Is the Internet going to be the television replacement?

It is well discussed that the internet is becoming the medium for so many things, back in the day TV was all on its own. You need a TV and a bit of main power and an aerial. After some good tuning you had TV on the box and that was the only way that you could watch your favourite broadcasts, and you only got the one chance.

Many markets including the US pay market has suffered and massive drop in revenue as customers turn to the internet for their viewing thirst. However, there is question that does need to be asked, is it that the internet is demoting TV or technology? Apple and Google have both released services that allow viewers to view online content via the TV, but both companies have stated that the packages did not meet expectations. Plus, we are also watching more video and more TV than ever before so why is the TV under threat?

The main reason is that there are some many ‘on demand’ services including ‘Jigsaw’, ‘Catch Up TV’, ’BBC iPlayer’ and ‘ITVplayer’ that you then don’t need to watch the normal broadcasted channels that are running 24/7 when you can exchange this for a very personal viewing on your laptop and tablet or even smart phone and let’s be honest we know how popular these items are.

If you fast forward some years and think of a modern house, you may think of a high speed internet connection that feeds straight into a media hub. This is precisely what the experts think; this hub will complete all our multimedia services.  The TV as we now know it will change; perhaps the name will change to large screen devices.

Some large UK internet providers have all incorporated these types of services into their portfolio. BT has the ‘Vision’ service that uses the internet for its on demand programmes. Will this become the norm in the future? Will we see the TV aerial on the roof becoming a feature of the past?

Google to Launch Cloud-based Music Service

Despite not having the backing from major music labels, Google has decided to launch its own cloud-based music service.

The service will work by allowing users to upload music to the cloud so they can stream it via an internet connection meaning they can listen to it anywhere.

At the time of the report, Google advised that they planned to announce the plans of the service at their San Francisco Google I/O conference for developers which was to be run on the 10^th and 11^th May.

Back in march, Amazon released their own Cloud Player which allowed users to access their music via Android apps and the web.  Google’s music service will act in pretty much the same way by acting as a remote ‘locker’ for music access.

The odd thing about this is that Google are going to launch without the support of any major record labels.  Whilst a cloud based service doesn’t always need additional licences from the record labels, Google could be restricted in what features can be added to the service.

You may have the content right, perfect images and a great customer journey on your site, but is it quick enough?

Google has bolted a speed gauge onto its ranking indicator, so how will this affect your site and your ranking position on Google? Well, the speed gauge is going to measure the time that a landing page takes to load, this speed measure is called site speed or page load time. The clock will start when a visitor lands on the page and will stop when the page has fully completed loading.

This speed indicator was discussed last year and Google stated that it would be included into its ranking indicator. Now however, this discussion has turned into practice and the page load time is being incorporated into searches. For many businesses this inclusion of speed will not be an issue, because a quick loading page makes the visitor experience a lot better.

If your landing page is slow, all will not be lost.  You will not free fall down the rankings and Google will alter the ranking of one site per two hundred. How much of a penalty the new speed gauge will produce in terms of ranking is not known.

You might think that this new measure is a bit harsh but it’s all geared essentially towards rewarding websites that provide the best service. Also you can just force your way to the top of the rank without considering the visitors experience.

On the occasional websites that you come across, they are very slow which can be annoying, but with patience you find the product that you want and decide to make an order.  During the order process you are left hanging for a page to load and that patience runs out and you start the search all over again. This is what Google wants to eradicate as it comes under pressure from Bing.

UK Digital Book Sales are hot off the press…

Figures show that the volume of digital book’s sales is climbing and the phrase ‘Hot off the Press’ is under threat from ‘Hot off the Net’. In 2010, sales cleared £16m. These sales include e-books and audio downloads. More specifically novels and consumer titles in 2010 increased from £4m to £16m.

So, will the novels and similar titles be less likely to appear on the book shelves for purchase as a book, or has the tablet computer or device opened up a new market of people that would not read a book but would read a book digitally.

