The 123-reg team were kept busy at The Business Startup Show on Thursday and Friday last week with a variety of enquiries from both existing and potential new customers.

A lively couple of days at London’s Excel brought together a wealth of ideas and talent all looking for the best way to make their business idea happen and there were plenty of top speakers too offering their advice on how they made it happen and others offering guidance on how to maximise your potential. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing much of the insight we gained from attending, as well as bringing you some opinions and top tips from some of the top experts.

One of the most exciting rewards from the show was meeting so many existing customers with positive comments and feedback on our products and services. Big thanks, especially go to those who took time to give us their customer testimonials on camera and we will be showing more of those again in the coming weeks.

What is always refreshing from attending these events is the passion and commitment that people have for online. In the modern world, an online business doesn’t just mean e-commerce, it means brand awareness, modern promotion and customer connections. In fact each and every business should really now recognise that in some form they also need to be an online business, which is where 123-reg and products like Website Builder can provide that essential connection.

Enterprise and being an entrepreneur has probably never been as fashionable but without the right tools our business dream can quickly become a business nightmare. You can also never have too much information, so over the next few months we will also be re-developing our blog to offer you even more great advice and insight from experts and opinion makers. We are also always in the hunt for new contributions so if you would like to write for us get in touch.

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Jonathan Brealey is one of the key figures in the UK hosting market over the past decade, starting his career in the industry in 1997. At this time Jonathan realised that even though the Internet was becoming increasingly popular, web hosting services were predominantly technical in nature. Jonathan and his brother Tim set out to change this with the launch of 123-reg and Webfusion in 1997.

After seeing both businesses grow rapidly, Jonathan and Tim identified reseller hosting as an undeserved and stagnant market they could tangibly improve. On this basis they then moved on to launch Heart Internet, which has constantly raised the bar for reseller hosting leading to it being named the UK’s fastest growing internet company in 2009.

Given Jonathan’s knowledge of our industry we took the opportunity to sit down with him to get his views on what help and advice he can offer to help fledgling entrepreneurs grow their own successful businesses.

The first question that we asked Jonathan was just how significant the decision to set up 123-reg has ultimately been in opening up the internet to entrepreneurs who may have been put off by the price of domains back in the late 1990’s. ‘In 2000, domains were a bigger story. 123-reg was, and still is, all about buying online. 123-reg was an instant success. The reasons we were competitive on price was because we wanted to build large market share. We were not hooked on profit. 123-reg was making money but our main aim was to make 123-reg the number one choice for domains which it clearly is today.’

Setting up one thriving business might seem daunting to most of us but the fact that Brealey has set up three successful businesses in 15 years makes him an authority and a respectable individual to absorb knowledge from. It is Brealey’s opinion that with every venture you undertake, the business person behind it becomes stronger. ‘We have done things differently at Heart than Webfusion, and that is normal. Of course, we have made mistakes, but business is a constant learning cycle.’

For Brealey, the tools for success of any business are inside the entrepreneur. ‘Anybody wanting to do it has to be serious about it. You have to believe in what you are doing. Key to this is you have to be prepared to change. You will start off being the guy who does everything but as you grow; your staff will end up doing things that you were once doing. You have to accept that people do things differently.’

While success may come at a price, Brealey believes that owning your own thriving business is what should ultimately motivate a businessperson. ‘It is not just about financial rewards. Building something that people respect is the ultimate. Heart has an incredibly loyal customer base and we have a lot of brand advocates who are passionate about what we do. That keeps everybody motivated here.’

What any budding entrepreneur can take from Brealey’s story is the passion that is needed for each customer. ‘It may sound like a cliché but nobody knows what we should be doing better than our customers. I genuinely want to work with our customers because it has a two way benefit. I can’t tell you just how many things we have done thanks to direct customer feedback. We aim to make customers lives significantly easier.’

Brealey’s advice is not simply for those who are looking to set up their first business. In the opinion of the entrepreneur, people are continually gaining knowledge and should always look to the future. ‘Second time around you have experience of doing it before, and that is enormously important. I have also learnt a lot building Heart Internet as well.’

Brealey does feel that there needs to be a more positive view of entrepreneurs that might not get it right first time round, something Brealey believes could be holding people back. ‘One of the things I think is a real shame in this country is that when a business fails, it is seen as a real failure. In the United States things are far more positive. They seem to have the view that if you fail and come back, you will probably get it right second time around. I much prefer that style.’

