Zen Monthly Newsletter

Up to 10 million homes will get fibre-optic based broadband in the next few years, if recently announced plans to replace much of the UK's existing copper wire network are completed on time. Fibre rollout will be a mix of FTTH (fibre to the home), delivering top speeds up to 100Mbps, and fibre to the cabinet (FTTC), offering speeds up to 40Mbps. Most FTTH connections will go to new-build developments, leaving older properties with a copper connection to shared access at their nearest fibre terminus - at the lower maximum speed of 40Mbps. Fibre has long been viewed as the next step in broadband because it provides speeds beyond those available through cable or DSL connections, or even T1 or T3 lines. It is seen as an essential upgrade to fix the increasing broadband congestion caused by high-bandwidth services such as the BBC's iPlayer and will make it possible for households to run multiple high-bandwidth applications, such as high-definition TV, simultaneously.

Britain's six biggest ISPs, the Government and the British Phonographic Institute (BPI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week in which they pledged to "significantly reduce illegal file sharing" by sending out warning letters to thousands of P2P users and cutting off broadband service to repeat offenders. A separate consultation document issued by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform proposes other solutions. The Government's "preferred option" is to put an "obligation on ISPs to take action against subscribers who are identified (by the rights holder) as infringing copyright through P2P". A second proposed alternative suggests: "streamlining the existing process by requiring ISPs to provide personal data relating to a given IP address to rights holders on request without them needing to go to Court".

The Guardian has regained its position as the number one newspaper Web site, growing its audience by 11.9% from May, to lift itself back above Mail Online, according to June ABCe data. TheSun.co.uk remains the most popular Web site among the red-top newspapers, posting an ABCe of 15.5 million unique users in June with its online audience growing by more than any other newspaper site over the previous year, bar the Telegraph online.

Shane Richmond, communities editor at Telegraph.co.uk, has responded to a recent article in the satirical magazine Private Eye that claimed the newspaper was forcing its reporters to write stories based strictly on keyword popularity. The piece also said that writers were instructed to cram as many keywords as possible into each article's first paragraph. According to Private Eye, "Telegraph news hacks are sent a memo three or four times a day listing the top subjects being searched in the last few hours on Google. They are then expected to write stories accordingly and/or get as many of those keywords as possible into the first part of their story". "Normally I'd chuckle and move on", Richmond says, "but the Private Eye item seems to have caused a little confusion, which I want to dispel". The Telegraph does encourage reporters to use keywords - choosing "Fallujah" instead of "a city west of Baghdad," for example - but says it's done to help readers find stories, for example when they use the news site's own search facility. "So yes, of course, that's what we do and our staff are regularly updated on the performance of our stories in search engines and told when a vital key word is missing", said Richmond. But he added that there were no keyword frequency mandates, nor did the Telegraph use search term popularity to dictate which topics the writers covered.

Yahoo! has announced that it will allow external developers to use its technology to develop their own search engines, free of charge. The new Build Your Own Search service, or BOSS, will allow developers to create enhanced search results specifically for their sector or users. The plan is to allow interested parties to fully access the company’s search technology, with all of its algorithms and infrastructure, giving the developers’ control over the presentation and ranking of search results. A similar service, but on a much narrower scale, is offered by Google, which allows Web sites to customise its search results based on what they think is most relevant for their users. Yahoo! hopes to overshadow Google’s version by offering its platform with an "unprecedented level of access". "If you have an idea for a search engine and a particular audience in mind, you can enter the marketplace without the upfront cost of entry", said Prabhakar Raghavan, chief strategist for the company's search division.

A short-lived demo to show off the new Yahoo! BOSS service, and prove that it doesn't take months of work or millions of dollars to develop a new search resource, was designed to mimic the just-launched search engine, Cuil (see our 'Search Engine of the Month' below). Named Yuil, the take-off was taken down after complaints to Yahoo! that it was unfairly belittling the Cuil site as it emerged from beta testing this week.

