It’s a big old world (wide web) out there. You’ve just had your new website created, by Studio North naturally, it’s looking fantastic and works a treat but how on earth are people going to find it? Kevin Costner once said, “build it and they will come” but sadly he wasn’t starring in a movie about the Internet at the time.
Archive for April, 2009
Keeping it up
Studio North’s own dedicated web hosting service has achieved a cracking 100% uptime since its birth in January last year.
We currently have our very own shiny Linux server sitting in a London datacentre, which we manage internally and is supported by the lovely people at Rackspace. All our clients are offered the opportunity to have their website, database, and email hosted by ourselves. With our IT bods able to manage the server, its software and settings, we’re able to cater for complicated setups and offer a wide variety of options and services to enhance their website.
As we put more and more of our lives online, the more we depend on websites working when we need them. The recent GMail outage caused panic when users weren’t able to get at their e-mail all morning. If your visitors can’t get to your site first time, they will look elsewhere – so it’s important to have a host you can rely on.
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Have Innocent lost their innocence?
This week Innocent announced that it is to sell a 10 to 20 percent stake in the company to drinks giant Coca-Cola. For a company that strives to do business in a more ”enlightened way” going into business with one of the world’s largest corporate organisations will certainly raise a few eyebrows.
As Innocent join a growing list of companies that started small and developed a brand on the back of a values led approach, only to sell out to a large corporate. It may now have to convince its loyal advocates that its eco-friendly values have not been affected by this move. As a brand which strongly promotes itself as being ethical through policies on fruit sourcing and the environment, it has previously been linked with large multinationals such as McDonald’s to trial some of its beverages at their restaurants.
Students take the tour
We had some youthful visitors at Waulk Mill this week in the shape of a group of design students from Pendleton College in Salford. In an attempt to get them engaged with the commercial opportunities available outside of an academic environment we provided one hour morning and afternoon sessions to the two groups split into work observation, general presentation and Q&A modules. Hopefully it helped to inspire them to some small degree to ensure they find suitable opportunities beyond college life.
Blackberry App World is here…
As Google’s Android platform for mobile phones is axed, BlackBerry announce the arrival of BlackBerry App World. You can install BlackBerry App Word to your BB and download applications, some are free like Facebook but others can be purchased through PayPal.
I think a bit of healthy competition for Apple’s iPhone won’t do anyone any harm 
)
New arrival
Studio North are thrilled to announce (with fanfare please) the arrival of Eloise Grace Whitwood to the proud parents our head of digital Andy and his wife Jen. Having held on for a whopping 12 days past due date Eloise finally decided to grace the world with her presence on the 24th March (after hanging on for her dad to nip to KFC and get the sustenance he so obviously needed, ahem) weighing a mightily impressive 9lb 3oz!
Having already firmly established herself as a Newcastle supporter (nobody’s perfect) dad wasn’t particularly impressed by the Sunderland bear we so generously presented him on his arrival back in the office this morning in an attempt to establish some early family rivalry. Looking slightly worn out he still managed to exude that beaming grin kept solely for new parents and world cup winning sports teams although he needs to learn that the ‘dad’ title doesn’t transfer to his colleagues…..in fact it’s a bit creepy.
Congratulations Andy and Jen, and on behalf of all Studio Northians may I wish all the happiness in the world for the future….even with the sleepless nights and the nappies…and the other bodily functions to contend with…..ah parental bliss 