byteblog

It’s late. You’ve had a few drinks. Instead of waiting until the morning to send that email, you’ve sat hunched over the keyboard and spat out a bilious missive to a client or a friend/ex, or (worse), declared undying love.

Go on, you can admit it. You’ve done it.

Now, in recognition of all those emails sent in haste, never to be recalled (wouldn’t THAT be a great invention - a “retract” button), Google has come up with a solution that although won’t stop you altogether, will at least make you think twice before pushing “send”. It’s called Mail Goggles, works with their GMail service, and the idea is that it presents you with a series of simple maths questions that you must answer correctly before being able to send the message.

It works during those key night-time hours when alcohol or just sheer exhaustion can play a big part in thinking whether something is a good idea or not. I think it’s just a shame they don’t do one for the phone too.

There’s a challenge for you, Google bods.

http://tinyurl.com/4gljkl

Google has launched its first foray into the web browser market. It’s no surprise that they’ve extended their reach into this area, given that their business is based around the web and web marketing. Perhaps it is surprising that they’ve waited this long, but it comes at a time when both Mozilla and Microsoft have both launched the new versions of their popular browsers Firefox and Internet Explorer respectively.

At first look it is a very neat browser, with nice touches such as highlighted web addresses with the main domain of the site you are visiting in black, so you can easily see where you are - difficult on some sites with vast URLs.

No crashes yet, but we’re only a few hours in, so will keep you posted!

If you have a website, the chances are that you are keen to get people to find it.

However, one of the biggest mistakes people make when paying for the development of a website is after the launch they then spend nothing promoting it. This is akin to opening a shop on the high street with the windows boarded up!

Just because you have launched your website, it doesn’t mean that people will be beating a path to your door, no matter how good your services or products might be.

On the other hand, it is very easy to spend and waste a lot of money on website promotion: banners, reciprocal links, Google AdWords - the list is endless….

So which is best?

The best is probably a combination of things, and this can only really be tested by trial and error. Our suggestions at the beginning are as follows:

• Ask your friends and contacts whether you can have reciprocal links to each others’ websites (if they are suitable!)
• Make sure your site is search-engine-friendly, which we can help you with but basically means correct and relevant page titles, properly named images and links, correct page layout using proper HTML tags
• Get active on blogs and forums that are in your marketplace - putting yourself forward as an “expert” who is prepared to help others will get you in a position to soft-sell your own products and services
• Track your site’s performance by using Google Analytics, which is a free service that tracks who is visiting your site, how they found it, where they went and much more
• Keep your site as up-to-date as possible - there’s nothing worse than a site with a last updated message that is three months ago, so don’t use those either!
• Don’t expect miracles in the first few months - it takes time for a site to get noticed and become popular, so be prepared to put some effort in!

What now?

If you have a website already that you feel isn’t doing the job for you, then give us a call and we can suggest ways we might be able to help.