In the run up to the General Election our elected representatives are going to be doing everything they can to convince us that they are the right person for their constituency.

One MP, Derek Wyatt has been representing Sittingbourne and Sheppey in Kent since 1997 and is attempting to cover all routes of communication to his constituents, with accounts on bebo, twitter, facebook, myspace and even his own .tv video-clip site.

It is perhaps not surprising then, that the former Director of The Computer Channel at BSkyB and Chairman of the All Party Communications group in Parliament, is the first to try out a new iPhone application allowing would-be voters to keep a track on their serving Member of Parliament.

MyMP allows members of the local community to find out where Derek is, what he’s doing and even send him a message directly. They can also keep up to date with the latest local issues and give their view on major points that the MP is seeking feedback on.

We are not sure if every MP will be as embracing of new technology – some seem to live very complicated private lives – but with over 6,000 downloads in the first two weeks of its launch, the MyMP app certainly seems to have captured the imagination of the tech-savvy electorate.

Have you downloaded the MyMP app?

Have you ever contacted your MP via the internet?

Should MPs embrace technology more?

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Sometimes when you’re on a website you can’t work out what to do. Where is the ‘more info’ button? How does the demo work? How do I contact the website owner?

At times like these its useful to turn to a friend for a bit of help. But if your friend knows less than you, and if there’s no one else around, what can you do?

The Google Sidewiki  – a new feature on the Google Toolbar – is a clever solution to this problem.

Get help and advice

The Sidewiki button sits unobtrusively over the left hand side of the web page you’re on. Click the button and a browser sidebar appears, in which you can read notes, advice, feedback and reviews about that web page that have been left by other users.

The Sidewiki can also bring in notes and feedback left against other web pages that contain the same snippet of text. This means you can find out what advice and comments users have even if they have been left elsewhere.

This user generated content can be a great aid to help you get want you want from a website.

Give help and advice

And as a part of the Sidewiki community, you get to leave your feedback and notes too, contributing to the conversation and helping others out at the same time.

Get web design advice

As a website owner, this brings a few added benefits and a few pitfalls too. You get to read what people are saying about your website all in one place. Getting user feedback is one of the most important steps to improving your web design. If users are having problems finding a particular product or some information on your website, you know you need to make it easier to find.

Get business advice

As a business owner you might get immediate feedback about what your customers are saying about you. Do they mention poor service, high prices, unreliability or poor customer service? You can gather this feedback and make improvements to the way you do things.

Bad feedback can be damaging

But this might where the pitfalls are too. The last thing you want your new website visitors to be exposed to are a chorus of complaints and dissatisfaction. The Sidewiki has the potential for disgruntled visitors to turn away others from buying.

Stopping single issue moaners

There are a few elements built in to the Sidewiki that prevents ’single issue’ moaners from dominating your feedback.

Where a webpage has multiple entries Google uses ’signals’ to rank- in real time – the most useful higher up. These signals take on board what feedback a users has left elsewhere. So this hampers users from using the sidewiki to have a moan just at you – they need to be consistent users for their feedback to stay at the top.

You can read more about ranking on the Google Research Blog.

Have a try!

If you want to have a look at the Sidewiki visit google.com/sidewiki and download the Google Toolbar with Sidewiki.

Do you think the benefit of the Sidewiki feedback outweighs the pitfalls of customer griping? Are you happy to share your feedback? Leave a comment below!

Nick Leech runs Digital Marketing Agency Euston Digital

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Something’s abuzz in the world of online activism. In December a couple from Essex kept high-waisted Simon Cowell’s hands off the Christmas number one by setting up a campaign on Facebook and telling everyone they could about it.

Then yesterday the BBC announced its intention to make some pretty savage cuts.

Cue another Facebook campaign – started, incidentally, by the same people – this time to save niche radio station 6 Music, which has been slated for closure. The group for that campaign has so far racked up a membership of about 113,000.

Big numbers, but do they mean anything?

Yes, having 113,000 supporters certainly sounds impressive. But you have to remember that it’s really easy to get involved with an online campaign. You can join a Facebook group, sign a petition or email your views to someone in just a few minutes. It doesn’t take much.

So although it’s easier than ever for people to express their views on things they care about, the flipside is that you need to assemble a greater number of voices in order to get heard and actually change things.

Facebook supporters are easy to come by – the trick is getting them to take more significant action once they’ve signed up.

And there’s the rub. While there are plenty of online petitions boasting thousands of signatures, we can’t think of many that have achieved what they set out to.

Are online campaigns being taken more seriously?

