Google recently sent out 100,000 stickers to selected US businesses for use on their storefront windows. The stickers have the Google Maps logo and a QR (Quick Reference) code that can be scanned by smart phone cameras and display Google listings for the business on the phone screen.
Point your QR Code reader at this
A camera is often included in mobile phones, portable gaming devices and PDAs, so rather than laboriously copy down the details, these 2D bar codes provide a quick way to transfer simple information.
You can generate your own bar codes at the QR-Code Generator website. To read them, you’ll need an application linked to your camera. Try search your ‘phone’s application store, or take a look on google for QR Code reader
If you’ve ever wondered how DNS works, and the technical explanations make your head spin, there’s a great new video on YouTube that cuts out the jargon and shows you what happens when you type a domain name into your browser, or send an email.
The video was produced by CENTR, a european trade association for all the european domain registries.
If you’re interested in getting more domain names, in different extensions, 2020Media is able to obtain them for you. Contact us, and we’ll be able to help.
ICANN is introducing a range of new top level domains (think .com, .net, .org) which will be open to anyone who cares to think of one. So far suggestions have varied from geo-domains like .paris, .london and .nyc, to topics like .eco, .food and .music.
When these new domains come along, will they be useful? The argument often given is that you replace the three meaningless characters to the right of the dot, namely com or net, with characters that actually provide guidance to the user about what will be found at the web site using that TLD (think .music, .london).
The gTLD process is bogged down at the moment, but ICANN have announced that country code domains (like .cn, .ru) will be translated into their own native character sets. This has been on the cards for a long time and its great to see it should soon be a reality.
2020Media took part in the 2009 Nominet registrar conference today. The event was held at Lords cricket ground (some kind of sports theme going on as last year it was a Wembley stadium). Amongst the many debates that took place, the most interesting speaker was Bill Thompson, a leading technology writer, who spoke of the need to continually change, in order to keep up with the way the internet evolves.
Although 2020Media is very well established in internet terms and is now 10 years old, we never forget how we gained our place in the UK internet marketplace and continually try to improve and involve the services that we offer. A good place to check out the latest products is at our Offers page.
With the Lisbon Treaty about to be ratified, is it time you looked at getting your name or company brand in .eu? The .eu domain was launched in 2006 and is now an established domain extension. Here in the UK there are about 300,000 .eu domains registered which means there’s still plenty of choice, unlike .co.uk and .com.
Your European Identity
Other interesting statistics include that the domain has an 81% renewal rate, which indicates its established nature, and 75% of .eu domains have an active website or email.
Even if you don’t look to expand into Europe in the near future, it’s worth looking at registering your name or brand now, as the registry is still growing so choice is falling.
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