Meet theEword's latest recruit

Native Liverpudlian Mike Higham joined theEword this month as a digital marketing assistant. Despite being only 21-years-young, Mike already boasts an impressive CV; he has studied for a BA in marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University as well as having won a prestigious placement at local PR firm Golley Slater. Mike talks to theEword about his job, prospective career path and what he sees for the future of the SEO Manchester community.

How are you Mike?

Very well thank you.

What made you want to come and join us at theEword?

I found out about theEword from its role in the Manchester Masters scheme. I’d been hearing more and more about the company over the past few months and it’s obviously a business on the rise. I decided to send my CV to Alan Mackin (theEword Managing Director) and he got in touch with me a few days later to arrange an interview.

Do you enjoy life as a digital marketing assistant at theEword?

Absolutely. There’s a real sense of trust here. Despite being relatively new to the team, I already have my own duties and responsibilities. The team is great too. Everyone is very friendly and supportive. Mark (Baker – online marketing manager) is a great boss.

What do you see for the future of the SEO Manchester community?

There’s definite momentum in the Manchester digital sector. Many firms (particularly Public Relations) are shifting their perspective to include digital strategies into their marketing plans. There’s a definite buzz about the SEO Manchester community at the moment.

What’s your favourite marketing campaign?

It’s a cliché, but I thought the recent Cadbury advertisements were quite clever; using nostalgic songs with a modern surreal twist. The drum-playing gorilla advertisement is popular for a reason. These are the sorts of adverts which are going to be talked about for years.

Are you a dog, cat or goldfish person?

I’ve always had a dog.

Can you cook?

I’m very good at cooking meat.

Right. How is your dog, by the way?

Fine, thank you.

Phew.

theEweekly Wrap

Film profile

Facebook: The Movie moved closer to reality this week. The national US paper, The Hollywood Reporter, announced that David Fincher, acclaimed filmmaker of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Seven, may direct the movie chronicling the site’s humble beginnings.

The film, which is being penned by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, focuses on the three founders of the site: Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Sorkin registered as a Facebook user in November 2008 in order to research material for the film.

Facebook began life in 2004 and originally operated as a networking site for students and staff at Harvard University. The site now has over 100 million users worldwide.

Google city breaks

Google Labs has unveiled its latest project: Google City Tours. The new application suggests travel itineraries for cities across the globe. The site is fully integrated into the Google maps system and users can see their agenda plotted out across their location of choice. Individuals also have the opportunity to customise a visit; plotting times and adding or removing suggested locations.

A travel itinerary for the centre of Manchester resulted in the following recommendations:

Google's city tour of Manchester

The new software has received positive reviews. Jason Kincaid, of consumer site TechCrunch, commented that the application could ensure a hassle-free holiday. Respected SEO blogger Matt McGee said the site had limitless potential.

“Imagine Google pulling in the public transit information that it already has for many cities. Imagine it pulling in event listings like concerts and sports. Imagine local businesses being able to write their own suggested city tours that include a stop at the business's own location, and being able to embed those tour maps on their web sites. This seems like an interesting experiment to watch."

Junk birds

Five individuals could face jail after pleading guilty to spamming charges in a land-mark trial in America. The five men could face up to six years in prison and fines of $1 million.

Alan Raisky, 64, along with four other men, ischarged with breaking a number of laws including the CAN-SPAM legislation. Raisky is on trial for ‘botnet spamming’; remotely hijacking virus-infected computers to generate millions of automated spam emails.

This article does not cite its sources

The editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine has been accused of plagiarising material after paragraphs from the online resource Wikipedia were found in his latest book. Chris Anderson issued an immediate apology after similarities were spotted between his latest novel, Free, and various Wikipedia entries. Over a dozen passages are thought to have been lifted from the site.

Anderson swiftly apologised, stating that an 11th hour decision had resulted in the removal of footnotes from the book. He said:

“Obviously in my rush at the end [to finish the book], I missed a few...which is bad”.

Anderson’s previous novel, The Long Tail, became a best-seller after its release in 2006.

Showbiz SEO

The popular US entertainment and media blog Deadline Hollywood Daily (DHD) has been purchased for an estimated $15 (£9) million. The site, famous for its investigative reports, was bought by the American media giant Mail Media Corporation.

