Innovation Central- Your one stop shop for innovation management

Search Engine for the Privacy conscious

2011-10-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

Duckduckgo is a search engine that does not collect any personal information or pass it on to third parties . It has grown from strength to strength with a latest round of funding from Union square ventures.

The illustrated guide to their "product philosophy" is quite interesting and I think offers them a unique search offering that Google does not have i.e. escape from the "filter bubble" or effects of personalisation.

Everyone who saw Eli Parsers TED talk know that current search engine tech puts us in silos surrounded by the links we like, the websites we browse and the people we agree with. This can be very dangerous leading to highly opinionated people under false misconceptions that the whole world thinks like them (other than causing other effects like anti-vaccine people seeing links related to their beliefs although they might have changed their stance etc).

It will be interesting to see their strategy. They also have the usual bells and whistles (Firefox addon etc)but they still have some way to go to compete with the varied product offerings big G has built over the years- images etc but it has been a good start nonetheless.

Https Google - A referer analysis

2011-10-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

Google secure has been around for quite a while and I have used it as a default on one of my laptops for sometime now. So, Google's announcement today saying that they are going to make it a default option for signed in users was no big surprise.

I carried out a quick referer analysis using the unencrypted - Google Normal and the secure Google SSL .

Google Unencrypted

Google Encrypted

The unencrypted referer is - http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2F&rct=j&q=mirror&ei=VpeeTriYKci78gOvo6T7CA&usg=AFQjCNFAAtbnjT4ht9V4P3-BxUZt6FawHQ

The encrypted referer is - http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CF8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2F&ei=jJeeTruFH4qW8QPTvNioCQ&usg=AFQjCNFAAtbnjT4ht9V4P3-BxUZt6FawHQ

It seems as if the referer end encryption is functional at the moment. So, when the users do start getting defaulted to this, it could have implications for SEO analysis by publishers/site owners.

Infographics 1.1 - Tag Cloud Generators

2011-10-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

I have only just started making infographics. I have looked at a few cloud tag websites out there and the easiest to use and also the best looking tag clouds are generated using. wordle Wordle uses Java to create the tag cloud and has some smart features like font colour, size, etc

Unfortunately, it does not support exporting to jpg/bmp.

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

2011-10-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

Google Analytics Vs Urchin

2011-09-27T07:49:00.001-07:00

If a site uses Google Analytics, ga.js is executed (usually present in the page source)

If a site uses Google urchin, utm.js is executed (again present in the page source usually)

Google Analytics - Bots, Spiders and other creepy crawlies!

2011-06-22T04:19:00.000-07:00

Most people do not know that their free google analytics reports contain traffic from lots of creepy crawlies out there.

For people looking for an answer as to whether their GA data contains bots or not, it does! And very often a significant proportion of your data is made by non-human sources.

It takes an experienced eye and some detective work to weed out these fellows. They primarily fall under the below categories:

1) Search Engine bots- They are the simplest to detect and cause most effect on your analytics data if ignored. Some of these are pre-filtered on your google analytics reports.

2) Scraping bots (includes News bots, aggregators etc) - These are bots that scour the web for the latest juicy tit-bit. They can be tricky but are quite easy to identify since many of them have a useragent string with the News companies URL in it.

3) Online optimisation company bots - Many times, companies hired to optimise a website write little bots to test pages (often several times a day) for broken links etc.

4) The rest of the lot - Other than the afore mentioned categories, there can be a hundreds of other permutations, reasons for active bots accessing your data month on month.

Next time- Tips & Tricks on bot identification.

Near Field Communications - NFC

2011-06-20T04:41:00.000-07:00

Near field communications- NFC
------------------------------

Definition- NFC or near field communications refers to short range wireless connectivity. It combines smart card, RFiD and other networking protocols.

It is comparable to both Bluetooth and Zigbee. But, the distances over which it operates is restricted to a few centimetres.

Uses
---

Copyright: Clint Chaplin

Like the picture above shows , the uses of NFC can largely be subdivided into:

1) Kiosk Interactions
2) Payments
3) Transportation
4) Poster interactions
5) ~~P2P~~ etc

NFC Adoption - The story so far
-------------------------------

Yougov's latest research - shows that 70% of British consumers haven't heard of mobile wallets and 91% haven't heard of NFC technology. Additionally, the survey also provided the following insights:

1) 36% of respondents admitted they didn't know if their existing phone was enabled to make cashless payments
2) 23% of the population is interested in using their phone instead of cash
3) 81% of those interested in using a mobile wallet would use it for small purchases
4) 39% could see themselves making bigger purchases including games consoles, clothes and even the weekly shop
5) 64% of those interested in using a mobile wallet would like the payments to be linked directly to their bank account
6) 60% believe supermarkets will be the first to adopt mobile payment technology

What is worrying is that surveys of the US market show that other than the lack of awareness is the indifference of the surveyed populace to NFC and related tech .

