Blog

July 2010

FACE ME!! 500 million users!!

By Cheryl | Posted in News, Social networking | July 30, 2010 – 3:15 pm

Facebook LogoThe world of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg just gets better and better.

A website that he created in his spare time at university is now the biggest social networking site of all generations and he’s become a world famous millionaire. Oh and he’s 26 (yes 26!).

Mr Zuckerberg announced this week that Facebook now has 500 million users; an announcement that comes just five months after the company announced a 400 million user count. That now means that 8% of the world’s population has an account on the networking site.

So…what is everyone’s fascination with Facebook?

For me, I only use it because everyone else does (I’m a sheep like that). Countless bugs and unnecessary updates have me wishing for the next ‘big thing’ to come along.

On a positive note it’s a great way of keeping up with friends and users seem to enjoy the other features that are included such as picture uploads, chat screen and games.

The older generation usually try to avoid technology at all costs, but Facebook seems to have brought them together. The possibility that they could talk to friends they haven’t seen since school has meant that the former technology shy are a lot more proactive on such sites.

On a side note, it turns out it is also a great way of inviting hundreds of people to your house party when your parents are away…that always seems to end well.

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Up or Not – Check out my features!

By Cheryl | Posted in website | July 21, 2010 – 4:23 pm

graphUp or Not does exactly what it says on the tin…well not so much a tin, why would we have tins? But you get the point.

Up or Not is our brand new service which alerts you when your website is down.

The service, which was designed in house by our Technical Director Andrew Hilton, monitors websites and servers from multiple locations on the internet, and makes sure they are responding. If your website is down, Up or Not will let you know straight away.

And the best thing about it – it costs as little as $10 but could save you thousands of pounds.

Features

What does it monitor?

  • Public and password-protected websites
  • FTP servers
  • Email servers
  • Any other service that should be accessible from the internet



    • You will be given access to your own Control Panel, which will allow you to view the following:-

  • Description of error
  • When error/downtime happened
  • How long it lasted



    • Depending on the type of error, the system will also perform additional error analysis. This checks include:-

  • Checking DNS routes work
  • Traceroutes to locate network problems
  • Saving of HTML page at the time of error
  • Header response from server



    • If you’re on the go, how will you know? You can even configure Up or Not to alert multiple people via email, Twitter or SMS.

    In addition to the graphs and detailed reports in the control panel; you can receive daily, weekly and monthly reports on the uptime and response of your website. What else do you need to know?!

    You need to ask yourself one question. Do you want to be Up or Not?

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    QuadroNation – Getting the word out there

    By Cheryl | Posted in Design, PR, website | July 21, 2010 – 11:39 am

    We’re here, we’re a leading developer of all things web, get used to it!

    QuadroNation was launched this week and already we have received lots of great feedback and applause (well I was clapping…!)

    Sending our media release to as many sites as possible, journalists around the country have finally given in and posted it on their blogs and websites. Below are just some of the results.

    Click Liverpool

    How-Do

    PR Fire

    The Drum

    Liverpool Daily Post

    Digital Point

    Merseyside acme

    Liverpool Vision

    PR Week

    Gather

    If this doesn’t make you want to choose us for PR, I don’t know what will!

    (Sales pitch alert)

    PR is all about getting your brand noticed by the right people, whether it is in print, broadcast and online. We combine traditional PR, such as media releases and topical opinions pieces, with newer online activities such as blogs, email marketing and social networking to maximise your efforts, in the form of results that can last a lifetime.

    For more information visit http://www.quadronation.com/pr/

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    Online Shopping – Useful or just for the Lazy?

    By Jemma | Posted in Retail | July 20, 2010 – 1:44 pm

    Online shopping is becoming more common these days, and there are a lot of benefits that come with shopping from the comfort of your own home.

    The facts…
    Online sales are growing every year within the UK retail sector and companies have realised that it’s a great way to promote their products in a new market that may not have been available to them before.

    Looking at the sales statistics for new retail businesses, you will see that online sales account for around a quarter of their business revenue. As of 2010, 25% of UK shoppers are now prepared to spend £1,000 or more on a single transaction, and it looks like that this trend will carry on for the next few years.

    Are there any issues?
    The jury is still out on the purchase of food online. Some customers have complained that the food delivered is not as fresh as if they would have purchased it from the shop themselves.

    However on a positive note, for people with no transport or circumstances that prevent them from going shopping, this is a fantastic way of getting their groceries.

