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Tag Archives: website

Opinionaided

By Cheryl | Posted in Android, Apple, website | July 19, 2011 – 11:33 am

OpinionaidedSometimes all we want is an opinion; whether it is on a new haircut or pair of jeans.

Opinionaided helps users gather the views of friends, family and the public, on the topic of your choice; the key being that all feedback is in real-time. Simply post a yes or no question along with an optional photo and sit back and watch as users vote on their preferred answer.

As of June, 1.2 million users had submitted a question which was met with over 90 million responses. The company have noted that people are using the site for 2 hours and 33 minutes on average per month, with posts almost doubling since March.

Currently still working on the Android version, the app is available for free on the iPhone or via the web. The company has recently released figures showing that more than 90% of their user base accesses the app via the mobile platform.

So, if you’re unsure if you should buy that expensive gadget, or if you’re just having trouble choosing the right colour for your bedroom; give Opinionaided a go!

http://www.opinionaided.com/

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Step away from the screen: Children in the UK spend a total of 36m hours in front of the TV or online

By Nicola | Posted in Twitter at 12 | February 23, 2011 – 12:59 pm

Research revealed that UK children collectively spend a staggering 36 million hours a day in front of the TV or on their computer.

The average youngster will sit in front of their computer for up to one hour and 50 minutes and watch the television for 2.7 hours (where do they find the time?!)

The Childwise annual monitor report, which questioned 2,445 children aged five to 16 in 120 schools, said that today’s youngsters have a vast amount of access to a wide range of technology and gadgets, with the majority of them owning a laptop or a PC and having their own internet access in their bedrooms.

In fact, nearly two thirds of five to 16-year-olds have their own computer (62%) and the figure amongst five and six year-olds is a rather shocking 24%.

46% said they have internet access in their room and 65% go online nearly every day, with the average child using the internet 5.2 times a week.

But, the statistic that we just couldn’t believe here at QuadroNation was this one – In total, Britain’s children spend 13 million hours on websites every day, most prominently social networking sites like Facebook.

It sounds like the days when children actually spoke face to face and played football in the park are starting to disappear…

We understand that television has always had a strong hold on the nation’s youngsters (Children watch 23 million hours of TV a day, and 62% have a television in their own room), but web seems to be taking over their lives.

Margaret Morrissey of lobby group Parents Outloud said: “If we are building houses that are smaller, children are not going to be as physically active. And it is not really possible in this day and age for them to play out in the street on their own.”

Seems we’re not the only ones to worry.

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Notable

By Cheryl | Posted in Application, Twitter at 12, website | December 6, 2010 – 12:57 pm

Notable is a fast and easy way of getting feedback on website screenshots or mockups.

Usually designers have to rely on their own opinions and input from those around them, however Notable allows a wider audience to have their say on the look and feel of your site.

The website allows a private or public showing of your site, giving you the ability to control who views your project.

What can you do?

*        Design – See how people view your website’s look and feel.

*        Website Copy – Make sure your copy is informative and straight to the point.

*        SEO Metadata – Let the professionals help you deliver professional SEO.

*        HTML/CSS – Check and verify your website coding.

How can Notable benefit you?

*        Ideal for individuals or groups of people to provide feedback on websites.

*        Share notes with other users.

*        Keep URL public or private.

*        Everyone is able to make comments and upload images.

*        Being web based allows you to view and make changes from anywhere.

*        Make notes on websites HTML, CSS and SEO.

Notes

Rather than people telling you their feedback, Notable incorporates a notes system, allowing users to leave a summary of changes that they feel are needed with notes posted around the problem area.

How much does it cost?

Notable offers a lot of packages based on number of users allowed access and total storage limit.

30 day Free trial on paid accounts

Personal – Free

Basic – $24/month

Plus – $44/month

Premium – $69/month

Max – $199/month

Last.fm

By Cheryl | Posted in Android, Entertainment, Mobile, Twitter at 12 | November 22, 2010 – 12:55 pm

Although Last.fm has been around since 2002, it’s still one of the sites that I constantly choose to use.

For those of you that are not familiar, Last.fm is a music website with more than 40 million users based in 200 countries. The site was launched in 2002 and allows users to keep a profile of all the songs they have listened to. These tracks are then put in to charts based on the artist and songs name, allowing you to keep a record of how many times you have listened to them.