The prevailing message is that young entrepreneurs need to go for it, be bold, exhume passion and success is achievable. ‘Anybody wanting to do it has to be serious about it and you have to believe in yourself. I certainly had a number of people along the way that I relied on for advice. Go and seek somebody like that out.’

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Matt is the founder and CEO of Domainmonster.com, which was acquired by the Host Europe Group in May 2012. On joining the Group Matt was appointed ‘Head of Domain Strategy’ and is now responsible for managing its international domain portfolio and strategic development.

When Matt founded Domainmonster.com in 2006, he had a vision for a registrar that could offer exceptional pricing, whilst still delivering old fashioned superior no wait customer support. Prior to founding Domainmonster.com, Matt held various Senior Technical Marketing roles in marketing and technology companies including Adobe, Quark & Vertis.

Mansell’s initial interest in domains came when working for Adobe in 2001. For Mansell, it was striking that domains were never considered core business for Hosting providers, something that presented an enormous opportunity. ‘Having a domain is imperative, especially when developing a brand. A domain allows the consumer to feel connected.’

For anyone looking to start their own businesses, it is Mansell’s assessment that having the right domain is decisive. No matter how great your design is, or how effective your offline marketing may be, Mansell believes that you are fighting a losing battle if you do not have the most appropriate domain to deliver your brand.

‘When I began, it was a difficult process of acquiring what we started to call the Monopoly set of domains. We started by registering the available Meshdigital.net. We then purchased Meshdigital.com and then added the .co.uk with a successful backorder. Over the years, we then acquired, or caught via backorders, various uses of the brand Domainmonster and international extensions of it. Despite this process being costly in the short term, it allowed us to establish a real brand which has been pivotal to the continued success of Mesh.’

With that being the case, it may seem somewhat daunting for a novice to know what domains are right for their business, a point Mansell is more than happy to offer his advice on. ‘The three most important TLD’s are always:com, .net, .org and of course your local TLD, in my case, .uk.. If you see your business expanding into Asia or Europe, make sure you purchase the top level domains of those countries most important to your business. Of course, the .com is hugely important but local TLD’s are pivotal to any business, as are emerging domains that have been very successful like .co and .me. I would encourage anyone with aspirations of starting their own business to invest in the future and acquire the right domains as soon as you can and most importantly while you can.’

When Mansell started Domainmonster.com, many may felt that the domain market was saturated, and that a new entrant couldn’t compete in the space, but Mansell does not believe that should dissuade anyone with a business idea. ‘There are two ways to make money, be it niche or mass market, but better than that– we ended up being both as Domainmonster.com’.’

Any entrepreneur who decides to sell their business clearly makes one of the toughest decisions of their career. It may have been easier for Mansell to stick with Mesh but his reasons for selling were clear. ‘Selling Mesh to make money was never my plan. After eight years, the decision to sell was difficult, but every business has its lifecycle – its own natural progression. I was once told that any business needs about ten years to mature before becoming successful – so I was happy to achieve it in 8!’

When talking with Mansell you quickly glean that this was the right sale. The selling of Mesh to the Host Europe Group provided Mansell an opportunity to return to big business but also to stay connected with the IP he created at Mesh in his new role as Head of Group Domain strategy. ‘I wanted to return to big business. In a strange sort of way, I wanted to get back into the politics and challenges that a big business throws at you. The sale of Mesh afforded Mesh access to the faster growth and infrastructure of the wider Host Europe Group business and put me back in the hot seat of big business’

Mansell’s commitment to his job is phenomenal. Those who have worked with him will testify to his total commitment and passion for what he does, something Mansell believes can be accredited to his own personal success. ‘Without doubt, passion is part of it. I have never seen myself as having to do a job, because it has never been a chore for me. Every day’s a holiday and always has been.  I can’t wait to go to work on a Monday.

‘Your greatest resource is your own hard work. If you do not know something about how to improve your business, go out and learn it. You are the resource! If you think that you can come into the office at nine and leave at five, you will never be successful. You need to slog it out and make the most of the opportunity for that day. That often means late nights, early starts and an ability to turn stress into action.’

As Mansell alluded to, the day to day running of business is something an entrepreneur should thrive on. ‘The best piece of advice given to me was to get away from the admin. You can’t get bogged down with it. The only way you will be successful during the day is to be doing business. Sending emails all day is not a valuable use of time, sometimes this simply has to be done out of hours or you’ll sink and never reach your destination. The nine to five working day has to be about doing business with whatever tools work for that day –  you should never lose sight of this.’