Deadline Hollywood Daily is operated by leading US-columnist Nikki Finke. She assured readers in a blog that the site would not alter too dramatically, despite the sale.

“Deadline Hollywood Daily.com will continue to be an independent editorial voice – and I would retain complete control over everything reported on the website -- so that DHD’s credibility with its readers could remain intact.”

Damned if you do

The Chinese government has vowed to press ahead with a controversial new plan which would require every computer in the country to operate with an internet filtering programme.
Chinese officials said that the government would be looking at ways to make controversial blocking software – Green Dam – compulsory on every machine in the country.

The software, set to be included on all new machines sold in China after July 1, 2009, is said to prevent access to pornographic material. Experts however have said that the Green Dam programme will also filter out a number of political websites.

News in 140 characters:

• UK furniture chain Habitat criticised after caught advertising its wares on a number of trending topics, including #iranelection.
  
• The untimely death of Michael Jackson accounted for 20 per cent of all Twitter usage yesterday at 23.30pm.
  
• Woolworths relaunched as an online retailer this week. The brand is now owned by the Shop Direct group.

New digital marketing assistant joins theEword team

This month, theEword welcomed its latest staff member, digital marketing assistant Holly O'Boyle. Holly joins the team having recently completed a BA in International Business at Manchester Metropolitan University. Since becoming a member of theEword, Holly’s appointment has already been featured in a number of online media publications. Here, Holly talks to theEword blog about her time as a student, the SEO Manchester community and obscure pets.

Hello Holly.

Hi.

Tell us about your favourite website.

Probably Facebook. I worked on social marketing campaign for the site a few months ago. I was raising awareness for a fancy dress business I founded while at University. The campaign actually helped me make a profit. I became a Facebook addict from then on.

What’s your favourite marketing campaign?

Definitely Orange Wednesday. I spoofed the wicked witch advertisement for my entry into the Manchester Masters competition (Holly eventually finished inside the top 20 finalists). It later appeared on the official Orange blog!

Holly's entry video for the Manchester Masters competition

What attracted you to this role?

It is the perfect place to start my career. It’s a very close-knit and friendly team. There’s a great working environment and atmosphere here!

What’s your favourite genre of film?

There are so many. I’m a romantic comedy fan at heart though. I don’t have a particular favourite – I’m fond of most of them.

What’s your greatest achievement outside of work?

I studied in Italy during a placement year at university. I’m quite proud of my ability to still remember much of the Italian I picked up there.

What was the first website you ever went on?

I seem to remember going on Wikipedia a lot during my school years. Definitely not for cheating on my homework though.

Tell us an interesting fact.

Wooly Mammoths may soon roam the city streets. I’d enjoy having a pet mammoth. It would probably be quicker travelling to work too.

UK search engine results

The mix up of UK and International results in Google is the talk of the SEO wires. After our blog last week there's been a tonne of posts around the Internet about how this is affecting UK sites. One of the worst examples of this is the term "london safes", which brings up an Australian website as the first results. You'd think that the high bounce rate would have brought that site down from the top position, but it's still up there over a week later.

Another troubled keyword is "family homes kent" which returns three American sites in the first five entries. None of the US-sites cater for the UK market, and you have to wonder how many searches for "family home kent" are for Kent, Ohio and how many are for the south east of England. I think the figure for the former will be extremely low, and this defies Google's normal reasoning.

There's been a lot of speculation about why this is happening, and my guess is that it's a combination of factors. It's not uncommon for Google to promote or demote sites depending upon the season, for example "Serviced Apartments Newcastle" brings up more Australian sites during the early half of the year, and Google is known to respond to volume (either in searches, or in a spike in the deemed success, or failure rate of a site) so it could be that a minor algorithm change has combined with some seasonality and volume changes.

Whatever the cause there's some genuine issues with Google SERPs at the moment, at least in the user and search community's eyes, and it will be interesting to find out what the cause of this is.

Story carried elsewhere

• Vertical Leap


• SEO Optimise


• Search Cowboys


• Fresh Egg

theEweekly Wrap

Empty Space

Troubled social networking site MySpace has announced it will be shedding 30 per cent of its workforce in an attempt to reduce losses. The site, which has been bleeding users to rivals Facebook and Twitter, will cut 420 roles across the United States. It is also reported bosses are considering shutting down offices in France, Italy and Spain.

