Lots of comment in the blogosphere overnight about the new anti-spam comment tag that Google announced yesterday. Here’s what Google say: If you’re a blogger (or a blog reader), you’re painfully familiar with people who try to raise their own websites’ search engine rankings by submitting linked blog comments like “Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site.” […]
Category: Web/Tech
Podcasting described simply
When explaining podcasting to people who don’t know what it is, how do you describe it? I’ve tended to rely on the relatively complex Wikipedia definition or this one on Webopedia: Podcasting is similar in nature to RSS, which allows subscribers to subscribe to a set of feeds to view syndicated website content. With podcasting […]
Hidden dangers with public Wi-Fi
It’s becoming a common thing to see people sitting in public places – train stations, airports, the local Starbucks – with their laptops, doing their email or writing their blogs, or any manner of things that they’d do when in the office or at home. How do you know that the wi-fi network you’ve connected […]
Linux: A very different business model
For its 31 January edition, Business Week has an intriguing story online about Linus Torvalds, the Finnish creator of the Linux Unix-like operating system. The story has insight commentary on how the Linux open-source developer community works in conjunction with big-name ‘establishment’ companies, and the real threat Linux presents to Microsoft and its Windows family. […]
Top 100 RSS feeds
Blogging service Radio Userland has a very useful list of the top 100 most subscribed-to RSS feeds. A handy one-stop place to sign up for all the good ones instead of having to seek out all the invidual sites. Radio Community Server | Top 100 Most-Subscribed-To RSS Feeds If you’re a business blogger, especially if […]
PeopleSoft job seekers try eBay
After a team of in-house creatives was displaced following Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft, the group turned to eBay to try and find work, a report by Fast Company says. Not as individual job seekers, however, but as a complete team. According to a post on AdFreak, AdWeek’s blog, the team wanted to continue working together, […]
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #4: January 24, 2005
Show notes for January 24, 2005. Welcome to our weekly podcast, a 57:25-minute conversation recorded live via Skype from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Download the file here (MP3, 24.9MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For this, you’ll need ipodder, software that lets you […]
The Hobson & Holtz Report – RSS Special Edition – January 26, 2005
Welcome to a the RSS Special Edition of the Hobson & Holtz Report, a 23-minute conversation recorded live at the New Communications Forum 2005 in Napa, California, USA, on January 26, 2005. In this show, we interview Fergus Burns, CEO of Hookable Media Ltd, the creator of Nooked, the RSS service for corporate communications. Listen […]
EPIC: The age of participatory communication
I’m blogging in the keynote presentation being given by Andy Lark that starts the second day of the New Communications Forum 2005. Andy advocates how the age of participatory communication that has already dawned will change forever the way we communicate. To illustrate this, he presents EPIC, an 8-minute video showing a concept of what […]
Panel discussion: Blogging and journalism
Highlight points from the panel – pictured, left to right: Dan Forbush, Tom Foremski, Jeremy Wright, Heath Row – moderated by Dan Forbush. The panel addressed the impact of blogs on their work, their general view on the value of blogs as a communication channel, and how best to promote their blogs. Tom: Blogs are […]
The Hobson & Holtz Report – Jeremy Wright Interview – January 27, 2005
Welcome to a the second Special Edition of the Hobson & Holtz Report, a 30-minute conversation with Jeremy Wright recorded live at the New Communications Forum 2005 in Napa, California, USA, on January 27, 2005. A high-profile business blogger, Jeremy authors the Ensight blog and is now focused on building his new venture, Inside Blogging. […]
Skype is getting very interesting
A few weeks ago, I joined the Skype beta testing program for their planned voice messaging service. It is good! In case you haven’t heard of Skype yet, in a nutshell it’s an internet phone service that enables you to speak with other Skype users anywhere in the world for free, and optionally call normal […]
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #5: January 31, 2005
Show notes for January 31, 2005. Welcome to our weekly podcast, a 71:55-minute conversation recorded live via Skype from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Download the file here (MP3, 33.7MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For this, you’ll need ipodder, software that lets you […]
Making Tablet PC evangelism wholly transparent
Having bloggers evangelize Microsoft’s Tablet PC is what Steve Rubel suggests as an answer to Robert Scoble’s vexation on the seeming invisibilty of the Tablet PC: So Microsoft, if you want to save the Tablet PC please take the hundreds of thousands of dollars you might be earmarking for a new ad campaign and invest […]
Maybe this is the future of search
Yesterday Microsoft announced the release version of its new MSN Search tool, and, as reported by CNet News, gears up for a marketing and advertising blitz to imprint its offering in consumers’ minds: As expected, MSN, a unit of the software giant, has taken its Web search technology out of the laboratory, and placed it […]
Shel’s offline but still doing business
Having a RAID hard disk setup on your server would usually be good insurance in case of some kind of system failure, hardware or otherwise, where if one drive goes down the other one has a mirror of everything. Unfortunately, not in Shel Holtz’ case last night. Shel has experienced the worse-case situation where both […]
Online conference on social networking
Via Elizabeth Albrycht, news of an event that’s just made for anyone involved in communicating or collaborating online – Online Social Networks 2005: OSN2005 will be a summit for all those interested in working with social networking processes, tools, and media. In addition to attending many workshops, panels, and presentations by leading experts and practitioners, […]
Getting generous with Gmail invitations
Is Google preparing Gmail for general rollout? Today I noticed that I have this little box in my Gmail account saying that I’ve now got 50 Gmail invitations. When I looked yesterday, I still had the link saying I had 3. And I noticed from a post by Josh Hallett that he’s also got 50 […]
The genius of Apple coolness
I had my first true iPod experience today. You know, the feeling of coolness as you’re out and about in public with those little white buds sticking in your ears with the white cables dangling down that disappear under your jacket. Yes, I did succumb to strong temptation when I was in the US last […]
Separating reporting from propaganda
CNN: The US Department of Defense plans to add more sites on the Internet to provide information to a global audience – but critics question whether the Pentagon is violating President Bush’s pledge not to pay journalists to promote his policies. This will undoubtedly be a lively and protracted debate. My question would be: Where […]