Richard Farrar's Blog

The Internet Monthly is a monthly podcast featuring 20 or so short Internet related articles, tips and tricks and a regular search engine of the month feature.

In this month’s podcast, you can find out about offers that include free international phone calls and an easy government draw that could win you a new car. There’s news of street protesters who blocked Google’s camera car on its way to photograph their houses and the tourist photographers threatened with jail for snapping London policemen.

You can find out how to check your PC for infection by the mysterious Conficker worm, a one-stop introduction to Twittering for business and an early warning system to spot the Internet’s next big business opportunity.

This podcast is derived from a monthly newsletter published by Zen Internet and recorded and produced by Silicon Bay. The podcast is reproduced by kind permission of Zen Internet.

This Month’s Podcast

The Internet Monthly – May 2009:

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Or, download: podcast_may09.mp3 [17’ 40”, 8.1MB]

This Month’s Articles

This month’s edition of The Internet Monthly podcast contains the following articles. A list of links associated with each article are included for reference:

1. LONG DISTANCE INFORMATION – Free international phone calls
   • www.poketalk.com 
2. FREE CAR – Win a free environmentally friendly car
   • www.dvlaprizedraw.org 
3. WEB FREEBIES – Tips for getting free stuff
   • www.lovemoney.com/news/ways-to-save/my-favourite-website-freebies-3214.aspx
4. CROWDSOURCING – Businesses gleaning the wisdom of the crowd
   • www.gottaquirk.com/2008/12/19/crowdsourcing-websites/
   • www.dulcenegosyante.com/top-10-creative-crowdsourcing-marketplaces
   • www.guardian.co.uk/enterprisesupplement/crowdsourcing
5. YELP – Review website finally allows businesses the right to reply 
   • www.yelp.co.uk
   • features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/04/10/yelp-lets-business-owners-talk-back-dialogue-or-argument/
   • www.eastbayexpress.com/news/yelp_and_the_business_of_extortion_2_0/
6. CAMERA SHY – London tourists considered terrorist threat
   • www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/16/police-delete-tourist-photos
   • www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/6225/ 
7. NIMBY PROTEST HALTS GOOGLE CAM – Angry residents stop Google in their tracks
   • www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166722/Watch-Broughton-Street-View-fans-plan-descend-privacy-village-photo-fest.html
8. ANONYMITY CRACKERS – How anonymous are you on social networks? 
   • www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103467
9. FACEBOOK RIP-OFFS – Spammers target Facebook 
   • resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/comment/0,1000002985,39618458,00.htm
10. PHISHING ON FACEBOOK – Facebook schemes that threaten your privacy
    • www.pcworld.com/article/159738/
11. CONFICKER EYE CHART – Simple Test for Conficker worm infection  
    • www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html
12. READABILITY – Browser add-on to de-clutter web pages
    • lab.arc90.com/2009/03/readability.php
13. BRITAIN REWIRED – Wired magazine comes to the UK
    • www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/apr/09/wired-uk-magazine-review
    • www.wired.co.uk
14. DOWN THE TUBES – Google loosing millions on YouTube
    • www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=715&doc_id=175123&
15. YOUNOODLE – System to spot the next big businesses
    • younoodle.com
16. TRADING ON TWITTER – Using Twitter to expand your business
    • tweetbeep.com
17. TWITTER IS A SEARCH ENGINE – Twitter becomes a search engine
    • www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/05/its-time-to-start-thinking-of-twitter-as-a-search-engine/
18. ANSWERING ALPHA – Watch out for the new search engine  
    • www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/ai/wolframalpha-searching-truth
    • www.wolframalpha.com
19. JEEVES IS BACK – The butler’s back
    • uk.ask.com
20. SEARCH ENGINE OF THE MONTH – A dual pane search engine
    • www.melzoo.com

This podcast is sponsored and reproduced by kind permission of Zen Internet Limited. The music on the podcast was provided courtesy of Will Tang.