The beleaguered site has been under pressure to stem the recent slump in registered users. Chief executive Owen Van Natta described the move as 'necessary' in order to guarantee the long-term profitability of the property.

"Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said Van Natta.

"I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product."

Bargain bucket

Online retailer Amazon was left red-faced after a technical problem allowed customers to download a number of popular music albums for just 29p on Wednesday 17 June.

It is believed a pricing error was responsible for the issue, which saw albums from Lily Allen, MGMT and Calvin Harris available for 3 per cent their original value. theEword has no comment regarding the calibre of the material on offer.

The mistake was rectified after four hours.

Viva La Twitter

Twitter is providing protesters in Iran with a means of communication amid Government clampdowns across the internet. The social networking service is being used to inform individuals of the times and locations of demonstrations against suspected vote rigging in favour of the current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iranians have been using the service to coordinate protests in the country. Despite government pressure and a blanket block of any file-sharing content - such as Facebook and YouTube – many anti-government protesters have been using proxy servers to avoid monitored gateways.

Protesters have been using Twitter to upload photographs of the demonstrations

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the US government requested Twitter delay essential upgrades to its software in order to minimize any disruption for Iranian users. Twitter had planned to complete maintenance work across the site on Monday 15 June. It has been revealed that the US state department requested the company delay the downtime until Thursday to precipitate the demonstrations in Iran.

A statement on Twitter read:

"A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran. Tonight's planned maintenance has been rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST (1:30am in Iran)."

Jobsworth

Government officials in Montana have come under fire after it was revealed job applicants for posts have been required to hand over their personal internet information when applying for official roles. Any individual applying for a local government position in the city of Bozeman has been asked give out their details – including usernames and passwords – for a number of websites, including MySpace, Google and Facebook.

The move is thought to be part of a vetting process in order to assess applicants’ suitability for a position. City official Greg Sullivan said the move was a necessary precaution.

"We have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here. So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the city."

Making SEO-friendly URLs

SEO developer Adrian Mursec on the subject of URL structure, and some common pitfalls to avoid...

After one of my recent theEword blog posts about how to select a good domain name, I thought I would follow on with how to keep a good URL structure on your site.

The URL of a page is probably the most important factor in on-page SEO. If it doesn't work, the page won’t load or you may have duplicate content being indexed in search engines, both of which can be a big problem to fix.

So what kind of issues can you get from a bad URL structure? The three main problems are:

• Pages might not be found by search engines.


• Users may not be able to be revisit pages again.


• Pages could be crawled several times, resulting in duplicate content being submitted but none being indexed.

The best way to stop these problems is to make sure your site has clean and uniformed URLs.

How to spot and fix SEO-unfriendly URLs

The easiest way to check if Google is seeing duplicate URLs is by typing site:example.com into Google. This will show you how many and which pages are indexed from a given domain name, allowing you to spot duplicate pages and URL problems.

Having duplicate domain names can be a big problem for sites. When you register a new domain name, many registrars will offer deals on multi-buys for example a .co.uk and .com bundle, but if you have bought more, just choose one and make sure all the others redirect to that main address.

The most common cause of a canonical URL is what I will refer to as the ‘www. and non-www.’ issue. You might have heard of this one - try to visit your site without typing www. into your web browser. If it doesn't redirect, your site may suffer problems.

Another issue which can be hard to fix is that of case-sensitive URLs. This is often caused when you use upper case letters in your URLs but other sites link to just the lower case version.

Depending on your server configuration, you might be able to fix this issue with a permanent 301 redirect or by uniforming all the links to the same case (there is also a meta tag to specify a canonical URL). Generally I try to keep all links to lower case just to prevent this issue.

The most important page on your site will be the home page and one problem I see often is when the developer links to example.com/index.html which means all the internal links to the home page will point to a different URL while the external links would tend to point just to example.com.

Useful links

There are thousands of SEO resources on the internet to help deal with these issues. One great resource is the Google Webmaster Blog. One article in particular worth reading is Specify your canonical – this article runs through how to use the canonical meta tag and how it can help you fix your URLs.

Ask Apache is another great source if your site is hosted on an Apache web server. The following article talks about SEO-friendly 301 redirects, which can help if you spot a problem.

