies are seeking to emulate Apple’s success with the App Store by launching own-brand storefronts, whilst more established mobile content download sites have also seen an increase in business.

However, the report warns that new players will need to demonstrate sufficient scale to be able to induce developers to provide unique content with the non iPhone apps a wide and currently fractured market across a variety of operating systems and handsets.

The report also notes that “freemium” is becoming the business model of choice, with publishers increasingly offering applications free at point of sale and subsequently monetising them via in-app billing of subscription-based services, upgrades to premium content or micropayments for virtual items.

Following up the report findings, a white paper exploring the challenges of an apps, A World of Apps is available to download from Juniper Research.

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It’s Friday, so we thought you might like a lighter story to brighten up your day at the end of the working week.

In case you hadn’t already heard, tomorrow is the day for the World Snail Racing Championships. Held annually for over 35 years at Congham’s Cricket Field in Norfolk, it is the big day for sporty molluscs. A day when slimy creatures ‘slug’ it out, carrying their homes with them along a challenging 13-inch course.

The event may have the global tag but surprisingly is part of a local fete in the small Norfolk town of Congham, near Kings Lynn, raising funds for the 13th Century St. Andrews Church in the parish. Yet, the race gets worldwide news coverage (we found reports from previous years on news sites based in Australia, Kenya, Malta and South East Asia!). Race master Neil Riseborough even featured with some racing snails on this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. Webmaster of the official website Mark Scase chose 123-reg for the domain and hosting because it is “cheap and reliable” and that has helped promote the event to an even wider audience.

Speaking exclusively to the 123 -reg blog, racemaster Riseborough explained how he ended up in his role and becoming one of the world’s leading experts in the field of snail racing :

“I used to get involved in the running of the fete and my kids used to race snails in the race when they were little. When the old farmer decided to hang up his shell, they asked my take over the running.”

With busy media schedules and preparations in uncertain weather conditions, Riseborough is unsure how this year’s competition is likely to pan out:

“Its been tough with the intensive training beforehand. The weather hasn’t helped as it’s been too hot so they haven’t want to go. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow whether the snails will be chomping at the bit, I don’t know.”

And there’s more to the competition than just plucking a snail from your garden. There’s some serious breeding and coaching that goes on:

“They have a life expectancy of 3 years so we have a junior title for the little ones, an intermediate one for the middle ones and a seniors for the older ones. Some have bred snails that last 4 years, but this year the winter has really decimated the senior stars and there is not a lot of them about. Most of them are intermediate this year.”

In the Championship final, snails race from the centre of a circle to the outside – a radius of 13 inches. The current record-holder Archie completed the course in just two minutes back in 1995 – a pace few have got near since. 187 snails took part last year with a similar number expected to enter tomorrow’s 2pm race in the hope of winning the title of the “Fastest Snail in the World” – and a silver tankard stuffed with lettuce.

With over 2,000 spectators expected to attend the event, Riseborough is also keen to encourage new competitors:

“Anybody and everybody can turn up, even if they haven’t got a snail. I’ll have 50 or 60 underneath the table so that anybody can hire a snail. Last year the winner came along without a snail and hired one and ended up being World Champion.”

While snails might not be an obvious choice of a pet, Riseborough admits there is often a strong bond between competitor and coach:

“Sometimes the winners do kiss their snail. It isn’t every day you are a world champion is it?”

So if you fancy a day out with a bit of an unusual twist why not try your hand at snail racing in Congham tomorrow. As Riseborough explains.

“It’s been going for years and it’s not affected by money. It is a great day out and a bit of a giggle.”

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We are a nation of frustrated entrepreneurs according to the latest study by Paypoint.net. Perhaps inspired by popular TV programmes like Dragon’s Den, over 50 per cent of the UK’s office workers have apparently considered starting their own business, but have been put off by costs and administrative demands.

An ambitious, 62 per cent of those surveyed would be inspired to start their new business if the task were easier. The biggest draw is that most believe running their own business would be more fulfilling than their current job. Although many of those frustrated blamed the more mundane tasks  – such as the time a PC takes to close down and time spent scheduling meetings – that in reality most people running their own businesses still can’t get away from.

The third of those responding and showing a preference in starting up an online business might do well to look at 123-reg’s successful ecommerce product, while the service and consultancy sector (28 per cent) was another popular choice that would also be well-served by reliable web hosting.

The research was based on a survey of over 1,100 office workers across the UK by PayPoint.net.

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