Picture Credit - PC World

In the UK, the major telcos have teamed up to conceptualise and build this platform (with the help of the major banks of course)

What next?
----------
The biggest pain area has been the lack of awareness. Rest assured you will see a spate of communication from the likes of Google (mobile wallet), Orange, Vodafone etc. The idea will be to get people to embrace the new technology by evangelising it.

Privacy - the gap between Policy and Practice - I

2011-06-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

Everyone must already be aware of the EU directive that stops websites from using cookies that are - 'non-essential'.

In the UK, the ICO provide many guidelines for companies to start adopting this (guidance,One year to comply).

But, the manner in which the ICO themselves have implemented the site seems against the spirit of the law (In my humble opinion). See below:

Their website currently pre-adds the so called 'essential' cookie before seeking permission. But, what could possibly justify a site such as the ICO which is a government body that needs a website to store guidance documents, advice to business etc. This in itself shows the interpretation can be so diverse that what might seem important to a publisher might seem totally unjustifiable to others.

I love what Silktide have done - collating reactions of the industry. There are some pretty candid comments which you want hear openly in industry events (maybe in the pub afterwards..)(Please see below)

Summarising industry reactions to the new cookie law.
Choice quotes

It is so breathtakingly stupid that the normally law-abiding business may be tempted to bend the rules to breaking point.

OutLaw's editorial from 2009

Enforcing this legislation - if it can even be enforced, so unworkable and technologically illiterate is the basis on which it has been conceived - will have disastrous effects on innovation and entrepreneurship throughout Europe and it will dramatically affect the livelihoods of publishers whose incomes come from advertising.

Wired

Let us imagine we wanted to ban bullying at school. Like the EU surveying the Internet, we might look at bullying from afar, conclude that most bullying is verbal, and decide the solution is to ban all children from speaking.

Silktide

This looks like a shambles doesn't it? Call me old-fashioned but the law should be drafted in such a way that it is possible for people to know which side of it they are on.

The Guardian

... all you have to do is well, keep calm and carry on. Uncle Ed will let us all know when it is time to actually do something.

Beneath The Wig

The delay in the publication of guidance, the lack of clarity and Government's admission that a technical browser-based solution will not be ready by the implementation date has left businesses and organisations in a state of uncertainty.

Clarie McCracken, technology law specialist at Pinsent Masons.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has recently published guidance on the new cookie law (click here), but this does not give any definitive, practical assistance in compliance. Instead, it recognises that the new law is difficult to implement. It merely advises that companies review their use of cookies and consider how they may be able to obtain the consent called for by the new regulation.

Andrew Sharpe, Solicitor and Partner at Charles Russell LLP

Value Chain of a Single spam URL -

2011-06-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

Levchenko et al have done some wonderful analysis on the value chain of spammers worldwide.

This particular flowchart is a little too US centric for my liking. But, fascinating nonetheless!!

EU Cookie Law - Do not track

2011-03-11T03:26:00.000-08:00

The UK government's decision to go ahead and implement Article 29 of the EU directive for privacy (read Opt-in for cookies) rather than opt out has caused a big headache to the online industry in general and in particular the online media companies (analytics providers to boot).

The two news items that cover this in depth are and

By in-depth I mean people are still working things out.

Implications for the Online Media industry

This is going to cause them to have to implement pop-ups (or the likes) to ask users permission to allow cookies to be placed on their computers. This is at best going to be a minor inconvenience for even the smallest website to implement

Awesome post by David Naylor showing albeit in an exaggerated manner what you might need to do as a web owner.

Implications for the Online advertisers

Even with the advent of DSPs and other 'cutting edge' technologies (both advertiser side and publisher side), lots of ad inventory remains unsold. This can only worsen.

Implications for Analytics Providers
Analytics providers use either cookie or IPUA solutions or a cusp of the two.

a) Pure cookie only solutions (Similar to Google analytics) - the providers will struggle to change, implement and keep their operations running smoothly
b) Cookie + IPUA - this will cause distortion to the numbers being reported depending on the implementation and uptake of the opt-in
c) Good old log analysers are going to sail through without any hassles.

More on each of these points after my discussion with Nick Stringer of the IAB sometime early next week.

The actual 2009 directive can be found here

Is your web analytics data fooling you? - Introduction

2010-10-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

If you are running your web analytics using GA, Webtrends or simply analyzing web logs, there are many key criteria that you should consider to cleanse your data.

