Here at 123-reg we are always keen to expand our knowledge and that of our customers so we are constantly on the hunt for new guest bloggers willing to share their expertise and insight.
If you fancy writing a guest blog for us why not check out our 123-reg Blog Contributors Guide
We look forward to hearing from you.
Gone are the days where we all lived with the default install, the internet is where many of us spend the majority of our time these days so user an interface (browser) that connects how you want it to is important. Consider it a bit like choosing a house or an office, you want to make sure the look and feel are right and then you want to make sure you can do everything you want to within it. Remember its name too. Browser suggests almost a casual approach and indeed the best browsers operate without you even thinking or noticing the intricate processing it is carrying out.
Yet, the choice is massive and while many of the features cross-over, how they interact with other programmes, how fast they are and how powerful they are all varies and with add-ons and plug-ins it is very possible to completely personalise your browser for just your needs, but you need to understand what browser has the best basic set-up for you before you begin that journey.
The 2012 Internet Browser Software Product Comparison from TopTenReviews.com isn’t the only site to offer its opinions, but is one of the best in terms of presenting you the information and a comparison chart of what, does this and what can’t do that.
As with any good comparison site there are benchmarks and ticks alongside the relevant features and it is only when looking at the list of the top ten browsers that you begin to realise how different they all are. Like many working in this industry I have a selection of browsers installed on each of my machines – my smartphones too. This used to be for design reasons so I could immediately see how the odd tweak responded in different browsers. Nowadays, it is as much to do with functionality. For example, I am a big fan and advocate of podcasts, yet Gooogle Chrome doesn’t always like the standard .xml RSS feeds many of these use. For that Firefox is best, enabling the feed to load correctly and letting me click straight through on the link for the podcast to play straight out in my browser. Now I am sure there is a plug-in for Chrome that would probably fix that, but I know Firefox works and trust it, so for me familiarity wins over hunting for possibly a more effective solution. The same is true of my mobile devices. I’ve designed in Flash, it was great, but WAS is the operative word. I’ve not designed in flash for years, but too many people still do. Especially those embedding video. So the default browsers on my smartphone and tablets can’t read them. Frustrating! Yet, I know that a minority browser like Skyfire (One of four browsers installed on each of my tablets and smartphones) is clever enough to identify flash on a site and open the video in a separate window. Hey presto, I can watch almost any Flash video components on the move. It’s not perfect however, in fact it is rather clumsy and it doesn’t look great either, but it works. Again functionality wins.
So while this blog may be entitled how to choose a browser, I guess it probably should be browsers plural. You see each of us is different and each of our needs is different each day too. So unless you are a whizz at coding for a specific browser the chances are that your every need may not be met by a single option. It is as much about trial and error as it is research but certainly the comparison chart above is a great starting place for those looking to find the browser that best fits their internet use.
What is your browser of preference? Have you found any great browser comparison tools?
Being earnest in business is the most important lesson you could ever learn.
Giving your business the importance it deserves and treating it to the serious attention it demands is the only true route to success. Striving on the road to success it can be very easy to lose sight of your goal. It is even easier to lose track of the path you are treading to reach that goal.
One of the biggest reasons for businesses not making it to that final step of viability is distractions. Be that family, studies, or juggling another job, or several other projects, the more your attention is diverted away from your business project the less chance of it being the full success you want it to be.
In an ideal world those setting up a business would have six months of funding behind them. A well written business plan that they stick to and a smooth run in without any big life events or other time burdens. Reality check: We don’t live in an ideal world. In fact, we now live in a world where work – life – balance is often promoted as a reason to start-up your own business and in reality that too often leads to people seriously over-committing their time trying to ensure too many people are happy and given a fair share of their time.
That’s not to say only single people with no spare time interests can’t be a success in business. Some of the most famous entrepreneurs are parents to multiple children, involved in various businesses, do charity work and still have time to run marathons! It is all about being aware of what your business needs to succeed and making sure you can at least match that.
Not always, but certainly hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Expertise is a fantastic thing and can give you a leg up in so many ways, but that is also where networking comes in handy. You don’t need to be talented personally in every field to make your business work, you just need to be able to spot what talents your business needs and then find a way of bringing the two together. That takes a bit of research, a bit of time and a lot of dedication. Success in business take a lot of dedication. There is a pattern for a reason. Putting in the hours won’t guarantee you success but it will give you a much bigger advantage than letting things slide or flounder. Even if you have the talent and expertise yourself, fail to properly apply it and your business is going nowhere. To properly apply it, you need to understand your business, that takes time and that takes focus.
The more earnest you are the more chance your business will continually move forward and reach success.
In the UK, the months of July and August have long been known as ‘the silly season’ in the world of journalism, the term was even used before the end of the 19th century. Referring to the more frivolous news stories that appear in the media during the ‘quieter’ summer months. Despite the move towards news consumption online, the adage runs true and these summer monnths continue to be a slower news season and so a great time to attract the eye of an editor who may not normally give your pitch or press release even the once over. There are many reasons. With summer holidays always popular, media teams are stretched thinly during the silly season, so have less time to research new material. Additionally, the summer holidays mean there are less people sending in press releases or story ideas, so your story is more likely to get attention thatn during busier times.
