theEweekly Wrap: Mapping, blocking and speculating

London mapping

Google has updated its Maps service for London this week to include information on the public transport network. Whether searching online or through Google Maps for mobile, users can now obtain public transport information as part of the 'get directions' function. The information comes from the Transport for London Datastore, and includes timetables and routemaps spanning 18,000 bus stops and 250 Tube stations as well as tram and DLR lines. If your phone has GPS, Maps can even decide on the best route based on your current location. Google said: "Whether you use public transport every day or infrequently, as a commuter, on a business trip or as a tourist, we hope that public transport directions in London make planning your trips more convenient". Google has also recently introduced 3D building outlines in Maps for mobile, making it easier for people on the streets of London to spot landmarks and orientate themselves.

Banned ahoy

Piracy in the UK was dealt a fateful blow this week. In a landmark case, a High Court judge ruled that BT, the country's largest Internet Service Provider (ISP), had to block access to a site that was infringing copyright. The site – Newzbin 2 – was a platform where users could share links to pirated films and TV shows. Industry body for film studios the Motion Picture Association sought an injunction last month to force BT to block their customers from the site. As well as being the UK's largest broadband company, BT provides CleanFeed, the technology used by a number of ISPs to block sites featuring child sex abuse. ISPs including Virgin Media and BT were in talks with the Government late last year over proposals to block adult sites to protect children, following the revelation that one in three under-10s had seen pornographic material online.

iPhone 5 rumours

As is the case whenever an Apple product launch is on the horizon, rumours are flying concerning the iPhone 5. Several different case prototypes have surfaced, and it's hard to tell which might be genuine; a computer-generated diagram leaked by MobileFun.co.uk indicate a curved back and edge-to-edge display, with some kind of touch panel where the home button usually lies. Meanwhile, Vietnamese forum Tinhte has published a photo of a thin white iPhone with casing made of plastic rather than aluminium and glass. This fits in with rumours that Apple was considering developing a more affordable version of the popular handset. As for features on the iPhone 5, 9to5Mac reported that iOS 5 will incorporate facial recognition technology, opening up a world of possibilities including AR apps. The latest release date rumours hint at September 5th in the US, and a month later everywhere else.

theEweekly Wrap: Harry Potter, Labs and Lulz

Labs' labour's lost

The tech world will soon have to bid a fond farewell to Google Labs. The site has long been the testing ground for early prototypes of Google products, and has spawned some of the web's most innovative tools. Google Goggles – the app that converts a photo taken on a mobile phone into a Google search – was developed in Labs, while one of the current hits is a searchable 3D model of the human body. In an official blog post entitled More wood behind fewer arrows, Google explained the shutdown saying "we're prioritizing our product efforts" and revealed that "in many cases, this will mean ending Labs experiments". However, the company clarified that their '20% time' policy would not be affected. This allows employees to spend a fifth of their time working on new projects and ideas; but with nowhere to test and improve on those new ideas, some will now never see the light of day.

Hackers hacked

The News of the World phone hacking scandal entered the online arena this week as parent company News International found itself the victim of hacktivists. The problems first started on Sunday night, when the Sun website was hacked and redirected users to a fake page, reporting Rupert Murdoch's death. The hacker group LulzSec claimed responsibility, and revealed via Twitter that they had obtained the email addresses and passwords of News International staff. Webmail and remote access were taken offline to avoid further breaches, and passwords reset across the company. However, the damage may already have been done. LulzSec claims to have 4GB of staff emails, and yesterday tweeted: "We're currently working with certain media outlets who have been granted exclusive access to some of the News of the World emails we have." Wednesday saw a spate of arrests involving alleged hackers in New York and London.

Harry Potter and the Google eBooks deal

Harry Potter author J.K Rowling has signed a deal enabling the bestselling series to be made available for the first time through Google eBooks. Rowling unveiled her own website called Pottermore last month, which will fully launch in October 2011 and features additional content, games, audio and the exclusive eBook downloads. The deal means Google will be providing the download and storage platform, and payment system, through which the Harry Potter eBooks are obtained – although readers will have to visit the Pottermore site to make their purchase. However, Kindle owners need not worry. An Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company is "working closely with Pottermore to make sure Kindle customers will be able to buy and read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books." The seven novels have sold over 450 million copies, amassing Rowling a fortune estimated by Forbes at £613 million.