Google SERPs up a curve ball

Last week's change in Google's UK search results is still the subject of much debate in the SEO community. On Monday 8th June, many SEO companies and employees reported a huge change in the way Google organised UK search results.

For those of you not aware of the situation, it is widely thought that a modification in Google's algorithms resulted in global companies appearing the UK SERPs. American domains leapfrogged over UK sites, Australian pages snuck into the top ten rankings and unfamiliar domains hijacked a number of results. Typically, the internet responded with the calm and composure one would expect:

• "Product searches and UK SERPs results are beyond a joke now."
  
• "Look at UK SERPs. “London safes” a .com.au in 1st position - nonsense relevancy."
  
• "Wish Google would sort out the UK SERPs. It’s an absolute joke at the moment."

Judging by the volume of complaints online, the problem is still ongoing.

Everyone in the industry understands the delicate nature of SEO, particularly on Google. Results can flutter, dip, rise and fall. This is what makes our business so fascinating. The slightest change to Google and its algorithms can send a site crashing out of the top 20. It can also see one rise thirty places.

While many have argued that Google could be more transparent with its business and technical model in order to avoid such occurrences, I would disagree. Google, after all, is still a business and has its own interests to cater for. The company gives away enough information to get your foot in the SEO door: Google University, the webmaster tools and the great Matt Cutts. The foundations for a solid SEO strategy are already widely available. If a key ranking has slipped over the past few days, perhaps it is best to conduct an investigation of your own site rather than demand affirmative action from Google.

However, judging by the calibre of names and companies highlighting this issue, this mix of SERPs results appears to be a technical glitch from Google. Many have predicted that UK SERPs should settle down over the coming weeks and that this anomaly is merely a trial. Still, trials are done for a reason and Google does not have a reputation as a company which operates on a whim.

theEweekly Wrap

User-edited news

Google has been trialling the use of links to Wikipedia articles in its news service. Company spokesperson Gabriel Stricker confirmed that the search engine was experimenting with the scheme after a number of bloggers spotted links to Wikipedia pages in Google's news service.

"Currently, we’re showing a small number of users links to Wikipedia topic pages that serve as a reference on current events," he said.

The trial displays relevant Google pages for certain news stories. One SEO blogger commented on the news:

"It’s hard to argue with the idea that many Wikipedia pages — which are often more comprehensive and updated more quickly than some news sites — offer background and context on current events that could be beneficial to Google News users."

Yes, we can (file-share)

A Swedish political group committed to legalising file-sharing online has claimed a seat in the European parliament. The Pirate Party won 7.1 per cent of votes in the recent European Union elections which were held last week.

The Pirate Party campaigned on a number of online issues, the most prominent being the legalisation of file sharing across the internet. The political group also ran its campaign with the promise to reform online privacy laws.

It is thought the group gained additional supporters amid the lawsuit against the unrelated Swedish torrent website, The Pirate Bay. Figures show that the membership of the political party tripled following the verdict against the founders of the file-sharing portal. The Pirate Party now has over 48,000 registered members in Sweden

URL Envy

From 5.01am on Saturday 12 June, social-networking site Facebook is allowing members to choose a username for their personal profile. The move sees the site abandon its previous URL structure – where each member was randomly assigned a number – and adopt a similar site structure to rival sites, MySpace and Twitter, with usernames featuring as part of the URL text. A statement from Facebook said:

"We're planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you."

Usernames are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and members are being warned that they cannot change their handle at a later date. The move caused controversy after it was revealed a number of high-profile businesses have already ‘reserved’ their usernames.

140 character dissertation

In local SEO Manchester news, The University of Salford has announced the launch of an MA in social media. The course, which starts in September, sees students study the history and theory of online social media. It aims to teach individuals how social media can be used for marketing and lobbying.

The course leader at Salford University, Professor Ben Light, said that social media provided a quality form of communication, whether for a community or a business.

"We feel that social media can be a way of doing social good and by giving students the skills and experience to implement effective technology and strategies, we hope they’ll be able to make a difference."

theEword announces senior PHP/LAMP developer vacancy

After a fantastic twelve months in which theEword team grew from two members to twelve fourteen, we continue to expand and we're currently hiring.

Our latest vacancy is in our technical department; we're looking for a senior LAMP developer who will work alongside existing team members on the coding and development of our clients' sites. The ideal candidate will slot perfectly into the set-up, while at the same time being able to produce solutions on an individual level.

