Mediaboss Marketing

By Eric Engleman - Mon Mar 12 18:05:10 GMT 2012

The organization that manages the Internets address system should strengthen conflict-of-interest rules for its board of directors, the groups chief executive officer said.

It is time to further tighten up the rules that have allowed perceived conflicts to exist within our board, Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said at a meeting of the group in Costa Rica today.

This is necessary not just to be responsive to the growing chorus of criticism about Icanns ethics environment but to ensure that absolute dedication to the public good supersedes all other priorities, Beckstrom said, according to excerpts of the speech provided by Icann.

Icann, which manages the Internets domain-name system under a U.S. Commerce Department contract, approved a plan in June to consider hundreds more domains such as .apple and .nyc in a move to spur online innovation. The group began accepting applications for new Web suffixes in January for a three-month window ending April 12.

Public-interest organizations, a national advertisers group and a U.S. senator criticized Icann after its previous chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush, joined a company that plans to invest in new domains less than a month after the board approved the expansion in June.

General Electric Co. (GE), Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and more than 50 other U.S. companies oppose the proposed domain expansion, saying it will increase their costs, confuse customers and fuel Internet fraud.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Engleman in Washington at eengleman1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernie Kohn at Bkohn2@bloomberg.net.

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Internet Overseer Icann Needs to Tighten Board Conflict Rules, CEO Says

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A new women-only Internet cafe in Afghanistan's capital is the first of its kind in this country.

Staffed entirely by women, it's a place for women to connect to the world in a country where they don't often enjoy the freedom to do what they please online away from the watchful eyes of their fathers, husbands or brothers.

[More from Mashable: In the Middle East International Womens Day Is Documented on Social Media]

The Young Afghan Women for Change -- a local group of women activists -- inaugurated the Sarah Gul Internet Cafe last week. The group wants the cafe to become a place for women in Kabul to use the Internet, away from the prying eyes of others -- especially from men.

Based on a survey we did in Kabul, we found out that women were harassed in regular cafs and were uncomfortable sitting beside men for an hour-long (Internet browsing session), says Zafar Salehi, a YAWC member.

[More from Mashable: International Womens Day 2012 Tweets Flood the Twitterverse]

The caf is named after Sahar Gul, who was kept in solitary confinement and tortured by her husband for months. Her tragic case drew a great deal of international attention.

Afghans living in the country joined expatriates in Europe and the U.S. in raising money to help the Sahar Gul Internet Caf open its doors. Additionally, a private company donated 15 laptops, and a telecommunications firm is providing the caf with a free year-long Internet connection.

The YAWC will continue to ask women around Afghanistan about their Internet privacy concerns. If they find another area that might be in need of a women-only Internet cafe, they'll build another just like the Sahar Gul shop.

"In every province where women use the Internet, they have the same problem," says Salehi. "We can hopefully expand this initiative to other places."

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Afghanistan's First Women-Only Internet Cafe Opens [PHOTOS]

There seems to be a school of thought that Google Webmaster Tool data is useless and inaccurate. General bugginess, delayed reports, showing average position in search results, and rounding numbers has led to many disregarding the search query report in frustration.

When John Mueller was asked during a Webmaster Hangout why rounding clicks was necessary, if there could ever be an advanced option showing actual numbers, and how many people would have to sign a petition for them to reconsider, he disappointingly said they just thought itd be better if the numbers were bucketed.

While we can see how they might need to round impressions to help compensate for automated queries, clicks seem to be correlated enough with visits to make a conservative estimate of (not provided) data. This is my hypothesis. I need help experimenting, but here is my methodology.

The key is understanding how Google decided to round, or bucket clicks. After consolidating data across several sites this list was generated, showing how Google decided to bucket search query clicks.

In essence, Visits from a custom Google Analytics report need to be inserted into the downloadable Google Webmaster Tool search query report. Begin by creating two reports in your browser.

The GA Custom Report contains:

Google Webmaster Tools search query report contains:

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Recovering (Not Provided) Keyword Data

By Brian Viner

PUBLISHED: 20:19 EST, 11 March 2012 | UPDATED: 05:21 EST, 12 March 2012

Not content with millions of visitors due to arrive for the Queens Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games, the tourist boards of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are doing their best to entice us all to take our holidays here by knocking overseas destinations as well as lauding our own in a 5million advertising campaign.

The four domestic tourist boards each have some of their most splendid wares on show - including the Lake District, the Western Highlands, Anglesey and the Giants Causeway - which are showcased in the television commercial spearheading the campaign.

It has been running since last Thursday and features Stephen Fry, Julie Walters, the Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint and Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbeys Lady Mary Crawley), all taking turns to rhapsodise about Britain and undermine the Algarve, the Med, Corfu, even Australia.

Irritating: Stephen Fry has become unshakeable from our lives

Why on earth would anyone want to go abroad in 2012? asks Fry, to which some might say, to avoid Stephen Fry, the tweedy Tweeter having become as ubiquitous and unshakeable in our national life as the common cold.

Lets just hope that he and the rest of the patriotic quartet have forsworn overseas holidays this year as part of their contract. Commercials like these are embarrassments waiting to happen - as when a celebrity chef becomes the face of one supermarket chain, only to be spotted buying his cherry tomatoes from another.

Why go all the way to Bondi when you can come here to Bridlington? asks Grint, a question which will have the folk at Tourism Australia laughing into their didgeridoos. If Grint, worth an estimated 24million after playing Ron Weasley for all those years, takes his hols on the east coast of Yorkshire this summer, then Im Lord Voldemort.

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BRIAN VINER says he doesn't need smug (and jet-setting) celebs to tell him Bridlington is better than Bondi

Mar 12 2012

Sun in Strathclyde Country Park Image 2

SCOTLAND will be hotter than Ibiza this week, thanks to an exceptional spring sizzler.

Parts of the country enjoyed a balmy weekend and more long, sunny spells are forecast for the days ahead.

Sun-lovers in the east of the country rushed to beaches and parks yesterday as the temperature nudged 18C in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.

And forecasters believe that mark which beats average highs in July could be matched over the next few days.

Meanwhile, holidaymakers in Ibiza can expect maximum temperatures of just 16C.

Eastern and central parts of Scotland will enjoy the best of the sunshine.

The west was cooler at 11C yesterday, and stubborn clouds and drizzle at times mean temperatures here will peak at 12-13C this week but thats still above the average for this time of year.

The warm spell is expected to last until at least Friday, when showers will move in.

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'Exceptional' warm weather set to continue as Scotland records higher temperatures than Ibiza