We have finally launched a new version of our own site. Check out markerstudio.com.

We are moving to our new Auckland office today:

36 Williamson Avenue, Ponsonby, Auckland

This is an exciting move for us and we look forward to showing you all the new space soon.

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We are also opening a Wellington office this month! Details to follow shortly.

I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at the Uber:savvy event this morning to kick off the yMedia Challenge.

"the yMedia Challenge is a 2 week competition designed to connect media students with not-for-profit organisations."

I think my presentation went down okay, I got lots of questions at the end, but they did offer small bottles of 42 Below Vodka to anyone who asked one, so that might not be a fair reflection of interest from the audience!

I met some interesting people though:

Mike Brown who is the organiser of Webstock, easily the essential local event for the web community which is coming to Wellington in February. Very much looking forward to that one. Mike was the first speaker and did a fascinating intro into how people really drive web 2.0, not the technology.

Nigel Parker from Microsoft who gave an excellent overview of the emerging ways in which digital media can be consumed. This included demos of some of the latest Microsoft technologies including Siverlight, PhotoSynth and Microsoft Home Server. You can not understate the amount of investment Microsoft puts into research and development as well as the developer community.

I didn’t get a change to meet her personally, but Janet Mazenier, Programme Director, for the government’s Digital Strategy gave a speech. She admitted it was very hard to activate progress web projects, even within the organisation that is supposed to be leading the country. Three months to get a blog live. I can’t actually find the blog though. I think this organisation can make a real difference, if they can provide direction for government departments and state owned enterprises around blog policies. Tell the public sector that having a blog where people might make a comment that disagrees with your view is okay. This is still a democracy isn’t it?

It was well worth giving up a Saturday morning for this, everyone I met had something interesting to say and the organisers Pamela, Adele and Jade at yMedia are all exceptionally friendly people to deal with…plus they gave me Vodka as a thank you.

Technorati Tags: ymedia

All Blacks lose to France and drop out of the Rugby World Cup 2007 in the quarter-final. Ouch, isn’t that the worst result yet?

So how do New Zealand deal with losing what most consider to be “our cup”. They blame someone else. This is what New Zealand does best.

Don’t get me wrong, the referee did a terrible job in the first half, and that second French try was from a forward pass, but the All Blacks just didn’t step up. The French were dogged in defense but are an unremarkable team. These guys got whipped by Argentina remember!

Today it will be the referee, but in the coming weeks, the coaches will start to be brought into the blame game. The controversial rotation policy will be touted as a major strategic mistake, and some serious questions will be asked about the decision to leave Doug Howlett out of the game.

Blog Posts

• Referee win against the All Blacks
• All Blacks lose RWC to crap ref

Technorati Tags: all blacks, allblacks, rugbyworldcup, rugbyworldcup2007, rwc2007

Google Custom Search Engine allows anyone to create a search engine that searches only specific sites you choose and/or specific topics, languages…in short all of the things you can do with Google Advanced Search filters and operators.

What does this mean?

• Create a custom search engine for your website (or sites) that uses Google’s infrastructure but only searches what you want
• Pay for the Business Edition which starts at $100 USD per year for sites with less than 5,000 pages. This will allow you to present the search results page in your own site with no ads and no Google branding.
• Create a community vertical search engine that multiple people contribute to. You can open this up to anyone or restrict it to invited contributors

Here is a quick one I have put together:

Check out some more examples and related posts:

• Google Custom Search: Setting The Bar For Vertical Search Engines
• Google’s Custom Search Engines run amuck!

I have to ask, why would you try and build your own search engine ever again?

For an alternative and more community focused take on vertical search you should check out Swiki from the New Zealand search geniuses at Eurekster.

Technorati Tags: google, googlecse, swiki

Posted by mobile phone:
I’m in Wellington for the rest of this week. Everyone always complains about the wind and rain, but most times I am down here (like today), it is sunny and very pleasant.I like it here, it seems to be the law that there must be a cafe or coffee cart every 15 metres, all my meetings seem to take minutes to walk to and they have good natured taxi drivers and public transport (currently mo’blogging from the train).

I found this in a whiskey distillery in Scotland. I think it is from the Victorian era. Hilarious!

I have been in the UK for over 2 weeks now and am astounded at how much the issue of carbon footprint/credits/neutrality has just exploded since I was here last in January. It is everywhere. Maybe I’m overly sensitive as I’m far from carbon neutral at the moment with the amount of flying I am doing. I realised my luggage has Gold frequent flyer tags on them and I’m wondering if these are like fur coats? WIll I get protesters coming up to me in the street and throwing a cup of soot in my face to teach me a lesson for my garish display of carbon deficit?

I can’t help feeling an overwhelming sense of deja vu. In the late 80’s I was living in the UK and the issue of unleaded petrol swept the nation seemingly overnight. It was suddenly the very worst social faux pas you could do. People desperately converted their cars to accept unleaded or traded them in for new cars, hopefully with a catalytic convertor.

The problem I have is that scientists promised me global warming would be well in effect by now when I was at school. It is nearly July in the UK and it is freezing!

Luckily the airlines now have an answer for you. Along with the ability to check-in online, change your seat etc, you can now “Offset Your Carbon Emissions”. My carbon emissions, don’t try and make me your scapegoat? This is a screenshot from BA.com and the link to Offset your carbon emissions doesn’t actually work. Oh well, I’ll just need to live with my carbon deficit fueled guilt a little while longer.

Stu Parker has a lot more to say on the subject with his post “Want to save the planet? Buy a HUMMER.“.

Technorati Tags: carbon credits

Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product

SAN FRANCISCO—Apple claims the iLaunch can garner the same amount of press attention as a major scientific discovery, high court ruling, celebrity meltdown, or natural disaster at 200 times the speed of a traditional media-fostered launch.

Thanks Andy for pointing me in the direction of this.

Andy Lark has just posted that Rupert Murdoch told the Digital Hollywood conference in New York last week about MySpace:

“It’s extraordinary, the advertising has gone from basically nothing to, on a net basis, $25 million a month and growing every month - almost 30 per cent every quarter,”

He added:

“Next year we’ll be kicking in with search revenue from Google so together with IGN, we’ll be getting close to a billion dollars of revenue.”

MySpace is huge, you have to be looking at this as a marketing option, especially if you are targeting the 15-25 demographic.

Technorati Tags: myspace