Why ICANN are a bunch of bumbling fools

Posted by stuart as ,

So I see that ICANN has decided to allow pretty much anyone (with enough money) to buy their own TLD.

So now we won’t be just using domain extensions such as dot com, dot org etc, now organisations will be able to own their brand name as a TLD.

For example, companies like Coca Cola will be able to register the TLD dot coke. (.coke)

My question is this: Who does this actually benefit, other than ICANN, who will collect the mid five figure sum for each of these extensions registered?

First things first, let’s say a company registers their TLD (.coke for example), what’s their web address going to be now? coke.coke?

That just sounds stupid.

Secondly, it’s going to be a freaking nightmare trying to remember website URL’s and email addresses. Let’s say you’re looking for the Microsoft website, it could be any one of the following:

• microsoft.ms
• microsoft.msn
• microsoft.msft
• and so on and so on….

Once again - stupid Stupid STUPID!

Idiots….

That is all.

IPhone 3G pricing in Australia - Some thoughts

Posted by stuart as Uncategorized

I wrote some time ago about why I wasn’t going be be sucked in by the hype, and buy an Iphone. The reasoning behind this was that my ageing Nokia 6280 did most of the things that the IPhone, in its original incarnation offered.

Well the game’s changed.

There are a couple of features on the new IPhone 3G that have my head swimming with the possibilities, namely the push email, contact, and calendar facilities, and the data synch offered as part of the mobileme.com service.

These are game changers for anyone who runs multiple devices, and needs to keep them in synch without wanting to bugger around manually synchronising stuff.

I love the idea that I update a contact in Outlook on my desktop, and BLAMO! it’s updated on the IPhone. Waiting for an important email, but need to leave the office? That sucker’s gonna send me the email to the IPhone, and I get it at the same time it arrives on my laptop.

I know I can do this stuff on a Blackberry, but have you seen the price of those suckers?

Now on to how the whole shebang might work in Australia:

Australian ISP’s, and even more so, Mobile network providers, have a history of gouging their customers for every kilobyte of data they use. Especially our main carrier, Telstra. This will get interesting when people start using their IPhones the way they are intended to be used - an always connected device which has data PUSHED to it, rather than just a data retrieval device. This is going to add up real quick here on these Australian networks.

Given that Apple have priced the two models of the 3G Iphone at US$199 and US$299 respectively, and the fact that the Australian dollar is sitting at around US$0.95 at the moment, the carriers are going to be hard pressed to sell the units for much more than AU$250 and AU$350 respectively (yes I know it should be AU$210 and AU$320 respectively, but this is Australia we are talking about, if there’s a profit premium to be paid for technology, we’re going to be paying it).

I’ve done a few quick sums, based on the 3G carrier I use (Three), to see what the pricing might look like when the phones arrive on the 11th of July.

Let’s say we’re signing up for a two year contract, which is the norm here in Australia, and we’re buying the 8GB Iphone at the (Australian inflated) price of $250. The phone price is ammortised over the contract period.

Let’s also take into account that I can buy data from Three at the rate of 1GB/month for $15.

OK, here goes:

Three sell the Sony Ericsson Z610i off the shelf for $249, around the same price I reckon the IPhone 8GB should be here in Australia. I can walk into a Three shop and get this phone for no money down on a $29 cap, which gives me a bucketload of free calls / sms etc.

So let’s say we can get our Iphone no money down on a $29 monthly cap, let’s go get us some data allowance…

Three have what are probably the most generous mobile data plans in Australia (which isn’t saying much). I can grab 1GB of data a month for AU$15. If I really want to go nuts, I can get 6GB for $49. I’ll stick with the 1GB for now, for the sake of the argument.

Ok, so far we’re paying $29 a month for the phone and network access, and $15 for some data allowance. Now we need to pay for Apple’s mobileme service.

The mobileme service is priced at US$100/year. This might seem a little pricey, but it’s the whole point of getting the IPhone in the first place - remember, we’re talking PUSH email, contacts, and calendar here - right from Outlook on my PC.

Let’s call the mobileme cost $8 a month. So we’re up to around $53 a month ($30-odd for the phone and network access, $15 for the data, and $8 for mobileme).