Google+ first impressions - better than Facebook?

Is Google+ better than Facebook?

That's the question being asked by everyone in social media marketing, and everyone at theEword since our invites came through. The registration process is still very hit-and-miss at the moment but, now people are starting to get in, we thought it was time to share our first impressions of Google+.

Launched on an invite-only basis at the end of last month, the new social media platform is Google's latest attempt to muscle in on the phenomenal success of Facebook. Google puts it slightly differently, of course. Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, said:

"We'd like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project."

3 star features of Google+

On first impressions, three Google+ features jump out at us – Circles, mobile support and integration with other Google products:

• Circles – Circles is a great idea. It allows you to categorise your contacts (Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Following & personalised ones), and select which contacts can see which posts. This stops your mum's newsfeed getting flooded with your thoughts on the latest gadgets, for example. The Following Circle is a particularly smart move – other people can see how many people are in your Circles and how many people have put you in theirs, which adds a competitive element as everyone can see if you're a trusted source of information (much like Twitter, in fact).




• Mobile support – It's no surprise to see mobile support feature heavily on Google+, given the emphasis Google places on Android. The standout features here are that you can choose to add location to each message, and request that photos are automatically uploaded to the cloud. A good start, but we can probably expect far more advanced mobile support in the coming months.



• Integration with other Google products – Google+ feels strangely familiar, which is probably down to the fact that its front-end interface borrows heavily from the Google template. For starters, you can easily access other Google products on the top Nav bar (Gmail, Docs, Web Search and so on). But interestingly the social recommendations tool Google+1 also appears prominently on your profile page – so not only are you recommending search results for others, you're also creating your own bookmarks (although strangely none of your friends can see them. Yet). Then again, Google Buzz also appears prominently on your profile page and the less said about that, the better...

Misfiring features

There are still a couple of teething problems, however:

• Sparks – Sparks, effectively a ready-filled RSS reader, takes a scattergun approach to providing relevant information on your interests. To take just one example, my Football feed contains news about Scottish football, Turkish football and, um, American football.





• Hangouts – Described by Google as a "live multi-person video" tool, Hangouts sounds like something for technology geeks, rather than one of the main reasons to join as the company seems to think.

These creases can be ironed out, but Google has more fundamental hurdles to overcome. Given the amount of personal data that Google already possesses (and the privacy disputes that regularly spring up around it), it's debatable whether people really want to volunteer more information about their current relationship status, work history and hobbies. Google may try to position Google+ as a social media platform with better privacy settings, but do people trust it anymore than Facebook?

The Facebook question

And that brings us back to the killer question - is Google+ better than Facebook?

The answer is yes, but barely. Google+ borrows a lot from Facebook and only adds a couple of revolutionary ideas like Circles (which can always be copied anyway). The main difference is that Facebook is already huge. Inside Facebook figures for June 2011 show that the platform has 30 million users in the UK alone, or 58 per cent of the online population. And new social media platforms are just empty shells unless they can attract enough people to reach a tipping point.

Google+ is still in the testing stages. However, the current signs are that Google must do a lot more if Google+ is to pose a serious threat to Facebook.

Richard Frost

theEweekly Wrap: Spotify, spies and the Story HD

Clash of the tablets

Google has announced the release of the first e-reader that features the Google eBooks platform integrated as standard. The Story HD is manufactured by iriver, and is set to hit the shelves on July 17th for $139 (£87). The integration means users can browse, buy (or just download free) from a catalogue of over three million Google eBooks directly through the device's Wi-Fi system, rather than transferring downloads over from a PC. Meanwhile, the current king of e-readers may be upping its game. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is set to launch two new models of the Kindle e-reader – one with a touch screen, and one an update to the current Kindle –as well as a multimedia tablet PC to rival the iPad. The latter would appear to be confirmed by DigiTimes reporting that Foxconn electronics company has begun manufacturing a 10.1-inch tablet for Amazon.

Spies defect

The annual report from the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has revealed concerns over the UK's ability to withstand cyber warfare. The committee speculated that Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), responsible for monitoring and countering cyber terrorism and hacking, is struggling to keep hold of "a suitable cadre of internet specialists". GCHQ director Iain Lobban said this is because it is impossible to compete with corporate salaries, and former UK government spies are leaving to work for big internet brands: "They will be working for Microsoft or Google or Amazon or whoever. And I can't compete with their salaries. I can offer them a fantastic mission, but I can't compete with their salaries." The ISC report also criticised GCHQ for 'losing' £1 million of equipment over the last decade, of which around five per cent poses a risk to UK security. There is to be an 11.3 per cent budget cut across UK intelligence services – including GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 – by 2014.