Users can also connect with their friends, have their music compatibility compared, leave messages on their wall and recommend songs/artists for them to listen to.

The Last.fm music library holds over seven million tracks which can be streamed across the web.

Scrobble from…

Music can be scrobbled from a long list of media players & applications; the most popular being iTunes, Spotify, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows Media Player. A plug in can be installed for any of these services, meaning any music played from within them will appear on your Last.fm profile.

It’s not just online players that tracks can be scrobbled from. Portable audio players such as iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and Smartphones running Google’s Android OS will be scrobbled after they have been plugged in to a computer.

Radio

The customisable radio station can be based on the users profile, tracks they have marked as ‘loved’ or tracks from their ‘musical neighbours’. Last.fm radio is available for free in the UK, US and Germany but comes at a cost of €3 for users living outside these countries.

Cost

Last.fm is free to use, but does have optional paid accounts. The free account is fine for the majority of users but the paying account does offer benefits such as no advertising, priority on the Last.fm server and more radio options.

What does it work on?

Last.fm runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Unix. The software has also been developed to work on phones running Android, iPhone and BlackBerry operating systems.

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How much has the internet expanded in the last ten years?

By Jemma | Posted in Fact Friday, Internet | October 29, 2010 – 11:56 am

wwwThe internet is a world wide phenomenon and in the past years it has grown immensely.

Where did it all start?
It all started with the time-sharing of IBM computers in the early 1960s at universities such as Dartmouth and Berkeley in the States. People would share the same computer for their Computing tasks and it has grown from that point.

Here are the Top five numbers of users from 2000

1 United States – 95.1 million
2 Japan – 47.1 million
3 Germany – 24.0 million
4 China – 22.5 million
5 South Korea – 19.1 million

Here are the Top five numbers of users from 2010

1 China – 420.0 million 22.5 million
2 United States – 239.2 million 95.1 million
3 Japan – 99.1 million 47.1 million
4 India – 81.0 million 5.0 million
5 Brazil – 75.9 million 5.0 million

I think it’s fair to say there is a large comparison between the two and that the numbers will only increase year by year.

Five New Account Wins For Digital Marketing And PR Specialists Quadronation

By Nicola | Posted in Marketing, News, PR, website | September 22, 2010 – 1:21 pm

QuadroNationLeading digital marketing and PR specialists QuadroNation have won five new accounts adding to their ever-expanding portfolio.

North West bar and club chain Baa Bar, vehicle rental firm Bank View Hire and SGG Environmental Services Ltd have all signed major contracts with the India Buildings based firm, which will see them designing new websites, devising bespoke mobile phone applications and developing innovative online marketing strategies in the next few weeks.

The QuadroNation team will also be working with leading London-based gallery IAP Fine Art and also the official information website for renowned artist Chris Gollon, who has exhibited with the likes of Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Tracey Emin and Gavin Turk.

Technical Director Andrew Hilton said: “We are delighted to have such an extensive list of strong brands on board. We recognised the demand from businesses for fresh and dynamic ideas and their need for online and offline activities that make a direct return on investment.

“Despite what many have seen as a difficult market, we are achieving a rapid growth, which I believe will continue in the forthcoming months.”

QuadroNation, whose total client base has now reached more than 30 businesses, specialises in a range of services within Design, Development, Marketing and PR and aims to point clients in the right direction when it comes to their online strategy.

Andrew added: “We definitely have a busy few months ahead of us and the future of QuadroNation is looking extremely promising. For us, it’s about having that competitive edge and providing measurable results to our clients on a regular basis.”

For more information please contact Nicola Rowlands at QuadroNation on 07507 652 026 or at nicolarowlands@quadronation.com

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Can Bebo make a comeback?

By Cheryl | Posted in Entertainment, Internet, Twitter at 12, website | September 20, 2010 – 11:43 am

Bebo was launched in 2005 and with 34 million users and 7 billion monthly page views, it became a huge hit. The site allowed users to customise their profile by posting blogs, music, videos, photographs and questionnaires.

AOL acquired the site at its peak in 2008 for $850 million, but was soon overtaken by other sites, most notably Facebook. After interest continued to wane, AOL announced in April 2010 that it was planning to sell or shutdown Bebo, eventually selling the site to Criterion Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum (rumoured to be less than $10 million…ouch!).