I currently spend $30 a month on my phone, and $15 for mobile data for when I work on the road. The extra $8 for the features i can now get from the 3G IPhone is a no-brainer.

Australian telco’s - you are on notice. Anything that goes wildly outside the above pricing constitues nothing other than outright price gouging.

Go the extra mile or just shut my mouth and take the money?

Posted by stuart as , ,

I wrote the other day about a graphic designer I do some site development work for here in my home town.

Another job I do for this designer is a bit of copywriting and proofreading (I worked as a proofreader in the printing industry many moons ago - although you wouldn’t know it by reading this blog ;-))

The proofreading seems to be more like copywriting, the client writes what they want on their website, I re-write it so it flows a little better and makes sense, the client gives me some money, and everybody’s a winner.

My quandary is this: When I re-write this copy, I generally give no thought to SEO. I just make it sound nice, and that’s the end of it. I die a little inside each time I hand over the copy, knowing so much more could have been done with it in an SEO sense, but the client isn’t paying me to do keyword research or write SEO’d copy.
The situation is the same with the website development I do for this designer. I just create the site so it looks as nice as possible given the Photoshop template that the designer gives me. I don’t worry about styling H1, H2 tags etc, I don’t worry about having keyword rich title tags, or having catchy page descriptions. I just make the site how the client wants it, and hand it over. Once again, it pains me to work this way, but given the budget constraints, I have little choice.

The problem is, that if I offer these services to the client, I don’t want to give them unrealistic expectations. Yes I could offer to charge a little more to the clients who are happy to pay for some keyword research, some extra time writing the copy, and the extra time to create an SEO friendly website, but unless they’re prepared to pall for a full SEO campaign (link building, link baiting etc), this would simply raise their expectations with the real risk of seeing little in the way of results.

So what to do?

Do I offer these services to these low value clients? Or do I just keep collecting the money for doing the work that I do?

Google no longer geo-redirecting users?

Posted by stuart as

Anyone else noticed that since google updated to their poxy new favicon, that searchers are no longer being redirected to their local google?

Used to be that when I typed “google.com” into my address bar, I’d be redirected to “google.com.au”, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Whilst this is good for keeping an eye on my non-geotargeted niche sites, it’s a royal PITA when trying to look up my geotargeted local stuff.

Anyone else noticing this in other parts of the world?

Some thoughts on web 2.0 from someone closer to 50 than 20

Posted by stuart as

When this little black duck first discovered the wonders of HTML sometime in the early nineties, and started cranking out frame-based delights resplendant with their tiled backgrounds and spinning animated gifs, never could he have foreseen the direction this wonder called the web would take.

Whilst he’s embraced some of the wonders of the new generation of web technologies such as RSS, blogging, and he’s even been known to stumble aimlessly when particularly bored, there’s still plenty about web 2.0 which leaves him wondering whether the world is passing him by.

So here are the thoughts on web 2.0 of a dinosaur who, although he loves all things tech, wonders whether it’s all really worth the effort.

Facebook - sounds like something we used to do with any girl who was willing in the church carpark whilst our parent blissfully sat through the sermon.

Myspace - What that guy with really bad breath at my first job always seemed to get into.

Social Media - When I and a bunch of mates got together to watch a porno movie

Stumbleupon - What I do when I’ve drunk too much, ie to stumbleupon the coffee table when I lose my balance.

Sphinn - What the room does when I lay down after drinking too much.

Reddit - What I did with a book I borrowed from the library - I reddit then I gave it back.

Digg - What people with afro’s and sideburns did when they liked something - Yes, I’m old enough to remember this.

Payperpost - The payment model my father’s grazing business used for their fence builders. You got paid for how many posts you put up in a day.

Slashdot - What I told my nana when I was going to take a leak - “I’m going to take a slash, Dot”

Squidoo - The black stuff a squid squirted all over you after you dragged it into the boat.

 Fark - What you said when your mate pointed out a particularly del.icio.us piece of tail.

Twitter - What my dad called me when I did something stupid - “You bloody twitter!”

What about you - Are you confused by web 2.0?