If you go to your current broadband supplier you will probably be offered one of the following packages:
But not everyone can get even the slowest of these options, depending on where you live.
That hasn’t stopped scientists around the world from vying to develop even faster speeds. In June 2021, a group of researchers in Japan from the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT) set a new world record of 319 terabits per second (Tb/s) for internet speed. This wasn’t just over a small distance in a lab, it covered over 3000km without any performance drops.
The previous record was 178 terabits per second set in 2020 by engineers at University College London, so this new record was quite a significant increase.
NICT scientists used fibre optics, small tubes that pass information using light. To achieve this record, the team had to use some special add-ons that are only familiar to the very skilled and educated engineers working with lasers.
The engineers said that even regular optical fibre infrastructure could support these types of speeds, but it would need to go through a few modifications first. Regular copper cables couldn’t carry such speeds and would require much more complex infrastructure to work.
Just to put these types of speed in context, in less than a second you could download 57,000 full-length films or download the whole of the Spotify catalogue in under three seconds.
On the 25th June, our Business Development Executive will be undertaking a gruelling four rounds of golf in one day, to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Tom will be doing this with his dad, brother in law, and family friend (aka The Fore Horsemen), and it will be their first time taking on this 72 hole challenge. To complete it they will walk approximately 20 miles and each take around 350 shots (or more…but who’s counting!).
As a group they have all had personal contact with someone suffering from cancer, and would love to be able to raise some money for this amazing cause that provides the care and support for families and those suffering from cancer.
Tom and his team successfully completed their challenge, and raised over £1,500. If you would like to donate, please visit their donation page at Just Giving.
On building Scarlett & Mustard’s first site some years ago, we always kept in mind that they were going to need an adaptable site that could be updated as the business grew. That time has come, and this month we launched Scarlett & Mustard’s new, modernised website.
With the Scarlett & Mustard brand at its core, we improved upon existing site functionality and content to give a fresher look to the new website while maintaining consistency of feel.
Some of the new parts to the website include:
“The team have delivered all our objectives on time, within budget and to our complete satisfaction, and we are thrilled with our new website.”
Sandy, Scarlett & Mustard.
It was a pleasure to complete this new project and see Scarlett & Mustard’s strong sense of brand identity taken to the next level online, where we will continue to support them flourish. We are really excited to move forward with the next phase of marketing the website.
Take a look at the new website and their delicious products at scarlettandmustard.co.uk.
Internet Explorer was first released in August 1995 as a core part of Windows 95. It raised controversy at the time for the fact that it was bundled into Windows, resulting in lawsuits against Microsoft for monopolistic practices. This lead, in no small part, to the downfall of the previously leading browser Netscape Navigator.
Internet Explorer, or IE in tech circles, became the defacto standard and by the early 2000s over 90% of all browsing was being performed via Internet Explorer.
Competitors started to challenge for Internet Explorer’s throne, with potent competitors in the shape of Mozilla Firefox emerging in 2004, and Google releasing the first Chrome in 2008.
Firefox and Chrome took a new approach to browsers, with regular updates adding new features, which developers could leverage to create a more interactive web. IE started to lag with updates being few and far between, generally being bundled into their large Service Packs.
Starting with Windows 10 (and retro-fitted to Windows 7) Microsoft eventually moved their main browser to Microsoft Edge which has subsequently been re-architected to share the rendering engine underpinning Google’s Chrome.
So where did this leave Internet Explorer? Internet Explorer 11, released in 2013, is the last version of the platform and is still installed on the majority of Windows 10 PCs for compatibility purposes, but buried away to encourage people to use Edge. Unlike IE, Edge receives regular updates keeping pace with its main competitors. Currently Edge sees around a 5% market share, far below the lofty heights that previous IE versions once commanded.
Today, Internet Explorer languishes at around 1% market share which is almost entirely within large corporate networks, often running internal systems with lengthy update cycles and / or legacy software.
In 2020 Microsoft acknowledged that Internet Explorer has reached the end of the road and that they plan to cease support for it within their Microsoft Office 365 suite with effect from August 2021.
With the release of WordPress 5.8, which is scheduled to occur in July 2021 we will see WordPress, the dominant website Content Management System (CMS), cease support for Internet Explorer 11. As primarily WordPress agency Infotex will be following suit.
By ceasing to support a browser, this means that we will no longer be targeting it during development or testing that your website functions correctly on Internet Explorer. This allows us to focus on browsers that support modern CSS & JavaScript features, offering greater interactivity and performance than was previously possible.