The professional and academic range is till the top subject for the digital reader. The digital reader spent £180m last year on these releases, but this is still a small proportion when put next to the total book sales of £3.1bn. The creation of the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader has promoted these sales specifically with business professionals during their busy commute to work.

The digital publications market is growing for all interests and industries. In the US eBooks out sold hardback book in 2010.

While the book market is massive and traditionally very popular, there is still an incentive also to collect a series of books as enthusiasts do with say DVDs and arrange them on the book shelf in order. This physical presence is something that an e-book will never be able to do.

Google’s Android mobile operating system assists Intel

Intel is the largest computer chip manufacturer and it has decided to run Google’s Android software on its tablet computers. The operating system that will be installed is called Honeycombe and Google state that it is specifically for tablet computers, originating from its very successful mobile version.

Intel has also confirmed that many of their processor chips will also be included into many Smartphone’s. This market has in the past not been a core business area as it has struggled behind its competitors including AMD.

Intel’s first quarter revenues are up by 29% – which is all down to the connections with Google, Windows, and Nokia. This is despite the slight erratic supply from Japan since the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Mr Otellini is the chief executive at Intel and he said: “results in the first quarter are outstanding. If the pace continues we will be looking at a 20% growth.”

Research shows that there is an increasing demand for computer chips to be installed into our PCs, tables and Smartphone’s. This will have a profound effect on the computer chip business.

Many top manufacturers (Dell, HP, and Samsung) had to halt their production of computers in the first quarter while the Intel chips landed at their production buildings.

Google release their Panda update in the UK

Google have stated that the second phase of their Panda Update is now landing in all areas of the UK. Confused?

This update was rolled out in the US just over a month ago. The update was an algorithm change and it was created to help searchers find high quality websites in their results. The US launch did receive a lot of positive feedback. This feedback came from both website owners and searchers.

So, the update promotes the better website essentially and demotes the poor, possible spammy sites. A benefit for the better quality sites as their visibility and SERPs will be improved.

Google are impressed with the results initially as they are now able to highlight the sites that are poor quality.

Quality content is rewarded and might make you a King!

Google Hotpot; will it work?

Have you ever searched in the internet for a bar or a restaurant and the comments or feedback that is given about that particular place or business is from people that you have never heard of. Who are these people? They could be fake or just made up people. Perhaps you did a Google search for a hotel, after choosing a hotel from the results list the ad also contained comments about the hotel from recent guests – can you trust these comments?

According to Google, this is all going to change. The reviews that are left are only from people that you know and can trust, this is called Google Hotpot.

Google Hotpot was announced in November and is designed to share comments and recommendations with your friends. The process begins by rating the places that you have been to, then adding your friends that would make accurate comments and opinions about the places that they have been to. So, you will then log into the Google HotPot and you want an Indian restaurant in town, assuming that a friend has been and commented about their visit to the same restaurant, you will also see that comment and make a decision to go to it or not.

Since then, Google have advanced the system again. When you are logged into your Google Account and you perform a search, if any of your friends have made comments you can choose to only see those results in the results list. Perfect – feedback on a venue, event or perhaps a local bar from a friend not some unknown person, but will it work in the real word against the likes of Facebook or MySpace.

The plan is that Google will use this method to develop a sharing network that will be included in to the Google search.  Could this be the beginnings of a social network? They already have Buzz which is still on the launch pad compared to Facebook, but will HotPot be joining Buzz with a similar disappointing outcome.

The fact that a proper comment is then on the search is really good. This will prevent fake messages and clear the comment sections for only the right content.

Despite this there are pages on Facebook for most Businesses and Places that you can ‘like’ and receive regular updates about. So how will the Google Hotpot fair, or is this a crafty way to mix social networking with its established search engine?

Would you consider reading a newspaper online?

Going to the newsagent and buying a newspaper to keep up to date with the world might be a normal daily activity for you. Perhaps you then read that newspaper during your commute to work or at home. However, in a digressive and digital world, your newspaper behaviour might be subject to an alternative method.