An understanding of SEO best practice is vital to this role, as is the ability to think two steps ahead and be stringent in every stage of the quality control process. We are also looking for someone who is prepared to bring new ideas and intelligence to the table, and share them with other departments of the company.

What you’ll need to know:

• Linux
  
• PHP
  
• Javascript/AJAX
  
• XML/RSS
  
• MySQL

The successful candidate will enjoy all the benefits of working for one of Manchester’s fastest-growing online marketing companies, including a generous salary (up to £28,000 dependent on experience), 28 days holiday, free car parking and an excellent location just next to Salford Quays.

Find out more about our senior LAMP developer job.

Bing's layout: improved results for search marketers?

Here are some interesting findings from American user experience consultancy User Centric, who have been conducting a bit of research into the ways in which people look at search engines.

The company compared two providers – Google, and Microsoft’s relaunched Bing (whose leapfrogging of Yahoo into second place in the search market was, reports Techcrunch, short-lived) – to see how each captured the visual interest of visitors.

The results showed that the two search engines were fairly evenly matched when it came to the attention paid to natural search listings, with users spending an average of seven seconds looking at that area of the page.

Similarly, interest in the sponsored results above the natural listings was high on both search engines. Over 90 per cent of participants spent time looking at the paid results on Google and Bing, with the duration of interest increasing on task-based (eg. ‘find a new car’) searches.

Differences emerged when it came to the paid adverts that appear on the right hand side of both search providers’ results pages. Bing’s layout was found to be more effective in drawing attention to the sponsored listings, with 42 per cent of users looking at them, compared to 25 per cent for Google.

These images show user activity on Bing (left) and Google. Red areas were those that were looked at for more than 4.5 seconds. The colouring on Bing's sponsored listings show they attracted more interest than Google's.

Reasons cited for the difference include the space between natural and paid listings being much smaller on Bing, making users more likely to glance across to the sponsored links. Also, Bing’s ‘book-ended’ page design (which has related searches shown on the left) means surfers spend a more even amount of time looking at each section of the page.

Already, some sources are suggesting that this difference may attract advertisers to Bing, as it means their ads are more likely to be viewed. However, the User Centric study showed that click-through rates were about the same on both search engines, so while more people may be looking at Bing’s sponsored links, they aren’t necessarily following them.

For the study, researchers used heatmaps and eye-tracking technology to monitor where on the pages users were looking. theEword employs heatmaps as part of its A/B testing process, using them to track visitor activity across different page designs.

One useful aspect of the technology is that it allows designers to see which elements on the page are attracting clicks, even if those elements are inactive (leading to development questions such as ‘if that static graphic is drawing a lot of attention, would there be any gain in making it clickable, or replacing it with a sales button?’). This enables SEO teams to identify which parts of the page will be instrumental in the conversion process and make use of them accordingly.

The best Twitter applications for social marketing

Over three million updates are posted on Twitter every day. The sheer quantity of tweets makes hunting out specific information - discussions about a brand or product - nearly impossible. Thankfully, there are a number of tools which social marketers can use to pinpoint the conversations which affect them and their clients. Tom Mason, copywriter at theEword, highlights five of the best Twitter widgets available on the net...

Twendz

Twendz is a Twitter application which gives users the chance to look into the trends of the day. This innovative Twitter widget examines the emotion behind each popular subject, cleverly monitoring the proportion of positive, neutral and negative tweets for each topic. As a result, users can see the level of emotional response to the keyword of their choice. Sadly, it’s not statistical in the slightest and any data is subjective to real-time tweets (data is pulled from tweets occurring after users begin monitoring the trend). Twendz is a useful slice of customer sentiment but don’t expect to harness any statistical data.

Good for: Monitoring the emotional reaction of a brand or product
Bad for: Hard statistics

Twitalyzer

Twitalyzer is a great Twitter application if you want to measure the reputation of an member on the site. The website analyses a Twitter account in four different ways, creating a unique metric system on which to judge its success (or failings). This Twitter widget rates an account on its influence; the number and quality of its followers, the amount of retweets, and number of '@' mentions. Twitalyzer then produces a score based on these factors. This analytical process can be used to highlight areas of a social media strategy that need improving as well as allowing users to compare their campaign to rivals in the same industry.