Last year’s Christmas number one campaign was an exception, and perhaps it’s an indication that the tide is starting to turn. In that particular case, the campaign persuaded people to buy a total of half a million copies of a Rage Against The Machine single.

What started as a simple Facebook group resulted in lots of people putting their hands into their pockets for something they believed in.

So maybe turning online support into direct, meaningful action isn’t as difficult as it used to be. We should have some more high-profile examples soon enough – between the BBC cuts, the forthcoming election and who knows what else, online campaigners will have plenty of opportunities to marshal their troops in the months ahead.

Remember, too, the government itself has lent some legitimacy to online activism. They’ve opened themselves up to all sorts of requests by letting anyone set up a petition on the Number 10 website. Power to the people!

What do you think? Has an online campaign ever spurred you into taking more direct action, or is the whole thing a waste of time?

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It’s over ten years since the massive hype over the Millennium or Y2K ‘bug’ that never seemed to materialise, but this week electronics giant Sony realised how dangerous complacency or poor programming can be in developing technology.

While most of us enjoyed Monday March 1 without too much mishap, Sony and hundreds of thousands of users of its PS3 games console thought as if the world had come to an end. Those trying to log in to networking gaming were met with error codes, failure to launch games and apparent loss of stored data. Unsurprisingly, Sony was bombarded with complaints.

Sony struggled for much of the day to find the reason and keep customers placated before making an announcement on its blog: “We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.” They suggested the problem would be resolved within 24 hours and took the unprecedented step of advising PS3 users not to use their system – all except PS3 Slim users who were unaffected.

The next day the cause of the problem was fully revealed. The internal clock somehow believed the 2010 to be a leap year and as such, saw March 1 as 29 February. Come the next day, this internal clock issue had resolved itself, agreeing it was indeed March. Although some consoles still showed an incorrect time and date, users were able to adjust these settings without further problem.

So a happy ending, but a warning to anybody, that, while technology is a great asset, it is only as good as the humans who set it up.

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Despite still accounting for over 20% of the browser market, the end of support for Internet Explorer 6 is nigh as more and more sites refuse to support it.

Google have announced that as of Monday (1^st March) they will no longer support the browser and that will mean that some services like Google Docs will not work properly when people try to access with Internet Explorer 6. They are not the only ones either, YouTube are reported to have pencilled in 13th March for dropping IE6 support, so it really does seem that the last rites are about to be read.

IE6 is an old man in internet terms. Launched in 2001 it became the default browser with Windows XP and is the last version of Internet Explorer available for Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows 2000. The most widely used browser at its peak (nearly 90% in 2002 and 2003) it is fair to say that now, after a lifetime of criticism for security issues and bugs, IE6 is probably no longer fit for purpose for the modern internet.

Despite that opinion is still split as to whether the end of the browser should be mourned or celebrated. Several sites like Bring Down IE6 and IE6 no more have been campaigning for the end of IE6 for some time claiming it has been holding back web development. Earlier this year government departments in France and Germany made announcements suggesting web-users choose alternative browsers to protect security and the Department of Health in the UK advised the NHS to move away from the browser too.

Recent figures suggest Microsoft’s latest release IE8 has overtaken IE6 as the most popular browser in the world but with still over a fifth of internet users relying on IE6, Microsoft has said it will continue to support the browser until 2014.

IE6 was for many current internet fans the browser they learnt to surf on, so inevitably there is sadness from certain quarters. One US web design company is even convening an online funeral on 4^th March to mark IE6’s passing. IE6 Funeral is inviting people to sign up to confirm attendance at the online service and asking for visitors to leave their thoughts on an online book of remembrance.

Yet, whilst the security issues still appear valid, can any but the biggest websites in the world really risk not supporting IE6 and losing potentially 20% of the internet audience?

Let us know your thoughts?

Do you still use IE6?

Will you be continuing IE6 support for any sites you run?

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In days gone by, even the greatest print journalists suffered writer’s block and the same can affect online writers too. Blogger’s block or Blog Fog has been around almost as long as blogging itself. If you’ve installed WordPress or b2evolution via our 1-click option you will know how easy blogging can be, but only if you can find the inspiration to write. We hope these five six tips will help you overcome any Blog Fog.

• Choose the right topic

The key to a good blog is transferring your enthusiasm for a subject to your reader.  If you haven’t yet got a set topic for your blogs, have a think. What is it you like? What gets you excited? Do you have opinions on the subject that you think others might want to read? Is there already somebody blogging about the same? How could you do it differently?

