Wednesday, 18 February 2009

Breakthrough Technology! Computertan?

Spoke to a colleague earlier and he mentioned how he's seen and ad in the tubes by a company called COMPUTERTAN. We couldn't quite work out if it was a real company  or a some viral


Computertan claim to have had a technological breakthrough that lets get a tan whilst you are working on your computer!


I googled this  online (no PPC campaign by the way) and the  the TV ad is hilarious.  The lady in the ad "Hannah Yasmin"  walks you through Computertan capabilities - a seriously cheesy ad! 

Check out the video







Pretty sure you are asking yourself if this ad is a hoax, well I can confirm that it is. The campaign has actually been devised by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and skin cancer charity (Skcin) as part of the move to raise awareness of the growing threat of skin cancer.

Although this campaign launched on February 3 it is still going strongly! 





Interestingly , looking at the traffic and users volumes so far (from Alexa), The highest number of traffic seems to be coming from Spain, France and Italy whilst the highest number of users appear to be coming from Germany, US and the UK.  Keen to know what you make of this data?






Overall campaign feels looks good. Great idea. Tan-Tastic!




Monday, 16 February 2009

Goodbye Lycos

Usually , I try to blog about current AND interesting topics and add my 2 pence worth to what some people may call the blogsphere, social networks or as my brother refers to it - the "Borg Collective". I do however believe that once in a while, it is in our best interest to stand back reflect on the past. Given that I have been within the digital landscape for quite some time (10yrs give or take), I do fondly recall using Lycos quite a lot. So, I was a little saddened today when I came across this page on Lycos Uk page, confirming the end of Lycos.

Noticed the same page occurs across other countries such as Spain, France , Italy and Germany


Below is a little nostalgic reminder of what Lycos used too look like.




Back in April 1999, Lycos believe it or not was once the second most visited website on the Internet.



Although, it was a shame to see that whilst other search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN have experienced a substantial growth over the years, lycos has declined (on Google Trends for websites) oh and Google obviously doesnt let you compare traffic on its domain within the website trend tool - hence no Google on the chart.





(Lycos.com trends on Google Trends for Website)







Looking at the current Lycos.com page, it is clear to see that Lycos have come a long way since it first appeared as a search engine research project by Dr. Michael Loren Mauldin of Carnegie Mellon University in 1994. So farewell Lycos.....(or is that au revoir?)

Friday, 13 February 2009

Confused.com , Sand Fairies and Jedi Knights

I have always been a firm believer that if you are going to attempt something then make sure you do it well. Similarly, if you are going to copy someone else then try at the very least, to do it with some taste - something Confused.com may want to note.

You have to feel a little empathy for Confused.com especially after watching their latest TV ad which features a character called Confucius (Confucious/ Confused - get it?). I say empathy for numerous reasons.

Firstly, the advert was introduced after the recent Ad from ComparetheMarket.com featuring Aleksandr Orlov of Comparethemeerkat.com which I reviewed in an earlier blog [click here] . From an media standpoint it does appear to be a knee jerk reaction on the part of Confused.com which is also heavily supported by the fundamental lack of originality of ad.

Secondly, the Confused.com's character "Confucius" to me looks like a mixture between the Samiad (a Sand Fairy from a past TV program called Five Children and It) and the old Star Wars Jedi Knight Master Yoda. With that in mind , it makes it a little difficult to ascertain wich demographic Confused.com is actually trying to appeal to?! Take a look:





Finally, the aims to guide people on how to use a feature of Confused.com website, looks like a poor and expensive way to demonstrate how to use features of a website. Rick's goes into a little more detail about the Ad.


The voice of Confucius (Yoda/Samiad) also seems to reverberate a cross between Alex Guinness and Yoda. See for yourself and let me know what you think.


Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Your location with Google Latitude



Ever had that problem where you simply cant find you friends anywhere, or want to simply ask them where they are? well thanks to the new Google service called Google Latitude you can.






Google Latitude is a feature of Google Maps  that allows you to see where your friends and via Google Map and is available on the following mobile devices - Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices, Android Powered devices, Blackberry and the iphone. Worth noting iPhone fans that it isn’t available on iphone yet.


Watch the Google Latitude video for more:






Earlier today I tried to using Google Latitude on my blackberry and it is proving to be a nightmare to install, well thats what I initially thought. If you wish to install it simply download the latest version of Google maps on your mobile and it should be that easy.


Alternatively you can simply go to  www.google.com/latitude on your mobile device and download it through there. 


Sometime last year, when Apple launched the Development Kit for Apple iPhone, one of the application that they demonstrated was LooptLoopt is a similar product to Google Latitude  and  is very popular in the US. Unfortunately, Loopt is not available in the UK, yet!



Overall, there are many upsides to the Google Latitude function and think it works for many people on a social level. Imagine how easy it is to locate where your friends are and meet for a coffee, lunch, dinner or even a movie. The big question from my view is, how many people would be willing to "share" their exact location with friends or colleagues? I'm sure this might prompt another privacy debate, however since we already share a lot of our personal experiences  on Facebook and MySpace would Google Latitude be much of a threat?







To read more on the new service go to the website www.google.com/latitude

Monday, 2 February 2009

London on Ice and Skiing to Work

Clearly there were a lot of people across the UK that were stuck in their homes unable to come out and unable to go to work today. Congratulations to those with the sense to put on their Wellingtons today! the tube was flooded with these. A quick pic from the roof top. (I never claimed to be David Bailey by the way)



View from the office and Tottenham Court road was deserted earlier.







Went on to Twitter Streamgraph earlier on, typed in snow and found words like TRAIN, HOME, STAY jump out at me. If I didn’t know better I think the streamgraph was trying to tell me to Stay home and not go to work today.




Thanks to my good friend Graeme I came across UKtrains on Twitter- which is Unofficial feed of disruption to UK national rail services. Tom Morris also has an excellent twitter tube tracker on his blog.






Surprisingly, I couldn’t find any officially links of the London Underground on Twitter. The met office did warn that there would be heavy snow so I’m a little surprised that the underground were a totally unprepared. Paid a vist to the Transport for London website earlier:-




And on a final note (thanks again to Graeme and Louise Doherty ), check out this funny video of someone sking to work on YouTube. Pure Dedication!