Google buys its way out of another pickle – Gmail.co.uk

I was trying to think back to when i started using Gmail for the first time – i have quite a good account name,  i got it back when you had to be invited to use the system. I love how Gmail has changed the way i use email, i love how i can bolt on “labs” stuff which pushes my email forward in ways other email clients only wished they could evolve (Mail Beer Goggles?? Haha!)

Anyway – when it was launched in the UK, it was called Gmail – but as its proper launch got closer another company who had been using the term Gmail in the UK for years piped up and kicked up a bit of a fuss about it. A big lawsuit kicked off, and google ended up changing all UK sign ups to @googlemail.com email account – despite @gmail.com still working for all UK users as well!

It appeared that they had underestimated the popularity of the Gmail name!

I recently noticed that gmail.co.uk has stopped resolving the website for the contensis content management system email, and instead just shows a error page. I did a whois and suprise suprise;

Domain name:
gmail.co.uk

Registrant:
Google Inc.

I wonder how much they paid for that domain name? First registered in 1998 as well, so its not like to sat on it as soon as they heard google might be doing emails!

Seems to be the way copyright violations like this are solved in this world – buy out the competition! I wonder if they’ll do the same for Gmail.de?

Also, i wonder if i’ll soon be able to have an @gmail.co.uk email address? Now that would be awesome!

Microsoft Finally Admit IE6 is a pile of Crap

Was catching up with “planet internet” today, and reading the Google News pages relating to anything web related – and stumbled upon a news article about next years IE9 and what Microsoft had to say about it.

Now, despite the IE market share dropping to 60% (from 90%!) the IE development team, and Microsoft themselves are still very passionate about it, and still to this day – believe its the best web browser, and claim its the fastest growing browser (in terms of usage) available today!

From a development point of view, internet explorer really gets in the way! Having to style a website for a multitude of different browsers is to be expected, but having to develop a different stylesheet for 3 different versions of IE is just silly!

In a recent interview, Ryan Gavin – Microsoft’s Senior IE Director expressed his interest in seeing the back of nine year old Internet Explorer. “IE6 was built for a very different web at a very different time,” says Gavin. “A modern web does require a modern browser. My aim is to get IE6′s market share to zero as fast as humanly possible. That’s good for the web, good for developers, and good for us”

The problem we all face isn’t with the public getting wiser in regards their choice of home browser – the problem lies with large companies and organisations (Such as councils etc) who still have IE6 as the standard web browser on all their office PC’s. The people who hold the purse strings obviously don’t understand how the web has evolved, and that the software used to view and use this new internet needs to evolve also.

I agree with this article on the Guardian when it says the biggest problem with eradicating IE6 completely, is that XP comes bundled with IUE6, and XP is still such a massively popular operating system. When confronted with this fact, Ryan stated “IE9 has a strong focus on security – it blocks far more malware than either Firefox or Google Chrome – but you need security all the way through the operating system” – and this is where XP fails.

Maybe a joint XP security update, and a nice IE9 installer for people instead then, eh?

Ive tested the IE9 Test Drive and some of the HTML5 stuff was pretty bitchin’ – i guess time will tell if its gonna end up taking back the browser crown, or if firefox will just keep getting better and better and keep its feet firmly planted under the table.

What browser do you use – and why?

SEO Pirates Ahoy! Avast me spam lovers!

That’s right folks, the SEO Pirates have been out again taking peoples money and legging it.

No – not us of course!

We’ve had someone contact us via a recommendation, and they have been to a SEO Company out in South Normanton way who have promised the earth and delivered nothing! Provided this guy with a pretty poor website and have then done one!

He was mis-informed, mis-sold a website and now has something that cost him hard earned money, and does NOTHING for him!

We keep our SEO as white and clean as possible and never promise anything we cant deliver – we also never trick people into buying a website that we say will get them to the top of google off its own back.

For proper, plain English SEO services, or simply for an chat so you understand what SEO is all about then call dijitul media on 01623 650 333 or click on contact to get in touch.

The Pirates in Movies are cool… SEO Pirates are crooks, and no matter how you dress that up it aint good!

Thanks for ye reading me tale… Yarrr me hearties!