While the full glare of press attention was on Max Mosley vs the News of the World, in another room of the high court in London last week, a separate judgment was being delivered that could have implications for many social networking sites. North London businessman Matthew Firsht was awarded £22,000 in damages for breach of privacy and libel against a former friend, Grant Raphael, who set up a fake Facebook profile in his name. Facebook provided evidence that the profile originated at a computer in Mr Raphael's home. He said gatecrashers at a party were responsible. Mr Firsht, who runs a Web site that books live audiences for television shows including Big Brother and Top Gear, was awarded £15,000 for libel and £2,000 for breach of privacy. His company was also awarded £5,000 for libel. The false profile set up by Raphael, a freelance photographer, contained a wealth of private information and listed Firsht as a member of several Gay groups on Facebook, including Gay Jews in London. A Facebook group set up anonymously by Mr Raphael accused Mr Firsht and his company of having lied to avoid paying debts.

You might know your Facebook from your Odeo, but most companies couldn't give a Flickr about social media. Are businesses missing out on the opportunities that a Web 2.0 world can hold for them? Incorporating social media into your client or company’s existing content strategy does not have to be a painful process, says Britt Parrott at Digital Web Magazine.

Whether already a market leader like Facebook or MySpace, Digg or del.icio.us, or still making a name, sites facilitated by technology known as Web 2.0, and collectively known as social media, could precipitate a sea change in online communication. Certainly, they offer some new channels and methods for businesses to reach consumers. Early adopters have seen some commercial success as well as failure in the unchartered waters. If you're hoping to float on the new wave, SmashLab has a white paper that might be the primer you need.

It may not have the same irresistible draw as search, but advertisers are spending real money on social media, according to the San Francisco Chronicle in an article detailing the social media marketing efforts of a few big brands. More and more, advertisers "are finding that the social media networks are too big to ignore," claims Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of the agency Deep Focus, which has created Facebook campaigns for HBO and Coca-Cola. For example, in March the famous Sears chain rolled out a prom-dress campaign asking high school girls to share their favourite dresses with friends on Facebook. In June, ConAgra Foods partnered with Facebook app developer Slide to promote its Slim Jim brand through the company's Fun Wall and Top Friends apps. Last month, Visa invested $2 million in advertising on Facebook in an agreement to create social networking apps for small businesses. Were any of these resounding successes? The article doesn't really say, but it goes on to list the usual challenges that user-generated content sites pose for advertisers. It also points out that research firm eMarketer recently lowered its social networking spending outlook. Nevertheless, these campaigns show that "(advertisers) are putting significant money in (social networking), which is very telling," says Heather Dougherty, director at traffic measurement firm Hitwise. "It shows that there are traditional companies looking into social networks and seeing it as a vibrant media to connect with customers," albeit, on an experimental basis.

In early 2007, Chris Hughes, one of the four founders of Facebook, left the social networking world to work on Barack Obama's new media campaign. Since then, social networks like MySpace and Facebook have helped Obama's campaign revolutionise the political use of the Web as a campaign fundraising tool, with Obama raising more than two million donations of less than $200 each. Central to the shift has been My.BarackObama.com, an interactive community site for Obama supporters. As the candidate himself said, "One of my fundamental beliefs from my days as a community organiser is that real change comes from the bottom up, and there's no more powerful tool for grass-roots organising than the Internet". Peter Daou, Senator Hillary Clinton's Internet director, recently described Obama's online reach as "amazing," adding that, "their use of social networks will guide the way for future campaigns". Now, team Obama is applying the same strategies to win the general election, but this time understanding the need to expand beyond young, Internet-savvy supporters and reach the public at large.

After raising $2.5 million from private investors, fast growing Christian online video sharing and social networking site GodTube has taken in $30 million from hedge fund GLG Partners. GodTube was launched in summer last year in Texas, and says it already has 2 million users a month. The site sells religious and secular advertising and provides a 'Godcaster' service to churches that allows them to stream live video of their services online.

Micro blogging service Twitter has made no effort to grow its UK audience and didn't even bother to register the .co.uk version of its domain name. Nevertheless, the mini-message network is now more popular with Brits than Americans. Last month the site's UK Internet visits were 70 per cent higher than in America, according to Robin Goad at Hitwise.

Google has launched Knol, a new user-written information site with advertising options, intended to rival Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia. You won't find it at knol.com - that's a Danish steam cleaning equipment company, which seems just as determined to hang on to its domain name as the German businessman who was using gmail.de before Google introduced its e-mail service. Wikipedia should survive the Google threat, it has a good headstart and claims to have 7 million collectively edited articles in 200 languages.

Google is testing 13 new features for Gmail and is inviting all-comers to try them out and provide feedback. The company also plans to open the system to outsiders to contribute the next set of new features.