    As with most things where a online transaction is used, you have to be careful while shopping online and always go to sites you know are genuine. One way of ensuring this is by always looking for “https” or a small padlock in the tool bar on any site used to enter sensitive information.

    What are the positives?
    For me, in terms of retail shopping, you can’t go wrong.  You can browse leisurely through different shops, e.g. clothes, shoes, gadgets etc, without the hassle of queues. Sizes can cause a slight difficulty but if you know your size, chances of getting it wrong are limited.

    You may also find that buying online could save you a bit of cash, with a lot of companies now offering a percentage off their product if you buy from their website store (I’m not complaining!)

    My personal experience of online shopping has always been positive but online transactions seem to be a sticking point with some people (mention possible fraud and they will run away screaming)

.

    In my opinion the positives completely out-way the negatives and as time goes by I think people will start to agree.

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    Twitter at 12

    By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking | July 20, 2010 – 12:34 pm

    Every day at 12 we will be taking to Twitter to ‘tweet’ you the latest news from IT Answers and QuadroNation. Join us for 140 characters of fun, facts, blogs, offers and everything in between.

    http://twitter.com/ITweetAnswers
    http://twitter.com/NR_QuadroNation

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    Are you UporNot? Companies losing revenue due to ‘avoidable’ website downtime

    By Nicola | Posted in website | July 12, 2010 – 4:45 pm

    Up or Not logoHot topic of the week here at our digital marketing and PR division QuadroNation has to be website downtime.

    Every day, thousands (or even millions) of companies around the globe are losing essential revenue because their website is suffering from outage.

    And the worse part about this? They don’t even know that its happening.

    Just in this week alone, online giants Amazon and Twitter, and also pop star extraordinaire Lady Gaga have all had technical problems with their sites, meaning a loss of up to three hours. The same happens to companies everywhere from SMEs starting out to firms that have been established for years and boast more than 20 different offices.

    In an article published by CNN, the founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg informed companies that nearly every site around the globe may be affected by ‘black swan’ events every now and then.

He told the global news provider that ‘in these moments of crisis, the key is how the service and the people behind it respond.’

    I totally agree with Mr Mullenweg, however, I think that businesses can stop their websites from experiencing downtime fairly easily and without spending a fortune. In fact, after several customer requests and in a bid to prove my theory correct, we have decided to launch our own website monitoring service called UporNot that alerts clients of when their site is not working as it should.

    For as little as £7, a company could literally save thousands… or even millions.
    Downtime affects so many services and I suspect it will increasingly continue to affect advertising revenues too. Most worrying of all, outage can have a detrimental impact on your brand as if a customer tries to visit your site and it is not working, why will they ever want to visit it again?

    It’s time for businesses to become more aware of the problem or they risk losing more than just a few minutes of their website…

    www.upornot.com

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    Get social with Yammer

    By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking | July 12, 2010 – 3:39 pm

    Communication is extremely important within any company, so how do you keep in touch? Email is the most popular, but have you considered Instant Messaging?

    Yammer is a popular instant messenger service used in a lot of businesses. It’s simple, quick and can be used on multiple platforms and devices. It also has an integrated search facility – always useful for hunting through all those past conversations if needs be!

    The idea of Yammer is to communicate and share information with your colleagues. You will only receive updates from people you ‘follow’ & from groups of which you are a member.

    For people looking to communicate with others outside of the company, Yammer now provides Yammer Communities, an add-on which allows you to create networks for use with external customers and partners.

    Yammer CEO David Sacks says that revenue is now doubling every quarter and that the company now has 70,000 corporate clients, and 800,000+ users. Not not bad eh?

    As with most things, you have the choice of paid and unpaid packages :-

    Basic – FREE
    Silver – $3 per user per month
    Gold – $5 per user per month

    I find the Basic package perfect for what I want, which is just a simple communication tool between my colleagues.

    But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for…! The paid packages include other features including custom branding, data export and the very useful SharePoint integration.

    Mobile devices

    One of the great things about Yammer is that you can use it on most mobile devices including iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android mobile and even send it via SMS messaging. If that’s not enough, how about updates via Twitter, email & more?!

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    To tweet or not to tweet…?

    By Jemma | Posted in Social networking | July 12, 2010 – 3:18 pm

    Twitter continues to remain the social networking site of choice following in the footsteps of Facebook and MySpace.

    But…why is it so popular?