So what about ideas that haven’t taken off? In Mansell’s view, it is extremely important to be open and honest with yourself, especially if you are a one man band. ‘Everyone in business will make mistakes, but you must learn from them. The single worst thing you can do is be blind to reality. Not every idea you have will be the best in the world, sometimes you have to take it on the chin and move on.’

Being acutely aware of how to manage your business in the most effective way is the reason Mansell believes entrepreneurs are ultimately successful. So what final advice would Mansell give to somebody wanting to set up their own business? ‘Make sure you manage money effectively, manage, protect and create intellectual property and of course, actively acquire, defend and develop your brand with your domain portfolio.’

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2012 continues to be a year of great excitement for 123-reg. We are thrilled to announce the release of Site Scanner, powered by Stop the Hacker.

For those not in the know, Site Scanner is a SaaS based malware monitoring tool that scrutinises a user’s website, notifying the customer when malicious code/viruses are found via email and in the 123-reg control panel. Furthermore, the software provides the user information on where the damaging code is located (the line of code it starts and ends on) and provides steps on how to eradicate it.

Protecting your online business against malicious code couldn’t be more important in 2012. This year has seen the issue of internet security rise to the front pages of the national newspapers. Whilst events such as the Linkedin security breach are unfortunate, they are helpful in educating the market.

123-reg spoke to Anirban Banerjee, Co-Founder of StopTheHacker Inc., in a bid to help inform website owners of the growing threat of malware and detail how purchasing Site Scanner can give you peace of mind. A blacklisted website can have serious implications for any online business in terms of lost revenue, potential customers and credibility. We asked Banerjee about the threats to 123-reg customers who run websites with little or no malware detection service. ‘Malicious hackers are targeting websites in order to compromise them. If your website gets compromised and is misused to distribute malware to innocent visitors, the infected website is put on a blacklist by Google and other search engines.’

The potentially spiralling affects could be disastrous for your online business as Banerjee explains. ‘If your website is blacklisted, users will be blocked from coming to your website. This could lead to a loss of revenue. Moreover, this could result in an irreparable loss to the reputation of your website and business.’

The threat of being blacklisted by Google is one that is not only very real but one that every website owner needs to protect against. Once malware infects a website, it harms both the company and its customers. Website owners typically have no idea they have been infected, and many do believe that anti-virus protection software is enough. However, it is not.

‘9,500 websites get added to the Google blacklist every single day. Given the UK market is quite big; this represents a substantial number of UK businesses. It takes 7-10 days for a blacklisted website to clean up its act, on average, this process can cost thousands of pounds in lost revenue before even considering the potential revenue lost from your brands’ reputation being tarnished.’

Prevention is better than cure, but having said that, Site Scanner also acts as a quick reaction, something users can take heart from. If malicious code is found on the user’s website at any time, they are sent an email detailing exactly where the code is, and just as importantly, how to delete it.

‘Site Scanner incorporates the best of breed technology when it comes to malware detection, Antivirus engines, signature databases and reputation monitoring. It will help 123-reg customers by providing them with peace of mind. Together, we will help fight the battle for them!’

Central to seeking a partnership, 123-reg looked-for a provider with a real passion for the online security industry. What 123-reg customers should also take from the partnership is Banerjee’s passion for helping people secure their websites as well as the quality of product that his company provides. ‘Our goal is to make website security ubiquitous. Having a secure website and not worrying about hackers installing malware on your site and getting blacklisted shouldn’t be a luxury, everyone should have access to a high quality, reliable and accurate malware detection prevention like Site Scanner.’

Releasing a product like Site Scanner highlights 123-reg’s commitment to helping its customers secure their websites. 123-reg is working with everyone involved with Site Scanner to bring website security to millions of users.

Remember, you don’t have to be a high traffic website to be targeted. Even if you see yourself as a small site, you are attractive to hackers because your site will have more vulnerable openings for hackers.

For more information on Site Scanner please visit http://www.123-reg.co.uk/security/site-scanner/

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Launched in March 2012, Scotland based password manager my1login is making a name for itself as internet users switch onto the critical need to protect their online passwords. The company, which uses 123-reg for domain, hosting and email services, has been making serious strides in the technology sector, with CEO Michael Newman interviewed on the BBC’s online technology section after just a month in business, showcasing the brand’s password management software.