At this time we will not be taking actions to specifically cause your website to be unusable by Internet Explorer so you are unlikely to see any immediate impact. However, unless specifically agreed to the contrary, we will also not be fixing any Internet Explorer specific issues which occur going forward. This means that over time your website may become less usable within Internet Explorer.
WordPress have similarly stated that they will be removing testing for Internet Explorer 11 gradually over versions 5.8 & 5.9 and it is anticipated that the first area that will be impacted will be the content administration areas which utilise modern features to provide the high levels of user experience that site administrators come to expect today. Users on Internet Explorer 11 and earlier may also see a banner within their administration areas advising them to upgrade to a more modern browser.
Goodbye to the friend we all loved to hate and welcome to a more interactive web of the future!
Progressive web apps are essentially web applications that feel and function like a native mobile application. They continue to gain traction due to the positive impact they have on user-experience: advanced capabilities such as offline use and push notifications, and the ability to be “installed” on the user’s device.
PWA’s encompass the best things about a native phone app along with the flexibility and instant nature of the web.
An app, or application, is simply a piece of software designed to serve a purpose. This can range from simple applications such as a calculator through to more complex applications such as word processors.
A native application is one that is designed for a specific device. An application designed for a specific device will often have deep access to that device’s functionality and will be able to maximise performance and integration through the device’s API’s.
Modern applications, such as those within the iOS app store, have to follow strict rules in order for them to be available to download on a user’s device. These rules are intended to improve security, performance, and experience. Apps within these stores are there at the whims of the platform owner and rules are not always obvious nor technically motivated (such as whether to allow a competing payment provider).
Web applications are written for browsers. They utilise various platforms and libraries to provide an experience that can be accessed anywhere. A single website application is able to target desktop, mobile, tablets, tv’s, consoles etc all from a single codebase.
Web applications leverage the inherent power of the internet offering high levels of discoverability and a vast ecosystem of 3rd-party providers, tools, and integrations.
For all of the freedom they provide, web applications require launching a browser and typing an address to access them and they typically do not have access to the same device features as a native application (such as the local file system storing your media, camera, microphone, fingerprint scanner etc).
Progressive web applications are intended to close this gap by offering the advantages of a web application whilst behaving more like a native application on a user’s device (such as the ability to be “installed” and access to more device features).
Progressive web applications leverage a variety of technologies to provide an experience as close to native as possible – so it may be best to think of them as a design/development philosophy. There is no single test to prove that a web application is a PWA although there are tools, such as Google’s lighthouse, that will attempt to score the application based on the presence of certain features.
That said, there are a number of features that exist within PWA’s:
A service worker is a script that intercepts requests and allows for the control of functionality such as caching to allow the web application to function whilst offline and background services.
They offer a lot of potential by responding to, and controlling, data even when the user is not actively using the web application – such as push notifications.
This is a file that describes how the web application appears in the context of the device it is on. For example it dictates the icon displayed when the web application is installed on the device.
The web application must be served over HTTPS in order to have access to features such as service workers.
Many modern websites that you visit are actually using progressive web app technologies to provide an experience closer to that of native applications. You can see this when you visit sites like Twitter, Gmail, etc.
If you want to install them, you can simply utilise your mobile browsers built-in functionality. This varies from browser to browser; On Chrome for Android, for example, PWA’s get an “Install app” link in the browser menu. Whilst any site can be added to your home screen, PWA’s can be installed and will provide you with a more immersive experience when you do this (crucially they will launch in their own window with no browser interface, have a nice icon, colours matching the app, etc).
The functionality available to web applications through browser API’s is improving all the time which means that PWA’s will become more sophisticated and able to offer you parity with your native applications. This means you get all of the benefits of the web whilst still being able to offer a great experience on individual devices.
Following what has been a long winter characterised by COVID restrictions and endless video meetings, the Infotex team finally had a get together with a gathering in east Suffolk. In previous years the Infotex team normally try to host at least two company social events a year – the Christmas party and something outdoors in Summer. This event marked the first time we had been able to meet socially since the Christmas party in 2019. For many it was the first time they had actually seen each other this year, and for our new starters (Jono, Gareth and Mark) it was the first face to face interaction with the rest of the Infotex family.
It was also very exciting to see Jasmine, who is currently on maternity leave, to introduce us all to Riley, the latest member of her family.