    Businesses have found a new and easy way to interact with their customers. By focusing on their target audience, its a great way for them to listen to feedback & promote products.

    We know it can have a positive effect for some businesses, but how about on a personal level?

    After the positive reviews I had heard, curiosity got the better of me and I became an official “Tweeter” to see what all the fuss was about…! When I signed up I found it difficult to navigate around & wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to be doing. If I’m honest, the thought of “following” people around all day does not appeal to me. Needless to say, that was the end of that experiment!

    It’s hard to believe it now has more than 100 million users worldwide and 300,000 new users everyday (…obviously I am missing something!)

    “We think of Twitter as not a social network, but an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world”, said Evan Williams who is Twitter’s CEO.

    This is true, it is a good way of getting the latest news fast but I feel that this is a social networking site and people still use it in the same way as Facebook.

    Market Research Firm Pear Analytics analysed 2,000 tweets over a two week period in August 2009 and were separated into six different categories. One of the categories was pointless babble and 41% of the tweets fell into this, whilst News was only 6%.

    I think that if the same study was done now, the statistics wouldn’t be too far off.

    I must admit, there are a lot of positives that come with Twitter. People have found its a good way to promote their business on a worldwide scale and by following other people in their field of expertise, there are always plenty of resources.

    Marketing is another advantage that comes with Twitter. Posting links of new blogs or news from your website will get you noticed, hopefully leading to a lot of hits for your site!.

    So there are positives and negatives to Twitter but I cannot see myself using it much for personal use in the near future.

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    IT Answers teams up with provider 02

    By Cheryl | Posted in News | July 8, 2010 – 3:20 pm

    dongleIT Answers is teaming up with the UK’s leading provider of mobile phones and broadband O2 to offer our clients and close contacts a unique Internet offer.

    We have 30 state-of-the-art USB Dongles available that can be plugged into any type and brand of laptop, which will provide you with unlimited access to the web – wherever you are.

    Each dongle costs just ￡15.75 a month (limited contract is 24 months) and if you book through us throughout the month of July, we can give you a discount of three months use totalling ￡47.25.

    Special features include:

    • Plug and Play design – easy to install
    • Mac and PC compatible
    • USB Modem can be used abroad
    • Automatically connects to the fastest available network speed
    • HSDPA 7.2 Mbps support
    • Dual band UMTS/HSDPA support
    • Full radio diversity and embedded antenna

    A recent survey revealed that ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction among both fixed and mobile broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK.

    Statistics proved that the global brand performs particularly well in four of the factors driving satisfaction: performance and reliability; billing; cost of the service; and customer service/technical support. For the full report and more details please visit our website www.itanswers.com

    As an IT strategic partner, we are able to offer a full range of mobile, land and internet services. If you would like further details on these, please send your contacts details to letschat@itanswers.com

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    iPad therefore i Am

    By Cheryl | Posted in News | July 8, 2010 – 2:53 pm

    ipadAfter months of rumours about Apple’s new tablet device, the Mac fanatics finally saw the release of the iPad. Selling in 16GB, 32GB & 64GB versions, the large flat screen device caused even the most hardened Microsoft fans to look on with slight envy.

    Clearly inspired by the iPhone design, the iPad uses the same home screen & many of the same applications but contains more advanced features. Quoted as being a cross between a smartphone & a laptop, the iPad incorporates the same ease of use as the iPhone but with the business element of a laptop.

    A complete touch screen tablet has never appealed to me for work use, so I was happy to hear that an external keyboard could be used.  Also, Apple’s official iPad case is a must; as well as protecting the device it can be used as support to prop up the tablet. No one wants to contend with a flat screen lying on a desk all day!

    iPad for business?

    For any company, first impressions are always important, so turning up at an appointment flashing your new iPad can never be a bad thing!

    The iPad incorporates everything from a Mac desktop to a small portable device and according to Steve Jobs “will get up to 10 straight hours of battery life”. Microsoft Exchange is fully compatible with the iPad, as are most document types including .jpg, .gif, .tiff, pdf, .doc, .xls and many more.

    Of course, as you with find with most things, there are some features that the iPad is lacking, the most noted by users being the lack of a camera. But fear not!  As with most technology, there is always someone waiting in the wings for opportunities to exploit missing features. Rumours of a frame that can be attached around the iPad with camera connected seem to be rife on all the Apple message boards. I guess this is another ‘wait and see…’.

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