A couple of months ago I had a conversation with two academic friends of mine about why they refused to use any messenger other than WhatsApp. “We just want it to work!” they said. “Well, Volkswagen cars work” I hit back. “That’s different,” they said. But then what about fairly...
So I am in China for a week. I will write about the wider politics of the place when my time here draws to a close, but for now I will focus on just one aspect: what China’s block on Google tells us… about our use of Google. China blocked...
In the fast-paced online lives we lead, what Google digs up determines our first impressions of anything and, indeed, anyone. Yet I am regularly struck by how odd or alien this idea seems to some people when you confront them with it directly – online you are what Google thinks...
My presence on various social networks was getting rather out of hand, so I’ve had to work out a rule of thumb as to who to add on each network. Here are my conclusions – comments most welcome! Facebook – I’ll accept friend requests from anyone I’ve met and – if...
I’ve amended the design of this blog a bit, simplifying things and moving away from a amended version of Twenty Eleven theme, and instead using a (lightly) adapted version of Busby. This theme incorporates some HTML 5 elements, and also is much neater on devices with small screens. One aspect...
Back in the autumn of last year I did a partial redesign of this blog. Since then the blog has sprouted all kinds of buttons, and looks a bit of a mess. In the meantime WordPress has evolved to version 3.2 and offers a whole bunch of new features. So...
Others will post more profound observations about Google+, but for me it has provoked one fundamental question: what are my rules for adding friends, followers, people into circles etc. on the different social networks I use? Oddly, thinking about this has actually led to a rationalisation of my Facebook use...
How do you get parliamentarians and their staff to better use web tools in their everyday work? It’s a question at the heart of what I do for clients on an everyday basis… So I’m rather content that Google’s Brussels office has asked me to help out with a workshop...
Some friends at Google have pointed me towards Connected Kingdom, a website about the state of the UK’s internet firms that showcases a report by BCG that highlights the importance of the UK’s internet economy. There are also some fledgling discussions about how things could improve in future, but it’s...
One of the major frustrations about the UK mainstream media’s coverage of EU affairs is that even if an article is eventually corrected on a newspaper’s website, or a correction appears in the printed press, the damage is already done – when it comes to the European Union it’s all...