Phil Bradley's weblog

UK Polish Internet usage on the rise

According to Hitwise, UK Polish Internet usage on the rise. It's estimated there are somewhere between half and one million Polish people in the country and as a result, interest in Polish sites is on the rise. Unsurprisingly the Polish version of Google is the most popular site, but there are a number of others that do well, including a site to support Polish people in Scotland, which has to be a niche area if ever there was one.

If you've got a lot of Polish people in your area you might want to consider getting some more information on the country or doing a display of links in the library that might interest them. The Hitwise article is a good start and I've got a list of 39 Poland search engines that might be worth taking a peek at. Poland is actually very well represented with search engines and does better than a lot of other European countries.

SheriffRatings - say what you feel

SheriffRatings. Ever had particularly good or bad service from a shop, restaurant, plumber etc. and wanted to make sure that other people were aware of it? This is one area that SheriffRatings comes into play. It's the 3rd largest ratings directory and currently has over 50,000 users and 250,000 hits a month.

The interface is simple, in that you simply choose the type of service that you want, or the company name and a location.

Best Rated UK Directory - SheriffRatings.com via kwout

Search results are arranged by Best rated, though this can be re-ordered by A-Z or distance. They also have a 'featured UK town' section, and have introduced new user features with the inevitable social networking and SMS. Businesses also get a free listing on the site and have been described as the 'MySpace for Businesses'. They're also offering small businesses Google Adwords packages, and are planning on adding more social networking features in 2008.

So if you're looking for something more than a straightforward listing of resources and/or want to let everyone know what you think about a service, take a peek.

[In the interests of transparency I should point out that Sheriff Ratings do advertise on my site, but equally in the interests of transparency should also point out I don't take advertising from anyone that I haven't personally checked out myself!]

Almost 50 UK search engines disappear in 3 years

I keep a page on my site: Country and Regional search engines: United Kingdom which lists UK based search engines. I went through it recently to check to see if the links were still accurate, and pointing towards the search engines that were originally at that domain. Of 164 sites almost 50 search engines had ceased to exist. (The exact number was 46 - 28% of the total.) In many cases the URL no longer worked, in a small number of others the domain had been taken over and was essentially parked, and in an even smaller number the domain was being used for entirely different enterprises.

This isn't really that much of a surprise, given that the big four control well in excess of 90% of the market.  The search engines that seem to have survived, or perhaps even prospered are the UK variants of some of the major engines, or which have a specific unique selling point, covering specific parts of the country, or dealing with niche vertical markets.  Nonetheless, it still doesn't make comforting reading for an enterprises that are considering starting their own UK engines.

The collection of links, both live and dead can be seen on my site on the United Kingdom search engine web page.

Online Information 2007

As you doubtless know, next week is Online Information 2007 which is one of the premier information conferences and exhibitions for librarians and information professionals, but you all knew that anyway. I've been involved with it in one way or another for about the last 20 years, mainly as a delegate, exhibition goer, on a stand or, for most of this century, speaking at the conference, moderating and such like.

Unfortunately, because of Jill's illness I felt that I had to pull out this year - she's just starting chemo and we'll have to see how she is affected by it. Obviously if she's not well I'm going to need to spend time with her, and rather than let everyone down at the last minute, felt that the responsible thing to do would be to pull out earlier and give everyone time to get alternatives up and running. I'm disappointed not to be there, but life is what happens when you're busy making other plans I'm afraid. And besides, I'm sure everyone will be able to cope more than adequately! Best wishes to everyone, and I hope the conference goes well.

Broadband prevails for UK internet - 20 November 2007

Broadband prevails for UK internet - 20 November 2007.

Nearly nine out of ten connections to the internet in the UK are now made via broadband, according to the latest quarterly survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

In a survey of internet connectivity carried out in September 2007, the ONS found that broadband accounted for 88.4% of all internet connections, up from 86.2% in June 2007. Dial-up connections accounted for just 11.6% of the total.

About LocateTV

About LocateTV is something that I've been playing with today. Basically it lets you find out information on your favourite television programmes. It tells you if they're on and when, and on what channel, provides you with a summary of the episode, links for cast members and so on.

It's not perfect - I'd really like to see it linked into proper tv schedules, links to 'if you like this you might like that', 2.0 things such as groups and discovering via networks. However it does let you embed stuff so that you can share it with other people - I'm including an example below. As a start, it's a good one, and quite interesting. It's in closed beta at the moment, but they're actively looking for bloggers and people with an interest in media/television and so on. If you think you fit the bill, I'm sure they'll send you an invite!

mySociety

mySociety is a site that I heard about on Radio 5. Essentially it's an umbrella site that has created/brought together a number of political sites (with a small p), such as Neighbourhood Fix-It where you can report local problems like broken paving stones, HearFromYourMp, PledgeBank, NotApathetic and so on.

It's worth a look.

BBC NEWS Digital divide could be deepening

The number of people who don't want net access is rising in the UK - it's currently at 44% (11.2 million) UK households, according to the BBC NEWS Digital divide could be deepening article. More than 70% of that group have little or no intention of getting net access. There are 3 main reasons cited for staying off the net - lack of interest/need, cost, lack of skills. Even if these barriers were removed 42.8% of people asked refused to say if they'd get access.

Who currently has net access?

• 16-24 - 85%
• 25-44 - 79%
• 45-54 - 68%
• 55-64 - 68%
• 65-74 - 55%

(Figures from the ONS)

YouTube and copyright round 2

Item on the BBC News: Goal footage warning for website. A weblog has been sent a 'cease and desist' letter from NetResult, a firm that monitors the net on behalf of the Premier League, NOT because it was hosting content that infringed the League's copyright, but because it was linking TO a site (YouTube) that was doing so. YouTube still has lots of other football related clips available however, so this letter seems to be seriously inconsistent in its approach.

I can see both sides of this one really - as an author I'm not going to be chuffed if someone essentially steals my work and plays around with it. On the other hand, this was poor quality imagery, captured from the Match of the Day BBC coverage (and interestingly the Beeb isn't allowed to show goals from the Prem. League on its website at the moment). You'd need to be a real fan to watch it, or to have missed the original programme. Yes, the Prem. League has the right to catch and stop people using its content (maybe they wouldn't do it so much if we didn't have to pay £25+ a ticket?), but why go after one single website when they could and should have had a go at the original hosting site, in this case YouTube. It couldn't be because it's easier to threaten the little guy could it?

Broadband UK needs 'more speed'

Link: BBC NEWS | Technology | Broadband UK needs 'more speed'. BBC article says that 75% of UK online households will be broadband by the end of the year. However, we're not as fast as we could be - 'the slow man of Europe'. Looking at the adverts over the last year or so, speed has become less emphasised as it appears that for the majority of us we're not going to be able to get the 24Mbps that we were once promised. Instead, the deals are related to price/telephone services.

There's also an interesting breakdown of what broadband households are doing online -

• EMail 68%
• Blogging/browsing/surfing 66% (all in one category????)
• Shopping 49%
• eBay/auction sites 33%
• Banking 31%
• Chat 27%

... and so on. Read the report for the full breakdown.