Sun has revealed it is developing a new set of tools to help users build social networking applications that can be based 'up in the cloud' - that far-away-from-your-desktop place otherwise known as online. Yahoo! has a whole new division focusing on cloud computing.

The popularity of so-called subnotebooks, such as the Asus Eee PC, has led tech entrepreneur Max Seybold to develop a low-spec, low-cost desktop computer called the CherryPal C100. CherryPal have dubbed the £125 machine a "cloud computer". Instead of using software and data from its own hard drive, the majority of information is processed and stored on the Web. CherryPal are also touting the unit as the most energy efficient desktop computer available due to the fact that it has no moving parts, contains 80 per cent fewer components and uses only two watts of power.

Apple's much-anticipated iPhone 3G arrived in the UK last month. Soon to be available in 70 countries, the phone updates the one launched a year ago by speeding up Internet access and adding a navigation chip. Its debut coincided with the launch of a dedicated online store offering more than 500 mobile software applications such as games and reference guides, and a surprising number of religious software titles, including Bible Xpress, Holy Sword and Bibles2GO, as well as "Attaining Zen", software with a garden path approach to inner peace and tranquillity. There's also an iPhone version of the Super Monkey Ball computer game from Sega, in which on-screen characters are controlled by tilting and moving the iPhone itself rather than pressing any buttons. The camera is below par and there's still no picture-messaging - a standard feature on European phones for years that is not popular in Apple's US home market - but there is a British-made application called Band, which simulates musical instruments on-screen and allows users to compose songs. Most of the new applications are games and almost 25 per cent of the available titles are free.

If you travel or live abroad, the Internet offers new ways to keep in touch with family and friends and some of them are free. Most people know about Skype, which allows you to call other Skype users for nothing, but if you can't face talking 'through your computer', it might be worth trying JahJah. With this system, you visit the company's Web site and enter your number and your friend's number. The site then calls you back automatically and sets up the call. In some countries it's free between registered users, in others - or if one of the users isn't registered - there's a charge. The Guardian Weekly's Simon Payn reports on all the least expensive ways to stay connected overseas and finds it's even possible to recreate something akin to your physical presence when you're thousands of miles away. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh have developed Hug, a pillow-like device to allow people to send hugs across the world using the telephone or a computer.

"Ridiculous" GCSE ICT exam questions have defeated the best efforts of a team of knowledgeable adults from PC Pro magazine who tried the test. "Thousands of pupils are sitting ICT GCSE exams that are so baffling or ambiguous that they confounded our IT experts" says staff writer Barry Collins. Five of the PC Pro team sat the ICT Higher paper, which pupils would have taken last summer. Some questions on the paper tripped up every member of the team and several multiple-choice questions that demanded pupils tick only one box had more than one correct answer. Other questions were ridiculously easy. One displayed five records from a database and asked "How many records are shown in this database table?". "It's a test of whether you can count to five," concluded one of the PC Pro staff.

If you're at work and your nearby colleagues won't stop chatting, there are two options: either ask them to move along/shut up - or get yourself a good pair of earplugs and/or headphones. If you choose headphones, but can't seem to focus on work with music blaring, you could try SimplyNoise, a white noise generator that runs in your browser. It lets you create the defensive noise level you need with a simple volume slider that's independent of your system volume. There's also a standalone player for download.

New search engine Cuil, based in Menlo Park, near San Francisco, came out of subscriber-only testing this week. Created by ex-Google engineers, Cuil has $33 million in funding and claims to have over 121 billion pages indexed, which is more than any other search engine, including Google. Created by Anna Patterson, architect of the TeraGoogle search index and husband Tom Costello from IBM, as well as two other former Google employees, the new service presents results in a newspaper-column layout style with a scattering of associated images and aims to provide more comprehensive search with better relevance than its competitors. Google responded quickly, saying that it "accesses" 1 trillion Web pages and has "the most comprehensive index of any search engine". But Cuil also hopes to compete with Google by capitalising on concerns about the search giant's 'Big Brother' approach to user privacy, preferring to focus Cuil search results on page content rather than taking account of recordings of visitors' click history, personal information or search histories. Cúil, which is an Irish Gaelic word that in some translations means Hazel - "the tree of knowledge" - is pronounced "cool".