So what problem does my1login solve and why is it important? In simple terms, the business offers a solution to users having too many passwords stored in different locations. The company has experienced fantastic traction in their user numbers and is already protecting in excess of 10,000 online accounts. ‘my1login employs military grade encryption, using stronger encryption technology than many online banking platforms. Users’ keys are never stored on the servers and therefore not even my1login employees can see or access users’ data’, Newman said in a recent interview with 123-reg.

The incredible start to the business is something that 123-reg is proud to be a part of. Speaking with Newman, it is clear that my1login values the assistance that 123-reg offers his business.

‘We’ve been delighted with both the domain, hosting and email services, together with the responsive support provided when needed most’, he said.

In the security industry, reliability issues have to be considered and it is a positive endorsement of our services that such a company chooses 123-reg.
‘Any reliability issues with domain and email provision would have been an obstacle to continued use. 123-reg’s high availability services have ensured this was never an issue’, Newman said.

With this is mind, it is no surprise that when asked what services my1login valued the most, reliability was again fundamental to Newman and his team.

‘As an always-on cloud-based password manager it’s vital that my1login are continuously available for our users. The reliability of 123-reg’s email and domain services is of great value in enabling us to provide an uninterrupted service’, he stated.

123-reg prides itself on providing a service that is both price competitive but also gives users control. We are delighted that our philosophy has helped my1login and other customers grow.
‘The speed with which services can be ordered and initialised, the easy-to-use and feature-rich control panel and the competitive pricing model of 123-reg are the perfect ingredients for any business’, Newman concluded.

It is our belief that my1login will continue to be successful and we are committed to providing a service that meets the expectations of Newman and his team. It is a wonderful reward for 123-reg to be playing a small part in the success of British entrepreneurs in such challenging times for start-ups. Moreover, the success of my1login should inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.

To find out more about my1login please follow the link to their website.

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Last week Kate Dailey posed a question on BBC News Magazine Online: “Is it possible to quit Google?“.  Featuring the thoughts of three computer professionals trying to part ways with Google, the article raised concerns over the Google group’s privacy agreements that even EU officials have suggested are too invasive, but is Google really that bad?

In a word: No. Without the data-mining, data-crunching and processing that Google has spent years building its reputation on, the internet wouldn’t be as advanced as it now is and equally neither would our daily lives. What Google does may lead the way – certainly in terms of numbers – but it isn’t alone in wanting to collect information about us, process it and then use it to improve our user experience. It’s rife, not just on the web but also offline too. Your bank will use fraud monitoring systems to track what, when and where you spend, process that and then flag up an alert if your ‘pattern’ changes. Your store loyalty card does the same. Tracking what you buy, processing it and sending you vouchers for similar things, trying to tempt you back in, to link more data and more processing about you, into their systems. Same intrusion? Same tracking? Same complaints? As Google themselves are always at pains to point out, they don’t sell users’ personal information, they merely use it in-house. That’s not something others online or offline could realistically claim.

A lot of the anti-Google speak is based on their sheer dominance of the market, number one and two in search land (Google Search and YouTube) is massive in the digital world but they have achieved that from nothing by just being good at what they do, very good. Much criticism is also based on the founding values of the internet: Freedom and everybody as equals. Nice values to respect and uphold but the internet is a much different beast nowadays, driving economies across the globe and still continuing to connect those on the periphery at a tremendous rate.

We all owe a great deal to Google, especially those of us who find themselves using the internet daily whether we consciously use Google products or not.

Part of Google’s success as a search engine is its own success. How many of us have simply typed a website into the Google search box instead of typing the full URL in the address bar? Google is now the lazy man’s bookmarks. Google knows that too, and based on their processing of our data, is trying to help us to find ‘exactly’ what we are looking for, via innovations such as social search, etc.

Whatever their knowledge, use or understanding of the internet, 99.9% of people who have surfed have probably used Google. They know it. Even people who haven’t used the internet know of it. That’s not a bad thing. That’s good branding but that is also being good at what they do too and providing solutions to problems sometimes we didn’t even know existed. As a business Google should and will serve you on so many levels, via so many channels. For the former customer looking to get back in touch “after that great work you did a couple of years ago” for them, Google offers the way of finding you if your office has moved or your number changed.