Good for: Finding areas of improvement in your social marketing strategy
Bad for: Egos

Twist

Twist offers an 'insights-esque' service for statistic hounds. This Twitter application allows visitors to discover the percentage of members discussing a specific topic; those of an analytical nature can enjoy detailed graphs following the rise and fall of a particular trend over 24 hours, 7 days or one month. It’s a great Twitter application if you’re seeking statistical data on the success of a product or marketing campaign. As this Twitter widget also allows users to compare tweets over a specific timeframe, it’s useful for those wanting to analyse the success of different trends over a relatively short time period. Sadly, the Twist Twitter application does not contain statistics over a longer period (presumably because of the sheer scale of data available), so it’s not yet suitable for monitoring long-term campaigns.

Good for: One of the few statistical analysis tools for Twitter
Bad for: Long-term analysis of trends

Twist application for Twitter

Monitter

Monitter is a Twitter app ideal for monitoring tweets from a specific geographical area. This site allows users to compare three search terms over a specific distance - up to 100 miles or kilometres. The Monitter Twitter application draws up search results in real time, which allows users to gain an appreciation of the number of users discussing a topic. The geographical element comes into play if your marketing campaign is location-specific and as far as we’re aware, it is the only Twitter application with this particular tool at its disposal. There are not really any statistics to speak of; tweets flow through when and if they happen.

Good for: Comparing geographical reaction and trending
Bad for: Statistical analysis

Tweetscan

Tweetscan is a great Twitter application if you’d prefer a hands-off approach to social marketing. This Twitter app sends users an email update notifying them of any tweet containing a specific search term. Updates can be received on a daily or weekly basis depending on interest or need. This Twitter application is a low-maintenance service which is perfect for users dealing with a low-frequency search term.

Good for: Simple and effective monitoring
Bad for: Price. A subscription fee is charged

theEweekly Wrap

Making friends with Microsoft

Microsoft has said that it intends to launch social networking sites Twitter and Facebook on its Xbox 360 console. The announcement, made at this week's E3 computer game conference, means that players will be able to access the site via the Xbox Live software on their consoles.

New features for the Facebook service include the ability to take screenshots during games and send them directly to contacts. Users will also be able to link the service to their Xbox Live profile. A spokesperson for Microsoft said it would "change the way you experience games". Both the Twitter and Facebook applications are set for launch in the autumn.

Tracker trail

Google Analytics is the market leader in website tracking according to a study published by students at the University of California, Berkeley. The research found 81 per cent of the top 100 websites used Google Analytics to monitor user visits. DoubleClick, which is also owned by Google, was in second place having been recorded on 71 per cent. Atlas, the Microsoft tracking software was found on only 60 per cent of these sites.

Bing back Google

Microsoft caused controversy this week when it was discovered its new search engine, Bing, was overriding the default search provider set by Internet Explorer 6 users. Just days after the launch of the website, many internet browsers discovered that Bing had automatically been set as their default search tool. The malfunction also prevented users from manually fixing the issue.

Microsoft launched Bing early in June

It is believed that a bug in the browser's software caused the problem. Microsoft has since reported that the issue has been resolved and the complication has not been reported on any other internet browsing applications. Just over 18 per cent of web users still use IE 6 to browse the web.

Crouching Twitter, hidden Digger

The Chinese government has been accused of internet censorship after it blocked a number of websites in the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. The Chinese authorities denied access to a number of sites this week, including the social-networking service Twitter, photo-sharing site Flicker and email client Hotmail.

The move came two days before the anniversary of the pro-democracy protest in which hundreds died. It is thought the Chinese authorities were keen to quell any anti-government sentiments which may have been expressed on the sites.

"Twitter is a tool which can put all the sensitive things and sensitive guys together, very quickly. That's the very thing that the Chinese government doesn't want to see in China," commented one blogger.

The internet is heavily monitored in China and a number of websites have been permanently blocked by the government. Blogger.com was banned in May and video-sharing portal YouTube has been unavailable since March.

theEword director named in Crain's 40 under 40

theEword co-founder and MD Al Mackin has been named by Crain's Manchester Business as one of the 40 most successful people under the age of 40.

The list is drawn up by the paper to honour the success of those for whom, according to the old adage, life is yet to begin. In compiling the names, Crain's editors and reporters set out to reflect the broad spectrum of industries they cover.