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong had this to say about the deal:

“The deal will allow Bebo’s users to remain within the social platform that they know and love, while enabling a new owner to bring new possibilities and experiences to bear. Criterion Capital Partners are specialists in facilitating growth plans and turnarounds and are well placed to drive Bebo’s effort to strengthen its foothold within the highly competitive social networking arena”.

Despite over a 50% drop in unique visitors in the span of a year, CCP believe that they still have a strong user base, with the UK currently being home to their largest number of users.

Can Bebo’s luck be turned around?

Can CCP turn around a company that has a declining user base and ad revenue? You don’t see it happen often so it’s very much a hit-or-miss situation, especially as it would be in direct competition with Facebook (and their 500 million users). With details of how they plan to rejuvenate Bebo’s fortunes not yet released, people continue to wonder what they can possibly do to drive people back.

Will it work?

With social network giants such as Facebook and Twitter, I don’t fancy its chances…

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Flock – The social browser

By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12, website | August 31, 2010 – 12:01 pm

Flock BrowserIs it a bird, is it a plane, no it’s a…flock?

Flock is a Mozilla based web browser that integrates the sharing of photos, news and blogging into the browser interface.

The browser lets you easily drag and drop to share videos, text or links and is equipped to keep you up to date with your contacts from Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, etc; while also allowing easy subscriptions and management of RSS feeds. From the browser you are able to track information from friends including status updates.

Other features include a powerful web search toolbar that provides a quick results and a quick glance at the most relevant results.

The web browser doesn’t have many extensions, but users are able to use the add-ons from Firefox as this is a Mozilla development.

What makes it different to other browsers?
Flock is an ideal browser for keeping you up to date with your online social contacts. It currently supports Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, Flickr, Photobucket, del.icio.us, WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger and other online services, as well as any RSS feed.

Will Flock overtake other browsers?
It’s unlikely. Flock is better as a secondary browser to keep in touch with friends rather than a main web browser. That’s not to say it’s a bad browser, it may just be a bit too much for general internet browsing.

Stay Connected
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter

Find
YouTube
Flickr
Truveo

Webmail
Gmail
Yahoo
AOL Mail

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Fact Friday – How many visits does it take?

By Jemma | Posted in Fact Friday, Internet, website | August 20, 2010 – 2:27 pm

globeEver wondered how your favourite websites fare in the world wide web, and what it takes for a website to reach the top ranking?

The amount of visitors that popular websites receive each month is enormous, let’s take a look at how big the numbers are…

1. Facebook – 540,000,000
2. Youtube – 490,000,000
3. Yahoo – 450,000,000
4. Live.com – 370,000,000
5. Wikipedia – 310,000,000
6. Msn.com – 280,000,000
7. Microsoft.com – 210,000,000
8. Baidu.com – 170,000,000
9. qq.com – 130,000,000
10. Mozilla.com – 130,000,000

To see the difference between 10 and 100 just look at Dell.com, which is the 100th site on the list with 21,000,000 visitors.

How do you get there?
To get into the Top 1000 sites you would need at least 4.1 million visits per month, with 7.4million for the Top 500 websites visits.

To reach the Top 100 you would have to achieve 22 million visits a month, and to be number 1 (the tip top of the list), you would need a massive 540 million visits. Should be easy, right?

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Online Scams

By Jemma | Posted in Internet, website | August 20, 2010 – 11:32 am

scamcardOnline scams are not an irregular occurrence and they are vastly becoming a more serious issue. Most people are aware when they are trying to be scammed, but what about people that aren’t?

Facebook dislike button
A recent scam included the infamous Facebook ‘dislike button’, which tricked users into allowing an application to access their profile and post spam messages on their account.

I’ve won!
There is always an amazing prize to be given away and guess what, YOU’VE won it. Don’t be fooled. If you haven’t entered anything, you definitely haven’t won anything.

Lottery wins are one of the most common email scams and if you respond to these mails it asks you to pay a fee to cover expenses for the ‘winnings’ to be delivered. You could also become a victim of identity theft.

Spam attack
Most people agree that getting ‘spam’ is annoying and a lot of people have lost money to bogus emails that have arrived in there inbox. A few ways to protect yourself are:

  • Don’t give out personal details e.g. credit card details to companies you don’t know and trust
  • Read the small print – don’t sign anything without reading it thoroughly.
  • Resist the urge to ‘act now’ despite the offer, it’s important to take your time.
  • Basically if it sounds too good to be true it probably is….
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