chris dalrymple - blog

Available here (as advertised in NMA) to those who want to try AdWords.

What MySpace does ok, Facebook does better. What Twitter does ok, Jaiku does better (and even Facbook does ok).

I think the biggest problem a lot of new web ventures are having (or are going to have), is that there's a huge overlap between rival platforms: Whereas previously technologies like Blogger, Wordpress, Movable Type etc all did much the same thing (just with different levels of success), there was little need for each platform to talk to each other - it was all just published on the web for everyone to see.

Now though everything's about networks and communities, but with a focus on communities within specific platforms - My Myspace account can't talk to my Facebook account. If I have a twitter account I still have to incessantly tell Jaiku and Facebook What I'm Doing.

This is all exacerbated by the proliferation of new apps which do the same as the old one, but a little bit better. As soon as you've got to grips with one cool new toy, it's replaced by another.

Until these platforms open up a little more (and sure, Facebook is welcoming new developers, but with fairly strict Ts and Cs) then they can only have a limited lifespan. If startups want to be around for the long haul, they need to open up properly, to talk to each other easily.

Either that, or the Next Big Thing will be a site which pulls every kind of social app you could use together, easily, in one place. Bloglines for the myspace generation if you like.

Labels: facebook, jaiku, myspace, twitter, web 2.0

For the last couple of years, it's not been possible to use AdWords for sites which allow gambling online (unless you manage to avoid the attentions of Google's editorial team...).

However, it had been possible to advertise free play sites then soliciting email addresses to target later (i.e. littlewoodsbingoquiz.com).

According to a recent conversation with an AdWords rep, that's all about to change however:

I'd like to confirm that we are changing our policies regarding the advertising of gambling from 1st June 2007.

In the past we made exceptions for gambling when no real currency was involved. However these exceptions will no longer apply from June onwards.

Which pretty much means there's no way in to AdWords for gambling advertisers, unless you're prepared to play bait and switch every Friday night when the reps go home.

Gambling SEO just got a little tougher still.

Labels: gambling, google, seo

It's been a few weeks now since I switched from my PC to a MacBook, and here's what I've found so far.

1. It's a thing of beauty. Sure, the Sony Vaios are nice (and I was tempted by one), but the simplicity of the design is great, and everyone I've shown it to covets it just a little bit. Sure, looks aren't everything but it's great to be carrying around something that feels so well designed.

2. I thought I would feel severly hampered by OS X being so different to Windows, but it only took me an afternoon to get used to it - I now happily use OS X at home and XP at work (although I do sometimes double click the status bar in XP to minimise the window and drag my mouse to the bottom right to get the desktop..).

3. For £1000 for the black MacBook, I'd really like a decent office-type package thrown in. There's a free trial for Office for Mac, and iWork, but they both expire within the next couple of days. Overall I'm potentially shelling out for Office (£306) iWork (I much prefer KeyNote to PowerPoint - £55), Dreamweaver (£370), PhotoShop (£520). It all adds up, so the more they can throw in for free, the better.

4. It's a bastard to keep clean. No matter how clean I think my hands are I still leave marks over the surface. And it's such a lovely surface!

5. It just works. Bluetooth, Wireless, webcam, Networking, Front row, remote control (why don't all computers have remote controls??!) - all working straight out of the box.

6. I sometimes get lost in the folder heirachy. Weird one this - I often find it difficult to know where I am in the folder directory because there's no address bar in the file explorer as there is in windows. Sometimes makes it difficult to see where I'm saving files to.

7. Right mouse button! A constant annoyance of switchers this one - please put a right mouse button on the track pad! Doesn't bother me so much as the first thing I did was plug in an external mouse, but annoying when I'm out and about and leave the mouse at home.

8. No delete key. There's a backspace, but no delete, which is annoying - I suspect on the seperate keyboard there is one, but why have two 'enter' keys and no delete??

9. It's the little things. The fantastic sleep state which never seems to drain battery but always saves work when you close the lid. The readout on the battery showing how charged it is. The fact that I can install Skype and videocall without any additional hardware. The Magnetic power cable that stops you from triiping over the cable and knocking the laptop onto the floor.

Overall then, it's fair to say I'm impressed. I've been an avid Windows user for as long as I've been using computers, and since I've had the MacBook I've turned on the PC twice - once to get all my files off there, the other to read a Microsoft Publisher document.

If you're thinking about switching I'd recommend borrowing a friend's Mac and using it for a weekend to make sure you're compatible - I quickly got over the little differences, but you mileage may vary.

Personally, I'm very happy. And looking forward to Leopard..

Labels: mac, macbook, switch, windows, xp

NickWilson's wife is just being rushed to the hospital after her waters broke, and he's Twittering it!

Possibly the world's first Twittered birth?..

Good luck Nick and Ivana!

editOk, so searchengineland beat me to the punch, and it turns out probably not the first!

Labels: twitter