Author Archives: Chris Ware

Argos to focuses its efforts online

Home Retail Group’s change in strategy means that at least 75 stores across the UK will need to close or relocate. Argos has been struggling to bring in enough money and updating its digital presence online is imperative to modernise, cut costs and turn around profit downfall.

The company added that seven stores lost money, although on average each store made just £172 a week in the six months to September. Continue reading →

Google Sea View

Google Maps have teamed up with environmental scientists at Catlin Seaview Survey to explore the seas in locations like the Great Barrier Reef, the Molokini Crater, and the Apo Island marine reserve for starters.

Try it yourself, have a look at Oahu, Hawaii, Hanauma Bay

For more locations please click the link below :
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gec-our-oceans-seas/7BjcFAzpBMM

Myspace ready to make a comeback?

When media titan News Corp. first purchased MySpace in July, 2005, for $580 million, they didn’t think of selling it just six years later for $35 million. Now, Justin Timberlake and two investors have announced big plans for a rebuilt MySpace.

The new MySpace website is currently in beta testing with select users, you may request an invite here or preview its features and design in a promotional video here.

The new Myspace will let users connect to the site with their Twitter or Facebook accounts, a sign that it won’t be competing with those sites as a social networking service. Rather, Myspace will continue with its entertainment focus, as a place to play and discover music, add photos, videos and playlists and connect with artists.

Parallax

HigherSites is always on the lookout for new trends to help set our client’s sites high above their competition. One effect that has been around for a while, but lately is becoming more used and talked about is ‘parallax scrolling’. The Parallax effect or parallax scrolling in web design is the technique that features layered images that move around the website in different speeds/perspectives creating a nice and interesting 3D illusion.

Parallax is a difference in the in the apparent position of an object viewed along different lines of sight. The term derives from the Greek word parallaxis, meaning alteration. An example that certainly makes scrolling around websites an interesting experience can be found at http://www.nikebetterworld.com/

Facebook’s Facial-Recognition Acquisition Raises Privacy Concerns

Right now, Facebook’s facial-recognition software can sense who is in your pictures and make tagging suggestions, but what if the social network could further learn behaviors and preferences by reading the Gap sweatshirt you’re wearing and seeing that Coca-Cola can in your hand?

Following Facebook’s recent acquisition of facial-recognition software company Face.com for an undisclosed amount of money last week, some users have expressed concern that the expansion of this type of technology on the social network could encroach on their privacy rights. Facebook hasn’t said what it’s future plans are for Face.com or its technology and would not comment for this story.

The acquisition — which is rumored to cost $60 million — won’t even close for a few weeks. But because Facebook’s rapid user growth has slowed due to so many people joining the site in recent years, it needs to boost engagement in other ways.

For more information visit http://mashable.com/2012/06/25/facebook-facial-recognition-privac/.