Google have finally launched the long anticipated Google Drive, a cloud storage / sync solution to rival (and possibly beat) services such as Drop Box, Sugar Sync, and Sky Drive.

Google has fully incorporated Google Drive into its core services and has merged Google Docs with it, meaning any file that is uploaded and in one of the supported file formats will also be able to be edited, shared and collaborated with online.

We have been using services like Drop Box for years to save our work and sync it between computers, allowing us to work from home, the office or remotely completely seamlessly and we believe the release of Google Drive will make this even easier.

Google offer the first 5GB for free, an extra 25GB will set you back $2.49 per month, and 100GB $4.99 per month, making this even cheaper than Drop Box.

This service is also compatible with any client using Google Apps, you can just go to the Google Drive homepage and activate it. This additional service means, in our opinion, our clients get a far superior service than other companies that use POP3, IMAP or Exchange for their clients.

Over the past few months we have been working closely with AGT
Computer Services who manage both our own network and several of our clients.

For all our clients in the North West we highly recommend you use AGT for anything from network installation, Exchange servers,  computer and laptop repair, and general maintenance contracts.

AGT have shops based in Blackpool, Lytham and Preston and you can find a full list of services they offer on the newly launched website Agtcs.co.uk (which we developed!)

For the small number of clients that are still on FastHosts, there is a current on-going problem with incoming POP3 email.

Please also note that if you are still on our FastHosts servers we will have completed the hosting and email migration by Tuesday the 8th of February.

The official announcement from FastHosts is:

On the 1st February we experienced high queues within our incoming mail servers. This resulted in delays in customers receiving emails to their mailbox.

Our engineers identified an issue which occurs only at times of peak load on our mail storage platform. We worked through the night in conjunction with our storage suppliers to introduce more capacity. However, due to the quantity of data, performance, and resilience required, this will take several days to become fully functional.

Normal service was maintained until mid-day on the 2nd February, when our email platform experienced exceptionally heavy load and action was required to maintain our email service and avoid any server downtime. While we investigated other methods of mitigating the issue, the decision was made to suspend POP3 access to our mailboxes for the duration of this peak period. While this was not a decision we made lightly, it meant that we were still able to maintain normal email service to a large number of our customers who use Microsoft Exchange, IMAP, or Webmail to access their emails. This further protected our email network from excessive load and the possibility of a failure.

We have also now freed up additional storage capacity through other means, which will take effect from tonight.

13:30: We have restored POP3 access to all mailboxes. However, we have placed a connection limit on the number of open concurrent connections. As a result during peak times some customers connecting to their mailboxes using the POP3 protocol may find access intermittent.

14:00 While the connection limit for POP3 connections is still in place, a very large number of our customers should experience no impact at all. A small number of customers may experience brief losses of connectivity.

Please note we are currently experiencing some technical problems with our phones in the main office.

Recently Google has been getting a lot of flack for the quality of the SERPs in the UK.

This included a post by Dave Naylor regarding the results that were shown for “Tennis Court Hire”.

At the time of Dave’s post the top 6 posts were showing Australian sites, however at the moment these sites have dropped but they are still on the first page.

This made me wonder how much better Bing and Yahoo was, and in Bing’s case it is quite disappointing.

So 5 out of the top 10 results are currently Australian sites, with the top 2 being Australian, making the Bing results just as bad if not worse than Google’s

Finishing on a more promising note I tried out Yahoo with the following results:

At least Yahoo managed to show some more appropriate results with all of them being UK based.

A high court judge in London has ruled that Google is not liable for defamatory comments that appear in news articles, blogs and forums displayed in its search results.

The case, against Google’s US and UK operations, had been brought by London-based Metropolitan International Schools after negative comments were left on a forum that started showing up in the Search Engine Results Pages.

MIS claimed these comments were defamatory and that Google was liable for publishing these.

Mr Justice Eady ruled in a judgment in the high court on Friday that Google was a “facilitator” and not a publisher of the content.

“When a snippet is thrown up on the user’s screen in response to his search, it points him in the direction of an entry somewhere on the web that corresponds, to a greater or lesser extent, to the search terms he has typed in,” Eady said. “It is for him to access or not, as he chooses. [Google] has merely, by the provision of its search service, played the role of a facilitator.”

However Eady commented that Google has a responsibility to block or take down content if it is notified with a legitimate complaint about libellous material.

Struan Robertson, a lawyer at Pinsent Masons, said that this was the first judicial analysis of search engine liability for defamation under UK law. “It is undoubtedly a brilliant result for Google and other search engines,” Robertson concluded.

Via:The Guardian

This position has been closed.

