Google Chrome New Web browser just launched

Ok I am just downloading the new Google Chrome web browser now and can't wait to try it. You can do it also here:
http://www.google.com/chrome/ This weekend I will write my first thoughts on it. The Comic Book guide I must admit has me salivating!

But this part of the post is done in Chrome... first impression >:¬}

Google to reignite browser wars proper_Google to launch new browser-Chrome

Google to reignite browser wars proper_Google to launch new browser-Chrome.
Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Most web user's today do not remember the original browser war and its affect on Internet and Web Development, that between Netscape and Microsoft. But I do, back then creating websites were simpler to do until both the behemoth's at the time started to battle it out. It was a nightmare.

It is a bit the same now, with so many different versions of IE and the operating systems they run on, Opera (my fav), FireFox, Apple's Safari now running on PC and now Googles Chrome. From The Google blog about Chrome it looks like an interesting project and I am waiting like millions of others to see what it is like. But now there is one other browser to worry about (if they are not compliant) when implementing code that will work in all platforms.

I would imagine that they have gathered an amazing amount of research on habits, platforms, environments and capabilities through their analytics, search, email blogging and ad publishing tools to name but a few. For these reasons alone it should be an amazing system, but my biggest fear is at what cost to our freedom and controls. At the moment there is very little because of Microsoft's dominance but this development if successful will surely weaken this. Is it time to look at selling Microsoft stock and buying Google?

I will update this once I test on different platforms Chrome, so watch this space!

Where the Internet has been and where is it going, part one.

I have been involved as a user and as a creator of Internet (in its modern form) services since 1996. Over the last 11 years I have seen many advancements in the technologies used, services and applications. So I thought I would share some of them here.

Therest of the story has been moved to my new Technology, and Future of the Internet blog

Websites and what are they for?

Over the years that I have been both a user and as someone making their living from the Internet, I have in seen many great, fabulous and innovative changes but in many ways the basic principle have remained the same.

It has never ceased to amaze me that there are so many websites out there that have spent a huge amount of time an money making themselves look cutting edge, beautiful, got the latest go faster stripe, but they have forgotten the fundamentals, the whole reason for their site in the first place. For people to come, purchase, read, inform, communicate or entertain themselves.

Content is king! Without good content people will not stay, without good content they will not buy, or interact positively with your site.

Ok, you have got some great content, so what is next, then its the structure of the site that is and has and should always be of equal importance. There is zero point investing time and money writing, gathering content, if your visitors can't find or read your site. The simplest and most effective sites on the internet are the ones that are not over designed, do not have the go faster flash stripes. The site owners believe that getting around the site, getting to the information and the call to action is the most important part of the whole site. Once the solid structure is in place then it is an easy thing to give the site a new "lick of paint" at a later stage.

But there has been so many site owners that have been bowled over on how they site looks by the designers, they have forgotten that once it gets into the big bad internet world that what they site looks like at presentation will NOT look like this in the real world. There are so many variables to consider in developing a site from a design point of view but there is still one simple basic principle (actually two): Form & Function!

Form & Function
This is where Form is How the site looks and Function, how the visitor gets around the site. With too much design in the Form, to many gadgets, flash, applets, Web 2.0 etc this limits the ability at present for the search engines and the visitors to find and view/interact with your site. The very FIRST thing any site owner or potential site owner should consider when they are developing their site is who are the target market for their site. It is amazing the amount of times that this has been forgotten. They hand this over to their technical or marketing department or to the kid in the back office who is "good with computers". No offense to any of these, I am considered by some to be a Techie (but probably not by my own techies in Future Business) I also studied Marketing, and most of my friends call me when they have computer problems (Hi Jim). But I also have 11 years of web 1.0 years (some of web 2.0) experience. I know that every one comes to the table with an agenda. The techie (depending on which flavour, Unix, Microsoft, Mac etc) will have their own point of view (left up to most unix heads we would still be surfing the net by command line only... plain txt for non techies hmm (actually not a bad idea sometimes get away from mouse strain thats for sure)), the marketing guys, well its Design design design in most cases. There is a huge .com graveyard full of Marketing led sites that died because no one could use the site, either getting around or did not have the right plugins or heaven forbid "I spend a fortune on these pictures so I want them BIG". Looking at your target market will tell you how to design your site. I have seen sites aimed at the blind riddled with flash. I am sorry but the blind can't read your site, but the can listen to it. Flash though is impossible for the text to speech plug ins to inturpet, so are image site maps without txt guidelines.

