It pays to be at the centre of attention

Jonathan Bowers, October 20th 2008, 5:13PM

Rural communities in the UK have come to the end of their tether with broadband providers and their deceptive claims, reports this week say. Broadband firms overstating the ‘speed’ of their packages is not new and the fact the rural communities always seem to feel the most disgruntled is also not new. However the critical mass of calls for the authorities to do something is novel.

Countryside dwellers, such as those in Huntingdon, Cambridge, are hitting back with concerted pressure on the Government and Ofcom to bring the misleading broadband providers to heel.

The classic problem is the ‘up to’ capacity advertised by broadband companies. Most, not surprisingly, state the maximum speed available on their network prominently. Meanwhile, talk of possible geographical limitations is relegated to the small print. The result is disappointed customers in areas that are a long way from the main local exchange, such as any rural community.

Residents in Huntingdonshire believe that instead of the 8MB broadband that is promoted, they are in reality only getting 512KB, one sixteenth of the headline speed.

All this grief and disappointing performance is because Huntington is not located on a broadband superhighway and that got me thinking about the parallels to the ecommerce industry. Quick and reliable service is essential for any Web business. Customers will not wait for slow loading sites.
Furthermore, Google rankings partly rely on speed ratings, so again slow websites will lose out due to poor Google listings.

So the lessons for ebusinesses are to ensure that their server power is up to the job and that their hosting company is located on a major hub of the broadband network. ISPs, such as UKFast, who occupy a position right on the broadband superhighway can offer more.

So to be in the ecommerce fast lane make sure your hosting provider is right in the middle of the action.

Tags: broadband, e-commerce, google, hosting, internet, websites
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Internet can be a remedy to the credit crunch

Jonathan Bowers, October 10th 2008, 2:59PM

The latest figures for online ad spend are an eye opening read. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, internet advertising expenditure increased by 21% year on year in the first half of 2008, while the total ad market fell by 0.7% in the same period.

Now these figures do cover a period before the credit crunch truly kicked in but the slow down was already starting and confidence was already falling, so they do reflect behaviour in belt tightening times.

The main headline is that when the advertising market as a whole is cutting back, internet spend continues to rise. And why is this? It is because companies know that online advertising is affordable, accountable and effective.

Online ads have the potential to reach a world of consumers and many online ads only cost per click, so you don’t pay for ineffective advertising. Meanwhile, pay-per-click campaigns and banner leads alike can be monitored to record the direct correlation between advert - interest- spend, so scrutinising management boards can see the tangible results of advertising on the net.

So even when businesses need to cut overheads they have learned that to do so online is a false economy. In my view, if cuts can be concentrated elsewhere they should be because a continued investment in an online presence will always deliver a strong return.

In fact, a bold policy of actually injecting extra online advertising investment now could be the best business decision an MD makes all year. Imagine having your brand all over the internet when your rivals are hiding behind the office photocopier.

And those with an online business should be equally bold. Promote your business and be prepared for extra traffic by ensuring that your hosting solution is up to scratch. Don’t run the risk of downtime when the online marketplace is at the fore. Invest in a dedicated hosting solution to ensure that you are equipped to beat the crunch.

Tags: advertising, adwords, brand, e-commerce, hosting, internet, marketing
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Don't kick Google StreetView to the curb

Jonathan Bowers, July 18th 2008, 5:02PM

Last week Google made front page news with the revelation that its StreetView mapping cars had hit the roads of UK cities.

For those of you who don’t know what Google StreetView is, it is the 360 degree photographing of urban layouts to produce a complete online photographic record of any given point within the StreetView map network.

Currently, a host of cities in the US and France have been photo-mapped and uploaded to the Google Maps website, allowing any internet user to view any street included in the network at any time.

With the arrival of the mapping cars in the UK, the same visual access to our streets is imminent and this has resulted in the previously mentioned front page headlines. Privacy campaigners are appalled by the StreetView concept and they argue that it is a massive invasion of people’s privacy.

However, Google has responded by saying it will blur the faces of anyone captured on film and that it will abide by all relevant UK laws.

So are the privacy issues really a concern?

I don’t believe so. Our identities will not really be betrayed by StreetView and while the opponents do have some valid points, I strongly believe that the positives significantly outweigh the negatives.

One quick test of the new application and the fantastic potential of StreetView leaps out at you. I found myself looking at US cities to get a flavour of whether they would be interesting to visit in person. So this technology is a great way to research potential holiday destinations or even to research home purchases. It can also be used to locate sites or to visualise journey routes.

And of course the potential going forward is immense. An interactive feature could expand the possibilities vastly, while StreetView could even become a totally new concept in communication.

As long as the understandable privacy issues are fully respected then I believe StreetView will be an exciting addition to the ever expanding potential of the internet.

One more thought. Whatever happens with the development of this technology, what is sure is that companies employing it will have to ensure that they have the server power to support it.

Increasingly companies are turning to dedicated server solutions to meet increased processing requirements. As a global leader Google will undoubtedly be running its StreetView technology on dedicated servers, so those looking to capitalise on the exciting new potential should definitely consider a dedicated server solution.

Tags: google, hosting, internet
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Overseas invasion targets UK consumers

Jonathan Bowers, September 5th 2007, 11:29AM

As a hosting provider UKFast gets a glimpse of the way the online industry is developing slightly ahead of other businesses. Quite often it's easy to spot which areas of the net will grow fastest or which are levelling off.

At the moment there's plenty of evidence to suggest that serious overseas companies are pushing to take a chunk of the UK market for themselves. And this isn't necessarily in one particular sector - although some are leading the field - it looks like this is happening across the board.

We now know that you rank more highly on search if you host in the country of the searcher, so if you are appealing to the markets in the UK and Germany, you should make sure you have a good host for some of your solution in Germany as well as here in the UK.

By the size of the solutions foreign companies are taking with UKFast, it's fair to say that they are very serious about our market. The largest UK online businesses in each sector will not be that worried by them but much of the SME market needs to make sure it is competitive enough with it's hosting to fend off this foreign invasion.

Tags: global_community, hosting, search
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