Google not only re-unites but it also helps find new customers. It is no fluke that SEO and PPC are now abbreviations known to almost every business person and wannabe in the developed world. Google helped drive that, and like it or not, Google lead the way in each of them. That’s technology. It’s what they do and it’s what they do best. Yet, it’s helping hand for businesses needn’t even be that techie. Potential customers who see your print advertisements, see your office sign, or perhaps just get recommended via word of mouth, will more often than not simply “Google it”. It’s a phrase that is almost a caricature of itself now, simply because it works. Google can even help connect you to would-be customers who have never heard of you, just searching for a solution to a problem that you have been clever enough to cover in your content that has then been trawled, crawled and listed in Google’s massive data system.

So while privacy online should be a concern and you should always be encouraged to read the small print, we shouldn’t see Google as the ultimate dark force to be evaded. Interestingly, in the article referred to at the start, the attempts by the interviewees to de-Google themselves seemed to fail. One of the three interviewees even admits to now being “a total Google geek”. Perhaps only when you truly look at the impact of what it does and how it goes about it, do you really appreciate the fact that without Google we would be lost. So if you and I (with a fairly high level of internet knowledge) would be lost, where would that leave our customers and furthermore where would that leave our businesses?

What do you think? Do you agree? Let us know.

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The long awaiting legislation proposals to combat internet piracy were always going to be controversial but the announcement this week of the new rules underpinning the Digital Economy Act have set forums and social networks alight with opposition.

The DEA has been controversial from the start, approved in 2010 and intended to crack down on internet pirates, it places high burdens on Internet service providers (ISPs) to police their customers, issuing warnings to those seen infringing and placing repeat offenders on a Copyright Infringement List (CIL).

Media regulator Ofcom is handling the implementation of the act and this week published documents outlining how ISPs and customers will be affected by the legislation. Under the rules:

• - A copyright owner notices that their content is being pirated online. They then have 10 days to gather evidence and submit a report to an ISP
• - The ISP then has a further 10 days to identify the offending subscriber and send them a warning, if appropriate.

• - Receive three warnings within a 12 month period (the first tow via email or standard mail, the third via tracked mail) and the customer downloading the pirated data will be placed on the CIL.
• - Copyright owners will then be able to take action by obtaining a court order to obtain personal details from the ISP and then pursuing the copyright infringer.

Even the largest of ISPs opposed the bill originally and civil liberties groups have been campaigning hard against the proposals too, but the biggest issue may have only just been realised. Under the new rules, customers accused of infringement will have to pay £20 to appeal apparently disregarding the British tradition of innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, just as the world appears to have recognised the need to offer free WiFi to customers in public spaces the act now looks like it will treat open WiFi network operators such as hotels, libraries, and coffee shops not just as ISPs but effectively the ‘infringing’ customer as they will be unable to identify the exact miscreant. This could feasibly see the end of open WiFi networks as businesses retreat from any risk while many also fear that too many innocent people will end up in court because the law seems too stacked in the favour of the ever powerful big media and copyright owning companies.

What do you think about the new rules and how the Digital Economy Act will be applied?

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Creating a great website nowadays is child’s play. Getting it indexed by most search engines is where it gets tough.

I have a website, now what?

Having your website online is not enough. Search engines can take a while to crawl and index your website. You must submit it to their index manually. This way you attract the search engines’ attention to your newly created website.

I’ve submitted my website. Nothing happened.

If you take into consideration just how many websites are submitted on a daily basis it is understandable why days may have passed without your website featuring in search engine results pages.

How can I make the indexing process faster?

There are some things you can check/fix in order to make sure your website can be crawled and indexed:

• Your pages must have a 200/OK server response
• Make sure you have actual content – although pictures and videos might be perceived as content for your users you also need to have text on your pages. Crawlers can’t see inside videos but they can definitely see the text.
• Don’t complicate your links – use simple HTML for the links on your pages. Don’t overcomplicate things by using JavaScript based events.
• Manually submit your website – if you think your website is ready then you can start submitting it to various search engines.
• Help your website get discovered – try talking about your website on other sites. Keep in mind these need to be relevant to your own website’s topic. Try finding only the quality websites that are both popular and reliable.  With just one link placed on such a website you can ensure a faster indexation.

My homepage is indexed but my other pages are not

You can finally see your homepage listed in a search engine but where are the rest of your pages? There are several possibilities why your website hasn’t been completely indexed:
You haven’t properly interlinked your pages – the crawler can’t get to every page of your website.

