Firetop

Commuting is no easy task, not only is there a one hour journey in a cramped seat to contend with, but one or more of the following passengers will be in your carriage to guarantee an unpleasant journey. Here I identify them, and give them advice to make them more amenable to fellow commuters.

(more…)

According to a new report by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), there has finally been a marked consolidation in online ad formats used across European websites. Six formats now represent approximately 85% of all display ad impressions delivered - which makes life for online marketers and designers a lot easier! (more…)

For some time now we’ve had a problem going out of the house by foot because our cats (Mindy and Bella) follow us. We don’t want to encourage either of them to go near main roads so have always had to go back indoors and try and run out of the house and down the road… but that usually fails because they think it’s a game. Last night we quietly escaped for a walk after dinner whilst they were sleeping, as we hit the main road something shot out of the bushes and across the road - it was Mindy yelling and shouting greetings in cat speak. This time as it was late, traffic was minimal and going back home all the time has been getting ridiculous, we decided to see how long she would stay with us. (more…)

There’s a factor often overlooked by media companies when they write about the ‘amazing blogosphere’ and that’s abandonment rates. If we’re to believe research findings quoted in the Guardian this year, there are nearly 7 million bloggers in the UK. Taking this figure at face value it would seem that blogging is being done by 1 in 9 of us Brits. However, what these research figures don’t tell you is that the large majority of these blogs are ‘hosted blogs’ and go unused or are abandoned within weeks of being created. A hosted blog is one which is held on a portal such as MySpace, MSN Space, Blogger or LiveJournal – just register and hey-presto ‘new free blog’. When I registered for MySpace last week (to finally see what all the fuss was about) I was given my own blog instantly, on which I wrote ‘I already have a blog at firetop.co.uk’ and I’ll never use that tool again… it will be recorded as a ‘MySpace blog’ in press release figures though I suspect. (more…)