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“Raspberry Pi” encourages kids to get in to web development

So today see’s the launch of “Raspberry Pi” a credit card sized computer that is designed to get kids into web programming.

It’s a very basic system in the first instance, as you would expect for something of it’s size, but it’s taken 6 years to to get the product on the market. It is sent out uncased, chip and all, with a simple set of ports that will connect to any standard keyboard, mouse and monitor.

The New Raspberry Pi

"Happy Birthday little Jonny!!"

It’s been introduced to try and introduce more children in to the world of programming, largely through it being introduced into schools.

It’s a good job this is the primary aim too, as I can imagine to look on kids faces that open this on their birthday. Much like the year my father gave me a chemistry set instead of the latest version of Sonic the hedgehog….

Suffice it to say I was not impressed.

However I don’t think we can argue against the fact the UK would benefit from a push in this direction. Although we are more than happy with the current multi cultural office we have, we are always surprised how few of the applications we recive for vacancies are from home turf.

It looks like a good step in the right direction to up and hopefully when we come to recruit for a new web design or web development role in 10 years time we will see the results. Who knows, but in my opinion we do have some catching up to do, and this looks like a step in the right direction.

Google Reduces BBC Search Results

Google has started to show fewer than the typical ten front page results for some searches related to sport on the BBC.

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Search Engine Land highlighted this anomaly yesterday after spotting complaints on a forum thread and decided to investigate what happened when you enter BBC football into Google.

It discovered that there was only one web search result; the actual BBC Sport – Football homepage, followed by a video result at number two and a Google News result completing the front page.

Typing BBC football into Google today displays only the homepage and Google News result, which essentially means there are only two results to this incredibly popular search enquiry.

Google has yet to comment on these results but it has been speculated that it might not be a change to their algorithm but just a bug that has occurred thanks to the recent revamp of the BBC Sport website.

PureBlue are looking forward to the day when we are the only result when people search for web design London.

Facebook To Launch Timeline For Brands

Facebook has announced that it will be rolling out its new Timeline feature for brand pages later this month, according to reports.

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Ad Age has stated that the social networking site will reveal the initiative at its next conference for online marketers, which is set to take place on February 29th in New York City.

Only a select group of brands will be chosen for the new photo-heavy feature as part of a scheme that will start in beta and eventually be rolled-out across the board once all the niggles are ironed out.

Since Facebook announced Timeline, Twitter and Google+ have both introduced brand pages so it appears that Zuckerberg and co are playing catch up for the time being.

Timeline gives brands some new options for self-expression on Facebook and it provides them with the opportunity to outline their corporate history, which means that PureBlue can easily chronicle the progress of Barny’s moustache this coming Movember.

Our intrepid intern Daniel has left our web design London offices for the last time and everyone in the team, especially Elodie, would like to wish him the best of luck for the future.

Angry Birds Hits Facebook

The creators of iPhone app sensation Angry Birds have launched a free Facebook version that can be played on internet browsers.

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People can now fling furious cartoon birds at diseased looking pigs on their laptops and desktops by using a mouse to direct the creatures instead of the conventional touch screen.

Recent research revealed that the British economy lost over £800 million every year to smartphone games and Prime Minister David Cameron has even boasted that he has completed Angry Birds.

Angry Birds is the first example of an incredibly successful app with Rovio’s having sold over 500 million copies of the game as well as tons of merchandise and reports state that there are proposed plans for activities parks and even a film.

In other technology news, it has been reported that Apple will announce the iPad 3 on March 7th which is likely to send a shiver of excitement through the PureBlue web design London offices.

Does Google Like SEO?

Google has gotten itself into trouble following some controversial SEO comments made by one of its employees.

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Programmer Jonathon Rockway said on Hacker News that SEO was not helping people using the internet and that it is a ‘bug’ that allowed business to rank highly in Google without having to pay for its Adwords service.

He said: “Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That’s a good thing because SEO can’t scale, and SEO isn’t good for users or the Internet at large.

“If you look at the Google experience from the standpoint of customers, it’s pretty good. Users get relevant search results and ads. Advertisers get their content on top of everything else. It’s a good compromise between advertising and usability, and it works really well. It’s a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads, and Google is trying to fix the bug.

“Manipulating Google results shouldn’t be something you feel entitled to be able to do. If you want to rank highly in Google, be relevant for the user currently searching. Engage him in social media or email, provide relevant information about what you’re selling, and, generally, be a “good match” for what the user wants.”

These comments from a Google employee have outraged a large number of people in the SEO community who are already critical of the organisation’s promotion of its own products in search results, which are often to the detriment of competitors.

It appears that Rockway, a new Google employee, has been demonstrated naivety by posting these comments but his argument is that the best way to achieve SEO results is by effectively engaging customers through social media and relevant content.

Google’s recent Panda updates are penalising those businesses that generate low quality links through “shallow content”, which is quickly changing the face of SEO and many in the industry who keep practising old methods are being left behind.

PureBlue must be doing something right with our SEO as we now rank at number three for our premier keyword web design London. Here’s hoping that our new SEO analyst will get us to the top.