Mackin was chosen for his accomplishments in digital marketing, which have included taking theEword from a payroll of two to ten in less than a year, at the same time establishing the company as a major player in Manchester SEO by winning several tough pitches against larger firms.

Speaking about the award, Mackin said:

"I am honoured to be named in Crain’s list of the 40 most successful people under 40 this year. I’ve spent most of the last two years striving for my clients so it’s an unexpected, but welcome, surprise for my own achievements to be recognised."

In naming the 40, judges were looking not only for professional success, but also participation in community and non-profit services and trade groups.

The names on the list include successful candidates from companies such as Bauer Media, Barburrito and Manchester-based events firm Ear To The Ground.

The 40 under 40 awards take place on Monday 29 June in the form of a glitzy ceremony including Champagne reception and dinner at the Midland Hotel.

theEword attends E Commerce Expo North 2009

June 2nd saw the launch of the first E Commerce Expo North at the Hilton Hotel, Manchester. The event gave digital retailers, industry agencies and SEO Manchester companies the opportunity to view the latest products and discuss the newest techniques in the e-commerce arena.

theEword director’s Al Mackin and Tom Glass attended the event, accompanied by online marketing manager Mark Baker and copywriter Tom Mason.

theEword team at E Commerce Expo North 2009

The event saw over 35 exhibiting companies fill the Deansgate Suite of the Hilton Hotel. Notable businesses included Paypal, Adobe and British Telecom. Many organisations used E Commerce Expo North as a platform to showcase their latest products and tools, such as eye-tracking website software and social marketing applications.

The exhibition also hosted a series of conference talks during the day. The Google University seminars on Analytics and Adwords proved to be the most popular lectures of the event, while presentations on SEO developments, conversion rates and social marketing strategies were also well-attended.

Tom Glass, creative director at theEword, said:

"The exhibition was a great opportunity for theEword staff to discover the latest trends and developments in the industry . It was very nice to see an exhibition solely for Manchester SEO and digital companies."

Tom Mason, copywriter at theEword, said:

"Gina Deeble (head of interactive content at QVC UK) held a very interesting lecture on social commerce strategies. At theEword we specialise in bringing clients and customers closer together and it was interesting to discover how such a major brand is developing its social strategy.

"After the seminar, Gina and I had a discussion on social marketing best practices. As someone who works with clients on a number of social marketing campaigns, I was interested to hear about her experiences with the medium."

Cold, hard facts versus Google

Wolfram Alpha, the 'computational knowledge engine', has been dubbed, by some, as a considerable competitor to Google.

The brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram utilises significantly different methods to the search giant, however. Instead of producing ranked links, the service presents pages of data and statistics.

Here at theEword, we’ve taken a look at how Wolfram Alpha has fared after two weeks of live operation. This is what some of our team thought:

Journalist Tom Mason believes it has benefits: "Despite its faults, Wolfram Alpha has its uses. If I quickly want to know the number of visitors to Twitter per day, or the population of Manchester, it’s an ideal tool.

"This is a website which removes a step in the search process – it's not exactly innovative, but it is refreshing to get a straight answer without having to scroll down a page of blue links."

Online marketing manager Mark Baker was intrigued by the platform: "I typed in 'peas' – for no real reason – and it showed calories and nutrition information, along with a description. [The results I got were] pretty good, like a dictionary but with more rounded data."

Explanations as well as answers

Wolfram Alpha seems to come up trumps regarding queries that require 'black and white' answers. But many searchers don't just want cold, hard facts; opinion, comment and detailed information are sometimes required.

Tom Glass, theEword's design director and co-founder said: "Some things that I searched for came up with no answer. Google, however, had results for all the things I looked for."

Pop culture references seemed to be a stumbling block too. Managing director and co-founder of theEword Al Mackin typed in the question; 'How many nightclubs are there in Manchester?'.

"It took me ten attempts for it to return anything," he said. “All I got [in the end] was general information on Manchester."

Tom Mason sums up Wolfram Alpha’s impact: “This search engine is touted as the Google-beater. It has a long, long way to travel.”

Wolfram Alpha might know how many miles, seconds and steps it will take to emulate Google’s achievements – if it survives – but how it gets there is another issue.