Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot

Speculation is rife as to why Microsoft has decided to purchase GreenField Online, on online research company. The answer seems to be it that it was really after Ciao, a leading European shopping comparison website that has a large community of follower who shop and leave reviews on the site. This is due to the fact that Microsoft is really planning on selling off the Online Survey division (which incidentally contributes pretty much most of the revenue Greenfield makes) while retaining control of GreenField. They managed to beat another potential buyer (Quadrange) who also had their eye on GreenField.

This may seem strange, however when you consider that Microsoft is sitting on a massive cash mountain you can start to factor in that eyeballs are more important to them than cash. This acquisition gives them access to a European consumer market which they have struggled to penetrate. We’ll see how it pans out; some say that Microsoft will try and push their own products using Ciao, but I think they’re more interested in the audience than in promoting their wares. I would guess their first step would be to integrate Passport with Ciao to consolidate user identities across the two platforms.

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Oh wow! .. I just realised how powerful Ubiquity is for the blogger. Say for example I’m blogging about the Isle of Man. Just highlight the term, invoke Ubiquity and I can get:

A map of the Isle of Man
Isle of Man

Testing if this works …

Hmmm .. inserting into the post didn’t seem to work, the code is being generated, but Google Maps reports a malformed URL. Here’s what I see:

Let’s try something else:

Weather in the Isle of Man:

Can see it, but can’t insert into post. The interface works well, and the functionality can be extended quite easily, so I’m expecting great stuff from this! Must spend some more time on the tutorial

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How great would it be if you could just tell your browser what you wanted and have it obey you? Well, that’s just what the guys down at Mozilla Labs are working towards with their prototype of some new technology they called Ubiquity. It tries to address the issue of having to open multiple web browser windows to perform different actions, often cutting and pasting between them, trying to get a consistent message across to someone else.

Here’s a short video that demonstrates that it’s all about:

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

What Ubiquity achieves is an alternative interface to harnessing the power of the services that already exist on the web (though I won’t go as far as using the buzzword Web Services). It’s an idea that has been proven through Mashups, however this power can now be accessed through natural language, just type what you want into the Ubiqity interface. It looks like a great piece of technology (although not ground-breaking) and has even made Scoble promise not to use IE8! I’ve installed it on this machine and will have a play, just remember it’s still a prototype and so might be a bit flaky.

Personally, I’m really happy to see this development as what it does is makes the browsing experience more useful to people who don’t have the technical skills to build stuff from scratch. Casual users shouldn’t need to learn those skills, just as you shouldn’t need to learn how to rebuild a carburettor is you want to drive a car. There’s even more information about this on Techmeme, so start reading!

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Interesting development this morning on the WGA blog (Windows Genuine Advantage) where one of Microsoft’s senior managers talks about changes they are rolling out to Windows XP Professional, one of the most pirated editions of Windows XP. It seems that there’s a new version of WGA out which will be much more invasive for people who have unlicensed copies of Windows. What form will the nagging take? Well the backdrop will switch to black every hour and a small message is present in the bottom right of the screen telling users they have a counterfeit copy of Windows:

Will this persuade users to shell out an buy a proper version of Windows? Well frankly, I don’t really think so. It’s not quite a “kill-switch” and people who dabble in pirated software tend to be used to much worse than this and frankly, anyone I know running a pirated version of XP is well aware of the fact and is ready to accept a bit of nagging about it. You know, the sort of people who would prefer to take Ephedrasil Hardcore than go for a jog and put some effort into it.

It’s interesting to see Alex Kochis’ (the post author) justification for this though:

Our research has clearly shown that customers value the ability of Windows to alert them when they may have software that is not genuine

I’d be really curious to find out what sort of research they carried out. In the meantime, comments around the blogosphere are a bit more cynical then that.

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I just realised that I didn’t put together a Honeypot for last weekend, even though it was a long week with a Bank Holiday on Monday. Sometimes I think I wouldn’t find a truck rental if it hit me head on. Anyway, here are some interesting posts and websites I came across recently:

• Animoto: looking to create a video? Provide some photos, upload a sound track and bang, it builds a video for you.
• Retailer commits apostrophe crime: Is it Harrods or Harrod’s ?
• Internet use continues to expand: In 2002 the average Briton used the net for six minutes a day - now that has hit 24 minutes
• WavePad Sound Editor: Free sound editor which came at a great time to help my friend Cheryl
• Face Your Manga: You mean you don’t have a Manga avatar yet?
• Money Making Plugins: Check it out if you’re into WordPress
• G1 from T-Mobile: Android makes an appearance
• Body Armor for Developers: Because soft skills are important too
• Test Panel Cosy for LCD TV: You really need to get one of these
• The Science of Star Wars: Great stuff!

Loads to keep you busy throughout the week. Enjoy!

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Went for a walk with some friends around the Spanish Head. Was a lovely day and here are some photos we took.

Pity Camille couldn’t join us.

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Choosing a domain name is actually a pretty big deal. Think about the amount of effort you put into naming a pet, a child or a house; why should a domain name need any less consideration? In the same way that someone’s name may affect the way other people treat them, your domain name will have an impact on how your website is perceived, and more importantly, how search engines will perceive it.

I came across a great article on Web Hosting Rating; a website that specialises in web hosting providers; which talks about different factors to keep in mind when choosing a domain name. It talks about things like associating the domain name to something your business does, making sure the TLD you choose matches the website and trying to get a short name. There are a number of great articles on the site, so if you’re looking for some web hosting services, check them out.

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