Alde Valley
The event was kindly hosted by our dear friend Jason Gathorne-Hardy. He generously welcomed us to use his wonderful farm in Great Glemham where the annual Alde Valley Spring Festival is held, with access to the various art studios, fed us with mutton, vegetables and salad from the farm
The evening was made up of walking in the wonderful countryside, looking at art, drinking, cooking mutton over a roaring fire and lots of conversation, capped off with toasted marshmallows and Jason’s delicious “chai”.
It was a time for us all to reflect on the previous years trials and tribulations, but also to celebrate that we got through it and look forward to as lockdowns ease further and the vaccination rate continues to rise.
Check your router, it could be putting you at risk
A Which? survey suggests that up to 7.5 million Brits could be at security risk from routers that have default passwords, or lack current firmware and security updates. Please check yours. We know how poor and / or default passwords provide a huge risk to networks, emails and websites, so consider a tool such as LastPass which allows you to safely store all your passwords without having to remember them.
Suffolk in Trials for Emergency Alert Text
A new Emergency Alert system aims to more quickly and effectively get life-saving messages to people across the UK. East Suffolk has been chosen as the place to run out the first test alerts. Hopefully it won’t go the same way as Hawaii’s 2018 nuclear early warning system, where someone pressed the wrong button notifying islanders of an inbound ballistic missile, including the line “This is not a drill”…
Remove Backgrounds from Photos
www.remove.bg Simply drag and drop a photo and it’ll trim out the background automatically. While the free version limits you to small versions of the image, a pay as you go model can make it as cheap as £0.22 per image.
Online Photo Editor
Looking to do more with your images than just remove a background? pixlr.com is an incredibly powerful online image editor available for free.
With internet sales accounting for over a third of all retail sales in the UK, we thought we would dig deeper into the trends keeping ecommerce businesses ahead of the game. And first, it is video.
You may know already that the younger generation are the video generation… and they’re only going to continue growing. TikTok, Amazon Live, InstagramTV… it’s hard to ignore that video is the desired content. In fact, data from The State of Video Marketing Survey 2021 suggests that the average person watches 18hrs of video content every week (2.5hrs per day).
No wonder YouTube remains the second largest search engine in the world. Since its first video upload (“Me At The Zoo”) in 2006, it has grown and grown. Easy to upload to, and easy to embed into your site, it can also help you gain additional exposure in search engine result pages. And it’s free.
Video is the best virtual option for bringing people closer to a real-life retail experience. ASOS were one of the first to allow users to get a view of how their clothes look on a real person while they walk up and down – not exciting, but video that is certainly well appreciated by their customers.
Now some stores even have virtual fitting rooms – like Visualook – so that you can make sure you get the perfect size. In our current pandemic situation more than ever, people are looking to live out physical experiences recreated as closely as possible online.
You’ve probably heard by now that, as a result of technology, most people online have a shorter attention span than a goldfish (8 seconds compared to their superior 9). This means that there is a small window to catch someone’s attention on your website homepage or in their social media thread. Videos are proving the most effective way to do that.
In case we need confirmation of the attention-grabbing quality of video… it says it all that people are twice as likely to share video content with their contacts than other types of content such as text, images or audio. This has big benefits for social media expansion.
Video is rankable on search engines, and so it can help increase traffic to your website in the same way as text and keywords can. Videos will not only increase your organic traffic in this way, but are easily shared on social media, which in turn leads users to look up your product in search engines for more information.
Having videos on your ecommerce website builds trust between you and your customer. Clients can more clearly and accurately see the product depicted, and are therefore more likely to believe that they will get what they pay for. What’s more, the investment you make in the creation of the video informs your client of how strongly you believe in the value of your product.
When customers feel properly informed about a product, they are more likely to convert to sale. Similarly, knowing what to expect in a product means that customers are less likely to return an item if they’ve seen it on a video.
The most commonly-created type of video for ecommerce are explainer videos. Quite simply, they explain your product or service. Often animations, such videos provide the means to concisely and effectively communicate what your business proposition has to offer. Dropbox notoriously found its market through its explainer videos released by founder Drew Houston to communicate his concept.
One of our clients, Access Garden Products, uprooted some of their archive video guides from the 1990s and recreated them for their current products. Take a look on their website: www.garden-products.co.uk.
The closer a product looks online to how it really is when a customer receives it, the less likely it is to be returned. Product demos help a client to know what to expect from a product, and this increased trust means increased conversions.
Take away that element of dissatisfaction that flashes across a customer’s face when the parcel just isn’t quite what they expected… Are mugs usually so small?