I am not railing against all the fancy flashy gadgets, there is a place for these, sites aimed at showing off high tech, design, gaming etc. These sites will be visited by many who will have the computers spec'd up to utilise these elements (but just remember that the search engines will not be able to spider them effectively.

Now that you have discovered the Form of your site, next is the Function. How are your visitors going to get around your site, for that matter and in some ways of equal importance is how are the search engines going to get around your site. If you remember to make your site Function as simple and as structured as possible then your site visitor will never get lost, and will be able to get to the information that they are looking for in as little as three to four clicks. The harder you make it for them to get to the information, then the faster is the likelihood that they will go elsewhere. Forget about trying to bombard them with all the other products and services that you sell. If the visitor wants to know they will look. They just want to get to the one they are looking for. Make it simple for them. Once they have found it then you can show them related products/services but do it only then. The major advantage of making the Function (navigation structure) of your site simple is it also lets the Search engine spiders or bots trawl through your site and its content with ease. They will then follow all your lovely links to your wonderful target structured content back to their respective warrens and make this information easily available to future prospective clients through the search engine results.

There are plenty of other elements to Search Engine Marketing and optimisation (Optimization for the US readers) but getting the fundamentals right makes the job of and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert that much bit easier. If you are lucky you may not even have to worry too much about this element of promoting your site.

Back to Content now. You have decided that you want the latest news on your site, and everyone is talking about Blogs as brilliant for visitors, hell through in a forum, chat room and a bulletin board as well on the site, might as well go the whole way right? WRONG!

If you go to the site and see the latest news was written in 2005 this doesn't paint a good picture to the visitor, the very same thing goes for the blog. I have seen so many sites with Blogs in them and the boss thought it was a brilliant idea and posted up loads of comments for the first week or so, then it drifted to every other week, then once a month and so on. Chat rooms, well they have been empty, forums with one or two posts, or even worse customers coming in asking questions and going unanswered, then the come back frustrated and post something nasty (seen this many times). If you are going to get involved with some of these elements of a site to build your online community then make sure some one within your organisation is responsible for its upkeep. Otherwise do not start them. If you really want a forum on your site ask first your clients and visitors would they use it, and remember that atleast 80% of the positive responses will come down to less then 20% of them actually doing so.

Once the Function of your site is decided, you may discover that you will have to tweak your form, but if you follow the check list below in that order then you should not have to worry to much as a lot of the information will become obvious.

Final site check list:

1. CONTENT
2. TARGET MARKET
   
3. FORM
4. FUNCTION
5. Then check back to your FORM
   

I hope that this helps you and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to email me or leave a comment.

Is there any such thing as an Internet business

Here is another article:

B2B Article

Is there any such thing as an Internet business?

By Alex Gogan, Future Business

Is there really any such thing as “an Internet business”? Personally, I doubt it. Wonderful WAP and stock exchange prices on your mobile phone as you DART to your desk in the IFSC? Hardly. Ticker tape did the same job two generations ago and for some years now you could have the same service rather more legibly on a pager. Ah, you say – what about online gaming? Multiple players having at each other in real time in the latest version of Quake or BattleZone or whatever? Closer, definitely, but they could do the same thing in an arcade, meet new people, contribute to Coca Cola’s profits – and all without investing in go-faster PCs and fast Internet connection.

What about software downloads, automatic upgrading and so on? Still only close. A CD in the post may be a bit slower to arrive but it’s certainly a more reliable way to install software. But wait: now we have Application Service Providers (ASPs) and surely that’s a true Internet business if ever there was one? Well, I dunno. If you think about it, it’s really just oldfashioned remote LAN access except that it’s somebody else’s LAN.

I am, of course, assuming that you agree that consumer e-commerce is just mail order writ electronically. Amazon sell books and music for home delivery. Big deal. As for online ticket buying and reservations – is it any better than phone with credit card in hand? (OK, I’ll be a little swayed by reminders of “Your call is in a queue… please continue to hold and listen to our low-fi music until the next available agent who hasn’t left us for a really exciting job in a bank picks up your call”)

The point I make so laboriously is, of course, that almost all of the time we are talking about the Internet as a delivery and communications channel. It is revolutionary, the Web has unified the world in a way we could hardly have conceived a decade ago and there are thousands if not millions of new business opportunities. But the pace and excitement of it all has perhaps blinded us to what it’s all about. What’s it for?