The inflation of key metrics like unique users, page impressions etc has been well documented over the last five years or so. For unique users, the reason is cookie deletion, browser settings to flush cookie data etc. A comScore study that is slightly out of date shows that users could be inflated by a factor as high as 2.5!!! . This is a trend that will continue with more privacy concerns amongst the growing population of very savvy web users.

Additionally, people tend to log on and access your website through a plethora of different browsers from their work computers, laptops and smart phones! This led to the industry agreeing to call your unique users (visitors) as unique browsers!!

The picture below shows how one person can access your website using multiple browsers inflating your figures several times over.

In the next installment, we look at a real world folly by a client of mine and work towards developing in depth a few key ideas for superior web analytics

Web Analytics Demystified

2010-09-30T04:20:00.000-07:00

In this multipart series, we firstly examine the market forces acting on the web analytics market at the highest level. We later delve deeper into different areas of analytics and try and examine important nuggets of information every web analyst must know! I will gladly accept requests to examine any specific topics requested.

Background and Current Situation
Nowadays web analytics has become so commonplace, that we can see that even very small sites utilizing the capabilities of free analysis tools.

The WASP blog that analyzed the top 500 online retailers shows that the percentage of companies using click stream analysis tools is 88%.

Also, market analysis by Econsultancy shows that 80% of companies are now using Google for analytics, compared to 66% in 2008. [Econsultancy / Lynchpin Online Measurement and Strategy Report 2009]. Most importantly, of the companies that use GA only 23% use it exclusively.

Everyone knows that Google Analytics is free, easy to use and has numerous advantages. Evangelists such as Avinash Kaushik have so eloquently highlighted the key features of the tool. At the same time, the larger firms interrogating terabytes of data know only too well the negatives of the versatile tool. Let us briefly look at a few of those reasons.

• The single greatest barrier that prevents larger firms from adopting GA, in my humble opinion is the caveat to link to ad-words if a page serves more than 5 million page impressions. The larger corporations look to leverage advertising and would be less likely to rely on adwords.
• Additionally, most of the cash rich firms are used to a legal safety net i.e. SLA’s for their other technical implementations that they are quite hesitant to take a leap of faith.
• A simple scan of the so called “official partners” for google analytics also shows a small list (around 50 for the US!). It is easy to see this impacting further the confidence levels of the companies.
• Additionally, we can also have the following self explanatory problems with GA:
o Email tracking on GA is not straightforward.
o Site overlay issues.
o Modification difficulties
o No real time tracking!!

I will elaborate further and carry out a market analysis of the web analytics providers in my future posts. Till then, adieu!

iPad - First Impressions

2010-07-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to lay my hands on an iPad at work today. There are many wonderful reviews showcasing both the positives and drawbacks on the popular tech sites. But this is just to capture my initial impressions.

Weight
The first thing that comes to mind upon picking it up is its sleek finish on the back and good looks. But upon picking it up, it is has s surprising weight distribution. My initial reaction was that this is heavy! Considering the hardware in it and the punch it supposedly packs, I think its weight distribution makes it very unwieldy and downright gawky.

GUI
The interface is one that most Apple users especially the iPhone users will be most comfortable with. It looks like an oversize iPhone interface! But, a simple document search or a google maps search (that can even be used off-line) shows that the response is not quite top notch.

Touch Screen
This according to me was the most disappointing feature. Just under ten minutes of fiddling around and the screen was showing nearly all the exact fingerprints whorls and ridges intact. It made me blanch. The oleophobic coating no doubt gave it a sheen but it definitely warrants a good scratch guard. With all finger prints, the iPad is all but unreadable under sunlight.

Typing
Due to the cumbersome weight distribution, you just do not know where to keep it before typing! A table worked out the best for me but it defeats the purpose it was built for. Typing is not unlike an iPhone and the spacing and keys are quite good.

Single User
This was absolutely thoughtless engineering! In my book, with Apple trying to gobble up niches in the netbook/tablet/laptop market, it is criminal to let only a single person logon. Rookie mistake!

Battery life
This was outright amazing. I could play a video on it for nearly 7 hours till the battery drained out. And added to that there is negligible heating up of the machine throughout.

Reading Text
I fancy that this is going to be one of the top uses for the iPad. Newspaper apps! Options galore for both Apple and the apps developers to develop a range of stunning applications that revolutionise the way we read newspapers.

Videos
Videos of high resolution 700p onwards looks stunning. But the lower quality ones were quite a let down- shaky but still watchable.

Phone calls.. or the lack of it
I did say before that the iPad looks like an oversized iPhone. But no call facility on it is the difference. Having one would have made it cannibalise the iPhone but not having it is a huge let down.

__________________________
All in all it is a sleek gadget with amazing looks till your fingerprints play havoc on the touch screen. Where does it fit in? What will its future strategy be? Will the initial hype translate into sustainable sales? Wait for my next blog.