Searched, Designed, Developed. I-COM Blog

Due to the large number of fake accounts in existence on popular social networking and social media sites, Manchester City and Manchester United have banned their players from having accounts on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. A Manchester United spokesperson, speaking in the Manchester... read more

Before the dust had even settled on the disaster-stricken Caribbean country of Haiti there was already a flow of posts, blogs and websites starting to discuss and share moments of the disaster. But for this event the internet and social media hasn't just been used to gossip or simply pass... read more

Twitter Post Leads to Terror Arrest

By James Roome in Social Media Marketing on Monday, January 18, 2010 @ 10:40

When you work in the online marketing industry, you are constantly reminded of the dangers of posting your uncensored thoughts online – a sobering example of just how bad an idea this can be has been reported on in today’s Independent. When Paul Chambers’ travel plans were threatened by the... read more

Naturally, we've been watching the development of Google's real-time search with interest. Everybody's probably familiar by now with the scrolling box they're inserting into search results:I was reading a bit about what people are speculating is behind the real time search algorithm and what... read more

Googlebye to China

By Paul Greenhalgh in Internet on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 @ 16:58

Google could be preparing to exit China following attacks on the Gmail accounts of several human-rights activists. When Google.cn launched in January 2006, they bowed to Chinese law and allowed their index to be censored. China has been blocking sites and monitoring internet use since... read more

Google Trends Appearing in SERPs?

By Mindy Gofton in Search Engine Optimisation on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 @ 15:15

While doing research for a different blog post I spotted something I've never noticed before - Google is returning a map of the "trends" for "google china" at the bottom of the SERP for "google china." They're also offering people the option to add the widget to iGoogle. Anyone else seen this... read more

It's Snow Joke for Online Retailers

By John Trimble in Internet Marketing on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 @ 14:08

Excusing the obvious use of a bad pun, many retailers have seen a 13.5% drop in sales due to the snow and icy weather that is gripping the UK. The weather has also hit online sales with large online retailers such as Amazon unable to provide normal delivery to customers. While large online... read more

SEO Manchester Loses Its Map

By Paul Greenhalgh in Search Engine Optimisation on Thursday, January 7, 2010 @ 13:17

There are many changes afoot in 2010 at Google. Citations are becoming a major force, real-time search is available, personalisation is up and running. However, even as Google strives to be as local, inclusive and relevant it still likes adding exceptions. Following the furore after... read more

Txtspk: Evolution, Revolution or Hellspawn?

By James Roome in Copywriting on Monday, January 4, 2010 @ 12:03

We all know that usage of traditionally received spelling, punctuation and grammar is on the decline – and we all know the culprit(s). It’s these lovely modern mediums we use, text messages, internet forums, instant messengers, even blogs – they demand brevity and supply us with happy little... read more

Charlie Brooker’s weekly Screenburn in Saturday’s Guardian TV pages is usually an extremely amusing read. An article published earlier this month this was titled "loser generated content", and it got me thinking about the ways in which firms use social media as an advertising tool. T-Mobile's... read more