Even if you already have a focused topic for your blog, the odd off-topic post might not be a bad thing. It not only prevents your thoughts from becoming stale, it might also develop some discussion on your blog from others as they learn more about you.

• Change your blogging location

Anybody who remembers weary days of exam revision will know that a change of surroundings or location is often all that is needed to kick-start a tired mind. It can work too with your blog thoughts. New experiences will mean new ideas. Get out and about. If you have a laptop you might even be able to blog live from a coffee shop, shopping centre or somewhere completely different from your usual desk. If not, don’t worry. Carry a notepad with you that you can jot your ideas down in, wherever you are. You won’t use them all but if you ever suffer Blog Fog again they might inspire as you flick through.

• Ask your audience

With any luck you will have others already keeping an eye on your blog. If you get stuck, throw it back to them. What would they like to see? Have your past posts inspired them? Check any past comments others have made on your blogs. Feedback is a great way of getting you to re-think your own approach.

• Check the competition

Many of your audience will probably also have their own blogs on similar topics. Have a look to see what they are blogging. Could you approach it in a different way? Could you do tandem-blog with another blogger – perhaps playing devil’s advocate to each other on a topic?

• Set deadlines

Many find they lose their enthusiasm after the initial few weeks of blogging. Try thinking about writing your blog as any other job. Set yourself a set-time every day or week that you need to have your blog live. It will help focus your mind and develop a stronger sense of urgency to come up with something.

• Enjoy it!

Finally, remember to make it fun and enjoyable – for you, as much as your readers!

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OK, the folks at home, might be looking forward to your Graduation day and a chance for a new hat while boasting to the neighbours about your latest qualification, but the best part of being a student is the freebies!

Sign up for our student hosting offer  – 123-reg Plus hosting at just £1 a month – and you can make the most of your hosting package thanks to a free .info domain name and Microsoft DreamSpark. You’ll get full free download access to Microsoft Developer Software like Windows Server 2008, XNA Game Studio 3.1 and many more for you to learn and put to use on your new hosting package with 123-reg.

You don’t even need to be a University student, all those in full-time education with a .ac.uk email qualify, so what are you waiting for? Click here to find out more and sign up.

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The old-school love nothing better than to write headlines about the dangers of the internet and social media. But now, one of the internet’s own is trying to raise awareness of the potential problems posed by location-aware services like foursquare and Google Buzz.

@pleaserobme from a Dutch team of net-heads is a tongue-in-cheek warning about the danger of letting the public know your current location. As their website http://pleaserobme.com explains, “publicly telling people where you are…leaves one place you’re definitely not… home.”

With your home address perhaps available elsewhere as part of your profile on a social network, you could be inviting those of dubious character to visit your empty home.

We love the possibilities offered by social media but one message is still clear: know exactly what you are signing up to and be careful what information you let out into the public arena.

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A few months ago we added a new feature to our web hosting packages. It’s called One-Click and it allows you to install applications onto your hosting really easily.

The apps you can install allow you do some cool stuff with your hosting. Here are some examples:

• Wordpress is an ace blogging system – we use it to run this very blog.
• Joomla and Drupal are content management systems that help you build and manage websites.
• phpBB gives you an online forum that’s ready to go. It’s the web’s most popular forum system.
• Coppermine, an online photo gallery system.

The aim of One-Click is to remove all the hassle of installing these packages. Instead of struggling through lengthy “read me” files to get them configured properly, you can get going fast and try them out. Don’t like the app you’ve installed? Just replace it with another one. You can see the full list of applications on our main website.

In short, One-Click makes it easy to extend your web space and use it in new ways. You’ll have access to it if you have our Plus, Pro or Business Pro Linux packages – read on to find out how to get started with it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Another day, another announcement from Google. Seriously, does a week go by when the search giant doesn’t unleash something new on the world?

This time it’s Google Buzz that’s grabbed the limelight. This is a social networking tool that works from within Google Mail, the company’s free email service. Think of it as a kind of Facebook / Twitter combination that you access from within your email.

How Google Buzz works

Google Buzz lets you post updates containing text, images, videos and links – basically, anything you like. These can be seen by your friends. Similarly, you’ll start to see updates from your friends appearing right in your inbox.

There’s a video up on YouTube which does an excellent job of explaining how it all works, so take a look there for more details.

Buzz promises a lot of flexibility and can automatically pull in updates from other networks, like Twitter and Flickr (though not yet Facebook), so you don’t have to check them all separately. With versions available for several types of mobile phone, Buzz seems to put more of an emphasis on location than other services. Read the rest of this entry »

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