By offering a step-by-step guide to how to use your product, your clients will know what to expect and thus feel more secure in their purchase decision making.
Everyone is drawn to narratives, so having a short story video on your site can be an effective way to get clients interested in your brand or product in a personal way.
Online shopping can be overwhelming, even just in terms of choosing from the sheer range of products on offer. A comparison video can help a client decipher between two similar products on the market, and clearly outline the pros and cons of each to take away some of that purchasing reluctance, and help them make an informed choice.
User-generated videos are on the rise, and, in the same way as written reviews, can do wonders in building a potential client’s trust in your product or service.
Earth Day, annually on 22 April, draws in over a billion people across the world to participate in activities to highlight the urgency of the climate crisis and the need for action. Due to the continuation of the pandemic, the event is taking place online again this year, with 10 million people expected to tune in – no simple feat, technologically speaking. But EarthDay.org are prepared, having had to build suitable online networks last year when the movement was forced online at the last minute.
More than just social-media outpours, EarthDay.org have proven the extraordinary reach of the media, and from the start of 2020 through Earth Day their outreach and messaging received over 9.9 billion impressions from readers, viewers, and listeners globally. The Earth Day movement lasts for 3 days – this week has already seen a global youth climate summit held on April 20th, led by Earth Uprising, and, yesterday, a multilingual summit on climate education, spanning several time zones and featuring activists from every continent. Notably, today’s event takes place in parallel to the Biden administration’s Leaders’ Summit on Climate. The Earth Day Live line-up includes 10 hours of digital programming, with talks and panel discussions, workshops, and special performances, focusing on Restore Our Earth™.
Even if you don’t have time to tune in, you might be interested in EarthDay.org’s clever Earth Challenge smartphone app. The app has some exciting features: individuals can take photos of the horizon nearby and upload them to help scientists track levels of air quality, for instance. The app also includes Artificial Intelligence integrations, so that, as more and more people add photos of types of plastic found in natural environments, AI will learn to recognise and classify specific types of plastic in the environment, eventually establishing details such as the manufacture source of a plastic drink bottle. As well as the “Collect and Classify” section of the app, you can “Take Action” in clean ups and community projects, and “Compete” to raise money.
Here are some other free apps we recommend for anyone wanting to live a more sustainable life:
Every business has a part to play in the movement toward a sustainable future. At Infotex, we are realising that we need to think deeply about how we can clean up our digital services – keep an eye out for more to come on this in the coming weeks and months. If you’re not going to tune in to Earth Day Live, or visit your nearest beach for a clean up, then why not have a think about your or your business’s environmental impact, too.
For more information visit earthday.org.
If Netflix has you hooked, then it won’t take you long to get your head around the concept of smart content loading. Have you noticed that today the ads on your computer screen are selling you exactly what you were searching for yesterday? We’re moving into a world where user data is personalising our online experience, and customers are happy to hand over their details for the right results. It’s no wonder 47% of consumers check Amazon if they’re unsatisfied with the products suggested by the brand they’re shopping with – the personalised shopping experience is too good to resist. Well, now there are increasing opportunities for smaller businesses to tap in on this consumer impulse.
Smart Content refers to the dynamic elements of your website that change depending on the site user profile. Instead of being restricted to typical static content, which stays the same for everyone, smart content offers some important benefits: it targets individual customers with a personalised experience, and also increases site loading times. These things combined mean that a website with smart content loading built in will drive significantly higher conversion rates and ROI than one without.
In order to determine which tailored content to show when a unique user visits the site, smart content responds to demographic/firmographic user data (age, gender/business details) as well as behavioural (on-site activities and history) and contextual data (location, device type, time of day). This way, websites can optimise their content to increase engagement through offering visitors only the most relevant material. For example, your smart content system could tweak a landing page instantly when it knows a certain user has visited the page before, offering them a new and more relevant response the second time around. By finding out who your customers are, you can offer a friendly, personal service that keeps them coming back again and again.
Site loading speed is always a priority for engaging users. But businesses are also increasingly opting for smart content loading with the same aims of maximising page visits, time on site, and reducing bounce rates. As a development of “lazy loading”, whereby site images are only loaded when necessary, smart content loading websites limit downloads to the necessary content for a particular user, saving time by withholding unnecessary text and images.
If your potential leads have varying needs, interests, desires, or character profiles, then you should employ using smart content loading.