Coming to America

After more than two years of speculation, Spotify announced in an official blog yesterday that the music streaming service is to launch in the USA. Currently operating on an invite-only basis in beta form, users will be able to choose from Spotify Free, Unlimited and Premium. Spotify currently has around 10 million users in Europe, of which around 8.4 million use the free service. Moves have been made in recent months to make the company more profitable, and it's likely that the US market will do just that; for starters, the service has signed sponsorship deals with Coca-Cola, Motorola, Chevrolet and Reebok. The BBC reported that the US launch was delayed "because the [record] labels were not convinced about its ability to make them money".

Life just got a little bit better

Reality, but not as we know it

The capabilities to enhance or manipulate a photograph, video or audio-clip are commonly used. But manipulating and enhancing real-life situations, now that's a step further. The technology's been around for years, but app developers are seriously beginning to realise its attraction.

Augmented reality apps are the newest addition to the mobile app market and give users an altogether different experience. They adjust the way people can view things, in real-time, giving endless opportunities for entertainment, creativity and revealing information. Imagine focusing on a particular building with your smart phone, and instantly being shown a page of facts about its history. Or viewing an acquaintance through the video display, and instead of simply seeing the image in front of you, you also see a cloud of links leading to their various online profiles.

With augmented reality apps, or AR apps as they are quickly becoming known, it's possible for developers to create apps for clothing brands where people can remotely, virtually try on the clothes before buying online. Not only is the technology promising for retailers, it's also attractive to marketers who want to create entertainment apps in order to promote their brand, or an upcoming movie. Sat on the train, bored, users can view their fellow commuters, in an altered world, where they are instead sitting next to Chewbaca or Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Apps for artists

Beck's, the drinks brand, has begun an interesting project having developed an AR app. The Green Box Project sees the brand commission new cultural art pieces, which push the boundaries of innovation in art with the help of this new digital capability. Using the app, users can view various landmarks that have been altered by artists to display reformed concepts. The image to the right is an example of one commission that gives a fresh view on reality – with the help of AR.

These types of apps are likely to become more and more common place within the app market. Both the Apple App Store and the Android Market already offer a wealth of apps that utilise augmented reality. The opportunities for developers are endless and it's likely as businesses become more aware of them demand will increase further.

theEweekly Wrap: Debates, domains and decisions

iPlus

Following the launch of Google+ last week, the BBC has reported that the search giant is creating an iOS app version of the social network. According to one employee, the app has been submitted to the App Store for approval, which would enable Google+ to work on iPhone, iPod and iPad. However, app versions of Google Latitude and Google Voice were rejected under the App Store's strict guidelines. Also this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that parts for the long-awaited iPhone 5 have gone into production, including an eight megapixel camera and Qualcomm wireless chip, while rumours also surfaced concerning a wireless method of charging the device. The WSJ believes the iPhone5 launch will coincide with that of iOS5, confirmed for autumn 2011.

Domain pain

An estimated 11 million sites vanished from Google SERPs this week as their entire domain was blocked. The .co.cc second-level domain is owned by a Korean company, who offer it as a freehost domain. Users can get a single sub-domain for free, or buy 15,000 of them for a thousand dollars. Google's Matt Cutts explained in a Google+ post that they reserve the right to remove a freehost from the search index if "a very large fraction of sites on a specific freehost [are] spammy or low-quality". The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported that 4,963 phishing attacks originated from the domain in the space of just six months. In other news, the nascent Republic of South Sudan is having a domain name crisis. Thanks to .su, .sr and .sd being taken, one of the only remaining domains they can take as their national TLD is .ss, which obviously has negative connotations. However, TheNextWeb speculated the country could opt for an international domain name in Arabic, one of Sudan's official languages.