In this case you should change the way your pages are linked to each other. Until you do that you should create a sitemap file that contains all your pages. When the crawler visits your site it will be looking for this file before crawling your website.

You accidentally blocked the crawler’s access – you’ve disallowed the access to certain sub-directories from your robots.txt file or added the noindex tag on some of your pages.

Check your robots file and see if you added any extra lines. Also check the pages you can’t find in search engines and see if these have the right server response or if they have a noindex tag in their source code.

Robots.txt, sitemaps and server responses. I don’t know what does those are!

Do not panic if you feel it is getting too technical for you. If none of the above makes any sense then you can simply use a service that will submit your website to search engines.

123-reg has its very own SEO software called InstantTraffic which can help you get indexed. The best part?  You don’t need any technical knowledge to use it.

What will your software do for my website?

• Automatic submission

It will save you some time by automatically submitting your website to hundreds of search engines – imagine doing that manually, it would take forever. By having your website indexed by so many search engines you will get worldwide exposure.

• Website improvement

You don’t need to know SEO to understand what problems your website might have. The detailed SEO analysis of your website is clear, concise and easy to understand. By fixing your website’s issues you can get better ranks and more traffic.

• Competitor research

See how well your website is doing in search engine results pages compared to your competitors.

• Personal control panel

You don’t need to download or install anything. Your control panel is online which means you can access it from any device and any place.

See the full list of InstantTraffic features for more details and please come back and tell us how you think our SEO software can help improve your website’s visibility.

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Trying to collate user information for Facebook and Twitter can be slightly tricky at best. If for arguments sake we accept that Facebook has in excess of 750 million users and Twitter has just recently passed the 100 million mark, we can say with a large amount of confidence that these sites command a great deal amount of respect as online communities.
Furthermore, according to research from Basekit, 36 per cent of UK businesses are using Facebook to attract new customers, making it a more popular tool for advertising than the Yellow Pages and Thomson Local.

So we have established that social media is big and that in itself is a rather obvious statement. So, where is this going you ask? There has been considerable research into how people log onto social media sites in recent years. US digital world measurer’s comscore report titled “2012 Mobile Future in Focus”, gives strong insight into the changes in behaviour we have towards social media and our hand held devices. The report highlighted that in the US there were more than 400 smartphone devices on the market. Furthermore, 2011 saw the smartphone market overtake normal handsets in Germany, France and the US joining the UK and Spain which achieved this feat in 2010.

Given the fact that smartphone penetration grew at least 8 percentage points in the US and the five strongest European economies in 2011, I would suggest that it is the development of smart phones that have allowed social media sites to gain the edge I online marketing rather than anything ground breaking from Facebook or Twitter.

Hardcore fans of such social media sites would scoff at this. I suggest that they would point to the fact that smart phones have developed new technologies so that users can have easier access to social media. I accept that in recent year’s large phone manufacturers have been judged by consumers on how well they connect to social media but it is still my belief that the smartphone market is driving social media interactions. Would people be as engaged with Facebook if they were no longer able to access it on the move? I will allow you to forge your own opinions on that but I would argue interactions would decrease at some rate.

Although most analysts would refute that the desktop/laptop PC market was dying out, new methods of interacting are constantly evolving. As this evolutionary process continues, social media will grow.

As tablets develop and become more affordable, it is likely that in the coming years these devices will provide a challenge for the PC and laptop manufacturers giving grounds for the growing argument those users want to access social media on the move.

People want to interact with social media on the move in 2012, which is obvious. As a greater number of small businesses place an importance on social media in relation to marketing campaigns, this can only seriously take off if smart phones and tablets become more affordable.

So as smartphone brands are now tasked with rebranding and becoming life necessities, there is serious room for a budget smartphone to dominate the space. Nokia, once the world’s leading mobile phone provider, last month announced it would unveil its new budget smartphone, the Lumia 610. In China, a country that boats the largest percentage of smartphone users, the country’s largest search giant, Baidu, launched its first budget smartphone.

Whether we accept that smartphones have driven social interactions or not, what is clear is that people want to use social media on the go. It is the wrong strategy for companies to only sell from 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday. If the cost of smartphones does begin to decrease, the potential customer numbers online and engaged with social media is potentially astronomical. Social media sites have of course benefited from this but the real winners have and will continue to be small/medium sized businesses.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below and follow us on Twitter here 

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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?

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