Some examples of the types of smart content you might create include targeted blog posts and articles, personalised calls-to-action and case studies, discounts and offers, and video content. You don’t need to go full steam ahead to begin with, but gradually segmenting the traffic to your site will enable you to make the most of your business online and keep those potential leads returning.
However, the aim is to offer a personalised, suitable experience without appearing overly familiar… no customer wants to feel like they’re being watched without remembering giving permission, so there are some things to avoid, too. For instance, unless it is a situation where the user will definitely remember their prior visit to the site, smart content loading should avoid using a user’s personal details such as their name and location.
Technology is creating amazing opportunities for small businesses online, including smart content loading. If you feel like your business is too small, or too far behind the current internet trends, you’re wrong! There’s never been a better time to join in with the excitement of web development and help your business outcompete the rest.
Get in touch for website advice, or read about more top website trends for 2021 in our blog.
With 2.14 billion people worldwide predicted to buy goods and services online in 2021, it’s no wonder everyone’s talking about the future of ecommerce. We’re dealing with an ‘ecommerce supercycle’, as termed by the major ecommerce platform Shopify, after seeing 10 years of ecommerce growth happen in just 90 days in 2020.
In the UK, internet sales account for over a third of all retail sales in the UK. Rapid growth, however, is decreasing, and will likely decrease further into 2021 (as global recession is set to reduce total retail spending). Yet it is still important to look at this boom to see what we can expect from consumer habits in the years to follow. M&S’s new mantra from last May, “Never the Same Again”, may have seemed a bit drastic, but it marked what we now know was a necessary transition of the company toward online business, and is one that we might all need to keep in mind in order to make it into the future market.
So, let’s take a look at online spending trends, and, most importantly, what you can do about them to help your business.
The implementation of personal information analysis is set to become a regular eCommerce trait. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, ecommerce relies more and more on collecting user-journey data, including demographics, browsing habits, and buying history. This means that, using consumer data, machines can personalise the shopping experience to each user, uniquely.
For an example of how you can personalise your website, read more about Smart Content Loading in our blog.
It only takes a pandemic to drive people to order online, and, once in the habit, you know how easy it is. This goes for all platforms, including social media. Before, social media ads tended to target the 25-54 age range group, but as our parents start to communicate on Instagram and the like (welcome, Boomers), online media advertising is becoming broader, and evermore targeted.
In fact, we are seeing rising numbers of both younger (16-24) and older (55-77) consumers purchasing online. The younger generation of e-shoppers have been shown to purchase high proportions of clothing, shoes and accessories, food deliveries, digital goods and accessories, cosmetics, and sports goods, while the older group tend to buy higher proportions of furniture, home and garden products, medical or dietary supplements, and books, as well as clothes and beauty.
Online, more and more channels are adapting to the rise in ecommerce. Social media platforms are the most significant, transforming from advertising platforms to having their own selling features, such as Instagram’s “shoppable post” feature.
All this talk of ecommerce is by no means to suggest you have to get rid of your brick-and-mortar store, though. Moreover, businesses are becoming experts at combining physical and online services to provide the best customer-service experience. This might be by introducing an ‘order online and pick-up in store’ feature, or by opening pop-up shops in different locations.
The growth of ecommerce means that people now have the space to choose which brands they buy from, no longer being limited to the stores physically nearby them. With environmental concerns ramping up, sustainability and ethical consumption is becoming a game-changer in retail markets, as it is often a top priority for consumers.
Most of all, don’t lose hope. The rapid growth and change in ecommerce might seem daunting, but this is the best time for your business, big or small, to jump on the ride. Take the long view and tap in on the remarkable demand we are seeing for services online.
If you are looking for ecommerce expertise, get in touch.
When Nicolas Kurona stumbled across Google Argentina’s domain available for purchase, he legally purchased it, as you do.
‘Dumbfounded, he tapped www.google.com.ar into his search bar and pressed enter.
“My personal data appeared,” he said. “I was frozen looking at the screen. I could not believe what had just happened.”‘
Goodbye to Yahoo Answers
Yahoo Answers is closing down forever on May 4th, and it’s being likened to the burning down of the library of Alexandria. The Guardian are just one example of people gathering what they think are some of the best questions before they’re lost forever. Do you think humans will ever walk on the Sun?
Facebook v Apple: personal data stands between the giants
Apple iPhones and iPads will be updated this week to include a feature that gives users autonomy over whether their data can be collected by apps. Facebook, who rely on data for advertising success, are not happy.
Google Earth has introduced a timelapse of the Earth, by combining 15million satellite images from over the last 34 years.
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