So if you have a good story, a new product or new staff member, now is the perfect time to push it out to the press. Admittedly, the summer of sport this year has made the silly season less silly than normal, but editors are still desperate for a story that is a little different and something to break the monotony of too many sports related stories this summer. That said, as the multitude of ‘specials’ confirms, many editors are looking to climb aboard the media train following the Olympics if you can give your own story a topical twist you could find yourself front page of a trade journal or even prominent in a national newspaper.
It is not all press driven either. You can help yourself and your site with some SEO considerations too. With the world’s eyes on the UK at the moment with the London Olympics, the rising trends in search are unsurprisingly Games 2012 related. That’s what people are searching for but competing against the big guns in terms of those keywords would be unwise. It would be even more unwise to try some ambush marketing techniques that risk infringement of the very strict LOCOG rules covering the use of certain protected words around the competition. Yet, with a little bit of thought and some clever writing you could help see your own blog or website, jump on the coat-tails of trending keywords. If you are GB based, make-sire you are making the most of the current trend for GB and Great Britain, but do remember Google will penalise you if your use is not relevant to your site.
Have you taken advantage of the silly season? We’d love to hear your stories.
Spam email is so irritating! It’s also time-consuming because you have to go and delete each and every unwanted email if no other anti-spam method works. You’re probably tired of seeing your email invaded by offers for pharmaceutical products, adult services or loans. So, what can you do to stop getting spam emails?
The bad news is that spammers are getting smarter every day which makes this task even more difficult. Take the recent LinkedIn password breach that triggered an awful spam campaign. People were getting emails that appeared to be from LinkedIn, asking them to confirm their email address by clicking on a link. The URL actually led them to an illicit online pharmacy.
However, the good news is that there are some things you can do to stop spam emails.
Check to see if your email hosting provider has an anti-spam filter. For instance, the email hosting from 123-reg has built in spam filters that keep unwanted emails away from your inbox.
Don’t use your email everywhere on the web, at least ensure that the site is safe and secure. Once your email address is in the hands of spammers, unwanted emails will come pouring in and it will not be pleasant.
Consider using a disposable email address. You can always create a second email address for less important emails, such as subscriptions to blogs or sites, writing comments on forums or buying products online.
Don’t bother unsubscribing because if it’s a spam email, the unsubscribe button is there to confirm your email address once you click on it. This means that instead of stopping unwanted emails from that address, you are subscribing, which will attract even more spam.
On your own website, set up a contact form instead of putting your email address. This way you avoid spambots collecting your email address. If you prefer including the email, an efficient solution to mislead spambots is to write it in a different form, as you’ve probably already seen on several sites: myname[ at ]mycompany[ dot ]com.
How are you dealing with spam?
Tonight England takes on Sweden in their second game of Euro 2012, hoping for their first win in the competition. With iTunes applications there is now no reason you should miss any of this intriguing matchup, nor any of the rest of the tournament.
We all know that the mobile phone app industry has boomed in the past four years. There is a lot more to the competition than just watching the games live. Whoever you are supporting in the tournament, these five great i-Tunes applications will keep you up to date with all the happenings during the tournament.
Whether you have iPhone, iPad or an iPod touch device you need never be away from the action. With Euro 2012 in full swing, 123-reg brings you what we feel are the five best iTunes mobile phone apps for the tournament. Read the rest of this entry »
The internet truly offers a world of possibilities. You can connect to friends on the other side of the world, you can purchase almost anything your ever wanted (and lots you never needed), you can watch video, listen to music, you can even remotely control appliances within your home. The internet is fantastic at giving power and knowledge to everybody and anybody, but the one thing it can’t guarantee is protection for the stupid.
That may sound harsh but sometimes, as the wonderful Darwin Awards have been showing for years there are some people in this wide world who are just beyond help. If the Darwin’s used the internet to make more aware of the fact, the internet itself is now doing its best to highlight the shortcomings of more and more people in this world we live in.
In the past week we have seen stories of the internet cafe robbers who left themselves logged in to Facebook and now the iPhone thief who uploaded his own family photos to the phone’s Photo Stream on iCloud. In days gone by we may never have learnt of such stupidity yet, the internet is full of tales like this in ever growing numbers.
Yet don’t confuse stupid with ignorance. There is nothing to be ashamed of about being ignorant on certain aspects of the online world. Even this blogger – a so called expert – gets caught out every now and then, the topic, the possibilities are so vast. In fact, that is why 123-reg is here. We aim to make the internet simple and make its possibilities accessible to all. We aim to educate and inform via this blog. Not just on our own products, but on the wider world wide web in general. Via our support site, we also aim to guide and hand-hold our customers attempting to get the best out of our products and each and every tweak to our site and product range is designed to open more doors and more potential revenue streams to our customers, whatever their level of understanding.
