Google

Article — 3 March 2016 — 1,051 words

What the Accelerated Mobile Pages project tells us about the sorry state of web publishing

Digital — Web

The web is in a bad state of health right now. Web publishers and developers can blame themselves.

Article — 27 January 2016 — 179 words

Why it is always worth considering the simplest solution — even if you are Google

Digital — Technology

A couple of separate stories about Google today remind us that simpler is often better.

Article — 13 November 2014 — 780 words

Am I alone in thinking email doesn’t need to be fixed?

User experience — Web

Inbox is Google’s latest attempt to rethink email. But why make the world’s most popular communication platform more complicated?

Article — 20 June 2013 — 980 words

Migrating to another Google account

Personal — Technology

I recently decided to switch my main Google account. But how can you do that when your old account contains all of your data? I found out that the process is not entirely straightforward. But with some care and a few sacrifices it is possible.

Article — 30 May 2013 — 1,322 words

Nexus 10: my first tablet

Technology — Web

Up until now, the tablet revolution has passed me by. But now I have decided to get the Nexus 10. It is a highly impressive piece of kit, but there are frustrations too.

Article — 3 July 2011 — 817 words

First impressions of Google+

Technology

Google has never quite worked with social media. After buying Blogger, it never seemed to know what to do with it. Then there were the high-profile flops Google Buzz and Google Wave. It was tempting to think that the mighty Google had lost touch completely while Facebook and Twitter gain more ground all the time. […]

Article — 19 May 2011 — 937 words

Exploring the Domesday data

Culture — Digital — Social science

I was pretty excited to learn this week about Domesday Reloaded. The Domesday project aimed to take a snapshot of British life in 1986. 25 years on, the BBC are looking to update it to document the changes that have taken place since then. I have been interested in the Domesday project for a while. […]

Article — 19 July 2010 — 636 words

Why are web browser logos all circular?

Web

Work: University of St Andrews

A thought suddenly occurred to me last week when I was attending a presentation at IWMW about HTML5 and friends. One of the slides contained the logos of the five major browsers. It suddenly occurred to me that they are all round! It is almost as if the circle or sphere has, by stealth, become […]

Article — 14 August 2009 — 1,019 words

Are newspapers ready to charge for online content?

Business — Economics — Media — Technology

Rupert Murdoch’s decision to experiment with charging for content has ruffled a few feathers. Fair play to Murdoch for being brave enough to put his head above the parapet. If anyone can take the risk, it’s Murdoch — and the rest of the media will have him to thank if the gamble pays off and […]

Article — 28 October 2008 — 203 words

Reading The Guardian in full

Media — Web

I have long been an advocate of full RSS feeds for reasons outlined in this post. I do, however, understand why most news outlets opt to keep partial feeds. News websites, unlike blogs, typically show you just the headlines and a short summary of each story on the front page — just like a partial […]

Article — 23 October 2008 — 1,540 words

Rumours of blogging’s death are exaggerated, but not greatly so

Media — Society — Technology

There’s been a lot of chat recently about whether blogging is dead, sparked by this article in Wired by Paul Boutin. It’s easy to scoff at the article, and the idea that blogging is dead is obviously nonsense. But I doubt the claim would have got so much attention if there wasn’t a bit of […]

Article — 17 July 2008 — 1,381 words

Why is technology news not news?

Current affairs — Media — Technology — Web

I’ve been wondering a bit about the way technology news is still ghettoised. I don’t mean news about the latest rubbish web 2.0 start-up with a ridiculous name. I mean quite important stuff. Security problems and the like. Take what happened last week. A patch to fix a major flaw in the DNS was released. […]