Sometimes the mind boggles. It really does boggle. This time new research from web hosting firm Fasthosts, which concludes that, well, end users are morons. It found that 19 per cent have no idea at all how search results are compiled, and five per cent believe that listings are arranged completely at random like a lottery.

But before you tear up your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, all hope is not lost. Good SEO, it seems, could still bring your firm some kind of reward. Although 1 in 4 respondents thought that the order of search listings cannot be influenced by the publishers of any web sites listed, 38 per cent said they choose to ignore sponsored links. Interestingly, those in Norwich and surrounding areas are particularly skeptical about these new-fangled sponsored listings malarkies.

December 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tired of trawling through Amazon? Oxford St not doing it for you? Can't be bothered with eBay? Well, this just in from domain name marketplace Sedo. Why not buy your beloved a domain name for Christmas?

Yes, according to the firm, which - surprise, surprise - sells domains for a living, "domain names are one of the few investments that are continuing to rise in value". Sedo highlights the totally-illustrative-and-not-at-all-a-freakish-one-off case of Mr. Merlin Kaufmann.

He bought merlin.net for personal use four years ago for a not inconsiderable $975. Fast forward a few years and he's managed to flog it for $30,000. Imagine that?! Sedo, of course, failed to mention the unreported story of Barry Facebook, who was able to retire to the Caribbean after he was bought-out by a social networking start-up. Or Gareth Google, who is thinking of running for office with the funds he has managed to obtain from a certain web behemoth for his domain. Well, that's what Sneak heard anyway.

According to Sedo, Snowman.co.uk, Christmas.co.uk and Santas.com are all up for grabs, and while e-commerce firms are unlikely to be interested in such seasonal titles, it might make a change from the usual stocking fillers. Although, personally, Sneak is more excited by the return of Arctic Roll this Christmas.

December 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sneak has decided to return to the subject of CERN's Large Hadron Collider, now that the follow up report about what went wrong on 19 September 2008 has been released. The report goes into a fair amount of technical detail about the incident, but the upshot is - it was a very large 'quench', known in the trade as a 'catastrophic quench', where helium expands explosively due to the previously superconducting wires becoming non-superconducting wires, heating up and boiling off the helium.

How explosive was this one? Well it ripped up magnets weighing 10 tons from the floor, when a couple of tons of helium made a bid for freedom. Overall it looks like six tons of helium escaped - which could fill an awful lot of those toy balloons kids love so much.

Currently repairs are underway - as seen in this amusing video clip. Look out for the man with a 'universal adjuster' - or hammer as they're known in the trade - just doing some precision engineering on the experiment estimated to cost as high as €6bn - or £6bn if Sterling keeps falling as rapidly as it has been recently.

Sneak's last post on LHC in July did actually bring up the possibility that a quench could happen, but pointed out that, "LHC has quench detection and protection schemes", to stop this from happening. Sneak presumes the CERN boffins will be working fit to bust to make sure this never happens again, although whether they'll be successful is a moot point given the fact that the time between the temperature rising from almost zero to in excess of 500K (over 200C) looks to be on the order of half a second.

Remember Brian Clough's classic quote that, "It only takes a second to score a goal"? Well, it only takes half a second for a catastrophic quench to cause an estimated $21m of damage.

Anybody who has an unquenchable desire to delve deeper into practicalities of quench avoidance systems can download a PowerPoint from the UK's Cockcroft Insititute site in which Martin Wilson can take you through quenches (slides 12-39) in fairly hefty physics and maths detail.

CERN is doing the annual shutdown of LHC - due to last until May next year - but the best estimate of when LHC will be up and running again is June 2009, and Sneak wishes CERN all the best.

December 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

If your capacity for reading year round-up/prediction stories is still undiminished - even though Sneak's tolerance for writing them is reaching breaking point - then cast your eyes over Google's latest attempt to show how zeitgeisty and happening it is. The search giant's snazzily-titled Top Searched Terms of 2008 in the United Kingdom release breaks down by various topic areas what the most popular terms were this year, as well as some rising stars.

In the battle of the massive egos that is the most searched politicians category, Prime Minister Gordon Brown beat David Cameron into second place, while Obama came in third. However, on a global scale, Sarah Palin came worryingly top of the fastest rising queries, relegating Obama to sixth.

Facebook, BBC and YouTube were the top three search terms in this country, which is an interesting insight into the public's web browsing behaviour. Facebook's URL is a fairly simple thing to type into your browser toolbar, but obviously this activity is too taxing for many. Perhaps unsurprisingly "jobs" crept in as the tenth most popular search term - and it wouldn't be a stretch to see this rise significantly in the rankings over the course of next year.

Oh, and for any of you wondering, rather bizarrely Google decided to list the fastest rising recipe search terms too. It's "cupcake", since you ask.

December 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (10)

Like some nautical cat, Logitech has announced that it has shipped its billionth mouse; and it's also the 40th anniversary of the first public demo of everyone's favourite peripheral - unless you prefer the keyboard. Or screen.

To mark the occasion, Logitech has announced a competition that is sure to excite mouse fans everywhere. But not cats.

One billion mice... imagine that. We wonder if, like rats, these rodents would survive a nuclear war. After all, they seem to survive nearly every drawer and desk clearout in the history of offices. With more than a billion people using computers, and another billion expected to crawl out from whatever rock they were under by 2014 to start using them too, Logitech is seeing quite a bright future for itself.

However, if the firm wants to keep waving goodbye to its products, perhaps starting to name them is a bad idea. This new one billionth mouse is unfortunately named Billie (get it?) and it has already gone on the run from its parents.

Don't worry though, Logitech has launched a global hunt for the little fella and if you are interested, you can join in here.

Personally, we are fine. Someone kicked over a bin in the office and about 15 of the little buggers came scurrying out, so we have enough mice in our lives already.

December 4, 2008 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mobile phone company Orange has teamed up with a company called Retrieva to launch a new phone-based tracking product for dogs. Ah, I get it now... Retrieva/ retriever.

Retrieva and Orange will offer poo-bag-and-treats-carrying dog owners the chance to buy a collar for their dog that works as both a tracking and anti-theft device.

Apparently some 2,500 dogs go missing each week, so to try and stem the doggy exodus the two firms have launched the Retrieva collar which tracks the dog through your mobile phone. Sounds like a good idea, so long as the mobile phone isn't already one of the things that the dog has either chewed to pieces or buried in some awkward place.

If you have managed to keep hold of your phone, but not your dog, all you need do is open up a mapping application on the device and request information about the collar. This, combined with GPS functionality, can both find the dog, and plan your route to it. Should anyone try to tamper with the collar, like the dog for example, an alert that presumably tells you to throw a slipper in the dog's direction, will be sent to your phone and you can fly into action.

Judging by the photos, the collar will also act as a warning to other dogs not to mess with the wearer. It looks like it might explode, or could be used to power some kind of warrior cyber dog. And that is one beast that no one would want to have to clean up after.

The system which is eagerly awaited - according to the makers - will cost £9.99 per month and has a one-off charge of £250 for the collar and mapping/tracking system.

December 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)