The internet is a world of possibilities, waiting to be tapped. Your 123-reg account is the most resourceful tool you are ever likely to come across to use it wisely and use it well.
If you have any particular aspect of 123-reg products, of the world wide web, or technology in general that you think needs explanation let us know.
If you need to know something, clarify something or just check some facts you used to be told “phone a friend”. Nowadays even your gran would probably tell you to “Google it”. Yet, as Google’s vast database has grown and SEO experts have tried hard to hog the top search results, actually finding those facts and knowing that they are from a trusted source has become a little more cloudy. Once found, then citing that in any homework, coursework or article has then remained complicated too. Google always on top of customer feeling have spotted this and tried to address it, especially for professional writers and researchers.
Google recently unveiled a new research tool as part of its Google Docs offering, aimed at helping writers streamline web-research and how it flows into their end documents. The tool enables you to effectively search in an in-page window of the Google Doc you are working on. The results thrown up can then be 1) viewed in a new window 2) created as a link straight into your document or 3) created as a footnoted to text creating a citation for the web link. In terms of images you can search via licence (ie immediately sort out those free-to-use) and drag and drop from your search into the Google Doc. There’s a similar drag-and-drop usability for Google Maps.
While not perfect and not really combating the issue of sorting the wheat from the chaff, the tool is a time-saver for those trying to put papers or presentations together to tight deadlines.
Have you tried the new research tool? Do you enjoy the new functionality? Do you have any tips for others using the web as a research tool?
Did you know that Google run a daily puzzle challenge? The Google-a-Day sub-site is designed to improve your googling skills and of course help Google in their ever continuing thirst for knowledge.
Each morning at 00:01 EST (That’s 05:01 GMT), Google sets a new puzzle and also posts the answer to the previous day’s teaser. If you love cryptic crosswords you will love Google a day, and even if you don’t it is a great way to hone your search knowledge and skills.
Google have even made it easy for you to avoid finding other people’s posted answers by setting up a special search tool that hides all such comments, while still letting you use all your favourite google search skills.
Certainly worth checking out, but be warned it can be addictive.
Admit it, you’ve been ‘at work’ for a couple of hours already but you haven’t really achieved much have you. It’s been a long week, it’s cold outside and you are really looking forward to whatever you are planning this weekend.
You are probably not the only one who finds themself in that position with lunch looming on a Friday but a real sense of un-productivity hanging around. Don’t beat yourself up about it though. We all have those days and in fairness all need them, working flat out often means you miss some basic things out of that proposal or perhaps overlook a massive opportunity if you did something slightly different and less like an automaton. So a more laid back day is good for you – honest – just make sure you don’t waste it.
On days like this, don’t write it off completely just approach your job from a different angle, the freshness of that usually brings with it some fresh inspiration.
1 Make a task list
If you are not gong to be productive today, make a prioritised list of what you should have been doing and still need to do. Organise your tasks in importance and before you leave the office tonight leave it on top of your keyboard. That way it is ready to deal with as soon as you arrive on Monday.
2 Have a brainstorm
Get 10 blank sheets of A4 paper – you may not need them all. Begin thinking abut new projects or existing projects or processes and the many facets to them. How could you do something differently? What contacts may be able to add another dimension. To them? Place the project name in the middle of the paper and build your other thoughts around them to create a spider diagram. When you’re done put them in a file marked ‘inspiration’ and keep that within eyesight of your desk as a constant reminder for future days and weeks and make sure you keep revisiting, building the diagrams and following up your thoughts.
3 Send some emails
Not ones disturbing your colleagues, or ones to your mate who is still travelling the world, but catch upon those important emails you have put off for ages or ones just rekindling business relationships you haven’t followed up for a while. Suggest some dates for potential meet ups and pencil these I your diary.
4 Have a look at the competition
Browse their websites. Any new offers? How is the design better than yours? What’s the user experience like – especially through the buying process. You will be amazed how inspirational this can be and the chances are you will end up being more productive than you normally are on non-non-productive days.
5 Read a trade journal
You probably let them clutter up your desk. You may flick through the contents but when did you last read it cover-to-cover? Do it know. It invaluable research and much better than flicking elastic bands. If you don’t have a journal check out industry relevant online forums, blogs or news aggregators. Understanding what others in the industry are talking about is vital to predicting trends and staying on top of things.
6 Go for a walk
There is a tremendous value in clearing your head. It isn’t just a tool used in tv dramas it is a tool to use in every day real life. Take five minutes and use it it switch off so you come back to your desk refocused. Walk up the road, round the block, to another part of the building, just move and download.
After all that you have probably had the mot productive day of the week without realising it. Success in business is as much about balance as commitment . Taking a different approach every now and then is actually a good thing, the key is to make those less inspiring days productive in some way.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Misc category.
Search online for your domain NOW!