**** Strictly No Recruitment Agencies****

An excellent opportunity has arisen with our Blackpool based offices as an admin assistant and blogger.

The job covers 2 primary roles. The first being an admin assistant where you will be responsible for:

• Dealing with phone calls for both Dolphin Promotions and Real Claims
• Logging all enquiries within our customer relationship database
• Updating our client database with relevant information
• Sending invoices or correspondence to clients
• General Administration

The 2nd role will be as a content writer / blogger and you will be required to:

• Blog about  a wide range of subjects including technology, gadgets, finance, home improvements, DIY, etc
• Keep up to date with the news and trends within multiple sectors by reading other blogs.
• Research subject areas in order to product content on them.
  Content writing for client sites

Excellent verbal and writing skills are a must. Ideally you will have a keen interest in technology and gadgets as some of the blog posts can be quite technical. Similar blogs include Engadget, Gizmodo and Bit Tech.

Experience in blogging is not required however you will need excellent grammar and spelling.

The hours will be 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday.

The full-time salary for this position is £12,000 and will be reviewed after 3 months. A part time position will also be considered (3 days per week minimum)

Please note we will ignore all correspondence of recruitment agencies. The job is also strictly located in Blackpool only, we will not outsource any of our work or employ anyone in a work from home basis.

Please send a CV and cover letter to jobs@dolphinpromotions.co.uk or post them to

Dolphin Promotions

First Floor

32 Clifton Street

Blackpool

FY1 1JP

Blackpool’s Hits the Big Time Again – And this time it’s a one off cultural Bank Holiday special you won’t want to miss.

Unveiling over the bank holiday weekend on Thurs 21st of May between 6pm and 9pm for 4 days  and in association with Blackpool’s north by north west festival, the world of art brings you something to Evoke your senses, your thoughts and your perception of art in the modern world.

Unlike many exhibitions all works will be available for sale and auctioned to the general public, with a portion of the profits being donated to Tommy Fest and the Tommy Castles Trust, it’s a day for art lovers or curious minds NOT to miss!  And a cultural experience for Blackpool that’s got people talking throughout the town.

If you think you know ART! Think again.  While the theme of the event is “Point Of Sale” the whole vision has been created to test YOU the consumer and a guaranteed event to fascinate interest and inspire.

While the art will most certainly be testing your senses the organisers hope they will also leave you in wonder with many questions relating to the purpose of the pieces in question.

Are they designed to look good,  simply for the purpose of selling, to fit inside your home and enhance your interior leaving you in eternal wonder or is there hidden meaning or secrets the artist has hidden or is trying to convey.  Interpret as you wish but most of all ENJOY!

The weekend is forecast to see visitors flooding in from all areas of the North West, whether your an art lover or not, want a great day out, wish to challenge your mind or are simply looking for something special for your home.

You must come down and take a look.

The exhibition is at the Dolphin Promotions offices on 32 Clifton Street, Blackpool, FY1 1JP

Clients using the Dolphin Management System or CubeCart for their Ecommerce site can have Google Analytics fully integrated to track sales for a fee of £200+Vat.

Getting Google to track sales can provide an invaluable insight into the performance of a website.

Data tacked includes:

• Individual Products sold including total revenue and product SKUs
• Revenue by source, allowing you to see what source provided the most revenue
• Revenue by key word, allowing you to track the which key terms provide the maximum return
• Tracking Adwords campaigns including the revenue per campaign, average value, and conversion ratio.

If you are interested in having your transactions tracked by Google Analytics then feel free to contact one of our account managers via:

Phone: 0845 869 58 50
Email: info@dolphinpromotions.co.uk
Contact Form

Google Base is one of our favourite tools to improve traffic and sales for our clients Ecommerce sites. While you should not rely on Google Base as the sole tool to generate sales we have found that it can improve traffic by 15-50% depending on the site itself. We also find that this traffic has a very high conversion ratio compared to organic rankings.

Even better once Google Base is integrated it can start providing traffic (and Sales) within a few hours and at no extra cost.

As part of the integration we customise the script to make sure your Google Base feed is optimised as much as possible providing the maximum amount of traffic and “OneBox” rankings.

Image: Google’s OneBox

One of the great things about Google Base is it can start generating sales within days of a site being launched and at no cost after the integration. This means Google Base can often be a much better solution than Adwords for smaller companies on a tight budget.

We can integrate Google Base on all the sites we have developed, if we have not developed the site then we can normally work out a way to integrate it though this normally increases the cost.

If you are interested in having Google Base integrated with your site then feel free to contact one of our account managers via:

Phone: 0845 869 58 50
Email: info@dolphinpromotions.co.uk
Contact Form