Tag Archives: internet

Never Forget

Comments 0
June 23, 2011

There has been a major revision of the ePrivacy Directive published 25th May that forces businesses to change the way they collect data from their websites. Currently, cookies are implemented on website for tracking and to improve user experience, however few users are aware of the number of cookies and the amount of tracking that websites are using.

At present, those savvy users that find cookies an evasion of privacy can opt out through their browse settings and, currently just 25% of UK user removes cookies (by clearing their cache) at least once a month (comscore 2010).

But the new directive rule now states that cookies can only be allowed if the user has given prior permission. At this time less than a third of the 27 EU countries have complied with the directive – Denmark and Estonia being two of them. Government across Europe are finding it difficult to come up with a workable solution that will satisfy both businesses and user privacy rights.

At present the UK government is unlikely to meet the EU deadline because the directive, while noble, is impractical in the UK market where a user can have an average of 13 cookies on their computer at any time.

However, the directive is a law and whist the ICO is debating the rights of the UK consumer vs the needs of the industry, we are running out of time. We now only have a year before businesses can face a maximum fine of $800,000 for using cookies without permission.

The best solution at the moment would be for the browser to control the permission settings – this would be the best one-fits-all approach. This route leads to discussions with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox for a solution that may include a header with increased visibility for cookies.

So, this all means that businesses should immediately start to review their current privacy policy and assess what changes would need to be made. No overarching decision or process has been agreed at present, so businesses and digital marketers cannot physically do or change anything as of yet, but must keep a close eye on news stories and trade boards for the latest information

Read more

Comment
Posted by the7stars

The Name of the Game

Comments 0
May 12, 2011

From next month, we could start to see marketers investing hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy their own brand names as top-level domains. This might sound boring, but What’s Hot can assure you it’s not. A ‘top level domain’ is the bit after the ‘dot’ in a web address, where you’d normally find ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’. The result could be the beginning of web addresses that end in: ‘.nike’, ‘.sony’ and even ‘.asda’.

The news is based on an announcement by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that oversees the internet addresses. ICANN announced that next month it will outline its guidelines on brands buying these top level domains.
The rationale for this is that instead of brands having long sub domain addresses such as www.findaproperty.com/rent/lambeth/brixton, users will be able to find different products by visiting a much simpler (branded) top level domain such as brixton.findaprop.

Companies such as Canon, Hitachi, IBM and Unicef are expected to be the first to buy the unique domains  according to Brand Republic. However interest in this is far from universal. Motorola, for example, has insisted that it remains firmly committed to its existing site. Buying a top level domain will cost about $185,000 (£113,000) to register, as well as $25,000 (£15,000) a year in subscription and infrastructure costs.

Certainly there are benefits to large corporations with diverse business units that would be able to amalgamate their divisions under one domain, eg: mobile.sony, tv.sony, ps3.sony. However, there are lots of issues for a brand that wants to make these changes – most notably the reaction of users that have grown up with the ‘.com’ and ‘.co.uk’ domains. These are embedded in the psyche of the internet generation and any changes could cause confusion. To switch off ‘.com’ and ‘.co.uk’ would be extremely risky and brands would need to consider how they might align these with any move to a branded domain.

As well as buying the top level domains, brands will need to maintain them by having the right technical infrastructure. They will also need to migrate various business platforms over to the one domain as per the Sony example above.

Finally, brands need to consider key short- and medium-term concerns, such as extending their search keywords for PPC and SEO changes, and how they will raise consumer awareness of the new domains. In the end most brands will probably register a branded domain name and see how the market adapts before fully committing. In doing so, they will need to maintain their ‘.com’ and similar domains during any transitional period, and have a clear migration plan in place. The really interesting point will be when one leading brand takes the first step. What’s Hot is waiting with baited breath .

Read more

Comment
Posted by the7stars