Am I in the UK at the right time or not? I just arrived in Milton Hill House near Oxford for three days of talking finacial management as part of the OUBS Finance course for the MBA and was already happy that the hotel has a business center with free internet access. This is nice. But then, I saw a nice flyer at the reception saying that BT Openyone is hosting a wireless broadband week from january 26th until February 1st, meaning that you can surf at the BT Openzone Wifi hotspots for free, and there are 2000 of them in the UK.
Ah well I thought, that’s nice, not that there will be a BT hotspot out here in nowhere land but I figured I’d ask. And you know what? There is a BT Openzone hotspot right here at the bar area, all free, all powerful and there for the taking for the entire time of my stay, which is until February 1st. 
My luck.
I just posted some pics of the trip via the mobile phone to the Moblog but now I will be able to just sync them over to the laptop and post them like that, making it a lot cheaper. Free Wifi rocks!
Monthly Archives: January 2004
Wireless Broadband Week
On MacOS X
Andy Rasking just bought a new computer, a G4 Powerbook from Apple to be exact, and he posted about it on the Business 2.0 blog. I’d like to quote a few lines here as I totally agree. Unexplainable, but true:
First, I typed the lead sentence of my nextBusiness 2.0 story in a Word document on a Vaio running XP. Then I typed the same sentence in a Word document on a PowerBook running OS X. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the genius of Steve Jobs: The sentence looked cooler, weightier, hipper, more worth paying attention to — on the PowerBook. Writers and other creative artists know that this cannot be explained rationally. It just is, and it’s worth money.
So there you have it, I am weird. On a side note, I tried out WordPress, a blogging tool which Russel Beattie posted about, yesterday and it does feel nice. Really. If you are looking for a blogging tool, check it out.
Video: Blogging Panel at Davos
Loic le Meur was kind enough to put up the videos of the blogging panel at Davos right here. Some great examples of what blogging can do and where it might be heading and why. Thanks Loic!
Search Engine Reputation Management Engine
Yep, SERME in short. I just found it via John Battelle’s Searchblog and I can only shake my head in amazement. The company having announced this is Converseon (what a name). As John, I’ll simply quote part of the press release:
“SERMA(C)” Combines Innovative Content Management Techniques Together with Sophisticated Optimization Skills To Help Companies Better Manage Their Reputations and Brand Online
Converseon, a leading digital communications agency, today announced the global launch of the industry’s first search engine reputation management service (SERMA) designed specifically to help companies manage their corporate reputations in search engines. SERMA was created in response to the increasingly important role search engines have in determining a company’s reputation.
“Search engines have become the primary resource for journalists and other constituents to gather information on a specific company,” says Robert Key, President & CEO of Converseon. “Yet, while many companies may pay close attention to how the traditional media portrays them, most companies are completely unaware of what information is appearing when search engine users type in a company’s name.” He points to examples like McDonald’s and Nike, where users typing in the companies’ names on Google are exposed to highly negative information, including McSpotlight.org, a “protest site,” and the “Boycott Nike Homepage.”
In general, they are monitoring search engines. I’d suggest Google Alert.
Orkut Online Again…
… let’s see how long it holds.
Blog Push
Heiko is calling everyone to blog at We need more weblogs and with some of his posts I am continuously wondering if means it or if he just has a wonderful time making fun of something I didn’t read yet
One might say that we don’t really really need more content and we especially do not need to read more discussions, at least not in parallel. Then again I’d love to, which again is a bit sick if you think about it. But I think he means it, especially reading his post Beth Cox is sceptical in which he quotes Beth as saying that she would be passing on the blogging trend for now as she doesn’t think it’s more than a little brand marketing. He responds by saying to just “keep on writing little articles for online publications that sell “blogging” as a “trend” years after it started. Keep on spending hours of updating your web site and money on keyword advertising. No, weblogs don’t have anything to do with it. Really.
That’s what I mean when I say that I wonder if I have to turn most of the things Heiko says around. So when is the next big blogger meeting to really get to know everyone?
In the Background: Google Answers
Why the hell is Google Answers not pushed more by Google? For those not in the know, Google Answers allows you to ask a question in case you do not find anything about it and then get it answered (potentially) for a small fee by a Google Researcher.
This is an amazing service and it seems to be logging about hundred questions a day, which might be the answer already. This just doesn’t pay millions of EURs. Even at an Average of 10 EURs per question, this would only bring in 30.000 EURs per month, which is just not enough. Still, the content that they are creating can have an amazing value. So I am wondering if this will be brought out more into the open at the Google IPO. There might be something very valuable in there at least.
I still have my Google Researcher ID to answer questions there but I have to admit that the people that they have online are just too good for me and the questions too complicated. You have to be really good at finding things and I mean really good. I think I answered three questions, getting my fare share of the fee. But after that it took too much time to monitor new questions. Still. I maintain what I always said, Google Answers is a great service and Google should push it a bit more.
Shopping for Orkut Invitations
I recently read that an Orkut invitation is worth $11 (read here) and that already made me smile, until I received some feedback via my contact form:
hey, long time reader of your blog. great to see you got into the whole orkut scene. do you have any invitations you could maybe send my way?
-chris
First of all, maybe I do, maybe I don’t. If I do, why would I send “invitations” (see plural) his way? He only needs one doesn’t he? And then there is the problem that I don’t know who chris is. Sorry chris. He knows me, but I don’t know him… am I achieving stardom here? Will people start greeting me on the street soon? I think I am a few readers away from that but emm… continuing the original thread.
You (talking to Chris now) are (as a long time reader) obviously reading this, so please give me a bit more info on you, just in case I do have an invitation (watch singular) for Orkut. Not that I do. But in general this is a friends network so I invite friends, or people I at least consider to know a little tiny bit, either by knowing them personally or by reading their blog or something else.
I am looking forward to see what comes of all of this.
Nielsen Netratings Report
Nielsen Netratings has published a Report in Germany, saying that 94% of internet connected households do not take important decisions without usage of the Internet first. The most important starting point for 79% of them are search engines followed at 55% by the web sites of brands and producers. 46% are certain that they buying time is shortened by using the Internet.
All of this should really make people see how important the internet is for advertising. You might not be buying online, but you will surely get informed online.
Popups are dead
So that’s that. With the release of the MSN Toolbar Beta – More Useful Everyday, we have another toolbar with Popup blocker that will be distributed to millions. Ad to that, that AOL has one too if memory serves me right, and the Google Toolbar is installed everywhere… I think we can officially call Popups dead. Thank you.