@thePresident

US President Barack Obama held a Twitter 'town hall' meeting this week, allowing members of the public to tweet him questions using the hashtag #AskObama. The session was moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and streamed live from the White House. The administration's director of digital strategy, Macon Phillips, said the President wanted to "try to find new opportunities to connect with Americans around the country". President Obama has over nine million followers on Twitter. External online director for Obama 2008 Scott Goodstein has previously commented on the importance of social media in the Presidential campaign; it seems it will also play a key part in the campaign to keep Obama in office in 2012.

Google Analytics Benchmarking reports – how do you rate?

Website owners are able to use Google Analytics to see how their site is performing. This tool is great for understanding where traffic is coming from and which parts of the site are good or bad. But what everyone really wants to know is how they compare to everyone else. Google's Benchmarking newsletter makes this possible.

Newsletter reporting website statistics

Previously, users who have opted in for anonymous data sharing have been able to obtain a Benchmarking report. However, the low uptake of this service caused Google to rethink its method. In recent months Google Analytics users have seen a revitalised service in the form of an 'Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter' received via email.

Benchmarking helps advertisers and publishers gauge how well they are performing in comparison to other websites. The newsletter, sent out quarterly, explains to users how websites are performing across the globe for various factors. The data used was gained from all the websites worldwide that have been opted in for anonymous data sharing, which is said to include hundreds of thousands of websites. In order to receive one of these insightful round-ups, you too must opt-in to share your data anonymously.

The results are in

The first newsletter detailed data from 1 November 2010 – 1 February 2011, and compared it to the same period in the preceding year. The comparison illuminated how the way people use websites is changing:

• Bounce rates have fallen – bounce rates have dropped from an average of 48.2 per cent to 47 per cent, suggesting that people are finding more relevant results.


• Site referrals are down – unexpectedly traffic from search engines grew by 1 per cent while traffic from referrals fell by 1.6 per cent. This seems surprising bearing in mind that social media sites are increasingly driving traffic.


• People are spending less time on sites – the average time on a site has decreased globally from 5:49 to 5:23. Additionally, people appear to be viewing fewer pages with the average number of pages viewed per visit decreasing by 0.4.


• Analytics is also broken down by Geography. This leads to many interesting facts, such as the fact that web users from the US spend longer on websites than any other country.

The newsletter gives website owners the ability to take these global averages, and rate their own site against them. However, it doesn't yet offer a huge amount of insight. The ability to compare a site to others from a similar sector would be more relevant for users but we will have to wait and see what the next instalment has in store.

theEweekly Wrap: Myspace, music and malware

MySale

Social media has-been Myspace was finally sold this week, for a fraction of the asking price. Online advertising giant Specific Media teamed up with pop star Justin Timberlake to buy the website for just $35 million (£21.9 million); News Corp wanted to sell for $100 million, after paying $580 million for the site five years ago. Timberlake, who portrayed Napster founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker in The Social Network, will "play a major role in developing the creative direction and strategy for the company moving forward" according to a Specific Media spokesperson. In recent years Myspace has seen several website redesigns and dramatic job cuts as user numbers plunged.

Botnet bother

Security experts at Kaspersky Anti-Virus Lab in Moscow have discovered a virus network they have labelled 'indestructible'. Sergey Golovanov and Igor Soumenkov found that the fourth generation of a particularly nasty piece of malware – TDL 4 – has infected 4.52 million computers in just three months. This has created a huge botnet, i.e. a network of infected computers that can be controlled remotely, which Kaspersky speculated could "manipulate adware and search engines, provide anonymous Internet access, and act as a launch pad for other malware. TDSS malware has been infecting computers since 2008, and this latest incarnation is vastly improved. TDL 4 targets Windows PCs, and hides in a system file known as the master boot record, where it is "protected against attacks, competitors, and anti-virus companies". Of the 4.52 million units in the botnet, five per cent (over 200,000) are in the UK, and a huge 28 per cent are in the US.

Music deal for Virgin?

The Guardian has reported that Virgin Media is close to signing a deal with Spotify and four record labels to create a digital music service. Plans first revealed two years ago seem to be finally coming to fruition, as the launch is said to be planned for the end of 2011. The reason for the delay is explained by the four record labels – EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner – having final say over what Spotify is allowed to do with their music. Meanwhile, Virgin Media has also been chastised for its online marketing strategy this week. Their campaign named rival ISPs and claimed they were misleading customers over the speed of their broadband, under the tagline "Stop the Broadband Con". However, after Sky and BT complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, Virgin was ordered to take down the ads.