There are new business models but not really new businesses. I want the latest price of CRH or Baltimore, I want the new Beatles compilation or an upgrade (patch?) for my Office application or a ticket to the Corrs. Being a spoiled brat of a customer, I’m impressed by the technology for only a short while before I get bored and take my fickle custom elsewhere because your damned Web site kept me waiting for nearly two minutes. Tomorrow, 30 seconds.

As mass broadband Internet access rolls inexorably out to the market, with NTL and Chorus offering up to a splendid 512k to any home user and the business market getting 1.5mbps or even 2mbps for about the price of a simple leased line in the old days (a couple of years ago), our entire society is being digitally transformed. The CRM gurus will have a field day, measuring and monitoring response times in milliseconds and attempting to enrich our understanding of customer behaviour.

For my part, I think it’s ridiculously simple. Consumers and business customers will get used to and demand an ever-escalating standard of service. There will be plenty of room for businesses old and new to elbow the competition aside with new differentiating service features. The clichés about individualization and ‘a market of one’ already apply. There will be masses of opportunities for e-technology companies to enable their business clients to design and implement better systems to survive and compete (sorry, but sometimes the old clichés are just needed) in this new e-world.

Almost every business, especially SMEs, will outsource a range of specialist functions because fast broadband makes it feasible for the first time. Why bother doing your own credit card payment processing, for example? Logistics and fulfillment – leave those administrative quicksands and traffic gridlock to someone else.

Now you’re talking about any given company having a range of specialist partners to provide the full complement of skills for its business offering. Instant online communications (let’s top talking about ‘virtual’) means the appropriate skills and function set is available for each transaction. In this new outsourcing-driven way of doing business, it seems inevitable that our ISPs will play a major role in putting the strategic partnerships and alliances together. The term ‘Business Service Providers’ has already emerged on the other side of the Atlantic.

I credit the English guru Ray Hammond with being the first to say “If you want to understand e-commerce, just drop the E-.” I agree. Business has acquired go-faster electronic stripes but it has not changed. Those of us in Internet-related services tend, I think, to become a little too involved in the buzz of tomorrow’s technology.

But that’s looking from the inside out. In the real world, the customer mostly does not know or care exactly how goods are made or distributed or a service provided. How good and how much are the questions, often judged by brand image. And like any spoiled brat, I want it NOW! In many ways the key value of the Internet is quite simply that it enables a business to tackle the NOW factor. We should kept that in mind.


January 2001

The 'Now!' Factor - what high-speed broadband Internet access means for business.

Here is an article I wrote in 2001 and it now seems even more relevant than ever, thought I would share it here.

The 'Now!' Factor - what high-speed broadband Internet access means for business.

By Alex Gogan.
Managing Director of the Future Business – Irelands complete Internet Services Company (fbi.ie).

Credit goes to the English guru Ray Hammond for being the first to say “If you want to understand e-commerce, just drop the E-.” Business has acquired go-faster electronic stripes but it has not changed. Those of us in Internet-related services tend, I think, to become a little too involved in the buzz of tomorrow’s technology. Essentially, broadband is about speed, but not speed as an end in itself.

As mass broadband Internet access rolls inexorably out to the market, speeds up to a splendid 512k will soon be available to any home and consumer. The recent ntl hiccough is unfortunate, but between it and Chorus and ADSL from eircom we will still get to a high speed connected future sooner rather than later. Right now the business market, including SMEs, is getting 1.5mbps or even 2mbps for about the price of a simple leased line in the old days. Our entire society is being digitally transformed.

Business2Consumer

Assuming that you agree that consumer e-commerce is just mail order writ electronically, it's sometimes hard to see what all the fuss about. Amazon is one of the best known and most widely used B2C companies. They sell books and music for home delivery. Big deal. As for online ticket buying and reservations, is it all that much better than phoning with credit card in hand?

In many ways the key value of the Internet is quite simply that it enables a business to tackle the 'NOW!' factor (providing instant gratification for customers). Broadband access makes this more pertinent than ever. The 'NOW!' factor of broadband access will somewhat justify the traditionally hyped 'WOW!' factor of B2C commerce.

For example, at the moment, as a normal consumer, if I want the latest share price of CRH or Baltimore, or the new Beatles compilation, or an upgrade for my MS Office application, I can download it, but at a price: my time (download time for most people in Ireland is still unacceptably slow).