The Times and the Sunday Times have started publishing their newspapers online. By the end of February there were 79,000 subscribers. This is an increase of 29,000 over the least five months. Whilst the publishers are very happy with the number of subscribers and the amount of interest, it does show that the digital audience does like the online option.

This interest has been generated by the growth of the Smartphone and tablet computers and has resulted in the sales of the printed newspapers slowly declining. Also, having the newspaper available online may suit some people, by not having to use the car or make a long walk to get the newspaper.

So the company is shifting its emphasis from the printed word across to the internet word, but this has come at a cost. The Times and the Sunday Times lost more than 90% of its online readers when they started the subscription membership to the website.

Over the last five months, there was a 3% increase in the number of people that paid to access the newspaper. The subscription charge is £2 a week to access the Times and the Sunday Times website. Other large publishers are thinking along the same lines, including the New York Times.

So, could you be convinced to buy and view online?

BlackBerry RIM to Invest in the Tablet Market

Makers of BlackBerry mobile phones, Research in Motion (RIM), has advised that they are expecting lower profits than first forecast due to the additional cost of marketing their new PlayBook device which is to be launched on the 19th April.

This news comes as RIM reports a 33% increase in revenue for its year end results. This sees revenue increased from £9.31bn last year to £12.35bn this year up to 26^th February.

RIM has forecast revenue of £3.2 – £3.47bn in the first quarter of 2012. This forecast is indicative of the market shifting towards lower priced products and extra investment in research, development and marketing for tablet and platform initiatives.

Of the reported revenue, 81% was generated from handset sales with 16% coming from services and 3% for software.  RIM also reported sales of 14.9m BlackBerry smartphones in Q4 last year.

Various firms are trying to compete with the Apple iPad in the tablet market.  RIM hope the release of their BlackBerry PlayBook will be a huge success as it has greater profit margins than handsets.

RIM’s launch plans suffered a setback in February after Chief Marketing Office, Keith Pardy left the company for personal reasons.

Did you install Firefox?

If you did not know, Firefox is an internet browser that many regard to be the best browser on the market today. There are a lot of browsers that can be chosen from including Google Chrome, Safari, and even IE. However, from a technical angle, Firefox is considered the best.

This interest in Firefox was highlighted over the last 2 days with more than five million people downloading the new version of Firefox. Mozilla, the designers of Firefox, have released a number of versions, and they kept an eye on current downloads on a real time map during their installation. As stated, the market is very aggressive with a number of browser brands fighting to be your choice of default browser.  This is clearly highlighted in the launch of this new Firefox version 4, despite the quick download audience its uptake is slower then it pervious version. In 2008, 8 million users downloaded Firefox version 3 on its release day, version 4 hit 5.5 million. So can we conclude on that point that some Firefox users have been converted to a different browser and have not committed to Mozilla Firefox again?

Over the past year there have been many additions into the internet browser arena, one of which was Google Chrome. This new innovation by Google did slightly dint the market share of Firefox along with other providers.

The New Firefox Version 4 was released for download a month after the new IE9 version. Currently the Microsoft supplied Internet Explorer 9 is the latest version from Microsoft and remains the market leader in default browser usage. The main selling points or attractions to these two browsers are that there software promises users to be faster and more secure.

Both IE9 and Firefox 4 both use HTML 5, feature revised hardware accelerations of displaying web content and complex visual motions.

In the beginning, Firefox did enjoy a super fast growth. In 2009, it held a 24% market share. Unfortunately, in February 2011 their market share dropped to 21%, and Google Chrome grew by 10%. Fireboxes’ main market was with corporate users and many analysts believe it could still secure a big piece off this loyal market. Also, IE9 is not compatible on XP; it will only work on Vista and Window 7. So there is a chance that Firefox will gain some ground back from Microsoft which could be a crucial opportunity.

Internet Explorer remains the top browser on the user’s charts, but it is on the way down From 68% in March 2009 to 56% in Februarys 2011.