However, with broadband access, download time will reduce significantly. In addition, the delivery of information will diversify and further stimulate demand. In turn this will facilitate and indeed force the emergence of new, more efficient, business models to cater for increasingly impatient customer demands. Through my mobile phone, a stocks and shares shop will offer me live price feeds and one-click purchasing; listening to my DISCman music vendors will compete for my custom with free sample tracks or bundled albums in better than MP3 format in minutes, and so on. As for my PC's/laptop's/Palm Pilot's MS Office, my licence from Microsoft One (the ASP division) means all of my applications software is always state of the art and bug-free, naturally.

On-line businesses, from ISPs to portals to news services, should be examining their laurels very carefully in light of imminent broadband access. What currently seems to the user a worthwhile experience in 56k slow-mo is going to seem superficial and old fashioned in a broadband world. TV listings and magazine type portals - yawn! Instant gratification is becoming an expected feature, rather than special bonus, of the B2C equation. In the real world, customers mostly do not know or care how goods are made or distributed, or how a service is provided. Consequently, the task is to give customers what they want, when they want, as cheerfully as possible, because if they don't, someone else will. In the world of broadband access, speed is the new whipping master. End of story.

Business2Business

Although public hype is mostly about consumer markets, the implications of a broadband Internet world for otherwise ‘ordinary’ business are nothing short of profound. Apart from instant communication and transactions with each other along the supply chain, almost every business, especially SMEs, will outsource a range of specialist functions because fast broadband makes it workable for the first time. Network management and systems administration should be the first to go, because smaller companies cannot afford in-house expertise even today. Security will be a major factor, because ‘always on’ Internet connection with fixed IP addresses means every business and Web user is as targetable as a physical location.

But there are umpteen opportunities also for non-technical outsourcing. Why bother doing your own credit card payment processing, for example? By leaving the administrative quicksands of logistics and fulfillment to companies whose core business they are, you can pass on the orders in real time, leaving you less stressed and your customers' requirements better met. Even accounts and credit control, at the heart of any business, could be outsourced. One small bureau could probably serve a dozen SMEs, live and in real time, paying dedicated staff well enough to keep them! Another stress factor off your shoulders.

With broadband internet access, any given company can have a range of specialist partners to provide the full complement of skills for its core business offering. Instant online communications (let’s stop talking about ‘virtual’ - profits made online are as real as those made offline) means the appropriate skills and function set is available for each transaction, without having to go to the expense of having it all in-house. In this new outsourcing-driven way of doing business, it seems inevitable that our ISPs will play a major role in putting the strategic partnerships and alliances together. The term ‘Business Service Providers’ has already emerged on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Future
So what should we be doing about broadband Internet access? For starters, ruling absolutely nothing out. Look at www.hamsterdance.com - dancing cartoon hamsters generating more Web hits than Amazon.com and spawning a hit music single that made $ millions.

One example of a whole new field opening up is Open Platform Game Servers. OPGSs allow subscribers the ability to connect with one another over the Net and play many of the most popular multi-player games on the market such as Quake, BattleZone, and Total Annihilation. You get the flavour. The Gameserver concept is one that will doubtless generate fierce customer loyalty. These are definitely going to figure largely in our entertainment future and there’s lots of scope for regional variations.

What's more, there’s no reason why more adult (in the dignified sense) and cerebral variations of OPGSs will not emerge. For example, there are plenty of role-playing and educational games currently available. Many of these are focused at the business market, e.g. Wall Street, and the SIMM’s family of games. These allow people to control, build, nurture etc a whole variety of different themes from family’s to cities. With more and more broadband connections becoming available it will allow people to interact and enhance their skills in planning through these virtual environments. With computing and programming getting more and more powerful almost month by month again this will only lead to much more advanced software and interaction which can be as close to reality as possible.

Broadband access will change the way consumers and businesses use and think about the Internet. At Future Business we're investing considerable amounts of time and money (increasingly the same thing in this Internet era) in the development of new products, services and business models, which will be in demand by broadband users. Already we have set up a dedicated online marketing company, which will look at reaching target audiences at a number of levels employing all access channels available e.g. PCs, mobile phones (be it WAP, SMS or the future UMTS and G3), MP3s, Palm Pilots, TV set-top, Digital TV, essentially all manner of connected to the Internet.

In conclusion, broadband Internet access is due to hit home in Ireland within the next 12 months. As a business, it's up to you whether or not you want to hitch a ride or get left behind. The choice is that straightforward. As in all walks of life, the choice is yours.

Email: alex@fbi.ie
www.fbi.ie


Feb 2001
- ENDS -